Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - TMLG: The offseason path to improving the Vikings' offensive and defensive lines

Episode Date: December 22, 2020

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles break down the serious struggles of the Vikings' offensive and defensive lines against the Chicago Bears and talk about whether there's a route to the Vikings having good play in the trenches next season. What approach needs to be taken in the draft, free agency and with Riley Reiff's contract? Is it a better idea to fix the DL in the draft? m Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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when you want to hit the reset button, reach for the beer that is made to chill. Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey, everyone. It's Lindsay Rhodes, and as always, celebrate. previewing games. We'll get set for the weekend fantasy with our Fantasy Friday episodes, and we'll answer some of your questions as well. So subscribe to the NFL Roadshow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Tuesday Morning Left Guard. Matthew Collar along with former Minnesota Vikings Jeremiah Searles.

Maybe he's going to go by former Buffalo Bill after that game and the way that this season has played out. And each week, I know that you love football and you love grinding tape and you love talking about it. And all those things give you great joy jeremiah and yet when we get on this zoom call and i look at you i see a broken man i see a man who's been broken by play in the trenches this year are you okay no i'm not okay i can't i i must love cruel and unusual punishment like just whipping myself in the back. Shame, shame. Because re-watching these games is just like getting repeatedly kicked in the balls.

You watch it, and you're like, what are we doing? Why have we not addressed the fact that on the first play of the game, your left guard gets picked up and landed into your quarterback's lap, and Brett Jones is sitting there with his unit in his hand on the sideline, right? It's got to stop here. I'm watching our defensive linemen get taken on rides six yards down the field and dumped on their heads, and we're not doing anything about it. And I don't know if we're just like, screw it, we'll tank,

get the best pick we can get. But holy bleep, man, this is getting out of hand. So can I just for a second rant about the left guard situation? Because first of all, the Winnebago for me, oh, I mean, it is back. The Winnebago is parked outside the house, and I'm upset. But here's the thing that I just don't understand. And from a like, let me try to keep a lid on it and just go through it. Like logically, Dakota Dozier is a career backup player who had never started before.

And he had earned his job in the NFL by being a smart guy who, you know, shows up every day and gives it the old college try. And then if something goes wrong, you toss him on in there and hey, he'll survive for a game because he'll be prepared and he's going to try and all those things. But as a starter, he is so deeply in over his head that he has single-handedly crushed your offense in many ways or limited your offense, like someone holding a rope around you as you try to run or one of those parachutes, like that's your left guard situation he is by pro football focus metrics the worst left guard

in the national football wait so hold on so we've had the worst right and the worst left guard by pff this year yeah yeah drew samia was the worst drew samia was the worst guard in the nfl and then they benched him right and so they play Brett Jones whose PFF grades and pressure numbers are decent like they're middle of the pack they're Jeremiah Searles level type of play like there you go a guy a guy who's average a guy who can come in there and who can play and then if you got to start him for a number of games you're not going to get crushed and they are playing the guy who has the worst pass blocking efficiency in the NFL uh someone asked me about I I made the crack that Alex Boone our buddy was 400 times better than the current left guard situation here's the numbers that Alex Boone was fans were like oh that

signing didn't work out he allowed 16 quarterback pressures in 2016 Dakota Dozier's allowed 40 this year. 40. I mean, it's wild to have a guard allowing 40 pressures. Like, those are usually the numbers you see from tackles who are facing the best defensive ends in the league. And it is flat-out baffling negligence by this team. And by the way, is there a reason why your second-round pick is playing on the right side because you were so committed to Dakota Dozier on the left side at guard can someone explain this to me that Dakota Dozier was so important to you to keep at left guard a guy who should never start again in the National Football League at for on a consistent basis to inconvenience your second round pick who's far more talented I mean the decisions here keeping Brett Jones on the sideline,

screwing around with Ezra Cleveland, I don't get it. I mean, let's not forget we shipped off Pat Eflin midseason, right? Let's not forget that we had a guy who has started a ton of football games at right guard, at center, at left guard, and we were like, eh, Dozier's better. Bye. Who is now starting for the New York Jets. The winning New York Jets. Found it off.

Drum roll. Left guard. It's unbelievable some of the things that we're watching unfold here, and it just goes back to what we've talked about all year. Whoever is evaluating and whoever is making decisions above the coaches with personnel for offensive line needs to be taken out back and fired and it's just it has to be it has to change because you are watching Kirk time and time again not even have seconds to throw you've got wide open receivers

running across the middle of the field waving their hands in the air and Kirk's already put it underneath and started to take off running because he's got pressure right in his grill. And, I mean, we're harping on Dozier here too, but Ezra took his turn. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Akeem Hicks 100% took his turn against Ezra. He took his turn against O'Neal. Riley let up. I mean, this was a clean across-the-board front five abomination.

