Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings beat the Bears and now they are officially an interesting team

Episode Date: October 9, 2022

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic talk about the Vikings' tale of two halves, the first in which they smashed the Bears and the second in which they nearly gave it away. They are 4-1 at the top of the division after the win and finally a compelling team for the first time in a long time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another post-game recap where we decide how we feel about a victory by the Minnesota Vikings over the course of 45 or 50 minutes. Matthew Collar here, Paul Hodowanek from WCCO Radio as well. And my first impression is to say that the Vikings are who we think they are. However, once again, they do not have to apologize to anyone,

and particularly with the way the Green Bay Packers looked this morning before the Vikings played this very exciting first half, very concerning second half against the Chicago Bears. The Packers lost to the New York Giants. They blew a two-score lead. They look like their offense. Isn't that good. Detroit got completely run over by the new England Patriots. Chicago is not a contender. And when you look around the NFC being four and one, uh, means you're pretty good. Even if we still have questions about you. And I think that's where I want to

ultimately land after this Paul. But I think the other question is, can you keep playing this way? Can you keep playing against teams that are running Andy Dalton or it's Detroit, who is now one and four. So the roar has not been restored. And now you have a Chicago team that could not move the ball in the first half, could not stop anything.

17 passes in a row get completed. The score should have probably been 42 to 12 at the end of this game. And yet they let Chicago back in some very anxious moments and they have relied on the clutchiest of clutch plays from both, uh, Kirk cousins, who was great, uh, converting a bunch of third downs to the end of the game and then the defense once again comes up with a huge play they did it last week and stopping chris alave they did it the week before against detroit they are relying on these final moment big plays that in all honesty they did not get a whole lot of times especially from their defense last year and what i guess we're going to try to figure out here is is that a trend that you can have continue,

or does that mean that you're kind of getting away with some things to get the win? And again, again, before anybody gets upset, 4-1 is fantastic. It's even better in the NFC. It's a dream start for the Minnesota Vikings. How it happened is a lot less important than the fact that it did happen, and they are in a tremendous spot now to make the postseason, to battle with Green Bay down the stretch. So I want

to make that clear before we dive into some of the good and bad of what happened against Chicago. So Paul, your thoughts. Yeah, the Vikings are now 3-0 in one score games. And that's a stat usually when you look at, at the end of the year, that kind of levels itself out or typically from season to season seems can have extreme, uh, you know, win loss records in one year, both directions. I think the broadcast did a good job of showing it today. Last year at this through four games, they were plus two point differential this year. They were plus six point differential last year. They started one in three this year, they're three in one. So those are the slim margins that the Vikings are operating on

and have operated on in previous years. The difference is they're just winning these games, and whether that's an increased resilience, whether that's just the roll of the dice kind of bouncing their way a few times here, I guess is still up to be determined. If they keep winning these games, then I think you have to keep pointing it towards they have some resilience that they haven't shown in previous years.

Right now, the sample is probably a little too small, but the end result is the same. They're 4-1. 538 has their playoff chances now to be 83%. I believe the division win percentage is like 62%, so they just keep on rising. I think another stat there for playoffs, Bill Barnwell tweeted this out. Teams to start 4-1 in a season since 2002, 75 of a hundred of those have made the playoffs. And with an expanded playoffs, six other teams would have made it. So over 80%

of teams when they started four and one have made the playoffs when they get to four and one, that's where the Vikings are. And so up like that signals a lot of good things for their season so far, but it would be misconstrued to say they've been dominant in those games. They probably could have lost any of these last three games, but they didn't. And so you just sit here in one of these post games and you can look at it much more rosy-eyed than you could if Kirk Cousins doesn't make that final drive. But again, they make a big play.

Cam Dantzler rips the ball out of Amir Smith-Marset. Maybe you're seeing why the Vikings didn't want to keep Amir Smith-Marset. A couple boneheaded plays there in this game. But yeah, I mean, you can't take away the fact that they're 4-1. There's obviously some elements that maybe feel like it's a little bit of a house of cards situation. But like you mentioned before, they have one of the easiest schedules the rest of the year. It,

they may not be challenged enough for all their deficiencies to really be on display for them to completely fall apart. And at that point, if you have a home to a home game in the playoffs, if you win your division, then you might probably be favored to go to the second round. And then who knows? So the team mathematically is off to

a really good start just to put themselves in a position to go one round deeper in the playoffs than they really have been in a while and so yeah four and one I guess I think we're going to keep saying this from week to week is who's going to stop them who's going to make them stop doing this and is it going to be Skylar Thompson next week as Teddy Bridgewater got hurt for Miami we don't know if Tua has any sort of timeline or if Teddy Bridgewater will be able to come back and start for the Dolphins but again kind of another break for them that they're either going to face Tua coming off a severe injury or Teddy Bridgewater coming off a game that he got knocked out of and then Miami got trucked by the New York Jets and well Miami has great weapons on offense both of their receivers are banged up that are their stars and they have had a defense

