Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - To stay alive in LA, the Vikings are back in the think of the playoff race all of the sudden

Episode Date: November 15, 2021

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy break down the Minnesota Vikings' win over the Los Angeles Chargers and what it means for the Vikings' playoff chances. Are they a playoff team if they beat Green Bay next week? Do we believe that they'll continue the offensive aggressiveness that we saw against the Chargers? Plus Matthew and Brain talk about the glitzy experience of a road game in Los Angeles and the crowd atmosphere and discuss whether yesterday was a sign that either Zimmer or Cousins could remain in Minnesota after this year. And where does Justin Jefferson rank among the most talented Vikings receivers? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to remind you before we get started, the TickPick is the exclusive ticketing partner of Purple Insider and the Blue Wire Network. TickPick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging service fees ever. So welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here, and it is time once again for Monday Morning Murph with Brian Murphy. Brian, you were away last week for your 50th birthday, so happy belated birthday to you. And then this week, you were out in L.A. with us there, but you were taking in the scene. You were our man in the stands reporting live from what it was like to be at SoFi Stadium.

So we are both recording this kind of fresh off of the plane. So forgive any of the cobwebs. I left L.A. at 4 o'clock in the morning. I'm sure that you did too. I was in a lift at 4.15 a.m. So, yeah, a little punchy right now, as it were. So we're going to get into some things, including what it means to feel like they're in the middle of a playoff race, even though this has been such an odd season that has been dragged down.

And then I want to ask you about some things Mike Zimmer said after the game and just overall. But let's talk about just the scene in L.A. yesterday. It's kind of one of the weirdest football places that you'll ever go because it's obviously so gigantic. It's built down into the ground. So when you drive by the stadium, you could miss it. You could drive right by it and not even see it. So that's strange in itself. And then you had, I thought it was a 60, 40 crowd chargers, but so many Vikingsings fans and when big plays would happen for the chargers it would be like yeah and when big plays would happen for the vikings yeah it was just like a very it was almost

like being nfl in london i saw two people walking in murph one had a jordan love jersey and the other had a george kittle jersey i'm like neither one of these players play for these football teams. But that was the general feeling that I got from upstairs. I don't really think there are LA Chargers fans. I think there are San Diego Chargers fans who are just kind of wandering around aimlessly because they don't have a team in their building anymore, in their town anymore. So they kind of migrate up, you know, a lot of Phillip Rivers jerseys, Dan Fouts jerseys and Kellen Winslow. And, you know, they're flying their flags in the parking lot, but it felt like they were a visiting team. The Vikings felt like they had like a bonus home game. I was surrounded

by Vikings fans because that's who I went to the game with. But everywhere we went, there were Vikings jerseys, there were skull chants, there was purple everywhere. I get the impression that, you know, there might be some Rams fans in Los Angeles, but there are mainly just NFL fans in Los Angeles who are either transplants or were, you know, there was such a gap between when the Raiders and Rams were both there and then had left again that I don't just like a lot of things with Los Angeles or Southern California in general. It's a hobby. I think an NFL game is more of an event for people to be at. And I don't you know, I don't know if people is more of an event for people to be at.

And I don't, you know, I don't know if people know how unseasonably warm it was out there over the weekend. I mean, it's normally not in the mid to upper 80s at, you know, this time of year. So it felt like summer. It felt like a carnival out in the parking lot. And then that stadium, man, it is both incredibly gaudy and beautiful at the same time. I mean, it's overwhelming to actually be in there and witness it. And that surrounding scoreboard is so tempting to just basically sit and watch the game that you almost have a better angle of that than any seat you would have when you're watching it in person. So it's a very detached experience. It's loud, but not in a passionate loud way. It's just loud because there's a lot of people there.

And as you said, you know, there wasn't, the game didn't lend itself to eruptions of emotion or energy, but you really just couldn't tell which way the crowd was going on a given play. And, you know, it was just – I haven't gone to too many games as a fan in the last 20 years anyway, but to experience it at that level of size and opulence and just flashing and bells and whistles. It was, it was a sensory overload.

I thought that the video board was a little much. I thought it was, it's, it's so big and it's in this almost ribbon style, just dangling down, but it's like a big circle. So anywhere you are, you can see it.

