Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings advance to 6-2 with win over Colts

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani break down the Vikings win over the Colts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to the post game show here on Purple Insider. Vikings beat the Indianapolis Colts. Matthew Collar along with Dane Mizutani late in the evening at US Bank Stadium. And Dane, I gotta make in my opening statements this very clear. The Vikings are 6-2. And they now go to play two of the worst football teams that you will ever see at the professional level in Jacksonville and in Tennessee. And this game keeps the hope alive of this team, making an argument for being a true contender in the NFC. And if you look around the NFC today, really only the Detroit lions are the one team that you could say, okay, they're out ahead of everybody else and they beat the Vikings by two points.

And every other team has its warts and has its troubles. And maybe throughout the next hour or so where we break down this game, we will talk about some warts and troubles that the Minnesota Vikings have. But at the end of the day, they are six and two and a legitimate contender still in the NFC and possibly in the race for a big trade or even little trades that could add to this team tonight keeps all of that stuff alive. And that is a very important place to begin. But what's weird about trying to break this game down, Dave, this was a whooping as long as I don't tell you anything about the turnovers. The Vikings almost doubled up the Colts in total yardage. They destroyed them in first downs. They had the ball for the entire night on defense. The Colts could not move

the ball against this Vikings defense. It was a tremendous bounce back game. They cause all sorts of problems for Joe Flacco. They did not give up anything in the running game to Jonathan Taylor, which had the potential to cause a lot of problems for this defense. And had they not thrown two silly interceptions and maybe if a forearm or under the forearm to the head of Sam Darnold had been called and a flag hadn't been brought back, we would have been talking about this as the most dominant performance, maybe of the entire year by the Vikings defense. It is only Dane, those pesky little interceptions that caused this game and that

fumble that probably should have been brought back for the second straight week. A strange refereeing decision was made and we just got the pool report from the referees. You'll never believe it. They didn't see anything. I am looking at this game much more as the Vikings totally dominated the Indianapolis Colts than I am. Wow, barely escaped with that one just because it was entirely those miscues that caused the game to be close.

How are you looking at it? I'm looking at it the same way. Let's rewind a little bit. So you talked about the Detroit Lions, the class of the NFC, no doubt about it. I would be shocked if anybody else but the Detroit Lions are the number one seed in the NFC. The Vikings lost to them by two points, and then four days later flew to the West Coast and lost to a Los Angeles Rams team coached by Kevin O'Connell's mentor, who knows him better than anyone, who just got back, Cooper Cup, Puka Nakua. And that's just a completely different team.

Without sounding like an apologist, they lost to the best team in the NFC. And then in a really, really tough circumstance, where a lot of teams in the league lose going west on short rest. They bounce back today with, like you said, hands down a dominant performance across the board, sans turnovers. We would be talking about the turnovers if they didn't win the game, and we will still talk about the turnovers.

But the fact that they turned the ball over two times, three times, one of them directly led to a touchdown for the Colts, and they still kind of won this game running away speaks to their dominance. And I think that is kind of what you can latch on to here is big picture. Like the Vikings took care of business today. It didn't look as pretty as it is. It could have. It could have been a blowout. They could have won this game by three scores. In the end, the Colts kick a field goal, but they win basically by two scores and they win running away. The game was dominant. And look, if a couple of things break the other way, if you don't get a big drive late, then we would be sitting here thinking, okay, like where,

where did it all go wrong this season? But they didn't because at the end of the day, they did take care of business in the way that a team was five and two heading into a game, home game, night game against a better team should take care of business. So now the Vikings are six and two, like you said, heading into two games that they should absolutely just demolish the Jaguars and Titans every Sunday. I guess technically counts in the NFL. So you have to go play. But if they don't win these next two games, but you walk out of the stadium at six and two, one of the best teams in the NFC still still and really stands a five day stretch here. You have been one of the best teams in the NFC all season.

So they, they, they gotta be feeling pretty good about themselves minus a couple pretty big issues that, that we'll, we'll drill down on pretty much the rest of them. I want to go through the things that we like first, and then the things that were frustrating about this game.

As far as the thing that I liked the most, it was actually Kevin O'Connell's game plan for the passing game. They came right out. They got the ball to Jordan Addison, which all week we said, you shouldn't be posting anything on social media that looks like you're begging for targets, but also get him the ball and Jordan Addison.

Hey, if you're going to put something out there on social media, you got to back it up. And he more than backed it up with a one-handed grab in the back of the end zone on a pretty unbelievable display of arm strength by Sam Darnold as he was running away and still was able to put enough juice on that football. And Sam Darnold in this game was when not turning the ball over, he was getting the ball out. I thought quicker to his playmakers. He was accurate, very accurate at times, incredibly accurate on some throws. He got it to Justin Jefferson a ton in this game,

including a throw down the sideline, which every week Darnold makes a throw or two that I go, I think that's his best throw of the year. I don't know if it was his best, but it was certainly one of his best that he hit right on the money to Justin Jefferson. He got the ball underneath to Josh Oliver. There were play calls from Kevin O'Connell that got people wide open. At the end of the game, they were able to use the running game and pound Aaron Jones. Cam Akers, what a game. I mean, if you're given, I don't know if O'Connell, who he gave the game balls out to, but I think Cam Akers is very deserving of one.

He came in toward the end of the game, slammed forward, ate some time off of the clock. And I also felt like Sam Darnold did a good job of dealing with a lot of the pressure. He did take a couple of sacks. He did have the strip sack, which again, I, you're going to be hard pressed to convince me that that wasn't him getting hit in the head. Uh, but that's what three times this year that he's been face master hitting the head and there has been no calls, uh, which I remember there was some stat about cam Newton years ago, I guess, sam darnold is cam newton now with the fact that they cannot get a 15 yard penalty uh they as preston points out they ran 71 plays that is a huge win for the vikings over 400 yards when they

were on the field and not turning it over they were as efficient and excellent against a team that has talent on the defensive side. You certainly saw it from Grover Stewart, who's a great player, from DeForest Buckner. But the Vikings knew that the Colts could not cover their wide receivers, and they used them, and they pushed the ball to them. They made sure that Hawkinson got the ball.