that has been spotty at times it won't be easy to go down to Miami but you're facing a team that's pretty significantly weakened there either way and then you get a break before you go up against Arizona a team that's not very impressive and then against Arizona, a team that's not very impressive. And then it's Washington, a team that's not very impressive at all. So there have been years past where we might've said, Hey, you know, if you play defense like that and allow Justin Fields to finish with a higher quarterback rating than Kirk cousins on the day, who would have predicted that after 30 minutes, after 30 minutes, I made a joke about the longest and I wasn't kidding but the longest snack line and I made a joke about like everybody needs their sugar for the second half to stay awake or whatever because this could just get really bad and then suddenly

Justin Fields he gave fuel for everyone in Chicago to be like well maybe we do need to give him more time he looked like Lamar Jackson in the second half of this game versus the Vikings defense. So I want to kind of split it into, why don't we split it into two reaction pods? Let's react first to the second half because we just saw it and then talk about the first half and everything that got them ahead in the second half of this game. Not only could they not stop Justin Fields from running especially, but they also couldn't stop him from completing passes, moving the ball downfield, having long drives that really controlled things. And the Vikings offense never got back into a rhythm. And it kind of seemed like after they had started out so hot

that even toward the end of the first half, there was like a little bit of hesitation. And I don't know what the explanation for that is. They looked so strong in the first half of the game. It looked like Jefferson was going to catch 25 passes. Our friend Sam Ekstrom said to me, I think Sammy White's single game record might be in jeopardy here with the way Justin Jefferson was so unstoppable. They couldn't find him a lot for the second half. It seemed like he barely got the ball at all. Adam Thielen wasn't really a factor in this game. K.J. Osborne is, I think, still on the team.

But in the second half, they didn't see him a lot. And they got some significant runs and plays from Delvin Cook. But the consistency of the offense, I don't know that they've put together two halves. At any point during the season, we see the highs, and then we saw the lows that allowed Chicago to come back in the game so which part of that the struggle to run away from them with like by putting the gas pedal down on offense or the fact that they let Justin Fields who was struggling so badly come back in the game like which which part of that I guess as you were watching it

was more unnerving I think them just letting Justin Fields do whatever he wanted. I mean, when it comes down to it, the Vikings only had three drives in three drives in that last half. Like in the second half, they only had three drives. They had the touchdown drive and then the missed field goal right off the onside kick, which they probably should have gotten more out of. But they still got them in a chance to kick a field goal and then they miss. And then the Kirk Cousins interception.

Those are the only two offensive drives there in the second half, and a lot of that was because Justin Fields was just on the field for a long time creating things with his legs. They just let him break contain way too many times. I mean, we know the pedigree of Justin Fields, but coming into this game, he had been downright horrific this year. He was the worst graded quarterback by PFF. He was being sacked at a league high rate when he was getting pressured.

He was getting average, he was sacked on average four times per game. The Vikings only got to him twice in this game. Like all the advanced metrics just pushed, showed that Fields wasn't playing very well and he was scrambling a little bit, but he wasn't showing this explosiveness and doing it with this amount of ease. And so like, it's not a stretch to say Fields was like the worst starting quarterback of

the NFL through four games. And you made him look like he had one of his career best days. And so are you putting that on Justin Fields, finally figuring some things out or is that on the Vikings defense? I tend to lean towards the Vikings defense because they're just, they allowed those underneath throws. If he wants to take them, there were way too many throws where he was just finding guys that were wide open and then whether they were rushing him or not with extra bodies he was finding rush lanes

to get out and hurt them with his legs like he looked like you mentioned Lamar Jackson or like RG3 way back in the day against the Vikings where you just feel like you're hopeless in those scenarios and he hasn't done that at any other point throughout this season. And so it's not like he got wide receivers back that helped him here, or the offensive line was much healthier than it had been. This is the same bears team that has struggled weekend and week out on offense. So for him to kind of just seemingly switch a flip a light and suddenly

kind of go gangbusters, like that's not what you want to see from this defense and i think it continues to show the porousness of the defense now obviously the vikings score on any one of those drives the game is maybe too far out of hand for anything to matter so that's certainly something that needs to be discussed the offense doesn't get no blame they've only scored six points in third quarters this year through five games, like two field goals is all they have to show for in third quarters of their season. So far, that's not good. You're forcing yourself to have to score at the end of the game. But generally I saw the, the second half more as a defensive blunder than maybe I did the offense.

