Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings show everything that has been wrong with them for a long time in loss to Packers

Episode Date: January 3, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom sound off about the Minnesota Vikings' embarrassing performance against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. The Vikings' loss to the Packers showed everything that's been wrong with the Vikings for years, from Mike Zimmer's bizarre comments about Kellen Mond to the bad defensive showing to GM Rick Spielman's team building. Everyone showed why they need to go. Get your NFL tickets at TickPick.com/Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to remind you before we get started, the TickPick is the exclusive ticketing partner of Purple Insider and the Blue Wire Network. TickPick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging service fees ever. from lambeau field aka the minnesota vikings graveyard matthew collar sam extram here purple insider post game podcast from inside some booth in Lambeau Field after we just watched the Minnesota Vikings get absolutely steamrolled by the Green Bay Packers, as many expected the minute that Kirk Cousins went down, although I'm not convinced that Kirk Cousins, if he was here and not on the COVID list, would have had much different of a fate

considering the Vikings could A, not stop the Green Bay Packers from doing anything, and B, also could not run the football. C, couldn't give Sean Mannion time to throw or open receivers or a scheme that made any sense or a coach that wants to pass the football at any time absolutely ever. This, to me, Sam, should be now about the easiest decision for the Wilfs to watch the way this went and say, it's over, boys. It's time to move on from Rick Spielman, from Mike Zimmer, and heck, maybe from Kirk Cousins as well.

Because what we saw here was not a team that wanted to fight for its backup quarterback to the final end it was a team that had no idea what to do on offense it was a team that on defense lucked into a couple of failures in the red zone by the Packers and then just couldn't cover anybody couldn't pressure anybody couldn't stop any runs with their two very expensive nose tackles a poor backup quarterback who's basically never started before and shouldn't have been their backup quarterback because their starter was unvaccinated by the way the Eagles traded a conditional sixth round pick for Gardner Minshew that won a game for them. They won today. So the Vikings are done and their season is done and this era is done.

And this was the perfect way to close the coffin on the Mike Zimmer era because it was the end of a season where they put on a laughing stock of a performance, which seems to happen every single year on their final game or what is essentially their final game. And Mike Zimmer's press conference was a joke. It was an absolute joke. No answers except for we should have run the ball more. Okay, great. Haven't heard that one before from you, Mike. And then he's asked what he thinks about the disappointing season and says to the reporter, what do you think? Here's what I think. We won't be doing this much longer. It's over this era, four years of failure. What a perfect way to end it with a complete whimper, a forgettable no show that we shouldn't have even driven this far into Wisconsin for, but they did have very good bratwurst at halftime. So that's it. That's my memory from this game. And if I mean, if Mike Zimmer is there on Monday, it'll be surprising. And after that, if he's there on Black Monday, it will be truly shocking considering how short this team has continually fallen of expectations. And it just couldn't have been more on display today so there's my thoughts

to start the show sam where would you like to begin i'd like to begin with the bratwurst i thought it was underwhelming really yeah yeah really not a fan of the halftime bratwurst the bun was cold the bratwurst was i thought it was a little rubbery but you got like the last one i jumped in line right at the beginning where it was warm and the buns were fine but let's talk about the game yeah uh indeed let's um this was the saints game of last year this was um the packers game of 2016 when the vikings go in to a tough game with an infinitesimal chance of making the playoffs they kind of have a little bit of give up to them. And despite all of the claims in the postgame tonight that nobody quit, they played for 60 minutes, it's hard to believe. That's hard to believe seeing what we saw tonight. I can't

believe how many whiffs there were all around. With with the game plan around Mannion Mike Zimmer's blind insistence that they gave up on the run too quickly for seemingly only one play that went badly which was a first and 10 pass of all things you passed on first and 10 and got sacked I can't find one other credible play where they could have or should have run the ball. That's just an absurd statement when you fell behind 20 to nothing in the first half. The whiff of going back to Mannion after Kellen Mond got one series in the game. And then, I mean, this is probably takeaway number two behind getting eliminated in the playoffs. Mike Zimmer buries Kellen Mond postgame.

Absolutely savages him in seven words. Asked if he wants to see him next week. Not particularly. Why? I see him every day. Six words he savages him. After savaging him during the week i asked him on friday i said did you consider kellen mond with sean manion having covid and one practice he said

no we really didn't consider him to play in this game i mean what is happening here this is this is the way the season ends um with i thought honestly like tyler conklin sean manion patrick peterson to their credit all stood up and sort of took the bullets tonight and were reflective and respectful and the head coach just missed at every turn and for a season that was really full of drama and every game came down to the wire. It finally caught up to them tonight against a much, much better team. All three phases outmatched, outgunned. And this probably was destined to happen tonight. You'd probably lose it with Kirk, without Kirk.

