Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Tuesday Morning Left Guard: What the Vikings-Falcons tape says about the future

Episode Date: October 20, 2020

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles hold their noses as they watch back the Vikings-Falcons tape and talk about some of the areas that simply won't get better and where the team can learn from other plays. How did Ezra Cleveland look? Why Julio Jones's performance against the Vikings should be concerning and who's getting traded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey, everyone, Matthew Collar here. We'll get into the show in just a second, but first got to tell you about Abner Maris, a world champion boxer, Olympian, sports commentator, and most importantly, a dad to two little girls. Beloved by abuelas and hardcore fans alike, Abner is a pro at entertaining the world both in and out of the ring. On Blue Wire's new podcast, On the Hook with Abner Maris, we'll hear from Abner is a pro at entertaining the world both in and out of the ring. On Blue Wire's new

podcast, On the Hook with Abner Maris, we'll hear from Abner, his family, fellow athletes, and other people who made him the boxer he is today. He will discuss the state of boxing, sports, music, culture, and his American dream. Listen to On the Hook with Abner Maris wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes in English out on Tuesdays and episodes in Spanish are out on Wednesdays. All right, let's get to the show. Hello, welcome to another episode of Tuesday Morning Left Guard. Matthew Collar here along with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles. And if you thought that he was upset after watching the tape last week,

then giving up 40 points, throwing three interceptions, struggling in pretty much every area for the Minnesota Vikings, I'm going to guess that you're not doing great after watching that tape, Jeremiah. Oh, no, I'm not doing great. Also because I decided it would be a great idea to pick up Alexander Madison in all three of my fantasy leagues because I was like, hey, Dalvin Cook's out.

He's going to get some things. And I think he got four points. So I lost in all three of my leagues this week. So just a little sugar on the top. You know how it goes. I've enjoyed your tweets about your fantasy team. It seems like you are not GM of the year. I'm horrible.

First of all, one really crappy thing is I have the most points scored against me out of anyone in our entire league. Every time I play someone, their entire team goes off. And then, like, I'm just not good at these decisions. I don't know. I like to play my friends. Like, I draft my friends, and then I play my friends, and then they don't do good. I don't know. I like to play my friends. Like, I draft my friends, and then I play my friends, and then they don't do good.

I don't – I can't. It's a harsh business, fantasy. I'm 0-6 in two leagues, and I'm 4-2 in the other ones. Well, I don't know about my response, but you can get Trevor Lawrence now. Yeah, I mean, take the Lawrence, right? Take for Lawrence, which seems to be a real thing now in Minneapolis. Well, you know know that's the funny thing is that I had been sort of digging my heels in on this team has too much talent to be bad

enough to be in the conversation for a top quarterback and now I better walk that back I mean I still think they have too much talent but the way that they play is like a bad football team and I was going through the tape at the same time as you. And I don't know which example you want to start on, but I think beginning right from the very beginning, that what I'd like to do here is go through some of these things and just talk about why this hasn't worked as a team. So kind of the Falcons game is a reflection of the bigger picture.

And I'll tell you where it starts for me. The first play of the game, Deion Jones does not bite at all, not one little percent on a play action, deep crossing route. And he knows exactly where it's going. And this has been a thing that has happened to them every week where linebackers are no longer crashing up. And maybe he does a little if it's Delvin cook, but with Alexander Madison, definitely not. He just cruises right back to the spot and holds his hands out and waits for the interception. I mean,

I think this is a little bit of a Gary Kubiak still running Gary Kubiak plays thing, because it's clear to me that linebackers know exactly what's coming with some of these play actions. Yeah. And I don't think, I don't necessarily think that the play action fake between Madison and Kirk Cousins was that good. Coaches harp on it a lot. And, I mean, I remember the big thing when I was at Buffalo with Josh Allen was like, Brian Dayball would be like, get your head down on the fake.

Like, finish the fake. It's just it doesn't look very realistic from that point. And the other piece is I feel like the linemen aren't firing off and selling the run like I was re-watching that that first because I'm like okay why weren't those linebackers biting like you even look at the tape and you're just like well what's because there's no movement up front like the the linemen are all going lateral their hats are high they're not not firing off the ball. It just looks like pass the whole way. If you want to have a successful play action, you need to fire off the ball for at least two or three steps as an offensive lineman

to sell the run and then get yourself back to balance. That's how you do it. You watch Atlanta do it. They are running off the football every play action. Tennessee runs off the football. All the great play action teams run off the football. It looks exactly the same for the first three steps, whether it's a run or a pass, and the linebackers have no chance. For Minnesota's offensive line, as I watch it, high hats, lateral movement, no firing off the ball, and so there's no bite.