And we've talked about this many times on the show that offense affects defense. So if the Vikings had pulled away, let's say that after the bears come out and respond and score, if the Vikings are just like, no, I don't think so. I don't think you'll be having a comeback today. Then you're talking about Chicago having to be really desperate as opposed to feeling like from after the first drive of the second half, all of a sudden it was a ball game and it was kind of a coin flip to who was going to win. And so they could comfortably run their offense. The part of it that doesn't seem like it's going to change is that receivers are going to be open and that quarterbacks are going to have time to throw. Now, again, look at the opposing quarterback schedule, who is going to make them pay?

Kyler Murray probably can. I don't know about Teddy Bridgewater. I don't know about, I mean, Carson Wentz. I certainly know that when Dak Prescott returns, when they face Josh Allen, this is not exactly in any order, but there are some quarterbacks who will, but there's kind of a lot of quarterbacks who won't. Justin Fields today actually did. He found a lot of receivers underneath, but in part

because, and I'll be very interested to look at the pressure numbers from PFF tomorrow, there was just no pressure on him. He had all sorts of time and even somebody who is a little discombobulated and a little flustered back there, if they are comfortable setting and throwing, they're going to find people open and make plays. And that's exactly what fields did. I also thought that it would, it should be a major element of their game plan to try to contain him in the pocket. And they were not able to do that at all. And the Vikings just got bailed out a bunch of times in this game. I mean, the, the, the block in the back, which Cam Dantzler admitted that he flopped on, by the way, the block in the back was probably not even a great call by the refs. Also, a silly decision by Amir Smith-Marset.

Not his most silly decision of the day, but certainly a silly decision by him to block Dantzler in the back to begin with. Because otherwise, Justin Fields is probably going for a touchdown anyway. And so they couldn't stop what the Bears had as their biggest threat, which was him on the ground, aside from their running game. And then they gave him stop what the bears had as their biggest threat, which was him on the ground aside from their running game. And then they gave him a lot of opportunities. I don't think this team has a pass rush, just like full stop. And I don't think it's ever going to have a pass rush.

So they really need exactly what they got today, which again, another mistake by Amir Smith, Marced, but also a tremendous, tremendous play by Cam Dantzler, who the last two weeks has elevated his game kind of to what we thought he could be when he was a rookie, which is somebody who makes big plays. He's got a great natural instinct for the game. He got juked out a bit, but then recovered. I have no idea why Amir Smith-Marset didn't step out of bounds,

probably because the Vikings had some questions about his football IQ. It was one of the reasons they moved on. But yeah, no, I mean, like they have to rely on big plays happening. They got a big play against new Orleans where they got to stop at the end, but also there was the fumble that they caused from Andy Dalton. That's what they're going to have to rely on because teams are going to control the ball. Teams are going to have comfortable quarterbacks. They're going to move the ball. And so you also have to answer on the offensive side. Like there are kind of workarounds here, but I don't think fundamentally it changes. They pressured

him way less than I thought. This is one of the worst offensive lines in the entire league. And they still, even in sort of pin your ears back situations, they still could not get after him. So I think that was the cause of why they were able to come back combined with not making them pay on offense. And on the offensive side, I don't know. I think it's just kind of who they are and who they've always been and who they're going to be because I was, and we can sort of switch to talk about what really worked for them.

I was so impressed with the opening script. So impressed. It was like, yes, this is it. The bootlegs putting some extra Titans and in there getting Justin Jefferson space to run wide open against zones and just going to him and going to him and saying, saying like, stop us. I dare you on offense with Justin Jefferson. We are going to throw to him every single play until you make a stop and then mixing in the run game off of the passing game, as opposed to the other way around, which was very effective with Delvin cook. But for whatever reason, and this was a trend last year as well,

when they've gotten off of that initial script where they've been so successful, there have just been times where there's a lack of comfort, people not on the same page. The interception is just like such an unacceptable play in that situation where you're still like in control of that game, relatively speaking. And then I'm not sure what happened, if it was a misunderstanding or whatever else it might be.