But now, I mean, the fact that Kirk didn't play, it just leaves the entire triumvirate with less security. Rick Spielman, who might be on the hot seat, is the one who drafted this quarterback who was not deemed ready to play. Mike Zimmer seemed to bungle the whole situation. His defense, which has been hailed so many times over the years, gives up 37. And Kirk Cousins watched it from home. Everyone who's on the hot seat looks worse today and also we just add in the hilarity of Jeremy Fowler tweeting early in the game that the Vikings have seen other rookie quarterbacks struggling this year and they don't want to have the same fate for Kellen Mond to hurt

his confidence oh my gosh where did that come from can't imagine who your source is could god I mean look Rick you're not gonna save your job through Jeremy Fowler my friend you save that through drafting better you save that from not signing two nose tackles and then having the worst run defense in the league you don't save it by making excuses for why your third round quarterback stinks. You know why? Because most third round quarterbacks are bad. It's fine.

Just say it. They're all bad. That's why you draft Mac Jones. You know the guy in the playoffs, Mac Jones, that playoff quarterback who put up 50 points today? The playoff quarterback, Mac Jones, that you guys thought you were too good to draft because Christian Derisaw was gonna to save your season at left tackle. How'd that work out for you?

Anyway, I mean, you look at this and it's just everything. It's just absolutely everything. A sixth round draft pick is traded for Gardner Minshew. A fourth round draft pick is traded for Chris Herndon. How does that happen? How do you have an unvaccinated quarterback with a backup who's never played before how do you set up a game plan that does not involve Justin Jefferson except for running 50 yards down the field as if they wouldn't think of that as if the Packers were like what do you think they're going to do with Jefferson hand them off the ball like they were running Jefferson and Osborne down the field and I get it Mannion can throw the ball pretty far and has a strong arm but they're running him down the field designing fourth down plays for CJ Hamm which Sean Mannion confirmed at the end of

the game or after the end of the game that the fourth down play is designed for CJ Ham when Justin Jefferson is on your team. I mean, this is what you get though, when you just sign or hire the offspring of a good offensive mind and don't bring in someone with any play calling experience in a year where everyone could get fired. And guess what? Your offensive coordinator who has not really had a clue all year is going to play a role in getting everyone fired possibly. Um, likely it seems now at this point, the game plan around Mannion was just mind boggling that now they couldn't run the ball. And that is a big factor because in past years they have come here and been able to run the ball with Delvin Cook so you always figured all right if they can run it a little and find a way but there was maybe

one screen pass to Delvin Cook there was one attempt at a touch pass to Justin Jefferson to get him the ball in the backfield but that was about it it seemed like the the main targets were CJ Hamm and Tyler Conklin, which again is just so appropriate because in all the biggest moments, those are the guys who keep getting the targets and not one of the best players in the entire NFL. I mean, that's what I mean. It's all so appropriate for all the problems to be on display at once. And your defense luck boxes into a couple of stops at the

beginning of the game but you knew that they the levy was going to break because they can't cover anyone because their two first round draft pick corners were busts and because their really old corner is the only guy that gave them half a chance against Devante Adams and yet they wouldn't put him on Devante Adams until the second half because Mike Zimmer is washed up as a defensive coach. I mean, how can you say anything otherwise? They signed all these players and have had drafted all these players on defense. And for the second straight year, they're one of the worst defenses in the NFL. I mean, who can look at the Mike Zimmer and say, Oh yeah, he's still got it. Like nobody.

This is, Justin Jefferson has never played a game where his team is above 500. I mean, they should all be ashamed of themselves for everything that has happened in the process of putting together this team that had this written all over it. This result was written all over what they did in the offseason, who they hired to be their assistant coaches, who they signed, who they drafted. We are desperately trying to rebuild a defense that was never going to have a chance.

And then, hey, Zim will coach him up. Well, he hasn't coached him up in a really long time, to tell you the truth. And then he comes out at the end of the game and says we didn't run the ball enough. Oh, yeah, that was it. That was the truth. And then he comes out at the end of the game and says, we didn't run the ball enough. Oh yeah, that was it. That was the problem. It wasn't Rogers throwing at Chris Boyd, because for some reason you thought that Chris Boyd was going to stop Devante Adams. I mean, just incredibly baffling on so many levels, as you said, and how is any of this

forgivable? How are two seven and nine seasons back to back forgivable how how is it understandable that you could come here and put together no competition whatsoever for the green bay path packers and oh wait actually that's perfect because they've been no competition for the green bay packers in every year except for the one where rogers got hurt it's just on display everything that needs to be said on display here, including we'll draft a third round quarterback because we're going to galaxy brain our way out of the first round quarterbacks who are, you know, at least have a chance to be good

and then make excuses to ESPN reporters when those guys don't turn out to be any good. I mean, it's just, I know I'm just like throwing different things out there, but the accumulation of all of this stuff is why it's over all of it, all of it at once. Well, how about the dig too, by Peterson after the game saying, I don't know why I wasn't asked to shadow Devante Adams earlier in the game. And then he gives a very nice vote of confidence for Mike Zimmer. But Mike Zimmer's not coming back. Patrick Peterson's not coming back, even though he said that he's hopeful to.

