Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings' defense ruins a Kirk Cousins gem against the Lions

Episode Date: December 11, 2022

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic talk about an historically bad day for the Minnesota Vikings' defense, which has been struggling for weeks. They gave up 34 points and over 400 yards to the Lions. Kirk Cousins played about the best he could possibly play and Justin Jefferson had the best receiving game in franchise history, yet Detroit's passing game could not be stopped. Are there any answers left or is this simply the way the Vikings will play when they get to the playoffs? Is it time to have a conversation about changing defensive coordinators? 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 and welcome to the Minnesota Vikings could not stop anything on defense and lost at Ford Field to the Detroit Lions who have officially restored their roar in a 34 to 23 win. We'll just start out by saying Matthew Collar, Paul Hodowanek, welcome. After every game, we do this live on YouTube. If you guys are watching us there, welcome. And if you're listening on the podcast, well, sorry that it went that way. One of the games that actually did not end in one score, and interestingly, the Vikings have three losses, and none of them are one score losses. Yet their wins are mostly one score wins, which we can get into how much that means.

But I guess where I have to begin is the Vikings defense ruined one of Kirk Cousins best performances. I don't want to say of his Vikings tenure because there's been quite a few of them but this was the 2021-iest 2021 thing that I've ever seen on this day it was Cousins delivering the ball all over the place to Justin Jefferson a legendary performance oh you shut him down once Detroit congratulations you weren't going to do it again and the Vikings could have been easily blown out in this game if not for Justin Jefferson Detroit would have run away with this one in 140 to 12 but instead Jefferson goes legend sets the single game record Kirk Cousins played a super tough game they had no running game whatsoever it was all on his shoulders he He delivered pass after pass. He hit Hawkinson

left and right, even though he dropped one and tried to drop another. He found Thielen for a touchdown, Osborne for a touchdown. It was the complete passing game that we have been looking for all year. And Paul, they let it slip away because they could not stop the Detroit Lions to save their lives. Everything, everything was wrong. Everything. They did not pressure Jared Goff. There were open receivers all over the place.

There were miscommunications that led to the Jamison Williams touchdown, which, of course, it is pointed out in the comments section, rightfully, that Jefferson wasn't even out of bounds, so it could have even been a better day for Justin Jefferson as absurd as that is and to let that one become a loss I know it doesn't blow up the season I know that it doesn't cause them to miss the playoffs all it does is delay by about six days when they play the Colts that them getting into the playoffs officially with the division title. So that's going to happen. They're still good. There's no like, oh, well, everybody freak out. However, everybody freak out a little because if that's the type of defensive

performance they're going to put on, they can't go deep in the playoffs. And I know that Harrison Smith was out, but you won't get a better game from Kirk Cousins. You won't get a better game than Kirk Cousins played from almost any quarterback whose name is not Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. It is really hard to play quarterback that good and lose a game. I mean, I wanted to tell myself at some point that the Vikings would lose a game and we would be like, okay, look, you know, you lose football games. And I was prepared for that halfway through this thing. But at the end, when you have a chance to strike back, it's 21-13. You're like, okay, just get a stop.

Just slow them down. Maybe they'll play conservatively and so forth. Dan Campbell's still the coach. It's never over. And then you just give up one long drive after the next. You allow Detroit to drain the clock and specifically by just throwing the ball all over the place. And again, I know Harrison Smith was out. Every other player on the team on defense was healthy. They might have the worst defensive coordinator in the national football league there's too much talent on the on the field for the vikings to look like that on defense but there's no changing it now i mean unless they're going to just fire ed donatel

or take away defensive play calling right now after that game. But if you're Kevin O'Connell, you've got to be taking that flight home going, huh? And look, there's some things to question, and we will question that Kevin O'Connell did today. We'll talk about the two-point conversion, the jump pass for Delvin Cook, which was probably the worst choice you could possibly make in that moment, why their running game couldn't get going, the banged up offensive line. We'll get to all that. But I mean, the headline of this game is that defensive performance has been what they've been doing for weeks and it finally got them.

Hi, Paul. Hello, Matt. Yes. I think we've chatted frequently over the last few weeks as they've continued to win games and say, I don't know what they're doing on defense. They have let up the most yards in the league over the last five weeks now. It is just the way that this defense looks. And last week, the red zone defense kind of bailed them out from maybe another one of these really, really bad performances. But the defense has been bad, bad all year. And so I think if you would have told me coming into this week that they lose to the Lions, they lose by nine.

I don't necessarily think that's kind of a man. That's that's like really disappointing for the Vikings. The Lions coming into this game were four and one entering the game in their last five. They're now five and one after their last six games. They were like top three in offense by EPA per play over this stretch, especially especially passing the ball. I believe they were first in dropback passing. So they were a top offense. Their defense was rounding into form.

This was a team that was playing like a playoff team in the Lions and who still have an outside chance right now at the playoffs. They dug themselves quite a whole early season. They're trying desperately to scratch out and maybe make the playoffs. So this was a playoff caliber team that the Vikings were playing on the road divisional game. If they lose this game, it's not the end of the world, but the way they lost this game is really, really concerning. When you just get stuffed running the ball, you averaged 1.3 yards per carry. When you're getting out special teamed in several situations, when you're just not good in those situational spots

at the end of the half you look like you could score a touchdown and get the ball in the second half right away and go up and they get zero points out of that with a fumble it's the type of loss that we see a lot of times in the playoffs you get dominated up front you don't win the special teams battle and one or two mistakes really get you because if you line up just like the passing numbers side by side with cousinsousins and Goff, it was pretty much an identical performance by them on offense. They both averaged 8.5 yards per play. Both offenses were running up and down the field.

The Lions just could run the ball. They had 4.5 yards to run the ball. So that continually came as an advantage for them. And then the Vikings situationally just couldn't stop third downs. Lions were seven to 15 on third down. And really when they needed it in the second half, it felt like there was no third down. They weren't going to get it just like third and nine, third and 12, third and six. It didn't matter. They were going to find an open receiver and they were going to get the, they were going to get the first down. It just felt like an inevitability. So again, losing this game on it, on the surface, doesn't need to be a horrific

thing for the Vikings. Just the way they did it felt like how this team is going to lose in the playoffs. They're going to get dominated up front. They may lose a special teams battle here and there. Uh, Greg Joseph didn't come back to bite him. That could be a special teams blunder late in the season. And they just situate situationally weren't sound and their defense just was giving up gaps and just couldn't, couldn't stop anything. And so I think that's, what's concerning is you're losing to a player playoff caliber team in a way that I think other teams can repeat. I think the Eagles can put this performance on them. I think the Cowboys can put this performance on them. I think that's, what's so concerning and it's

concerning when you still lose and cousins has one of his best games ever. Justin Jefferson breaks the single season game record for receiving yards, I believe. So that's, those are like when that's, you're still losing and those things are happening. That's not a good sign. And it just, it felt like kind of a perfect storm against them right now. 425 yards, 124.5 quarterback rating.

