Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings have kicking (and blocking, pass rushing and third down offense) meltdown in Tampa Bay

Episode Date: December 13, 2020

Matthew Coller and intern Paul dive deep into the Vikings' loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs, which now puts them on the outside of the playoff race. Was it purely Dan Bailey's fault they lost? Or was there more to the story? Was this another down game for Kirk Cousins? Why didn't Justin Jefferson or Adam Thielen get the ball more? How should we look at this season now that the Vikings lost another game they could have won? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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came the expectation and with that came the pressure. New episodes of American Prodigy drop Tuesdays from Blue Wire Podcasts. Hello, welcome to the Post-Kicking Meltdown Podcast, which I guess could have been in many different times in Vikings history. So I will specify, Vikings lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They fall to 6-7. Dan Bailey misses four total kicks after missing three kicks last week and plays a very large role in the Vikings losing in Tampa Bay, a game that started out looking like they had an opportunity to steamroll the Bucs.

It looked like Tom Brady was washed, but I guess that's why they play all 60 minutes. Matthew Collar, intern Paul here. And I'm going to start with this, Paul, before we get to your questions and comments and so forth. Yes,

Dan Bailey lost them the game. Yes, the referees lost them the game. I can only remember one time in history where a pass interference was called on a Hail Mary. And of course, it happened to Buffalo in 1998, as I was informed by Twitter. I'm sure there's been a couple other times, but Twitter was right on top of that one. That was a ludicrous call that made no sense whatsoever Rob Gronkowski had his own hand on Todd Davis's face mask as they were going into the end zone so those three points go on the referees maybe the Harrison Smith thing is questionable but he's put a target on his back maybe the Jeff Gladney thing is questionable as Mike Evans was falling

down. So, okay, let's get that all off the table right there. Bailey missing field goals, referees not giving you calls, all to blame. However, the reason the Minnesota Vikings walk out of Tampa Bay at 6-7 and not 7-6 is because if you settle for field goals, make them or miss them against the greatest quarterback in the history of the National Football League, you will lose. And that's what they did. If you ask your field goal kicker to be perfect from 54, it's not always going to happen. He's kicking on grass. I don't know what the explanation for Dan Bailey melting down is. But I can tell you this. If every time you get in position to score, you get an eight-yard loss because your quarterback takes the sack.

If you are throwing to C.J. Hamm when you are down 23-6 and trying to come back in the game and killing the clock on yourself, taking nine minutes off the clock by checking down underneath, underneath, underneath, You will lose. And that's what the Vikings did. And last week and the week before that, they made a lot of mistakes. They had things go against them. They overcame it against bad teams.

Tampa Bay is not a bad team. They have far too much talent and way too good of a quarterback to get away with that. So I think that you can blame it on the kicker, and you're not wrong. You can blame it on the refs, and you're not wrong. But if you're looking at the bigger picture, this was who the Vikings have been for a very long time and maybe for the entire season. And usually, whether they come out with a win or loss,

just depends on the competition. What's up, Paul? Well, started out of the gates hot there. And I was fully prepared to come in and start with the kicking. But I want to run with this because I don't think this is the general consensus coming out of this game, at least from what I've seen through the last hour. It's all about Dan Bailey. All the comments that Zimmer made was about Dan Bailey, which overall were pretty nice as I was listening. It's the one, the we don't care about Dan Bailey, which overall were pretty, pretty nice. As I was listening, it's the,

the one, the, we don't care about feelings anymore. However, he said that that's the illuminating one, but he didn't exactly throw him under the bus. Dan Bailey is still on the roster as of three 51 central time. But yeah, I want to, let's just start with the quarterback and the offense then, because you're right. Uh, Tyler Conklin and CJ Hamm had more receptions than Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson. That can't happen. Justin Jefferson didn't have a catch until the second quarter. That's not good. They took up eight minutes in that third quarter,

which Kirk said like wasn't a bad use of play clock, but then said he ran out of time in the fourth quarter. So those are contrad fourth quarter. So those are contradicting statements. So before we get to the kickers, I want to expand on what you were just talking about, because the offensive strategy was a little bit questionable through the first quarter. They're running the ball and they're running the ball really successfully, but I wasn't sure it was the right course of action, given that Tampa is the number one rushing defense like in the NFL so yes it was working but is that really the way that they were gonna end up winning this game

because they were only six it was only six zero it was gonna be nine zero doing that sort of running the ball first and Zimmer even said after the game I wish we ran more in the second half I don't I you probably shouldn't have. But in general, I'm just not sure it was the correct way to go. Cause it seemed to be trending. And maybe that Seattle range where you play that perfect first half, which it looked through one quarter, they were going to have like a perfect first half. And then you just don't get up far enough.