And still, when we look at the end of the day at the box score, and we're going, all right, K.J. Osborne, 41 yards, Adam Thielen, 27 yards. Irv Smith Jr. got going a little bit, but there still hasn't become very clear who is next in line after Justin Jefferson, when opponents are able to either slow him down for a half or a quarter or anything. And I think that in the first half, we saw how great it can be when Jefferson is driving this thing. And in the second half, we saw how tough it can be for this offense when Jefferson isn't the main central point and is getting open every play

and they're finding him and he's just ripping off big chunks of yards. Yeah, and you see Adam Thielen kind of sit out a play or two. I think that was in the first half. And I think everyone's collective breaths, like you take a deep breath and you go, okay, what's this going to look like if Thielen's out? And that's, I mean, we've talked about that ad nauseum on this show, the lack of wide receiver depth, high end depth that you can go to, like suddenly then it really gets bleak and it's, and it's been bleak outside of Jefferson, even with the starters in, and then you lose Thielen and suddenly whether or not Thielen has his best step that he had, like he's still someone that defenses pay attention to and

have to respect and can make you pay, especially in the red zone. Like we've seen that time and time again, uh, suddenly that name comes out and it's Osborne and we start going down the depth chart there and it gets scary. And it even tips that scale even further and further in Jefferson's direction. And I mean, he's going to catch him and he's going to do his best, but like the defense can triple team him at sometimes, which they did. Like they, they, you can find ways if you're really, really, really going to try to take away Jefferson. We've seen that in past weeks.

And then when you trust him to go, when you trust Marshawn Lattimore to go with him one-on-one, like he's going to burn you. And it probably went in the Saints, in the Vikings favor that the Saints had a really locked down corner. They felt could take away Jefferson. Cause I'm not sure any cornerback can take away Jefferson. So if you ever have a team that has the hubris to think they can,

that falls right in your lap. I don't think that this team, the bears was ever relying on that to happen but yeah i think i mean kirk cousins didn't throw with into tight coverage once today per uh next gen stats and i think generally i viewed that as a positive in this game especially in the first half because it meant kevin o'connell was just dialing up the plays to the fact that cousins never had to like cousins did exactly what he needed to pretty much that entire first half. He's 17 of 17 to start the game.

He didn't need to be aggressive at all because everyone was just wide open. Justin Jefferson certainly helps that in his route running ability, just breaking away from guys that maybe he shouldn't be and just finding open space. But I think Kevin O'Connell called a really, really good game. But yeah, you have 41 passes and not one of them uh was an aggressive throw uh one into tight coverage uh cousins a dot was 4.5 averaged up the target was 4.5 yards so he was kind of dinking and dunking but for the most part that was kind of how the offense wanted to operate today

and it worked really really well so normally i would uh go at him for his aggressiveness or criticize him but i think in this game it was more man, Kevin O'Connell, you're calling a really, really solid game in the first half. And then yeah, first drive in the second half, you have perfect field position with the onside kick and you just can't kind of convert there. And then cousins has the boneheaded play where it looked like they may start driving again on that drive after uh justin jefferson gets a defensive holding call on him to move the sticks on fourth down so it was just these one or two things that really sidelined them in the in the second half and then obviously they have that really really nice 17 play 75 yard drive so i've been kind of puzzled by the offense at times

throughout the last couple games i don't i'm not sure this one is as egregious as it has been in past games. But like any other game that Cousins is going to have, he's going to have those one or two throws where it leaves you scratching your head. And the Vikings still and you can see it. They still don't have a really, really good playmaker outside of Justin Jefferson. That is really I don't I don't know if we have an Adam Thielen 130 yard game in store. Like, I'm not sure we have that second wide receiver goes off game that we may have had in previous years. And so I think that's going to maybe come back to bite him at some point. But as we keep going back to it, it all depends on who's going to who's going to expose them for that.

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at liquiddeath.com slash insider. That is liquiddeath.com slash insider. Okay, I'm trying to do some quick math here. What's a 41 minus 13 real fast ball. 28, 28. Well done. Well done. All right. Now I'll get you this number. Okay. Uh, throwing to Justin Jefferson 13 times for 154 yards. That doesn't take tough math. That's about nine and a half yards per attempt throwing to anyone else, five yards and attempt that has been the story of the season so far for the Minnesota Vikings is if they are throwing to Justin Jefferson, they are wildly successful. And if he's rolling, then they're just crushing. They, that no one can stop them when they have drives, where they go to him and he succeeds. There's no stopping it. But when they

don't, they have not had really any success at all. And again, they ran the ball well today. Delvin cook. This was probably the quickest he's looked actually five yards per rush. Yeah. And a little while I'm still didn't break a big one where you thought there were some chances, but he had a really good day in running against the bears, probably because their strategy was to make sure they didn't get destroyed by Justin Jefferson, which in the second half of the game, they didn't in the first half they did. But when you are averaging 10 yards of throw to Jefferson and five yards of throw to everybody else, it's like, that's gotta, that gap has to close a little bit. And when you said 4.5 yards per depth of target, like, wow. I mean, the top of the league is, you know, about like 12 average depth of target.

