Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings defense falls apart as they fall to Giants

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic break down the Vikings' putrid defensive performance against the Giants, Kirk Cousins' checkdown at the end and whether the season was a success despite the very disappointing ending. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Liquid Death, delicious water that's bringing death to plastic. Learn more at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to the final Minnesota Vikings postgame show of the 2022 season. The Vikings lose in their lone playoff game to the New York Giants, 31-24. And Matthew Collar, Paul Hodwanek here as always. And I have to tell you something, Paul, to start this, I'm really kind of in shock. I mean, not in shock that they lost, but we just became so used to the way these things went that at some point in the fourth quarter, sitting next to me as always as Judd Zolged, and I said to Judd, I think what's going to happen is they'll get a stop. They'll punt the ball back. The Vikings will tie this game. We'll

go to overtime and then the Vikings will win the coin flip. They will kick a 43 yard field goal after Justin Jefferson gets a big gain. And then I will book a trip out to Santa Clara to see them play the San Francisco 49ers. And we will spend the whole week talking about how there's no way they beat the 49ers. And that's how I saw it going until the final throw that was short of the sticks. And we'll talk about that and what Kevin O'Connell had to say about it. But even when Kirk Cousins made that throw to TJ Hawkinson, my brain said, I must have the down wrong. I must think that it's third down because there's no way that he just did that after a season in which Kirk Cousins took his game to a different level in the key moments. That was very much quintessential of a 2018 through 2022 Kirk Cousins moment where he plays spectacularly through the whole game.

And then when they needed at the very end and their defense has failed them repeatedly again, we'll get to it. That he just, that's just not what he does anymore. That there's so many weapons that this team has so many clutch players and boy, none more than TJ Hawkinson on this day, who was all over the place, made play after play in the clutch third and fourth down conversions over and over again. And I just could not compute. And I was looking around like at the scoreboard and at the sidelines.

And I was like, that that's it that's it it's over the season is over right there the season is over what that's how it ends and it is and now everyone looks around in kind of a state of shock I mean Kevin O'Connell said that he believed all the way to the end all the way to the last play that they were going to score a touchdown and that they were going to go to overtime. And he looked kind of shook up and Kirk Cousins in the locker room after the game at the podium said that this was the hardest loss of his career to handle because they won 13 games because they were in a position when you get to that many wins in the regular season to make a case for yourself as a potential Superbowl contender. And they do not escape a team that, look, I respect Daniel Jones

a lot more than I did going into this season, but does not have one of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL. And my gosh, they made him look like that in so many ways. Of course, Kevin O'Connell was not willing to commit to any sort of offseason change yet. The season just came to an end. And it's always tough when you have to ask, like, after that, are you going to fire your defensive coordinator?

I mean, of course, I think we're all on the same page about what they should do after a game like this, that it just was the nightmare scenario for them that at some point the luck would run out, the magic would run out, and boy, did the Giants try to help them at the end. A Darius Slayton drop that would have just ended the game right there, and then a roughing the passer call that was pretty questionable and had the internet losing its mind, and yet after that, the luck still ran out, and the Giants made one more play than the Vikings, and they will move on, and the Minnesota Vikings will not, and look, we're going to talk about in the

coming days, was it a successful season after this happened, despite the regular season, you know, 13 wins and how this all ended. Like, how do we look at this? How do we look at their future? There's so much to discuss. And even they know, like guys in the locker room, we're talking about like, we might not be together next year. And I can guarantee you a lot of players who were on this team will not be next season so there's a lot of thoughts that are kind of running through my head all at once at the moment but Paul I think my main reaction is just that throughout the season this was everyone's nightmare after every one of those one score games after 61 yard field goals to end games and fumbled QB sneaks and interceptions that made no sense and fumbles and everything else. What the biggest fear was that you can't win every single

one score game and that your defense is so weak that somebody might just take advantage of it without turning the ball over. And this is one of the best teams in the NFL at not turning the ball over and, and look, they would have won the last game if they hadn't had a couple of turnovers. So it looked very much the same as the last game against the Giants. Only this time, Patrick Peterson didn't jump in front of a route. They didn't cause a fumble. And when this defense doesn't cause any turnovers, which are random, which do bounce up and down all the time from game to game and season to season, that was always the fear, was if this defense does not get kind of a lucky

turnover, somebody doesn't throw him the ball or fumble that they will just not get a stop and that, and they'll lose. And there was several of them where they usually have a third and one, a fourth and one, you know, play here, there, the red zone, where normally they get those stops and they just didn't today. They gave up too many points, could not chase down the New York Giants on the offensive side,

where, look, I mean, the margin of error is so thin when your defense is the worst in the NFL. It just is. Like, you couldn't have asked Kirk Cousins to play a better game. He was fantastic, nothing short of it. But you can't have a goofy fourth down play or third down play where you throw. He was fantastic. Nothing short of it, but you can't have a goofy fourth down play or third down play where you throw it to your quarterback. You can't, you just can't have any mistakes at all. And that's a hard place to be. And that's why teams who rank 28th in defense don't go to the Superbowl because it's just too hard to play perfect on offense every

single week. So I guess that's like a bunch of things that are words that I said about this game, Paul, where would you like to begin the conversation? Yeah, I think it has to be with the defense. I mean, in the playoffs, your biggest weaknesses are heightened and exploited to the nth degree. And the black eye on this Viking season, the entirety of the season has been its defense time and time again. They've been unreliable. They've been predictable, like in terms of where they're going to be and what they're going to play. And they've been soft. I think, I mean, against the Packers, the Lions, the Cowboys, the Eagles, the Patriots, the Bills, and now the Giants twice. Daniel Jones kind of lit them up the first game that they played against him. And then this one,

they went even further. And Daniel Jones is, I think, the third quarterback ever in an NFL playoff game to have more than 300 yards passing and 70 yards rushing. It's him, Steve Young, and Lamar Jackson. And I think that's as much a Daniel Jones stat as it is a Vikings defense stat. Because while I think Daniel Jones made some strides this year, I think everyone in the New York organization, even before this game, it was pretty much on the, okay, we probably need to think Daniel Jones made some strides this year, I think everyone in the New York organization, even before this game, it was pretty much on the, okay, we probably need to extend Daniel Jones for a while. But man, he looked like a different echelon of quarterback.

And I'm not so sure if that's because of him elevating his player, the Vikings defense. After watching 18 Vikings games, it feels like it's more on the defense than it is anything else. But the Giants didn't punt until the third quarter. They were averaging, I think at halftime, like nine yards per play, which is just astronomical. It was seven yards after the third quarter. I think it settled at like a reasonable 6.3, which makes it look so much better than it was.

6.3 is bad, but it looks so much better now in the final stat sheet than it was just drive in and drive out. And I think the Cousins' play is going to get so much run as it should. He should get a lot of blame and focus for that play. But they're not in that position if the defense can make any sort of impact at any point throughout this game. I mean, this Vikings defense has been the issue all season long. It's not new.

