Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings crush Giants in opener

Episode Date: September 8, 2024

From Met Life Stadium, Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani break down the Vikings' very impressive 28-6 win over the Giants Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome inside of the press box, inside of MetLife Stadium, where the Minnesota Vikings dominated the New York Giants today. And it has been a very long time. By the way, Matthew Collar, along with Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press. But it has been a very long time. And I mean an extremely long time, as in almost five years since the Vikings blasted a team in the way that they did today with the New York Giants. So we are going to spend the next hour or so breaking down every facet of this Vikings win. But I think, Dane, the best place to start is with the

quarterback position and what we saw from Sam Darnold today in his Vikings debut. We spent months, and I mean months, going back and forth between, well, you know, Sam Darnold, but maybe, and we called his former coaches and we, I called draft analysts and said, do you think that Darnold could maybe do this thing and what's it really going to look like and then in camp sometimes we would be going whoa that is quite a throw and other times you're going I don't know about this offense and today the offense came out fumbled the ball on the first drive and we went oh okay Ed Ingram got beat on the first drive by Dexter Lawrence and then it clicked in for Sam Darnold. He hits Justin Jefferson on a 44-yard pass.

And I thought after that, everyone was like, oh, we can do this. We can move the football. And then the centerpiece of this offense, Aaron Jones today, was the driving force, the beating drum. They built everything off of him through the rest of the game. And the result was a 28-6 victory and if you had drawn it up how would how would it be the perfect start for this team offensively and defensively it was today it was everything that happened today even just a little bit of adversity at the start for them to have to overcome but they were able to do it Dane what do you want to say about the way that Sam

Darnold led this team in his first appearance as Minnesota Vikings quarterback? Yeah, obviously so much to talk about, so many guys to highlight. But I think it has to be Sam Darnold who we start with because he was always going to be kind of the one who steered this ship in either the right direction or the wrong direction. Everything kind of hinged on him. And I think we knew that. I think Kevin O'Connell knows that. I think Sam Darnold himself knows that. And while there's going to be people out there that say it's just the Giants,

they might win two games all year, you have to at some point see it from Sam Darnold. You're right. We watched training camp. We watched his practices. We watched him look good sometimes. We watched him look bad at other times. But at some point we were going to have to see it in a game. And the first time we got to see it in a game, he went 19 of 24 for 208 yards, two touchdowns, an interception where the ball just kind of gets

flicked out of his arm. They were winning by 20 at that point. I don't think they even needed to be throwing it. So I'm going to give him a pass for that interception it wasn't a tangible interception that made a difference one way or the other all he did was play point guard like he said he was going to he said at the beginning of training camp the way I want to work in this offense is I want to be point guard I want to just distribute the ball to my playmakers whether that's Aaron Jones out of the backfield Justin Jefferson Jordan, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson when he comes back. Sam Darnold made it clear, like, he's not going to do too much. He's just going to be a guy who can distribute the ball around. And that's all he's been.

That's what he did today. And, I mean, now we have to see it again. But early returns, I mean, you couldn't have drawn up a better start, like you said. I don't like to immediately after a game go to what does it mean for the next game because it's like, well, hold on, let's not try to go there just yet about whether this is going to sustain through every single game of the 2024 season and focus on what are the things that he did today, Sam Darnold, in Kevin O'Connell's offense that we think are going to be

sustainable, I guess is the word that I have to say, are going to be usable for them all the way through the rest of the year. And I think that the way that they played off of Aaron Jones, we saw a good amount of play-action passes. We saw a little bit of creativity from Kevin O'Connell. And the Jalen Naylor touchdown is evidence of Kevin O'Connell and the Jalen Naylor touchdown is evidence of Kevin O'Connell's creativity. He puts Justin Jefferson in the backfield. He runs him out in the flat as if it's going to be a little screen. And then Jalen Naylor kind of fakes a block, takes off and goes wide open into the end zone. And that's a play where Sam Darnold can just play point guard. As long as he throws it to the right person who's wide open,

he's going to get a touchdown pass. But starting out 12 for 12 and looking very comfortable in the offense, and once he started to get into it, just grew in his confidence with his wide receivers. There were a couple out routes that Jordan Addison had, which we'll talk about the update on Jordan Addison as well. But there were a couple out routes that Jordan Addison had, which we'll talk about the update on Jordan Addison as well. But there were a couple out routes on their long drive where he just dropped back, hit the back foot, ball was out on time to Addison, breaks open, makes the catch. And had to earn this. And I think that's an important part of the overall analysis of this game and what we saw from Darnold and whether it can go forward

is that it was based on him playing well. It wasn't, well, Giants guy fell down and they just kind of ran past him. He didn't throw a bubble screen that went for 80 yards, and that's half of his statistics. He had to really make good throws good reads good decisions and i don't think even the interception was a bad decision it was just kind of a bad luck type of play and when you can build everything off of aaron jones who was breathtaking today i mean just breaking tackles almost seven yards per carry in this game dodging tacklers the

touchdown that he scored they hand off and like okay they got oh they don't got him because it's aaron jones the last couple of years even when delvin cook lost his fastball that guy is tackled on that play and now to go into the red zone and be able to hand it off to one of the best running backs the nfl and have him score a touchdown for you it just changes what this offense can be and and so I think that Darnold hit, like touched all the bases or checked all the boxes that he was supposed to check in this game. And it wasn't like they tried to work around him and only hand it off or

something like they did put the ball in his hands and he was able to deliver and protect the ball and not take bad sacks. And there were a couple of plays where he actually just checked down and there was a rollout play action that he had early in the game where he could have tried to fire it into a tight window to Jordan Addison. He said, you know what, I'm just going to check this down. I'm going to get three yards and move on to the next play. And again, there's no guarantee of how many weeks in a row Sam Darnold can do this.

It's not his first ever good football game. But you'd show him back this game and go, do this over and over again. It wasn't the most effort a quarterback has had to go through. He just ran the offense exactly like they had talked about. And then they were good enough in protection because early on when they give up the sack, you go, oh boy, is this going to be a long day? But it wasn't.

