Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - TMLG: The winners and losers of the Vikings' victory over Chicago

Episode Date: November 17, 2020

Matthew Coller and former Viking Jeremiah Sirles talk about Justin Jefferson's emergence as one of the best players in the NFL, why the Bears are in a tremendously bad spot and how Mike Zimmer was never going to let the Vikings tank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Grant Wall, and this is American Prodigy, ready to do, from Blue Wire Podcast. Hello and welcome to Tuesday Morning Left Guard, in which Jeremiah Searles, former Minnesota Viking, has to break down a game without the benefit of having grinded the tape because it started last night. We don't have the tape yet, but we're going. And you know what that means, Jeremiah? That means you get to turn the hot takes up. Emotion. If you have something wrong, it doesn't matter because you have the excuse that's built right in that you didn't have the tape. So why don't you just start off with your instant hottest take reaction from the Vikings beating the Bears last night?

The Bears will finish the season under.500. That is my hot take for the Bears. The Bears will finish the season under 500. That is my hot take for the Bears. The Bears will finish the season under 500. That is a program that is in a heap of trouble. They are a mess. They don't know which way is up and they're wasting what a very talented defense. Other hot

take. Justin Jefferson is moving very rapidly in new stardom for me because he's done it week in and week out and becoming the vikings most reliable receiver i knew it i knew you would get there after it took me a little while see after two games these reporter eyes said that's legit and uh justin jefferson has proven to be he's gone from your blue, let's see him prove it, to your yellow, okay, he's showing me. And now I think he's in the orange.

And if he continues to do it all the way through the season, he's in the red. That is a superstar. Yes. This is not regular wide receiver performance. Maybe Vikings fans who saw Randy Moss and then Stephon Diggs and Adam Thielen and now Justin Jefferson are like, oh, yeah, we just have receivers all the time that get open. But that is not how it usually works.

And that performance last night, I mean, think about not just did he come through, but they only seem to ever want to throw him the football on third and long, which is the most difficult for a star receiver to get open, and yet he found his way open. He was smoking people. They tried to tackle him, and he's shoving guys down with his other arm. And I think what you have here with Jefferson is the combination of a guy who just loves all the details with the routes and the releases

and all those things, and then somebody who really competes his butt off and I liked when he was getting into it with the uh with the bears a little bit there I mean it just sort of shows you like this is this is somebody who was raised at LSU on the biggest stages and he dominated there and he comes right in here and he plays as if he's the superstar I'm not not the rookie I'm supposed to be doing this and I I think it's really special he's got he's the superstar. I'm not the rookie. I'm supposed to be doing this, and I think it's really special. He's got the moxie of, like, the Stefan Diggs that runs around. He's got the clutch of Jarius Wright on third down, and he's got the catch radius of Kyle Rudolph.

I mean, he does. He really does, and it's crazy to watch and see and all the crazy things that he can do, especially with the ball in his hand because he's kind of the long strider, right? He doesn't look like he's covering or he's very fast, but he's covering ground like crazy when he's actually out there fully sprinting. So really, really cool to see him come into his own Monday night football, first hundred yard receiver on Monday night football since a rookie,

since Randy Moss, I think I heard them say. So congrats to him, tats off to him. But if we think by any stretch of the imagination, we're out of the woods or over the hill because we beat this Bears team, I think everyone in Vikings country needs to take a seat, hang on. Like, yes, we've strung a few games here together, but we've still got a lot of work to do if the word playoffs even want to creep into your mind.

Well, let's talk about, let's put some of these things into buckets here of the things that were great and can keep being great and the things that are problematic and could cause them another atlanta falcons loss and just have this entire house of cards go down uh the odds uh thank you someone sent me on twitter the odds from 538 right now for the vikings are 38 percent which i know doesn't really mean anything. So you're saying there's a number, but there is, it has gone from about 5% to about 15% to now in the 40% range, the biggest issue is the teams you're chasing down probably

go 10 and six this year, all of them that, uh, you know, we talked about the expanded playoff situation, but if they all go 10 and 6 then you've got to match that or almost impossible to be better so the odds are still not in your favor as the Vikings even with the upcoming schedule I'm sure that that's factored into that but on the good side of things the way that Kirk Cousins has been playing at what they've asked him to do is pretty much just come through on those third downs because they're handing off to Delvin on first and second. I think that that's a little disadvantageous to Kirk Cousins in general, but the way that

he performed in that game last night was the best Kirk Cousins we've seen considering the opponent. I don't think I've seen him be better when it's a team that's really good going against him on defense. I agree. I think that he played within himself, which I think sometimes with the Monday night football, the Sunday night football primetime games, like Kirk almost feels like he has to rise to the occasion because there is so much outside pressure, right? You're the highest paid

quarterback. You better win these games. You can't win these games. Like so much outside noise that I felt like he just played within himself. And that's when he's the best, right right that's when Kirk is at the top of his game is when he's doing things putting the ball in the right place not pushing into double coverage going to his reliable guys I mean and it helps when you have an emerging star like Jefferson to throw the football to like a sure-handed guy you're comfortable throwing the football to you've created some more rapport and then you have Adam Thielen who made Adam Thielen things who I didn't start on my fantasy football team, and I lost because of that. And I lost by.2 because Dalvin Cook had an extra couple yards there at the end of the game. So not super pumped about that, but anyways, back to it.