They spread it around a little bit. There was one nice play by Brandon Powell, and that was more of what we were sold on with why Sam Darnold would be good in this offense is that he can just play point guard. He can distribute the ball around. And I thought there was more point guarding today from Sam Darnold than he's done in quite a while, save for a couple of interceptions on balls he definitely should not have thrown. So he kind of have to go back and forth because 90% of Sam Darnold's plays were getting the ball out, getting it to receivers, moving it around from Addison to Jefferson to Hawkinson to Oliver. And the offense was as consistent and on the field. At one point they were up 23 to nine on first downs. I don't know what they finished, but they just crushed the Colts by staying on the field, wearing them down. And eventually it results in them scoring enough points to win the game. That's the, that to me is the a one or a, a maybe 1A, 1B story offense and defense that, for the most part,

O'Connell's changes to the offense. They had no delay at games. They had no false starts. They did waste one penalty. But aside from that, I thought it was an overall well-called, well-executed game that should have resulted in more points than it did. If you do that all the time, you're probably going to have some pretty good results. Yeah. And I think when you kind of

just break down drive by drive, just look at the first drive of the game. We talked all week about what was this dialed up, dialed down offense going to look like. That's the term Justin Jefferson used this week to talk about the offense. Kevin O'Connell dialed it down for us. Basically means simplified. Basically means not all the play calls had to be a million words long with a can in the middle and speeding up Sam Darnold the line. I think they really did simplify it, and you saw that on the first drive of the game. It was quick throws, a quick throw to Addison here,

getting Hawkinson involved, Josh Oliver underneath. All of that. And this goes back to what we've basically been talking about all show so far is it looked great. Playing point guard and one throw from that possession resulted in the turnover. No points. But if you just break down each drive, like for the most part, it was exactly what they said they were going to do this week, which was get the ball in the hand of their playmakers and kind of let the players decide the outcome. drive like for the most part it was exactly what they said they were going to do this week which was get the ball in the hand of their playmakers um and kind of let the players decide the outcome

i think a lot of times in o'connell's offense he does pride himself and he should because he the way he schemes up people is very very impressive but i think he does pride himself on look at this play i can put together look how how open Justin Jefferson is 25 yards down the field. And I think what we saw today for at least prolonged stretches is that Justin Jefferson's really good. He can win it in close quarters. He doesn't always have to be that 25 yard dagger down the field. Same with Jordan Addison,

Hawkinson back in the offense allows you to kind of play with that fast break style that he talked about this week. Josh Oliver, Brandon Powell, you mentioned all those guys. The offense did look exactly like they said it was going to look. And to your point earlier, it feels repeatable. It feels like they could just keep doing this. I mean, it doesn't mean don't push the ball downfield. They had a 41-yard pass up the sideline on Jefferson.

Three times on one drive, it was like a 41-yard pass up the sideline on Jefferson. Three times on one drive, it was like a 22-yard pickup over the middle. Those standard dagger crosser routes that O'Connell loves to call. You can do both, but getting Sam Darnold into a rhythm is important. Getting all the playmakers the ball and touches early is important. I think you saw that today out of the Vikings, which is a good sign moving forward. You have to take care of business the next two weeks, but then the schedule gets hard. And you want to kind of be coming into your own at that point

with this slightly new look, revamped version of an already very, very good offense. And I should throw in there in terms of things that went right for them, TJ Hawkinson caught everything that was thrown his way. He looked good. He looked explosive running his routes. He looked like he knew where he was supposed to go and was reading defenses. And he said that after the game, he told me that Indianapolis played a lot of zones that he had to read and get

an understanding of and then find his spots. And he did that really well. And also Cam Robinson, it's difficult to evaluate an offensive lineman right after a game, especially when I didn't feel like the offensive line had a great night overall, but Cam Robinson coming in on a Wednesday to Thursday practicing for the first time and then playing, I know left tackle may not be the most complex position with X's and O's, and it's a little more man versus man. And he had seen Indianapolis before,

but I do think that it was a remarkable performance for someone to arrive at a new team and be able to do what Cam Robinson did tonight. I didn't see too much pressure coming off of the edge. And it shows you that if he can play like that and there were a couple run plays where he got good push he's not always known for the run blocking but if he can continue to do that then they can survive missing Christian Derrissaw it's not the same but they survived it for tonight and that's what they need for the future so that trade couldn't end up paying huge dividends on the defensive side. I am not really sure, Dane, how much it was the Vikings and how much it was Joe Flacco is just washed. Now, he had had one good game earlier this year. They benched him for a reason, benched Anthony Richardson for a reason to play Joe Flacco.

But he didn't look very comfortable. He was very inaccurate. And there were several times where if he just completes a pass to an open guy, or he even finds a running back out of the backfield that maybe we're talking about a little bit of a different game at the same time, they rushed him. Well, he was under pressure a lot. Dallas Turner had a nice free rush at him that he looked terrified and wanted no peace of. And the biggest thing for me was the defense playing extremely well against Jonathan Taylor,

because I think that if they had struggled against the run, that things would have been a lot easier for Joe Flacco. But instead, he was dropping back to pass over and over and over. And I'm just going to throw something out there real quick. It's not that relevant to Vikings fans, but I think if you're a Colts fan after this game, you got to be asking, what is this? Why would you not take out Joe Flacco and try Anthony Richardson at the end of that game? Because he looks so lost. I mean, that's gotta be one of the most frustrating teams to cheer for, but that's not your problem. But when it comes to Flacco,

he looked uncomfortable for pretty much the entire night, but I really thought that that was a lot caused by the Vikings and it was a lot caused by them stopping Jonathan Taylor. The last two weeks, they struggled against the run. They figured it out tonight. They survived not having Blake Cashman tonight and just did a great job on defense. You could not ask for anything more. Interceptions, fumble recoveries, pressure, tackles, pass breakups at big time. I mean, this was as good of a defensive performance as they've had all year. Complete, too.