And when you have no bite, as I said, I mean, you look at those safeties. Those safeties are 20 yards. The linebackers are 15. There's nowhere to go for the and when you have no bite it's that i said i mean you look at those safeties those safeties are 20 yards the linebackers are 15 there's nowhere to go for the football unless you want to check it down to alexander madison standing right there at eight yards so you could get a plug and play but then we do that all game that one freaks out because that's all kirk does but i mean that first play of the game you just knew it from the beginning like we're in trouble like you just you just knew it from the beginning, we're in trouble. You just knew it from the beginning. Like, we're in trouble. This is going to be bad. And it was. I mean, self-fulfilling prophecy, right?

I don't know if you ever dealt with this for any of the quarterbacks you played with. Because you played with some guys who were pretty good leaders, whether it was here in Minnesota or when you were in San Diego or in Buffalo. I think a lot of the people really like Josh Allen as a personality. But there is a body language on tape that you can see with players. And I'll give you an example that maybe we can go over a little later with just the second interception when Kirk throws it. I was watching a couple players, and they should be running over there because he was not down. So he could get up and run with the ball. And yet the body language was kind of like oh

another one of those and you see you see players who are in the area just sort of looking over there like somebody don't get them and and i think that there's a wind out of the sails type of effects from the very start because these guys have seen the bad version of kirk cousins so many times and then you can almost always tell on the first or second drive like oh like I remember Kansas City last year he under throws Adam Phelan and you go oh it's that it's that guy and when it shows up they know you're probably going to lose that game and there was just a feeling right from the very beginning like oh this is going to go the way we think it's going to go right and I think another guy that I like is popping out on tape for me, a guy who usually is very calm, cool, emotionless, like is Harrison Smith. I mean, you're seeing Harry getting physically upset, like mad at these corners, mad at these, like you can just see him

getting like visibly upset and emotion. And I mean, it's good to see that from your leader, but that's just not something you're used to seeing from Harry right I mean Harry is the cool calm guy who wears his beanie on the side like that's Harry and I mean I'm seeing Harry chewing corners I'm seeing him like motioning around pointing and like I think that you see guys that are really really fed up with it and and I don't know I don't know if it's just gonna get to a boiling point where there's gonna be a big freak out or what's going to happen. But, yeah, I completely agree. The body language on tape from top to bottom on this team isn't great.

And I think that that, I mean, it's emotionally draining to lose this many games. I know it is. If I'm Harrison Smith, I'm going to them right now and saying thanks for the memories, but there has to be somewhere I can go. I mean, his contract situation, he's in need of an extension he's one of the best players i think in the entire nfl still i don't see a ton of drop off from harrison smith i see drop off from everyone around him and if you are a contending team you should be given up i mean i don't know about a first round but a second round at least a second would yeah at least and get that second rounder back that you had to give away for your pass rusher who doesn't want to play against the run ever um so let me talk about the touchdown right after that

so the Vikings get them to third and long and this is where Zimmer just makes his bones as a coach like he's tremendous schematically on third downs we've seen it for so long of course there's the no noise in us bank stadium effect that's going on here so easy communication for matt ryan but that is just not what caused this touchdown julio jones ran up to cameron dantzler and said get out of my way he pushed him five to seven feet away and then just walked into the end zone wide open. And I got some tweets of people like, that's offensive pass interference. Like, at the top of routes, they allow for physicality.

It's just, it's not Julio's fault. He just demolished you like a WWE guy. Like, that is why there was some concern about Cameron Dantzler weighing 120 pounds at the Combine. Is because when you face a monster, he's just going to move you and then catch a ball for a touchdown. there was some concern about Cameron Dantzler weighing 120 pounds at the combine is because when you face a monster he's just going to move you and then catch a ball for a touchdown and that I think that right there really concerning about Cameron Dantzler just going forward like if you don't put on a lot of strength I'm not sure how you're going to handle that. I mean another piece of it too is if you're looking at the coverage, it's a bracket coverage on Julio Jones.