I think that Peterson actually has probably the most unbiased perspective on this because that's not the first time he's had a subtle questioning of the head coach of the defensive strategy yes other Packers game remember he said they were too aggressive at the very end blitzing Rodgers on first down and this is a guy that comes in with no previous attachment he hasn't been you know groomed like Anthony Barr Eric Hendricks like he comes in just this like savvy veteran kind of sees it for what it is. And he has not been afraid to occasionally question the authority, which I find pretty fascinating and we'll see what his future holds. I'm guessing it's not here. I'm guessing that

we're looking at a lot of defensive changes and who is going to trust this head coach with those changes after seeing what we saw this year bringing in I think probably on paper and by just overall talent a defense that in no way should have been this inept even with the the injuries they had they still had the majority of their group together for the full year losing Daniil Hunter was terrible, but they weren't great with Daniil either. I mean, you can't overlook some of those clunkers early in the season when the defense was entirely together. Yes, the pass rush, the run defense was egregious at the defensive end positions. I mean, you can make excuses if you want to, but if you look at the whole, if you look at the body of work, the amount of games where they gave up 30 plus points, the way they played in December, again, one winning December in eight seasons of Mike Zimmer, one, one, 2017, the one year where everything went right, and every other year has played out so similarly to this um so the the way it ends

i mean not reflective of this season but still kind of reflective of this season where they didn't get blown out like this this was different but it felt like it was the accumulation of sort of what this team deserved and if anybody has any woe is me bad luck too bad for us we didn't do this or that because of whatever the new orleans saints have a better record they lost five in a row and had to play their fourth string quarterback in a game last week and they're ahead of you i mean the philadelphia eagles lost their quarterback in fact their quarterback is a first time starter. They have a new head coach. They were supposed to tank this year and they're, they're finding ways to be better than you. The bears might pass the, I don't know what the tiebreaker is with, because if the bears win next

week, they might win by the way, they're tied with the Vikings. They could be, I'm not sure what the tiebreakers, they could be the second place team. Come on. I mean, think about that. They were on the edge of firing their coach, Chicago. I mean, they've just been horrendous all year long. You looked down at Chicago and said, well, at least we're not them. And they have a chance to be even with you at the end of the year.

I mean, well, I guess if you're a Vikings fan, you're hoping Chicago wins. And then they say, look how we ended the year. And they played for Matt Nagy, right? I guess that's probably what you're looking for. But the last four years have been an unequivocal failure from the Minnesota Vikings organization through and through because of decisions from the general manager and coaching from mike zimmer and quarterback play from kirk cousins and men and many other things of course kicking a year or two from now but hey greg joseph nailed the 50 yard field goal here in

zero degree weather give him some credit for actually a great kicking season that's but that's what i was going to say. On the luck point of this, the other teams in the NFC have been bad. They've opened the door for you all over the place to make the playoffs. The Vikings had tiebreakers. And if you want to talk about overcoming, you know, quarterback absence, before tonight, only 13 teams

or only 13 quarterbacks had played every game. And you had one of them. And yet you need this win from Sean Mannion. The other quarterback, Aaron Rodgers had to miss a game. They lost that game. They're about to be the one seed. I mean, has anyone else lost a pass rusher this year? Has anyone else lost the defensive end? No, but your backup is a fourth round pick who can't set an edge against you or me i mean that this guy that andre patterson has raised up as this this guy that he saw with glowing lights behind him in the draft and he said that's the next deniel and yet here every team wants to run right at dj

want him hey your backup though plays for the Broncos because you traded him away for some reason that we never got an explanation for because the general manager hides at TCO performance center and never talks ever, ever. I've never seen anything like it that, that the general manager sneaks out from inside his cave twice a year to give a bunch of non answers and excuses and then never talks again. I mean, most general managers do radio interviews or whatever else, not Rick Spielman. So we don't get many explanations to why none of his draft picks in the third round could play, for example. And I guess it's just, I don't even know what the point was supposed to be other than they have not had bad luck.

That is, if they claim that, that is a complete lie. They have had good luck this season. They lost close games because they lost close games because they're bad. Like, that's why. They lost in Arizona because Mike Zimmer loves to run the football and punt. Like, they lost in Cincinnati because they got down by two scores

because their new right guard kept holding everyone and jumping offside. Like all the things that you did to set up, to be here in this place over four years have just been decisions that you made. I mean, we've been through the ones from last year, but same deal. Hey, why don't they have more good young players? I don't know. They trade a second round pick for Yannick and Gawkway who plays for the Raiders who are better than you. And he's been good. Like, I don't know. They trade a second round pick for Yannick and Gawkway who plays for the Raiders who are better than you. And he's been good. Like, I don't know. Like, what was that about? I don't know. We never get an explanation because the general manager never talks. So I have no idea how, how that went down. Uh, and there's just so many of these things that

we can run through over and over again that we've been talking about for years, but the process signing Kirk to the extension, when you were not in a position to sign a quarterback to that valuable of a contract they scheduled his his lowest salary cap hit year for the first year when they were going to have to rebuild the defense i mean it's endless the number of reasons that they have gotten here and earned every step of the way. And by the way, after tonight, their point differential is negative, which means you're a losing football team. Now, sometimes a team will have a good point differential and an unfortunate record, and you could say,

well, you know, I guess they had some bad breaks. But that's not this. That is not this. They haven't had bad fumble luck. They haven't had bad kicking luck. They have been a bad football team whose decisions and whose coaching has just sunk them to being not a mediocre team. This is the thing. We've criticized them for being stuck in the middle. Oh, they're not stuck in the middle.