They protected very well for Darnold. And I think what you saw here, because I know people will say, grown, it's the Giants. Let's see you next week. And of course, that's right. The 49ers are way better. But I would also say if these things happen, then this team can continue to have a competent to very good offense somewhere in that range if they protect him well enough enough if he makes good decisions like i thought he did today doesn't take bad sacks doesn't turn the ball over and if they can build off of aaron jones that this is the result you get one of the most impressive wins that they have had

in a very long time yeah and i think that's an important part of this whole discussion is that like some of these things are the things that he found success with today like it's not hard to imagine him having success with them moving forward handing the ball to Aaron Jones who clearly has not lost a step throwing deep to Justin Jefferson and on the left sideline just an incredible pass. A lot of these things that kind of built this offense up today and made it kind of go, it's stuff that you can see in theory happening moving forward. I would feel completely different about this game if it was just two big plays and Sam Darnold walks away

with an impressive stat line buoyed by, like you said, a guy breaking a tackle and going 80 yards. But it's not like he worked for everything he got today. And I think the swing early in the game, like is important after the fumble even because the fact that they fumble on the first drive of the game, and then the defense holds the Giants to a field goal. Even the next drive, the Vikings offense kind of got bailed out. It was a 36-yard pass interference penalty that, frankly, probably wasn't a pass interference penalty. I get it. It was an underthrown ball.

Jordan Anderson couldn't work his way back towards it, but the defender was turning his head. So that drive produced a touchdown, and produced a touchdown that Aaron Jones bounced outside that you already talked about. But I wasn't fully impressed. I still hadn't been sold on what Sam Darnold could be in the offense. The next time they got the ball, they got the one yard line and they went 99 yards.

And I think that was the first time you really saw it all click together but from there like as we've kind of you know summed up so far like it just continued to be things that I could see happening moving forward like I really think and maybe we'll have a different conversation after San Francisco next week but it's not hard for me to envision him having success doing a lot of the things he did today and I think that was the point all along with Sam Darnold is if he can avoid turnovers which he didn't today I guess he technically threw it in interception but like I said that like that one didn't really matter for the grand scheme of the game if the guy can avoid turning the ball over he has the arm talent to do it and there's a hell of a lot of talent on this roster around him, more than he's ever had. Like, those things matter, and they're going to continue to matter moving forward.

So, yeah, I walk away from this game feeling kind of like we felt, or at least how I felt, heading into this game. You hear national people talking, oh, they're going to win four games, five games, be one of the worst teams in the league. Me and you have always talked, like, how? They have so much talent. And I think today was an example of that talent. Talent shows up when there's a good team and a bad team. And today the Vikings were a far superior team than the Giants, largely because of the talent gap. All of that plays well for Sam Darnold.

And I'm excited, frankly, to see next week when the challenge does get ramped up, and then I think we'll have an even better read on it over the next month. Niners, Texans, Packers without Jordan Love. But there's more tests to come, but Sam Darnold passed the first one with flying colors. Oh, there's no question.

And with Sam Darnold, the confidence element is so interesting to me because even when we talked to Kevin O'Connell after the game and he was talking once again in the same way that we've heard him many times about Sam Darnold's journey and where he's been and how this is part of it and how they're doing everything they can to support him. And I think that it was so impressive to see during the training camp and offseason of Kevin O'Connell kind of managing this, well, obviously J.J. McCarthy is our franchise quarterback,

but, you know, we really believe in Sam Darnold. And when O'Connell says it, it sounds like it's right, even though logically you would have gone into this going, OK, but, you know, J.J. McCarthy's the guy that they really want. And yet O'Connell has this way of pumping guys up that I think that they buy into in a lot of ways. And we're seeing that with Sam Darnold. He, throughout training camp, looked like a QB1 who felt like he owned the offense. And by the time he reached this game, he looked like someone who was in command of the offense,

which is not really what you saw from Josh Dobbs. It's not really what you saw from Nick Mullins. And as we talk about it, too, you also have to be able to make all the throws that this offense demands, which it is a difficult offense. But I didn't see it being as complicated as it was with Kirk, which to me was going to be the biggest question for O'Connell. And as you said, there's a long way to go in all of this. But as we were answering questions and checking boxes, does it look like he's having to stand back there and read eight things before he throws?

It absolutely did not. There was a lot of play actions. There was some bootlegs and rollouts where he had easy throws. And then also if Aaron Jones just gets you eight yards, everything becomes so much easier. And this is when it locks all in together and you get a blowout win. I forgot what this felt like because it had been since December or November of 2019 since they were up by this many points. Kevin O'Connell has literally never been up by this many points, and they've played bad teams in the past,

but a main reason for that is on the defensive side. This is the most talented defense we've seen in Minnesota since 2019. No coincidence that's the last time they actually kept somebody down because we can look at the quarterback, of course, as allowing teams to come back, but the defense, if you rank 27th in defense like they did in maybe 2020-21 or even last year where they were so flawed that if the other team was good, then you can lose a game like they did to the Chargers

where the opposing quarterback just lights you up. Or we saw bad quarterbacks light this team up. Mike White had a big game. And the J jets almost came back and won in 2022 but this one the defense was like no that's not happening nope you got you are not coming back and the number one thing that stuck out to me about the vikings defense today dane violence there was a lot of violence it was a a very physical game. They were ready to jump on Daniel Jones' back, as Dallas Turner literally did, to get his sack. But Grenard hit him.

Jahad Ward hit him. Andrew Van Ginkle hit him and then picked him off and took it in the end zone. Daniel Jones got beat up by this Vikings defense. And once again, it's been a long time since we felt like they manhandled a team they did not let them run at all even early in the game where there was some opportunities to do that and then they abused Daniel Jones up front but there was a play from Tillery there was a play from Harrison Phillips it was like everybody got in on this and I think it's a product of the money that they spent this offseason was just not discussed enough from the outside world. Of course, we talked about every detail, every signing and everything else. But maybe I should have had a Jerry Tillery emergency podcast. I don't know that I did. throughout training camp that he looked like a monster out there and that he was going to make a lot of plays and just instantly comes in and starts doing it. They spent on Gilmore, who played

a ton of snaps today, by the way. They spent on Grenard. They spent a high draft pick. And when you can invest that much into the defense, imagine, and I'm trying not to make too much of this about the former quarterback, but when you can spend that much money on the defensive side of the ball, this is the type of talent that you can put together. And we can't downplay that because this was the same quarterback that on a much less talented defense put up a ton of yards and won a playoff game. And today they made him look like he should never start again. Yeah. And I praise your restraint because you don't want to make this about the former quarterback and you haven't even mentioned his name yet. And we don't have to still because he's not here anymore. Tough day for him, though, I heard.