They've had so much time to figure it out. And I get that they have big deficiencies at certain spots. But I think Vikings were like 15th in defensive spending. The Bears, the Lions, the Giants, all teams that had really bad defenses. The Cardinals were all kind of in that bottom five with the Vikings. They're in like the bottom five or 10 in defensive spending. They forecasted not being good. The Vikings didn't forecast the defense not being good.

They forecasted it or hoped it to be average. They had an above average defensive line. They have players that can play in Eric Hendricks and Harrison Smith. Obviously they have areas they need to clean up. No one is denying that, but this defensive unit was never supposed to be this bad. And today might've been their worst performance because yeah, they didn't have that one play that really kind of saves you from kind of

looking at the rest of it. Like a lot of these clues were there game in and game out and we pointed them out, but they always had something to go back to and say, but they came up in the big moments. They didn't on this game today. They fourth and one late in that game. They get that play. The giants were in the red zone constantly. They fourth and one late in that game. They get that play. The Giants were in the red zone constantly. They scored on several occasions. It just didn't even have the teeth there. When if you were able to say one redeeming quality about the Vikings, it was that in certain spots,

they came up in timely spots when they needed to. That just didn't happen today. So to me, the first, second, third, fourth reason the Vikings lost this game was the defense. And it was completely predictable, which makes it a failure for your roster management. It's a failure of coaching and it's a failure of players because that was your weakness all year. And you did not do anything at any point this year. And particularly in this game to change the perspective on that whatsoever. Yeah. And that's a hard discussion to have. Is it the scheme or is it the players whose names we know but may not be the same versions of themselves? I think that what we saw was a defense whose weak links were so unbelievably weak that just someone was out there to be taken advantage of and even just small plays like that are talent related because we look at the big names Patrick Peterson, Zedaria Smith, Daniil Hunter, Delvin Tomlinson

we go like man those guys have had great seasons and they're so good at football but you know somebody like Cam Bynum there was a key play and I don't remember when it was because they had so many successful key plays uh where it was a little pass out to the flat. And all they need is a good athlete to make a play and make a big tackle there. And, you know, the guy dodges, combine them and gets a few more yards and keeps the drive going. And I think that was the one they ultimately scored the go ahead touchdown on. And there's just so many times where you need one routine stop. You need somebody to be covered.

And every slant route once again was wide open. And that's where you wonder, like, is it, is it the players? Is it the scheme? If teams are doing the same things over and over and over to you and you can't stop them, what is it? Saquon Barkley averaged six yards to carry against them today. And I thought that throughout the game, they could have given him the ball more. Like there were passing opportunities and running, not that you can criticize the Giants offensive game plan, but it's amazing that there were even more opportunities on the table for Saquon Barkley to completely dominate this defense.

And so no matter how you swing back and forth on this, like, well, you know, Chandon Sullivan got roasted all season long, like no surprise that anybody going over the middle of field was open. And look, Eric Hendricks is either a horrendous fit or is not the same player, and it might actually be both. And there's few players that I've ever had more respect for covering as a person and as a player than Eric Hendricks. But age comes for everybody, and also not every scheme works for every player.

Patrick Peterson works in this scheme. Harrison Smith does not. Harrison Smith was as angry as I've seen him postgame, and we've seen a lot of disappointing losses over the years. And this one, he had basically nothing to say to us. And I wonder about his frustration all season long. Like if you were talking completely off the record to him, would he tell you, I have no idea why I'm playing out in the parking lot. I mean, there were a couple of plays where he came up to the line of scrimmage. One, they had the perfect play call. They ran a play action, scored a touchdown on it, but it's just hard to convince me that they wouldn't have scored a touchdown on the next play anyway, because there were just so many chances to find receivers. When Daniel Jones incompleted a pass, I was shocked because most of the, even his incompletions were to open receivers. He had a few inaccurate balls and then Darius Slayton's unbelievable drop that left the door open for the Vikings. But there was no one around him. In the biggest situation on

a third down, Darius Slayton, probably their best receiver, is running wide open. This is on scheme in that way. So I think that the weaknesses were weak and there were problems, but not being able to coach it up and, or just the scheme that you're using, not working at all. Cause I refuse to believe that these players aren't at least smart enough to be in the positions they're asked to be. All of these guys are veterans. And yet so many times everyone is just wide open and something Kevin O'Connell layered into his postgame comments was he said that sort of they understood the Giants understood where they could beat the Vikings. And I think that that really showed. And they also, I mean, didn't

really do anything to counter a quarterback who ran for 700 yards. This was not like Drew Bledsoe all of a sudden plotting for, you know, 70 yards or something. This was a running quarterback that we knew from day one that they had no answer for. And I don't know if I've ever seen an 11 minute drive. I mean, the defense was out there for so long that, you know, I mean, how could you get any offensive rhythm out of that going early in the game when the other team has the ball for that long? And so they were put behind kind of from the outset there. And, you know, when you have a defense, that's going to give up an 11 minute drive. I don't know, like

what, what can you really do as an offense to put up big points? I mean, it's just like, it's one of the worst defenses that I've ever seen one that you could never trust. And one that allowed average quarterbacks to completely dominate them and look like the best quarterback in the league. I saw Drew Brees here against the 2017 team in the Minneapolis Miracle game, have an unbelievable second half. He probably played the same as Daniel Jones today, and that's on the defense entirely to have him looking like he did as like a superstar level quarterback. And then you look around and you go, well, was it the off season moves or did, should they have fired Ed Donatel midway through the season? Which now I think in

hindsight, you probably say the answer is yes, that maybe they should have done that. And Kevin O'Connell tried to defend him in the post game said, well, he worked on the adjustments and things like that, but I'm sorry. I know I'm not a defensive coordinator. I saw the same defense. They weren't moving pre-snap. They lined up two deep safeties and had guys running all over. So if they did make adjustments, I'd love to know where they were because I didn't see them. I mean, Jared Goff dominated them, the Packers dominated them, and then here you go again, the Giants. So if there was anything that you could have seen coming, it was you're going to play two deep safeties. You're going to leave the middle of the field wide open and give up a ton of yards and lose a game in the playoffs.

Well, I mean, that's the thing, right? That's the whole that's why people use that definition of insanity quote all the time, because in sports it applies a lot. And it definitely applies today that the defensive scheme for this game was just, and they paid for it with their season. Yeah. I mean, I think you don't get to this level of, like, incompetency on the side of the ball by just coaching failures. So, like, clearly, like, the players and the personnel are part of this. But, yes, when you go up against Daniel Jones, who had, I think, the third most scramble first downs in the NFL among all quarterbacks or second most. He was like 14th in his big plays by any runner.