Top to bottom. I mean, they end up with 13 points, but one is completely bogus at the end of the game, and the other is a fumble return for a touchdown. I mean, this end up with 13 points, but one is completely bogus at the end of the game. And the other is a fumble return for a touchdown. I mean, this was almost as good. It reminded me actually of the game last year against the Raiders where they just totally shut them out and they did absolutely nothing. Yeah. And I'm glad you brought that up because the Colts scored a touchdown today, but the offense of the Vikings allowed it.

The defense did not allow a touchdown. I don't think the Colts had a play in the red zone. Jonathan Taylor was the one player in this game that I thought could break it for the Vikings. If he got rolling early, everything opens up. You see those deep crossers over the middle of the field where teams in the past, the Lions, the Rams have been able to kind of feather the ball behind the linebacker in front of the safety. I think all of that really opens up if Jonathan Taylor gets rolling early. He didn't, and he's a really good player, and it's a pretty good offensive line,

and I was expecting them to kind of take it to the Vikings. The defensive line gets a ton of credit. The front seven gets a ton of credit for stopping that part of the game for the Colts that I thought could have opened everything else up for them. I thought it was just the, you know, like when you look at the first five weeks and how good they looked, and then you look at the two weeks against the lions and the Rams and the,

the, the instant reaction was to overreact and say, this defense is washed. And I think we were part of that. I think we gave Fs across the board on defense last week against the Rams. But it is important to know, like, this defense, I think it's clear today, it's going to be able to do whatever they want against teams that are far inferior to them. And look, that might not seem like much.

It might seem like, well, obviously a good team should be able to beat a bad team, but we've seen this in the past where bad quarterbacks come in and just slice and dice the Vikings into oblivion. Mike White threw for like 400 yards against them. That is not possible with this defense. Now, like if you play a Jared golf and a really good offensive line and a really good group of skilled players for the Lions, I think they could probably find a way to make it work. If you play a guy like Stafford, who at any given moment can be the best quarterback in the league that week, I think they can figure out ways to make it work. But this defense has enough playmakers across the board brian flores has enough scheme and in different ways to attack an offense that if it's a team like the colts that doesn't really have a lot going for them or if you can

take one thing away this defense showed today that that it can be a dominant force again and i think that was probably a refreshing thing certainly for vikings fans but probably for themselves too to know like okay it can still look like this because i think at times standing in that locker room at sofi stadium last last week um if you just kind of looked on the faces i think they were exacerbated enough to be like uh are we gonna be able to fix this shag griffin said it's a copycat league people are going to keep doing this until we can stop it um i think they showed today like they're still very very good it was an incredible performance from that side of the ball it was and a big part of this is that they had

enough time after the thursday night game to go back and reevaluate everything and what i wanted to see tonight was okay they've talked all week to us because we're asking these questions all right what are you going to do about this what are you going to do about this? What are you going to do about that? What's going wrong this way? And we had a lot of press conferences to ask everybody what they did wrong those last two weeks. But we actually came away with a good set of answers and appreciate the team answering the questions. But we came away with a good set of answers, I thought. And then the real question was, are they going to implement all those

things that they talked about having been the blueprint? Well, how are you going to fix them? And starting with stopping the run, that was a big part of it. But another part too, that I noticed a lot of tonight was rotating players. And we discussed this at length last week that there were just too many guys who were getting worn down that needed to be rotating in and out. Dallas Turner needed to be on the field and had a few very nice plays in this game, but he needed to be on the field. You can't just ask Andrew Van Ginkle to play every play out there. And I did wonder at times if something was wrong with Van Ginkle. Maybe there was, but I like the idea of rotating more guys in. There was at one point where Stefan Gilmore

wasn't on the field and it was Shaq Griffin who was out there and mixing and matching more. There were some line changes that we saw where a bunch of guys are coming off. A bunch of guys are going on. They had mostly played the same guys the whole way, which is actually different from what they did last year, where there was a lot more rotating for different players. So I thought tonight that was a very good way to approach it. And I'd like to see that going forward if they're going to keep guys fresh. And it just has to be a trust issue where Flores has to believe that every drive can't just be Stefan Gilmore out there the entire time or every drive doesn't have to be Jonathan Grenard Andrew Van Ginkle they can throw in Dallas Turner to rush the passer from time to time or take on

that Van Ginkle role which I think is part of the reason that Turner hasn't gotten as many snaps is that Grenard never leaves the field. So he always has to take Van Ginkle's role, which is complicated. And you saw Turner have to drop back in coverage sometimes and read route combinations and things like that. But you want to see more and more of Dallas Turner on the field like he was today.

And after the game, he seemed kind of like, yeah, like I'm like, I felt like I got this, you know, I think it's been hard for Dallas Turner to be patient the way, he seemed kind of like, yeah, like I'm like, I felt like I got this. You know, I think it's been hard for Dallas Turner to be patient the way that he has been. And maybe this does help improve their overall confidence, but they need to rotate people. They need to have guys coming in and out, use different personnel groupings on this defense.

And they did that tonight and it worked really, really well. So let's go to the other side of the coin, the things that we did not love from tonight's game. And we have to start with Sam Darnold's turnovers. All of them, all of them are preventable. All of them are really bad. And my thing with Sam Darnold, I think now that we've seen this enough is he's going to have glitches.