So even though Bailey missed that kick, it was still only going to be nine, zero. Like they were, if it was 14-0, I'd feel a lot better than 9-0, and I don't think Tampa and the Bucs were just going to lay down if it was 9-0, even if Dan Bailey made that kick. So yes, there was just a ton of weird offensive calls in this game, offensive strategy, just the way they attacked it. I guess I would want to get your opinion on just what you thought of their overall game plan heading into this game. Yeah, what you're talking about with the running game is one of the reasons the Vikings have kept opponents in the game, and one of the reasons that every game seems to be close is because they run so much early in the game that it puts you behind the stick sometimes. And even when it doesn't, you're needing a lot to go your way

to get all the way down the field. And so even when you're dominating the other team, you're not really taking full advantage of how much you're dominating the other team because, like you said, I think you put it really well, that even when you are whipping them in the first half and they have two quick drives they have to punt quickly in eight plays in their first two drives for Tampa Bay and I think they gained 24 yards in their first two drives and yet you couldn't take full advantage this offense relies so much

on running the ball and then hitting on explosive plays and the explosive plays were not there at all in the passing game today because lo and behold if the Jaguars can sack you four times then the Bucks can sack you six times and that's exactly what we saw so if you go if you want me to expand on the point about why it's about a lot more than a kicker I mean I think you you got off to a good start there with you didn't take full advantage of those early struggles for Tom Brady that looked like he'd been off two weeks or he's washed or whatever in the first two drives and you're able to move the ball,

but you're not able to finish off the one drive. I mean, really even the first three drives by the Vikings are terrific. They go eight plays, get themselves into scoring position and then sack themselves right out of scoring position. They go 14 plays for a touchdown, miss an extra point, not that big of a deal. And then you go eight more plays and four more minutes. I mean, you're completely controlling the game. And what happens?

Another sack on third down, another field goal attempt. And I agree with you that at 9-0, nobody felt like the game is over when it could have been 21-0, the way that they were moving the ball against the Bucs. And that's why it's about a lot more than missed field goals, because they're key sacks at these situations where it's third and goal, and they move themselves back to like the 20-yard line with back-to-back sacks where they lost 16 yards. And that was something that even Kirk Cousins after the game acknowledged, that that can't happen, that he's got to find a way to get rid of the ball or anything has to happen but getting sacked twice in a row to lose that many yards.

And, yes, the offensive line is to blame. At times it has been throughout this year. But it's also a feature of Kirk Cousins' play that on third down and long, and we saw this in the statistics, we saw it against the Jags last week, where sometimes he'll hit on a big play on third and long because he beats the Blitz, and sometimes the Blitz beats him. And basically the Bucs said, let's see you beat our Blitz, and the Vikings just were not able to do that. So the fact that they couldn't get way up left the door open for far too long and then Brady remembers how to throw the football

and hits on a 50-yard touchdown pass as Tom Brady want to do against your secondary that's playing Chris Jones a guy that you picked up off waivers and he finds him one-on-one with a wide receiver and and this has been so much of who the Vikings are that I don't think you can chalk it up to hey well they're usually amazing it was just the kicker got him today it's no they've done this every week for like the past five or six weeks during this winning streak of sorts and Dallas made him pay for it and now Tampa Bay made him pay for it. Yeah, and I was just perplexed at where Kirk Cousins was deciding to throw the ball. I didn't know that this was going to be the tight end game when Kyle Rudolph is out. This wasn't the game I would expect it to be.

And weirdly that he starts throwing it to tight ends when Kyle Rudolph's out. Maybe he should do that when he's in the game. But like Tampa Bay, for the vaunted run defense, if you go back through their last games, they gave up 269 yards to Tyreek Hill alone. Both Robert Woods and Cooper Cupp had over 100 yards receiving. So the opportunity was there for Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen to play well. Thielen got open early on in the game,

and it was just perplexing that they went away from it. And Kirk Cousins' average yards per attempt, air yards, I believe, was under six yards, which is not good. He was throwing short of the sticks more than he was throwing past it. I don't know if it was a product of the offensive line and how they were just kind of getting pushed around. If it was a product of the coverage, I guess you'll have to look at the tape to figure out that one.

But like everything about the offense just was a struggle. And I think the Dan Bailey missed kicks are going to be the scapegoat to not talk about that struggle as much. But I want to ask you to move in maybe to the kicks just a little bit. You've been here for Daniel Carlson. You were here for Kari Vedvik. You weren't here for Blair Walsh. No, I was.

I was here for Blair Walsh. Yeah, 2016 when he got cut and he was missing kicks left and right. Yes, I was here for that. Okay, so you've been here for all these different things. So you have experience talking to the players after these games. How much does it affect them in the moment? Because I think there's an idea, there's two sides of whether momentum matters in football, the no, it doesn't at all. And yes, it really does. And people seem to be kind of on polar opposites. And normally,