And in my opinion, these were not BS, you're down in the game type of yards. These were, it was back and forth for most of the game and your quarterback played great and you lose the game. I mean, it's really unusual. I mean, I know that sometimes when a team is way down or something that they'll put up 400 yards in a loss and, you know, so that the box score stats sometimes don't always tell the truth

but I'm sure when we look at that QBR and the PFF grade and everything else that tries to cut through that we're going to find that this was one of Kirk Cousins best performances really in a long time I think since week one most of their after last week when he did not look sharp whatsoever like a really nice bounce back from him yeah no, no, absolutely. And not only that, but you know, I thought that overall now cousins got sacked a couple of times, but overall the pass protection held up for the most part. But I, do you know, you've probably looked at the box score, have it up, but like humor me here, the longest run of the day for the Vikings. Oh, I didn't see this. It's gotta be like five yards. I know they had two successful runs. It's got to be like five yards.

I know they had two successful runs. They had two by success rate, two successful runs out of the whole play. So it couldn't have been much. Five yards, five yards. Yeah, it was five yards. That's unbelievable for them to get dominated so much. And Garrett Bradbury being out is a big deal because Austin Schlottman has barely played ever in his career. And Bradbury, for his foibles when it comes to pass blocking, his run blocking has always been above average. But this does shine a light. And this is where the problem comes, is that the issues today were the issues all the time.

It's just that they were covered up by great plays at the end of a game. Like this game, the big play never came on defense, the big strip sack, the big interception that, Hey, we're going to tighten up at the biggest moment and give our team a chance. It just never came. You know why? I think because the lions are just better on offense than all the teams they've been doing that against, except for Buffalo, which was an especially weird game. But aside from that, like the Jets, the Patriots, the Cardinals, the Saints, like those are not teams that are going to put the nail in the coffin. But Jared Goff is just playing at an incredibly high level for Detroit.

Their offensive coordinator is phenomenal. And, yeah, we will talk about the penesul decision to throw him the football um what a just embarrassing way to have that come to an end to leave penesul wide open for the first down that puts the nail in the coffin but the receivers for detroit the offensive line they're running backs like they have weapons all over the place you knew that they were going to cause some problems but but what the Vikings have relied so much on is can you take the ball away from golf once? Can you strip sack him? Can you intercept him? They hardly pressured him at all in the second half. I mean, just sat back there.

And we discussed this a little bit when you play 85 plays in a very physical game the week before, oftentimes you wear down at the end of a game they had some illness in this game leading up to it and you know Harrison was out but also Daniil Hunter was ill this week and a few other players they had I think a stomach bug or something going through the building so you play 85 plays some sickness a key player out and that's kind of what you get but the fact that they were mostly healthy and still couldn't pressure him, I mean, they weren't anywhere close to any of the receivers

to intercept the football. There wasn't even like, oh, you know, they dropped that one too bad. And I think that where maybe the biggest, like, what happened there, miscommunication at this point in the season. I know that Cam Dantzler is coming back from an injury. So these things do happen, but to leave Jamison Williams just totally unguarded and then to get roasted down the sideline. I mean, this is a guy that's coming off of a lower body injury and was never the fastest to begin with. Like, is that going to be a thing where teams can

run these go routes against the Vikings and have success on defense but really you can run almost any routes against the Vikings on defense and have success so if we kind of go back let's let's talk about because I think we're very much on the same page with what it means to have played like that defensively and everything that went wrong I wish I had a solution I wish I could say say, well, if they only did X, Y, and Z, it didn't look like they blitzed more, which is kind of weird because Kevin O'Connell's been sort of nod, nod, wink, winking. Like I agree with you guys, we should blitz more. From my eye, it didn't look like they did. And I don't think Goff is a great quarterback if he's blitzed. And I know he's not when he's pressured. He got the slightest bit of pressure on a fourth down and threw it eight feet behind his wide receiver that's who Jared Goff is

that's why he's here and not in Los Angeles anymore because he can't make a play under pressure and yet it still seemed like they were mostly just hanging back hanging back and letting receivers go wide open but if we go back Paul to the very beginning of the game, this one had, I think for the first time, correct me if I'm wrong, decisions of Kevin O'Connell's where we went, you sure about that? They go for fourth down and the play call is to run right behind Austin Schlottman, the backup center. They get stuffed immediately. Detroit gets the ball. Boom, touchdown. Then there's the decision to have Delvin Cook run a pop pass or a jump pass or something at the goal line, which is probably his worst decision as a head coach so far. I think hands down, that's not result either.

That's process too. I mean, Delvin was not running it successfully. I've never seen him throw the football. We watched these guys. I don't mean to go off about this too much because I want to get your thoughts, obviously, Paul. But we watched these guys throw the ball around pre-practice, post-practice. Justin Jefferson could fool you for a quarterback.

When he throws the ball, you're like, OK, that's not Delvin Cook. Like, Delvin Cook is not a thrower-o-ball. The offensive linemen look just as good throwing the ball as Delvin Cook. He Delvin Cook is not a thrower. Oh, ball. Uh, the offensive lineman looked just as good throwing the ball as Delvin Cook. He's got like shoulder surgeries. I mean, or shoulder injuries. Like that's not. So he's holding it. Like he plays for army and Navy out in front of him. Like he's running an option and it gets, you know, stripped. I just thought like, why, uh, the two point conversion attempt, I will probably defend all day long. It didn't end up mattering though,

really at the end of the day because they just couldn't get a stop. But interesting enough though, to me, that this is the game where we kind of said like, some of these decisions win a little galaxy brain. Yeah, I would call KLC's day inconsistent, I think with a lot of those plays. I I mean we just got done talking about Kirk's day and a lot of that is O'Connell drawing up a really really good game plan uh to get Jefferson open and to kind of get some of the other pieces involved Hawkinson

had a lot of nice plays except for the one drop that he had so I think by and large he called a pretty decent game when you're putting up that type of passing attack. But yeah, the fourth and one run is curious. It's coming out of the shotgun. They don't run it often or really at all on late downs. It's something I kind of see every single day when I'm looking at some of the charts, they just hardly ever run it on third and fourth down. And so in that moment to not try and kind of get one of your playmakers involved when already the run game was inconsistent, that's kind of get one of your playmakers involved when already the run game was inconsistent that's kind of a questionable play yeah he obviously the two-point conversion is one people are going to argue about whether he should not or should have gone for that

I'm totally fine with him going for it I don't you know love a tunnel screen to Thielen when you again you have Jefferson and Hawkinson so I think you can make some kind of qualms about the specific play calls of when he went for it um and then late in the game, they kicked the field goal to go only down eight. You probably, it didn't end up mattering, but you probably should have gone for it in that scenario, just to kind of understand what you had, whether it was a two score deficit or a one score deficit. That was probably a time when you do go for two again. So yeah, I think by and large, an inconsistent performance by Kevin O'Connell. And and it's to his credit not something we've said about him much he's been pretty pretty solid uh the team other than the chan and solvin penalty though didn't have a ton of dumb penalties so

i think it was kind of a wishy-washy game but when you're playing an opponent that really is kind of up to your level and is a playoff opponent, those one or two decisions just get magnified. So that the past, they tried to have Dalvin cook throw is just a drastic, drastic shift in how that game looks. Cause they could have gone 14, 14. They have the momentum. They start the second half of the ball. Obviously they don't, the lines don't go down and score. They miss a field goal.