I thought that, yeah, Kirk Cousins played super well. He played within himself, and the defense, too, I thought rose to the occasion big time as well the defense uh is uh see when you have an offense on the other side that has no idea what it's doing i am trying to figure out how much credit to give the defense i know that might be the worst offensive design that i've ever seen i mean it's third and ten and they're throwing bubble screens to alan Robinson, who is unstoppable against the defense that's playing. It's what fifth cornerback and sixth cornerback. And yet you're throwing bubble screens. It's a defensive line that has pressured absolutely no one this year. And yet you can't find an opportunity to step up in the pocket and make plays. Nick Foles overthrew balls for interceptions. He's got a chance at the end of the game where he steps up into a clean pocket

and overthrows an open receiver that catches a touchdown if it's a decent throw and maybe wins the game for the Bears. I mean, a lot of things had to go horribly wrong on their side for the Vikings to have a good defensive performance. But I would say that, I mean, they kicked the crap out of that bad Bears offense. It wasn't just, hey, you kind of held on for dear life against the bad offense. You really did exactly what you were supposed to do. I mean, I think they had a total of 124 yards of offense at one point.

Like, I don't know what the exact, but it was bad. Like, it's hard to do that. You have to try to be that bad in the NFL. You have so many playmakers. You should be able to do things. So, yeah, credit to that defense. I'm not going to lie. My heart kind of dropped when I saw Eric Hendricks go down for a second.

I was like, oh, no, oh, no. If he's hurt, just pack it up and just go home. If he is hurt, this defense is done. And also, I mean, Harrison Smith, you can't talk enough good things about that guy. up and just go home like if he is he is hurt this defense is done um and then also i mean harrison smith i can't you can't talk enough good things about that guy the ability that he can do the amount of ground he can cover pre-snap post-snap and make the play is troy palomalu right i mean that's the only other safety i can think to even compare harrison smith to and then the other guy that i thought had a pretty good game and it's starting to come into more of a rhythm on the

pass rush obviously i haven't watched the tape, but just kind of from what I watched last night was Holmes. I think Holmes is starting to figure it out a little bit, understand, Hey, this isn't college. I'm not just gonna be able to run around everyone. Cause I'm faster than you. Like I'm going to have to start learning the techniques and the finesse. And that's a, that's a really big, for me, Andre Patterson is a fantastic defensive line coach. He really is. He knows how to really coach defensive line. He understands how to get the most out of his guys. And so I think he's really benefiting Holmes right now of being able to get him

geared up to be another big pass rusher, hopefully for this Vikings defense. So good to see him come in. Again, that was just a bad, I mean, obviously I think that right tackle is like their third right tackle or something for Chicago. So again, not great offensive line play. But that's good for guys, young guys, to get momentum, get some courage, get some confidence, and just say, hey, we can do this, building off of that. And hopefully you don't run into a buzzsaw later on down

when you run into a hot offense. Can you make any sense of what they're trying to do schematically, though? I mean, they're bringing everybody with the condensed sets and handing off everybody into the box it's almost like a goal line situation in the middle of the field uh and where it's very difficult to break out from that uh with cordial patterson there was no creativity whatsoever like this this guy as he showed with the kickoff yeah don't kick to him by the way right that's we'll get to that uh but that but but i mean this is the guy who is incredibly dynamic with the ball that uh leslie frazier threw him pitches in the backfield and you saw uh jet sweeps that you could use with him

and it was just standard handoffs like he was your regular old running back like i'm not sure why you do that instead of having Lamar Miller do the standard stuff and then have Cordero Patterson do the creative stuff but there was no creative stuff at all and some of it is Nick Foles he gets uh an all-out blitz uh it looked like a zero blitz there at the goal line the tight ends wide open in the middle of the field and he just like throws it away so I mean it was a there were things where it was just on the quarterback entirely but it looked to me also like Foles just didn't have answers like when the blitzes came the same blitz as Mike Zimmer runs with the mug looks where he puts everybody at the line of scrimmage everybody in the league is taking this from Zimmer they all do it now

and he would take the snap and be looking around like I don't know where to go with the football I mean that that just should not be happening. So there was so much going on wrong there. But I also agree with you that Jalen Holmes has emerged recently. Armand Watts has played better. Hercules Mata'afa got in on a few plays last night. And then the guys who are supposed to make plays make plays, like Eric Hendricks, and especially an amazing game from Harrison Smith.