And the middle of the league is more like nine. And you're talking about half that. Like this really is kind of an Alex Smith, Kansas City Chiefs looking like offense at this moment. It is not aggressive down the field almost really at all. And I wonder if that can change or not. It doesn't seem like it. Like we've got a pretty big sample size now of this being who they're going to be on offense, which I think is okay if they continue to have the big drives when they're called upon,

continue to win in the other areas and get some big plays on defense and then get a few breaks. There was another reason, by the way, and it has to be mentioned, why Chicago was back in the game. The special teams of Matt Daniels today had its worst day by a lot. And the funny part is that everybody was writing their Matt daniels articles this week including me although the kickoff unit was fine which is what i focused on so there is a point to be made there and also i don't blame the special teams coordinator for a 15 yard punt i have no idea although as a golfer i do get it because you have seen me do just whatever he did numerous times when you and i have gone golfing, Jalen Rager fumbled the ball.

They missed two field goals. Like if they have a good special teams day, which going into this game, they had one of the best special teams units in the league. I think that maybe it's a little harder for the bears than it was on this day. You get a couple of field goals. Things are way less interesting at the end of this game. Then they up turning out being. Both of them are 50 plus. That's a lot to ask. But also, Greg Joseph has not carried over the training camp 50 plus. Maybe I jinxed them like people accused us that we were reporting. He kept making those field goals and people said we jinxed him.

But I wonder if they'll keep dialing those up, by the way, because now we're talking about quite a few in U.S. Bank Stadium that Greg Joseph has not been able to put through. So I think that's part of it too. And I also wonder about just like, is this the type of team that's going to pull away from anybody? The teams like Buffalo, for example, I looked up at Buffalo score and I was like, Oh, okay.

We're going to have the equal score here. There it's, what was it? 38 three or something like, Oh, we're going to have the equal score here. What was it, 38-3 or something? Like, oh, that's going to happen here. Buffalo has an offense that could pull away from teams, and they've done it a couple times this year, and just smack the heck out of them and keep them down. They have a defense to keep them down. Like, that's the best team in the league.

That's the gold standard. That's just probably not what you have here. And so a lot of these games are going to look like this. And what I would say is that when you start out at four and one, and a lot of the games look like this, it's quite charming. It's like, oh, well, there's a lot of really fun games and big wins. And everybody gets to walk out of here and go like, what a game that was. And if they start going the other way, at some point, there's going to be some disappointments because you won't find a team with less talent overall outside of maybe the Houston Texans in

the entire NFL than the Chicago bears. So that means that teams we expect them to be are going to hang around in these games, but they also have the players to make plays to win them. That doesn't mean that Kirk cousins will lead game winning drives in every win the rest of the season, but there have been teams that have done this, that sort of live on the razor's edge and get eight game winning drives in a season or something like that to reach the playoffs. So I think that you can survive some of the shortcomings you've had come out of all of this, mostly healthy, which is a massive deal for this team, that there were no major injuries today. I think Ty Chandler got banged up and Caleb Evans, but that was it. Guys who play on special teams. So they have all their key players that are mostly

healthy and they have enough talent that I think it was Harrison Phillips who talked about, or maybe it was Harrison Smith in the locker room. They talked about having players who were either really experienced and had been there in big moments before, or guys who were talented and were sort of up and coming and growing in their careers. And that's why I think it will kind of continue to go on and get better and so forth. And I think that that's possible. I don't think it's possible to win every game where you blow a lead or every game on a double doink or on a, why don't you run out of bounds? Amir Smith, Marseille play. I don't know about that, but I do think that these close games, even if think about this, even if you split the rest of the one score games, the rest of the way,

even if it was a coin flip, you're making the playoffs probably at this point, that's how important four and one is to them. So there are things that we can look at and go are you really a contender but here's the deal we're now having that conversation because you're four and one are you really a contender are you really one of the best teams the nfc is a conversation as opposed to last year where you blow the the big games at the end and you start saying like will you ever even get back in the playoff race? And that is a miserable place to be as opposed to this. And Harrison Smith did say, it's a lot easier to teach on the fly when you're four and one than if you're one and four and they don't have to give those wins back. Just like last year, this will be my, this is my consistency,

Paul. Last year, I was like, you guys keep talking about the close wins, like they don't give you a prize. Well, the same thing I will say, you don't have to give them back just because we break down everything that happened and wonder about, will it go this way or this way? You don't have to give them back. And I agree with what he's saying. It's easier to teach on the fly. But I also think some things about this team just aren't going to change and them playing close games against just about everybody probably won't change. Yeah. And I think notably, like they were coming back from London for this game.