So you get off a little bit on that, but it's just those small little errors. And this team, I think we, it's safe to say with this defense really has no room for error when you're playing a playoff opponent and the lions were a playoff opponent and they're going to have, when they come playoff time, they're going to play a pretty good team. And those are the small decisions. If they don't go your way are really, really going to have an effect when your defense is incapable of stopping anything. So I think they get magnified based on how the defense played, but yeah, I would call KLC's game inconsistent. I don't think it was horrible by any means. I saw some overreaction on Twitter that it was a horrible performance by him.

No, I think, you know, it just, it just came in at bad times that really kind of conflate what it looks like. I think though, for him at some point there earlier than he did, you just have to bail in the running game. They were not stopping anything in the passing game. I mean, even K.J. Osborne's getting involved. Hockinson was wide open pretty much all day. I mean, he had a pretty vengeful day against his former team, despite Lions fans making some rude signs and booing him. I think the Lions just don't know what to do with their hands.

They're just like, wait, do we boo the other team? Like, oh, they got one of our guys to boo. In December, they're usually not even there in the building. So they were a little puzzled. But it was a great day for TJ Hawkinson. And all the things sort of show you the capability of this offense that we've been asking for. And it reminds me of a team in baseball that like sometimes is hitting home runs and other times is pitching well.

But we haven't really seen them do both at the same time. Like last week, they get all those stops in the red zones like that got you through. And other times it's been clutch drives at the end of games, but inconsistent throughout the game offensively. This was really a complete game from Kirk Cousins. I didn't think that they had that like, oh man, this has been two quarters since they've moved the ball. I thought open receivers were being hit on target.

He was hit a couple of times and as usual, got back up and played very gutsy football. And I think that's kind of the concerning thing here is that you should just never lose a game like that. And it's brought up in the comments. There's a few examples of that from previous seasons in 2018 when the Vikings were a very flawed team where they tied the Packers in a phenomenal Cousins performance, and then they lost to the Rams in Los Angeles. This kind of reminded me of that, where it just felt like, is there anything else he's supposed to do today?

But O'Connell seemed like he kept wanting, like, oh, it's first and 10, so I probably should just hand the ball off. Like, dude, there was a game that I was watching recently on YouTube that people should go back and look at if you haven't seen it where uh drew bletzo through 70 passes against the vikings that would have been appropriate here 41 passes was not enough the way that that was succeeding and the way that the run game was failing i mean they needed to put the gas pedal down even a little bit more uh i mean if there's's, that's my only qualm, but they threw for 425 yards. So you can't really overly criticize that, but it really

is that that swing of Delvin cook fumbling is humongous. And that's the kind of swing that they haven't been on the wrong end of very often. So far this season, Delvin's usually good for like four or five fumbles a year. And I think maybe had one so far this season, but that's not even on him. I mean, that to me is on the play call and just trying way too hard and having it bite you. But aside from that, I don't think I have massive criticisms when you throw the ball as well as you do. But I think I would say the lesson that might have to be learned from this is for Kevin O'Connell, if you want to dink and dunk and play a low scoring game, if that's something that you've been trying to do in recent weeks, where if you look at the average depth of target, it kind of seems like it, like they've been, especially against good defenses, good

defensive lines, like they've been trying to throw quick little passes, Alex Smith, this thing into a close game, just throw that out the window, man. I mean, as, as we get down the stretch and the thing is they're playing four bad teams. I don't respect the giants at all. Colts are a tire fire and you know, Chicago might be interested in like that could, that game could be 34 to 23 also. And then, you know, I'm in the wrong order here, but you know, Green Bay, they'll try. Like Green Bay is going to fight you in that game for sure. And they can score some points. Anyone can score some points against this defense, but it's not like they are going to face another test like this, where the opposing team

is playing great football and they have an elite offense and they're moving the ball and putting up points. And it sort of showed you that it's going to have to be gas pedal down for the offense if they're going to win. It has to be like this. If they're going into the playoffs and they're going to beat somebody like Dallas, you can't hand off and then try to throw dink and dunk and just have Ryan Wright flip the field and so forth. And I was thinking today, like this offense isn't even as good as Dallas or Philadelphia from what I've observed against the Vikings defense. And so that's now three games that you lost against three legitimately great offenses where they've run you out of the building.

And I don't know that there's really an answer for that. Aside from you have the universe's greatest wide receiver. And that's it. That's the answer. It's the only answer. But another thing is, you know, you can't make the mistakes they did on special teams. This sort of speaks to your point is that the margins are so thin that you can't have, it's, you know, brought up in the comments to some of the calls today that Justin Jefferson probably was in bounds. He probably did have a first down

on that one catch that they ruled them just short and gave him a fourth down. But, you know, I mean, the Lions had a holding call on where they gained a first down and then the Vikings gave up a 12 yard pass right after that.. So, like, both teams, I thought, had, you know, a debate. People always get upset when I say that, but it's objectively true that they had an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that looks like nothing. Like, there were a few calls that went both ways. It did impact the Vikings to some extent. But I think it's just the reality now that you have to play offensively like this

when you're going against good teams and cannot give up a 42 yard play where I don't know whose mistake that is. It looked like Duke Shelley kind of just turned around and ran. Like he assumed the punt had already gone off and maybe that would have been his guy. Maybe they scouted that. I don't know, but you can't give that up.

You can't give up long punt returns. You can't miss any. I know they didn't, but you know, you can't miss field goals. You can't fumble the ball. Like you really are going to have to play this very dangerous type of game. And the unfortunate part is, I mean, you're just going to have to kind of sit around and wait to see what it looks like against playoff teams because none of them are really coming up the rest of the way. So I have no doubts that the rest of the games can all be one or that they'll win with three out of four or something. But this one right here, more than even Dallas, probably or Philly, because Dallas, you could just go, eh, one bad game. Look, there's a no show for every team. This wasn't a no-show. This was like some show, and some did not.