No surprise there. I made the case in the offseason, Jeremiah, that Harrison Smith belongs in the Hall of Fame someday, and I think he's backing it up this year because he's been as good as ever. I mean, if he can continue this pace, I mean, yeah, he has not declined once. If anything, he's gotten better each and every year. And if he keeps his pace, I 100% think he wears a gold jacket someday. I don't know how you could argue the fact that he doesn't. If he keeps his same pace, he he wears a gold jacket someday um i don't know how you could

argue the fact that he doesn't if he keeps the same pace he'll probably need to play for another five years if that's the case but i think the dude can i mean that's not a question but yeah young emergence and again just schematically you watch the bears offense and you're just there's no rhythm there's no flow the first drive no script. Like, and how much of that, again, you got to look, okay, how much of that is what Nick Foles wasn't a starting quarterback at the beginning. You had your boy Trubisky, and you had Nagy calling plays. Now you have Nick Foles as the quarterback, and you gave the reins over to Blazer Laser and said, hey, here you go.

You call plays. And so it just looks like everyone's just grasping at straws to fix things here i mean you have dynamic guys alan robinson's a top 10 wide receiver in the nfl cordell patterson's a weapon that you could use at any point i mean you got i don't think jimmy graham had one catch last night i mean they're just not utilizing their tools really well and they're just kind of banging their heads against the wall and i don't know if that's just because they're so scared to turn the reins loose with everyone that like turnovers or what's going on.

And there's like, we have a really good defense. Let's just play the field position game. But at one point in time, you got to score points. I mean, you can't win games scoring 10 points, seven points, 13 points. Like you got to score points. And until they can figure that out, I mean, the Bears have, I wouldn't want to be in that meeting this morning. Let's just put it that way.

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It was just line up and be bad at football for the Bears. So congratulations to them on 75 years of bad quarterback play reactions there was there was just line up and be bad at football for the bears so congratulations to them on 75 years of bad quarterback play and bad offenses uh just amazing that this franchise can never seem to figure it out and uh before we get to some of the things where the vikings will need uh let's say improvement in special teams uh if you were picking from the four nfc north teams who you'd want to be for the next five years i mean i know who the answer isn't and the answer isn't the chicago bears they are dead last i don't know how you'd rank the others they are dead last and with justin jefferson emerging the way that he is and seeing ezra cleveland play better i think he got whooped

last night by akeem Hicks. But I mean, everyone does. Everybody does. That dude's a grizzly bear. Right. But the pass throw was decent. They gave Kirk time to throw on third downs. But like looking at the bones of what the Vikings have going forward, it is so much

better than what the Bears have going for them. They're going to need a new coach. They're going to need a new quarterback. They're going to need a lot of offensive linemen. need more receivers there's no way ellen robinson sticks around on that team he's a free agent after this year like they are in a lot of trouble yeah i mean i also think i mean david montgomery's a solid back but he's nothing he's not nothing right but like yeah you look at the bones of each nfc north team you look at the packers like okay they got davante adams they got two pretty good young running backs.

But, I mean, who do they have besides that at receiver? No one, really. And then Aaron Rodgers is coming towards the end. So I think the answer to your question is the Vikings. If you're really looking at it, you're thinking, okay, we got Dalvin Cook locked up for a long time here. We got Kirk coming in. There's still, I think, the whole idea of drafting Trevor Lawrence

and all that, that's got to start fading away as the Vikings keep winning and understanding we're going to go draft a left tackle in the first round and then you got to look also at okay defensively Kendrick's locked up you got Harry locked up for a little while you got Barr locked up like the bones for the next three to five years are everything's pointing towards Vikings re-emerging as the favorite you got Zimmer who's not going anywhere so I think it's definitely a toss-up between the Packers and the Vikings but I mean Stafford's going to be out of there soon that whole team's kind of going down the crapper up in Detroit too so yeah everything looks promising for the Vikings really if you just keep pointing

forward now the question is can they sustain this, or have we reached the ceiling of our growth for this year? I think that's the big question moving forward in the back part of the season now. And that will bring me to the other way to view last night's game, which is, oh my gosh, you left the back door, the front door, the side door, and every window open for that terrible Chicago Bears team to beat you, and they decided that they wanted to stay in the house and lose. I mean, it was incredible. You are botching extra points that leave them the potential to score on a touchdown. You are, your punt gunner is backing himself into the end zone instead of downing the ball at the

one-yard line. You are giving up kick returns to a guy of whom you should never kick the ball anywhere near that is insanity kick it out of bounds give him the ball especially that offense right give him give him that ball at the 40 yard line and say you guys only have to go 60 instead of kicking the ball to that guy nine yards deep i mean he's that scary yeah yeah yeah-time best kick returner in NFL history, and the fact that he's tied for the most touchdowns with way fewer returns than some of the old-school guys that used to get 40 or 50 returns a year. He gets, like, 15 and brings one or two back. It's incredible.