He's got Harrison Smith on inside leverage. Harrison's standing inside leverage. And so I don't understand why all of a sudden Cam Dantzler feels the need to jump in front of him and try and, like, cut him off. It's like, dude, bracket him. Play your outside leverage. Harry plays your inside leverage. And this is a non-issue. Like, even if he runs into you, you're going to be outside leverage still,

and Harry's going to be right there in your hip pocket. But he almost, like, gets in the way of Harry to the point where Harry has no choice but to try to chase it down. And like you said, he ejects, I think is the word I want to use. He ejects Cam Dantzler just away from him and then just does what Julio Jones does. I mean, that's literally – that's a grown man. Like, that's a grown, physical, top, best in the business type wide receiver.

And we're going to see more of those guys throughout this year. And that's just something, I mean, the other piece too is Matt Ryan had all day to throw it, right? They lined up in the overload look that, I mean, they do the overload look just like every other team. Where you put three defensive linemen on one side, leave a big guard bubble, and you put one-on-one with the tackle on the other side. And you run games, you run stunts out of it. They ran a game out of this one, and it doesn't get home. They pick it up. Your best pass rusher doesn't beat Jake Matthews, and Matt Ryan has enough time to allow Julio to run the 25 yards, get to there, make the cut, and still make

the throw. So, I mean, it's a combining issue of all the things, but I mean, the big thing is, it's just know where your help is as a player. I mean, I didn't play DB. I'm not going to pretend like I know how to play DB, but I can watch the tape and know well enough. Like if you're double teaming a guy and you have a guy with inside leverage and got outside leverage, just keep your leverage. Like just keep your leverage, allow your help to help and make it a non-issue.

Make them pull the ball to Calvin Ridley or someone else that's going to get open. Right. Like, but don't allow the star, right? That's the game record. Don't allow the game record to wreck the game, which he 100% did. He did, and DK Metcalf did the week before. And every team who has a tall, big, or strong wide receiver for the rest of Cam Dantzler's life is going to try and make him pay for it because when you put it on tape in the NFL,

then everyone else is going to do it to you and this is this is the point about the corners and when we talk about could this have been foreseeable that some of these things would happen like yeah when you just throw out a third round corner and say go start man like that is what you risk is hey he looked good in camp but that's camp is Adam Thielen going a thousand percent in camp do you have Julio Jones in camp probably not Alexander Hollins is not Julio Jones or DK Metcalf those are freaks and you know someone like Prince of Makamura for example who's a free agent or Drake Kirkpatrick like those guys aren't amazing but they've played in the NFL against these players before and maybe would give you a shot at least they know know, like you said, where your leverage is.

They know their coverages. They know how to get tight on a guy. And Zimmer went kind of off on the Zoom call about just so many coverages where you're way away from the guy. And in college, okay, you just make up the ground. The throws probably aren't perfect. But this is Matt Ryan. Like, he's a borderline Hall of Fame quarterback.

He's not going to screw it up. And you know, I think we we've seen that so much in terms of these foreseeable or preventable issues. And there's another one I want to talk to you about, and that's three technique that Courtney Cronin and I talked and especially her, this was her hill to die on improve at three tech, or you're never going to pressure the quarterback because you weren't with Michael Pierce anyway and then when he opts out you definitely aren't with Shamar

and to leave Jaleel Johnson in there who is just a well below average NFL player not a starter I'm not even sure he has a career after this and you're playing him a lot and then you're trying to force the square peg into a round hole with James Lynch, who you draft as a defensive end and immediately move him, which we've talked about. It's like, why is this position post Tom Johnson been such a problem for you? I mean, it's really, if you want to, I suppose, Sharif Floyd. I mean, Sharif Floyd was the guy coming out of Florida. I mean, that man was a stud, and he could pass rush.

He could play against the run. And then he had that horrible issue that went with his knee, and I think they've been trying to fill that hole ever since. And you look around the league at the teams that are elite on defense, like not good, elite. They have a dominant three technique. I mean, they have a guy that can play against the run and rush the passer because you can create so many mismatches with the guards,

and we don't have that. Even with Tom Johnson, he was a situational player, and so you knew you could put him in on third and long, second and long. He was going to be able to use his quickness to get after the quarterback. But the problem was he was a bit of a liability of the run game. Right. And so you kind of had to have that rotating, but it worked well between him and Shamar kind of doing two people to do one

guy's job really well. But the problem is now you've got three people that do nobody's job really well, and it's a huge issue, right? I mean, you've got, okay, what do you put James Lynch? Do we put Shamar back at three technique? Do we have Jaleel Johnson? I mean, it's just no one is stepping up to the plate and taking this opportunity.