But let's just say it. Not signing Kirk Cousins or being able to spread that money around is a big reason why this defense is going to have as much talent as it has moving forward. And the talent matters. Jonathan Grenard coming off the edge matters. Dallas Turner on the other end matters. Andrew Van Ginkle, literally like the ultimate chess piece because he can line up off the edge.

He can play off ball. He can be on ball. He can play middle linebacker. He can hide behind an offensive lineman and jump out, scare Daniel Jones, pick it off, run it 10 yards into the end zone. All of those things are only possible because you have money to spend. And I think you're right. This was a good example of here's what you can have

when you don't have to spend this much money on one position. You can spread out the wealth across the roster, and you can really build a defense. The defense that they've built this offseason alone or the pieces that they've added to contribute to the puzzle as a whole, when's the last time we could say the defense was fun? And it's fun. The defense, it's a fun group of players right now,

and they're having fun and they're making plays. And it's kind of what I go back to with Sam Darnold and the offense. Like a lot of the things the defense did today I feel like is something that they could theoretically do moving forward too. I know you're going to play better teams. But Jonathan Grenard had double-digit sacks last year. Andrew Van Ginkle's played all over the field across his career. Like the pieces you – Blake Cashman, he was the green dot today. He finished with six tackles, I think.

He was flying around. Like these guys are capable, and they came in kind of with, you know, like maybe not so much fanfare because not household names, but I think the Vikings fans are going to know who they are and this this defense as a whole just couldn't have been more impressive today with the way they kind of handled everything from literally the jump like from the moment that CJ Hamm fumbles that ball the defense stands tall it's not a touchdown it's a field goal and they basically pitched a shutout from there on out Graham Gano hits a 50 yard field goal but even when the Giants were threatening to score garbage time touchdowns which

in the past might have paved the way for you know oh man this game's a little closer than it should be it wasn't. Harrison Smith picks him off in the end zone they stop him they force a turnover on downs just a dominant performance all around that can't be overstated. Well, I think in previous years, there were so many times where we would go into a season and we would be saying about a defense, well, you know, if this guy who's never done it before steps up, then maybe if, you know, a Caleb Evans, if Cam Dantzler from years past, well, someone who's never done it before has to do it. And on this defense at the current version, and we'll see about health and all that going forward, it seems like everybody came out

healthy from this game. You don't have to say that. What Andrew Van Ginkle did today, this isn't even the first time he's had that exact interception for a touchdown. He did it last year against Washington as well. Stephon Gilmore won the MVP. Jonathan Grenard had 12 and a half sacks last year. Even Jahad Ward has been around. I thought he had a great game as a situational rusher, revenge game, by the way, for Jahad Ward. He got his revenge, but he's a guy that's been around. He sacked quarterbacks before. I think he had five or six sacks even last season. You can go across the board. There isn't a lot of unprovenness to this team. And also, Ivan Pace Jr. was ready to play in this football game. I mean, he, at his locker, said something that made it to the internet.

I didn't really understand what the excitement about it was, but he certainly backed it up by just mashing people to start the game. I thought that that's what I mean about the physical and violent nature of this game, that they were, when they say impose the will, that's one of those great football cliches. They were ready to do that from the outset. You mentioned Blake Cashman. There was a play that I really, really liked from Andrew Van Ginkle. When we talk about this physical nature to this team, it was a fourth down and they were trying to run with Daniel Jones and the guard is pulling. And now Van Ginkle could try to go for the tackle, but I don't think he had the angle to get it.

So he just blows up the guard, explodes him, and then Bullard is able to make the tackle. Vikings get the ball back. Little plays like that have been missing from this defense for a long time, and it was always, hey, can they tape this together with some glue? I think that they can. But now, even when you have Shaq Griffin out there Shaq Griffin is a proven veteran player in the NFL and he was fine today and Byron Murphy's a proven player and he was fine today and then you start saying all right I think that this is the type of defense that week in and week out can be consistent and not a bunch of young players where you go well well, that guy had one good game maybe. And then the next week it's not a good game. Well, this is more of a group

that week in and week out can be the same. So yeah. Okay. Are you going to hold the San Francisco 49ers to six points or the Houston Texans? Absolutely not. You're going to have to score to beat those teams and to stay in it, but can you play with them on defense? Are they going to have a lot to worry about on defense? And remember, San Francisco did not play their best game against the Vikings and Brian Flores. I also felt like Brian Flores didn't have to send the house over and over and over again in this game. I'll be interested to look at the blitz statistics.

And there was a lot of guys lined up at the line of scrimmage at times. It just didn't feel like the all or nothing when they could allow some of those good players to take the reins here. And that's why when we talk about picking them as a fringe playoff team, well, this is part of the reason why, because we looked at all this talent in training camp and went, and then this is also why Stephon Gilmore, signing him could be a big thing because there isn't one corner.

And if we talk about the weaknesses are where you have to attack on defense who are they going to attack Malik neighbors had a couple of good plays today but there's not any one player that they could consistently go after now that Stefan Gilmore is here and what you have is a really complete overall defense yeah and I think like receivers in the NFL are good like Malik neighbors is going to be a good receiver at some point this year like receivers are going to make plays on this secondary it's just the nature of the beast in in the passing league but you're right when I when you say they can't just pick on a guy anymore and I do think that was something that you could do to the Vikings in the past you could pick on a Caleb Evans that He got benched towards the end of the year because you could pick on a Caleb Evans. And like Shaq Griffin's probably closer to the decline of his career than the prime of it. Same with Gilmore. But that goes back to your point about they're

proven players. They've done this. They've been there. And it's not like unreasonable to think they can continue to play at this level moving forward. When I watch today and reflect on what the defense did, I kind of think back to last year and what Brian Flores did for that stretch where the defense looked amazing. And it was like, wow, this guy should be a head coach. The job he's done with the defense last year with lack of talent all over the board was impressive but then it fell apart because they didn't have talent because there was such a gap there um you know with certain guys being asked to do way more than they should be asked to do

and and i'm having a hard time not just moving all of this you know this performance against the giants and making it the biggest thing ever because it's going to look different next week. But I think when you give Brian Flores talent, we see today what he can do with it. And I just think that the contrast of how things fell apart last year, when things got hard, I can't really see that happening this year with this defense just because of how much talent they have. So, I mean, I'm almost left speechless by how much they dominated today. I don't remember even Daniel Jones' stats. They were horrendous.