He was 14th in like with running backs and quarterbacks. He was consistently all year long getting these chunk gains on the ground. You allow him to run for 78 yards. The Vikings, like, did you not realize that was going to happen? Did you not have a game plan for how to attack that? They've been bad in that all year i think they allowed something like the fifth most uh expected points added um by quarterback scrambles opposing quarterback scramble so that was an area that they just didn't do a good job in throughout the season and again it popped up there and then yeah how many times

did they have a second and eight second and seven and they played off zone coverage and someone caught the ball at seven yards a giant did and basically just backpedaled their way into a first down like it just happened frequently and over and over and in week one and then week eight and in week 14 and then again in the wild card round and so i do like understand massively adjust your scheme throughout the you know know, the course of a season, especially late in a season, but you just didn't see a, you know, a game plan specific,

like a game planning for a specific player and like really taking advantage of their faults and trying to limit like the things that they're good at. And so Daniel Jones, the, one of the best things about him is his scrambling and they could not do anything to stop that. And there were just free wide receivers running down, like at all points of the best things about him is his scrambling, and they could not do anything to stop that. And there were just free wide receivers running down at all points of the field. I'm impressed by Isaiah Hodgins, what I've seen in those last two games with the Giants and what

he's kind of showed throughout this year, but he was a November pickup by the Giants. And if he's your number one wide receiver, no matter the bright spot and kind of the good story he's turned into to allow him to catch eight balls for over a hundred yards and a touchdown and to continuously torch you over and over and over again. Like that was the worst receiving core you would have played all, all post-season long. And it still looked like that. And so that's when it comes down to kind of a total system failure.

And it's, you now have a lot of time to see how much you're placing on scheme, how much you're placing on players. I think both have to change in a considerable way. If they want to go further in the playoffs later down the line, because this clearly was a breakdown of all of it. And so it needs a full, a full rehaul. Yeah.

And so I should add to that, you know, when we were talking about the long drives and Jones's runs, they also came out in the second half and just ran down the field and scored almost instantly. It was like, okay. I mean, it wasn't like, this is the most sort of play it conservative, throw underneath, dink and dunk, don't turn the ball over type of offense that just refuses to get big plays. And Daniel Jones, his ratio of big time throws versus turnover worthy plays this year was hilarious because he had almost no big time throws because all he does is

dink dunk or run for a first down. I mean, he's exactly like Alex Smith used to be. And the reason that you could usually beat Alex Smith in the playoffs was because they couldn't get explosive plays. And yet in this game, it was explosive plays all over the place. And that just, there's no excuse for that. When a team over an entire season puts it on tape, that that's the one thing they really can't do that, that the 11 minute drive was more emblematic of how that team

has really played this year. So that one, okay. Like it's still ridiculous and everything, but that's like how they play. Not, not big time, six play 80 yard drives and things like that, that they were able to pull off in this game. And that's why you just kind of can't say enough how bad they were defensively. And as we go back and look at the game, I guess I'll try to look for some answers here, but I think we already know it is either guys don't know where they're supposed to be, or they're just, it's, it's so easy to just run all over the place, uh, open over the middle of the field and let Daniel Jones drop back and give it off to his receivers wide open. And anybody who is a decent NFL wide receiver, if they are wide open, I mean, there was one play where Slayton caught the ball and then you could see him look around like, oh, I thought there would be someone here to tackle me, but

there isn't. So now I'm going to run toward the end zone. And yeah, I mean, you're right though. I think that the hope would have been coming in that you already saw this and that they already did this to you and Jones already had a great day. And that I think is the most egregious part because they had a chance to adjust against the lions and they didn't, they got crushed. They had a chance to face the Packers a second time and they got crushed. And then they had a chance to face the giants a second time and they got crushed. I mean, that, that to me is the ultimate sign. If you can't make adjustments and adapt to what you've already seen on tape, what they've already done against you, because they did nothing different. They ran the ball, they had Jones run the ball and they threw a lot

of short stuff. And that was like that. They, they didn't even do anything like super complicated. The one handoff that Jones had sort of behind his back was fun. But other than that, they weren't doing anything that was different than they did last time because they knew it would work again. And it absolutely did. So, I mean, with, with the defensive scheme and also now they go into an off season where there's just a lot of questions there. Like if you're going to have Harrison Smith at this price tag and not use him, why do you have Harrison Smith? Are you bringing back Patrick Peterson at what price? Cause he played great. He's going to want a lot of money. The rookies that you drafted, will they even be able to play next year? Andrew Booth Jr. and Louis Scene. They're, I mean, linebackers, who are they? I mean, Brian Asamoah

has to be one of them, but other than that, there's so many questions on this defense. It needs a complete overhaul from the coordinator scheme to a lot of the personnel as well. And I would imagine Daniel Hunter is also going to want answers for his future with the Vikings. And we'll get to that as we go forward this week. But, I mean, this defense, it just basically needs to be torn limb from limb after this. Right.

The Giants twice this year have had five plays or more of 20 yards or more. Week 16 against the Vikings and today. Two times this Giants team has had five plays of 20-plus yards. Came against the Vikings both times. The Giants were last in the league in explosive pass plays. They had 28 this season in the regular season. The next closest team had 33 so they were five worse than the next worst passing explosive passing team and it was isaiah hodgins down the

field it was darius slayton down the field it was saquon barkley a little kind of swing pass to him let him go for it it was just at every level of this defense they they fell apart. And so it, it, it just, when it's that bad and it's bad against a team that's not supposed to be good at those things, it's like, you can't even stop the bad teams from continuing to be bad at things. They're bad at like you're, you're not only not stopping what they're good at. You're allowing them to be successful in the things that they're bad at. And it was against Mac Jones that happened that he had like a career game.

It was Mike White that had a career game. It's now two Daniel Jones games, red career games. These aren't the titans of the quarterback like position. These are just guys. They're just guys. And when you have Daniel Hunter and Zedaria Smith on the defensive line, you should generate more pressure than you did today. They didn't generate much pressure until late in the game.

Daniel Jones was kind of skating by in that first half anytime he did get a modicum of pressure he was just able to roll out to his left and run run run run and there was kind of no response for them so it clearly is the number one thing that needs to be addressed going into the offseason and like I hate to break it to like everyone, but they don't exactly have young guys that are ready to step in for some of the older guys that may come in. And I'm sure we'll talk about that in the next days and weeks, like what that position groups look like, but it's an old group. And so now you have to make a lot of decisions of, do we run this back with a lot of the same guys? And if it couldn't go right for you this year with that group, what is to say it's supposed to work in any consecutive year

as guys continue to get older? It's just, it's a tough and rough spot where that defense is right now if you fancy yourself as a contender going forward because they're going to have to quickly fix that if they want any chance of getting out of the first round in any year coming up soon. Folks, have you noticed that I'm always talking about liquid death here on the show? Well, you've probably also noticed by now that it's in the grocery aisle with the water.