I mean, this is a prime opportunity to not just make a name for yourself for this team but for the nfl right i mean there's 31 other teams are going to watch this tape and go hey do we want this guy on our team as a start and it just doesn't seem like any of these guys have rose to the occasion it doesn't seem like any of them i don't know if it's lack of ability i don't know if it's lack of want to i mean i think they play hard i just think that honestly they're a little outmatched at times when it comes to it. I mean, you got times that Jalen Johnson's getting driven five yards down the field on a double team and the linebacker is trying to move his way around them and running back gets four yards

for contact. James Lynch plays two plays this game, two plays. And on the second play, he gets buried into the turf on a backside scoop block. Those are just things that you just can't happen, especially as a young player. You should come in there with your hair on fire, just wreaking havoc if you're only going to get two or three plays a game. And then, again, Shamar, when he's at three technique, he does a really good job.

I mean, there was a third and two, or maybe even a fourth and one, where he gets double teamed, he was playing notes, he throws back, back takes the knee stands up bam smashes girly right in the face i mean those are what shamar's always done really well and i think he's playing pretty much how you would expect smart play solid player doing his job not super flashy but shows up when he needs to but the problem is nobody else is really doing that on that front forward with the defense line right i i think you could have managed with Shamar at nose tackle. He's not going to get a ton of penetration or anything like that, but he could just, like, do the job.

And that's the point about this is when they went into the season, they had guys in position that literally couldn't do the job. And if you have even average players, and that's where the whole distribution of where you spend your money is. Like, if you spend between Anthony Harris, who is very good, and Yannick Ngakwe, $26 million. Like $26 million buys you a lot of decent NFL players at these positions, at guard, where you are invisible still, which I think is next on our list.

And, you know, at three technique, defense, attack. Like there are guys who are at least NFL players who could manage the job and then let the stars do the rest but you spent so much money on a handful of players you basically had to just hope that these other guys magically developed and someone like johnson jaleel johnson's like i mean we're in year four now you you didn't know uh that's you know anyway, that's one of the ones that I think was very foreseeable. So let's talk about Ezra Cleveland. Everybody was tweeting you they want your take. They want you to play right guard.

That has become a great bit, and people haven't seen you because you don't – sorry, you don't look ready to play right guard these days. Yeah, I need to gain a little bit of weight here. I'm about 285 right now, loving it. I was sitting in a duck blind this morning. So don't expect any right guard comebacks, especially for a one and five team that Egan is a miserable place to be right now.

I'll tell you that right now, the compound out there in Egan, you don't want to be there. You don't want to go in there because it's not fun. It's not fun at all. Now our buddy Alex Boone has promised an appearance at some point soon oh gosh so that should be interesting when we can get him on but let's talk about ezra cleveland uh the pff grades were uh atrocious he graded in the 40s which means you had a really poor game he gave up five pressures which was the most most in the NFL for any guard this week,

and in the run game did not grade much higher than that. But from the visual, I would put this less Ezra Cleveland, his fault, than Drew Samia. Like, this was not a Samia-level performance, even if it graded in the Samia range. So give me your take on watching Ezra Cleveland at right guard. Yeah, so I watched him. I watched every play of the game. I wanted to make sure, and he wasn't my Winnebago. He didn't pop off the film.

It was just unbearable to watch. But I thought he played exactly how I expected him to play on the first start. He looked a little timid at times. He had a little fire in him at times. There was a couple times he cleaned up some ribs, a full slab of ribs on a defensive end, rushing over Brian O'Neal and knocking him down, which is great to see the aggression out of a young player like that.

I like his balance at guard. He does. He plays like a tackle. He's got great balance in the pass game. He stays underneath himself really well. He can move his feet, but he lacks that kind of stoutness and that, like, punch you in the face that you need to guard a little bit to kind of keep that depth of the pocket, right?

I mean, so the center of the guards are for the depth of the pocket and the tackles are for the width of the pocket. And you've got to make sure, especially with a guy like Kirk Cousins, who we know struggled with pressure up in his face, that you have two really stout guards, And right now we have no stout guards. And I think that he could be, I mean, after watching him, I think he could be a very good guard in the NFL. I think that if he can stay there and truly develop as a guard,

he has a really good shot at it because he's got long arms, but he's also, he's very good footwork. I thought his footwork was really well. And as he continues to play, he's going to get more confidence, which allows him to fire off the ball quicker, know where he's going good at footwork. I thought his footwork was really well. And as he continues to play, he's going to get more confidence, which allows him to fire off the ball quicker, know where he's going a little bit more. I mean, you could just tell things were moving at a little bit faster speed than he was used to.