But it was really bad with dojo i mean really really bad and you look i mean same crap with bradbury he's just until he can sit down on a bull rush no one's gonna do any other move to him besides just like hey buddy guess what i'm gonna run right through your teeth until you can stop it and he's not proven that he can't and then we like we have to stop getting under center to throw the football. We have to. If we don't, Kirk's going to die. D-I-E. D-I-E, die. D-E-D, dead.

I mean, it has to change. And I don't know if it's unwillingness to change on Kubiak's part. I don't know if it's unwillingness to change on Kirk's part. But something has to change between now and next year, or we're not going to see any improvement. There's no solution when it's that bad. When there are players on the offensive line that are, again, dead last in pass blocking efficiency, there's not a whole lot you can do.

And even Ezra Cleveland now, again, playing out of position, he was okay against a couple of teams that weren't very good and then you know of course no surprise he's going against better teams and he has dropped into the top 10 or I should say the bottom 10 when it comes to pressure rate allowed and so here he is playing out of position struggling and here's another guy who's way over his head he's struggling and and here's a veteran player who has good pass blocking numbers not just today not just like in the small sample his whole career Brett Jones when he was with the Giants his pass blocking numbers were

good when he's here his pass blocking numbers were good nobody thinks that Brett Jones is like Zach Martin and he's like flying around the edge like a freakish athlete or anything I mean he's a squatty body as Mike Zimmer said but but what that means is that like you said he could sit down on bull rushes and stuff and just just kind of hold tight and survive and that's kind of all you need and at this point you know you what you said about Bradbury he's always going to get run over I think in key pass situations but if you have a left and right guard who are competent I think that you can survive one guy who's going to get run over, I think, in key pass situations. But if you have a left and right guard who are competent, I think that you can survive one guy who's going to get beat that way. If you have left and right guard that aren't competent at all,

this is what you end up getting. And like you said, I see reads that Cousins comes off quickly in passing situations, and that's one of the reasons he takes sacks. And there are a lot of times where he's disrupted in the pocket, and he's actually been better about that this year making up for it but I mean it's it's truly astonishing that from the front office to the coaching staff there's just bad decisions and bad decisions and bad decisions and you and I when they first moved Ezra Cleveland were like this is really what you want to do I mean is it really what you want to do to take a guy who's a

left tackle and just F with him? Like, let's just mess with him because we love changing people's positions. Like I do on Madden. I take fast cornerbacks and make them running backs. But that's a video game. You're not supposed to do that. I'll take any offensive lineman. I'll move them around the offensive line on Madden because it doesn't matter.

The little man will figure it out, you know? Yeah, yeah. Just give me time to throw. Let's give the electric football player yeah exactly just kind of hustle around and just play with each other but i mean a big thing too is people forget like oh man ezra cleve was doing so good he had no tape you put two or three games of tape out there yeah defensive linemen get paid a lot of money to do what sack the quarterback they're going to study every single pass rush that you've had from the prior games and go, okay, what worked against him? What didn't work against him? What

can I now throw at this new kid that he hasn't seen yet? And you're seeing that. I mean, there were so many times in this game where Ezra Cleveland was just on his face because he threw absolute no hitters. And that's the kiss of death in the pass protection. If you're trying to wind up and throw your hands and kill someone with your hands, which he has good hands, and they just go bloop, and you end up on your face, it's a bad news bears. And then that puts you on your heels. And same thing with Dozier.

Dozier was on his heels from the word go. Because once you get bull rushed like that and give him a sack, it's now in the back of your head like, I got to sit on the bull rush, got to sit on the bull rush, and then boop, around you, they're gone, right? So we could go on and on. But the O-line play was horrific this game i mean the fact that dalvin still can find the things that he can do

is incredible and before we get off this akeem hicks is a scumbag i mean what he did to brian o'neill there is not new if you want to see something go back to 2016 when i'm playing against akeem hicks at right tackle and he does the same crap to me. We're going on a wide play. I remember I'm driving him out. I get him down on the ground, and he throws a punch as Jarek McKinnon screams right by him. He's a scumbag when it comes to stuff like that, and it needs to be addressed by the league.

