Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings lose to the Bucs -- now things get harder

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press dive deep into the Vikings' loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Why is the offense so inconsistent? Were we impressed with Brian Flores's debut? And what does it mean that Justin Jefferson didn't sign a long-term contract extension? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome inside the Minnesota Vikings press box at US Bank Stadium for our first postgame show of the year. And what a postgame show it should be. Matthew Collar with you, along with Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press. And I want to know, Dane, where you'd like to begin, because I think the best place to start is with just how bad this loss is for the Minnesota Vikings going forward. And we can break down every part of the game. But I think that I like to begin a post game with the brass tacks, what it all really means. And what it means is, oh, that's what it means. Because you start off with a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And in a couple of days, they head to Philadelphia. And then after that you are having Los Angeles come in here two weeks later, Kansas city comes in here and leading up to

this thing. It was the game that they just could not lose because they are the better football team. And I think that they were the better football team during this game. And yet they did not come through with the big moments. They came through with turnovers with three and outs in the second half, and they couldn't make the big stop at the end of the game when they really needed it. And also, Hey, welcome to one score game land where it's normal. And you don't just win all of them by default. So that's where I want to begin is it's bad. There's no papering over it. There's no saying like, well, you know what?

It'd be okay. They could just turn around real quick. No, you have to turn around and go play the Philadelphia Eagles. And I think based on what I saw from the Bucks, there's really no excuse for losing this game because they're just not the superior team. And yet they made the superior plays when it mattered the most. So now the hill is tilted up it was already going to be an uphill climb but from here on out dane they only have

seven home games right and nine away games and the home game the next two home games are against teams that could win the super bowl and other than that it's fine like so where would you like to begin because that that that's where it is for me is that however you got there and whatever excuses you can make and whatever you can say about, well, it was just the turnovers, no matter what you say, it's not good. It is not a good loss, and it makes everything harder for this season. Let's start there because you're fired up, and I love it. I love that you're fired up.

But, yeah, you could not afford to lose this game. This was the one game on the schedule. I mean, there's a couple cupcake teams throughout the, you know, the duration of the 2023 season, but by and large, this was a game that was, you looked at the schedule and when it came out and you said, that's a win and it had to be a win because of what was to come. As you mentioned. In three and a half days, they're going to go to Philadelphia. In four and a half days, they're going to play the Eagles. And you almost have to guarantee that's a loss at this point. I mean, stranger things have happened, but that's why this game hurts so bad,

because you were the better team for all 60 minutes, basically. And if they walk away with this win go to philly make it close lose that game then you're one and one now you have to try and beat philly if you don't you're going to like you said la is coming in after that you're oh and three then you're traveling to charlotte to play the carolina panthers you should probably win that game but you probably should have won this game too so the thing could snowball and get out of control really fast. We've seen it before in Minnesota with this team specifically, with the Vikings. Seasons just get away from them if they don't start hot, if they don't start right.

So yeah, everything, and we'll talk about the game as a whole, but when you look at it with like a 30,000 foot view perspective on this it's like a devastating loss in the grand scheme of things there's still time for them to turn it around but man I don't know how you could feel confident going into the rest of the year based on what you just watched today and then how you saw it transpire in the end yeah uh so Delton says here in the comments they weren't the better team. They had six, three and outs. I mean, actually that's part of the point is that they shouldn't have had three, six, six, three and outs that that shouldn't have happened. Like the turnovers can be kind of weird and turnovers are considered to be lucky. A lot of the time, good luck, bad luck because of look

how they happened today. KJ osborne's got the ball in his hands and the other guy's like no you don't i mean that was just weird right he kind of threw it behind him and he turned back and it was a strange play great play by the bucks defender and the turnover earlier in the game i mean that's purely random with just you're snapping the ball and it looked like ed ingram ran into him which ed ingram finds new ways each game to mess with kirk cousins like does he want a new quarterback because uh that that was pretty rough uh the other one is probably on cousins where antoine winfield you gotta feel that right you gotta sense that well and also it looked to me like and i looked at it a bunch of times

like everybody had their assignment but there was just a free rusher so that is on kirk but he was delayed a little bit on the rush. So he didn't identify it and he gets hit. But the way that they were able to move the ball at times, the amount of weapons that they have, they should have not had that happen when it came to the three and outs. That's exactly what I'm referring to is that through a lot of the game in their best drives, they are better.

They're clearly better. Justin Jefferson's unstoppable. Jordan Addison's getting open, catching a 30 yard touchdown. And so you look at the drives that failed and go, what happened? And honestly, what happened in a lot of ways comes back to the thing that they're going to need to overcome, which is the offensive line. And I could not help but notice that Kirk Cousins in his post game comments said, I've got nothing but great things to say about our skill players. And I don't know if there's supposed to be a wink, wink, nod, nod, nothing good to say

about the offensive line or not. That's me putting words in his mouth, but that's how I felt today. I mean, I felt like I went into the game ranting about, you need to overcome these offensive line problems. And then right away I was like, oh yeah, they are problems. And they just didn't make plays when they needed to on a lot of third downs, a lot of big situations. And that's one of the things that makes this loss so bad because when they were moving the ball, you felt like Tampa Bay will never stop them again.

But the run game didn't happen. I thought all the personnel mixing up and matching did not go exactly how they wanted it to go. And ultimately, you end up with a very inconsistent offensive performance that cost them the game. Yeah, the offensive line play, it was concerning before the season started. And it's even more concerning now, partially because of how they look today, partially because of what they're going into Philadelphia potentially without. Garrett Bradbury got injured second drive of the game. It doesn't sound like he's going to be ready for week two. That's a big loss in and of itself.