It's not like with the Vikings where you have to look left or right, depending on kind of where you're sitting or in front of you or behind you, it's in the whole stadium and they would have the play going on, but then they would also have graphic things dancing. And there's a person with a trumpet. Like it was, uh, yeah, like an LA show experience, which, um, was kind of, it was weird because when we went to the Rams game in 2018, they had a rapper jump out of the stands and high five,

a wide receiver who scored a touchdown. So it wasn't like that much LA, but it felt like we have to do the most preposterous stadium to one upup everybody else and i was thinking about this that it wasn't that long ago that the houston texans built this very generic football building for like 300 or 400 million dollars like 15 years ago and now i mean the vikings are up to standard here but like this is the new standard and we may see more teams move if they don't want to build one of those because that has now set the you better have this thing and i think i mean if if they were a passionate fan base that would be super cool for them um but i i don't know if that's ever going to happen in that town i don't think for the chargers especially it's going to be a long time uh i mean they're a

talented team but uh there's no there's very little sense of loyalty among L.A. fans. And I was able to hang out with some locals, too. Guys and girls, some couples that grew up in Southern California. They might have known somebody in Minnesota. So there were some connections there as to why they were going. But it just seemed like everybody we talked to, whether it was the hotel clerk or a waitress, or, you know, oh, where are you guys from? We're from Minnesota. What are you in here for? Well, we're going to the Vikings

Chargers game. And there was that sort of like vague recollection or recognition like, oh, yeah, yeah. Is that is that where the new stadium is? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, OK. Yeah. The NFL. Oh, yeah. That sounds great. It's like, well, but, you know, it's going to be 85 degrees and there's like 9,000 other things I'd rather do than spend, you know, two hours in traffic and three hours tailgating. And then another three hours in the building and another two hours to get out, which I can get into the exit. By the way, there was two phases of this tailgate party, pregame and postgame.-game was necessary because nobody was moving from the lot or the parking garage that we were at until well after dark. So it was like a two-phase kind of two-phase experience.

I just was wondering, it's a beautiful stadium. They're going to have many Super Bowls there. I thought to myself, as I was tailgating outside, in the expansive carnival nature feel of it, this would be a great place for Super Bowl week. It'd be a great place to hang out. You know, they're going to need to have that there every three to four years for obvious reasons. It's just, it is that much of a stage. And for people that don't get where it's at geographically, it's in Englewood. It's right next to the Great Western Forum where the Lakers and Kings have played. It's in Englewood. It's right next to the Great Western Forum where the Lakers

and Kings have played. It's easily accessible. Strangely enough, though, there's a target right adjacent to it. It's got a little bit of a suburban feel to it. And you're right, it's not massive in terms of height, where you think of like Phoenix and Jerry's World or even US Bank Stadium that's so huge you're right it's built into the ground so it's just this sort of drive-by silvery oblong shaped structure that belies the fact that it's I don't know it feels like it feels like there was a hundred thousand people there. I know there weren't, but it felt that way. It was so expansive and so just massive. That's all I can say. It was just a massive, uh, eye opening experience. Well, they built it in, I would call it having been to that area before. Cause I had wanted to see, and I visit LA often because of my in-laws. I wanted to see the forum. And so I had been there before they

even built this. And I thought, this is where the forum is, huh? Like out here, there's nothing here. It's just like stretches of, you know, like regular streets, two lane streets that have been kind of run down over the years. And so I think that they're trying to do the whole, the stadium will build up everything around it, which I'm always skeptical of, but there's a ton of construction there. So we'll see. But it was fun to see a new stadium

and something that is of the cutting edge of the cutting edge. And I agree that we'll see a lot of Super Bowls there for sure. Let's get into what happened though. It was not a game that five years from now you'll say to your buddy remember that vikings chargers game yeah gosh the memories oh there was this and that and the other thing it was one year ago well they won so that happened and that that has much more

meaning than a whole lot of the things that had on the field i thought it was sort of interesting that neither team played all that well there was a lot left on the table for both teams, but where the Vikings stand now, Murph, we go from last week where you're looking at, if you lose this one, I mean, you're just out of this playoff race and we're talking about who's coming with you for next year. And now you look at the standings waking up this morning and because of this extremely mediocre football game that the Vikings came away with a win in, or maybe just not memorable game. Now they're right back in the thick of things. And it feels like we've been doing this yo-yo for so long, Brian, where one week we're like, ah, it's over. Everybody's fired. Goodbye. No playoffs this year. And then the next week you're like, Brian, where one week we're like, ah, it's over. Everybody's fired. Goodbye. No playoffs this