And if any team should know that you don't kick it anywhere near, like, Mike Zimmer's reaction was everyone's reaction. Just yelling at Marwood and Maloof, the special teams going, what are you doing of all the humans on this earth to give the ball to? I made the joke, and I'm not sure how kidding I am, that at the end of the game, they should have had Cordero Patterson line up 40 yards behind the line of scrimmage, had Tyler Bray snap it, throw it backwards to him,

and see if he could run past everyone for a touchdown. And I'm not joking. I think that's a better play than whatever the hell they were trying to do. But the point is that it wasn't just special teams mistakes. There were, I mean, there were opportunities for them to take advantage of the Vikings' defense and Nick Foles missed. And they also, I think, by not giving the ball to Justin Jefferson or Adam Thielen more often in this game,

they kept the Bears in the game by doing it. And I just, in 2020, I just think that when you're getting yourself in second and eight and third and seven, this is not an advantageous situation. and you got away with it because your receivers are amazing. But going forward, I don't think that's what you want to do. I agree. And I, again, I want to watch the tape and see how truly sold out the bears were to stopping

Dalvin cook. I mean, it's easy to see, it looked like the safeties were at 10 yards, 11 yards on first and second down going, okay, we know your hand to that horse. Like, we're going to stop that. And I don't think Dalvin even had, like, 50 yards rushing in this game. I don't know the exact number, but I think that that's what everyone's literally going, hey, you're not going to beat us. Like, we're not going to let you beat us.

We can't because until you can prove that you can beat us another way with Jefferson and Thielen and throwing the ball 30, 40 times, like we're not doing it. And so I saw a lot of single coverage, a lot of single high safety, a lot of – I mean, Eddie Jackson's roaming around down there. You got guys all over the place that are going, okay, where's 33? Where's he at? What's he doing? Swing passes, they were all over it. Screen passes, they were all over it.

So this defense has kind of put a blueprint on how to beat the Vikings offense, which is shut down 33 and let's go from there. And so I think we're going to see a lot more of that. And again, that's when we're going to have to say, Hey, Kirk, earn your money. We're going to throw the football now because we got to open things back up. If we want Dalvin to continue to rush. And we talked about it last week, this, the rushing yards for him was not sustainable.

Like it was impossible to think he was going to do that game in and game out and we knew Chicago had a good defense we know they were solid they've got one of the best front five in all of football in my opinion so it's hard to say okay well they did pretty good like no they shoved it up our butts in the run game I mean they really did but they sold out to do it and we were lucky enough to convert on some of the things so we're going to have to go back to the drawing board a little bit of how do we balance this back out instead of just being so one-dimensional in the run game. So he ended up with 96 yards on 30 carries, though.

I mean, that's fourth quarter running just over and over and over and over again, as if you've ever seen the Marshawn Lynch clip, over and over and over and over. Yeah, that is their offense. And now in having this criticism, I acknowledge that the plays that Kirk Cousins is making are resulting in explosive throws all the time because they have pretty much forced teams with Delvin Cook's excellence and a multitude of different run schemes and so forth, which I wrote about at the website, that has forced teams to pay a lot of attention to it. If you play single high against the Vikings, this has been true even, you know, back in 2017.

If you played single high with two elite receivers, they're going to burn somebody. So I think that they're barking up the right tree with the offense, and it's classic Kubiak to have your quarterback lead the league in yards per completion by going down the field a lot on play actions and things like that. I just think if your strategy has a situation that means converting a lot of third and longs to win, if the other team slows you down, that's going to be troublesome at some point someone else is going to do the same thing to you where they've got your number with running Delvin Cook and it's going to be hard to go 10 for 11 with 150 yards passing again on third down that's my point and also when you have explosive receivers and throw him the ball like throw him the ball

more Justin Jefferson what did he catch like seven and put up over 100 yards? Like, I think you can give that guy the ball in any situation. You can throw him screens if you want to. As long as they're not designed by the Bears, they'll work. That, and I think now that you get more confidence in a guy like Jefferson and you see that, like, throw shots on first and second down. Like, instead of allowing the defense to now game plan you, right? Hey, we're going to shut down Dalvin Cook.

Let's be like, okay, how are we going to attack this defense? Right? Like, let's flip the script here and stop talking about like, okay, well, this is what the defenses are going to do to stop Dalvin. It's like, okay, well, what is this offense now going to do to start attacking these other defenses? Like, have a check. If it's single high, check to a pass play.

Right? Like, have instead of just like, we're going to run our heads against the wall into this nine-man box, like, hey, they're in a nine-man box, check blue, check green, polka dot, whatever, and throw a go route to Jefferson. Keep them honest, right? Give them a 50-50 ball. Throw a post route to Adam Thielen.