Yeah, that was a legit punch in the stomach, like MMA style. Your guy's going down, and you punch him in the stomach for no reason. That I don't think is in the rule book. I haven't read the whole thing from start to finish, but I don't think that's in there. You saw Cam Jordan get kicked out this week for a lot less, right? I mean, that was a punch to the face in a pass rush situation. Like, this is a dude on the ground that just gets punched directly in the stomach. Like, he needs to be suspended.

Yeah, I think so, and I've heard nothing about it, and it wasn't flagged flagged i mean i could see how the referees would miss you know you can't see every single thing that goes on but when you can go back and look at the tape um suspension or a fine something yeah fine at least yeah but i mean with an all-out punch though i think that even even if he was suspended i doubt they would do it to a star player but even if he was suspended, I doubt they would do it to a star player, but even if he was, it was that level of you have somebody who's not involved in the play whatsoever. This is not a football thing that you're ever supposed to do. It's clearly a personal foul, so he should be suspended. But as you mentioned, he does it every game.

There's always stuff like that. He's a scumbag. Yeah, every single game that you see. Which, you know, it's too bad because he's a great player, and he doesn't have to do that. I mean, he's like trying to block a grizzly bear. There's only a few guys that when you're up in the press box, which you know is way up there at U.S. Bank Stadium,

that you look down and you can spot just him by body shape. Like him, Ndamukong Su, and actually Julio Jones. You're like, wait, why is that guy with the receivers? Have I told the Akeem Hicks story on here from 2016 at Chicago? No, no. Oh, it's a great one. All right, so we're playing at Chicago. I'm playing left guard.

Joe Berger's playing right guard. I think I had to go in for Boone when Boone got hurt that game. Yeah, yeah. So it's like a third and long scenario, and this is after Akeem Hicks had given Pat Effline the long arm about four times in a row where he'd line up at three technique and just loop in at full speed and just run right over to little Pat, right? And so we're getting lined up as third down. It's a three-man front, and I'm looking back at the quarterback

because I had to give the tap to initiate the snap count, and you can just see Akeem Hicks is pacing back and forth in front of Pat and like rubbing his foot in the dirt like he's a bull like he's just gonna absolutely run over Pat and just staring Pat dead in the eyes and so I turn around and I hit Pat to like initiate the thing and all I hear is Joe Searles you better help me me, hot! And he just claps for football. And I mean, we were dying laughing. He was just like, dude, this dude is just so big. I mean, everyone had the welcome to the NFL moment,

but that was one of Pat's welcome to the NFL moments. I think it was Monday Night Football. And it's just like, but he is the kind of player that commands respect like that. But he's also a guy that I knew if I could get under his skin personally during the game a little bit, it'll throw him off his game like he becomes more worried about beating your ass than actually trying to play the football game and you see it many times balls just squirt right by him because he's so tangled up with guys well he did beat their ass uh as he so often has done i had in, like, all his numbers against the Vikings going back to 2016.

And he has not been upset to see purple in front of him, basically, put it that way. So I want to talk about a specific play here that really was a game changer, which is where they failed on fourth and one. And so they run behind Dakota Dozier, as you do when you have the game on the line. You're talking about the one in the second quarter? Yes. Are you talking about, yeah. Second quarter, yeah. And so, I mean, Hicks is on the other side.

So I kind of get it. Like, all right, you're not running toward their best player. But the center and left guard just get pushed straight back, and there's nothing Delvin Cook could do. And I just think it's sort of emblematic of how this team keeps going back to the well with a lot of the same things. And I get it, you're giving it to Delvin Cook could do. And I just think it's sort of emblematic of how this team keeps going back to the well with a lot of the same things. And I get it. You're giving it to Delvin Cook,

but there's, there's like a common sense miss there of like, didn't you guys do this against Seattle where you ran right behind Drew Samia in the biggest situation? It was just like, like, come on. Right.