And I think that it just sort of told us what they're going to have to do eventually at some point against a great team in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, if the Lions continue to win games, this could be your 2-7 matchup come playoff time. And in U.S. Bank, and I think the Lions can recreate a lot of what they recreated today uh the vikings run game this was not an anomaly for them in terms of how they ran the ball this

is just kind of more and more consistently how they're running the ball and if you were going to bank on anything regressing slightly it might just be kirk played a phenomenal game you just can't count on that every single time uh but we've we've said it but it really just comes down to those few plays because when you look at the raw stats like by and large these teams played pretty equally like for all the flack we're giving the Vikings defense the Lions defense couldn't stop Justin Jefferson for anything and couldn't stop Kirk Cousins and I know he was sacked four times but I think having Schwartman in there and having Brandel in there I thought the offensive line held up

relatively well all things considered. And so you're just thinking about that. And it just comes down to the cook play. It comes down to the special teams play. And it's just, it is what those margins come down to in playoff games. It comes down to like that Green Bay game last year when their special teams just falls apart. Those are how teams lose games.

You lose games when you just are incapable of running the ball or stopping the run because teams can just kind of salt the game away like that. So it did have for me a big kind of feel of a playoff game. It sounded like Ford Field was rocking in there. They clearly wanted to win that game. They got up for that game. And I think the Vikings offense took the punches pretty, pretty well from the Lions offense scoring kind of right after when they could have let the game get away. And so it just, I would feel better if it felt like the defense could improve off this game. But we've now, this is probably week six in a row of us saying, man, the defense just wasn't great. In the last couple of games, we haven't had like the same

somber tone with it or kind of the harsh tone with it because they've managed to win these games and they've come up with those plays once here or there without Harrison Smith. None of those plays were there. He's kind of been one to make a lot of them. So you're hoping he gets back because he's had several interceptions, just several big plays and kind of the two major touchdowns that the Vikings gave up in the first half there. Both looked like they could have helped by having Harrison Smith back there to kind of understand maybe where those plays were going not saying he breaks up both those uh but yeah by and large it just comes back down to if the defense is going to play this bad and the Lions could be in the playoffs and other really good offenses are going to be in the playoffs I just I don't know if the

Vikings offense as well as they can play can keep pace with that team. And I feel like the only way they can do it is if they at least have a threat to run the ball, if they have any sort of semblance that they can run the ball and they can't right now. And so that's one minor dig on the offense. Obviously the defense is the much bigger issue after this game, but when it's going to be this tight, it's those small things that are, that could hurt them. And it feels like these are now just repeated, repeated offenses over and over again. And I don't think they're going away. And so it's just how well can you manage them? And can you get those bounces that didn't go your way today and mostly have gone your

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look for the can that looks actually like a tall boy beer. And if you want to learn more about where to find it, go to liquiddeath.com slash insider. That's liquiddeath.com slash insider. It just feels like more and more what's going to determine how far they go is simply the matchups. Because if they play Washington, well, you've got a good chance there because you've got Justin Jefferson and they don't, and they have Taylor Heineke and you were able to slow them down the last time. And Taylor Heineke coming to US Bank Stadium, you just wouldn't bet on that, right? That's a good example of kind of what you have to look at here. Taylor Heineke coming to US Bank Stadium, you just wouldn't bet on that, right? Like there's a guy, this is a good example of kind of

what you have to look at here. It's like Taylor Heineke is a backup quarterback who's kind of fun, but will throw you the football. If you get that matchup, then you can win. The New York Giants have an abysmal defense, which helps,

and also an offense that isn't that good and is built around a running back. Okay, you can win that game. And we're going to see it in a couple weeks. But I just don't think that the Giants match up well against the Vikings at all. They got steamrolled by the Philadelphia Eagles today. Daniel Jones is not good at football. The Vikings are actually usually pretty good at slowing the run.

I think you saw today just how much they were on the field and how that accumulated. Because early in the game, Jamal Williams wasn't doing a whole lot. run. I think you saw today just how much they were on the field and how that accumulated because early in the game, Jamal Williams wasn't doing a whole lot. And then as it went on and it went on, then they started to get worn down a bit. But you're talking about potentially a Seattle team that's a little paper tiger-ish, but they have a sort of Jared Goff level quarterback, somebody that if he's got things going for him, he's going to be great. And really you look at the receivers of Seattle, they could just smoke this team in the secondary. So then you're talking about a shootout where a fumble or a punt return or whatever could be the thing that ultimately determines it. And normally on the show, what we try to do, Paul,

is we try to look for answers even like hey screen better which they didn't today but they didn't need to except for on the two-point conversion attempt which you brought it up i mean that's just that's just a strange play call but you're right if you focus too much on one play call and ignore the 425 yards passing you kind of went for it on that fourth down and got feeling on the touchdown when he could have john jon Vilma on the broadcast was like, I kicked this 100%. And then they go and they obviously score a touchdown. Like that's going for it on fourth. That's kind of giving your team an edge.

So it went both ways. I don't see a lot of broadcasts. The reason I am not in Detroit this week is I'm headed out to visit some family for Christmas time. But they could do better. They could do better than that. And I'm sorry to people who watched a good portion of it. One of the sideline reports, by the way, was I talked to Delvin Cook and he said, hi, back to you. That was very insightful. In the comments to ask what I mean by a Jared level, Jared Goff level quarterback. What I mean is that a quarterback that if you give him time to throw and play action and a running game and

favorable situations, the dude will shred you. And Gino Smith is doing exactly that this year, that they've run the ball. Well, they have great receivers. They're giving him some time to throw. And he is a great thrower of the football. You know, Geno is clearly not the same quarterback that was drafted by the Jets many years ago. He's somebody who could light up your defense. Mike White is not necessarily that level of quarterback. That is a total backup off the bench career type of journeyman guy who still ends up throwing for over 300 yards against you. Mac Jones should be a Jared Goff level quarterback, but has the worst offense in the league. Yet all of these teams put up 400 plus against the Vikings

defense. And it just, I don't know what the solutions are. I mean, the comment section, of course, wants Ed Donatel fired, but you're 10 and three. It's just like what we talked about with Ed Ingram at right guard, or we talked about with Greg Joseph that when you are 10 and three, you can't really toss somebody overboard. But I also think that they've got to be scratching their heads here. They have to be looking around and saying, how is it that this is happening? And is it just the corners are that bad like Patrick Peterson we barely see him we we saw him once get beat for a completion it was like oh yeah he's still on the team because everybody else just attacks the other two corners all the time and I think we saw strengths and weaknesses of Dantzler early this year and there was some hey Dantzler's taking the next

step narrative but I also think that we've seen exactly why they started somebody else last year. I'm not saying that was the right decision, but we've seen why. The miscommunication, getting burned by somebody down the sideline, and then Sullivan, the middle of the field, and the way that they play is open for beating linebackers all the time. These are things that, yeah, have just happened week after week after week but we haven't put it as much in the spotlight because they found a way to win so we've all done the like well you know they gave up a lot of yards and that was pretty bad but there's no but this time