I understand that Garrett Bradbury has been a lightning rod for criticism over the years, but as far as you look at continuity on the line, on a line that is already shaky, you at least want to have some continuity. And now you're messing with that already. Christian Darasaw, he ended up coming back from an ankle injury, but you got to imagine he's not a hundred percent either. So there's just, there were things that concerned you about the offensive line before the game

even started. And a couple of that with a couple of the injuries that, that as the game progressed, that happened and, and the offensive line as a whole becomes, you know, even more of a sounding the alarm worry for this team. And,

and it's going to impact them every game. It's a thing where, like Kirk said, you can love the skill position players. You can love the way Alexander Madison runs the ball. You can love the way Justin Jefferson gets open and carves out space, runs after the catch. But all of that goes away.

None of that matters if there's no time. And frankly, we watched the Kansas City Chiefs play the other night. That line play is shaky, but Patrick Mahomes is able to kind of navigate a pocket, create more time. Kirk Cous but Patrick Mahomes is able to kind of navigate a pocket, create more time. Kirk Cousins has never really been able to do that. So because of that, now we're looking at what we saw today. There's free rushers.

He's not going to see them. There's certain protections that break down. He's not going to navigate, pivot, and move and create more time. Because of that, it makes there way less you know room for you know air with them with the offensive line and it's a result of what we saw today they're going to struggle and it's always been a frustration with so long as there have been line issues and there has been Kirk Cousins that these two things go together with the inconsistency of the offense. And that's why last year they were in the top 10 in scoring. But when it came to scoring percentage,

the percentage they produce points on drives, they were like 18th. And it's, it's really crazy because I just, as you were talking, pulled up the box score again to make sure that I hadn't lost my mind. Kirk Cousins was 33 for 44 and through for let me look at it again 344 yards and almost eight yards a pass and was only sacked twice which would make you think in a game that was close it wasn't like he was here come the stats where they're down by two scores or something with a performance like that you would think okay well they must have ran away with the game if he's throwing for this many yards and having that much success. But we're always trying to diagnose this. Why is there never as many points on the board as there are yards?

And Cousins even said after the game, like the points are what matters. The turnovers crush them. But also when you only get three drives in the second half, and this is what happens, I guess, when your defense gets worn down drives in the second half and this is what happens i guess when your defense gets worn down early in the second half but when you only have three drives in the second half there's not a whole lot of room for error there and i thought that tampa bay actually did a tremendous job of having these slow methodical drives where they weren't trying to take a lot of deep shots and they kind of countered and made some really good adjustments with their coaching staff to what Brian Flores was doing. And that

kept the Vikings from steamrolling because if they had continued to throw the ball the way they did in the first half, eventually they would have scored. Like they weren't going to have fumbles and interceptions all the time, but it's just such an odd thing with Kirk cousins. And I think that it's really that there's no playmaking ability there to make up for when something goes wrong. So if you have something go wrong on the offensive line, it will just flat out ruin a drive. And when he's rolling, Oh my God, is he rolling? Like hitting Jefferson over the middle, hitting Addison for a touchdown. There was a play where they hit Jefferson for 42, ran up to the line, hit

Hawkinson. And you're like, whoa, you're rolling. This is what you're capable of. But it's sort of been the story of Kirk Cousins career that there's these great drives and there's these great throws. And then you just go, what happened on, you know, on two or three straight drives where you ended up punting. And I think it's one of the reasons why they've never had a top five offense when Kirk cousins is their quarterback, despite all of the good weapons that they have. And if you can't make up for these issues and Bradbury, I think is a huge loss,

especially early in the season when they've been practicing together all summer. And then it's just over with like, he's just hurt right away. That's also an issue from last year, the back issue. So is that going to be a problem all year long? I think Austin Schloteman is a fine fill in, but for 17 games or in and out for a whole season, I think this is, this is pretty a tough situation for Austin Schloteman to have

to come into because he's so much more of a backup but the inconsistency on offense has been the cause of pretty much every game that's ever been like this including last year in the playoff loss to the giants whereas like wait you had great numbers and you threw the ball all over the place but you didn't come away with enough points and it happened here again today but it happened against a team that i consider to be not very good and And I wouldn't be surprised after watching them, if the bucks win like six or seven games all year. Yeah. When you look at the bucks,

you look at the first half, what they did. Part of me was thinking, wow, Brian Flores, new defense looks really good. And part of me was also thinking, does it really though?

Maybe it's just the Buccaneers offense, which brings up your point about their halftime adjustments. Just being able to gain chunk yards here and there and keep the Vikings offense off of the field. I think that was huge. But how do you look at this game and not think, even when you're watching in real time, based on the sample size we've seen now, which is, I guess, 17 regular season games last year, one playoff game, and now one playoff game this year. I think everyone who was watching this game thought, well, the Vikings are just going to get the ball back and they're going to score. Even though, like you said, they only had three possessions in the second half, even though two of those possessions were three and outs

deep down, I thought, okay, if, if the Vikings get the ball back, they're definitely going to tie it or they're going to go down and win the game maybe we shouldn't be conditioned to think like that though because 11 and 0 and 1 score games there was always going to be regression back to the mean right I didn't think it was going to happen in the first game of the season but the fact that the Vikings played another close game and lost they just continue to tempt fate and And this is what happens. And, and that's what I think when, to go back to our point that we started the pod on why this is so concerning is because this shouldn't have been a close game. This isn't one that you needed to be in, in that same, you know, conglomeration of the 11, no one score games, you know, like it didn't have to be that

way. You were the better team throughout. You were the better team for most of the first half, you know, all the first half, even chunks of the second half. It didn't have to be another close game, but this is what you get when you continue to do that. You, you, you continue to put yourself in these situations and it's going to come back to bite you. And if they don't kind of figure themselves out, if they continue to play in these one score games,

we're going to eventually start to look at it as like, okay, this makes sense there. They're going to start to lose these because you don't win them all. Well, and when I looked back in this off season, the one score game thing, there were a lot of one score games where they outplayed the other team last year and had a similar result. Only they did get the ball back.