I mean, I don't hate the decision. I think the decision is a coin flip in a play like that. When you have so much, you know, like that when you're down in a game and you only have a yard to go and you're the best running back in the league. But, like, it's just one of those, do you guys see this? Do you see who you're playing? They have no confidence in what – I mean, I think that they're like,

well, we run right, it's a Hicks, that's probably not going to work. We run left, like, well, like you said, coin flipped. We want to run right or left because either one could end disastrously. So there's no better alternative. I mean, a lot of it, too, is I think the tight end got absolutely destroyed, and so the blocker coming back across the ball had no shot. And when you get penetration on fourth and one, you and I talk about it, creating and establishing a new line of scrimmage is all you're taught on fourth down I mean as an offensive lineman you're like you gotta move them six inches

and as a defensive lineman you like we got to get to their feet and get six inches so they can't climb to the linebackers right I mean it's all literally about a six inch fight and I don't know how many of those we've won this year because there's not many of them but and yeah you just get creative right I mean do the little like fake dive flip out to the side or do something that's just different than bashing your head against a wall trying to do the same thing over and over again because it's proven time and time again that it doesn't work and until you have a guy like a zach martin or you have a guy that you know like hey we're gonna run behind that guy even if aaron donald or fletcher cox haakeem Hicks is across from him because he's gonna get six inches I mean

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Now? I think this is a little complex earth, burn it down, start over. Well, you don't want to burn it all down because your right tackle is good. And that's that. But, I mean, this is a complicated path to having a good offensive line,

and it always has been, and it always is around the league. But this team in particular, since I moved to Minnesota, and since you were a Viking, it's always been a struggle. 2017 is the only time that it wasn't. And you had solid guards, Joe Berger, Nick Easton, and you had Rashad filling in at times when he had to a tackle. And, you know, that all worked. And Remmers was a competent tackle.

It worked, at least to be a decent offensive line, especially run blocking was good. And I think that's all you need with the skill players that you have. And yet you just have these gaping craters, but you also have a Riley reef contract situation and you have only a first round pick and not a second round pick because Yanni King Gakwe was very important to you. And so you have two third rounders,

but the drop off from second to third is usually pretty significant, especially since the Ravens are good. You have two third rounders, but the drop off from second to third is usually pretty significant, especially since the Ravens are good. So that's going to be like a 40 or 50 pick difference from where you would have picked. I think this is hard. I don't think this is just snap your fingers. Hey, let's just sign a left guard and we're all set to go because I don't know what the situation with Riley Reif is going to be. But I do know if they came to me and I'm Riley Reif or his agent, say, and they said, hey, how about we just work out a little extension? That'll lower your cap.

And you'd be like, oh, yeah, I remember you took $6 million for me for a player that you used for five weeks. So, no. I think they're in a tough spot here. I agree, and I think Riley's played at a high enough level. There's someone out there that will pay him left tackle starting money, right? He's played really well this year. So it's going to be up to Vikings to pay him to stay

because his open market value this year will be pretty high because there is a need for left tackles in the NFL right now. I mean, drastic need. You're seeing left tackles get hurt. You're seeing guys retire. I mean, if I'm the Dallas Cowboys, you could back up a truck a pile of money to Riley Reif and say, hey, I don't know if Ter Trent Smith's going to come back.

If he doesn't, we need you. Right. I mean, you've got so many places like that. Trent Williams is probably out his way in San Francisco. He keeps getting dinged up. Jason Peters. They got it on Austin Dillard up in Philly. He's dinged up. Right. You have spots that need left tackles right now. So he's probably gone unless they pay him the money they have.

But the problem is they have no money. So not sure what they're going to do there. I mean, the cash base is actually going down next year, which is going to be very interesting. But again, you have to draft an offensive lineman. As many things as many needs as you have, you have to draft an offensive lineman in the second round, and you have to have a plan with him from the word go.

And I don't think that plan should be, let's change his position and move him on the other side of the football right like hey we need a left tackle let's draft a left tackle we need a right guard let's draft a right guard right like draft the guy that's ready to come in and start developing and contributing on something he's already comfortable with versus let's draft this guy moving positions and hope he develops in time to play. Like we don't have time for that anymore. And this staff doesn't have time for that anymore. They need to start producing. And so I think that's probably the key. And then you have to go out and find a couple solid guys in free agency,

not guys that are going to break the bank, not guys that you're going to have to pay $6 million a year, but go find a guy that you're going to pay 1.5 to two and a half million dollars a year on a two-year prove-it deal, right? Give him his first year guaranteed, or not guaranteed, but a lot of his money up front for his first year, and then have his second year be hugely incentive-based off of what he can do on the first year.