year. And then the next week you're like, well, it could be. I mean, it feels like we're right back there. And I don't think that feeling is going to go for away for a while. I mean, they're going to keep lurching here until they win three or four in a row or four out of five or lose two or three more. And then you can put them to rest. It buys them time. I mean, they did what they had to do, but it really just buys them time. It makes this Green Bay game more relevant. It makes it more of an event, which it always is when your border rival shows up and you're still several games behind them in the standings.

But you're right, there's that glimmer. There's that glimmer. And again, from what I watched, you know, we've been complaining all year about how the Vikings really do play not to lose. I don't think they came out and really dominated or own that game. But I felt like from a distance they were playing to win. And that was a different feel. And you go to Zimmer's decisions in the fourth quarter, uh, when to go for it, uh, using the offense as the weapon, as opposing to putting a game in the hands of your defense. Um, I don't know if they've been in the victory formation this year.

Uh, is that a first? It felt like it. Seattle would have been probably. Okay. Yeah, that was whenever ago. You know, I kept saying to the folks next to me, I said, you know, this has the feeling that it's going to come down to three things, a bad turnover, a bad coaching decision, or an official's review. The review went to their favor, although I don't think there was much doubt necessarily about the Jefferson catch. But there was a sense that that was the dagger or one of a couple of daggers

that were coming, obviously the fourth and two pitch to Cook as well. It just felt like they're actually going for a win. They're going for the throat. It wasn't necessarily going to the end zone to put it away, but it was interesting to see their offense take command and win a game. Win it ugly, but win it when the game was in their hands. So if there's a glimmer of hope, it's that, you know, again, you found out, and here, look, a very depleted defense going up against a really good offensive team. That should not be understated, too, how well they played on the road.

But I like what the offense did. They did just enough, but they had an edge. And, you know, you can get into this a little bit more because you were there covering it, but in the postgame comments I've read, it sounds like Zimmer was geared up all week to put the game in his offense's hands. And I don't know if that was out of sheer necessity, the melting of some stubbornness, or whether it was him seeing the light finally. But it just felt like, wow, look at what they did.

They took care of business on the offensive side of the ball. You know, I think that Mike Zimmer, you're going to have to make a cat pun now. I know. Sorry. In the background, you have to work on that. I think that Zimmer is really good at evaluating football players. And he knows who's good. And he knows how good they are. And I don't think that it's ever at any point been lost on Mike Zimmer, how great and unstoppable Justin Jefferson is.

And my theory on what happened yesterday post game is that I think Mike Zimmer wanted us all to know, guys, I want my quarterback to throw the ball down the football field to Justin Jefferson. And I will say that it does match up with priors. Now, the Diggs thing, I think, was more of an overall run first philosophy that drove Diggs crazy. But it wasn't even just that, but it was the fact that they wouldn't talk with Diggs about it. That's what he said in that ESPN interview. They wouldn't even discuss it with me. It was just, this is my team. I play offense the way I play it. You go play football. And maybe even

Zimmer has learned a thing or two from that because he was sure to mention, Hey, I told Justin Jefferson, he's getting the ball this week. Okay. He knows he can't have two great receivers walk out the door on him or, you know, throw a fit. But Zimmer last year, when he talked about last year's offense being the favorite offense that he'd ever had, his big thing was explosive plays that Gary Kubiak knew how to draw up explosive plays. That was what he talked about every time anyone asked about the offense or Gary Kubiak. He said, we've been getting explosive plays. It's the most explosive offense we've ever had since I've been here, things like that. And so it's not that Zimmer didn't know that this is what the offense needs to be.