And there were times where, look, I mean, it was Arizona. It was a horrible team last year, and yet they needed a last drive to beat them. Chicago was one of the worst teams in the league, but they needed a strip at the end. So it's not unusual for them to play close with bad teams. And you even go back to 2021. They lost the game to Cooper Rush on a final drive. They were almost this close to losing to a Sam Darnold Carolina team in 2021.

I mean, there have been so many of these games over the last few years. It's just that last year they found a way to finish them all, but this time they didn't get the ball back. And the irony of that is that Brian Flores' defense, I thought, had a really good day. Yeah. At the first half, Baker Mayfield looked completely lost, totally flummoxed. Like he didn't know where to go with the ball. He was kind of hopping around and like it was the timing wasn't good. Their rushing wasn't good. And yet that performance gets ruined after like it met

all expectations for me. Yeah. You're going to have a blitz that goes wrong and they pick it up and Metellus gets on Evans and it turns into a touchdown. We knew that, but on the whole, the defense did a really good job and you waste one of those performances where if you're the Vikings and you give up 20 or less, you should win 99 out of a hundred times, but this game, they did not. And, and that's, that to me is where you, they're going to go home and have a ton of regrets for this one about the way that they performed offensively. And it has to be brought up that they ran for 41 yards at 2.4 yards per carry. And look, I was on board with, you got to move on from Delvin cook. You got to bring in Alexander Madison,

but the run blocking was brutal. I didn't think they got any push up front vita vea is a big fat monster who just like gave them problems all day and if the the whole answer was supposed to be that they're going to bring in their big people here comes josh oliver lots of cj ham today too much cj ham today and that's coming from me like the ultimate fullback enjoyer saying too much CJ Hamm. Multiple targets for CJ Hamm. He's in a lot like with the pass protection on third downs, which I don't think that I really love because that's not a weapon that you can actually use. So, you know, I don't know.

I mean, I think that in order to have that offensive performance and not be able to run the ball at all was really costly to them. And that was the thing that was supposed to even out the offense. It was supposed to be, you can get ahead, you can run, you can wear the other team down. And instead that's what Tampa Bay did to them after they got more tired in the second half was they completed short passes. They kept the ball for a long time. And I don't know, are you more confident going to Philly that they're going to run the ball better? Like they couldn't run successfully last year and they have to find a way to run better this year,

or you're going to get a lot of these games where it doesn't matter that you passed for a lot of yards because you're not going to be inconsistent or consistent if you can't run at all. Right. And it goes back to what Kevin O'Connell was saying at the start of training camp, that we were going to have more of a commitment to the run game today. And they, they did until they didn't, right? Like they had it early on. They were pounding the ball with Alexander Madison. And then as soon as it started to not work, they just kind of abandoned it completely. And, and I think part of that makes sense, right? Like if it's not working, if you're not getting a push on vita vea and they just try and win the game then with justin jefferson and their

playmakers but it's a larger point and it goes back to the offensive line play like if you can't get that push consistently you become so one-dimensional and you become a team that all of a sudden the opposing team now can throw an extra guy on Justin Jefferson without worrying about that. You have to have someone that's able to kind of follow their blocks in the way Alexander Madison wasn't able to do today, but it's not really his fault because there just weren't a lot of openings to be had. So the offensive line play, it continues to be kind of the concern for me. Anytime we talk about it, okay, we talked about the offense

and the way Kirk Cousins struggled, right? That comes down to the offensive line play. Part of that's on Kirk, yes, I understand that. But by and large, when Kirk has time, he plays well. Same now we look at the run game. What is the issue there? I don't think it's Alexander Madison just struggling to see the hole or find the right path to run through. It's that't know if the run game would look too much better because it comes down to what's in front of the person carrying the ball.

And right now I'm concerned. I really am. Well, I think with the running game that there's probably five to seven running backs per year who could transcend problems with blocking. And Delvin cook at his best was one of those guys where if they were struggling to block and Delvin cook was himself, then it was not going to be that big of a problem. Like he was going to dodge people in the backfield. He was going to break tackles. He was going to have yards after contact. He was going to make plays. And I don think alexander madison's really that guy i think

madison is if you can follow your blockers if you have perfectly blocked runs you're going to be successful but he's not going to turn chicken salad or chicken bleep into chicken salad is the the saying right he's not going to make you right when you're wrong because that's not him he's not barry sanders he's not a shifty runner. He's not incredibly explosive. He's more of a Mack truck, which is great if you're getting a lot of push. Right. But, uh, you know, I, I think that even like Ty Chandler was kind of a nice mix up and then they didn't go back to him, but Chandler, he does have that burst. Like he does have that quickness that I wondered if he should have been in the game a little bit more, but there's that whole issue of, do they trust Ty Chandler to be in the game more?