They're at the bottom. I mean, they're not at the bottom, bottom of Jacksonville and and the new york jets but they are in the bad teams realm you mentioned it with chicago you're in the bad teams and you've got a lot a lot of uh room to improve here a lot of place to go uh a lot of things to be done and it starts with either tomorrow or it starts with next week when they change coaches. Mike Zimmer said after their loss to the saints last year, which is the equivalent of this game, worst defensive ever had. He said he was embarrassed. This team through 16 games, same record seven and nine, seven and nine. You got there a different way. You didn't start one in five like last year. The arc was different.

The feel was different. But in the end, you end up seven and nine. And I think if anything, Collar, this should be a little bit of catharsis for like fans that were on the fence. If you were wondering, like if you were still kind of hanging on to the remnants of this regime, maybe you liked Cousins, maybe you liked Zimmer, maybe you liked Spielman. For whatever reasons you had, you might have been hanging on.

This makes it easier to let go. Whatever you were clinging to, I feel like this is confirmation. And we've been looking for it all year long. Are you good? Are you going to make a statement? They never made the statement when they had opportunities, they always fell short. And now the fact that they, they, they no longer had the bite back where they were able to, to sort of put themselves back in the conversation as they've done so many times this, um, perfect tease of a team. This is, is great confirmation, I think, for what the future holds. And the future is unknown. It's uncertain. But I think moving on should be relieving to a

lot of people because you can make changes and you can make improvements fast if you make the right decisions. Now, who's making those decisions? Is it the general manager who we've just criticized? Well, that's cause for concern. Who's your quarterback? I mean, probably not your third round pick this year, so you don't know who that's going to be next year. If it's Kirk, you might be in for another mediocre season. There is uncertainty, there is cause for concern, but I like getting the wheels in motion um should be good that's progress get away from the status quo status quo is not working one out of four playoff seasons for Kirk one playoff win in four seasons and a sixth seed when you did it the last seed that's allowed it and how many millions of dollars sunk into that quarterback 130 million 140 million and more next year i mean

it this this is good if you wanted some kind of like result like end result some kind of bow put on it this is the bow hey everybody minnesota football is in full swing and there is no need to exhaust yourself searching all over the internet for Minnesota football tickets because TickPick, that is T-I-C-K-P-I-C-K, is the original no-fee ticket site. It's the only one you'll ever need as your go-to for football tickets. TickPick got rid of all those awful service fees that the other ticket sites charge, which allows them to guarantee the best prices on all of your tickets. Don't believe it. If you can find better prices on the same seats on another site, TickPick will give you 110% of the difference. Now we've had lots of exciting games at US Bank Stadium this year. There are still more to go and always interesting when

Chicago comes to town. So you're going to want to go to TickPick.com and check it out and make sure it's TickPick.com. TickPick.com slash insider because you can save $10 on your first order for Minnesota tickets. That's TickPick.com slash insider. I totally agree. And we had this discussion the other day and I thought it was really interesting to talk about like, are you a bad fan? If you're saying, you know what, Green Bay pound that nail in the coffin. We're not making the playoffs anyway. We need changes to be made. Let's make it look as bad as you can make it. Oh, well, this was it. This was as bad

as you can make it look. And if this was a good football team roster wise, if it was a good team coaching wise, this may have been a loss. It wouldn't have been a loss like this where it's 20 to nothing in the half and green Bay hasn't even played well. I mean, they failed on fourth downs. They failed in the red zone. They had a bizarre run out of the shotgun when Aaron Rodgers is their quarterback. They, you know, missed. I mean, they had a tight end, have the ball bounce right off his noggin in the end zone wide open. And yet it's still 20 to nothing in the first half.

I mean, the Packers didn't even need Aaron Rodgers to win this game. It could have been Jordan Love and he would have won this game. They're a far, far better football team top to bottom, even without Aaron Rodgers to win this game. It could have been Jordan Love and he would have won this game. They're a far, far better football team top to bottom, even without Aaron Rodgers than the Vikings are. And they're a far better coach team than the Vikings are. It was just right here in front of you that if you bring back cousins to this team that needs a new coach, very, very many players on the roster, a new person pulling the strings making the draft picks that have repeatedly not fulfilled what they were supposed to do it would be a mistake I think and almost unfair to Kirk Cousins in a way because well Cousins has come up short each year

it's we've always looked at that through a franchise perspective of having him as your quarterback at his price tag with what you could do around him is not something that's going to succeed. And it did not. But if you're Kirk and you're thinking about what you want to do here for the future with signing an extension or anything else, why would you sign here? Aside from Justin Jefferson, who's unhappy, by the way. I mean, what would be the purpose? The whole thing needs a reset button. They have a handful of players that you would go forward with, but that's it. It's just a handful. It's Jefferson, Derrissaw, Brian O'Neill, Eric Hendricks. I mean, then who else? I'm not even sure they're going forward with Delvin Cook considering the off-field stuff, considering the injuries. And if he's going to continue to be a good running back, because this year there were times where he

was in times where he wasn't, there's almost three, four players, five players that you can lock in and say, these are the guys for the future. Everything else needs to be addressed. That's not a situation where you want to continue to go forward with cousins. But to your point, the fact that it could be a clean slate soon and a reset button does not mean it has to be a tank by the way, which I will stick with does not have to be a tank, but it has to be a reset on everything because otherwise you're just asking for us to be here doing the same exact show next year.