I think that at some point he was just very frustrated with this fact that his quarterback wouldn't make those plays and probably that his offensive coordinator wasn't finding ways to get his quarterback to make those plays. But it was like, it was like, we broke Zimmer yesterday. It was like, if we ask about this enough, eventually he'll just tell us what's going on. And he just went, look, the quarterback hasn't been throwing the ball. So I, so I told them to again, and he finally did it. That was my big takeaway from that. And I don't know if this changes how much Kirk is going to go down the field

or be aggressive cousins after the game said, yeah, well, I threw it to him down the field when they were in man coverage. And that's what I always do. This was like on one side, you have the coach saying, yeah, I, I, you know, put Kirk up against the wall and said, throw the ball down the field. And then you have Kirk going, I don't know, just went through my reads like usual. Like these two have not been on the same page at all at any point. But I would have loved to have known what Kirk said to his friends or his agent or his teammates about Zimmer's press conference, where he essentially told the world, yeah, it's the quarterback who hasn't been making those throws downfield. Yeah. When it's second and 18, I don't, I don't tell him to go out and throw a five yard pass. I mean, it was all subtle, as subtle as a hammer to the face as it has been

with these two for a couple of years, they do seem to, I mean, Zimmer will joust cousins. I don't know if he kind of grasps what the general message is or what's actually being said. I mean, his level of self-awareness has been lacking, let's put it that way, for a long time. And I think that's what grates on people too, is like, how do you not sense, you know, react like somebody normal would when you've been challenged or criticized like that, you know, show a little emotion, you know, take, you know, either, either push back a little bit, not figuratively on the sideline, but rhetorically, or, you know, express the fact that it was this way all along and there's nothing to see here. He kind of, he kind of

hems and haws and dodges when he's challenged publicly by the guy that was right at the podium before him. It's a it's a weird dance they've been doing for a couple of years. I don't know. I mean, I just I feel like for it, it buys another week of relevance. It does suggest that there is a pathway to wins that don't necessarily mean you have to put up 30 points or score on your last possession. There is a way to, as you know, it was a concerted effort to get Justin Jefferson the ball. Well, I'm sure the Packers are going to make a concerted effort to not have him touch the ball. So you do have other options as well. Maybe Adam Thielen gets buttoned to hold on the practice field and is told, I need you to be ready because we're coming for you this week. I just want to know,

and this will play out, but we've had enough one-off successes to not overreact or tend to overreact. And this, you know, even Carolina as sloppy as they played, it felt like a pivot point because it's like, yeah, yeah, but, yeah, this, but they really did dominate. They did this and they won it at the end again. And now they're going into the bye. You know, that's as good as I think people have felt about the club all season. And then, you know, you have the Pratt fall at home

against the Prescott- Cowboys, another maddeningly tough loss on the road at Baltimore. And, you know, I think people are probably like not willing to, um, uh, to, to drink the Kool-Aid again, but I, I, and I don't think they're going to be after this game. I just think what it does is calms a few nerves. Again, I don't know if anybody wants to succeed in the NFC, so it seems to be pretty wide open still at this point. And, you know, it always comes down to what are they going to be able to do against Aaron Rodgers and what are they going to be able to do against their arch rivals who have owned them for several years.

So it does set up like at least it makes Sunday's game, it's not going to so much be a wake as much as it is this could be another pivot point. Folks, Minnesota football is rolling along, and there's no need to exhaust yourself looking all over the internet to find Minnesota football tickets anymore. That's because TickPick, that's T-I-C-K-P-I-C-K, is the original no-fee ticket site and the only one you'll ever need for your go-to for all NFL tickets. TickPick got rid of those awful service fees that the other sites charge, which lets them guarantee the best price

on all of their NFL tickets. Don't believe it? If you could find better prices for the same seats on another ticket site, TickPick will give you 110% of the difference on the purchase price. We've got some very exciting primetime games and our friends to the east in Green Bay will be making their way to Minnesota soon as well. So you want to go to TickPick.com slash insider to save $10 on your first order for Minnesota football tickets. Again, tick pick.com slash insider to save $10 on your first order of Minnesota football tickets. Yeah, it certainly could because the schedule loosens up after that. I think that a lot of us, including me thought San Francisco would be a little more dangerous. I don't know what to think of Chicago yet because Justin Fields played great in his last