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And some of you kind folks have tweeted me and said that you've done the same with great results. Even if your family thinks that you are downing beer after beer, find liquid death at Hy-Vee 7-Eleven Target or check out liquiddeath.com slash insider. That's liquiddeath.com slash insider. In some ways, they were a victim of their own success in late games and things like that because it really made it difficult to make the big changes that maybe could have, I'm not saying saved this, but you only had to be a little bit better with the way the offense played today than they were in order to win this game. Seven points better to be exact. One stop, one drive. I mean, we just saw the punter for the first time. I mean, I went to the restroom and I was walking by and one of the security guards who I chat with sometimes around here, he just said, I didn't know they had a

punter. I guess we just found out. And it's like, yeah, man, that's right. Like we haven't punted at all. like how are you supposed to win when you can't even get a single punt but i those games that they had where they made the big play at the end like buffalo is a good example like buffalo went up and down on the field and then all game long but they got those interceptions in the red zone and the the jets they did the same thing the jets just ran all over them and had big pass play after big pass play but they made a couple stops in the red zone that made it look even better than it was. And they were still 31st, but somehow it looked in yards and 28th in points.

But yet, because of those wins, you couldn't go and say, no, we are changing defensive play callers. We're putting Mike Pettin in charge. We're putting whoever else, I don't know, on the staff in charge of this defense. And you couldn't bench somebody like Jordan Hicks, or I mean, I don't know if you bench Eric Hendricks, but somebody like that, or use Harrison Smith in a vastly different way, because it's like they're trying to make adjustments, but they're still winning games and making plays. But that stuff does run out. That's why over a season, these things usually do even out in the way that they didn't throughout this regular season until right now today is

because you normally cannot count on that stuff at the end of games happening over and over. So if they had been like win one, lose one, win one, lose one, lose two games in a row, maybe they would have said, Hey, we've lost two games in a row. We need to panic. We need to make a change here. And that could have saved him. Or maybe the roster was just too bad. And there was no saving this. And there was no adjustment.

And there's nothing that they really could have done. But I just find that very hard to accept. That there was nothing they could have done at any point this season to make this better. So let's talk about Kirk Cousins' game today. In every situation throughout this game where they needed him to be big, except for the absolutely brain dead, stunningly galaxy brain, what are you thinking? I even tried to warn Kevin O'Connell on a podcast,

don't mess around with trick plays. They can't stop you. You've got the best receiver in the game. You might have a top three tight end in the game. You have at least a running back that had success on the ground today. And don't, don't get, don't get squirrely. Don't get stupid. And yet he got stupid and he ran one of the most ridiculous trick plays I've ever seen in my entire life. If you like brought to you by the same people as running a jet sweep with CJ Ham is throwing a pass to the dead last least athletic quarterback

in the entire national football league. There is no player who's slower at quarterback. That's not named Tom Brady than Kirk cousins. And you throw him a pass. I'm just saying they just didn't get the look they wanted. And I was like, what look were you looking for? What look would ever work to throw it to the slowest player on the field when you have Justin Jefferson? And look, their third best receiver is great. Like Adam Thielen had a great play down the sideline today. Adam Thielen caught, what, 70 passes? I mean, anyone, any play, anyone, anytime.

This is also the worst rushing defense in the league. So run it for a yard? Like, I don, anyone, anytime. This is also the worst rushing defense in the league. So run it for a yard? Like, I don't know, man. Like, it doesn't seem that difficult where you have to dial up some preposterous trick play just to prove that you can. So many times this year, Kevin O'Connell did that. And how many times did it work? They fumbled at the goal line in Detroit. Ham got stopped when they ran that foolish jet sweep with him. And then today, this thing. And

also, you give Kirk Cousins a totally unnecessary opportunity to get hurt. I mean, throwing him a pass and just saying free reign for everybody to grab your quarterback and slam him into the turf. I mean, it's just senseless in so many ways. And I think that's something that Kevin O'Connell has to look himself in the mirror about next year is if you're going to do stuff like that, you better have it right. Because doing something like this, it just made no sense, but put that aside. That's not Kirk Cousins fault. He did not decide on that play. And I, I've got to think that Kirk Cousins, if they said, Hey, we're going to throw it to you. He'd be like, hmm.

They tried that once before, I think, in the Clint Kubiak era, and he, like, dropped it or something. I mean, it's just, he's a quarterback. But put that aside. It felt like every third down, every fourth down that they needed in this game, he made a play. And he mostly made it to TJ Hawkinson. And I saw some people talking about Justin Jefferson's stat line. What? The least of my concerns is Justin Jefferson's stat line in this game.

Because Kirk Cousins did exactly what you're supposed to do. He used all the other weapons to the extreme today. What normally happens in these playoff games is teams put all their effort into stopping one guy. This is the Belichickian method. And then if then they do, and if someone else steps up, normally you win. And they did. TJ Hawkinson and Adam Thielen both made big plays. I had no problem with Justin Jefferson not getting huge yards today because they moved the ball and they scored and they responded every time where they got down and it felt like, okay, I don't know. And yet there was a big drive around the corner every single time with Kirk Cousins. And when

you look at his numbers for the end of this game, I mean, they're just fantastic. I mean, 31 for 39 by ESPN's QBR metric, which normally does not like the way that Kirk plays, he actually scored higher than Daniel Jones, who of course scored incredibly high today. But I thought that in every element, he played as well as they ever could have asked him to play. And that's the irony of this season, that a lot of times he didn't play well and they won. And he played as well as he possibly could. And I expect when those PFF grades come out and everything else, he's going to score super high. One of his highest games. I thought it was in my mind, one of the best games that I've seen him play. And he rose

to the challenge, but then on fourth and eight, Kevin O'Connell dialed up a play that had five receivers going out and four of them were going past the sticks and cousins found the one that didn't. And it will be the lasting image for everybody, no matter how bad the defense was, no matter how great cousins was in this game, that fourth down past the TJ Hawkinson down the sideline, just tremendous. It just won't matter. It's going to stick in people's heads that in a big upset, which this was, there's a 13-win team versus a 9-win team, a 3 versus a 6. This is a huge upset.

Even put point differential in what all the analysts were saying to disrespect the Vikings or whatever throughout the week. They were favored in this game, and they were at home. The atmosphere was unbelievable here, And they should have won. And it's one of the biggest disappointments, really, of the Cousins era. I mean, it kind of goes in that same feeling as 2018 when they just had to beat some Bears backups to get into the playoffs. They didn't do it.

But this was the opposite of that. This was not a choke until the last throw. And honestly, I mean, there's another part of this too. K.J. Osborne probably has got to catch the ball. I mean, Cousins put it a little behind him, but he's got to catch that ball. And so you get the drop and then you get the classic Kirk Cousins check down. Cousins said after the game, and he just made it worse, of course, he said like, oh, I didn't feel comfortable putting it up there to Justin Jefferson.