That obviously, I'm sure, had a little bit of an effect on them, too. So they're able to get a win in London, come back, deal with that, then get a win here. That's about as well as you're hoping that stretch can go. They saved their bye for later on in the season season so that gamble a little bit worked out uh and i would have expected maybe to see their fatigue maybe right at the beginning of the game but maybe some of that fatigue came in uh and set in in the second half but yeah you mentioned just quickly on the health on being health healthy there i believe they're the second healthiest team in the nfl in terms of how much wins above replacement they've lost uh per per game uh so they're the second healthiest team in the NFL in terms of how much wins above replacement they've lost per game.

So they're staying relatively healthy. And I don't know if we've necessarily given them the kudos for that last drive that they went on and scored because they're five for five on third down in that drive. They were 12 for 15 on third downs in this game. So really, really good in those situational spots. Kirk Cousins makes a first down with his legs at one point in maneuvered around the pocket. That's a play. We don't see him making much where pressure is kind of closing in on him

from all sides. And he's moving maneuvering, not only vertically, but laterally to get around oncoming defenders and then get an outstretch and get there for a first down. And then they get the Madison one later in the drive where cousins placed that ball really, really well.

Madison's running a wheel route and he could have thrown it kind of hit to his outside shoulder, which is traditionally maybe how that play would have gone, but that would have taken him towards the sideline and laterally where maybe he's not making the first down. He makes Madison turn his body and kind of move forward to catch that ball. And he just gets over into the first down.

Like those are those small little margins and those margins you have to convert on when you let a team back in, but ones that you did convert on in that last drive, they were really, really good on that last drive. They soaked so much clock. There are 17 plays. I don't know. That probably is their longest of the season so far.

And then Kirk cousins can scramble one in. They make a two good or a good two-point play to get to the three-point lead so I think I don't know if we really went into that drive uh specifically but put together a really really strong final drive to get that win yeah and I mean overall like the overall numbers are pretty dominating on the Vikings side. 36 minutes, I mean, a lot of that is that huge long drive. You know, they would have, and the two-point conversion is big too because they would have left the door open

for a potential game-winning drive for Chicago. And in terms of your odds to win, to convert that, and at the goal line and in scoring position, they were so much better this week than they were last week, which is why, you know, sometimes you can't overreact to one game where you're bad in the red zone and you just didn't execute. But one of the things Kevin O'Connell seemed to do in this game was simplify things a little bit, a little pop pass to Jalen Rager, those plays where guys are moving left to right,

those motions and stuff like that. Those go in for touchdowns all the time. To me, that's one of the most effective plays in the NFL so that little pop pass that works out great and just handing the ball to Delvin Cook like sometimes it's it's no more complicated than that like you can say oh I've drawn up this brilliant play and everything else like right but maybe he's just handed off to Delvin Cook who you know we talk about losing a step a little bit but still a tremendous running back and and makes lots of uh guys miss and runs through tackles and is still powerful and everything else. Like we've seen a lot of teams and the Packers included, or you should just run the ball. The Packers not running

the ball against the giants third and two fourth and two. Like why you have AJ Dillon who weighs a thousand pounds. He's like a Mack truck and you're passing. So that didn't make much sense. They didn't overthink it when it came to the red zone and executed extremely well. And that's why this game can be well-defined. I think is just a Jekyll and Hyde game where if you want to talk about the things they did well, there was a lot they did well offensively, especially over 400 yards in this game. And then there are other things that just left you kind of scratch in your head. Like why wasn't this going the way it was?

And I think the same thing exists for the new Orleans game last week. You get up what? 16 to seven. You can't run away from a team. You kind of open the door for them to come back. They do. They make it interesting. And it was certainly more compelling than I expected it to be.

So I'm not complaining about that, but you just, when it's a team like this, that you're so decidedly better than in Chicago and could be drafting number one next year or number two, somewhere in there, because they've got the one win in the, in the muck and then another win against the Texans. So that's, that's who you're going up against. So when your opponent is that poor, you just expect to continue to pull away from them and not let them back in the game. And I don't think it's a killer mentality

or anything like that because they've come through in a lot of big moments. I don't think it's because they're nervous because of their coach, because that was a storyline from before. I think it's just simply who they are that putting together complete offensive performances, complete defensive performances is not really something they're capable of. It kind of reminds me of a lot of baseball teams where from month to month

in baseball, you'll have a team get really hot with their bullpen or something. And like, wow, we're closing out every game, but they're not hitting this month. Darn. And then the next month, because they've got up and down hitters. Oh, wow. We're hitting all out every game, but they're not hitting this month. Darn. And then the next month, because they've got up and down hitters, oh, wow, we're hitting all these home runs. But Timmy has blown a bunch of saves. That's kind of how this team is. And when those two things converge, you're quite good. But so far, we haven't really seen them converge for a whole game outside of the opener against Green Bay.