I mean, getting Irv Smith back would be big. You've got another receiving threat there. So I think I want to see some more deep shots on first and second down, maybe even true drop backs under the center five step. I know that terrifies everyone. Trust me, I saw it too last night. I saw kicks. I saw them pushing the middle of the pocket.

I saw it too. But that's all right. If you can continue to grow in the big passing game we talked about last week, the intermediate passing game on early downs, it's going to open things up for not just – we're not talking about just three and outs. Like I want to talk about the third first down, and now your defense is completely on its heels. It has no idea what's coming.

And then you can start making the big plays. You can do the counter plays, the inside zone plays, the jet sweeps, all that fun stuff. But I agree with you. Put the ball in the playmaker's hands and let them do something special with it, like the Bears were trying to do with Cordero Patterson. But, again, you've got more weapons than the Bears do. So so use all of them let's talk about Mike Zimmer for a second you have some insight into this with having played for Mike Zimmer for several years and you said a few weeks

ago when they were one in five this is not a tanking team Mike Zimmer will coach his butt off he will not let this team fall apart. And I believed you because I've seen it happen. I mean, this team often bounces back from the hardest times and he's always done that really throughout his career. When you go through and you look at any time that his defenses were down, they bounced back up the next year. The one time he was in Atlanta with Bobby Petrino, what a disaster that whole thing turned out to be. And yet, you know, he bounces back with Cincinnati. It's like his nature to just keep fighting. And I think that we're seeing what the value is when you have a good coach.

Like there's a threshold that you reach where it is a net positive to have that person coaching your team. And then we see on the other sideline where it is a net negative. There's probably a lot of guys in the middle. There's a couple of guys at the very top that make you better. Sean McVay makes you instantly better every single year. His team was terrible last year. They go nine and seven. And Zimmer is right in that ballpark where him being your coach means you're going to

win as many or more games than you deserve to win that year. A hundred percent. I mean, Zimmer's in the elite coaches. You talk, there's elite, there's middle of the road, and then there's just plain bad. And I think Zimmer is up there with the elite of the coaches because of his ability to just, I mean, he's never going to stop coaching. That dude's all ball all the time. I mean, I think he wakes up in the middle of the night and, like, starts drawing blitz screams and then then goes back to sleep. Like that's just how his mind works. And so, yeah, I knew that was going to happen. You talk to guys that are like, you know, Zim, I mean, Zim don't care if you're

one and eight, you're eight and oh, he coaches the same way and it's hard and balls out coaching. And it's weird. People think like, oh yeah, the coaches coach players play. Like you nailed it, man. There, there is a reason certain coaches are as good as they are and stick around as long as they do like Nick Saban is one of the best to do it in college football you think that's just because he gets all good recruits no he's a hell of a coach like you see it all the time good coaches go to teams and they just can't put it together they can't be great coaches because something about it it takes something special to be a head coach of a mixture of the knowledge of football and understanding football but also understanding how to be like a manager,

like how to deal with personalities, how to deal with discipline, how to deal with all that and not letting one outweigh the other but like divvying up responsibilities and all that stuff. So Zimmer's done a fantastic job. I think he's gotten better and better each year as a coach. And, I mean, again, I don't think anyone should be calling for his head in Minnesota anytime soon. It's interesting to me the differences between, like, college coaches and NFL coaches. And not that scheme is not important with college coaches, but you see a lot of college coaches,

and I'm not specifically pointing at P.J. Fleck, but if you want to take it that way, you can. Everybody poops. And if you didn't see that story find it in the star tribune oh my gosh but i don't even want to read the quotes from pj fleck about reading his team everybody poops but let's just never discuss that ever again because i'm horrified by this uh but there therein lies the point is that there's a lot of motivational stuff and recruiting and getting people excited about your program. In the NFL, man, it's just scheme.

Can you dial up some stuff that's going to beat that other team? Are you prepared to play that team? And when I mention about Nick Foles, when I used to do the show with Sage Rosenfels a lot, he would talk about quarterbacks having an answer, that Gary Kubiak gives his quarterbacks an answer so when the other team is designed to blitz and maybe you're thrown off guard a little bit but you've got an answer for that Nick Foles had no answers that's bad coaching when he's looking

around I don't know where to throw the ball he's backing up and backing up and backing up and then just heaving it to nowhere like that means he didn't have an answer because the pressure didn't come that fast so uh with Zimmer his defensive players have an answer when they see something. They know where they're supposed to be. And then when it comes to the big situations, they seem to be able to solve offenses even when they're good offenses, even when it's Seattle. They're finding ways to shut them down on third downs.

And maybe you could just explain some of these blitzes and how they work because Nick Foles was truly horrified at the blitzes. And it is remarkable to me, Zimmer's ability to continue to kind of reinvent those and consistently be great on third downs for his entire time here, even this year when the defense has struggled. Yeah. So first thing about coaches is one of my buddies,

one of my favorite quotes he always tells me, I sent him a video of one of the Nebraska quarterbacks, like not doing something great. And I was like, what is it here? Was it his mechanics? Is he not seeing it? He goes, well, it's either coached or allowed. And I think that's a great quote.