It was like, well, that's kind of what you've been doing all year. And in that moment you decided to check it down. But you know, there's another part of it too, that if TJ Hockinson breaks the tackle, which he has many times, we never think about it again. And they tie the game probably. And we go to overtime and we might still be playing. So I look at it as this was a tremendous game for Kirk Cousins. He spent the whole year doing the exact opposite of what people had thought of him before and what was on record from before. He won. He played great in the biggest moments and he had a tremendous game. But there's no way you can shake that. There just isn't. There's just no way that you can shake that out of your head that in that moment where it was

the playoffs and it really mattered it didn't really matter against Washington like it really mattered here he checks down as DJ Hawkinson it's just uh yeah I don't I don't know I don't know how I'm supposed to tell anyone like not to be upset about that it's even even no matter how well he played the rest of the game yeah I think he think he's going to get skewered for that, and he rightfully should. I think Hawkinson catches that ball, breaks that tackle, gets the first down maybe 10% of the time. I feel better even with a double-covered Justin Jefferson that more than 10% of the time he's coming down with that catch or throwing it one-on-one to Osborne or Thielen. I just feel good about any of those options. And in that moment,

it's what we've talked about in the entire Kirk cousins area. You just got to have a little bit of self-awareness and like understanding of the moment. And it was disappointing to see. And it was kind of like gut-wrenching for me, just kind of thinking about him and like how that's going to affect him. Because I think like he was not the reason they lost this game by any stretch I mean that was a reason I guess that play is part of a

reason why they lost the game but they were not at that point in the game without the way Kirk Cousins played throughout the rest of the game I think I the next gen stats page disappeared on me but he was hit 11 times 11 quarterback hits from the Giants. He was pressured, I think, 20 times, going on 20 times the last time I saw before their last couple of possessions. He was at 17 pressures. He didn't get sacked. He was pressured 17 times.

He didn't get sacked. He had Ole Udo, Ed Ingram on the right side. Garrett Bradbury was getting bowled over by Dexter Lawrence. He threw 39 passes, so half of his dropbacks, basically he was pressured. That is unheard of. No quarterback should be able to succeed in that scenario. And for three and a half quarters, they played about as well as they could. They had, I think what they end up with like seven or eight possessions, like that 11 minute drive by the Giants took away the Vikings offense ability to get more chances at it like they scored

on over half their drives like the offense was humming for most of this game it really came down to an Irv Smith drop on a second down that would have gotten them a first down it came down to Kevin O'Connell's play call on third down and then they threw two screen passes in that second to last drive that really put them behind the sticks another kind of bad situation that Kevin O'Connell put his team in and if if I'm going to criticize for not giving justin jefferson the ball it's those last two drives it's why are you throwing to screens to dalvin cook and tj hockinson and why are you not and this is on cousins too why are you not forcing it to justin jefferson on the last drive of the game like i get that adori jackson was on him and they made a big big

point the giants did to shadow him with adori jackson and they played Jackson was on him and they made a big, big point. The Giants did to shadow him with Adory Jackson and they played really well on him, all things considered. But that's when I would say, okay, you need to get Jefferson the ball any way possible. So by and large, I was really, really impressed with the way Kirk Cousins played for every play, but one play. And that's just the nature of the NFL that we put a microcosm on the one play, the biggest play, and that should deserve more attention of the NFL that we put a microcosm on the one play the biggest play and

that should deserve more attention than any other singular play but I think lost in this a little bit is Cousins kept them in the game for more than the defense like defensive performance they should have been out of this game a lot earlier than they were and for Jeff Cousins to consistently find Hawkinson in tight coverage and to put that ball on Osborne late in the game like I've not been a big Kirk Cousins guy I think the loyal podcast listeners know this but today I thought he played extremely well and it's really unfortunate it's going to come down to that one throw that will and kind of should define a lot of what Kirk Cousins was in this game because for 98% of it, he was great.

Kind of felt like 2020 or 2021. Really? I mean, where you walk away from a game where they mostly played from behind and he played pretty well and put up good stats and everything else. But in the end, it was just too much on the other side. And then you said the magic words were, it's not all Kirk's fault. And it never has been. And like, I don't think anyone has ever thought it was all his fault. And of course it wasn't today, but I mean, gosh, though, like some of the details you're right. I mean, the screen passes back to back. And I think that what O'Connell might've had in his mind was when they beat them the last time it was a screen pass to Justin Jefferson. Although of course I'd rather have it go to Justin Jefferson than Delvin Cook, who is washed. Okay. Like just it's, it's over.

If it's not over, I'm going to have some serious questions about Kweisi Adafo Mensah and everything else. Like it's over. Plus his agent tweeting after the game, like just, yeah, I think you want both of those people not here anymore. Anyway, so when it comes to, like, who you're throwing it to, though, I know it worked against the Colts. This isn't the Colts. I mean, so Delvin Cook putting the ball in his hands there

as opposed to Jefferson, even K.J. Osborne, Jalen Rager was not a part of this whole thing, nor really should he be. But if you're running a screen, there's more explosive people who've had more success with that. And the tight end screen was something that they should have taken out of the playbook, walked behind TCO Performance Center, created the biggest bonfire in the world, and thrown it out earlier in the season. And I think that, again, it goes down to the margins, though. Like, you can't make a bad play call.

Or if you're Christian Derrissaw, you can't jump off sides on fourth down where they probably get the QB sneak it's a 90% play and maybe they score a touchdown there but that's what happens when you have to score 30 plus points all the time anybody makes a mistake that ends a drive and the other thing too is like that is partly sort of been Cousins game throughout his career is we can always go back and go well this guy dropped one pass or this guy jumped off sides or this was a bad play call and that's why it didn't happen but when you watch greatness they usually find a way to overcome a lot of these things and again I'm not saying that he did anything wrong for 98% of this game because he played with a lot of greatness today but it seems like it's been such a trend throughout our time breaking down losses like

this after and we're always saying well it was that one thing and it was that other thing and they didn't quite do this well enough or that one pass didn't make a play and then it comes down to you need to throw past the sticks. And Kevin O'Connell was trying his best to bite his lip on that. But he was like, yeah, I didn't call play short of the sticks on fourth and eight. I mean, which is essentially what he said. Like he called that play to go down the field. And in that situation, an interception doesn't mean a thing.

So it's really hard to make a case that it's okay to check it down because it was the right play. I mean, you would almost rather you throw it up in the air to anybody hail Mary style than you would to a guy who's just going to be immediately tackled. And I guess give the giants credit for making the tackle, but there was no separation on that play. It was just like, that was a Kyle Rudolph check down for three yards that has happened, you know, a million times in the cousins era when they need some of the biggest plays. And then there's always where you can go back and you could say, well,

you know, the defense was bad. And this is, this is like, it's just taken me back, Paul. It's taken me back to so many discussions because you could say, why is it that they couldn't afford a better linebacker than Jordan Hicks?