He was 22 of 42 for 186, 4.4 yards an attempt, two interceptions, took five sacks, looked like he should never play football again I mean, it was it was something something else by them Folks us cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten Ironic, we try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a qr code That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone company wanting people to use their phones less?

Ironic. Let's find us again with UsMode from U.S. Cellular. Visit visit us cellular.com slash built for us to get started we're getting everybody trying to make cameos on this uh post-game podcast uh just shows our popularity i think that's really what it is but to your point you have 4.4 yards per pass attempt i mean that's even if you were playing a backup quarterback, you would expect that they would do better than that. And that was really the Vikings defense as much as it was Jones because Jones was inaccurate on some throws. And then trying to separate those two things is difficult because he didn't get rid of the football quickly. He did bring the pressure on himself. He looked much slower than the last time we saw him when he was doing really well in the run game for himself and they couldn't get any run game going with him or with Devin Singletary and he looked really

hesitant he looked a little bit late on the reads but also how much of that is what they're throwing at him and how many times that they were able to confuse him and frustrate him to the point where he didn't know the first place he was going. And the more veteran players you have who have been in the defense or who have been around the NFL, the more you can do. And we saw Josh Metellus is out there every play in a different spot. At one point, he lined up at defensive tackle on a third down where he's over the guard. And that's a safety-ish Josh Metellus. It's just that there were so many different players lining up in different spots and so many different looks, but you can only do that and execute it if you have the types of guys that can handle it.

So what we're looking at is a very nice marriage between Talon and Flores, and this is also Flores' defense now. Last year he inherited a defense, threw a couple of parts on it, and said, OK, I'll figure it out. This is all players that are handpicked, including Stephon Gilmore, who was with Flores in New England and understands the way that New England defenses play. And you have all these guys, too, that Flores has brought here, whether it's a draft pick in Dallas Turner who gets his first sack,

or someone like Andrew Van Ginkle, who you know Flores absolutely loved. And Van Ginkle credited Brian Flores with his career. He said, this is the reason I'm here, guys, is because Brian Flores found the right ways to use me. And when you have it coming together with the talent, because in some years they had the talent and not the coaching like 2022, but when you have the talent and a lot of guys in their prime this isn't hoping to get the last ounce of talent out of somebody uh harrison smith can still play everyone else is in their 20s and is pretty young uh but other than of course stefan gilmore but this this is mostly a veteran but also like not washed defense with somebody who gets in his

bag and calls all sorts of things, and that's why you end up giving up six points to Daniel Jones here. But everything kind of has to be in week one through the lens of how is this going to look, can they keep doing this, and they can keep doing this. They can't keep giving up 4.4 yards per pass attempt because that's insane, but they can keep doing this. Whenever they play a bad quarterback, they're going to have a big advantage. And that might be Malik Willis in a few weeks, by the way, with Jordan Love getting hurt. And when they play good quarterbacks, it's going to even the playing field. And let me tie this back to Sam Darnold. The whole idea, and we've seen it before in Vikings history, the whole

idea is when you have a quarterback that has some talent and has some flaws, you have to be able to have all the parts of the team working. The defense has to get a stop for you in the red zone. The defense has to take the ball away. Then your running game has to have Aaron Jones getting key first downs and scoring in the end zone. And today was defense playing off the offense, and Kevin O'Connell talked about it after the game, but I thought it was enormous for everyone when they got that stop after C.J. Hamm's fumble because everyone went, okay, hey, we're good.

The three points, no big deal. Let's just get the ball back and get back out there and get rolling. I think if they had given up a touchdown, I'm not saying the game is different because the talent was on two different levels. Both teams, though, I think had the same Vegas over under, which kind of tells you something about those and how accurate those are not. But when they made that stop, that was the defense bailing out the offense, then the offense taking advantage and coming back on. And this is how you end up with a team that can overachieve from what people on the outside think that they were going to do, is if they can play off each other, all these different parts, the way that they did today.

Yeah, it's funny because I think the words complimentary football are such like a football buzzword that coaches use and people are like like what the heck does that actually mean complimentary football is actually what we saw play out today um and i thought that that's a great you know thing that you brought up like the complimentary football like i sound like kevin o'connell um the complimentary football about the technique and fundamentals do you think those are good today let's get let's act in were those techniques good let's get everyone activated you know about five five active yeah But the complementary football, seriously, like of screwing up pretty big. Like you harp ball security and then you fumble on the first possession. And for the defense to be able to step up and not only hold them to a field goal,

but hold them to a field goal, give the ball back to the offense, who's then able to capitalize. Like I said, they got kind of bailed out with a pass interference penalty. But they didn't kick a field goal. Aaron Jones bounced outside. They scored a touchdown. Like, those swings in a game, like, that's complimentary football in a vacuum. And that's something that I'll keep saying, like, I think is repeatable.

I get it. Like, everyone's going to watch this game and be like, the Giants are horrible. And they would be right. I think they are. But the Vegas line going this game and be like, the Giants are horrible. And they would be right. I think they are. But the Vegas line going into this game, it was not Vikings minus 6, Vikings minus 10. A lot of people thought this was a toss-up. And while predictions can be wrong a lot, as we see, Vegas is hardly ever this wrong, where it's 22 points instead of you know a 1.5 I think

the Vikings were giving up you know one and a half points like my point being like the talent's there and I don't think the Giants are going to continue to look this horrendous move I think what I guess what I'm saying is you have to give the Vikings some credit for what they've done and to say like this is a bad football team the offense've done and to say like this is a bad football team the offense isn't going to look like this moving forward this is a bad football team the defense isn't going to look like this moving forward like why why if that's our takeaway from this like why are we even watching the game like what what what do the games even matter because all we can go off of is what we saw today and what we saw today is a team that I think is

going to surprise a lot of people across the NFL maybe not surprise people who are around them because I do think like if you really listen and pay attention and you're there like the talent was obvious it's implied they really think it would have been impossible this team went like three games just because the talent's there but I really do think they're going to surprise people and I think we saw a glimpse of that with kind of how everything married together today on the field I want to do something new this year on our post-game podcast I want to go through the positions and grade them in the coaching so we could go you know I think we'll go back and forth I'll give one then you give you give one. So quarterback, me, running back, you.