And that's because there's no preseason. I mean, it's really his first live game action in the NFL. Like, practice is great and all, but it's exactly like you said with Cam Dantzler. Like, is everyone going 120 percent full speed for 90 snaps like no that's not how it works in camp like you need those game reps to understand what the speed of the game is in the NFL and so you can tell there was definitely times where for example he gave up a sack there on a play action I believe it was and and he was just kind of like okay I'm gonna take my steps and get my hands on you and this dude was was like, bull rush, and just drove him like straight back.

And you can tell like, that's just the things where it's like, oh, wow. Like, yeah, there's consequences in real games, right? Like in practice, it's like, oh, I get bull rushed. Like, oh, we can fix it in tape. He's not going to hit the quarterback, like yada, yada, yada. But like, there's real life consequences. I mean, you're getting your quarterback hit, you're getting interceptions thrown. So those are all things that as a young player, you just need to, it takes time and that's where really not having preseason really hurt a guy

like him. But overall, I thought it was a decent performance. I mean, I wasn't going to say he's going to go out there. He's not the Zach Martin in my words, but I think that he has showed a lot of potential. And now the question is, can he do what Drew Samia did not do? And can he improve week to week to week? Can he fix some of those things that he really struggled with? Can he improve on the things he did really well?

And can he continue to grow and get better each week versus staying the same or even kind of sliding back a little bit in his development as a player? I want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. If you have not seen it yet, you've got to check it out. A couple of my favorite designs are the Duck Duck Gray Duck and the Randy Moss Goat, which you've got to see. All their apparel is screen-printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it.

We're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order. By the way, use promo code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That's SOTASTICK, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. So would you like to see him play the rest of the season at right guard, or would you rather see them trade uh riley reef which i think they should um there's i mean after watching dallas last night division leader

dallas they could use a left tackle too so there's i mean there's taylor lawan i mean taylor lawan's out titans need a left tackle bad right now so if you have desperate enough teams in need of left tackles then you could get another second or third round pick for riley reef and i think he's another guy that is sort of like harrison smith earned the right to go somewhere else uh as a highly respected nfl player and get a chance to win with somebody so that would be like the right thing to do in my mind um but sorry when what i was i mean i know you're going like would you rather see him say they're about to That would be like the right thing to do in my mind. But sorry, what? I mean,

I know where you're going. Like, would you rather see him say they're about to left tackle? The question is, right. Is he any good at left tackle? Right. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I mean, do you, do you, have you seen him play left tackle at all? I mean, through training camp or any of that? Not a single time.

I mean, that Kubiak says that he's practiced there, but that's all we've heard. And I haven't seen that because of course, practice is close to the media after training camp but during camp he was only a guard so my answer is no like it is too much pressure unless unless they think that they can move o'neill to left which i think next year is going to happen by the way you heard it here first i think this time next year brian O'Neill will be the starting left tackle. They will extend him and pay him left tackle money, kind of.

I think that's the majority of the reason why they're keeping him a right tackle, so they can pay him right tackle money and then be like, aha, surprise, you're going to play left tackle. And then he's going to be super pissed off and like nothing he can do about it. But I think that that's kind of as I'm envisioning this, is they want him to play left tackle. they want Ezra Cleveland to play left guard you have two young players on the left side of your line now Garrett Bradbury and then you kind of rebuild the right side with whatever you got to do with it right but I want him to stay in one spot the rest

of this year whether that be right guard left guard like stick him in there if you're gonna let him play let him play take let him play, take your lumps, take your issues. Like it's going to happen with the young player, but that pays dividends. I mean, let's face it. This year's pretty much a wash anyways. Like we're not, we're not winning the Superbowl of Minnesota. Sorry if you still believe that listening to this podcast, not going to happen. So now it's time to take your lumps,

understand what you have and start basically preparing a lot of these guys to step into an even larger role for 2021. Yeah, I agree. And that's the thing about that decision is, is his larger role going to be left tackle? And if they haven't seen him there from the very beginning when they draft him, that they think he's a guard right away, then he must be a guard in their mind. And of course that goes back to the draft value of taking a guard in the second round that couldn't help you right away in a year that you thought you were going to be good and not signing a veteran and all those things that we've