It's either coached or allowed. It's not one or the other. The coach either is coaching him to do it that way or he's not even getting away with it. And I think that's sometimes what makes a great coach is they don't allow that stuff to happen. This is my team. This ain't happening.

I'll find someone else that'll do it my way. I think Zimmer's done that. I mean, Zimmer's shown the willingness to let certain guys walk or let certain guys that won't do it his way not onto the field. And so I think that's one thing, too, is he's like, look, like you said, this is the NFL. Like, I didn't kiss your ass to get here and say, hey, come here and you're going to be awesome. It's like, no, you're going to come here, do things my way, we're going to win football games, or I'll find someone else who will. And that's kind of been his way, and he's crusty and curmudgeon and the whole bit, but it works.

Like it works. And then you can flip it to the other side. Pete Carroll's going to love on you and hug on you, but like it works, right? Like each coach that is elite has whatever works for them. So, yeah, so his schemes, by the way, I mean, they're not difficult, but there's a lot of them. And I think that's sometimes what throws off guys with the Bears and, I mean, a lot of defenses is everyone's like, okay, they lined up in double mug, here it comes.

Well, there's about five to ten variations of what blitz can actually come from that. So if you're an offense and you're game planning for third down, you're like, OK, what what does he have dialed up this week? Like what is on his play chart? And you're going to practice all of them because you don't know which one's coming. But you also don't know what wrinkle he's going to put in there. I mean, I've seen Sperano was great at it. He would go back and look up for blitzes from like 06. Like we play in Dallas. He's like, hey, they're going to run this one blitzes from, like, 06. Like, we're playing Dallas. He's like, hey, they're going to run this one blitz.

He's like, Tony, you can't even see the numbers on this. He's like, no. And I can't tell you the amount of times he was right. And, like, an old coordinator that, like, goes back to the well. And Zimmer has this arsenal of he knows he can go to any blitz, even if maybe they didn't practice it all week, right? Maybe they haven't practiced it in two years, but he knows between Kendricks and especially when Barr's out there and Harrison and Anthony Harris, like the main blitzers that have been in this scheme for a long time.

Like he knows that he can go to it and go, hey, we need a big stop here. Let's go to something we haven't ran in two years. They're not going to be ready for it. Bam. And I think that's one thing. I mean, you've got twisting. You've got four from one side. You've got the look from four from one side, and they bring two from the other and drop guys out.

Yes. It's so complex, but it's so simple. And it just takes a ton of preparation to do that. And when you've got a new play caller like Chicago had, you've got a quarterback that really hasn't played a ton against the Vikings. I mean, he's played a couple times. And you're starting to see like the genius of Mike Zimmer come out and understanding what to attack or he looks I know one thing he definitely was

big on is tendencies hey if they're lining up in three by one or they're lining up in two by two and Jimmy Graham motions this like their tendencies to run xyz play so if you see it Kendricks and he usually puts it on I remember it was Greenway it was when Greenway was there was Kendricks and then Barr like if you see it like I trust you to check to this blitz and, like, let's hit him in the face. Like, let's know, like, hey, this 10C, is they're going to run Jimmy Graham over the crossing and they're going to put Allen Robinson on the post?

Like, hey, if you blitz from this side, the back has to protect on this side. You're going to be a free runner and you're going to hit him. And check to it. I know you can do it. And that's when you see Kendricks, Harry checking around, check palms, check whatever, because they trust know you can do it. And that's when you see Hendricks, Harry checking around, check palms, check whatever, because they trust each other to do that. And Zimmer trusts them a lot, which I think when they lost Barr,

they lost a little piece of that. But I think Eric Wilson's starting to get back up to speed where they can go back to that stuff. So really cool to see Zimmer giving a little bit of trust back to them. And, again, just seeing the genius defense that is Mike Zimmer, everyone that's like, oh, you've got to change, is like, no, he just has to adjust. Like, no, he doesn't have to change, not back to the drawing board.