We'll do it like that. I want to do it for every single postgame. But real quick, in case you were wondering, the update that we got on Jordan Addison was that he hurt his other ankle from the one that he injured. There are two ankles potentially that it could have been, and it was the one that was not injured before. So it was not a re-aggravation but an aggravation instead,

which I don't think is really good news. And when we talk about at the end kind of this going forward and what it all means toward the next week, that is a big deal for them with his health. Now we're talking about two ankles that have been injured for Jordan Addison, and even though he didn't have a big stat line today, those couple of catches that he had where he broke off some awesome routes, that's a major factor for Sam Darnold to have the multiple weapons.

And Naylor can step up occasionally. And Brandon Powell and Josh Oliver actually had a great catch. He let one rip across the middle. Maybe his first really good throw was that hard 22-yard pass to Josh Oliver. But Addison is a first-round pick star-wide receiver that they need to be healthy. And I think it is concerning for the passing game if he's going to be out for multiple weeks. Again, we'll figure it out. We didn't get that as a report.

We'll find out as the week goes on. Is it something that is going to hurt him today and he'll be okay? Or is it something that is going to be a problem going forward so let's go position by position i will let you start out with the quarterback position how would you grade sam darnold for the day b plus and i i just i won't go to an i'll go a minus like he he was good but there was one player who you're going to probably talk about next who deserves the A. But Sam Darnold did everything that you would want him to do today in his debut, as we've talked about it in length.

So B plus, A minus. I'll go A minus because they won the football game in dominant fashion with him leading the charge. So he was ultra impressive. Anything else other than those two, like, waffling grades, like, what are we doing? He was ultra impressive. Anything else other than those two waffling grades, what are we doing? He was really good. Yeah, I think B plus, A minus is the perfect grade. He got ahead in the game, and he didn't have to throw 40 passes when you're ahead in the game as opposed to playing a one-score game every single time where you have to throw 42 throws.

Instead, get ahead and then protect the football. But, you know, the interception, even if it wasn't his fault, it's still an interception. And there were a couple times where the play call didn't get to him or he didn't get something lined up correctly right away. They had to burn timeouts, which meant absolutely nothing today. But tomorrow, you know, Sunday, next Sunday, could be something. If they don't get that corrected, it'll be easier at home.

But if we're nitpicking away at that, probably A-minus I would lean toward because the good throws were really good, and I can't ask him to do anything more than he did to win the game by 22 points. But, yes, Aaron Jones, A-plus. There you go. Couldn't have been better. I mean, this is a superstar performance from him. 6.7 yards per carry.

He broke tackles. He pushed forward. He got in the end zone. He did everything. And when they tried to run out the clock with Ty Chandler, they handed off to a few times, then punted away. And it was like, all right, let's get Aaron Jones back out there. And then game over. Immediately just broke some tackles. And it was a reminder of how much of a nuisance Delvin Cook was for opponents when he was at his best. Because there was just no answer for hand the ball off. And how much pressure is there on Sam Darnold when you do this? None. Zero. Hand the ball off and let this man do his thing.

And he was getting first downs by himself. Explosive runs by himself. I mean, he is just a fighter and he has this natural thing. You know how Jefferson has this natural ball tracking thing where it looks like the matrix. It's the same thing. And O'Connell after the game called it milliseconds. Like he identifies stuff in milliseconds and to score that touchdown was huge. The way he ran the ball was huge. A plus you can't do much better in as a running back than what Aaron Jones did today. So wide receivers.

Wide receivers, just B. They didn't do a lot. They didn't have to do a lot. But the play that really helped open this game up was a 44-yard pass to the best receiver in football. That was important. So they weren't insignificant in this game, but there were people that probably stood out above them. But Justin Jefferson finishes with four catches, 59 yards, a touchdown on that 99-yard drive that we've talked about. 44-yard completion on the left sideline that Justin talked about after the game. He said a lot of quarterbacks

aren't willing to throw that ball, aren't comfortable throwing that ball because there is a double coverage. It's a safety over the top with the cornerback on him. Sam Darnold ripped it. It shows the confidence he has in Justin Jefferson, which he should have confidence in Justin Jefferson. That was an important play in the game. And then obviously the fourth down where they go for it on the three-yard line. I probably wouldn't single up Jefferson on the three-yard line.

The Giants chose to. The Vikings motioned a guy away, made sure Jefferson was on an island. He ran a hard slant. Darnold hit him right in the numbers. Jefferson caught it. Touchdown. So I'm not going to go A because I feel like A is reserved for spectacular. B, like Justin Jefferson did everything you need him to do.

He just didn't have to be extremely prolific today. Jordan Addison, like you say, he finishes with three catches, 35 yards. Nothing special, but pretty big plays on that long touchdown drive. And we go down the list. Jalen Naylor, the play call that he scored a touchdown on operated perfectly. I'm going to give a lot of credit to Kevin O'Connell for that, drawing up that. Obviously the players have to make it come to life.

Jalen Naylor has to fake the block, catch the touchdown in wide open space. But he was schemed open there, and he, to his credit, made it happen. But I'll go B because they didn't have to do anything spectacular today. They just had to do their job, which they did. I will go for the offensive line a B-. And if we grade this on a curve, knowing who they were going up against, so it's a B- overall, meaning they did give up some pressures. They did give up a couple of hits on Sam Darnold and the sack

to start the game to Dexter Lawrence, who when he ran out and they were cheering for him in the introductions, once again, that is a huge man. That is such an impressive dude. And he ran right by Ed Ingram to start the game. We thought it was going to be a long day. And at times it was. And at times they got through and made you know some pressure some negative uh run plays not too many though but overall a b minus against a defensive line of this caliber that's by far the best part of this entire new york giants team i think is sort of like getting a b plus or like getting an a against an average team but it's an above average

defensive line that they did a really nice job of managing throughout. And that's where if you have the one weakness, the one weak point, and I don't know how Blake Brandel did, although PFF is putting out live grades now. Did you know that we can actually go look, I can actually call up how good PFF thought Blake Brandel did. How about this for life in the fast lane? I mean, you guys... Oh, wait. Where was it? I'll get it. Hold on. This is worth the time. Pass blocking. Oh, it's the... Wait. Did they not put it up? Okay.