just gone round and round on. But if the future plan is to have Brian O'Neill at left tackle, Ezra Cleveland at left guard, and then Bradbury, and then go from there. I don't know. Maybe that's Rashad Hill ends up at right tackle. I know they really like his progress. That's not exciting to anyone, but I think that that's maybe the case that they like a lot that they've seen there. And then you have to draft somebody else because I think that this dream of drafting a quarterback that Vikings have, Vikings fans have, might not be super realistic. So you're probably looking at who are the offensive linemen who are coming out early in the draft to, you know,

put them in front of Kirk Cousins. I think that's going to be part of the plan. But if you're a top five pick, can you take a guard at top five? No. No, you're probably, if you can get your hands on the guy from Oregon, you're taking him. He ain't going to be there. He'll be gone number two. In my opinion, I think he's gone at number two if number two doesn't need a quarterback. If number two doesn't need Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields,

Pennelly, Pensoy, however you say his name, the left tackle. I'm not sure how to say his first name yet. I'm not either. He is incredible. He is incredible. I mean, I have to say his first name yet. I'm not either. He is incredible. I mean, I have watched a lot of college tape on guys this year. Leaps and bounds, the best offensive lineman in college football. And, I mean, they are 1-5. So if you're talking about being at the very top with, you know, at least two or three quarterbacks who are coming out who could be the top draft picks,

I mean, if you think about Washington absolutely is going to be there. They need a quarterback. Jacksonville needs a quarterback. You're going to see the Jets. I mean, they should be looking at a quarterback. If Sam Darnold hasn't done anything so far, how could you pass up Trevor Lawrence? So if you're talking about maybe the first two or three draft picks going there, the Vikings won't be far behind in three or four games. So I think that that might change the algorithm for how they decide what the line is going to look like in the future.

But at very least, what they could take away is that Ezra Cleveland did not look like the biggest train wreck of all time in his first game. And now we see how he progresses I wanted you to talk about one specific play because I think it's sort of it goes to the Kirk Cousins why didn't they do more to protect the guy they spent so much money on when he throws his third interception that's really the backbreaker for the game if you make it 17-7 like okay well that's atlanta they could blow any lead man um they blew a 28-3 lead in the super bowl like they could blow any lead so um the interception there is not really kirk's fault his arm gets hit but the fact that they you know show the mug look rush for with a stunt is about the simplest thing i mean it's just not super complicated. And you end up with three interior offensive

linemen huddling together like it's cold outside and there's a fire there. And then somehow Garrett Bradbury falls down. And it's just like, what happened there? And how is this still going on? So I'll try and get as technical as I can without actually, like, having a picture in front of you. So the way that it works is it's a my face protection as I'm watching. Again, I'm not in the huddle, but as I watch it, as I look at it, it's a trips right look. So there's three receivers to your right. You've got your one receiver to the left, offset back to the left. It looks like Kirk says, okay, we're going to go to the right.

We're sliding to the right. So in all reality, it's a four-man rush. And that's the part that you're just like man come on like they didn't bring the blitz and as much as I want to put this all on the front I gotta say my guy Mirabdula didn't do these guys any help so both guys bail out right both linebackers that were mugged in the eight gaps, they both bail out, and so they start running an inside game. They run a TT, tackle, tackle, stunt. And the guy over the left side, which is away from where Garrett Bradbury is sliding, which is very much game plan.

If you're going to game plan a stunt, you always look at the protection and go, hey, this is a mic-based protection. They're going to slide to the mic. So, hey, offside defensive tackle, you're going to pick the set. And first of all, because it was a double mug look, the left guard, Dakota Dozier, doesn't get on the three technique right away. He gets a little bit of depth because he's afraid of getting picked with a linebacker three technique stuck. So he does the exact right thing. He gets off the ball. I call it a double stop sign. He's got both hands out, kind of feeling for it. As soon as he sees the guy drop, then he gets on his three technique. Problem is, Amir Abdullah

has come to fill up in that A gap because he has that linebacker away from the slide. As Amir comes to fill that up, they run into each other at the exact same time. So Amir ends up hitting the defensive tackle, which then makes him fall into Garrett Bradbury, which then doesn't allow Dakota Dozier to get back off and get depth on the stun. And so you just see everyone kind of like falling away from their leverage back away and you just have a three technique running completely scot-free at Kirk Cousins.