And I think that we've always wondered, Hey, if they beat green Bay, you know, could that change things? Could that be Zimmer's 2019 game? But the thing about the Zimmer 2019 game against new Orleans was that was a good football team and a lot of great players, a lot of pro bowlers on the defensive side, um, good wide receivers, good running game. The offensive line was better than this. This is a very bad offensive line once again. I mean, this team was nowhere near as good as the 2019 team, and they underachieved but found a way to win a playoff game, and they kept everybody in their jobs for a couple more years.

But this was the fear when they kept everyone in their jobs, was that, guys, when you have to reset the entire defense, it's not going to be the same as when you have to reset the entire defense, it's not going to be the same as when you have Xavier Rhodes as a number one corner or Everson Griffin in his prime or Daniil Hunter healthy, or the number of other players that were here and created a really good roster. Um, that I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to stick with Kirk cousins after that. Oh, I know because they were playing to save their jobs. When you have people who are playing to save their jobs,

that's how you draft Christian Derrissaw and not Mac Jones. It's just how it ends up happening, because you're thinking, well, we need a left tackle for this year right now, and that's it. That's the only thing in front of us. Let's sign Bashad Breeland, Xavier Woods, these guys who won't be a part of the future, but you desperately need to do it because you need to try to keep your job.

Well, this is what usually happens when there's people in charge desperately trying to keep their jobs. So let me circle back to the game because there are many more rants to be had about how they got here. But let me ask you a silly question. At what point did you know that this was just like done like over that they were not going to have any chance to beat the Packers or even put on a relatively average NFL performance 13 nothing um once it got out of reach where one play could like even if it's like a kick return or something,

where one play wasn't going to put you in front or back in the game, at that point, 13-0, and then three and out after that. Four straight three and outs at points where the game was technically still meaningful, four straight three and outs. And that is puzzlingly the point in the game where Mike Zimmer's talking about running the ball more. When were you possibly going to run the ball more when you're, and they tried on first down several times in those sequences and got stuffed the, the botched jet sweep to Jefferson. That's a run play, right? I mean, you tried to run the ball

and you dropped it, but when in the world are you going to run the ball in those situations when you're facing second and nines, you had a penalty facing second and 16 after a penalty, the sack was the only thing like that. That's mind blowing to me that that was the takeaway. And that after we gave Mike Zimmer so much credit following the chargers and Packers games for being aggressive and trying to gospelize that message with the team, only to watch the Bears and Packers games, Mike Zimmer making comments about the run game again, right? Like going back to John D. Filippo all over again, it's clear that the Clint Kubiak thing is not working out um and if by some miracle Zimmer stays on as head coach I don't think Kubiak is staying on as coordinator at least I don't get

that vibe um but again I don't think that's likely so I would I would say I buried this team at 13-0 was it earlier for you it was when they threw to cj ham on the fourth down i truly and i loved the call i loved going going for it in that situation too i did too and here's why because sean manion operated that play perfectly but by quarterback technical what he's supposed to do his first read he said he took us through this after the game. His first read was ham, which is mind blowing. Then his second read, and I went back and looked at this play closely. His second read, I believe was to go deep down the field to Osborne, but Osborne was double covered. And then Jefferson coming across the field is the third read and Jefferson comes open really late,

but Mannion's getting pressured. So he goes back to his first read. So he goes one, two to three, back to one, doing exactly how he's supposed to do it on this bootleg and throws a really great pass. But CJ Hamm is a fullback and it's not converted. And I just sensed right there. I don't think you can do this again. Like you started having a decent drive. And I don't think unless you get really confident and really rolling and complete some passes and make some plays really super early in this game, that this team is going to fight to keep you going. Like that was it right there. Remember when Mike Zimmer said against Pittsburgh,

he thought that they were going to lose that game. That to me said everything about this whole narrative that he's tried to spin throughout the season of hey we got a bunch of guys in there who fight didn't really against los angeles last week and once that happened my feeling was it is cold aaron rogers is on the other side and once things aren't going easy for you you're going to fall apart and that has kind of also been the thing for this team too that a lot of the games that they lost close they acted like it was just some some strange uh outer forces in the twilight viking zone that were causing these close losses like no not really it's mostly a team that gets backed up against

a wall and collapses that you've got to stop stop Cooper Rush or Jared Goff on a final drive and you can't do it. I mean, who can watch those games and be like, oh, what bad luck? Oh, no, no, no, no. If you can't stop Jared Goff, the 28th ranked PFF quarterback, or Cooper Rush who's never played before. Oh, yeah, by the way, weird. Cooper Rush won a game as the backup against

another team on the road so you can 400 plus yards in that game can do that boys yeah you are allowed to do that uh anyhow so that was when i kind of felt that this was going to be a problem and we knew that they were going to move the ball but i one of the things that i cannot get over with this team is over the last two years how other teams have run over them so easily. And what we've heard time and time again is, well, they used motion and that threw us off. I don't know. I guess you got to solve that problem. The problem solver, as the defensive mind, has not solved the problem in a long time.