Oh, under review now. Okay, never mind. They have them during the game, but I guess now they're reviewing them. Either way... It's week one, guys. Either way. We're still working our way through that, but during the game, I could look at the snap counts. But I guess what PFF must be doing is putting them up during the game and then reviewing them after and then posting them when they have their final grades. Anyhow, I thought that Blake Brandel looked like he played

really well in this game. And if you have one weakness, you can survive that weakness. And that's what they did today. They survived their weaknesses. The tackles were great. I didn't notice Thibodeau. I didn't notice Brian Burns all that much. Just eliminated from the game by the offensive tackles. If you get a B, B minus performance every week, you're going to give Darnold a lot of time to throw and he's going to be able to be the quarterback he can be. So I say B minus with it also. Pat on the back. Great job by the Vikings offensive line. Yeah, B minus with worried early on it could be an So I say B- with it also. Pat on the back. Great job by the Vikings offensive line. Yeah, B- with worried early on it could be an F. How would that first drive transpire? D-line, do I, I don't get the edge rushers. I just get the, I just get the guys up front. You can have

the edge rushers. You know, we're not going to have you just do Bullard and Phillips. You get the edge rushers. The whole, the D-line and outside linebackers, grade them. I mean, they're right in the same ballpark as Sam Darnold to me, B plus, A minus. I might have to go straight A because one of the edge rushers got a pick six that slammed the door shut on this game, and he was everywhere. And just the pressure that I think Daniel Jones felt from this defensive line, like, yeah, that can't be overstated. So it has to be an A because I really think they made him uncomfortable throughout the exotic looks. It can look like this before the snap. It can look like something completely different after the snap. That screws with the quarterback's head, but so does getting just polarized over the course of a game, and the defensive line made Daniel Jones feel them throughout the entire game. So yeah, we'll go A because they were the driving force behind

just an incredible performance that we've talked about at length. A tremendous performance from the defense, I think, led largely by the guys up front, the front seven. I think that's why they won the game, in the fashion that they did. They may have won anyway, but there wasn't a whole lot of chance for Daniel Jones to succeed with the way this Vikings defensive line performed. And the interior does not have a Grady Jarrett. It doesn't have a Dexter Lawrence to it.

Solid, though. Shut down the run, stuff the middle, allow for blitzing lanes, do your job in there, and you can have the star talents, the highly paid guys, fly around behind you. And sometimes when guys don't get a lot of pressures, then we immediately go, well, you know, he's not that sometimes when guys don't get a lot of pressures, then we immediately go, well, you know, he's not that good. He doesn't get a lot of pressures. Harrison Phillips, I think, is a very good player.

That last year he got worn down and his PFF grade went down and down because he was playing more snaps than he should have to. But I think even there's a reason. We saw Taki Taimani out there for nine or ten snaps today. It was like this dude can just move bodies, and he's strong in there, and it can allow those other dudes to do whatever they want. We've seen a lot of great defensive end and outside linebacker performances, so I don't want to go too hyperbolic about what Andrew Van Ginkle did today.

But as far as an all-around, and they usually call these guys chess piece type players, one of the most interesting dudes I think I've seen on any Vikings team, and this is a team that already has one of those in Josh Metellus, but when Kevin O'Connell was talking about it after the game, he was saying, like I was trying to describe to you guys at some point what Andrew Van Ginkle does, and I really couldn't because he's just a ball player. He's out there playing inside linebacker, outside linebacker, rushing from each side, dropping back, rushing the quarterback. They don't know where he's going to be, and you saw it pay off with a touchdown, but you also see the way that that guy plays.

You'd get an A if you just had a guy play that good, and then they had multiple guys play like that. I will just bunch in linebackers. So if you're going to do D-line and O-line, I'll do the back, whatever number of players that is. Really good performance from Ivan Pace. Well done by Blake Cashman to operate a defense that he is just joining this year. I don't remember too many times.

When you allow four yards per pass, there's not too many times people got beat, toasted, mossed, anything. And how much does that speak to Daniel Jones and the pressure he was facing and they're interconnected. But I thought it was a solid B plus, if not better for the secondary Harrison Smith with the interception was big. So you turn the ball over in a good way. You play off of the pressure. They made tackles. I didn't think there was a lot of missed tackles. And, I mean, maybe there's a few plays where they give up third downs

that were regrettable. So I can't say that it was absolutely perfect, but it was close. It was as close to about as good as you could play there. And as far as – so I'm just going to go with an a minus there for the entire you know back seven six how many ever players were on the field for them and as far as teams special teams no kickoffs no returns come on come on you're killing i really want that back there was a touchdown for a return for touchdown in arizona with the bills and the cardinals or i guess it was in buffalo and dj dallas return won 96 yards and that didn't happen here so there wasn't much there ryan writes punting was fine jay ward had a penalty they had a couple penalties yeah so i wouldn't give the

special teams a perfect grade, but we don't need to do that. Coaching. Grade the coaching. They were great. I think we can drill down on specific moments where they were great. I think the play call by Kevin O'Connell on the goal line or I guess in the red zone where you're asking Sam Darnold to really sell that screen to Justin Jefferson

and both those guys do it. And then Jalen Naylor sells that he's blocking and leaks out for the touchdown. That's good scheme. It's good coaching to make sure everyone is operating as they should be. Kevin O'Connell, another buzzword, talks about intent of the play. The intent of the play was for that to go exactly the way it did. So that's good coaching, like in a vacuum, like in a one singular part of the game. But just from a macro level, just really, really good coaching all around.

I think just the ability to not say, oh, here we go again when C.J. Hamm fumbles the ball. Like I think that speaks to coaching. The fact that you have everyone kind of with this intestinal belief that you're going to overcome this early spout of adversity, that plays a role in it. So A, from the coaching side, on the offensive side of the ball, it's obviously like Brian Flores is looped into that A grade for just how miserable he made life for Daniel Jones all game.