And go get a couple of those guys to compete. And those guys usually are journeymen like myself or like Nick Easton or like Joe Berger who they're going to show up and they're going to compete to play because that's how they know they keep a job in this league and you go get some more of those guys you can find a a group and you now have seven or eight pieces to then try and find your best five and that's probably as easy I mean that's pretty complicated that's probably the easiest option to rebuild this offensive line and because you're stuck with Bradbury for another year at center because you drafted him in the first round you

can't bench him but you need to axe 86 both the guards and just start over there keep O'Neal at right tackle and start contract talks with him because he's going to need to get paid yes right and then you have to decide what's happening with Riley Reif and I think that if Riley Reif moves on you spend that second round pick on a true left tackle so the Reif situation is kind of wonky because his contract is still it still applies to next year even though they reworked it for this year so far as I understand no one has told me different um and uh so they can keep him on a huge cap hit for next year and he can't go anywhere or they could try to work something out with him but again if i'm him i don't think i'm taking that because someone else is going to pay me more because there are there's always 10 teams that need a left tackle if not 20 teams

pay me my money or cut me is exactly what he's going to tell that front office right and they probably have to select cut me because there are just so many other things that they have to do here. So I think that the best route is because they don't have that second round pick. It probably is to draft somebody or two guys in the third or in the fourth and just start developing those guys. But I think the answer is try to take as many swings at average free agent players that you can and try to spend savvy. And I think that there's a good example with your former squad in Buffalo of a team that brought in a bunch of average guys who are NFL quality players, you know, their NFL caliber that they could fill in. They're not making pro bowls and they have a solid roster position by

position that their worst guy is a C, not an F. And the Vikings have about five players, six, maybe more, who are playing a lot of snaps that are a D or an F. And you just end up seeing what you saw against Chicago, where you have your great moments with Justin Jefferson and you have Delvin Cook great moments and, you know, Cousins makes his throws. But the Fs and the D d's they're dragging you way down and that's that's now here's a question for you and this this is um i think this is a little tough

because offensive linemen take longer to develop than defensive linemen just just by the numbers by studies that have been done with pressure to win in 2021 would you look at the first round and say maybe you do need a three tech maybe you do need a defensive end with the first round pick because you are in a bad spot when you can't pressure Mike Glennon, you can't pressure Mitch Trubisky. This Bears offensive line was getting murdered all season long, and you can't pressure Mitch Trubisky at all. So I think it's a tough question because a defensive lineman, I think,

can make an immediate impact faster than an offensive line. Yes. I mean, the short answer is you're absolutely right. I mean, you have to pressure the quarterback. I'm just curious how many eggs they're putting in the basket of we're getting Daniel Hunter back. We don't know if he's for sure going to be, everyone says he's going to be back, but it's a pretty serious injury now. He hasn't taken a hit to the neck anytime soon, right? So there's going to be a lot of pretty serious injury now like he he hasn't taken a hit to the neck anytime soon right so there's gonna be a lot of question marks on is this going to be something where he's going to be able to come back and play at the same elite level that he left at but there is i mean again there is ways you can scheme up pressures but unless you can get pressure with the front four you're in trouble and so i think that that's a great point of do we risk

the ability of getting an offensive lineman who he gets in here and he's okay but we know he's going to need two years before he's a contributor versus hey we get into the first round and we pick up uh not a Chase Young but you pick up a Joey Bosa or you find a guy that you know is going to be a developmental pass thresher right he's not going to be an every down back for you or every down D lineman but you're going to be a developmental pass thresher, right? He's not going to be an every-down back for you or every-down D lineman, but you're going to put him in on second and long, third and long, and he's going to get four or five sacks or six sacks in his rookie year. That's very much a question you've got to go to.

But I think if you're looking for defensive linemen right now, you've got to find defensive linemen that can stand up against the run because it don't matter if you can pressure the quarterback if they're living in second and four and third and twos all the because on first down, they're getting six, seven yards a pop. This is where, you know, I guess I keep looking at the offseason and saying, I mean, you guys had big sample sizes on some of these players that now you decided were okay. Like you didn't call Snacks Harrison or you didn't call, you know, some of the other veteran. There were good veteran defensive free agents out there,

and they didn't make those phone calls, it seems, or didn't sign those players. And you stuck with Jaleel Johnson at 3Tech, and you thought, well, maybe Armand Watts will become a really good player, which, you know, I don't know. He's a guy. And Shamar Stephan is an NFL player he's like one of those guys we talk about that on a really good team if you need him to take a spot then he can

take a spot if you need him to like dominate two gaps or something then you're asking too much and they've been asking too much and I feel like any team that's wanted to run go ahead you can against this team because that's where you're at and especially with the linebackers out yeah i i mean i you they with healthy players next year yes they take a natural step forward but there's no guarantee everybody else is healthy it's like every good team has several players out and that's just the nature of the league that what happened in uh 2019 where the entire defense was healthy like that just doesn't happen very often. So it's like, yeah, they're going to get Daniel Hunter back, but I'm sure there are other injuries that are going to happen.