So those things I think can happen and can improve, but I also look at a very healthy roster and say, how does this get better than what it is right now? And I don't know the answer because what Andrew Booth jr. Is coming back, but he's not going to play. Lewis scene is out for the year. The linebackers aren't going to change. The pass rushers aren't going to change. The offensive line's not going to change. The receivers aren't going to change. The pass rushers aren't going to change. The offensive line's not going to change. The receivers aren't going to change. And I also don't think that there is a magic wand to wave as far as offensively goes to stop this from happening. But still, I have to wonder if there is something to be done schematically to get other receivers the ball. And that may be the solution. It's like you are that close of Adam Thielen and KJ Osborne getting it going to having more than you have there now.

And maybe there's a possibility of that over the next couple weeks when they play, I think, defenses that are questionable in Miami, Arizona, and especially Washington. So, you know, I think that for the first time, Paul, I'm going to make a declaration here. I'm ready. Everybody just wait for it. Just give me a quick pause.

You got time. I think the Vikings are interesting. I don't think they've been interesting during the season. They have in the off season, but not in the regular season. I don't believe they've been an interesting football team since we started purple insider Paul in 2020, not during the season because they were so bad right off the bat in 2020. And Jefferson was fun to watch, get going and talk about and everything else, but they were only briefly in the hunt and then fell out of that. And last year, same kind of deal. They were interesting because of the off-field battles

between the coach and the quarterback, but they were not interesting as a team because we knew exactly what they were. We knew that they weren't going to change. We knew what their shortcomings were. And we knew that when they got to a big game, that they would ultimately let everybody down and miss the playoffs. Like we just knew that from day one, I don't know where this goes as much as I know it's going to have its rocky moments probably from what we've seen. But I think that even on a national scale of the entire league, when you look around and start talking about most interesting teams in the league based on where they could go and what they've done so far,

I think the Vikings belong in that conversation. How about that reaction? Yeah. I mean, I think, I think you're right. I think would it shock us if it ends up kind of looking like it has in the past? No, but I think for the first time, that isn't like an 80% chance of being like that happening. Like last year, there weren't a lot of outcomes that looked much different than what ended up happening to them. And I think this year, you see a scenario now four and one with an easy schedule upcoming where they win these next two games and then maybe they can beat one of Buffalo or Dallas. And they're suddenly in the upper echelon of, yeah, this team's probably going to win the NFC North and maybe they're fighting for something further than that. And then

when you get to the playoffs, who knows at that point? But yeah, I think there are certainly more positive outcomes that could be on the horizon for this team than i think we've seen in past years it's more interesting just because you don't have the same regime in place uh so you don't know exactly how it's going to pan out kevin o'connell could be really really good or maybe he falls down to earth like there's there are more possibilities with this team in both directions, I think, because now you're four and one and whether or not you won those games

convincingly or kind of the way they have your four and one, regardless fans are going to get super, super excited as they should being four and one with that comes a lot of like chance for disappointment. If you don't live up to expectations. And although the Dolphins look not great with Teddy even going out of the game today with an injury I don't know if he's going to be back for next week you'd hope so for his sake uh and it looked like he was cleared of

everything so I would assume he's back uh and then Arizona like I don't think it can be like overstated like how bad New Orleans was last week with all the guys that were out, and then how bad Chicago's roster is. You beat two pretty bottom-of-the-barrel teams, and although the Cardinals look like they're a mess, they still have Kyler, they're going to have DeAndre Hopkins at that point, they're going to have Hollywood Brown. That's more talent than you've seen on the field really since the Eagles game. So if we're talking about really thin margins, those are teams that maybe can't make you pay to the tune that the Eagles game. So if we're talking about really thin margins, those are teams that maybe can't make you pay to the tune that the Eagles did, but can certainly make you pay in winning a close game, a three point game. So I think it's just interesting in that way. I think

the offense has shown itself. It can be more explosive than it has been. So there's kind of these little glimmers of optimism that you wonder can, if they really hone in on this specific thing, like this could really elevate them the offensive line is another this is another postgame pod where we're coming and we're not having to talk about a horrible offensive line performance I will have to see kind of what all the numbers bear out but it didn't look like they had a horrible game either uh so it's just some of these building blocks some of the things that had hurt Vikings teams in the past like the offensive line are starting to slowly get fixed.

And so I think certainly if you're a Vikings fan, a lot more reason for optimism, but as your hopes get higher and higher, that makes you more emotionally vulnerable. And I, but I think that's kind of the ride that you'd rather be on. You don't want to be the kind of dead inside fan that you feel like you probably could have been for the Vikings last couple of years when it didn't

feel like they had a ton of hope. Oh, we have no emotions on the show, Paul. No, none. We are, we are dead inside. We are not emotionally vulnerable. However, we are in tune with what Vikings fans think. And you get to be four and one at this point. So you don't have to apologize to anyone for that. And also you think about it, let's do some quick math here, more math. All right. So they're four and one right now. How many games are left? Paul four and one, 12 games left. Okay.