I get it. The players have to make it come to life, but good coaching performances often can be a separator in the NFL. And while we saw an A-level coaching performance top to bottom from the Vikings today, the Giants were a disaster in every single way. So I think that grade of an A for the Vikings and their coaching is almost even more hammered home by how horrendous the Giants looked almost at every turn. The coaching today, outside of you'd have to get really in the nitpicky weeds to talk about any play call decisions,

there was a moment, though, where I said, when they threw the interception, Kevin, run the ball. You have Aaron Jones now. Don't forget you have Aaron Jones. Run the ball. Because they were up 21-6 maybe at that point. run the ball because they were up 21 to six, maybe at that point, run the ball. Once you get ahead, run the ball. So I would maybe nitpick a little bit at that because throwing the ball down the field at that point was not necessary. And the timeouts that

they had to waste, they didn't mean a thing, but they could have, if Daniel Jones had come back, we're talking about very, very small things. But the preparation of the entire team, this is what we need to talk about, is really how prepared they were to play against the New York Giants. And it was a lot more prepared than the Giants were to play against them. They seemed one step ahead on both sides of the ball. Receivers were open. Run lanes were open.

We criticized the run scheme a lot. Well, it does look a lot better with Aaron Jones, as Kevin O'Connell, I think, alluded to at one point in one of his press conferences. Kind of said, well, you know, the running back, or maybe it was Wes Phillips, the running back can make things look better sometimes if he's not wink, wink. The guy we had wink, wink last year. And, well, they were right for today. That was really, really well done on the run side play calling going for the fourth down now the one thing i did wonder about was not going for the fourth down at the end of the half but i agreed with the punt they committed a

penalty on the punt but i i felt you're you're crushing this team don't open the door at all for them make daniel jones travel the entire distance so the in-game management was okay, if not good. Going for that first fourth down was huge. Trusting Darnold, showing that trust right away in Darnold. Hey, I believe in you. I've been saying it, but it's really true. Now throw it to Jefferson and give me a dang touchdown, and then he did.

So really good job. The game plan, the scheme, the play calling, all excellent from the Vikings. I do think, though, as we go forward and they play the 49ers and Texans, that we won't give an A or B plus or something to every position, but that's the kind of day it was. I'm really interested to see how this goes as we go along in the season for giving out our grades for each position and the coaching. But today, it's hard to criticize almost anything. And I feel weird, Dane, because we have so rarely covered blowouts. And I'm like, wait, shouldn't I be saying something else about someone else?

Who did bad? Was it anyone? No, not really. Not when you win like this. Yeah, well, like when I'm sitting there at the end of the game being like, I don't know why Kevin's running Aaron Jones. Get him off the field. Like, what if he gets hurt?

Like, that's just because I don't have anything else to talk about like and and just for people at home who might not have seen the press conference the reason Aaron Jones is on the field is Kevin wanted to get him 100 like that matters too to players like just letting players succeed and and chase milestones chase goals he actually said on the last handoff that Aaron Jones got he told him before this is your last chance so you better break one if you want 100. Finish with 94. I think we'll be fine with that. But you're right.

We're so used to being like, okay, did they do something wrong? No, they really didn't. Not today. So, I mean, very rarely over the last few years have we talked about. There was, I mean, the opener of Kevin O'Connell's first game against Green Bay, but I was racking my brain. How many games have we have walked away and said, wow, just great job across the board. Maybe when you win with Josh Dobbs and he just shows up and you're, I'm forgiving everybody

for anything, but in this one, and when it comes to deciding whether your team is good or not, I've made this argument for years and it was really the 2022 Viking argument. Isn't it crazy that they won 13 games in a season, but never had a win like this? It's Viking argument. Isn't it crazy that they won 13 games in a season but never had a win like this? Isn't that wild? Isn't sports weird, everybody? But I've always thought that blowouts are more indicative of how good a team is. This goes for basketball. It's kind of a long-held basketball belief.

Then, well, we eked out this win or that win against whatever team. And we still would have praised Darnold and everything else if they had won by three, but blowing a team out shows more talent across the board, I think, and projects better into the future than had they just squeaked one out. Let's talk about what it all does mean now going forward. I think that this is a nice little warm up game for a beast monster that's going to show up at U.S. Bank Stadium. They get to be at home.

They get to bring in more confidence. They get to look back at some of the things that maybe didn't work as well as they wanted and what really worked and what Sam Darnold was in control of. And this was so big for them, even just to get this win because the next two, three games are so difficult, depending on Jordan Love's status, to now have a little bit of a buffer here. But suddenly, instead of saying, well, OK, loss, loss, you go, ha, now wait a minute. We don't we don't have to say that. I would still probably lean toward picking the 49ers next week. We'll see. We'll go through it. See who's healthy, see how the 49ers play and all that.

But it evens the playing field in my mind now when you know that Sam Darnold is capable of playing the way that he did, the point guard style. If Addison can't play, that will hurt quite a bit, quite a bit, because the drop off from Addison to the next best receiver is significant but on the defensive side now I'm going to be going into this saying that this this one this one could be knock down drag out with San Francisco where it's both teams throwing haymakers at each other on defense and it is a really great test for this defense that we're praising so much today to go against one of the best offenses in the entire NFL next week.

It went from, if they had lost today, we would have just been like, I don't know, don't even, there's a post game next week, but you don't have to watch to, whoa, we got ourselves, we got ourselves a ball game for tomorrow. And just the last few days have been a forever reminder that off season is fun and we love projecting and we love ranking and we wonder what's going to happen to this team and we get into week one we got Tyreek Hill getting arrested before the game and then going out there and doing

a handcuff celebration we got Dak Prescott being paid 60 million dollars 55 more million than JJ McCarthy will make next year it sounds pretty good to me. With the rookie quarterback contract, imagine spending money on a bunch of players and they're good. Oh yeah, we saw that today here with the Vikings. But all of a sudden we go into this game saying, reminder, NFL is unpredictable and we don't know until they actually get out there. And the first impression of the Minnesota Vikings 2024 was about as good as it possibly could have been, which makes next week ramped way up with the energy inside the building and even the excitement for this team. Because I think if Darnold had struggled and it had looked bad and they had not won or maybe just barely, if it was nine to six or something, it would have been OK.