They're just glitches. You guys are watching a live stream right now. Sometimes the internet will just glitch on us and we'll go. And like, that's hopefully not tonight, but that's what happens with Sam Darnold is it seems to, there's the Darnold glitch. He's rolling to his left and he did the same thing against green Bay and got

away with it. And he flips his hips and he throws it. And if it's, if he makes the catch, against green bay and got away with it and he flips his hips and he throws it and if it's if he makes the catch it's going to be great nope there's a linebacker over there when you just can't give away the football right there and then you're up by seven points i know he had jordan addison wide open even put that aside forcing the ball where he did on that play. Just another inexcusable, bizarre thing we've seen Sam Darnold do the sacks, even the one where he fumbles, you have to protect the football there. You can't fumble the ball and hope that the referees bail you out. I don't know that there is any escaping this. And I saw, I shot you 99

with the super chat earlier, ask about dirting balls, which thank you for that. But it does seem like too many of those screens are getting blown up. And once again, with Kevin O'Connell, we run into, well, there was a receiver open when I tried to be super aggressive at a point where I didn't have to be in a big mistake happen. There's gotta be enough times where Sam Darnold makes a mistake being overly aggressive when you're ahead in a game where you kind of stop doing that. Uh, going for the throat always sounds great until the guy throws an interception and opens the door back up for the Indianapolis Colts with the play calling. I would give high marks and we'll grade everybody in a minute. I would give high marks to

O'Connell for this game plan overall, very high marks, but there are just times where you go. He just had to third and three. He just had to put it in Darnold's hands late in the game. They gave it to Aaron Jones on a third and short. He plowed forward for a first down. Hey, you're allowed to do that. Remember you got cam acres acres now the guy's running like a bat out of hell tonight you can do that uh instead there were times where i thought that he trusted darnold too much which has been a trend for this season that doesn't look like it's going anywhere so your breakdown of the the downside of the vikings offense tonight it just it goes back to the turnovers and we can harp on that all day and

we will and i'm sure we'll get even more into that in the grades but you just look at this game as a whole and like you you almost want to shake the the box score when you're reading it because it feels like it should have been a blowout and it wasn't because of the turnovers it wasn't because of sam darnold what i will say about all the bad that comes with arnold it's pretty inescapable i think at this point but his ability to bounce back is still pretty impressive he is a guy who will screw up make the worst mistake you'll see and come back the next drive and still rip it down the field that is something i i don't know of a lot of quarterbacks at that level of quarterback play where sam darnold kind

of sits in the tears i don't know if they have that short memory um i know for a fact the guy who used to play quarterback here did not have that short memory um bad plays would turn into bad quarters which would turn into bad games. For Sam Darnold, for all the bad that comes with him playing the quarterback position, his ability to shake it off has been very, very impressive this year. That being said, you cannot do the things he did today against the good teams. You're not going to be able to get bailed out by the defense against the good teams. You make three really, really boneheaded mistakes against the good teams. That game will be out of hand before you know it. So I guess it's good to learn these lessons in a win,

in a game where you get to walk out of the stadium feeling really good about yourself still. I guess it's good to learn these lessons during a game where you did complete like 28 of 34 passes i think it was maybe it's 26 or 34 he looked good for long stretches but the only reason we're not talking all about the turnovers and all about his at times terrible quarterback play is because at the end of the day the vikings managed to collectively walk away with the win um but there are some red flags there uh and i i don't know if like they're going to be avoidable moving forward you're just going to have to at times kind of stomach them and move forward um and i think there are maybe things that that can be coached out of sam darnold still moving forward over these last nine weeks.

And then on the other side of that coin, he might just be who he is at this point in his career in terms of the mistakes he's going to make. Because I do think he has shown ascension this year. He is who he is at this point in his career because I think this is as good as he's ever played. But he might be who he is as far as some of the the plays you're just going to have to stomach with him playing hold on let me silence my phone real quick so I can tell you that us days are back at us cellular

again exclusive offers just for customers just to say thanks right now you'll get $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? Yeah, but my family is so excited about their new devices that they keep texting me during the show. They're all about Us Day's deals like $1,200 off any phone and plus $400 off any tablet. Terms apply. Visit uscellular.com for details that's kind of what i think so too is that sam darnold will just have unexplainable moments that there's no way you can coach around entirely i just think that there are times where kevin

o'connell could sort of sense the, should I really take this risk with Sam Darnold of trying to take a deep shot here to end the game when my defense is completely dominating? And if we just continue on the same path, that was my thing is that it felt like they deviated from the path to try to take a deep shot when he threw one of the interceptions. The third and three pick is entirely on Sam Darnold. That's not coaching at all. Although just once run on third down and short and get it. I mean, you're allowed to do that. You have the running back to do that. Aaron Jones seems to always get positive yardage, but in that specific point, it reminded me of when

they were up on the San Francisco 49ers and they throw and there's an interception when even if you just get a field goal there, the game's pretty much over. And then the same thing happened in Green Bay, where if you just kick a field goal there, you're good. And if you have a long drive that is underneath the Hockinson, you now have this cheat code underneath the Hockinson, which works and works and works and works. But I mean, when you look at the end of the day, the throws that didn't go to the other team were accurate. They were on time. Some of them were miraculous because he has such great arm talent and it is extremely hard to sit here and go, well, he should just never turn the ball over. But man, when he makes those great throws, it's unbelievable. So overall, we'll talk about what you would grade him because I think

it's a difficult evaluation for this evening. You do have to strap into the roller coaster because there are going to be these times where he makes these mistakes. And I think that's just fundamental to who he is, but also he's going to make some plays that really wow you. A couple of quick notes before we get into kind of grading each position. Number one, you guys wanted to hear me say it. Congratulations to Kevin O'Connell on a successful trick play. Well done, sir. I was a doubter, a hater, you might say, of trick trick plays and most of them have gone awry for kevin o'connell during his career but uh justin jefferson delivered a great pass to aaron jones it was a well executed play it got a first down it worked well done well done sir high marks for your one trick play

don't do it again uh and uh will reichert seemed to get injured or had been injured coming into the game. There was something with his thigh. I'm not sure what happened, how he got hurt, but it clearly impacted a few of his kicks. And it appeared to need to kind of be a gutty performance from him to grind through that. But that is 100% something to watch into the future. We knew something had to be wrong if Will Reichard was actually missing kicks. So we'll see what happens as far as his health going forward. So we just talked a lot about Sam Darnold. We'll begin going through each position and coaching with our A through F grades. What do you think Sam Darnold deserves as an overall grade, Dan?