I'd say maybe it doesn't matter that much. But for something like this, when they're driving down against a defense that's really good, they're putting themselves in position to score points, and they're just not. And then suddenly after he misses, the Tampa Bay offense gets a lift. They start leaving guys open. Does it affect a team when a kicker repeatedly misses kicks? Because I would have to say that it does, because after that happened, they just didn't look like the same team,

and maybe that was Brady finding his footing and not overthrowing Chris Godwin by 20 yards and Gronk by 10 yards and everything. But it sure felt like that kind of took the energy out of their sails. When you miss a field goal, it does more damage than just the three points that you take off the board because it puts the other team in very good position to start. I mean, if Zimmer, instead of kicking a 54-yard field goal, decides to punt there, which normally would shoot me through the roof with rage if someone punts

when they could kick a 54-yard field goal or go for it. It was 4th and 20, so you can't go for it. But kicking a 54-yarder with your kicker who's struggling, there is a case there to punt that ball and make Tom Brady go the whole rest of the way. You run him out there for a 54-yarder, you miss it, they get the ball right where he kicked it, so that means that you're getting it at, what, the 46-yard line of the Vikings. That's an amazing starting position for Tom Brady, and more times than not, especially with his weapons, and once he got himself going a little bit, he was going to take advantage of that. So certainly the missed kicks are worth more than the 10 points that you lost

out on. But there's another point to be made there. You get to third and 10, which is not great. You come out of a timeout, which I'm not sure why you used, and somebody jumps off sides. I mean, right there, that's the encapsulation of the Vikings this year and all the mistakes that add up on each other. It's not just that Dan Bailey missed that 1,000 miles to the right. It's that you ended up making it 54 yards or taking yourself out of a position to go for it. Fourth and 10, you can go for it. I think it was made fourth and 15 instead of fourth and 20. But fourth and 15, that's pretty hard to go for. I can't blame was May 4th and 15 instead of 4th and 20 but 4th and 15 that's pretty hard to go for I can't blame Mike Zimmer for that but I would say that if you have no trust in your

kicker then you should punt it there and not give up that field goal position because if you look at the worst defenses in the league one thing that's usually consistent is average starting position and I believe the Vikings have been the worst in the NFL or one of the worst in the NFL this year in terms of giving up average starting position. So even though their defense struggles, you may get worse when you're giving the ball to the other team at your own 46. And then on the defensive side, and this speaks to how this was a complete team loss, which is what Zimmer said after the game and not just on Dan Bailey, they couldn't stop anything after those first couple of drives. They got the one stop on third down where Jeff Gladney broke it up. And even then almost was pass interference on Eric Wilson who got there a

little bit early and they didn't call it. So maybe a bit of a makeup call there, but you know, so they get that one stop. But aside from that, you've got LaShawn McCoy who who is in the NFL still, beating you around the edge for first downs, catching passes. They're moving the ball. They're scoring in the red zone. I mean, the Tampa Bay, after those first couple of drives, was in a groove, and the Vikings couldn't stop them from anything.

And on the 50-yard touchdown, it's Tom Brady stepping up in the pocket. Nobody around. If Tom Brady was fast, he would have run for a 50-yard touchdown. There was nobody in the area. And of course, he's the best quarterback ever. He can step up and drop a dime 50 yards into the end zone, no matter what age he is. I bet when he's 60, he'll be able to do that. And that's all where the shortcomings of this Vikings team came together today. They've been bad on the offensive line, slash Kirk brings his own pressure. We put those two together. They have made repeated special teams mistake. Here we are again with lots of special teams mistakes. And the defense can't pressure anyone, which doesn't give their cornerbacks much of a shot.

The deep shot down the field to Mike Evans that went for 30 yards, same deal. Nobody is bothering Tom Brady at all. Steps right up, delivers a perfect ball because he's freaking Tom Brady. That's what happens when you are an average to below average football team and not a team generally deserving of the playoffs this year,

they're giving you a seven spot any other year. We are not really talking about the playoffs at this point. And the only reason we are is because of that seven seed and because Arizona slipped. Now they won today. So they go back up and Chicago also won today with Mitch Trubisky balling out. So that's not a guaranteed win next week either against the Bears.

And all of a sudden the route looks a heck of a lot harder than it did just a day ago. Like, hey, go to Tampa Bay, win, and you're controlling your own destiny, and now you look like you're not so much of a playoff team. But that's what teams that miss the playoffs generally do. So I know that I got kind of away again from the point about kickers because it's just about so much more than that. And I don't think you could say, well, you know, if Bailey makes a couple, you probably win.

I don't know. I think Tampa Bay played a lot better football basically after the first three drives of the first quarter. Yeah, I think this is a good segue then to talk about the playoff chances. I believe they're still, I think when I checked 538, they're still around 30-ish percent, maybe 25 percent based on the standings right now. That could change with how the 49er game goes, how some of the other games go, that the Lions game, if they get up and win. So maybe those things shift a little bit. But right now they still have, you know have a shot at it. It looks like they'd probably have to run the table.

I think those first couple of drives showed that Minnesota at least maybe can play up to a level of talent. They didn't show it after that. And whether that's momentum out of their sails or the Tampa Bay's just course correcting to what they normally were in the first drives aren't indicative of the team there they are I guess that's just up for debate person by person but they they still have a remote shot at this but I would just say after last week even after the Jags game we were saying this team doesn't deserve a playoff spot and today didn't change that at all it just showed that the margin of error is really thin they've now lost a game maybe because of their kickers. They lost a game

maybe because of their right guard. They're losing games in ways we didn't really expect them to lose in. And I don't know if I don't have a very optimistic view of a potential playoff run. I'm not sure if that is different for you, but if that is possible, what's going to need to change here for them to, you know, beat two division opponents, which they have a really good shot at doing, and then they'd have to upset the Saints because otherwise we're looking at the Cardinals to have to go 1-2, and I just don't think it's a realistic thing we should be talking about for them to go 1-2 at this point. It's more likely they're going to go 2-2 at this point. It's more likely

they're going to go 2-1. They're going to split with San Francisco and the Rams. They're going to win one of those, lose one of those. Then I think they have another NFC East team. So they're most likely going to go 2-1. So the Vikings have to go 3-0. What needs to happen? Got a great holiday deal to tell you about from SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER15, you can get 15% off your purchases during this holiday season when you buy two items or more. Go to SodaStick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods.