Well, but this changes the vibe of what it means now to play San Francisco at home next week. Yeah, and I think that's probably the most fun thing that Vikings fans will kind of walk away with. I remember having a conversation with one of my friends before I left for this trip back in Minnesota. Diehard Vikings fan. And he was talking about just how important this game was to him and his fandom this year because if they lose, all of a sudden you're looking like, are we going to start 0-5, 0-6? Like, look at this schedule.

And what this game allows is for, one, like some buffer. You're 1-0 now. You get to not to win and you know in the belt but you get to test like what all this meant next week and I think it's really cool that they can have such a dominant performance against a team like the Giants and the way the schedule works out is they have to go right up against maybe the best team in the NFC so we're going to learn a lot about the Vikings next week. But I think it's like kind of a privilege that we get to walk into that knowing like,

okay, we're about to learn a lot about this team instead of kind of preparing for like, oh my God, how bad could this thing get? Which is what it would have felt like if we were walking out of MetLife Stadium after the Vikings had just limped their way to a loss. So it's all good things, obviously. They won 28-6. But I'm really excited for next week because I am excited to see what this means for the rest of the season. And each week of the season, to take a word out of Kirk Cousins' book, is its own entity.

And that's true. Just because you play good one week doesn't mean you're going to play good the next week. season, like to take a word out of Kirk Cousins' book, is its own entity. And that's true. Like, just because you play good one week doesn't mean you're going to play good the next week, and vice versa. Just because you play bad one week doesn't mean you're going to play bad the next week. But when you line it all up and you add them all up over the course of three or four months, that's when the good teams and the bad teams kind of show themselves, you know, over the course. So I'm excited to see where this team stands we truly don't know yet but we do know that this was just a dominant performance today and it really makes next week way more exciting than I think we even thought it was going to be

walking into this building final thought for me what I wrote in my postgame recap which you can see go to purpleinsider.substack.com. It's out there. Or my Twitter, I just put it out there. Subscribe to the newsletter. I've got 40% off for the season, which is a lot of percent. So make sure you go check that out. Analytics, Purple Insider.

If you go to purpleinsider.football.substack.com, whatever you do, it'll take you there. So go check that out. But what I wrote was that before the kickoff, I said to you, and I forgot it was Eastern time and showed up really early to this stadium today. He did. What I said to you was, this is the first time in a long time where I've felt anxious about a game sitting in the press box beforehand because I just had no idea what was going to happen.

And kind of this nervous excitement, like, let's play some football. Let's find out what this team in the 2024 Vikings is going to actually be and I haven't had that feeling in a very long time because even when they had the 13 win season I still felt like I knew exactly what they were exactly what was going to be their downfall their strengths their weaknesses the quarterback it told you it was always going to be close, and it was always going to be fun at times and miserable at times, and that's just who they were, and always it would come out not good enough. But now we don't know where this train is headed,

and for it to happen like it did today then carries that momentum of some nervous excitement into the future here, into next week, to see, well, what's it going to look like then, and how is this going to go after this? And that's a fun feeling, I think, for everybody who's watching, covering the Vikings to come back and do this podcast and go, well, we'll do it again next week and see what happens then. And I'm sure there will be some rollercoaster moments for this team overall.

Also, shout out to the New York Giants for their press box food, their situation. We got a nice little booth we have here. We're kind of in an igloo where everybody's seen them walking by, but just a great setup for us. One of my favorite for covering teams. So I appreciate that. And they opened the doors for me when, again, I thought the game was at noon, but we're in Eastern time. I was here like nine o'clock in the morning. So I was ready for football, but that's the way I'm going to approach each week. I think Dane is just now, let's find out again about this team and slowly build up this who are they profile of the 2024 Vikings. And just like when they drafted J.J. McCarthy and I said, remember everything I said about him in the draft?

Throw it out. I don't care about it anymore. It doesn't matter because once he throws a pass in purple, that's a different thing. It's the same with this. I think it's going to be a certain sort of team before yesterday. And now I have new information about what this team is going to be, and we're going to judge them just week to week going forward.

So next week will be really entertaining. Brian Murphy, Monday Morning Murph. We'll have Jeremiah Searles. We'll have live show Thursday night. Well, actually, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday night. So make sure that if you're new to the channel, watch this for the first time. Oh, and shout out to our new technology, new microphones. You've got little ones, easier to travel with, new webcam, great stuff.

So any final thoughts for you, Dane? No, I think it's just kind of what I said to you as we were walking downstairs for interviews, and I kind of touched on it a little bit over the past hour. But I feel like the narrative of this team heading into this year, at least from an external standpoint, was everything they lost. How's the offense going to look without Kirk Cousins? How is the defense going to look without Daniil Hunter?

How are they going to move forward without these pillar guys that have been here? And nobody was talking about the spending spree they went on in free agency and what they brought in and not what they lost, but what they gained in and not what they lost but what they gained by losing certain pieces and I thought it was really cool to watch Sam Darnold Aaron Jones and Andrew Van Ginkle and I'll even add Jonathan Bernard in there because he you know he had some pressures and Blake Cashman like all the players that they signed all the players that they brought in to make up from the players that they lost,

they performed at an extremely high level today. And I thought that was kind of a poetic way to push this kind of new team forward. They got to unveil the new look. It looked pretty damn good. There you go. All right. Thanks, everybody, for watching. We got to go write some stuff and we will catch you. Actually, I'll still be in my hotel when I record with Murph, but for the most part, back in Minnesota next week, U.S. Bank Stadium is going to be insane. Maybe this is the year they let the Dragons fire return. Please, Roger, please. I need that fire before the game. It'll be a great atmosphere for the opener. It always is for the Vikings. So all next week, tons of shows, tons of articles. Make sure you check it out. It should be an

exciting one leading up to the 49ers, and we'll catch you guys then. Thanks so much. Huge crowd today. Really appreciate everybody watching along. So take care. Enjoy this win. Football.

Did we do it? As far as I know. Did that record? I believe that it came out great. I didn't get any messages from Jonathan.