He just has to adjust it a little bit. Again, playing with his pieces, the checkers, not chess thing, like just getting back to it. I was going to ask your opinion of Eric Wilson and the future there, because still at four and five, I think there are conversations about the future to continue to be had. And with Eric Wilson, still at four and five i think there are conversations about the future to continue to be had um and with eric wilson the way he's played compared to what anthony barr is set to make in the future i don't expect them to get rid of anthony barr because of how much mike zimmer appreciates what he can do and he has told us i don't know 30 times over the years you guys don't

give him enough credit like i think we do I don't know who you're talking about. But anyway, that's always a funny reporter thing. It's like we're asking about it, though, so I think we might. Anyway, but he loves Anthony Barr. He sees him as a versatile weapon. It's very rare that someone is 6'5", 250 or 60 pounds and can run a 4'5", and just all that sort of stuff. But Eric Wilson is good. 150 or 60 pounds and can run a four or five and just you know all that sort of stuff um but eric

wilson is good and in terms of how much that player is worth cap space wise with a cap going down this is where it gets really tricky and i just wonder if there is going to be some butting of heads between a general manager and a cap guy who go you know eric wilson's pretty good we could just resign him for less and a head coach who saying, don't you dare take my favorite player. Yeah, it's going to be questions that are, I mean, those are the tough questions and those are what make the good GM special, right? Those are what GMs that find ways to keep teams together and keep personnel

groups together. That's what makes those guys. That's why they pay them the big bucks, right? I mean, they have to make the tough decisions, but I agree. Anthony Barr is a piece that you can build an entire defense around. I mean, he's a guy that can do something. He can rush the passer off the edge with good pass rush moves. He can cover a back.

He can run with the receiver. I mean, not Cooper Cup, as we saw last year. I mean, he can do a lot of special things. And there's nothing wrong with having three really solid linebackers. Yeah. I mean, because if you want to stay in your base defense, say you want to stay in your base defense when they run 11, you know you can have Eric Wilson who can run,

Anthony Barr who can run, and Kendrick's in the middle. You can throw different things at the offenses that they're not used to seeing. So having three of those guys is really not a bad thing, especially with Anthony Barr's injury history. You're not going to be able to trust him to get through a whole season until he proves that he can. So I love what Eric Wilson has done. I think he's stepped up to the plate big time.

He's done a lot of nice things in the past game. Still struggles sometimes with his run fits because he is a little bit smaller, but that's a guy that I think has a really high ceiling that hasn't even touched it yet. 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

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Don't forget to use promo code blue wire at bet online. Dot a G that's blue wire. All one word bet online, your online sports book experts. So Wilson is a free agent after this year. So I think that might be hard to afford everybody and they'll have a tough decision. And I think that's why they drafted Troyye is to have that other guy who is more

instead of a Ben Gideon type run stopper, more of a coverage guy, which I think is smart because teams are using more double tight ends and things like that. So let me ask you two more things. Number one is give me your take on Pat Elfline, a jet, and how weird that was. That whole thing is weird. Gary Kubiak says, well, he's not really looking great in practice, coming off the injury, but yet, you know,

your backup guard right now is Brett Jones, who has not played guard since I think 2017 maybe, and also is not faster than me. And your other guard is Drew Samia, which you don't want to ever see on the field again. So, I mean, I'm a little surprised and the report initially from Ian Rappaport said they want to give them an opportunity to play somewhere else. Like, wait a minute. Is this a, is this a charity?

Like I thought you'd want to have as much offensive line depth as you could going forward. So the whole thing is bizarre to me. And now he's a jet. So good for him, I guess. I mean, I think it's something to be said that the first team on waivers claimed him. Yeah. I think there is something to be said about that.

He is a good player. He is a solid player. He can play a lot of positions. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jets put him back at center. Honestly, they're struggling a little bit there at center. I think that, again, that's Pat's main position. If you ask me, Pat's a center. And they asked him to do a lot, and he did everything for that football team

that they asked him to do. They moved guards. I know Pat. He wasn't raising a stink. I talked to him since he left. There was no bad blood. He's excited for his new opportunity. But weird to me.

Again, weird. I think that maybe it was just kind of a mutual, like, you know, you're not super happy here. We can tell we're probably not super happy with the way you performed. We have some young guys in Ezra Cleveland that is playing really well. Dozers kind of turned a corner a little bit, become a little bit more solid. Like, okay, we're just going to move on here. I get another guy who's going to be a free agent next year, right?

I mean, he's going to be a free agent, so I think they'd said, okay, we're not even going to struggle with trying I get another guy who's going to be a free agent next year, right? I mean, he's going to be a free agent. So I think they'd said, okay, we're not even going to struggle with trying to re-sign you, not re-sign you, because we're obviously not even going to be able to meet at a number. You could just tell, like, Pat was going to want starting money. They probably were going to try and offer him backup money. Like, there's probably already those talks. So I think that probably had a lot to do with it on top of that. But the depth thing is weird to me, because you must really trust Brett Jones,

or you must just be praying to God every single night that a guard does not get hurt. Right. And that's the piece is like, there's still a lot of ball left to be played this year to be not super confident in your backups unless Drew Samia has made progress. And I can't say it. I just, I can't, you just, you can't. After the performance that he's put out there, you can't say I'm relying on this guy. And you want to rely on your backup so that when things happen,

you don't skip a beat. So weird to me. I'm glad Pat's getting an opportunity because I love that kid. He was my rookie when I got there. I took him under my wing. I'd be at his wedding whenever it gets rescheduled for the fifth time. So I'm excited for him, but sad to see him go in purple. That's not a Pam and Roy office thing.