And if they're not going to block, well, he might be a guy who has enough scoot in his game where he can make up for some of those things. But what I know is the bottom line, if you run for 41 yards and average two yards to carry, this team will not win a whole lot of football games. I mean, they're just not going to, if that's the case. And you do need to give Tampa Bay a lot of credit because their defense is good and they've got good players and they were, you know, solid defense last year. They brought back a lot of those guys, but you were supposed to have some of the answers throughout the summer to this mediocre rushing game. And there are parts of me that says, you know, last year, I think we didn't really talk about a whole lot, like the play calling. And I think talking

about play calling is super hard because you're like, well, you always should have done a different thing when it didn't work. Right. But I, there's a little bit of a rhythm of the game thing. And I thought that maybe it was Joe Schmidt. I don't know. Somebody used the word choppy and I was like, choppy. That's exactly what it was. Like there was not really this offensive flow that they have where, when Kubiak or when Stefanski were kind of at their best, where you felt like it was this sort of role, this rolling offense. I don't know of a great way to describe it, but you know what I mean? Right. Where it just feels like they're just moving. They're just moving consistently. And even when a drive fails, you'd still get a couple of first downs and you'd still be moving. But today it was either that was the worst three plays I've ever seen, or,

Oh my God, Jefferson is amazing. Like those were the only real options for today. And that's where it felt a lot like the problems when they had problems last year with consistency. And I don't know if it's a play calling thing or it's purely an execution thing. I just don't want to bang on an offensive line drum over and over and over and over again, because it feels like you have way too many good players on this football team to just not be able to overcome some offensive line issues. Yeah, that's probably a good point too, right? We can talk about the guys up front all we want, but there has to be ways to get your skilled players the ball.

I get it. JJ's probably getting doubled every single time from every single team, but there's ways to scheme open a guy like Jordan Addison, who I think we saw today. He looked pretty good. He can play. He's a small, he's going to have issues there. I worry about his durability, but as far as just someone who can take some of the pressure off Justin Jefferson, I think Jordan Addison can do that. I think you have to figure out ways to, to be more, you know, or less predictable on offense. I think there was a lot of drop back, and if this guy's there, if this read or this progression opens up, we're going to take this shot.

The Buccaneers came out after halftime, and they were quick hitting with their plays. It was a lot of short passes here and there, ways to get certain guys into space. That's something maybe the Vikings can do, right? Like if, if the guy's going to play off Justin Jefferson, which he had off coverage a couple of times today, just throw him the ball quick, get your playmakers, the ball.

It goes back to like, yeah, we're, I could, I could bang on this offensive line drum all day. And I continue, I will continue to do that this season because the offensive line is, is going to be something that, that dictates how good this team can be or how bad this team is. But there is, there are ways to combat that. And I think some of those ways are just getting the ball out quicker. You don't have to take a five-step drop, a seven-step drop to make everything kind of come together. It does seem like at times this team, and I think Kevin O'Connell is at the top of that, wants to find the perfect play, the chunk play that they can be explosive downfield.

We hear him talk about the explosive plays all the time. I think it's okay to gain, you know, if someone's playing off of Justin Jefferson, just throw him the ball, gain five or six yards and keep going. It would lend itself to being less choppy. Like we were talking about getting that, that thing rolling. And it, frankly, it wasn't today. And then that's, that's the weird thing because I really thought it would be against this team. Well, and you know, I, I think it kind of always ends up coming back around to, well, the quarterback has to make a play and it is sad to say because baker mayfield was so horrible the first half that one guy made a big play and the other guy didn't when it was necessary baker

mayfield steamrolled for that first down run and he threw kind of a dime it was also an amazing catch by chris godwin but it came down to was that a third down there's third down right third down in 10 or so godwin runs that out route and baker mayfield makes a throw and not that i would put a hundred games of baker mayfield versus a hundred games of kirk cousins but we're talking about today and and that throw wasn't there for kirk cousins they needed that throw they needed that play and look also, also Carlton Davis gets a lot of credit because Cousins did make a good throw to Jordan Addison and Davis came by and knocked the ball down

and ended that play that probably would have been a first down and got that drive rolling. So this was one of those game of inches games that last year you won and today you didn't. But I also think that we have to talk about too and probably went too far into the show with saying like this was a bad kirk game like you know how just historically you can often tell from early on like is this going to be one of those games where he feels comfortable and he rolls and even if the defense is giving up a

bunch of points he's gonna you know he's gonna. And he's going to feel comfortable at the end. But he did not look comfortable really at any point. There were a few throws that he made that were great. And they had a handful of explosives. But out of the 33 completions, out of the 44, like, see, you had 44, 46 dropbacks. Like, how many times did he look comfortable on 46 dropbacks? I mean, when you get a 39-yard, a 42 yard gain for Jefferson, a 21 yard gain for Jefferson, like those are big chunk plays and they add up to a lot of yardage.

But out of the 46 dropbacks, I don't know, maybe it was like 20 that he looked like he was comfortable. And then other times kind of looking around other times, it wasn't really in rhythm. And, uh, Brian Murphy, who's writing for purple insider was here today. He was asking me Monday morning Murph podcast, by the way, he, uh, was asking me like, is it because they didn't play in preseason? I'm like, I don't know, because last year it looked great last year. They were completely in rhythm. So I don't know, like I've never figured out what the cause is for Kirk cousins to have these games where he doesn't look like he's really locked in. I don't know if there's

pressure today or if it, if it was just that he was antsy once Bradbury got hurt or what it might have caused it. But if your quarterback looks like that, even if he does end up with, with big numbers, it's usually not going to result in a consistent offense. Yeah. Go with me down this rabbit hole and I'm not ready to make this whole, you know, grand statement about what this season's going to look like. Right. But go with me down this rabbit hole. Last season, Kirk cousins made all the plays that he needed to when he needed to make them. There were games where he looked, like you said, uncomfortable for three and a half quarters.

And then he came down and he had the final drive and made the play that they needed to win the game. Takeaway last season, Kirk throughout his career in Minnesota has been more of the quarterback that we saw today, if he gets uncomfortable early he's uncomfortable late i thought last year he was so good and i don't know what it was there was just some magic with last season and 11 and 0 and one score games there was magic there it's inexplicable any other way but even when kirk was struggling last year he comes up and he makes the play that he needs to play to make the game to win the game game. They went to the two straight, two, three announced late in the game. Last year, Kirk Cousins is uncomfortable the whole game.