game. So of course we go from Justin Fields can't play to Justin Fields is in a hall of fame. Like that's what we do with rookie quarterbacks. But by the end of the season, he might actually have this thing down to where he's dangerous against the Vikings. And it's all, it's Chicago. If you can lose to Kyle Orton and Chad Hutchinson, you can be beaten in Chicago to anybody, Chase Daniel and so forth. So the Vikings are now 14th in scoring in the NFL. And that just feels so right in terms of points per game. It feels so right because it's almost like every game has half of the game where you believe that they're going to be a great offense and half of the game where you believe they're they can't do anything and this is this is the part about getting overly excited

about it uh for the offensive part and for Zimmer to start saying all these things that he said, scored 27 points and score 47. I mean, they put up a couple hundred yards, but they didn't put up 600 yards. It was a good offensive performance and the door was still left open at the end of the game for the chargers to beat them. If not for giving up 18 yards on a third and 20 and an 11 yard run on second and 17, which is just incomprehensible that the chargers would allow that to the Vikings. So a lot of these things kind of fell in place and they won by seven. And then there's this feeling of,

ha we've solved it. We've got this offense all fixed and everything else. And like you said, we haven't seen a complete offensive game at any point this season. We could go back and forth. We could go, well, second half of Cincy, first half of Arizona, second half of Seattle. But there hasn't been a start to finish. You put a whooping on the other team's defense.

It's just been these spurts. And that's what teams that are pretty average do. Also, when a team relies a lot on third down the longs conversion getting those converted that's tough to do every week and also uh kirk cousins was pressured 42 percent of the time the offensive line did not play very well against the chargers and they were able to overcome it that's not always the case with this team and that's where you get this i smacked my microphone doing a emotion to you that means it's up and down um but i have a completely unrelated question yeah well sort of i mean it's not really related to the game

necessarily but after yesterday i thought i think someone is here next year zimmer or kirk and i don't know which one it is right now oh you think one of them bought another year just out of yesterday's performance not just out of yesterday's performance? Not just out of yesterday's performance, but think about like how you could take that game away. And you could look at Kirk's stats, PFF grades, everything else for this year and go, I mean, it's not easy to find a quarterback this good in the NFL, statistically speaking. And if you're Zimmer, you found a way to win with half of your defense out after getting your face kicked in by the Ravens for 98 plays last week. And you're the guy who's pushing for

more explosive plays and going for it on fourth down. And so you can, and running a competent NFL franchise, even with the ups and downs that they've had. And it just, I walked out of there thinking, I think one of these two people is here, but after Zimmer's comments, I don't know how these two people could coexist again after this year. Well, I think if you're going to measure that, I mean, you know, you know, Cousins has got the bigger contract. I mean, Zimmer has the extension they would have to deal with too. I think Zimmer probably, I mean, he certainly outcoached Brandon Staley. Now, Brandon Staley's a rookie head coach,

but I think he won the coaching decision and sort of the brass, you know, a little bit yesterday. I mean, for his, you know, he was coaching more, not someone to save his job, but somebody that wants to seize the moment. And I feel like that has been missing a bit this year. I think he's been very, very defensive, literally defensive, just feeling like the walls are closing in. That was a miserable week for the team.

I mean, you obviously had the ongoing COVID issues that are claiming roster spots day after day, week after week. You have the injury bug. You also have the drama, the Dalvin Cook story just drop out of nowhere again, as these are wont to do, into the middle of a week, a critical week. There was no question that he was going to play. It wasn't like this was going to envelop the team maybe as much as, say, the Adrian Peterson child abuse scandal, which was much heavier and more criminally involved. It still had the potential to really just be a, you know,

the wheels are really coming off here, and you can sense it, and he may be losing the team. I think he did probably his best job of the week in holding it together, particularly with the holds that he had on defense. But it's a mere snapshot. Desperation tends to bring out a lot of leadership at times. And I think he senses the moment. Just the fact that he was publicly so if not defensive at least trying to say I know everybody's out there is complaining about what we're not doing I made it a point that we were going to do what we haven't been able to do and look at me for doing that I mean there was

a lot of that uh in his post-game comments yesterday but I think it's him recognizing you know it's easy to say these are all outside distractions and we're not going to be influenced by what the perceptions are out there. But it doesn't take much to figure out what ails this team at various times. You don't need to be a football expert. A lot of this has not passed the smell test week after week. And I think this was an acknowledgement of that. You're right, 27 to 20. It didn't feel like, you know, it, it always felt like they were, you know, one mishap from being in a bad position again or losing an overtime. So,