That's COVID related. That's a vid. That's the vid rearing its ugly head. I was just looking up how many snaps you played in 2017 as the backup guard a lot of times. Let's see here. 366. Backup guards play. That's what i don't get is you are what somebody falls on your ankle i mean you have a finger get caught in someone's face mask

that's happened before um then all of a sudden you're out and oh god oh that was your hand that you showed me that is my finger that got caught i I have a very broken, bad finger. Oh my god, that is horrifying. Yeah. Caught in a face mask. Like you said, it happens. Wow. I'm glad I only saw that and no one else. It is going the completely wrong direction. I'll send you a picture. You can post it.

Okay, that threw me off. But anyway, so backup guards help because people get hurt and that's all. If you got to put in drew samia again you are right back to not in a good place uh last thing um as this goes sideways literally uh you sticking with seven and nine after last night that was your pick made you pick the schedule you're staying staying with 7-9. You're good with that. Yep. Alright. I mean, what are you having at? 7-9. Okay, so yeah.

Again, it's they played great against the Packers. They did. They played their best game of the season across all and they beat the Packers by 6 points, something like that. I don't remember, but they played as best as they could. And again, it goes back to what I said at the beginning of the show. Have we reached our growth curve ceiling?

Like, have we reached that point, or is there still more to go? If there's still more to go, sure, maybe 8-8. But I don't see us all of a sudden turning a magical corner and running the table here. I hope I'm wrong. Sure. I hope I'm wrong and everyone's tweeting me going, hey, you're an idiot, blah, blah, blah.

But I just don't see it. I don't see it from looking at it right now. I just can't confidently say we're going to make it happen. Whatever you just saw in football is usually a lie. And so you can kind of talk yourself into a lot of things, but it changes quickly. Tampa Bay gets killed by the Saints. They go out the next week, kill somebody else.

Like this is kind of how it works. And you go back a couple weeks, they lose to Atlanta. And I've just – this is Kirk Cousins' history. His history is, uh-oh, he just had a couple of the worst games, and you need to get rid of him. And then, oh, some amazing great games, new contract extension, right? It's just like this constant roller coaster. And over a whole

career of almost 100 starts now it's the good games and the bad games and the good games and the bad games so if there's a bad game or two out of seven you're out of the playoffs and so i think that that probably will happen even though they have shown a lot of progress here jeremiah searles uh thank you as always for your time great stuff and i'm sorry about your finger no hate to see it oh okay i wasn't all right all right i had one okay yeah all right great yeah all right all right you hate to see it deandre hopkins just mossing my boys at the end of the three of them just destroying their hearts you hate to see that you love to see and i tell me if i'm wrong the pj fleck effect wearing off in minneapolis i think i think it's great when you're winning

like i said when you're winning if you're having a season like you did last year and your coach says hey go poop out in the field you're gonna go because you're winning because it turns into fertilizer because it turns into fertilizer and it grows. Again, if you haven't read the article, tweet me. I'll screenshot you the shots. It's remarkable. Horrifying, remarkable, same thing. Yeah, so those are my two love and hate to see us this week. Okay, great.

I will give you my you love to see it is Kevin Stefanski is 6-3. Yes. is Kevin Stefanski is 6-3. Yes! A tremendously ugly win, 10-7 over the Houston Texans in the worst Cleveland weather. But he is 6-3 with a franchise that has refused to win since basically it came back and done everything it could. And you hate to see it, the NFC East. For God's sake, is there no mercy in this world one of these freaking teams gets in the playoffs i mean this is how is it possible that one of these teams will be allowed

in the postseason and and the owners even discussed this the competition committee of like maybe we should just like not let one of these teams that's going to have five wins and get in the playoffs, and they shot it down. So, sorry, Vikings, if you go 9-7 and miss the playoffs and the Eagles have five wins or the Giants have five wins and get in, life is not fair sometimes. But you actually hate to see that. Like, this system is broke. If the NFC East has one more primetime game this year, I'm going to throw up. You mean Maction, NFL Maction?

Gosh, dude, I'd rather watch Maction. I would rather watch Maction on a Tuesday night than watch the NFC East in primetime again. Maction's great. The last Maction game I saw a team scored on a fake spike. Like they faked like they were. That was after Toledo went up 10 points. Yeah, that was great. Also, last hate to see it, if you owned Nick Chubb in fantasy and you needed that six points to win your game.

Went out of bounds to the one. And you didn't do it. I feel your pain. I don't play fantasy because I get too upset about losing. But I do enjoy other people's misery. I'm in three leagues. It's too many. Three leagues.

All right. Well, great stuff. We will do it again next week when you actually have the benefit of watching the tape but see it's fun to just let loose and throw out the hot takes just throw it out there