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It's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. Yeah, that's a tough one because remember when Kirk Cousins had that crazy great month and everyone started to say, hey, look at Kirk Cousins. He's doing that thing where he's playing great over a month's time and so forth. And look at him getting this team back in the playoff race today, by the way. And again, the theme is, yes, it's Bailey's fault, but not always. 52 yards lost in sacks.

Now, he threw for 225 yards. A little quick math here. 39 pass attempts. And so that is, what, six? That makes it 44 dropbacks or 45 dropbacks. So if you take your 52 yards minus of the 225 you pass for and divide it by 45 dropbacks, what you end up with is a passing game that wasn't even remotely effective. I mean, you end up with a net yards per pass per dropback of being like four yards per dropback. And that's what's generally happened to Kirk Cousins when he plays against

talented defenses with violent defensive lines is you end up with going through the reads too quickly you end up with not targeting guys downfield taking sacks he got strip sacked a couple of times was able to recover the ball but still on one of them not on another one but that's a Kirk Cousins staple is being strip sacked against good defenses. And as they go forward here, the Detroit Lions, of course, are not a good defense. They might be a little better without Patricia. Probably not, though. There's only so much Darryl Bevel, an offensive coach, is going to be able to fix about that

bad defense. But the other two teams have a lot of talent on their defenses. We've seen Chicago held them to 19 points, and New Orleans has one of the best pass defenses in the entire NFL. It's hard to see them winning all of these games. I mean, especially New Orleans. You might have Drew Brees back by then. Even if not, though, this is a team that lost to Andy Dalton,

who was able to get the ball to some of his weapons, get a little running assistance. Taysom Hill can absolutely beat this defense. Everyone can beat this defense. Mike Glennon got benched today for the Jaguars. Mike Glennon led a game-time drive against this team last week. If you can't put any pressure whatsoever on the quarterback, it is over for you. And with Zimmer, he was able to dial up some blitzes that would help him out

in certain situations throughout the season, but there's only so much of that that you can do because, as we saw against Carolina, as we saw at times against Jacksonville, if they pick up the blitz, you are left pretty wide open when it comes to your secondary and it opens up for big plays, and that happened to some extent when they blitzed Tom Brady. It wasn't very often, but they usually picked up the blitz. I don't know if he was touched today.

I don't know if he was pressured. I'm going to be very interested to see the PFF numbers to see if they gave a single pressure out to a Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman because I don't think they had one. I don't remember one where I saw Brady have to move in any direction. I don't know if there's ever been a game where a starting quarterback had that many dropbacks with zero pressures, but this might be the game. I don't know if they're going to give any credit to anyone. So this goes under the category of count me as pretty skeptical.

You're playing teams that you already played once, teams that are actually playing a heck of a lot better. Just as we're recording this, the Detroit and Green Bay game is too early for us to say. Maybe Detroit will get killed. But Matt Stafford was great last week. And the first drive against the Packers, he goes down and scores a touchdown. So, I mean, would you be shocked if even Matt Stafford,

who had to, by the way, sit out the entire week with a COVID issue last time, would you be surprised if Week 17 at home he's standing back there throwing the ball all over the place? I wouldn't. I wouldn't be surprised. Look, Mitch Trubisky is terrible. But against Houston today, he went off. You know why?

Houston's defense is like the Vikings defense. It's bad. It won't pressure you at all. And you can stand back there and throw to whoever you want. That's how it's always going to go in the NFL. If you don't get after Mike Glennon or Andy Dalton or Taysom Hill or any of these guys, you won't win. So I think that there are more games like this, not for field goal misses games, but there are more games like this, not four field goal misses games, but there are more games like this that there are mistakes, that there are sacks, that there are offensive line struggles, that there are cousins moments where you go, what was happening there, Kirk?

Because that's always the Kirk coaster. It's what we talked about when he was at his best. Like he's never as great as his best, Like he's never as great as his best and he's never as bad as his worst. And today was one of those kind of those down games. So there's two in a row. You got away with one against Jacksonville, not against Tampa Bay. If he has one more, you're out of the playoffs and you're looking at another season of Kirk Cousins. That's either seven and nine, eight and eight, nine and seven.