And so the picture online is just horrible, right? Like I've seen it everyone's seen it but in all reality this is something that it looks like it's going to be picked up all right you see Garrett Bradbury he recognizes it he's getting his head back around to see the pit guy the problem is it just turns into a cluster in the middle there with Amir getting in there and it's in all reality it's a great game plan by them and again I think this is the last time we'll see this I think that the interior twist game really gave us problems this past game not surprising right rookie starting right tackle or right guard we're going to say okay how does he handle the speed the twist so I think we'll

see more of this because of how successful it actually was but man that picture is ugly yeah i the center sitting flat on his rear with his sort of hand up in the air i mean it's one of those like uh andrew kramer from the star tribune tweeted out and he pointed out that it's like one of those you know paintings from the i don't know like uh or something yeah Yeah. Right. And where you could just sort of point out a million different things, like what happened here, what's going on there. And sort of like the, the photo of the year for the interior offensive line and way too often on

this podcast, you've said they ran into each other. It's not supposed to be happening where, you know, Dakota Dozier is not blocking someone and Alexander Madison runs into the back of him. And just like, there was a lot of, this team is not very good and that's what happens. The pinnacle of it all is first and goal from the two and you come away with no points. Yeah. That, that cannot happen. I mean, you can't get one two yards just run it literally

twice boom boom touchdown I mean it should take once and it wasn't it wasn't again I went back and watched like okay did they scheme it up well no there was a hat for a hat on every play it just strictly was us getting beat up front physically and then the last play on the fourth and one, they run this kind of weird quasi fullback dive thing with Kyle Rudolph coming back across and love Kyle. Usually makes all these blocks, but it literally looks like he closes his eyes and kind of falls on his face. And the DN just completely smashes through there. And that's just kind of like, you're like, well, yep, 2020.

Like that's how this is going to go. But for me, that's when I knew the game was really, like, over, over. You got first and goal from the two, and you come away with no points. That's bad. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football. But instead of entering the NFL, they've joined another league, the League of Football Watchers.

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And this is the thing where you can see why Zimmer is at a loss. Because you make a decision that I think is the right one. You're down 10 points. Again, you're not a winning football team. You really need this one. You really need points. Your defense is bad. So can we run up the middle for a yard?

And the answer is no. No, you cannot. And for the second straight week, no, you cannot. And if you can't do that, the simplest thing that can be done in football, then what can you do? And that has been the issue pretty much from week to week here. And that's why I saw after the Seattle game, people sort of patting them on the back for losing by one point.

It's like, that was as good as you were ever going to play. And you still lost. That's not a moral victory. That's not good for you. That's not a good sign for the future. So give me your sort of opinion on what happens here. Because I think if they are really committing to being smart about this and where they're at and being realistic and living in reality here they make

those trades that we talked about and they get every young player on the field that they can and they struggle and it's going to be tough and we watch justin jefferson do crazy things each week which you got to be getting into the orange there i am all right i knew it flirting he's flirting with the orange i knew it you said no he won't get out of the blue in the first year of an nfl you have you have 200 yards back to back to back games it's hard for me to it's hard for me to argue especially with the crap that kirk's dealing with throwing up prayers yeah i mean he's he's flirting, he's flirting with the orange. He's good. He's good.

So what do you think happens here? I want to say you're right, but I think the problem is coaches are going to be scared to do that unless they get, like, assurances from top that's like, hey, we're not going to fire you. Like, we're in this for the long haul. And my agent told me from day one, like, hey, guess're not going to fire you. Like, we're in this for the long haul. And my agent told me from day one, like, hey, guess what? Everyone in the NFL is a liar. And so I think there's even a point where it's like if Zim talks to Spielman and Spielman talks to the owners and the Wilfs and they're like, you know what?

Here's our plan. Here's what happens. And we win two more games. We go 3-13. I mean, are they certain they're not going to fire Zim? Are they certain they're not going to fire Spielman? Because as much as the common fan and the common guy like ourselves look and say, here's what's the best for the future of the Vikings,

doesn't always mirror what's best for the future of Mike Zimmer, Rick Spielman and these families of these coaches. Right. I mean, so there's definitely conflicting interests unless you for sure have everyone on the same page. If I'm the Wilfs, I'm sitting there going, you know what? I think Zimmer's an excellent coach. I think he's the good guy for the right job. I think we can have this conversation,

have a hard conversation about what do we need to do. And I'm sure Zimmer's like, we need to do this, this, this. And I trust him and allow that to happen. And like we said, take the bumps, right? Be in it for the long haul. Don't look so short-sighted. Look four years down the road type of thing. And if that's the case, yeah, trade some guys, make some cap space,

pick up a good guy in the first round of the draft next year, have a good draft and start kind of, like you said, let's not be in this half rebuild, half kind of like, we're still really good type thing. Like start from scratch, man. Like start from scratch. You have enough talent around the people that you'll be able to build quickly, but you still have to just understand you have to build. Like it can't just be this quasi status quo.