Why is it that this decision or that decision hurt them so much if you didn't get value out of this guy? Why isn't the roster strong enough? And we kind of know the way that they've managed their cap in the past that Kweisi Adafomensa's goal is maybe going to try to be to clean up and all those things. They all play into not having quite enough talent, which always ties back into what

the quarterback is getting paid. And now you look at the totality again, and a 13 win season is great for the resume. It will certainly take a lot to get Kirk Cousins back down to 500 after this, if he's the quarterback going forward, which I'm assuming he is. But the totality of 2018 to 2022, five seasons is one playoff win in new Orleans. That is not what they signed up for. It's not what they paid for. And you can say it's not all his fault and you'd be a gazillion percent, right? And it never has been. And you could say he played phenomenal this year. And I would agree with you, but the totality from the franchise perspective, it's not a, it's not a Kirk point. It's a Vikings point from the franchise perspective. How many teams can you look around at and say, you have one playoff win in five years, and you're going to stay with the

quarterback and you're going to stay with the direction. You're going to stay with the route. And I, it makes it hard to know what to do with. Like you have a 13-win season that's really more like a 12-win season because that last week was nonsense. And that's great. And it doesn't happen that often around here. But as you go forward, it's like that shows you how tough it is to win with that. So, you know, I guess that's kind of the whole picture on Cousins, where it's like he was a good quarterback again today and just not quite enough shrug for those listening on the podcast feed. where he lines up but it just like the what the loss does is it does provide a little bit of

clarity and kind of like if they win a playoff game and it's close and it's kind of this fluky situation and the defense plays bad again it's kind of what you saw in the 2018 year where or 19 year where mike zimmer wins that playoff game and then they don't make wholesale changes because that one playoff game um you lost this game so there is no kind of like silver lining to it like you were 13 wins you were expected to do much more it was a down year in the division where now at least several of your divisional opponents look like they're on the up and up with chicago with the number one pick and a boatload of cap space and a young quarterback they could potentially build around the lions look like they're going to be really good like there isn't a lot of kidding yourself now with this team when

you lose like this in a disappointing fashion when everyone expected more from you when you expected more from you and as a 13 win team like you needed to do more to validate that so that opens up a lot of questions and maybe a little bit more freedom in terms of what Kwesi wants to do because there isn't this kind of like carrot of playoff success that you can tie this group to. Now it's just a matter of, and it's not a question that I envy Kwesi figuring out, is can we in a short order get better than where we were now? And what is our goal? Is our goal to be better in the short term for our goal is our goal to be better in the short

term for now or is it our goal to be better in the long term because they have it's a push and pull in both directions and so it's the ultimate question that i think we've put off that's loomed all this year and we've been able to pull off because they're 11 and 0 and one score games and you you kind of think about what could be in the playoffs. And now that reality has hit you that it's not going to happen and that this season looks a lot like every other season with a couple more one-score victories kind of layered in there to kind of buff up the record and buff up what it looks like. And now you've got to make a hard choice,

and it's a choice that got Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer fired because they didn't get the most out of it. So now what do you do? Because I think you feel like you have a good building block in O'Connell. You obviously have the best wide receiver in the league and Justin Jefferson. Those are two really nice feathers to have in your cap. Now, how do you build off that and where do you go from that and how quickly does your timeline shift or not shift is the massive, massive questions that this game bores out for you because you just couldn't get it done. And all the looming questions and anxiety about this franchise rear its head back up after everyone tried to suppress them for so long and felt like you could suppress them at points of the season, but they inevitably bucked their head again. And I didn't want to talk about this. And I held off and I tried to, every fan's only question about the future, I tried to like push it to the back

and tried to say like, well, look, you know, you got a game next week that's big. And so we're not going to talk about it until we have to talk about it. But there was always the possibility that we'd have to talk about it pretty soon. And now we're here. And I saw a chart the other day that when you add up salary cap space plus draft capital,

and remember, they traded for TJ Hawkinson. There's no second round pick. They're one of the worst teams in the league in terms of flexibility and what they can do. And you can say, well, kick this contract down the road. Just get rid of that guy. But you have to replace those people. And when you kick contracts down the road, you pay for them later. And guess what?

We've reached void season where those voided contracts, that's all going to add up for this offseason. When you gave void years to this guy, that guy, and the other guy, it's like, here it is. And so there are so many difficult hurdles that because of the way they handled last offseason, now they have to jump over. And had they gone to the NFC championship, I think we all would have said, who cares?

Like that was so worth it. And I think that that's the only appropriate place to end the show, really, Paul, is just to talk about whether it was all worth it, like whether it was a successful season in the first year of Kevin O'Connell and Kweisi Adafo-Mensa, because I think that there is two ways to argue this. I mean, in one way you could say, look, you got a head coach that could galvanize a locker room that could change the culture and vibes of this entire organization when it was in a ugly, ugly spot when Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman left. That's very different. You could say that

the overarching philosophy of throwing the ball, pushing it downfield, you created one of the great seasons in receiver history for Justin Jefferson. And all of that is extremely positive. I think you have a head coach who is capable and competent and can connect on a deeper level with the quarterback as all of us wrote a bunch of times. And that's very valuable. That's extremely good news because it could have been Nate Hackett and the guy just is fired immediately and it's a disaster and you have no idea what to do with yourself. That's a big success. As far as a front office and a general manager, I'm not sure yet.

I think this will be the real first challenge. I think that they were given a directive from last year. They executed that. They did the best they could to tape it together with glue. And ultimately those things came apart. And so we'll find out what kind of front office they have, because I'm not ready to make any declarations when it comes to that yet. I can on the coach because I have now 18 games of watching and I have criticisms, but I think I have way more good to say about Kevin O'Connell than I would about some of the bad decisions here or there probably should have called a timeout in a spot with the, you know, at the end of the half. And there's some little things there that probably need to get looked at a little bit.

And on the defensive side, certainly there might be an argument for being more assertive and Hey, being more Zimmer, like actually, and just firing your coach. And that's, you know, I never criticized Zimmer for firing those coaches because like, this is why when you can see it coming, he would just fire the guy. Cause he didn't, he didn't care. And I wonder if the touchy feeliness starts to change a little bit after this, Like maybe we were a little too, a little too, let's be nice to everybody because when you lose, who cares if you were nice before or not? So there will be things that he has to learn and that he'll grow on. And I think he'll get even better as a head coach.