I mean, I guess you're kind of looking at that anyway. But it's kind of remarkable how this ends up, you know, working out with Cousins every year. It's this up and down and up and down, and they went to a down today, and they lose the game. Yeah, and I think this Tampa Bay game was kind of, we were using it as a referendum on what they could potentially do in the playoffs. The last five weeks or whatever weren't so much. Like, it was great that they were playing well,

and you need to do that against bad teams. But this was the week that we were going to see, okay, how do these certain things match up against playoff caliber units? So a playoff caliber starting offensive line that they went against, they did not create any pressures. I agree with you. I don't remember a single pressure, really. I agree with you. I don't remember a single pressure, really. I think at one point, I remember hearing Joe Buck say that that was a

pressure by Armin Watts, and that's the only time I remember him saying the word pressure. But if you're thinking about teams that even if they squeak into the playoffs, they might go against, you're thinking about the Saints. They have a good offensive line. You're thinking about the Packers. They have a better than average offensive line. You're thinking about the Rams, they have a better than average offensive line. So if you're looking, okay, how would they do against those playoff units? This game was a good judge of that. They wouldn't do very well. Then you go on the other end, you're looking at how did our offensive line do against their defensive line? Again, they did not do very well. If you're going back through all those teams again,

you're looking at Aaron Donald. That wouldn't go well. You're looking at Green Bay hasn't been able to create that much pressure this year, so maybe that's not as big of a deal. But the Saints sure have a good defense, so that would be a struggle. So you're kind of going through the different reference points of, okay, Tampa's kind of comparable, but maybe teams we could see if we

reach the playoffs and pretty much in all of them they failed they failed on both ends of the line they failed against playing against a playoff caliber quarterback the mistakes that Brady did make were largely like unforced errors he had just weird overthrows like he tried to even dump it off to a running back at one point like sailed it by 10 yards so that's just him being older but if you look at like every single like check mark that you might be like well at least the Vikings did well against this I guess it's they ran the ball effectively but as we know running the ball isn't like a great indicator of if you're going to win games so that's the only thing that you can check off as them maybe being able to do against a playoff team that probably doesn't mean much.

Okay, I looked at the box score for what they gave QB hits, and they gave three out. One to Eric Wilson, one to Jeff Gladney, and one to Armond Watts that you mentioned. Tampa Bay had 12 quarterback hits. Now, the question that I have, you'll have to tell me what you think of this, is when we get to the end of the year and look back, let's say that they do miss the playoffs. Let's say they lose two out of these last three and it's, you know, everybody's sad and okay. Missed the playoffs. The magical run, the second half, the magic ran out.

My question is, would you look at this season more as, well, that's kind of how life goes when you're in transition as a franchise that you're going to have your ups and downs and your roster is not anywhere close to its maturation point I guess I would put it that way that it had a major turnover and that's what happens when you have that or would you say that they should have a ton of regrets for this season because of the close games that they lost and the way that they gave them away I mean double digit leads against Tennessee against Seattle people were giving them credit for those losses but you were up by two scores and you lost and then today the way they start out this game

and then missing the field goals giving away 52 yards in sacks. That's an entire punt. That's more than half the field you gave up just in sacks alone. And you sacked yourself right out of scoring position a bunch of times. And then, of course, you know, the defense and the referees, which, look, I don't know. I just – it's hard. I'm not sure if Harrison Smith did something wrong or didn't do something wrong. The guy in the booth I've learned not to trust, Mike Pereira says,

yeah, it's the right call. I don't know. Maybe, maybe it is. I think he's got a target on his back. But the point is that you've found ways to lose against Dallas. You found ways to lose against the good teams where you were in it and you have enough offensive talent and you have one of the best rookie wide receivers of the last two decades playing for your team who's having a historically great rookie season and you might miss the playoffs because of it. So I think there's a case to look at it both ways that, you know, the future has bright elements to it. But there also for this individual season was the door left wide open for you to walk through it and get in the playoffs. I mean, I made the joke that the C's were parting in the NFC for the Vikings to stroll right into the postseason. And then even Tampa Bay said, hey, come win this game. Come get up 21 on us in the first quarter.

Go ahead. We're going to play that way in the first quarter. Dominate us. Go up 21. And you went up six. So, you know, I don't know which way you'd look at it. Yeah, I guess when you immediately said that, it kind of feels like those are the first option. Okay, they came back from one and five. They got back to a competitive level to a potential playoff spot that's the way that we kind of expect ownership to look at it and the gm and the coach to spin it then this other way where look at all these missed opportunities that's what most of the fan base is kind of feeling at this point so it's the two contrasting opinions and i think probably the

truth lies somewhere in the middle yes you were a play away from beating Seattle. Yes, you could have beaten Tennessee maybe if we're going back that far, but you also were like just a foot away from losing to the Nick Foles Bears if they come down with that catch. You very easily could have lost last week to the Jaguars. You already lost to the Cowboys. So it's hard in those one score games to say, well, if we just, you know, if we would have won those games, look at our record. We're actually nine and five or whatever, however they want to do it. That's not a great argument. So I don't know. I think I generally look at it as this season was a disappointment. If you found a receiver like Justin Jefferson, you have Kirk Cousins playing pretty well. Like, I don't know if there's much other versions of him where he's playing a lot better. Like, this is a good version of Kirk Cousins. You have Adam Phelan

still playing really well on offense. You have Dalvin Cook still playing well on offense. And so in terms of, if you're just looking at the offense, like, this is a good enough offensive team to make the playoffs. We don't know how much longer Dalvin Cook is going to be effective if they're going to keep running him 30 to 40 times per game. We don't know how much longer Adam Thielen is going to be at the peak of his powers. I would expect him to be good for a while, but to be really, really good, we don't know how long that's going to last. The offensive line has at least stabilized itself a little bit from those first couple games. You have the Yannick Ngakwe weird move. You have the refusal to sign a veteran cornerback.