You need to be much, much deeper at these positions. So if Michael Pierce opts out, you don't go from again, like a B plus all the way to an F and that's what they did here. And I feel like there was just hubris involved of like well we could just coach him up like we'll just develop him like well we drafted this guy we like him so we're gonna play him as opposed to hey this just this isn't gonna happen I mean you you played against Jaleel Johnson I don't mean to be disrespectful uh but as a reporter on the sideline look we're watching camp I mean we're seeing who's getting beat right so you're like

from the very first camp he never showed any flashes and then okay we're gonna play the guy 700 snaps like it just i don't know i mean some of this stuff was foreseeable it was but the question that everyone has to ask themselves is where were they going to get the money to go pay these guys i mean if you want to go get snacks harrison and like these guys are on the street but you're not going to be able to sign them for veteran minimum. They found it for Ngakwe, though. They found it for Ngakwe, but I think that that was a panic, oh, shit, we lost out on Daniil Hunter, right?

Like that was a complete panic, throw it against the wall, that, versus I think that they probably had the conversations of like, are we really going to do this with Jaleel Johnson? And we're going to ask Jamar Stephan to take over Linval shoes. Like, and I think the answer was we have to. Yeah. Like that was, so the coaches went, okay, well we have to. And that's what happens when you pay your quarterback 14% of the cap.

You're going to see it on every single team. Everyone always like, why is there a water? So I only have one guy to throw the football to. Cause he's making a gazillion dollars, so you can't go buy a freaking unbelievable receiver. You're just lucky Devontae Adams is there, right? I mean, for how many years did they not have a running back in Green Bay because they couldn't afford to pay one

and they kept missing on the guys in the draft? So it's always a trickle-down effect when you have these huge contracts, and it usually comes at the offensive line position and the defensive line position, like you and I have talked about for a long time here but uh yeah it's got to change and I don't know I mean George Payton I guarantee you pulls his hair out at night trying to think how I'm going to manage this cap space and get improved players in here and it's always scary when you put a lot of stock into drafting guys and being like we can't miss especially with the track record of

the guys that we have missed with Minnesota but you're talking about D linemen corners and all those guys that they have to hit on next year in the draft in order to help. So I have one more big picture question for you, but I wanted to ask if, cause I know that you spent the time harming yourself, watching the tape, if you just had any other plays that you wanted to talk about other than that fourth and one that stuck out to you. But I don't want to bring you deep sadness either i mean i think the plays that the one of the plays that really stuck out to me is the missed opportunities of scoring touchdowns uh the one where i know i know that that's circulated of jefferson freaking out going f kirk throw me the ball but i mean he should have thrown the ball off the word go because if he just throws it to

the backside pylon there at the end of the stadium, it's a touchdown, and then he gets flushed because of pressure. And then another time, I mean, that fourth down play at the end of the game, that's on Brian O'Neal of missing his block. So it's a naked to the left, right? So every offensive lineman's running to the left, and he's going to bootleg to the right. And the rule for the backside tackle is an always

always rule is when you have a guy head up to inside you have to drag that guy with you across your face because you can't leave two for the high guy to come back across and flash in front of well he starts outside of O'Neal and then he moves his way slowly to head up on O'Neal and O'Neal just runs inside of him and down at the three technique at Akeem Hicks and leaves him and then also leaves the outside backer because they were in a 4-4 front. And so now the tight end runs right by the D lineman because he thinks this guy's blocked

and bumps and rubs off the outside linebacker. Then he gets out in his route. But then nobody blocked him, which is why he pressured Kirk. And Justin Jefferson is running wide open, streaking across the field, which would be for probably a 12-yard gain, and they continue to get the drive, and that's the kind of stuff that I don't know if it's coaching, I don't know if it's lack of awareness from Brian O'Neill, but those are the kind of things that get you killed, and those are the kind of things that you lose close football games when you make mistakes like that.