but they did what they had to do. So give them that kind of a credit. I'd be curious how the rest of the week progresses as far as personnel, who there may be able to get back. And they're going to need all of that and more to go up against their arch nemesis again, Aaron Rodgers. And this conversation could change quickly if you don't follow it up by playing extremely well against the Green Bay Packers. And then we go, ah, you fooled us for a week again, you Vikings. And we've done that a lot over the last few years. I was just looking at cousin stats right now. And, um, they're very good. I mean, they, they are among the top quarterbacks in the NFL.

He is the fifth rated passer in the NFL in terms of passer rating in terms of a PFF grade. He is the second highest quarterback in the NFL. And I've had some PFF people on to sort of explain that rating where it doesn't necessarily, it doesn't necessarily mean he's like been the second best quarterback in the NFL. It means that he's executing what he's asked to do at a very, very high rate. And he's done it more consistently than he's done in his career, even with the ups and downs that we've seen for this season. But the downs have usually just been like bleh games

as opposed to three interceptions or whatever else, a bunch of strip sacks. He's kept them in every single game. And so I could see on one side, them looking at it, ownership looking at it, Rick Spielman's involvement, hard to say how they feel about the job he's done. But in saying, look, we have one of the best statistical quarterbacks in the NFL again. And then looking at Zimmer and saying, well, but he got them back from this one in three and got them back from whatever.

And they were just close losses. But I also think at the same time, there shouldn't be anybody in this room, whoever's making decisions after this season, there shouldn't be anybody in this room saying, run it back, baby. Even after what we saw that some like both of you are pretty good at your jobs, but I'm not sure either of you work together well, or right for this team to ever win a Superbowl. So who's staying in and who's going? I think no matter whether they win or lose, every game down the stretch, there's always going to be this feeling of, well, this was a Zimmer game,

or this was a Kirk game, or this was a game where Zimmer told us that Kirk wasn't doing his job. There's always this dynamic that rests over it that I don't know can go past this year. Well, we've always said, I always felt that Zimmer and Spielman were attached. I mean, I've been calling it the triangle of reckoning for all three of them.

But it just feels like if Zimmer goes, Spielman has to go just just from a pure logic standpoint and a sense of these are they've had their hands on the levers of power. The Cousins situation feels like, would a new regime have to come in and make a decision on an inherited quarterback and say, you know what, we're just not going to be able to win with this guy. We're going to tell ownership we can't win with this guy. We got to find a way to get out from under this deal. And look, the statistics he's putting up, as painful as it may be for teams to absorb that on their cap, and you know this better than I do probably, it's not as prohibitive maybe as it might seem. And the numbers he's putting up, look around the NFL. I mean, it is difficult to find proficient quarterback play. I think this market is so conditioned to not appreciate whatever Cousins

does that it may be untenable for him to stay. But I don't necessarily think he's damaged goods, at least the way he's playing right now. So I think if it comes down to it, if Zimmer does end up staying, I think Cousins has to stay, even though it may. You're right. It feels like it doesn't coexist, but maybe they can find some begrudging middle ground where they can make it work, because the Vikings are going to would be more punitively damaged if they have to get rid of this contract, right? I don't know. How much would they have to offload? And starting over again on a draft with the same people in power, I don't know if they've got the credibility to make that case either. Yeah, trading him is really no problem.

I think they end up taking on a $10 million dead cap hit. Not a huge deal if you're drafting somebody else, it has been noted that it is not an impressive draft class. So that will be weighed into it. You could also keep him at his $45 million cap hit, but that seems completely impossible that they'll do that. My thing would be when you evaluate cousins, there's like seven different dimensions to this.