That's correct. So if they were to, let's say that who they are deep in their hearts is a 500 team. If they go 500, the rest of the way you are 10 and and 7 you are competing for the division with a Packers team that's clearly just not going to find it all of a sudden not after what we saw today that's if you're only a 500 team that that's if these breaks go one way or the other that's if you lose to the teams you're supposed to lose to and don't pull any upsets that if you don't beating Buffalo seems near impossible in Buffalo in November, nonetheless, which is it's a little different weather there. It could be, it could be bad and they're built for that. So, okay. That one's tough. Dallas is going to be

really tough. I think they're a legitimate team and we'll have Dak Prescott back side from that, though. I mean, everything else is kind of up in the air. And even if you play these types of games, that's kind of the worst case scenario at this point is 10 wins. And when people talked about like, what was the ceiling for this team, if everything went right, which in my mind, everything has gone right for them outside of their offensive execution, but that's kind of on them. That's not a break. That's their fault. But you know, if know, if you think about like the breaks, even if the breaks are split with them the rest of the way, I mean, they could have a ceiling of winning 11 games.

12 is a little bit of a stretch for me when you play games like this, just sheerly on the fact of having this schedule and, you know, starting out as hot as they did, which puts them in a position to then make a case for themselves. Just as I say, Dallas is good, by the way, they give up a huge touchdown to Cooper cup. So maybe I'll, maybe I'll pump the brakes a little, but no, I really do. I really do think that there's only a handful of games against good teams

that you could write in L's. And then there's other ones that they're going to split. I think one of these games like this goes the opposite way at some point. And we're going to go like, Oh, you can't believe you lost to whoever it's like, well, maybe we should have believed that. But then it's really a matter of assessing this team as it goes along and how much they improved from this point of being that 500 type team that had everything go their way at the beginning of the season. So yes, I will say it again, an interesting Vikings team after a win here to go to four and one.

And I don't know, do I have to take back my Justin Fields commentary from this week? Because I was kind of going in. I was kind of like, I just don't see it. He was really good in that second half.

He really played. Courtney was trying to bring you back to center a little bit when she was on the podcast. I think on Hot Routes, Jonathan, I were trying a little bit. I don't think, I mean, to be honest, I think a lot of this, we, you can see like him doing this in games. I mean, you, it was showing off his legs first and foremost,

and then just finding open receivers. Like I don't think he was necessarily throwing guys open Darnell Mooney makes an absolute circus catch in the first half there so he was aided a little bit by his wide receivers in that game I think you got to give him a little bit more time just the rest of this year at least before you completely write him off but I generally think it was more of the Vikings defense letting him off the hook but just fun nugget if you really want to get out of control optimism, currently per five 38 Vikings, seventh best chance to win the super bowl. So there you go.

There you go. Okay. All right, Paul. Okay. That's a little nugget, a little nugget for the, for the eternal optimist there.

And now you've gone too far. They were up 21 to three and almost lost. All right. I'm just stating facts. I'm reporting what five 38 has on their website. See now all those people who have just been wronged by this team for so long. You know what they all said? Thanks,

Paul. Thanks, Paul. They were upset with me for saying the kicker was making deep kicks. How do you think they're going to feel about what you just said? Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Seventh best chance to win the super bowl. That means like, you're like the fourth best team in the NFC. I think we're okay there. You can be okay there. Well, that's where they want it to be. I mean, they want it to be in the mix. They wanted to start off the season like this and they couldn't have asked for much better

to begin the Kevin O'Connell era, another win that they get to celebrate. And then I think that it's an interesting game against Miami because if Tua does come back and is able to come back as the full version of himself, which I don't know, I have no idea. But that's a dangerous game there because they've had two emotional wins back to back. One of them in London, come back home. Does it hit you kind of the next week after that? And we'll see. So we will have plenty to discuss as always. And by the way, need some fans only questions. If people want to provide those as well, go to the website, purpleinsider.com. Send me the, where it says, contact us, send me your note or hit me up on at Matthew Collar on Twitter. Send me a DM fans. Only

questions are always appreciated and we'll get to more of those this week. So thank you, Paul. And by the way, like Will Smith, you are headed to Miami. I will be in the building. You know the Will Smith song though, right? Yes. I will be in Hard Rock Cafe. Is that still the name of the stadium?

I don't know. Sure. I have no idea. Why not? But you are going to Miamiami to cover uh vikings dolphin so you will be there next week and i will talk to you then thank you for your time sir of course