One of those drives that it goes for, for points, you know, like that's just how it went last year, this year. I think it, and again, we can't make these, these sweeping declarations about what the whole season is going to look like because it's week one. But this looked a lot like the Kirk Cousins we've seen just throughout his tenure in Minnesota, where he gets a little uncomfortable. You know, this game isn't going quite the way he thought it was going to go. And the thing kind of just unravels in a way that the end result ends up being not what it should have been like today he was rolling at

times but then he got a little uncomfortable and in the offense it struggled at times because of that as well and we can't overstate the three turnovers right right right and those are part that's part of Kirk's DNA as well he doesn't he he wants to be the perfect quarterback but when he takes these he's he's Kevin O'Connell has tried to get him to take these chances, be more aggressive. I worry now that is Kirk going to, after taking that aggressive shot to KJ Osborne at the goal line, you know, right before halftime, is it going to be something where now Kirk's like, well, I don't, you know, I don't want to be aggressive now because I feel like the last two years it's been Kevin O'Connell finding a way to say like, it's okay.

If you make this mistake, it's okay. If you make finding a way to say, it's okay if you make this mistake. It's okay if you make this mistake. But you know how Kirk Cousins is with himself. He's super hard on himself. Is he going to be comfortable taking these aggressive shots now after he largely cost him the game today? So last year, everything worked out. It always did.

Even when he was uncomfortable early, he would be comfortable late. This year, early on, he's not. So we'll we'll see it could just be this is Kirk Cousins is and last year was an aberration or they could go to Philly and win the game and then we'll forget about all the things we talked about a few days earlier but I do want to say that it's it was last year that a lot of times it looked like this it It was just that they found a way to win. So, I mean, they're in London against new Orleans and they've got a chance to kind of run away with that game early and then they don't. And, uh, you know, new Orleans almost, was it ties the game or wins the game on a field goal? It must've been ties. They, they almost tied the game on a field goal at the end because they let them hang around. Miami was the same thing where cousins did not

look comfortable early on and they let Miami hang around in that game the same thing where cousins did not look comfortable early on and they let Miami hang around in that game. And then, you know, they got the fumble at the end today. It just went the other way. And I think that it's just a feature and not a bug. I just don't think it can really be fixed, but it can be mitigated by running the ball effectively. And I thought that actually some of the play actions were really good designs and they had some success when it came to the play action that Kevin O'Connell had drawn up. But it's a lot easier when you are getting in favorable situations down and distance wise. And they did not do that with the running game today. So I thought the best season that we've seen of Kirk Cousins, I know most people would say 2022, but I don't think that it was, I think it was 20, uh, 2019 was the best season of Kirk Cousins by far his

most efficient yards per attempt quarterback rating. And what was the theme of that season was Delvin cook, absolutely destroying fools play action from Kevin Stefanski using the bigger personnel, getting Irv Smith that year involved and a lot of different people involved, but it was really aiming for efficiency and not just putting it all on Kirk cousins. And I think this is something that even Sean McVay understood when he was with Washington, that if you put it all on his shoulders, there's going to be this roller coaster. That's never going to stop. So, you know, I mean, I don't think it's ever going to be different when it comes to him. So if they want to succeed, how about a tight end screen, by the way,

in a key spot where they need to drive desperately, like that play didn't work last year and it ain't going to work now. What I want, like TJ Hawkinson is a, it should be an intermediate passing tight end, not like dump it off two feet in front of them and let the the linebackers for tampa who are fast and good just come tackle it like it's stuff like that just can't really happen i think and that's why to me the key sort of centers around you can't just put it all on his shoulders and expect him to just come through all the time or you're going to end

up in one score games where you do lose the turnover battle, where you do have a guy hit a 57 yard field goal. Cause every dang kicker who's ever stepped in this building turns into God. Like it's just, that's just how it happens. And so to me, it's, it's entirely of, well, Bradbury's health is a big deal because say what you want about his past blocking over the years, he has been a top-notch run blocker in the NFL. Austin Schlotman's not that. And Ed Ingram is still bad until proven otherwise. In fact, I don't know. We'll wait for the PFF grade.

Looks real bad. So if Dalton Reisner's phone still works, maybe they should give him a call. And I do think, and this is where it's like, what's an overreaction what's not, but if it looks like this every week and they did nothing about it, come on, you could have known you should have known. And there were, there was at least one opportunity in the summer to bring in somebody else. And then it looks like this. He strips Kirk cousin somehow he, you know, I mean, I gave up some pressures and was inconsistent. Clearly did not run block very well. There was one Ty Chandler run where he just got completely mauled and Chandler ran for minus three. It's like, this isn't changing. We kind of knew it wasn't changing

in camp. So I'll give it more time, but we're going to talk about probably when we say offensive inconsistency, could you have fixed some of these things? So I think that's, that's the central part. I do want to talk about Brian Flores' defense though. And I understand you can't totally let them off the hook when things happen and they gave up points. But to me, the process of this defense was so much better than last year. So like so remarkably refreshing to watch them play with their aggressiveness,

how well they tackled. I thought the corners were very good in this game overall. They did not get shredded by those wide receivers. And I mean, maybe this evens things out for the whole season. But can we take this defense and kind of copy and paste it onto last year? Because I feel like they would have gone deeper in the playoffs if they did. I just thought that what they dialed up caused a lot of problems. They didn't get steamrolled on the ground, which I wondered about.