This one is tough because there's like two Sam Darnolds that exist in this one prism. It's like Jekyll and Hyde of Sam Darnold. But if you have to like weight those two against each other and come up with just one grade,

I still think he chalks in at a a b like he he was really good when he was really good did i he was just really bad also at times um but why i would land at a b is because of what i just said where like all his errors aside like when the vikings needed him to be good, he was. Look, should they have been down by more coming out or coming out of the locker room at halftime? Perhaps they didn't play good on offense. They were dominant on defense. So like there was a world in which you're trailing by more than a touchdown coming out of the locker room at halftime.

But you weren't. You've just down one. You weren't down five touchdowns like they were the last time the Vikings and the Colts played here. You weren't down 33-0. You were down 7-0. And all you needed coming out of the locker room was a touchdown. They immediately get that. They score, they force a punt, and they score again. And on those two scoring drives that flipped the game on its head, Sam Darnold was really, really good.

I could pick a bunch of plays from those two drives in particular, whether it's the arm strength throw back of the corner, falling away to Jordan Addison for the touchdown, the dime he drops to Justin Jefferson on the right sideline, the throw to Naylor even for the second touchdown. He hangs in, he gets walloped at the end there and he celebrates from his back um because he really had to hang in to make that throw like all those things matter the last throw of the game for him um you know if it didn't work out i'm sure you would have said run the ball um but they go play action and he drops a perfect little arc pass over to Josh Oliver for the dagger.

And that's the game. Like, when he needed to be good, he was. But the only reason this game was close was because of him, too. So that brings him down. Look, if he didn't turn the ball over, A-plus might be his best game of the year. He did. He turned the ball over twice with his arm by just throwing it to the other team. And he gave the other team seven points.

You can kind of miss me with that turnover, I guess, because I think if you throw the flag at the time, you probably shouldn't pick it up. The pool report after the game said the referee said we were looking for a face mask. We did not see a face mask. So we picked up that. Apparently, if you don't grab a guy's face mask, you can just punch him in the head um news to me but overall sam darnold like for all he was today for all the warts that that he showed they don't win the game without him so he gets a b from me technically it was a wwe move where he used the inside of his forearm to club it was more of a clubbing really of sam darnold's's head than it was a face mask.

But, you know, hey, they're getting closer each week. So when a guy brings a chainsaw on the field and cuts his head off his body, maybe that flag will count. I thought with Sam Darnold that if you gave me just don't include the turnovers, it is an A plus this guy played great. Uh, the play action at the end, I actually didn't dislike that. Not because it worked, but just because it was a safe play. It's a little rollout and you're dumping it off to somebody sneaking underneath the two minute warning too. So you don't lose clock. Yeah.

And they had been running so well that you knew they were going to sell out to try to stop the run. That was a good play. He executed a lot of stuff. He got the ball to Jefferson. He got the ball to Addison. Nobody's going to Instagram nothing after this game because they all got the football from Sam Darnold. But if you're doing an overall grade, it's kind of like my tests in high school. The couple of answers that were wrong were very wrong. And so it is going to bring down your grade i don't know that you could do worse than a b because if they make the two field goals that they had it would have been a different game that who would have known the kicker was hurt uh so that's another part of it too um the turnovers do happen that the sacks though you know they get in position

with those couple of cam acres big runs and then they blow a screen pass, which is funny because you look at Darnold's incompletions, a couple of them are just bad screens, and then interceptions, and those are his only incompletions. It's the hardest grade we've had to give this year, but I think if you can land somewhere in the middle and probably a B, I can't go B+, because he almost gave the game away with the interception late, but B minus maybe is deserved here. But once again, Darnold walks out with a pretty tremendous stat line

overall, and the man is completing passes. This is why completion percentage is really a coaching stat and a weapons stat a lot of times for quarterbacks these days because Darnold had a 59 completion percentage coming into this year and he's way up there in the 70s despite pushing the ball down the field so a really roller coaster game from him but good enough to win and good enough to be six and two with Sam Darnold as your quarterback now when we go one thing one more thing he's got to get the the reverse pivot spin away out of his game. Maybe you can't coach that out of him. Maybe that's just so ingrained into who he is right now.

But taking a four or five-yard sack and turning it into a 13-yard sack because you have been so prone to just reversing out of it. Enough. We don't need to do that anymore. Continue. Yeah, that's something that, again, I don't need to do that anymore uh continue yeah that's something that i again i don't think you can change probably no i don't think you can change when he gets a little bit i'm gonna make a great play that he's gonna do something wild or that he will try to keep with one read and push it into that read or sometimes take a sack sometimes sometimes get intercepted. I think it's just a

thing that's going to happen on a weekly basis and he needs to be good enough on the other side to make up for it as he was tonight. As far as running backs go, I want to give a B plus to the running backs. I just can't say enough how good Cam Akers was tonight. He could be trusted. He can be an RB to lock it in, give Aaron Jones a break, slam him forward at 110 miles an hour, but also he can pass protect if you need him to. This is why you traded for him. He's a good football player and Aaron Jones grinded it out. He battled tonight, his yards per carry. What? It wasn't good. It wasn't, it wasn't good. And yet I still felt like Aaron Jones was kind of churning and he wasn't, he didn't have too many explosive runs one for 13 yards. It was more of a passing game for them. And he wasn't a big part of their

passing game overall. So you can't give them an a, but as a running team, 133 yards on 32 carries, you can't complain with that. And none of them were more than 13 yards. That's that is grinding and pushing forward with the running game that I thought was a good job and really helped Darnold play off of that. So I'm going to go B plus. Yeah, no objections for me. Like I think like Cam Akers to me was the star of the running game. And it sounds weird to say he was a star because he only had six carries. He did six carries for 46 yards. And you probably should have just kept giving him the ball on that one drive where he just had chunk yard after chunk yard after chunk.