You have all these things. I would look at it more as a disappointment than anything because you struck gold in that first round with Justin Jefferson, and you really should be able to capitalize with the requisite pieces you have on offense. I think Mike Zimmer, like, has done a decent job coaching up some of the defensive guys, but there's just not a lot of talent there. But still, overall, with the addition of a seven seed,

with just the mediocrity in, like, the entire NFC, like that's not going to happen every year. Like, you need to take advantage of it when it happened. Yes. It's great. You came back from one in five, but coming to this game, you were six and six. And so if we just take it, like you started the season at six and six, and this is the, like, this is the path you have to take to make the playoffs. Like they should be expected to do that with the roster and the schedule that

they had, they should have been able, like the expectations were there at that point. I don't care that you came back from one in five because that was self-inflicted. So now you climbed yourself back out. It was your responsibility and it was probably what you should have done to be able to kind of will yourself to the playoffs with the mediocrity that's there and they just haven't been able to do it. When we look at the determining factors for what plays the biggest role on whether you

make the playoffs, whether you go to the Super Bowl or not, it's always how good is your offense. And this team has a good offense. They have tons of talent. With the addition of Justin Jefferson, the talent is through the roof. And you saw Irv Smith and how good he could be when he was back today. You can even lose players and still feel like you have a ton of talent out there. Even when Adam Thielen had to sit out for a game, they find a way to win, even with Kyle Rudolph out today. Tyler Conklin is a pretty decent tight end and found himself open, ran some good routes, made some good catches,

and even they used Amir Abdullah and Mike Boone. They have a lot of talent on this team. And, yes, the offensive line has its struggles and it certainly does because it is built to play a run game and they ran really well and they run blocked really well and then when it came to uh-oh you've got a pass block because you're down in the game against a really good defense or it's third down in the red zone you got a pass block well then it was problematic again and that is how their offensive line has generally been built but overall the bottom line on the offense is that there's the capability to be an elite offense and to have that carry you when you look at the other

teams that are in the same ballpark as the Vikings defensively it's not so bad that you say oh well I mean they just gave you no chance it's not not like Detroit. It's not like Jacksonville. I'm going to pull it up right now just to demonstrate the point. When we talk about, even if we use something as simple as, like, points against coming into this week, the Vikings are 26th. 25th is Tennessee. They're in the playoffs. 28th is the Raiders.

They're right there. Seattle is 23rd. Cleveland is 22nd. It's not impossible. I mean, even Buffalo is 18th. It's not impossible to overcome having a defense that can't pressure the quarterback very well or that gives up a lot of points. And it's been all the other mistakes that have cost them and caused them to not overcome those things. So I think you do look at it in a lot of ways like season of regrets. Like if they were doing the old NFL films yearbooks would be a little more honest.

As they went along, they got much more polite. But the ones that if you go back to like the 80s, they would be brutal. They would just be like, look at this team screwing up constantly. Like here's the Bucs with four interceptions in a row. And then they would have some NFL and they would show the guy in slow motion throwing picks. Well, this season would be named season of regrets just because the way that they

have really founded themselves in these close games. And some of them they've come away with like Carolina and Jacksonville and Chicago, but so many they haven't and it's been self-inflicted wounds and it's whether it's special teams or offense fumbling away or just just the inconsistency of some of the drives or even if you look at the offensive game plan which you alluded to early in the podcast I mean when you're not throwing to Justin Jefferson as you recall you recall, you get arrested.

You get sent to jail. And I think somebody's going to jail today after this because Jefferson, I mean, the first pass that goes his way, he catches, sheds a blocker like a freak show, and then goes 17 yards. It's like you're not getting the ball to that person. And then how about the two point conversion? Even they, he catches the ball short of the end zone and he just plows his way in. The guy is so powerful that you should be in the first couple of drives establishing him right away. Like,

Hey defense, you're going to have to watch out for this guy all day. And yet for this team, somehow it took them until the second quarter to even give him the ball. And again, you end up with only six points in the second quarter where you could have had 21 with the way that your offense is moving the ball. So, yeah, I think season of regrets is a good way to look at it. That doesn't mean that the future is dark because I think they have so much talent that it shouldn't be, that they should be NFC North contenders next year.

Maybe these mistakes don't get made next year and they're right there in the mix to win the division. I think that's very possible and the players are getting back. But if we're doing a look at this season so far, yeah, that's how I would have to look at it. Yeah, I guess this week I was just kind of like preparing myself for this Vikings team could make the playoffs. And so in my head, I was going through the potential matchups. And just the overwhelming thing is there really is no NFC team that is crazy good. Like last year, the 49ers just looked like a juggernaut, and they were. And there is no, like, Steelers or Chiefs in the NFC right now.