And the young corners looked pretty good. Yeah, they were utterly dominant in the first half. Well, I think they held Tampa to 95 total yards. And then the fact, so the fact that the Vikings were tied 10, 10 made absolutely no sense because of how good the defense was. But I think that if you're trying to be optimistic and I know this whole podcast has been not that, but if you want to be optimistic, it is that the defense looks different. And that was always what we said if it looks different that's that's already an improvement i i just look at the fact that harrison smith isn't playing 25 yards off the line of

scrimmage deep in center field he's running around he's motioning he's making checks at the line he's blitzing off the right side one second he's the next play he's on the left side i think the fact that they're bringing seven guys up at the line of scrimmage right before the snap of the ball. And then, you know, a defensive lineman's dropping in coverage while a safety's blitzing. Like all of that stuff is just to create confusion. And it did. It confused the heck out of Baker. The Buccaneers certainly deserve credit for what they did in the second half and how they were able to kind of string drives together.

I think that might just kind of go back to this defense still has holes. There are talent issues in some levels of this defense, and teams are just going to be able to move the ball at times. The defensive line, so I think if a team wants to, like the Buccaneers did, take four yards here in a cloud of dust and just kind of sustain a drive the way the Buccaneers were able to do twice in the second half, which they weren't able to do at all in the first half, that is maybe the one thing I would kind of harp on with this defense

is that when they needed to get off the field, they really didn't. But it's hard to put any of this game on them because outside of forcing a turnover and bringing a sudden change that way which they they didn't um they couldn't have played much better with everything that that we knew about this team and in the talent that they do or do not have coming into this game it's remarkable to look at the box score and see that Baker Mayfield averaged 5.1 yards per pass attempt. And they're running back Rashad white average 2.4 yards per run. Those numbers are horrendous. I mean, if you do that all the time and again, like, I don't think this box offense

is very good, but if you do anything resembling that regularly, you're going to win more games and you're going to be a better defense. And maybe that evens out some of the ups and downs on the offensive side. But I think we just we got to see right away. Like this is the Brian Flores effect. Like this is what during training camp they were talking up. They they were given major problems to Tennessee and Arizona in those joint practices. We didn't really see it in the preseason because they're not running everything. Although Brian Flores kind of contested you on that.

But I think that they ran a lot of different stuff today that threw off what the Bucs wanted to do offensively. And it was a really good performance. But if you give three extra possessions to another team you give them a lot more plays and especially in the second half you let them kind of grind you down and there's going to be a mistake here and there like this is the thing about this defense it's so many new players and it's so aggressive that there are going to be plays where mike evans gets lined up on josh patelis and there's just no chance for Josh Metellus at that point or a miscommunication or something. But I thought they put pressure on Mayfield. I thought

they stuffed the middle. I mean, it's really Mayfield kind of made a couple of big plays when they really needed them. When the Vikings jumped off sides on a field goal, which, huh? I mean, right there, like that's one of those game-changing plays that you should win. It was really very much on the Vikings playing better in a lot of ways and just bleeping up and Tampa Bay taking advantage, which they deserve credit for because they don't have to give the win back.

Even though the Vikings had more yardage, it doesn't matter. But I just thought from a process perspective that the defense seemed so much smarter to me. They seemed on the same page in most of the plays. There wasn't like confusion of, were you supposed to cover him? Was I supposed to cover him? We didn't see that, which I wondered about after like going, undergoing such a big change with personnel. But there's a couple of the things we have to talk about before we put a wrap on our

first week one podcast reaction. And boy, it's coming in hot. One is Marcus Davenport. So his ankle gets injured and he can't play today. And the way that Kevin O'Connell talked about it was that he was kind of encouraged and thought that there was a good chance. But that didn't happen. It didn't come to fruition. And he called it day to day. So he wasn't willing to say, oh, his ankle will be fine when they go to Philadelphia. As much as I liked the things they did, Benton Whitley had a pressure

today. Okay. But I bet I had a sack. Yeah, I should have had a sack. I mean, he's going to be regretting that, but that just tells you how much scheme matters when it comes to that stuff. Like Benton Whitley, everybody. Patrick Jones had one. DJ Wanham is in there. But I don't think against good teams they can really be effective without Marcus Davenport being healthy. I think it's a swing to the season.

And right off the bat with an ankle injury, they're going to Philadelphia. They're going to play some really good offensive linemen. They need him. I think they need him. Even though today they didn't, I think long-term they really need him to be healthy. Yeah, they need him to be healthy, but the sample size isn't really kind to that, right? Correct. That's what would worry me is that your big free agent signing this year was Marcus Davenport. And in the season opener, Marcus Davenport wasn't available he was rarely available with the Saints in his last couple of years there in New Orleans

and I think that's been the knock on him throughout his career is this injury prone can't get on the field can't stay on the field that whenever he is on the field the Vikings were clearly trying to catch lightning in a bottle here with this guy who I think he had half a sack last year largely because he was either not on the field or struggling with injuries when he was on the field but he's a guy who projects with talent as like a power rusher but also with a little bit of speed off the outside you hear you know the way Brian Flores talks about Marcus Davenport and the way you can use him. He's so multiple that you can bring him off the edge if you want, but you can also rush him inside. So he is so important. And I think that's, you know, you're right.

You need him on Thursday night in Philly. Maybe it was a thing. And I don't know this. This is a galaxy brain thing, but like we should be able to beat Tampa. So Marcus, go ahead and rest that ankle for a little bit if it was really touch and go here it sounds like they thought he was going to be ready and then he just wasn't so I would assume he's kind of close but if he doesn't play in Philly not only does that hurt you just as far as on the field you start to wonder like is this guy ever

going to be available for the Vikings because he he wasn't always available for the saints. And this is a guy that Casey went out, found, you know, decided to sign on, you know, the opening day of free agency and he's not there for the season opener. So it would concern me only because he he's had the injury bug in the past. Very much. I mean, this is kind of a thing that we brought up through the offseason was that he hadn't played 600 snaps in a season at any point in his career. And when he got through the end of training camp, silly me, I thought that he would make it through a couple more practices. And I'm not trying to be cavalier about that because it's an injury.