And it's not just roster. They had a roster on the field tonight that could have stopped running a running game they had both of their fat dudes pierce was out oh pierce was out well they had one of their fat dudes right armand watts has played okay they've got their linebackers in the game they've got their safeties in the game at different times some players have been in and out but for the most part they've got their safeties in the game that at different times some players have been in and out but for the most part they've had their guys on defense outside of hunter and griffin and and they've just been completely trucked it's it's not a great well this was not just

aaron rogers being great this was oh we can run on you anytime we want to and we will and uh every team in the league has done that this year and i i think that's scheme i think that's the personnel i mean it's everything but they had the players they picked for the most part on the field to stop the run and they have for most weeks and they've just been trounced and that was another part there was an aaron jones run maybe on the packers' first drive. You remember this? He broke out and kind of broke some tackles and had a really big hole. Like a 27-yard run out to the left, I think it was.

That was another time, right. It was like, oh, I know it's over. Because if they're going to be able to run like that with Aaron Jones, then they're not going to have any problems for the rest of the game. And then as it went on, it became very clear that you might as well just play Kellen Mond. And this doesn't, I mean, if we're talking about ranking all the sins, this to me doesn't go very high because I agree with Mike Zimmer that Kellen Mond is not ready to play football

and he barely or almost throws a pick six the minute he goes in the game, of course, because we've seen him practice we've seen him play in preseason games the guy couldn't outperform Kyle Slaughter in preseason games from what we had seen Slaughter past years in the same situations so we didn't think oh yeah well he should definitely play but when you're down 30 to three, there's no reason to keep running Mannion out there aside from just spite, like just despite Kellen Mond. Like why not give him a little bit of experience playing in this type of game? Like the Packers did with Jordan Love.

Why don't we give Jordan Love some experience here and make sure that Aaron Rodgers doesn't get hurt. And yet after Mannion went out for a series because of a cramp, we found out, Mond is pulled right back out of the game. Because what? Mannion was going to lead a Frank Reich comeback? I mean, I don't know. It just, so many of these things at this point don't really add up very well. And that was what it is with the Mond thing and not even playing him just till the end after Mannion cramped up. It's more of just a cherry on top of Zimmer and his indignance toward everything and everyone. Right. Like that's the only that's the best way I could put it. I was reminded today of the things that he said about like John DiFilippo, Kevin Stefanski, about Stefanski being disloyal for wanting to be an offensive coordinator

elsewhere. These things have kind of just like flooded to me of there's an indignance about Zimmer that has always existed, but was sort of cute to people when their team was winning. That is really unbecoming when your team is not winning because you're like, Hey, find a mirror, my friend, but it's never been his way. It's never been his way. It's always been his way to point at the office of coordinator for not running enough point at the GM for not giving them enough depth, which is true point of Kelly, you know, Kellen Monded a bad third round draft pick as of there were many, but that's always been his way. And when it gets to this point, I've got a bad defense and all that.

I mean, who, who's got, who's got reasons for him to stay when you've done that. And when that's the way you handle, uh, these tough times as being a head coach, right? Folks, it's that time again, where you're doing your online shopping for the holidays. And look, if you want free shipping, I can help you out with that for all of your Minnesota sports inspired goods use the promo code purple insider when you go to soda stick.com that is s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com you can get their north state beanie their adam thielen autograph shirts marcus felino fan club design for all of you hockey fans out there and the one i always mention because it's the best one the randy moss disgusting act you can put that on a hoodie shirt or almost anything else

and plus anything you want with skull on it soda stick has it again that's s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com perfect for gifts and you can get that shipping free by using the code purple insider. Well, I, here's how I know the fan base has turned because the cutting remark about Mond post game, which kind of reminded me of when they cut Carlson and he was asked about it and he said, did you see the game? Oh, you mean Carlson who kicked the game winning field goal today? Oh, that Carlson. That Carlson. Yeah.

Oh yeah. We're back at the scene it was another that was his second one in recent weeks with his season on the line right daniel carlson something guy something like that okay i think that's the same carl sure i got the same guy yeah um good clarification there um at that time with the carlson cut i think i would say i would say 80 20 were like, yeah, Zim, get him. Yeah. Oh, for sure. What a savage.

For sure. What a, you know, just a brutally honest guy who tells it like it is. Tonight, I posted the video of the comments, and I've got it in my mentions, and I would say it's 80-20. People are fed up. People are tired of Zim. They're saying he should be fired for this comment. How can you bury your rookie quarterback like that? And I think Zimmer's probably telling the

truth, but I also tend to agree with a lot of those. You probably shouldn't say that. And I am very interested to see, assuming Zimmer is around to give a press conference on Monday, whether he doubles down on that or whether he softens his comments at all about Kellen Mond. But you know the other remark post-game, too, that I wanted to mention regarding the run-stopping? Patrick Peterson saying we couldn't stop a nosebleed. Oh, right, yeah. I mean, there were a couple Peterson gems tonight just talking pretty frankly about this defense. I mean, last week, too, following up on that Rams game, when we heard from Zimmer that they were thrown off by the wide receivers blocking them, I mean, what does that say

about your physicality? What does that say about your ability to adjust? What does that say about your ability to improv you know, improvise in a fast moving football game? And just because you haven't seen something, it doesn't mean you can't like not stop. Like you're allowed to stop it. You're allowed to make a play. And if everything has to be so cookie cutter for this defense to succeed, man, they got another thing coming. Um, and let me, let me offer all of that pessimism. Like, Let me spin it as optimistic. This is why you don't need to tank next year.