The Saints maybe look like the most capable team, but we don't know what they'll look like when Drew Brees comes back, or if he doesn't come back, what Taysom Hill will look like when games really matter and he's forced to throw in big situations. So I think my biggest missed opportunity is they gave themselves a chance to make the playoffs, and then if they're just improving, because if they make the playoffs, then they're playing well in these last couple weeks, you're looking at it and saying, yes, okay, maybe they're not the favorites in any of these games, but there's no game that you're going in where you're going against Patrick Mahomes and you're just saying they have no shot. Like there's no Steelers defense on the other end that's like they have no shot.

So when I was looking through it this week, I was like, okay, if they can beat the Buccaneers, they can beat a good defense, they can stop Tom Brady, then you at least can be willing to have a discussion about can they beat these other teams because, again, they beat the Packers already. They almost beat the Seahawks. There was no juggernaut here. So I think my biggest regret, if I was them, is not every, do you have a wide open NFC? It's not like, usually there's a dominant team. So the fact that they couldn't take advantage when there was a dominant there, when there was just like a lot of mediocrity, mediocrity, like this is the year when a bad team in the playoffs makes a run because

there's just no great team. So that's where I would be just a little bit disappointed. 2020 has already reshaped how we work, and it's almost over. Businesses across the globe are challenged to be the most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more total visits than any other job site according to Comscore.

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And you can do, like, round- round and round interpretations on different things when it comes to the season i mean you played nick foals and not mitch trubisky which i know sounds like who cares which one it is but nick foals is shot washed can't play trubisky has beaten the vikings a couple times like he's a guy that you could see having an Andy Dalton kind of career where he's a backup for somebody, but he's the best backup in the league, where Nick Foles is just dusted and couldn't play at all in that game. Couldn't move, just kept taking sacks, kept, you know, throwing the ball away, things like that.

So, you know, you got lucky there. You faced Andy Dalton. You lost him, but you faced Andy Dalton. You faced Mike Glennon, who, again, is not a massive drop-off from Gardner Minshew, but Minshew at least has played like a starter in past years. Glennon was the third guy off the bench. Another team misses a field goal at the end, 54-yard field goal in U.S. Bank Stadium, which those often go in, and Carolina misses it, and they miss out on an upset there. So you could kind of say that some of that stuff has evened out, whether it's the breaks this way or the breaks that way.

So I don't look at this season as some sort of, well, you know, things went, didn't go your way and bounced the wrong way. I think that they'll kind of try to play that up, but they've earned their mistakes as much as they've had bad bounces. I mean, you don't have to give up a touchdown to DK Metcalf on the final play. You don't have to allow Tennessee to hit huge plays on you to come back in that game. And today, you don't have to only score six points when you dominate the first part of the game and then give up a 50-yard touchdown to Tom Brady.

Those are not things that were completely out of your control. So I guess I would put it this way. Did you have one more point? Well, I wanted to ask one more thing just about the kickers because we talked about it. We said it wasn't maybe the biggest thing why they lost, but I just want to know because this is now, we talked about it, this is basically the fourth kicker that has crumbled recently

in the Mike Zimmer era as a Viking. It's another one. I don't know if it's a curse. I don't know what it is. But I just want your overall take. How much does Mike Zimmer being the coach affect it at all? Because I don't think it's fair to blame him, but this is the one that's a little bit just confusing

because with Daniel Carlson, with Kyrie Vedvik, even with Blair Walsh, you can say they really haven't had a track record that of great kicking for year over year. Dan Bailey is one of the most accurate kickers ever. And so maybe it's just him getting old, but I wonder if it's the rhetoric that

Mike Zimmer has to the media or maybe just inside the building, if that has, if you can put any sort of blame on him, because generally I would probably say not you're a professional. You got to do what you got to do, but this is becoming a pattern and you can say it's a curse, but like something's behind it.

It's not just the Vikings uniform. Suddenly kickers freeze up. So it's gotta be something. There was no bad weather today. He missed kicks in us bank. He just missed them in like perfect Tampa Bay weather. So does Mike Zimmer deserve any blame for the way that the kickers seem to crumble? I have no idea. I will tell you the truth. I do not know. And I don't know how I would figure out knowing. Dan Bailey has made game-winning kicks. He has made go-ahead kicks. He has great statistics overall as Minnesota Vikings kicker. There have been almost no problems with him. There was a little bit of a shaky

holder situation when he first got here, but aside from that, he had been terrific. One of the best kickers in the NFL since he arrived with the Vikings. One of the best in terms of field goal percentages in history, and then these last two games, it's just gone completely sideways. And I don't know why. With Daniel Carlson, maybe. I don't know. He had never kicked at Lambeau Field before. Maybe that was part of the reason that he missed a couple of kicks.