against the lions and i i agree with you that if the lions are coming to US Bank Stadium, if they restore the roar and somehow find a way to make this mad charge and get into the playoffs, it would be insane for them considering the way they started. But that's one of the last teams that you would want to face because of how explosive this passing game is. I don't think you want to play this game over again, especially after they've gotten a look at kind of the Vikings going into their bag for everything they could do to get Justin Jefferson the ball. Yeah. And you brought up at Donatello and I know that's kind of going to be where everyone's

eyes are trained. And I've certainly written and been critical of a Donatello and his kind of lack of kind of changing things up. I'm not going to call for his job here because I strictly just don't know as much about football as them to know how much is what Donatello is doing, how much is something else. But at some point, like I would argue them being 10 and three is a reason for them to do it because I don't know when you get an opportunity like this. If you're this Vikings team with this current iteration, we've seen this play out with Kirk Cousins as the quarterback for several years. This is the best they've been positioned in any of the years to do anything. They still

have the inside track at a two seed. The Eagles look really, really good, but there isn't some dominant, established, playoff proven team that you just know come playoff time is going to be a juggernaut. Like Jalen Hurts still has to answer those questions. The door is open this year and it's hardly ever open and you hardly ever get there. So I would make this the reason to do a move like that because you let up 464 yards. The previous three games, you'd let up an average of 451 yards. That was by far the worst in the NFL over these last three games.

The defense has not trended anywhere but down. That's where it's going. It's getting worse and worse, and I don't expect the group to get healthier and healthier. Maybe they get some of the pieces back, but they're bound to probably lose another guy at some point. That's just how this works. I don't think you're getting the unit that you had before.

And so you just look around and you say, this is the year for us to try to do something. We need to give it our best effort. And so the Vikings need to try to figure out, is Donatello the right person to lead that effort? And a lot of times in the NFL, these things can be cruel and it can be, is it technically your fault? No, but we need to change things up for some reason. So if you're making that argument, that's the argument you're making. You're saying anyone, but Donatello at this point, just give them a chance, give them a chance to try something,

do something. It's really hard to parse whose fault is when the coverage breaks. And if that's a player, if that's on coaching, it's kind of on all of it. And so this defense, though, is maybe the worst defense in the league at this point. The numbers don't quite back it up just based on how they played decently at the start of the year. But this is trending towards the worst defense in the league. And so you're at a spot where you still can do something in the playoffs. You still are there in position and you got to figure it out on defense. You just have to do something. And so whether that's Donatello, whether that's making drastic ways to how you're playing, it has to be

something because the status quo is not good enough. The status quo is just going to trend them and tank their defense even more. And they're going to lose in the first round basically. So I don't know if that's on a tell. I don't know if that's something else, but it has to, it has to change. Just, you have to try something. You're at the point where it makes no sense. It's malpractice to just keep trotting out the same scheme, the scheme players, the same coordinator, something has got to be shifted to just at least try to improve this thing. I don't know how it's not the scheme because now last year, last two years, they had no pass rushers. I mean, uh, Daniel Hunter got hurt seven games into last year. Daniel Hunter didn't play in 2020. Everson Griffin played half the season for them last year.

And they ended up just, you know, they did the Yannick and them last year and they ended up just you know they did the Yannick Ngakwe thing and ended up with nobody by the end of the year it was like a Fadia Denebo or DJ Wanham or somebody who's in over their head playing the whole game and then last year Anthony Barr plays about half the games and he was banged up in the other half they're playing Bashad Breeland he's just like a bad-up player who had a bunch of bad moments for him down the stretch. And a lot of times, teams just targeted him repeatedly time after time. I think that this year, when you look at the roster, you go,

I don't know, man. Like, you have your two pass rushers. Delvin Tomlinson is back healthy. He's played extremely well this year. They were missing, like like Jonathan Bullard. I mean, that shouldn't cause you that much problems. Shout out Asasia Tomowo for making a play today. Former gopher, just like yourself.

But, you know, like almost everybody is healthy on this defense. And yet time after time after time, like you have your Eric Hendricks and he's mostly played, I think, well against the run. And then the pass numbers are so abysmal. They don't even look like Eric Hendricks. Like, well, who is that then? Like, I think that scheme really affects linebackers a ton. I think it really affects corners a ton.

And a good example is the New England Patriots always find some hot corner that then goes to another team and isn't all that good and think like, well, maybe that's because their system is very favorable to cornerbacks. This one seems like you need elite cornerbacks to be able to play in it, like say, Denver or I would say Chicago, the Vic Fangio from a couple of years ago. This does not have elite corners and there has to be something to it. And also, you know, not being as aggressive as I think that maybe Kevin O'Connell wants, or I think everybody has been asking for, there seems to be a stubbornness there for Ed Donatel. And there is an example of this happening, two examples of a mid-season

coordinator change in recent history. And if this happens, I'm going to laugh hysterically about the like, Zimmer runs offensive coordinators out of town if they were to do this. I don't think they will. It would be completely surprising if they did. However, 2016 was a all-in. We're just pushing all the chips to the middle of the table, making the Sam Bradford trade. And six weeks into the season, seven weeks into the season,

Norv Turner is, you know, resigns, finger quotes. And then we saw this in 2018 when they were going down the stretch after a horrendous performance against Seattle. And they decided to fire John DeFilippo. So these things do happen. And look, I mean, there's excuses being made in the comments about illness and Harrison Smith being out and so forth. Right. But the last three weeks, it's not just one. It was Mac Jones, who is playing in one of the worst offenses in the league. It's Mike White, who's Mike White. I mean, it's just like who, and then they finally face a good offense

and a proven offense and they shred them all day long. So I don't think it's just like, oh, well, you know, they had some bad breaks. Everybody was healthy in this game. And by Friday, there wasn't anybody who was on the injury report for illness. So they, I mean, there's really not much of an excuse for this also. I mean, there's just not much of an excuse for this. Also, I mean, there's just not much of an excuse for miscommunication, getting toasted. Cam Dantzler and Cam Bynum have played together since the beginning of the training camp, since OTAs, and yet they're making a pretty elementary mistake there. And you just have to wonder how much is the scheme. So, I mean, this is one where it's like the lead I wrote to my instant reaction was it's not

often that your team is 10 and three, but you're sort of hover the hand over the panic button when it comes to a performance. But when you give up 40 to Dallas and then 34 to Detroit, the two most explosive offenses, and even over 20 points to new England and the jets. I mean, the accumulation of this is it's pretty scary for you. And I don't know if the Vikings can't overcome this with the way Kirk cousins played. I mean, I don't know, like that just, that just makes it really difficult to make the argument for them winning four playoff games when your quarterback's absolute best showing of the year by a mile ends up not netting you a victory. Yeah. I think you brought it up earlier, but I think the key will just be matchups and the teams that they end up playing. Like

say they get the giants and they win that game. And then the 49ers win and it's Brock Purdy. Like that's kind of the route that you say, okay, they can win some of these games. And then you get to a game against, I don't know, the Cowboys or the Eagles, and then you just got to win one of those. You just got to have a Bill's performance. So it's there, but it really is matchup reliant because if they go up against a golf, if they go up against even a Gino Smith with the way that that offense is going, like, then you start to question, like, as good as our offense can play, even if they have that performance, we still may not win the game. We still may not have like the Trump card because the Trump card is the Vikings defense for every other team.