And then they play action. That doesn't work. It goes back to sometimes it's okay to just lean on what's what's working but cam acres was good tonight and i think like with aaron jones like you were talking about like the last drive of the game is them basically just lining up and saying tackle aaron jones we're gonna let him try and get the first down um and he did three times um in important situations bled the clock and then aaron jones is the direct reason why Josh Oliver was so open in the end zone there for that dagger touchdown.

So yeah, the yards per carry, we're used to it looking like 5.7 for Aaron Jones. It wasn't that today. And I still think he had a pretty good game because he showed he can be that guy to carry the heavy workload if you need him to. But it was a nice thing to see like cam makers like they should lean on him more now like i'm not saying 50 50 split because you're gonna want to see more aaron jones because of how dynamic he can be but i think you saw tonight like it it's okay you you can give the ball to cam acres you can give him full drives um you can keep aaron' touches down. Another 24 touches from him tonight.

We need to get those down because they're going to need Aaron Jones moving forward. But overall, the running backs were good. I think that part of my grade is that the bigger picture is you could use Cam Akers more. And coming out of the game with that information is valuable. Wide receivers and tight ends hey like hey like justin jefferson seven for 137 i don't know why anyone would ever single covered justin jefferson on the sideline kevin o'connell was asked about that after the game and he said like i have to like contain my excitement on the sideline when we break the huddle and I can notice, oh yeah, JJ's in single coverage. Just don't do it. Bracket him over the top. Don't do it. I don't even know who the Colts tried to do it with tonight, but it was not someone that you should try to do that with um it went for 41 um and that was obviously a big play for the vikings um jordan

addison you mentioned it right off the top like if you're going to complain about targets or not complain because he said he uses that phrase all the time um but it's a pretty convenient way to to ask for more targets if you're going to do that you need to respond he did five for 42 it could have looked bigger um because i think darnold missed him on a couple still but the catch in the back of the end zone from jordan addison was crazy like go back and watch that um it doesn't look like he's going to get to the ball it looks like he's overthrown and then he just kind of dives um then he sticks his left hand out and then he like he said he said after the game shout out to my left hand yeah i guess um he said stuck to his left hand but like then to have like the presence

of mind to like be able to pull that in while keeping your feet it was great it was a crazy good catch um so i think you saw what it can look like with jefferson and addison dominating hawkinson i gotta go back and look at all the snap counts. I don't know how many he played, but three for 27. Like, I think you're going to see more of him moving forward, even more. But just to have him out there today, he had one big catch over the middle for 19 that we can keep going. Like Josh Oliver had five catches for 58 and then the dagger touchdown. It was just across the board for the pass catchers. A very,

very good day which makes sense because if sam darnold doesn't throw the interceptions we give him an a plus oh well who is he throwing to to get that a plus if without the turnovers all of the receivers that had a very very good day yeah i mean i might go as far as a plus yeah there were there were a lot of great catches uh none of the turnovers were their fault, as far as I can tell. And the fact that I'm looking over at the box score on your phone here, and there's just a lot of names. I mean, they work the ball around just about everybody. And the only downside is Johnny Munt dropped a touchdown, but it would have been a really hard

throw getting Josh Oliver involved. That's's a sign of we just have too many people for you to handle so this man is the guy that you have to leave wide open because they're doing that level stuff where they're sending guys deep and they're just leaving that underneath ball there for josh oliver to make plays and jordan addison's catch it's going to get overshadowed by about four other catches this week that were one handers but that belongs on the highlight reel and if you're going to go to instagram and you're going to put something out there saying hey i gotta get the ball more or at least insinuating that with your instagram you got to make a catch like that to back it up and he absolutely did that tonight there were more opportunities for him to make some catches that's always going to be the case during a game that

other receivers will be open at times and the quarterback's not always going to see him. That's life playing football. But when the ball went his way, did a great job. And I think it was about half the snaps that Hockinson played. So he can still ramp up. He can still be more open. And when you dream it all up and you say to yourself, how can we make Sam Darnold, this quarterback that at one point was a really struggling young player and take him and make him into the best version of himself? The easiest way to do that is put a lot of people around him that can make plays. It felt like that tonight. It felt like there were just too many Vikings weapons for the Indianapolis Colts to be able to handle. So, A, for sure.

Offensive line, I'm going to give a C. Do I want to go minus? I did feel like the pocket was collapsing a lot. A C minus alone for just Garrett Bradbury on the play that was the strip. I don't know that I've ever seen someone collapse that quickly that wasn't us. I'm trying to go up against a NFL defensive tackle, that was a throwback to Garrett Bradbury rookie year, where it just felt like every time he faced Akeem Hicks or Kenny Clark, he got steamrolled. Grover Stewart's a great player. So is DeForest

Buckner. That's what's going to happen to this Vikings team when they face guys like that. That wasn't so good. I didn't think that they were consistently dominating in terms of the run game, but they did enough C minus because they did enough. They survived playing a left tackle who just got here and they were able to give Darnold enough time to complete a lot of passes. So maybe they deserve even a little more credit than that. It's just that the one big mistake was so bad that it cost you a touchdown and we can complain about the refs all day. But the reason he got strip sacked was because the center got run flat over. And I did feel like Darnold was under pressure. There was a huge sack when they had started getting rolling and they could have brought

the game to an end at that point. And that was another, it was a quick sack. And that seems to be happening a lot. So I will, I'll amend because they got the job done at the end with the running game. I will amend to a C for the offensive line. I think it's going to have to be a little better than a C going forward on a weekend and week out basis. But luckily for them, it's a couple of teams that don't rush the passer too well in the next few weeks. Yeah, C's fine. I think the Garrett Bradbury play will be shown on highlight clips. I would be curious how the offensive line this week watches film. They won, so you can laugh about it, I guess.