Everything's fine. Like know you're bad. Acknowledge that you're bad and then move from there. And people want everyone fired and i get that when you go to one in five that is certainly a thing that comes up um but one of the other things that i would just say is before the season if you asked me i would have said don't make any rash decisions during the covid year because bleep is crazy right now. I mean, you don't have any home field advantage. You had players opt out.

There's a lot of things that have gone on here that if you just say, well, you failed, so you're fired because you didn't have a good year during the COVID year, you know, the circumstances are weird. I mean, I already wonder about with all these reschedulings and stuff, like how legit is this even as a season? I'm sure whoever wins the Superbowl won't have any questions about that. And it's fine. But you know, like from a reporter perspective, you wonder like, man, we're moving games to Tuesdays and all sorts of stuff.

No fans in the stands, you know, that has a major impact in football. And so if you're the Wilfs, they are very patient. And I think they have been. And I think you're the Wilfs, they are very patient. And I think they have been. And I think you don't want to panic. But at the same time, like you said, assurances mean nothing. The contract extensions mean nothing. We said it the day that Zimmer was signed with three-year extensions. Like this doesn't really mean anything. I mean, they could fire him tomorrow.

They've got the money. I promise you. Yeah. And that's the thing is like, it's so hard to, to for us to say it's so easy for us to say rebuild right but as a coach like you know that any day could be your last day I mean you look at the coaches that have already gotten fired this year like and then it doesn't take much right I mean you teeter on you teeter on but my opinion is who do you want to go get like unless you have the next guy like yes there's definitely a lot of people out there but if you think that you're gonna be able to rebuild with a new coach faster than you could rebuild with Zimmer then you should have fired him already and that's just my that's my one honest opinion like if you think there's a better

coach at running because the coaches tell the players all the time we're always looking to improve we're always looking to upgrade we're always looking to get better in each spot well i'm sure the owners say they think the same thing if they truly believe that there's a better coach out there to coach the minnesota vikings than mike zimmer and there's a better gm than rick spielman they'd go get that they wouldn't extend that so i'm a firm believer i think zim's a fantastic coach give him the time give him what he needs and allow him to build this team the way he's done and the way he did. I mean, he had a great team. We had really good teams when I was there.

Even in the 2018 years, it wasn't terrible. Like, allow him to do that again. And if they didn't think he was the man for the rebuild and didn't see a rebuild coming, like, that's the problem. Yes. If you didn't see this coming, then what you ever see the movie casino. Absolutely. Okay. So,

you know, when, um, when, uh, the guy, like, uh,

they hit a couple of times, somebody hits a couple of times. And Robert De Niro is talking about how the one guy's nephew is, is an idiot. And he's basically like, look, he's either in on it or too stupid to see it coming. And either way, I can't have him working for me.

And it's sort of like this. Like, if you didn't see it coming, then I don't know what you guys were thinking as an organization, that why you thought this would just, you know, snap your fingers and because we're us, we'll be good. Nobody is immune to this in the NFL. If you have a bunch of really good players leave or veterans and try to replace them with, you know, fourth round picks who you hoped for development. So I think that maybe the only reason that they would fire them is essentially because they weren't realistic in the first place. If you thought realistically about a rebuild,

you would have traded Zimmer to Dallas. Right, and I mean, we don't know the conversations that were had behind closed doors. We all know Zimmer doesn't talk to the media about this kind of stuff, but I mean, how realistic was Zimmer telling these guys, like, look, you're handing me chicken bleep and expect me to make chicken salad out of it, right? Right.

I mean, if he was up front, honestly, obviously he's never going to sell his team to the media like that because that's not what a good head coach does but a good head coach tells his bosses like this is going to be hard and this is not going to be good like i need you to understand this and if they do they do and if they didn't have that conversation like you did like what led you to believe that wasn't going to happen right i think uh from just putting together the pieces zimmer thought he could just coach it up like i'll just coach harder and uh there is a limit to that in the pros so jeremiah sirles tuesday morning left guard another very fun conversation um we will you know be watching the tape and figure it all out as we

go forward but the playoff dream is probably dead. So, RIP. I mean, bye week, too, is going to be a long bye week. Those practices are going to suck. And you can't even go to Bermuda or whatever. You just have to stay home and just watch Netflix. Just wear it. You just wear it.

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