Like that's the Trump card is how bad this defense is playing. So they just need if they did what the Lions have done this season to kind of resurrect their team, go from a, the worst defense in the league to the 20th worst defense in the league. Like that is a massive shift. And when you talk about the playoffs, that's one or two drives that you stop them instead of letting them score. And that's the difference in whether you win one of these games. Like I, this defense is never going to win them a game at any point this year. Uh, it's just, can they stop them from losing a game? And because they lost this game for them and they could have lost that Jets game for them.

They could have lost that Patriots game for them. Like it's come close so many times. We finally got that game where one turnover doesn't paper over the rest of it. We just saw it in its actuality, kind of every, like it consumed this game was how bad the defense was. And so it's going to be matchup reliant in how much the other offenses can take advantage of it.

And so that, again, goes back to this week NFC. There's also a scenario where you play the Lions in the first game and you just lose or you play Dallas. I don't know how the seedings would have to work, but you play a team with a proven offense and you just can't stop them. And it might not matter how much, how well Kirk plays and how much we talk about Kirk cousins so often, but it might not even come down to how he plays in one of those games because the defense is just that bad. Tis the season for you to buy the best Minnesota sports themed apparel in the world for all of your friends and family. Go to sodastick.com. They have great holiday shopping deals there and use the promo code insider.

That is S O T A S T I C K.com code insider for all of your holiday shopping. I think that really next week might be where this conversation starts. If they give up a lot of yards to Matt Ryan, because you're talking about the worst most incompetent quarterback in the NFL at this moment in Matt Ryan and someone that doesn't even have like a weird upside like Taylor Taylor Heineke has weird upside he could just throw seven bombs and the ref could get in the way seven times and you're like wow they what Washington uh but Matt Ryan can't throw the ball seven yards through the air.

He has the lowest average depth of target in the entire league. You should be playing your corners uptight, pressing them all day long. He's not going to beat you over the top. Any pressure absolutely unravels that guy. Like this should be, like if this was the, well, you kind of took a licking, like you need to put a licking on somebody else the same way that Dallas did. So if they give up a lot of points to Indy, then that whole conversation about changing defensive coordinators,

like I don't think you would do it on a short week like this. They play on Saturday. But I think that it really sparks up if they can't slow down an offense that has just been absolutely abysmal and is being quarterbacked by 2015 Peyton Manning like just the most washed in the league um just you know let me circle back just to something uh you know one of the things that we say all the time that turned out not to be true today was that you know they need to run the ball and this was certainly old takes exposed I was on WCCO radio your station station, right before the game, like at 1145 in the morning.

And I was like, oh, well, they need to get Delvin Cook going in this game and then set up some of the stuff that they want to do. Totally wrong. Completely wrong. They did not get him going. And yet they were able to pass the ball all over the place. But this running game, it's one of the weirder running games I can remember. It actually maybe goes back to like 2015, where Adrian Peterson led the league in rushing,

also led the league in carries. And there were just a lot of negative runs and then a couple of huge runs. And that's essentially what you've got here in a running game. It's not a consistent running game at all. And I think that the office of linemen coming back is going to be a big deal that they can get healthier as they go down the stretch, but it's never been a consistent running game. Do we think that that's something with Delvin cook something with the line, something with the scheme? I mean, they are leading the league still an outside zone runs. So it's not like they've completely, or their top three, it's not like they've completely abandoned what they used to do.

I know that it is a little different, but it is perplexing. I mean, they made the Detroit Lions, who are not a great run defense, they made them look like San Francisco or something. They made them look like the Jets, a team that can just sort of pound your face in on the defensive line. And I guess I, I guess we're to the point where we just have to say with some of these things,

like you are who you are and you're probably not going to change, but they're so reliant. Like somebody asked me today, like where do the Vikings rank in three and outs? And the answer is top five worst or bottom five, whichever way you want to phrase it. They have a very, very high percentage. That's similar to like new Orleans and Pittsburgh teams that are being quarterbacked by very, very bad QBs. Like they're just so reliant on 47 yard catches from Justin Jefferson and 39 yard catches from Justin Jefferson that, that it sort of goes under that same bucket of like,

can you do that for whole games? Cause even during this game, they had a handful of three and outs that in order to win the shootout, they would have needed. I'm not blaming them. I'm not blaming the offense. Don't like send me that tweet, but where they needed to respond,

like the coming out in the second half after they had fumbled, they needed to respond. They go three and out. They've just got a lot of those. And I think it really connects to this inability to run the ball consistently. Yeah, they rank 29th in running success rate. 31% of their runs are successful. So that's just not going to cut it when only one and three are coming up and you're you know you're kind of progressing into the down and kind of not getting behind like two-thirds of

the time they're getting behind in this game cousins's epa was 23 points they scored 23 points that means they got no help from any sort of running game they got nothing uh like that it all came from the passing game and so i think honestly that one Dalvin Cook 80-yard run maybe kind of like hid some of the like down and like down like every like your every down runner Dalvin just hasn't quite been there uh to the level that he has been there before I still think he has his burst in a lot of different runs it's just not he's not able to consistently kind of showcase it and whether that's offensive line play they've had certainly had a lot of combinations going in going in there they lose derisaw they lose schlottman they're having kind of a rookie right guard in there like there there's certainly

offensive line qualms that you can have about and kind of reasons to put it on them and there's reasons to put it on dalvin i think it's just kind of probably a lot of all of it is what's impacting them at this point it's not just dalvin losing a step although he may have and it's not just the offensive line bullying people like in this game today like maybe Dalvin Cook can break something out but it didn't look like he had much for holes at any point here and so previous Dalvin probably is making some sort of insane play where he's bouncing one of those out and he's taking it for a first down I think maybe you lose that edge of him. Still, like he's still a solid runner. He's just not that exceptional runner that maybe was papering over some stuff in previous

years. And so I think it's, it's just imperative for them that they have like one that people can at least respect. And they have one that cannot lose half a point on every early down rush which is what it which is what they did today like that's just not going to cut it uh for this team and so it just again it's like that defense can you get it from really bad to just average to the point where the passing game is really working and obviously today it showed you don't even need the running game to work that well for the passing game to work. So maybe that's even a reason to go even more lean into pass heaviness. You show this to Kevin O'Connell and you say, you don't need to run the ball successfully. You probably don't need to even run it because if you just keep throwing it, good things are

going to happen because they did not run the ball with any sort of effectiveness today. And it did not stop the offense of the passing game one bit. So maybe you show this game to him and say, you know what you don't need to do? Run it into the offensive line 10 times for no yards just to say, hey, we can set up the play action now. Maybe just run the play action because it still may work. Just that's because the way brains are wired in the defense, in the linebackers and the coverage guys, like they're just going to want to look to see if they ran the ball.