And the, there's like seven different dimensions to this and the but the most important one is where you were as a franchise when you signed him and what that signing meant and where it's gone and so there's all these different debates like i think he's been and this is where zimmer gets a ton of criticism for the offense but kirk cousins has been the best version of kirk cousins that he's ever been like he was not this good before in Washington. Does it feel that way? Well, it doesn't because they have the same results in the win-loss. And so from a Vikings perspective, the franchise,

the team that everyone cares about, like there are some people that make this about one player, they make the whole analysis of everything about one player, but it's really about wins and losses. Like no one gets excited because your quarterback has a good rating. It's winning the football games, getting somewhere in the playoffs and it hasn't worked. And so where they were matters. Another team, if you're the giants, your ownership has to be beside itself with how long you've

been horrendous. Like, how can we keep doing this? And there are five or six of those teams who have cap space, who would give you first round picks. Uh, there was Jay Gruden just said the other day that San Francisco in 2017, Kirk's worst year was offering draft picks for Kirk cousins. The Vikings paid him like there will be tons of interest. Uh, probably I would say five to eight teams if they want to move on the question is when are your quarterbacks playing this well it's just like with zimmer you watch brandon staley coaching like man that guy's talked about as being pretty good and just get out coached by a lot you're right like you just sort of get yourself back

always back to this place where you're like you you could do a lot worse than these two, but then the fact that I'm not sure they can coexist, that makes it more interesting as we go down the stretch of like, could you be here? Could you be here? Like if they go nine and eight, Murph, make the playoffs, compete in a playoff game, maybe even win it. What happens? You're not learning much new, and you're right.

You're right. If it is an eight, nine eight nine nine and eight type finish and it's a it's a week to week uh it's a week to week re-evaluation of of their relationship and also whether or not this is working that's a long slog to have and i don't you know what do you you're not you, what we thought this season was going to show was, will this regime work? Will this management style, will this coaching style work? And can all three coexist? And I don't know if we have an answer today. It's still, you know, at four and five, you're just not, it's on, it always feels like it's on the verge of uh being a teardown but it it

never quite gets there and and i don't know what at the end of the season i mean you still got you know eight games to go i don't know what that's going to show if they don't make the playoffs can you learn enough in these last eight games to justify a teardown or a tweak or a preservation? Does even a playoff berth buy that? I don't know if it does, because as you said, he's being evaluated on where the franchise was when he came here. And they were coming off an NFC Championship game appearance. And they haven't come close to that sense. So when you look at the bigger picture, you're like, I don't know if we're going to learn anything more. We have to decide this may be it. And in what capacity do we tear? What pieces do we tear?

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yourminnesotaworkcomployer.com. That is yourminnesotaworkcomployer.com. This has been an attorney advertisement for Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer. I think I'm gonna have to come up with a new song for the show. People really enjoy the songs and maybe I'll come up with one like, who's gonna be here? Who's Gonna Be Here.

Who's gonna be here next year. How's that? You like it? I need a little more lyrics before I can totally weigh in. Who's gonna be here. Are you going over the bass back beat? Are you going to bring in some horns, some strings? Who's gonna

be here. Like a little swing. Next year. It almost sounds like you can put it you know instead of uh the skull chant maybe you can bring that in a little bit just one time during the week and let everybody react to that i'll let everybody else do the skull chant uh let me uh ask you this before we wrap up the show here yes what do you think you think they're making the playoffs murph i mean do you think that You think they're making the playoffs, Murph? I mean, do you think that after this win, they have discovered something that they can repeat consistently enough, not every single week at the NFL, there'll be a bad week, there'll be a good week,

but consistently enough through the rest of the season to reach the playoffs? I think they've discovered what they can do to reach the playoffs. I'm not sure they're going to do that yet. I'm not sure they're going to do that yet. I'm not sure they're capable of that. I'm just going to hedge one more week here. Allow me this. At four and five, they're impossible to read. But this is a rise to the occasion game coming up at home.

Because, you know, the microscope's still on Rodgers and his scrutiny, and he's going to get a very unpleasant reaction uh at us bank stadium you've got your border rival first place team it's always an emotionally charged atmosphere um can they rise to that i'm not saying if they beat green bay that they're definitely making the playoffs but i feel like if they can rise to the occasion and not stumble which they've done every time, they've brought us to this point where you're about ready to buy in because you've seen some things that they've done creatively, winning in different ways,

winning dramatically, winning with a kick, overcoming a missed kick, making plays at the end of the game, which we thought some of those victories were tainted because of that. But they do add up. I thought the game yesterday wasn't a tainted victory. It was a boring and efficient victory. But there is a formula there, and there have been formulas at various points of other games this season. But I want to see if they can answer.