And I'm sure that he didn't want it to go that way. But the fact that he made it through all those practices, all those physical practices, and then just bad luck to have that pop up when it did and then not have them today. I thought it wasn't a huge factor today. I don't know. Like, I don't know if they could say it's the Bucks. We're going to win. Probably not. Probably not.

It was probably just I think Marcus Davenport might want to be closer to a hundred percent to play than some other guys. That would be a guess based on what some new Orleans people told me, like that it's often something always tending to pop up. And that's why they didn't keep him long-term, even though he is a very talented player. And I think that, you know, when you look at what he did in training camp, how valuable he could potentially be. I mean, he can rush from the outside. He can rush from the inside. He's a versatile player. He's a I think he's a very, very talented player.

That's problematic for them. Of course, Bradbury's injury as well. Derisaw gets the ankle. He was banged up. And, you know, Brian O'Neill still recovering. Like you're all of a sudden looking at like, OK, if some of these injuries aren't in a good place, like these could cause problems. But there's one other thing that we have yet to discuss, which is Justin Jefferson's contract. And I decided not to do an emergency podcast yesterday because I was like, well, there's a game coming up.

And like, who's listening back to, is it, is it breaking news that someone didn't sign a contract? I'm not really sure, but someone didn't sign a contract i'm not really sure but he didn't sign the contract today he didn't do any money related celebrations but he sure could have because i mean you couldn't ask for anything more out of justin jefferson the nine catches on 12 targets for a buck 50 i mean just like reminder everyone everyone, Justin Jefferson, unstoppable once again. And, you know, Kevin O'Connell was asked. So this is interesting. Kevin O'Connell was asked postgame a rather blunt question about whether his team was distracted by Justin Jefferson's contract extension talks.

Now, what I thought was the answer was going to be very defensive and very like, what? No, huh? And it was a little less defensive than I expected, right? It was kind of like, well, you'll have to ask the players and it looked like everybody was ready to go, but it was not quite as I thought. I thought that the rage was going to burn in his eyes for once and he was going to snap at somebody. And instead, he just kind of looked a little like, I don't think so. It certainly didn't distract Jefferson. I don't believe in the NFL that players get distracted over stuff like that. I just thought his reaction was kind of interesting. And I guess I want to know from you, Dane, what, what now? I mean, what's the, what's the freak out level? What

should it be? Cause just talking to people in the press box before the game there there was there was some freaking out there was some like how did you not get this done like you should have just written in the blank check had him fill it in and sign it and now we're going to go through this whole year wondering and i already saw at the beginning of the comment section here like well if they're not going to be good they should just trade him like no never but also if they're not good, if this does start to go off the rails, then all of a sudden the tension is a lot different than it is if he's got a five-year, $700 bazillion contract to be like, well, you know, things happen. Yeah. I was surprised that didn't happen. And only because it has to happen at some point, right? Like, so I was surprised it didn't happen before this game in the season opener.

And knowing down the road, he's going to just end up costing more money. Like, right. He put up nine for 150 today, just kind of casually on while the offense looked shaky and choppy. Most of the game, the offense wasn't even good. And Justin Jefferson was. So that right there shows if you're not careful, this guy's going to just be way more money than he would have cost this summer.

Maybe the argument is that he won't be because there aren't many receivers that are going to be up for contracts in between now and then. I think Jamar Chase has a chance to kind of do what with cincinnati what minnesota was trying to do with justin jefferson this year you know sign that contract extension a year early but i wouldn't be nervous i don't think this means like in two years he can't leave because the viking if this got really untenable the vikings would just tag him in 25 and 26, unless Justin Jefferson forces his way out with a, with a trade request.

So I was going to say, do we ever see that happen with a player of his caliber? Never. Do they ever really get to that, that tag part? Because usually what the player does is demands a trade, right? So that's probably the biggest fear is that if you don't have a good

year and then you're talking about not knowing who the quarterback is and Hey hey you didn't pay me last year when you could have the bad blood starts to boil a little bit and and for me i've always been in the camp of don't panic until you have to like we are a year away from the panic point i mean nick bosa ran it up to the very last day and then signed like literally like two days before and then signed so it could be a long time from here but what we have seen from jefferson and he is not a diva i would fight back anybody who says he's diva for not signing his contract i'd fight back tooth and nail on that i think he's handled this professionally really really well correct but when he loses that man is not happy and when the offense isn't loses, that man is not happy. And when the offense isn't going well, that man is not happy. And if that adds up, we did see frustration from him in 2021.

And there were times where he was throwing his hands up and looking frustrated and everything else. And you do wonder if it doesn't go well the rest of the way. And this made it harder today for it to be a good season. Um, just based on how the schedule works that you do wonder where this is going to be. And the per the person saying he's a bit of a diva, I guess you're just trolling me. Cause that's total, total horse bleep. If anybody who says that I don't feel that way at all about him. I think that he has been as professional as it gets in his comments. He showed up, he took every rep in practice and he came out and just balled out and played a tremendous football game. Like that's great. But what you did by not signing him. And again,

I'd only put the panic meter, like from one to like four, maybe three. I'm not pushing it up until we have to, until it's like next training camp sitting out and demanding trades. It's a long way from now. But all I would say is just that went from a 0% chance. If you sign him to a something percent chance of this getting ugly and you should not have played with fire that way. And also, the price won't change. The price is going to be at the top, at the absolute top, and that's what you're going to have to pay. So to me, it was kind of weird.