I don't know if you necessarily need to do it successfully or keep trying to pound your head into the wall to make it work. At some point, you just got to lean in fully into the passing game. And I think that opposing defenses are sort of aware that they can stop Delvin cook with their front four and then just cover. Um, it didn't help them cover today with Detroit. Uh, they've kind of been that pass defense all year long, not the one that slowed down Justin Jefferson. This has kind of been more of who they are as a pass defense, but it's not what you'd expect for them to be able to just use their front in order to slow them down.

And the Vikings really didn't even have many chances to run a lot of the play actions that they want to run because they weren't really in position to do so. It was a lot of second down and long throws, third down and long throws because they weren't running the ball successfully. And I remember looking at this maybe two years ago that Delvin Cook, after whatever date, starts to fade in terms of yards per attempt. And they showed a graphic on the TV. He's fifth in carries.

And the other guys that are in his ballpark are Nick Chubb, Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, the guys who get the ball all the time. And going into the season, it sort of reminds me of the funny things that we talk about that just never happen. Like we always talk about them and they never happen. And then at the end of the year, the coach will be like, yeah,

I wonder why we didn't do that. It's like, what? And, or the, or the coach will say, oh yeah, that's definitely in the cards. Like Jalen Rager's definitely in the cards and I'm not criticizing anything really from the offense today, but Hey man, every time you run that end around with him, he seems to succeed or find a way to get him a quick pass or something like a pseudo run. And that didn't happen today. The only time they did that was with KJ Osborne, who's not quite as explosive as Jalen Rager. Sort of reminds me

of that though. Delvin Cook's going to line up in the slot more like, no, probably not though. And the same thing goes for the running back rotation. I will never speak of it again. I just want like never, never in an off season. Will I ever speak of a running back rotation again? There is no reason not to play both Madison and Delvin cook. I'm not saying equally, but like 60, 40, the rest of the way, because Delvin cook is clearly beaten down. And it's been kind of a while now since he's had a big performance and I agree with you that that that yards per attempt is maybe really heavily resting on a few huge runs but is not a consistent thing for them and they've

done the same thing that they've done in past years where they've just they've gotten a little conservative at times and just been like give it to Delvin give it to delvin and you're gonna push potentially 300 carries for a guy at his age who's been through this so many times like you need to go into the playoffs with a healthy delvin cook and it's time to just cool it i think it's time to just slow it down with uh with delvin cook let's take uh like five minutes just for just just for fun um dalvin cook has six snaps in the slot uh this year uh that is a percentage of 1.6 he's lined up in the slot that is the lowest of his career um yeah about three times three times lower than it was last year so just and they're gonna use delvin more in the passing game has definitely not been a thing either so like it goes on but the running back rotation always makes so much sense.

It's like, you have a good backup. You didn't want to trade them away. I think Alexander Madison is a player. Like he's a guy who can rely on to hit the holes and he's probably a better pass catcher. I don't really understand that, but I want to just take five minutes before we wrap up here and just talk about Justin Jefferson and Justin Jefferson alone. We have said so many things about him and there's only so many ways to say, Oh my gosh, but Oh my gosh. I mean,

just everything today, everything like this, this week when we talked to Jefferson and you know, of course he gets asked the, like, hey, last time, you know, they slowed you down pretty good. And he, like, had a big smile and he was just like, oh, well, you know, we got some things for him this week or whatever. You just knew that he was going to come back. I mean, it's like watching LeBron James or something. I mean, it's just like this player is better than all the other players. And even when they cover him, he finds a way to make some like basket catch that I'm not even a hundred percent certain how he made it.

He's just open all the time, makes every contested catch. He made a catch on the sideline. They popped them. He jumps back up. That's a couple of weeks in a row where he's gotten hit pretty hard at some point, gives the first down motion.

I mean, he is just everything, everywhere, all the time. And I don't know, like there's all these conversations that you like naturally divulge into of just like, well, where does he rank in something? I don't even wanna talk about that. Like this is one of the great receiver seasons in history following up two of the great receiver seasons in history that he has had.

And it's the one thing that after we discuss all this other stuff, so they didn't run the ball particularly well. The defense was a disaster today, has been in multiple games this year. But can you win these games? Yeah, because he gives you a chance. Because unlike almost any other receiver in the game, I mean, I don't even, I don't even know if like you put Tyree kill, maybe you do for him, but like digs, I don't even know if you put digs quite in the category of if you're losing by

two touchdowns, this man will win you the game. Like maybe, maybe he's close, but I don't even know if he's there with the level of Jeffersonfferson that is so unstoppable even when the other team knows exactly what you're doing and what you're trying to do and yet he's there i don't know it's yeah it's it's historic and it's unbelievable to watch and poor justin jefferson has to not wear chains on the you know way home or something or take his grill out i don't. Whatever it is he's got to do because they're all ashamed of losing. But like, wow, that's one of the great performances ever by a receiver, period. Yeah, I think when it really set in for me was when he didn't make the like one handed grab down the right sideline. And I was like, oh, hmm, I probably could have

brought that one in. And I was like, wait, what am have brought that one in and I was like wait what am I asking for him to do like make this insane one-handed catch along the sideline but that's just what we've come to expect from him and it today wasn't like those flashy plays it wasn't the bills catch it wasn't some of the other great catches he's had it's just like oh on third down yeah he's open uh and you're gonna throw it to him and he's gonna be there and he's probably gonna break two tackles and throw it to him, and he's going to be there, and he's probably going to break two tackles and then get tackled on the third one and go for 30 yards. And it's just the inevitability. Like the inevitability we talked about with the Lions offense,

kind of just getting third down conversions or kind of conversions at all. That's what the Vikings have. It just feels inevitable that if you pass on first, second, and third down, one of them, Jefferson's going to be open, and he's going to get a first down for it for like it's just how it works with him and so it's it's incredible to watch he's catching ones that are really tight when he's really tightly guarded he's catching those he's bringing down contested catches wide open catches like everything about justin jefferson is just screams like mvp if we didn't just give MVP to a quarterback automatically.