Because how is it going to be worse? How is your end-of-half defense going to be worse? Your end-of-game defense going to be less clutch? How is your... Everything in general, like the stuff that was bad was really bad. And you went 7-9. If it just improves to the mean, like you're probably a nine win team, right? So that's why you don't need to tank. I guess if you

downgrade at quarterback significantly, then that kills you. But if your quarterback play is 75% of this and your defense is not egregious in these situations, you're probably a competitive football team. So looking ahead to next year, you're not giving up that much good stuff. If you were giving up the 2017 defense, different story. Those days are so long gone. That is ancient history at this point. I think that, like, how far down this road do we need to get on a post-game podcast but if you're looking toward the future toward next year one of the reasons that Mac Jones has

succeeded where he's at is the circumstances he was given he was given a great offensive coordinator not a good one a great one not a great head coach probably not a good one, a great one, not a great head coach, probably Josh McDaniels, but a great offensive coordinator. They signed receivers. They have a good offensive line and a good system that has worked for a long time with the greatest quarterback ever that they could put him into that is solidified, that everybody knows and understands. I mean, this is a situation with an elite receiver, a great tight end who's coming back. I think Irv Smith has a chance to be a great player in the league. They have two tackles who are good. We'll see about Adam Thielen, but I would assume he's coming back. KJ Osborne emerged

as a good player this year. You have a lot of things to give to somebody that comes from the outside, a draft pick or another quarterback to fill the role for a year that could be very good and at least offer a season that you're analyzing each week going, well, what's this going to be? And this year had none of that. This year was just miserable for people. And this is where I feel legitimately bad for Vikings fans that this year was just miserable for people and this is where i feel legitimately bad for vikings fans that this team's decision to do what they did in 2019 to keep everybody to try to smack it all together with glue and popsicle sticks on defense and to bring back a quarterback who's been 500 and will be 500 again and ask him to carry it all and cousins was the typical up and down and then in the biggest moment you know his status his choice

put him out of the biggest game and so that's the guy that you invested everything in when really a reset then i mean think about how far down the road we might be now into that rebuild and also, or retooling or whatever you want to call it. And also you think about just not, I mean, not doing that, how miserable these seasons have been and how difficult these seasons have been on Vikings fans, because you were never good. You just never had a chance. I mean, all year we, we would talk about like, well, this next game is really big against the Rams and let's see how they do. And then it's just a disappearing act or, Hey, if they win this one against the bears, it's the playoffs and, but you've got, like you're getting a new coach

or you're getting a new, or you have a new quarterback or whatever, you have a reason to be excited about where it could all go. Especially looking at someone like Cincinnati today. And, and I mean, it could have been you, it could have been you. If you reset after 2019 and you have a tough 2020 and you draft a quarterback or even just draft a quarterback in 2019 you trade up for one maybe you're ending up with Justin Herbert or something like not seeing the bigger picture is really how we got here and that's where I just feel like these fans have been each offseason sold hey this team can't be really bad they'll be competitive they'll be there for you and what they've proven is oh no they actually can they actually can when you misplay where you

stand so badly this is where you can end up and now finally this circles back to your point now finally today this day january 2nd, you may remember it as the day where everything changed. So you could actually be excited about a team again, because even this year, I think some people really wanted to believe like, oh, it's, it's Kirk make or break. It's the rebuilt defense and look, national media bought into it. There was an article on the athletic saying the Vikings should have the number one defense in the NFL. Not by a Vikings writer, by the way.

I'm sorry. I don't want to insult our Vikings writer. They were smarter than that. No, we love Chad and Arif. Yeah, that was not them. But there were people on the outside thinking this is going to be great. This defense, man, they're going to be great. And we're watching it on a daily basis and watching camp and everything else going. I don't know, man. I just, you know, it should be a, maybe a nine or 10 win

team if things go well for them. And no longer do you have to talk yourself into if the Vikings ownership does what they need to do here. You don't have to talk yourself into maybe if Michael Pierce is back, then you'll get nine wins. You don't have to talk yourself into that. If they go in the direction that they need to go, then it will be, let's talk about where this next group could take them. And you could end up remembering this day as being sort of thankful for how it went, despite how ugly it was to watch. Undoubtedly.

I mean, you would need to have a complex to see the last two weeks and say, this is fine. Let's just keep trusting this group to get better next year. You can't, you can't. And every leak, every tweet from anyone who might be plugged in nationally would seem to indicate that this is

going the way of a house cleaning, either partial or complete. We don't know for sure when. We don't know for sure if it's the package deal of Zimmer, Spielman, or maybe Spielman gets a higher up job in the organization but loses some of his power. We don know we we don't know uh will mike zimmer you know be coaching somewhere next year will he be on his ranch just hanging out we we just don't know tonight um might get clarity as soon as tomorrow who knows but i i think that is there even a 10 chance caller that this regime stays intact it should should not be. I don't ever really underestimate their ability to not see the bigger picture. Sorry if that's a double negative. It's almost one in the morning.