But do the other offensive linemen clown him for that play when they're going back and watching it happen? I'm very curious. What is the push-pull of that relationship uh because the the low light of low lights i mean you're right we could have gotten beat in the same amount of time that gare bradbury got beat on that specific play um but even the fourth they gave a four sacks some of those like i don't know like the the dar darnell feels like he contributes to some of the sacks so i'd have to go back and watch like every sack and see how it actually

broke down it does feel like he works himself into sacks sometimes um ed ingram didn't egregiously stand out tonight so like maybe that's good um but he i i gotta imagine he probably didn't grade out very well. He never does. The only reason I would, I mean, I'm not going above a C, but I think it is worth noting and crediting like Cam Robinson coming in on

like 72 hours notice and playing. He's played 90 games in the NFL. So like, I was going to be pretty surprised if he didn't play tonight. And at the end of the day, like I know their scheme upfront and you've got to know like the plays, but oftentimes as a left tackle, you're on an Island and it's just the block, the good guy in front of you.

And he can do that. And he, again, we'll watch it back. He didn't have any egregious errors. He had a holding penalty that I don't, I don't know if it was or wasn't. And I think a stunt got him at the end,

but he got a little piece of the guy. So she's fine with me. They're going to need to be better moving forward though. And, and I think there, there is like more meat on the bone to be better. Like Cam Robinson, I think more time in this offense is going to,

going to improve. I think Dalton risers time is coming, but maybe it's not. I thought it was this week. I don't, you know, maybe they're just going to keep. I think Dalton Riser's time is coming, but maybe it's not. I thought it was this week. I don't, you know, maybe they're just going to keep riding that Ingram. It's overall average, which is what a C is. So I think you got it right. Okay.

So defensive line, I'm going to have a tough time downgrading anybody really on the defensive side here. But there is a, let's layer into the grades for the defensive side, the possibilities of traits and have that discussion interspersed here. Because I think that the defensive line did a very good job tonight. But I also think that if Calais Campbell becomes available, which the Dolphins lost or someone like that, Adam Butler is a big old beast from the Las Vegas Raiders. They lost as well. Some teams that could be big sellers did not do all that great today, which could influence them more. If you look at, I think there's nine teams with two wins or fewer. So a lot of teams to potentially choose from the defensive line deserves all their credit for tonight. And I still think that that is a main position that they could add to if the

opportunity arises. So what, what did you grade them for tonight? And do you agree with a potential trade for the defensive line? I'm going to give them an a, because I'm just going to give the whole defense an a they, I think the Colts had like per epa like the worst performance they've had all year which makes sense they didn't go to the red zone at all they couldn't run the ball the colts inability to run the ball or jonathan taylor's ineffectiveness tonight is directly related to the the standard that the defensive line set from the beginning. So, yeah, these guys who have sometimes flown under the radar, Harrison Phillips, Jonathan Bullard, Jerry Tillery,

they've at times this year really stepped up and shown it. They've at times been kind of manhandled over the last two weeks, I guess, against the Lions and the Rams. But I think, to your point, it's okay to add another. Even if they were good tonight, it's okay to add another player in there. That goes back to the rotation that you were talking about earlier with, hey, it was nice to see Dallas Turner in there because he was healthy, he was fresh. Pat Jones had a little more jump because he didn't play 60 snaps tonight.

That exists in the interior too. If Harrison Phillips or Jonathan Bullard or Jerry Tillery or Jihad Ward, who is listed as an outside linebacker, but basically plays nose, if those guys get more time on the sideline every so often because you've traded for a Clayus Campbell, it doesn't mean you trade for clay as campbell jonathan bullard is benched that's not how it's going to work especially with brian flores so like i'll give him an a and i still think that there is a need and then you should like want to go out and

get another player to add in that trenches just because it's going to make everyone else better like it's obviously a weakness from like a large big pictures perspective it was not a weakness tonight nothing was on defense they were great um but i think they can they would be benefited by another kind of beast in the middle um everyone wants dexter lawrence it's not going to be dexter lawrence uh but if it's anybody with with the ability to penetrate and generate some pressure, I think that's going to help them. But overall, I'd give them an A tonight.

You got the stat pad at the end, too. I don't think they had any sacks until the last drive, and then Jonathan Grenard had two, Jihad Ward had one. But they were pressuring, even if they weren't getting the sacks tonight, and they were stopping the run. And that adds up to a really good performance overall for the defense and an A in my book. My one critique is just that I thought there were too many snaps where Joe Flacco sat back there and sat back there and

they just didn't get pressure. And then he made a bad throw and we kind of go, oh, well, good job defense. But if it's not Joe Flacco, and by the way, it won't be anybody better for a while. I'm not convinced Caleb Williams is going to be better than that against this defense. I honestly am not sure schedule wise when the next time they're going to face a better quarterback than this because Lawrence is struggling. Rudolph's not good. Williams isn't all that great. a ways down the road but it would be beneficial to have one more person that can just beat his guy one-on-one there still is a lot of Jonathan Bullard out there and I know people were excited that Levi Drake Rodriguez was uh active for the

game but didn't see any of him and we probably won't for this season so there needs to be someone there I think there could be another cornerback as well. The corners played well. They picked off passes. They knocked passes down in big moments. Harrison Smith thought had one of his best games that we have seen in a while tonight where he was more of an impact player. I think more of the rotation for the secondary. They are healthy there. That doesn't guarantee you'll be healthy for the entire season. So another addition there, um, overall, very, very few critiques though. The defensive line shutting down the run was really the biggest element that put Joel Flacco in tough spots. Uh, as far as the coaching for tonight goes, the adjustments to me get high grades. Um, I don't think that the play calling will ever walk out of a game and say every play call was perfect.