It's just like he seems to be the most valuable player that's not a quarterback. And again, I don't want to get into that ranking of all these guys, but it's just we have the luxury of watching it down in and down out and just the difference that he makes and the fear that he strikes in defenses and it not even mattering is just remarkable in every sense they just can't take him away in any in any sense if the offense is committed and Kirk is willing to throw the ball to him even when he may not seem open I don't see a reason why he doesn't have a really great performance like early on when he had this bad

game against the Lions I'm sure he could have had a good game if they just committed to throwing to him, even when he wasn't that open. Like, I think it's just as simple as you throw it regardless of what the coverage looks like, because he's probably going to catch it. And they've realized that towards this back half of the season. And you just see his numbers more, way more consistently. He's just being a difference maker. I don't think that's Justin Jefferson changing. I think that's everyone else realizing, Hey, just throw it to him. And this is what we're going to get weekend and week out. And you called it one of the greatest receiver seasons we've seen.

I don't see why it can't be replicated year after year. Like nothing about it feels unsustainable. It just feels like, Oh, he's open. Yep. He caught that. Like there's,

there's never a point when it's like, well, this hot streak is going to come to an end. It's like, no, I think he's going to continue to get open over and over again. And he's just going to make these catches. Like it's just an inevitability. Yeah. And the biggest thing that came out of this game offensively, which we got into only a little because of the atrocity on the defensive side

was really just that other people got involved as well. Now, when you throw for 400 yards, you're going to need other people, but, uh,, you know, they were down at some point and chasing for most of the game. So you do have to give them that. But I thought that Hawkinson down the field a little bit more, not just check downs, Thielen down the field. I mean, the guy for Detroit makes a great play on the pass down the sideline, but that was money to Adam Thielen. I mean, it took a really

great play by their defensive back to break that one up. Like, can we believe in other people outside of Justin Jefferson on a week-to-week basis? I think the only thing that ever stops Justin Jefferson is the other team's defensive line. Today, the roar may have been restored on offense, but it was definitely not robert porche out there that's from the 90s because there's no 2000s players i can reference that are good uh for the lions but um it was it was not like the jets it wasn't like dallas sending micah parsons after they you know aiden hutchinson i thought had a good game and he got a sack but it wasn't like every play he was getting pressured he had a lot of time to throw the football. And that's the only thing the Vikings have to fear when they go into the playoffs is just the team that can create pressure. And that goes back to the matchups. Like you don't want to see San Francisco. You don't want to see Dallas because those teams can get their pressure. When Detroit didn't, they just shredded them.

And like you said, I mean, if there was – like I think that the trust between Cousins and Jefferson has been really good this year. But lean into that even more. Push it even more as far as it will possibly go because your defense will probably let you down and what you're going to need is to respond every single time as an offense, and they certainly did today. And I think there's

a lot of comparisons between a team like Seattle and a team like Detroit. So there's a chance they face one of those two teams. You just need to keep responding on offense and they just needed maybe one, not fumble one more drive, one more big play that they didn't get and come up short in this one. Okay. Let's end on just this note. Appreciate everybody watching this. It's always amazing how many of you show up to watch these. And I'm really happy for that and jump in the comments and so forth. What say you about Penny Sewell catching the football?

I mean, I tweeted, it was just a fitting end to the game. Like probably could have gotten any receiver open the lot, the way Ben Johnson was calling that game and the way the lions were playing. But we'll just rub it in your face a little bit and have Penny Sewell catch it and dive forward for the first down.

So not exactly one you'd expect to, to have against you. So I don't really necessarily have all the faults of the Vikings defense, not necessarily bagging them for that play, but yeah, just felt like the perfect kind of fitting encapsulation of this Vikings defense performance. And increasingly this Vikings defensive season when their offensive linemen can get a first down on you by catching a pass.

So it just, it, it really just kind of felt like it fit the rest of the game. I thought it was hilarious how he fell in his pants, stretched out. And he just like, he had open running room, but it was like, I'm just falling down because I'm an offensive lineman. Here's what I would say about that though. Like tangentially related, their offensive line is good. It's really good.

And you might think if you're a Vikings fan that Detroit stop it they'll never be good they're Detroit shut up they I mean next year they might be really good I just it looks like a team as goofy as Dan Campbell can be and as much as I thought his game management was gonna get him again uh and I don't know that he'll ever know how to manage a clock. Maybe he should just hire someone for that. But you look around that roster and you've got Hutchinson doing a great job brushing the passer, McNeil in the middle getting after it, stuffing the run there.

And then on the offensive side, St. Brown's going nowhere. Williams is just emerging. Shark probably comes back. And that offensive line is something to build around. They've really got something going there. And there was a report that they might stick with Jared Goff. And I'm sure you go like, oh, good. Yeah. Okay. Do that. He took a team to the Super Bowl once, like a really strong team that was built on the back of a lot of young players at the time with a great offensive line. I think that's the fundamental truth about Jared Goff

is that when he has a top offensive line, that guy can be a really good quarterback. So fear the roar in the future. I just, these both of these games, I've been very impressed with the talent that they have. And it's highlighted by that guy, Penny Sewell, another high draft pick. But yes, that was a hilarious way to end the game. And, you know, maybe in a few weeks, it'll be a little bit different because

they're not playing this type of competition. So in a way I feel weird. I feel like, well, next week, if they win 34 to 10, we'll just be like, yeah, right. I mean, they should get back. That'd be a big deal for me because they haven't blown out anyone. So if they blow out the worst team in the league, I don't care. I just want to see a blowout. Right, yeah, right. Yeah, I'm not going to criticize it, but it's just going to be like, okay, well, yeah, that should have happened. And even the coming weeks after that, I think the Giants is an okay test, but they're just such a fraud. We debate all the time, like how strong are the Vikings really?

I think those are very different discussions of how strong are the Vikings, and the Giants are just not good at football. Just a paper tiger of all paper tigers, and then the two division games that probably won't matter. So, like, I don't know. Like, this to me felt like the last time that we can be like this, that we can be, like, intense about a postgame. Unless they lose next week, then it's going to be like, what? But I, I really doubt it. I just can't see it happening. So I think that

this, this was one where we need to really like kind of scrutinize what you got here because it was a playoff like test. That team is treating it like the playoffs and there needs to be resolutions. I don't know what exactly they are. So great stuff as always, Paul. Thank you all so much for listening. If you just tuned in, make sure you watch the whole replay. If you're watching on YouTube and if you're listening on the pod,

the usual suspects will be around. I am going on a little bit of a Christmas vacay, but this wheel never stops turning. So we'll have Murph, Searles, et cetera, other guests. And, you know, we'll go forward from there. So thanks for your time, Paul. Thank you everyone for listening. Now on YouTube, we awkwardly stare at the camera

because when I push end broadcast, it waits for like five more seconds. So just, so make a nice face, Paul.