So they found out that that's a success. You won 13 games. You had a ton of games that were incredibly fun for your fans. I mean, this place, this building that I'm standing in, it saw so many magical things happen and it saw a team galvanize and appreciate each other and make themselves likable for the first time in a really long time. I would say since, since 2017, they, as a team were not likable, even when they went to the playoffs, even when they want to play off game, they were not likable because they had a receiver demanding a trade and everything else like,

and Zimmer and all the, you know, the relationship with cousins, like this was the first time they were likable. And anytime you win 13 games, just historically, you've got a chance. Like there's no guarantee that if they, you know, won this game, that they would just lose automatically to San Francisco. You're always a pick six away. You're always a fumble away. Who knows? At the same time, the standard is just higher than this or should have been. When you run it all back, when you sacrifice your future, you just can't lose in the first round. I have no idea how I'm supposed to argue this was a success. Not when you get upset by a bad team and i will die on that hill this is not

a good giants team they had a negative point differential for the year they won two games since the end of november and one of them was against the colts they celebrated their loss here to the vikings like it was a championship like in december like this this was not a good team they're well coached but a mediocre in terms of roster and to be upset when you are the home favorites in this building the way that they were that what happens at the end matters the most in this case it matters a hell of a lot more than beating Skylar Thompson and Teddy Bridgewater it matters more than beating Mike White or Mac Jones or any of those games that were fun, but also like, you know, again, audio shrugs, like just, so I, I think, uh, there's a lot that you could take away that was, was good

and was entertaining and was exciting. And we had a lot of fun, you and I, in these post-game podcasts when everything was crazy, but what did you say? You can't keep getting away with this. And you were right. You were right. And that's it. That's it. You were right. You said you can't keep getting away with this. And you were right because they tried and it didn't work in the playoffs. Yeah. I think where I net out is it's a success in that you found your head coach for the considerable future. You see what teams like the Broncos have had to go through when they don't pick the right guy. And so just the fact that they have that, I think, sets you up on a trajectory where you feel like you're going upward

and you can build on that. So I think where this franchise was last year and kind of the lack of belief that this team seemed to have in their head coach, obviously winning helps that and maybe winning all those close games, if that didn't go that way, maybe this locker room isn't as close, but I still think with Kevin O'Connell at the helm,

like that is a massive, massive building block. So I think if you were to jump back to the beginning of the season and say, you know, you have your head coach, you know, you have your guy, I would say that is a success. But as you win all those games, your expectations heighten.

And so now you're judged to a different standard. And we talked about that when they started winning, when they were five and one and six and one and seven and one, it says, okay, now the way we judge this team is different. We don't judge this team as a eight and nine, nine and eight, maybe skimp into the playoffs team. We now judge this team as a NFC contender that has a shot at the Superbowl. So then when you start to view it through that window, there is no argument that this team as a NFC contender that has a shot at the Super Bowl. So then when you start to view it through that window, there is no argument that this team failed that. So it's kind of the burden that you have when you start to be successful and you have these

expectations lofted onto you. And so they met the kind of preseason expectations, I would say. But as things got better for them, they failed to meet those lofty kind of, when we started to change our standard, they certainly didn't meet that. And I think now that they've shown that those are the expectations you have moving forward. You're past an eight and nine middling team. At this point, you've shown you can win a bunch of these games. Now we're going to expect you to continue to do it. And because you've been able to do that, that's where our expectations lie for you. and now that's when it really gets challenging

i think it's kind of in the nba they talk about this like it's it's easy to become a 45 win team it's so much harder to become a 50 win team to become a 52 win team and that's where the vikings are they've gone from okay now we know we can be an average team and we know O'Connell's a good and above average head coach, but can we elevate that? And that's so much harder to do. That's so much harder to consistently do than to just have one season where you show up and you play really, really well. So that's now the challenge they have. So I think it goes both ways, but it ends with a ton of disappointment and that's where you just can't point to it being an overall success. Yeah. And I think that the,

there's two things that fans have dealt with all year that make this harder and make it more of a gut punch. And one of those things is that they feared this all along and then it happened. And I think that makes it tougher. Like the second half of the season, when you fall behind to Indy, when you lose to the Packers, the Dallas game going back a little bit. And Like the second half of the season, when you fall behind to Indy, when you lose to the Packers, the Dallas game going back a little bit.

And in the second half of the season, they're more like five and three. And that's kind of probably closer to who they are as a team than seven and one. And the fear just creeped in so often. And I just know this from the fans only questions that, you know, and the tweets and everything else from smart fans were worried the whole time, like about, like, I'm just worried this defense is going to be good enough. And we're going to, we're going to waste this season where everything went right. I mean, they played that today with a full defense, completely healthy. The only guy who wasn't there that was a starter was cam dancer,

but he wasn't a starter anyway. because Duke Shelley was better than him. I mean, how often does that even happen? And you still end up with the type of day that you had. How often does it happen that the offense is almost completely healthy outside of one right tackle? Even Garrett Bradbury came back and he had a tough time with one of the best players in the league, as you'd expect. But like, again, fully healthy on both sides of the ball. That just doesn't happen very often. The late game stuff, it just doesn't happen very often that you're going to get those things that go your way. The penalty differential, my gosh, it was insane this year. So there were so many things that we sort of drop into the luck category that did go

their way and that, you know, that usually don't and probably won't. And so I think that there was those two feelings of kind of knowing the possibility of this and how almost likely it was that at some point the defense would crumble. And then also knowing that like this was a special year and it's usually a once a decade thing. And so now to have this over with, it's like, well, is this going to happen again? Like, I mean, it's just it's so hard to go through a whole season. Right. I mean, these seasons are so long. And for a lot of fans, they're they're just gut wrenching the whole way week after week. And to get to 13 wins, but have it kind of be a house of cards.

And then to have that house of cards blown over in the playoffs by a mediocre Giants team it just feels really really empty I think for this entire season and that's that's that's a hard place to be where even if it was different in the regular season it doesn't feel different from what it did the last couple of years and it feels like you sort of wasted it and you know then there's all those other questions like, Hey, if you had just rebuilt the defense, as opposed to trying to sign all these veteran players, like, would it have been different? Like there's, there are all these things that creep in that I, that I think as Vikings fans watch the rest of the playoffs, they will just kind of have this sinking feeling that you wasted one of those opportunities again only this one it's not even

in in a fashion that they can talk about for years it's not even in the like oh that was the one where they missed the field goal or something they can't even really even clutch on to anything you got outplayed you got outplayed by a team that won four fewer games than you in your building. John Randall hyping up the crowd and everything else, and you come out and they just steamroll you on the defensive side. So, yeah, I think this is a really tough one. And I think a lot of fans spent the whole season preparing themselves for it, but it probably doesn't make it a lot easier to have it go this way. So I will say, though, before we wrap

up all that I have appreciated all of your help on these post games. You've done a tremendous job breaking down this team after games and in your written work as well. So I appreciate all of your time, all the people who have watched, listened to every post game. They are generally the most listened to podcasts as you might expect from Purple Insider. And so everybody who looks to us to kind of give them some insight on what happened or our thoughts and opinions and everything else, it has been an honor to do that. And it's hard for me to say, think about the good times, folks. We had a lot of fun breaking down this team. I had a great time being

back in open locker rooms getting to know some of these players in ways that we couldn't before during covid where we were able to tell the stories of people like kairos tanga and stuff like that i mean it was a rewarding year from all the things that we got to do is a way different vibe it was so much more fun and for it to end like this and for us to have this show, that's where it's like difficult because it's like, we've had this ride where we've just had a totally different conversation than we had when they lost to Cooper rush or something, you know, it was just, so now it begins. Now it begins.