And I think that's the big key, because we thought with Dallas, that would be an opportunity to answer. You're coming off the bye, you're home, national TV. And oh, by the way, an hour and a half before the game, you don't even have to face one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And they face planted. and an opportunity to get to 500 and claw back to that breathing level and maybe show that there is a pathway to the playoffs. But are we lowering the bar of expectations now again? Because this was not a get into the playoffs type season. This was a get higher up into the playoffs and advance.

So are we moving the goalposts here? Are we lowering the expectations because of the fact that they have just clawed to be relevant? So there's a difference. It took you like 20 minutes, but you got there. I keep waiting for them to either completely show us they are incapable of doing it or showing that they can rise to the moment and play to higher expectations. So ask me this next Monday because I think I'll have a more definitive answer.

And I will. Okay. I promise this is the final, final thing. But it's just something that popped into my head that I figured. I have to ask you now or I'll forget. I won't be able to ask you next Monday. Justin Jefferson already. He's only played for the team for two years. Where does he rank talent wise Vikings wide receivers all time? That's pretty loaded.

Well, I think you always have to keep Randy Moss at the top for a variety of reasons. We all know that. I mean, he changed the game. He literally changed the game and became a phenomenon. Justin Jefferson is not a phenomenon. He's an extremely talented, hardworking, ascending receiver. If you're going to go in the top five, just off the top of my head, I'm going to go Moss. I'm going to probably go Carter, Chris Carter. And then I would put from sheer talent, from my experience in the last 20 years in this market, I put him at number three and on the rise. He's still got to make big plays in big games. That's up to his team to get him there to do that. But, you know, for somebody who was basically called on the rug

and said, look, we're going to come for you. I need you to work your ass off in practice because I need you to buy in and we're going to get the ball to you. Be crisp on your routes, as Zimmer was saying. We'll get the ball to you. And then to come through with that, with the dagger catch at the end, I'd say he's three with an asterisk moving up. Yeah, sheer talent-wise, I think Stefan Diggs

and his technical abilities were so incredible, remain so incredible today, and his team is a favorite for the Super Bowl, but are so incredible that he overcame some stuff that was maybe not on the level of Justin Jefferson for Diggs. but the most digs is the most uncoverable, not named Carter or Moss. I think Jefferson guys are near Jefferson. It just doesn't matter. He just jumps over them and makes incredible catches. I would put them up there. Um, but I don't, I don't want to short change, uh, you know, Anthony Carter and Jake Reed and guys who are really good and had good careers.

But I think he's already talent wise past them. And it's only the guys with the gold jackets who are there. And so we'll see where his career goes from here. Like you said, long way to go before we're crowning him as one of the best ever. But talent wise, there are a few players I've ever seen that you just like. I mean, he's like Julio Jones, just throw the ball in his direction. And that thing he's coming down with that thing.

It's really, and he knows he's good and he doesn't have to necessarily brag on it as much. I mean, he's got some flash, but you can see the confidence in his game and the way he's approaching being an NFL receiver, as opposed to just being a hotshot prospect.

And I think just last thing, last thing, just the way he approached this year was really telling. He worked on his route running details in the off season with an additional coach. He studied the game. His brother and him watch film at home after practice. They go back and watch together. His brother is a football player as well. This guy cares about being great. He really, truly wants to be great. And yet sort of balance

is not being publicly outward about not getting the ball and everything else. Like he's really managed. It's early, it's early. But I think that's the work ethic part of it. The not taking for granted what you did in the first year. We've seen it many times. I don that's the work ethic part of it. The not taking for granted what you did in the first year. We've seen it many times. I don't know. The sophomore slump thing is often because guys think I'll just go do the same thing again. He understood you need to do more and it's been really something to watch.

So Murph, well, I am glad to catch up with you. Glad you had a fun trip out to Los Angeles. Looks like you got a little sun there. So it did. It was a little road out in the parking lot yesterday before the game. So yeah,

I'm putting together my thoughts coming out of the fog here. And I, you know, the, the column is going to be slightly delayed, but it'll be up. It'll, it'll kind of chronicle the game day experience and just the two day

weekend getaway and really what is fantasy land in so many ways. Yeah, for sure. Well, I'm glad we could do this and we will talk again next Monday. All right.