You're going to have to pay that bill when it comes. Why wouldn't you set it up now that would help you with the structure of it and not, not the other way around. So, you know, I don't know. I think that, um, I think that this still eventually will probably get done and we'll be fine and we'll all forget this ever happened, but it now remains a thing. And if, if, I mean, I'm just saying, if they were to go to like one in four, it becomes

even more of a discussion. Like, is this guy unhappy and everything else? And I think that they could have avoided that by just signing him. They didn't. And now we're here. Yeah, you're right. It just opens the door for what ifs. Right. And you had an opportunity to just close that door completely. Just pay the man what he's worth. He knows what he's worth. He said it the other day. I am in a different situation than most because I've done something no one else has done. That is about as definitive as I've heard Justin Jefferson

advocate for his value. He could frankly say that every single time he stepped to the podium, if he wanted, I would have no issue with it because he's right. He has done something no one has ever done in the NFL and he's the best player on the team. And you have to do everything in your power to keep him. And if this just created a small little fracture that could turn into something bigger than this was a mistake by the Vikings, because all he's done has been like you said, the epitome of professionalism,

a great face of the franchise turning into a great face, little league, someone to get excited about in the present and in the future. And again, I'm with you. I'm not concerned. I'm not panicking. I think this gets done because I think the Vikings understand they need it to get done.

I just, it gives me a little bit of pause that it didn't get done in the last 48 hours, right before the deadline, like a Nick Bosa, that it didn't get done. And now 48 hours right before the deadline like a nick bosa that it didn't get done and now that we are going to end up talking about it he might come out and he might have to come out and say like i'm not talking about this anymore because he's going to continue to get asked about it and and that could create some tension in and of itself that he has to be the one answering all these questions because his contract didn't get done because you didn't pay him i don't think it's going to be something that ends in a nasty divorce between the Vikings and

Justin Jefferson. I think he likes being here. I think he, I think the big reason he's just out there playing and not holding out is because he likes playing football and he wants to be playing football. Um, but I, it just gives me a little pause and you could have just eliminated that completely if he just signed him. Right. It lingers over the next, who knows how long, but definitely over the whole season of which they are not going to be negotiating during the season. So,

all right, let's wrap up on this. What's let's, let's just do a panic meter. We might as well about the season. You have a loss. It's week one. I did see someone in the comments saying,

guys, there are 17 of these weeks. And I agree with that. But at the same time, there's several weeks coming up that are pretty darn tough for this team. However, we have seen over the years bounce backs. We've seen bounce backs from Kevin O'Connell's team. They lost by 40 to Dallas last year and then came back, got a big win on Thanksgiving. They have won.

Kirk has won in Philadelphia 2018. So what do you think? Like one out of 10, like should you be pretty much freaking out that this is going to send them spiraling or think like, hey, it's just 0-1? I'm probably at a six. Like I'm not not panicking.

Like I think it's a thing where like this could snowball. And then we said at the beginning, like you go to play philly on thursday you're not going to be favored in that game you probably should lose that game then you come home to play la the chargers are weird so you never know what the chargers are going to do in a game but they have a quarterback that's better than yours and they have playmakers not that aren't equal because Justin Jefferson is the person that tips the scale towards the Vikings. But they have playmakers on that team. They have a defense that flies around. That's not going to be an easy game here.

And if you couldn't beat the Buccaneers on your home turf, like I would feel maybe if you don't beat the Chargers, then you should beat Carolina, but you should have beat the Buccaneers. Then you play Patrick Mahomes. So we just project five weeks out. You could be looking at a one in four football team. And yeah, so that's why I'm at a six, because if you're two and three at week five, you can be like, okay, well, if we get hot here, this loss gave you no margin for error, basically, moving forward.

You have to steal a game that you probably shouldn't win or you have to be perfect. So I'm at a six. Not panic, not pushing the red button right now. We're not at a 10. But I think by week five, maybe we will be. Yeah, I think that it really depends on Philly. I mean, because if you get to a one-on-one, you get a win in Philadelphia. And by week five, maybe we will be. Yeah, I think that it really depends on Philly.

I mean, because if you get to one and one, you get a win in Philadelphia. Oh, then everything's fine. You're going to feel like your role. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. Like whoever first said, I'd love to know who the first person who said it's a week to week league. Whoever said that was the rightest person. And it just became a cliche because of how freaking right they were.

And that's how it feels. And today it's not even a week to week. It's a week and three days from now, four days from now league. If they are able to be Philadelphia, then it changes completely. Factoring it into the panic meter is assuming that you won't. So, you know, they can, they have the talent to have Justin Jefferson go off. The defense is different, but that's going to be a very tough game. They will probably be like seven point underdogs,

probably touchdown underdogs. That's good. That's going to be tough. Philly is playing right now next to us on this television and they were winning last time I checked. So yeah, I think that the panic meter probably has to be at a five, but at least,

which is high for week one. Right. And it could have been at a zero if, if you just won and took care of business. Correct. And if you lose to Philadelphia, then you're talking about pushing that thing up to like an eight. So it's going to be it's going to be interesting to see what happens there. Of course, we'll be in Philadelphia. So that'll be really fun.

Maybe or maybe it won't. There are times we've gone to Philadelphia and it wasn't. So anyway, well, thank you all for watching. Appreciate everybody jumping on after this game. I'm sure that a lot of people didn't want to hear much more about this game after the way that it went.

Uh, kind of a, kind of a yuck. I think I called it a slop fest loss. It was a slop fest loss. Not too good. So anyway, well,

thanks everybody for listening as always. And, uh, we will be back Monday morning. Murph Tuesday morning left guard with Jeremiah Searles. And then I fly to Philadelphia on Wednesday, hoping to be live from the hotel on Wednesday night. And off we go. Football is back, everyone. And it did not go the Vikings way today. So we will talk to you again about all of it very very soon thanks for listening