And so I know someone on Twitter reached out and asked me to talk about that last play there. So that was 100% a scheme thing where they bumped him in late and either O'Neal just was kind of set hut and then just kind of stepped through it or he didn't take it and go from there. But those are the kind of things. And that play was what I ended on watching the tapes. I had to turn it off after that. I couldn't,

I couldn't do it anymore. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's some things that watching the tape back where it requires no breakdown. It's like, well,

the three technique was shoved 14 yards back and David Montgomery walked past him. So that's what happened. And, you know, but what I have been really looking at in the last few weeks on the tape is just how the pressure that's built up is affecting the quarterback. And I think that we've seen this from the very go of this season where it's, you know, hey, there's opportunities on Kirk Cousins' first read. There's a play where they're going spread on a third down, and this the one where cousins get strip sacked yep there's

like what they some people call it the honey hole type of throw there where um the guy who's going down the sideline the safety is coming over but there's no way he can get over there and it's a it's a throw that nfl quarterbacks make all the time and especially guys with rocket arms and kirk looks at it so i mean you can see his helmet is pointed right that way so I assume that's kind of where the ball is supposed to go against that coverage but he hesitates and he's like oh I don't know I don't know if I can make that throw and then all of a sudden it's well where's my backside where's my next read and then strip sack and it looks like Kirk what are you doing uh throw the ball could you please but it's also I think a product of sort of like the

pressure that comes where he got off of his first read quickly, even though the throw was right there for him, and we've seen that many times on tape, as well as I think he's played this year. I think he's played overall quite well this season, but that happens to him a lot, and I think that's kind of a natural Kirk thing, and that's an offensive line thing.

Well, I think a lot of that has to do with, too, is Kirk's looking at that throw going, I have to put this ball exactly where it needs to be in order for this not to be intercepted. And in the back of his mind, he's going, there might be a guy about to fall into my legs, and I can't put as much juice and zip onto this football. Or there might be a guy that's about to hit me on my follow-through. And so if I throw this ball, and it's got to be perfect, and I'm getting hit, and it floats even half a second, that's Eddie Jackson.

He pretty much picks off everything that throws over to him, right? Like that's definitely going through his head too, and I think that's the reason he gets off his read so quick. And as a receiver, it's got to be really frustrating to see that. I mean, you saw some frustration build between Jefferson and between Thielen and those guys. But the one positive, another thing, is Conklin kind of grew up a little bit this game with the receiving threat, which is good to see.

Good to see him. And then Irv Smith dropping that touchdown was an absolute killer right there in the corner of the end zone. But the tight end room is developing. I think you're seeing guys, Conklin a little slower than Irv, but Irv is kind of a natural better athlete. But seeing him get more involved in the game plan is definitely going to help in the future too. Okay, so here's my question. Is there anything that we can learn from the last two games?

I mean, people are going to watch them. There's nothing else to do in this world. So Christmas day, you're the only game on, and then against the lions, which I don't know if they'll play starters, or if it ends up being the glorified preseason game or what. But last two games, I think there are a lot of things to keep an eye on, but I want to know your take on that. Yeah, we're going to learn who wants to be on this football team in 2021. We're going to learn what guys are going to, that are those bubble guys, that are the guys playing for another contract or just playing to keep their job, what performance can you put together and be the last impression that people watch?

I mean, when you're in primetime football games, I mean, you have a complete blunder or you have something that's ugly. Like people go to Twitter and immediately are just all over your ass about it, right? So are you going to be that guy or are you going to be the guy that shows up and is like, hey, this guy finished the year really strong. Like I'm excited to see what he can do next year. Because you already have your pro bowlers, right? You know, okay, Jefferson's going to do his thing. Thielen's going to do his thing. But now you're talking about guys like, okay, how does Bradbury finish this year? How does

Tamar Stephan finish this year? How does Afadio Denebo, Cam Dantzler, the young linebackers, does Eric Wilson finish on a strong note? Does Day and those guys, they're probably going to hit the road, right? And you're going to see that because guys will either crumble under that type of pressure because the coaches are 100% saying, hey, this is auditions. It's audition time. Like we're out of the playoffs. Like it's not our thing.

Like it's audition time for 2021. And some guys crumble under that pressure. Some guys rise to that pressure. And so I think that's what we're going to see over the next two games. 2020 has already reshaped how we work and it's almost over. Businesses across the globe are challenged to be their most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more total visits than any

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That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. All right, love to see it, hate to see it. I'm going to start with love to see it. Jalen Hurts, good for you, buddy. You get asked at the Combine if you're going to change positions. This is a guy who had 123 total touchdowns in his college career and 20 picks. A guy who won at Alabama and won at Oklahoma. He had all the numbers.