But they have struggled so much to see the bigger picture. If they decide that all of this is bad luck because Kirk got COVID, or bad luck because Delvin missed a couple games, or bad luck because Kirk got COVID or bad luck because Delvin missed a couple games or bad luck because Hunter got hurt. If they decide or missed feel a field goal from the kicker, who's been phenomenal all year, by the way, if, uh, if they decide that, I mean, I don't know what to say. Let me ask you a question. It would take honestly, real quick. It would take me a while for to like gather my thoughts, to try and explain how this might go well i would have to i mean really i would it would be very difficult and that's what i'm always trying to look for is

how could it go well how could it not go well and i know some people want to hear much more of one side or the other but we always try to say how could they beat the rams how could they lose to the rams how could the delvin tomlinson signing work? How could it not work is how we do everything. If they keep this regime, I can tell you how it's not going to work at this moment. I can't come up with how it would work. Okay. So here's my question. What is your read on the hierarchy with regard to who has the most direct line of communication with the Wilfs. I think it's Rick. Yeah.

Is it possible that Rick is influencing the Zimmer decision in a way that would save himself? Because Zimmer and Spielman have always seemed handcuffed, right? Yeah. Like sort of a package deal. But because Rick is maybe one step higher and closer to the Wilfs, he probably has more of a dialogue with them. I mean, we'll never know, but is there a little bit of whispering in their ear on his part? And if not, who is the one who's telling the Wilfs what to do is what I want to know. Well, so here's how it should go. Rick should walk into the Wilfs office and say,

well, you know why we lost is because Mike hired the wrong offensive coordinator and didn't coach well enough. And Mike should walk in and say, hey, Rick didn't give me good enough players. And the Wilfs should say, you're both right. And we'll see you later. I mean, that's how it should go. I don't know which one would have more influence to try to argue against the other, but they have great arguments against each other. And, uh, that's, that's the way I would put that. So I don't know. All I wanted to say at the end here is just, I don't know

where it's going to go. Uh, your question about 10%, I guess that's where I'd put it. I feel like I've talked pretty definitively on this show because I think that this left them with very little choice being eliminated even before the final week in a year where the NFC at the bottom was so bad and your division was not good. I mean, you should have had free wins against Chicago and Detroit, but you blew one of those. Um, so that, so that's that. I don't know where it's going to go and I don't know what path they're going to take. Uh, but I did, I wanted to say two things before we wrap up. Number one, uh, the people who stay with the show and listen to it and support it. And we've grown immensely this year. And now that this thing is over, you know,

we'll be there next week or whatever, but, uh, the playoffs are over. I have been so blown away and thankful for everyone who throughout this year has supported us, listened to the show, given them, given us their feedback and sort of ridden along the rollercoaster because it's tough. And I wouldn't have blamed half the audience for saying this team is driving me crazy and I don't want to listen to your show anymore. So thank you for that. And we've got a lot of very interesting things to come that it could be their most interesting offseason literally since 2014, I think,

where there was a complete overhaul and Mike Zimmer came in. And so we'll see how that goes. I want to say that we're thankful for that. I also wanted to say that the approach that we take of breaking it all down and analyzing it is how we see things like this coming months in advance. And sometimes it feels like at the draft or at free agency, Hey, why are you being so down on them drafting a guard to start? Or why are you being so down on signing a 31 year old corner to a high contract and things like that? It, and, and you know what? When they do things that work, we're going to say it.

They just haven't been. And so there's a lot of people who are on the internet and doing things like this who want to tell you that every move they make is really smart and everything they do is really great. I'm sorry it hasn't been. I'm sorry it hasn't been. And it will be a lot more fun for us to travel to Tampa or Arizona for playoff games should they come in the future. And so I, if they make the moves that they need to make to get where they need to go,

uh, it's going to be a lot of fun to talk about. It's not a lot of fun for any Vikings fans tonight, but around the corner is a lot of really, really fun discussion, I think. And let me just say this too. The most rewarding seasons as a sports fan are when you have unexpected success. And the Vikings have not been in that position for a long time because the bar has always been set so high, perhaps unrealistically high, and they just haven't had that chance. 2015 was such a satisfying year. The Keenum year was extremely satisfying because it kind of came out of nowhere. And now they'll have that opportunity again

where the expectation is lower and they can surprise you a little bit. We think. We think that's coming, assuming that we have changes coming in the coming weeks. And if we don't, I'm going to have to think a lot about how to talk about it. So, well, I'm sorry for everything that's happened to all of you folks who are very kind and very supportive.

And we appreciate that greatly. And we have had a great time talking about this season with you, even if you've had a tough time watching it. So we appreciate it again. Thanks so much to everybody. And we will see what happens next in the soap opera that is the Minnesota Vikings. So thanks for listening, everybody. If you got to this point, then bless you and take care.

Bye.