There are a few times you sit in front of me in the press box where I may have used some colorful language to describe some Kevin O'Connell screen decisions and the aggressive throw down the field that got intercepted when they probably just need to continue doing what they were doing with the short passing game. At the same time, look at the numbers that they put up, how often they had the football. The goal was to dominate the ball and be on the field for way more snaps. I wrote about it today. Why don't they have as many snaps? Well, they got them today, and I thought the game plan overall was excellent. Defensive game plan had the Colts really struggling all night long. There's not a whole lot to come away with and critique there. So I think that it was a huge bounce back game for the coaching staff because the doubt does start

to creep in when you lose two games in a row like that. Wait a minute. Is Flores really able to mess with quarterbacks enough to get you where you want to go? Is Kevin O'Connell really whispering to Sam Darnold or is he just saying throw it deep all the time? Or is he able to make the adjustments to what defenses were doing and they did a good job there? Any thoughts on the coaching before we move on to the big picture? No, I thought all the adjustments that they said they were going to make were made um and it resulted in besides the turnovers their most dominant game of the season so no coaching like aside from a couple play calls here and there and like you said we're always going to

walk away from a game i think any fan base even if the team dominates walks away from a game saying like i don't know a couple plays there. That's going to happen. But they get an A from me because everything that they needed or they said was going to happen, happened. And it resulted in a big, big bounce back win, which now sets you up to move forward and do the things that you really still think you can do, heading into a pretty important trade deadline day. So,

and this is really big for me. Final thoughts here. Big picture. They're six and two. Let me say it again. They are six and two. There are not many themes in the national football league that are six and two.

You go around the NFC and you go, well, the Eagles aren't perfect. They sputtered a little bit today against the Jaguars, kind of eked out the win at the end there against Jacksonville. Washington is a very good team. They're not perfect. The Green Bay Packers, with Jordan Love seemingly playing banged up, definitely not a perfect football team. Nobody in the NFC West, maybe the most fun game of the day, was the Rams and Seahawks because they both kept screwing up constantly. Both of those teams are going to fight along with San Francisco and

Arizona looks suddenly a little bit stronger, but they're not perfect either. And what the Vikings can make a very good argument for is they are either number two or three as far as best teams in the NFC. Atlanta made their argument today against the Dallas Cowboys. I wish Mike Zimmer had had a post-game press conference that we all could have watched back after getting destroyed by Kirk Cousins. But I mean, look around who is threatening you at six and two. There's not that many teams that are flying in the air

of the Minnesota Vikings. That is big. And that's also worth spending a little more draft capital and trying to add to this thing because when the opportunities arise, you got to take them every time you got to take them. When you get a chance like this to go six and two and with the schedule that they have coming up, I don't know how many more true tests there will be for the Vikings. I thought this might be a good one. And ultimately it was to show us, all right, they're not the team that lost to the Rams.

They're much closer to the teams that went 5-0 is how they played tonight outside of a couple turnovers. So the big picture to me is back on track, 6-2, season's still on. You're still a contender. And as long as you take care of business the next two weeks you could be sitting at eight and two heading down the stretch that's the position that this win put themselves in the other side of this i don't even want to think about it would have been bad it would have been very ugly had they blown this one and they had given this

away and fell fallen to five and three it would have been really really ugly here uh in the chat tonight and uh for vikings fans but instead it turns out to be an overall uh promising win for the future and i think if you're quesadilla fomenta you got to work the phones as much as you can now and you have to take a shot at it because if there's only one team that you feel is significantly better than you and you lost them by two points you it because if there's only one team that you feel is significantly better than you and you lost to them by two points, you're not that far. You're not that far. No, and that's the thing.

That's why this game was so big. The trade deadline's in two days, but you had also just lost two games in a row. Doubt does creep in. I know it's coach speak, and the players are going to say, we still believe like doubt creeps in when you lose two games in four days so to come out today and aside from the turnovers dominate and show like you are the team you you're more the team that was five and oh and

and lost to detroit in the final seconds um then the team that bounced got bounced four days later and lost to the rams you're more the former like to prove that to yourselves is big um but to prove that like to everyone else is also big like if they lost today it would be three straight losses it would be a firestorm here and i think that that would change what the Vikings should do on Tuesday at the trade deadline. But they didn't lose. In fact, they dominated, aside from the turnovers. And I think that is proof enough that you should do something. If you can trade two first-round picks and get Dexter Lawrence, I would do it.

But I don't think you can. So that doesn't mean do nothing, but I don't think you can. So that doesn't mean do nothing though. I think there, there are moves to be made. We went over on defense, what we think they need. I got to imagine that the front office feels the same. There, there are just little improvements to be made here. Um, and I think you owe it to yourselves as this six and two football team with a very easy pathway to eight and two with a very kind of muddled nfc aside from the lions to just like go for it um yeah go for it why not you don't you can't guarantee like you're going to be six and two at any point in jj

mccarthy's first contract like six and two is very, very good. Eight and two. The possibility of that is very, very good. Like these seasons don't come around very often. Unless you have a Patrick Mahomes, like unless you have a Josh Allen,

the Vikings don't, we don't know what JJ McCarthy will become, but you can't bank on him becoming a Patrick Mahomes or a Josh Allen. You can't bank on 6-2 with the possibility of 8-2. So just trade the picks. I don't care how many they trade. I'm sure there will be whatever happens on Tuesday at the trade deadline. People are going to criticize,

oh, he shouldn't have gave up that much, or he should have done more. Trade is whatever you need to improve this roster because this roster deserves a chance to do something that sounds like there will be on purple insider a trade deadline live special after the trade deadline is up so make sure that you keep an eye out for that it would be good maybe to subscribe we're very close to 10 000 subscribers subscribers here on Purple Insider with love. If you were number 10,000, I don't know how we can figure out who the 10,000th person is, but maybe we can get that person a T-shirt or something. Anyway, thank you so much, everybody, for staying up late with us here and watching the Vikings win 21-13.

And someone somewhere said a win is a win and that person was correct about tonight's game it was not beautiful it was kind of gnarly at times kind of weird at times as only Vikings wins can be but we head on to Jacksonville with this team having a chance to stay in that race for the among the best teams in the entire nfc which is more than we would have thought at this point in the season we thought they would have probably been turning it around as opposed to now headed down the stretch uh with some very high aspirations so again thanks so much to everybody for watching and listening to this post game show we appreciate you all and we will catch you all very, very soon, actually. So thanks again.

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