So those are, those are my final thoughts that there will be a million and one things to talk about this offseason. They are a team. And I guess I would say one more thing before I give you your final thoughts, Paul, is just that they've put themselves in a very similar position from 2019 to 2020, where this is a team that is in purgatory when you try to look forward and you try to figure out what they'll do at quarterback, how they'll rebuild the defense, what they're going to do in the draft, how they're going to approach free agency, who's staying, who's going. There's a lot of work to be done. And again, this is where it feels like you missed your shot. It feels like you missed your shot. And I will be very, very interested to see how this front office deals with this because that's how it feels right now that this might be a thing that takes a ton of work to get them past that hump.

And your point about the wins, being a 10-win team versus being over the top, I mean, it's a hard thing to do. It's a hard thing to repeat this. I looked back at this a few years ago and the only quarterbacks who were able to repeat 12 or 13 win seasons were like Brady, Rogers, Brady. Well, I said Brady, Manning, like, you know, I mean, only the goats were able to do it and not usually your average team. And that's been the Vikings in years past. So will they, will they make radical changes? Will they draft a quarterback and surprise us all by doing that after cousins had a good season? Will they make a trade? Well, you know, there's

so many things that it might take a more radical approach to get them out of, you know, where they finish their season. So anyway, again, again, great time with you, Paul. Great time with everybody listening. Can't thank everybody enough for a really, really fun season overall. And I'm sorry that it had to end this way for you. And I think people were expecting like an I told you so for me. I thought they would win. I really did.

I really thought that they would win. I think that instead of I told you so, it was more of there were reasons why everyone was concerned about this. And this is why. So anyway, your final thoughts of the season, Paul. Yeah, I think it's I think the the general sentiment of the fans that I've seen on Twitter and just kind of the general vibes is this is a massive disappointment, which it is. And but I'm not normally a guy that's just like Super Bowl or bust every single season. And I think especially when you have the knowledge

and kind of the wherewithal to understand kind of the limitations that the Vikings are dealing with when they're not a consistent contender over year, over year, over year with a quarterback year, over year, that you can count on that regardless of how the team looks, you're going to be in it. And so no doubt this is a massively disappointing end to a season that had kind of expectations heaped onto it and optimism heaped onto it. This team hasn't felt,

but that's kind of the greatness and why we all love sports is kind of these ups and downs of this. And so we had a lot of ups on this show talking about it and discussing with fans on Twitter and in all the ways we interact with people, like there's going to be no playoff memories that you look back fondly on, but there's going to be a lot of regular season memories. And I think while that's not, you know, like the ultimate outcome you want, like it's better that you have those games than you don't have those games. Like you, you, this could have been a boring 12 and five season or a 10 and seven season. It sure wasn't boring.

And I think one of our biggest complaints entering this year is this team had kind of just gotten boring and we knew what to expect. We did not know what to expect week in and week out with this team. And so I think that's what I'm going to take away from this season largely. And I'm doing these podcasts with you. But yeah, then my overarching like team thought is again, I do not envy the position that Kweisi Adolfo Mensah and this team is in because they have a lot of decisions they

have to make. And if you try to blow it up after a 13 win season where you make the playoffs, like that's a hard reality to come to, especially as a first time general manager, when you see all that success and you say, yeah, no, I don't really believe it. Like that takes a lot to be able to do. And you don't often see that happen. So if that does happen, that'll be really telling about Kweisi. And then, but then you also look at it and you say, this felt like your year and like

you maximized everything. So it truly is not a spot that I would want to have to be making decisions and laying my career on the line for, but it makes it super, super interesting for fans. And as us to kind of try to decide and understand where they're going to be. So it's a disappointing year, but I think it's going to continue to be interesting with this team for the foreseeable future because they have massive question marks that they have to answer. And I think it's going to be really, really intriguing to see where they go with these things. So I think overall thought, massive, massive disappointment of where the season ended, but I'm not losing the fact of where they were prior to this season. And I think they're still in a better spot right now than they were nine

months ago. And so you just continue to build, I guess. Man, it feels empty though, to say like, well, you had a fun season, eh? It's just like, yeah. Is that where the standard is? You know, like sometimes it is, I don't know it. Well, I just think that when they decided to run it all back and we said, I'm not sure. And I, and I'm not trying to like go with second guess the whole thing again and relitigate the whole off season, everything else. But actually this kind of is that like everything is a litigation of your off season. What you hire Nate Hackett and trade for Russell Wilson. And then it blows up. Like

everything is evaluation of what you did as a front office and where you put in a one and done where you couldn't hang with a very mediocre team. I mean, that makes it, that makes it going, just tying it back. It's like, it makes it feel like not really a success, not really a success because I mean, it's just, it's a hard thing to ask. Like if they had overhauled a lot of things, traded people and whatever else. And instead of 13 and four, you know,

they went nine, six and one like the giants. Like, that's a good question. Would you rather be the giants or the Vikings? Would you rather have been scrappy and pulled off a playoff win or even lost this game? Like, I think it would have been a lot easier to deal with and you would have set yourself up better in the future. But at the same time, like, boy, there was a lot of fun, you know, but there's just, when you say there was a lot of fun you know but they're just when you say there was a lot of fun it sounds like a participation trophy oh it is it is for sure right yeah that's what it is hey you had a good time now the real teams are gonna go play for the super bowl yeah how about i just end on that like super, you know, depressing and harsh note.

It's kind of that's kind of the last thing I could say about it. So I commend the Vikings fans that are still here through this podcast that have had to kind of gruel their way through because these next few days are going to hurt when everyone's talking about how they blew it. So if you made it this far, thank you. Yeah, yeah, right. You're a grinder. And you have to be to be a Vikings fan anyway. So there probably are a lot who have. So just, you know, greatest appreciation from us, though, for all the people who have listened. And I hope that you join us every day still on the Purple Insider podcast, that you send your questions, which this is a funny side note. I did a fans only podcast right before the playoffs and forgot to publish it. So I'm sorry for people who had been sending ones that I answered in that, but in that I thought they would win. So glad I never published it, but you know,

so the sending the questions at purple insider.com and all those things, keep them coming. There's so much to answer for that and stick with us cause it will be a fascinating offseason. So anyway, thank you all for listening. Thank you, Paul, for all of your great contributions, and we will see you in the off season. Goodbye.