He had the athleticism. There's questions. There's always questions. Guys come all the numbers. He had the athleticism. There's questions. There's always questions. Like, you know, guys come out of college. If it's not Andrew Luck and it's not Trevor Lawrence, then all guys have questions. But they usually don't get asked if they're switching positions at the combine. And I was there for that. And I just was like, man, are we really doing this? Are we really doing this to a guy with this type of accomplished record in college through for almost 10,000 yards in college,

and to see him come right out and play like a baller and run the football and make good throws and stuff like that, like he did in college. I think he also has high character, the way that he handled those situations. And I was just happy to see it. So good for you, Jalen Hurts. Absolutely. My love to see it is Coach Stefanski out in Cleveland doing his thing.

Yeah. I mean, so he was with me. He was a running backs coach, his quarterback coach, assistant OC in the Vikings. Very mild-tandered. And I was curious how he would handle that locker room with a lot of big personalities being he's not a screamer. He's not a yeller. He's not going to stand up in front of the room and just lose his mind. Right. He's very calm, cool, collected. He's found a way to manage Baker and Jarvis and Hunt and Odell Beckham and all those guys and find a way to formulate, even though things weren't sometimes working early on on the offense, just sticking with his plan, adapting his plan,

not being so hardheaded that he refuses to change certain things and just running the football, right? When you have two stallions back there in Hunt and Chubb, just give it to him 40 times a game. Good things going to happen but i love seeing him have success out there hate to see it jets no what did you do what did you do no you're playing the rams you're right there you're almost to trevor land and you blew it it's like uh i'll make a classic movie reference the uh bridge over the river quai if you've ever seen that one no i mean that's going way back but and you blew it. It's like, I'll make a classic movie reference, the Bridge Over the River Kwai, if you've ever seen that one.

No. I mean, that's going way back, but it's like an all-time great movie. And at the end when he blows up the bridge, they're like, what did I do? And like that's, you blew up the Trevor Lawrence Bridge. Zach Wilson is fun and Justin Fields is real good. They're not Trevor Lawrence. So, sorry, Jets.

Enjoy Jacksonville, Trevor Lawrence. I hear the weather is nice. Oh, my hate to see it is Dwayne Haskins getting caught in a strip club Sunday night after the game with no mask on and then coming out today being like, I need to make a better decision. Like, dude, just wear it. Just wear it and be like, hey, I needed to blow off some steam, so I just decided to go throw a bunch of ones and do my thing. But it's like, dude, Alex Smith gets hurt after playing really good football.

Your team is still in the playoff hunt. And you go out there, and I think he threw two picks. They lose a game to Seattle that they could have won. And you decide that the best thing to do is to blow off some steam and go to the strip club during a global pandemic when everyone in the NFL is hyper-aware to it. Good for you, man. Good job, everybody.

Good job, Dwayne Haskins. You got to – of all – I mean, you know, there are necessities in this life. There's food, water, shelter, strippers. I mean, it's the obvious list for franchise quarterback. I mean, what franchise quarterback isn't putting his entire team's health at risk for strippers? Don't forget your quarterback. Don't forget your coach just beat cancer. our immunocompromised coach over here has no association with your football team's off or leader at quarterback all week because you had to go get some throw some money right not to mention

that another team had to play a practice squad wide receiver at quarterbacks like you could have learned that lesson and so this just one last point on that is that people questioned ron rivera when he benched haskins you questioning him now like like this is a thing that you learn covering a team is these decisions don't just be made at random like Ron Rivera a proven NFL coach who went to a Super Bowl with Cam Newton as his quarterback didn't just go I don't know like yeah let's just bench him I don't care like he did it for a reason and I know Rivera he's not he's not the like he's not the dictator whatsoever but he will run his ship and he will be the captain of that ship and so we don't get to see everything but

i promise you there was some stuff that rivera probably said hey you got to change or you got to do some stuff or like do these things my way if you want to play and obviously you can tell he doesn't care like that's just a sign of i just don't care i'm just gonna do me i'm just gonna do everything about me and i don't give a crap about anyone else so i'm sure that it wasn't just his play that forced him to the bench because reverie ain't gonna put up with that stuff yeah and this is uh what you're always looking for if you're kind of a bust is can i have a journeyman backup career this ain't the way to do it nope it's not so uh great stuff as always jeremiah and uh i hope you feel better because you got it all off your chest there.

It was like some pent-up Winnebago rage, and now hopefully you can go about your day and your Christmas season. So since we won't talk before then, Merry Christmas to you and your family, sir, and we'll catch up next week. Absolutely. Merry Christmas to you guys, and we'll be right here next week just grinding it out. We do it for you guys because we love you. Now go subscribe.

Sacrifice.