Blair Walsh, I mean, that was more him in his own head from missing a 27 yarder to win a playoff game and becoming infamous for that I think that was much more him than it was Zimmer but at the same time playing the game with Dan Bailey last week where they handed off a bunch of times and tried to get in the end zone in overtime rather than just kicking a old school extra point distance field goal was a big middle finger to Bailey. And I don't know. I mean, should we expect these people to be so soft that Zimmer can't, you know,

be mad at them? Like, I don't know. Does the special teams coordinator have anything to do with a field goal kicker making it? I can't say for sure. I wish that I had an explanation. I wish that I had a theory.

My only theory would be that even the best pitchers, even Greg Maddox, even who's a great pitcher today, Blake Snell, I don't know. They have times where something goes wrong. How about this? Tiger Woods, the Tiger Woods, got a 10 on a par three. Me, terrible golfer, regular Joe golfer, who if I break 90, I've had a really good day. I've never gotten a 10 on a par three. It's never happened. Even counting shots in the water, even in the sand, I have never gotten a 10. But Tiger Woods did once, greatest golfer of all time.

And so I think that even the best have their days have their their stretches where things are problematic and oftentimes what happens is kickers when they do it they just get cut um but look at all the old kickers I mean Mason Crosby I think missed four in a game for the Packers a couple years ago and they stuck with him Stephen Gostkowski missed a couple and then of course when he played the Vikings, he made them all as, as you would expect. That's what, that's what I think. I think it's just a bad stretch for a great kicker and I wouldn't be shocked if they hold onto them. But by the time you're listening to this, you might already be cut. I don't know. I have no good explanation. And if there is a, a person who's a witch doctor or something like that who can explain it to me, I would love that.

So before we wrap up, give me your percentage chance, not 538 ESPN football outside, but your personal percent chance that they make the postseason, Paul. I think I'm a little bit pessimistic. I would put it probably at like 10% that they could make the playoffs, because from my estimation, that means they have to run the table. And so I think I'm a little bit more just, I think they can beat the Bears maybe more than, I'm not worried about Mr. Trubisky.

Let's just put it that way. I was looking at some of his advanced numbers. It didn't, I mean, he played well, but I don't think it was some crazy day where he was just lighting them up left and right, and that's something that can't be solved by a Mike Zimmer defense, even if it is devoid of a lot of talent. So I think they can still win there. I still think that they can beat the Lions.

So it kind of comes down to that Saints game, and weird things always happen with that Saints game. So I would put it right around 10%. I am not confident. I didn't even feel confident after that Jags game, the way that they played. So I don't see it, but I'm still going to leave the door cracked open for them a little bit, just respecting the talent that they have on offense, respecting Gary Kubiak and Mike Zimmer to maybe figure something out.

But right now, I'm not very high on it. What about you? I agree it's not over until it's over. And they won last year against the Saints. And for whatever reason, Mike Zimmer has had Sean Payton's number over the last couple of years. But, yeah. And maybe some luck has had Sean Payton's number as well over the last couple of years with the miracle and then a push off by Kyle Rudolph that's not called and so forth like that. But they played well against a New Orleans Saints team that's very, very talented in previous years.

So I don't count anything out with this. But it just seems tough to sweep the Lions, sweep the Bears when both of those teams are just like you. They're both mediocre, middle of the pack, 500 or a little below type of team. So you kind of expect to have another one like this where you get sacked against the Bears or Matt Stafford goes crazy against you or even Mitch Trubisky runs for a touchdown or something against you. You expect to split those two. It's very hard to see them beating New Orleans with as good as they are. So I have a tough time seeing it as well. If Arizona had lost today, I think I would have been saying, yeah, okay, well, all right, you're still right in the race. It's a bleep show, but you're in the bleep show.

Yeah, I think I'll go maybe 20% because I always think that this team has so much variation in performance that it could click in and they could play great and they could win two out of three or three out of three. That's absolutely possible but at the same time you know the whole thing about your record is what you are I'll also say I'll add to that Bill Parcells can take this from me if he wants to your point differential is what you are and the Vikings are a minus 22 point differential Arizona is plus 55 so if you're asking me which team that I think has a better chance like think about it this way Carolina who we agree is horrible is minus 25 they have about the same point differential as the Vikings and so you kind of deserve to be where you're at you kind of deserve the loss that you had today and probably don't deserve to be in the playoffs unless, you know,

you really played great over these last couple of games. So yeah, this one was, for any Vikings fan holding on hope to, you know, a really amazing second half of the season, a huge kick in the gut to that because I think if they win today, I mean, their playoff chances are probably a coin flip or better if they win today. And instead, I'm with you that I'll go 20%. You're a little more pessimistic than that, but not in great position. So thank you for your help as always, Paul. Jeremiah Searles is going to be back breaking down the tape if you dare listen to that this week. Offensive line play after a six-sack performance.

We'll figure out how it happened with Jeremiah on the podcast. Courtney Cronin will stop by. We've got all that. And if you made it all the way to the end and you're looking for a Christmas present, go to Amazon, type in Making of a Miracle Vikings. You can get my book, Great Christmas Present. People have gotten them really quickly from Amazon. You order a couple days later, it comes to your house.

So make sure you check that out, and we will catch you next time. Thanks, Paul. Thank you.