Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings sign Dalton Risner and Brian Murphy talks about a do-or-die game vs. Chargers

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

Matthew Coller gives a quick reaction to the Vikings (finally) bringing in Dalton Riser. Where will he play? What took so long? Plus Brian Murphy joins for a long discussion about how the Vikings are still alive in the NFC North after a winless weekend by the division but they can't lose another game on Sunday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Novocaine. Only in theaters March 14th. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and guess what the minnesota vikings have a new guard dalton reisner i feel like this justifies our weeks and weeks and weeks of talk about whether the vikings should bring in former denver bronco dalton reisner and according to ian rapaport of nfl network he will become a minnesota viking and there's some questions to be asked off this but first i have to say good timing because i was just about to post a podcast with brian murphy which you are going to hear our full discussion momentarily after we talk about the reisner signing but maybe a stroke of good luck for me because normally I would post that podcast the Vikings would announce

this and then I would go no why but there will be more conversation about it with Manny Hill later as well so lots of talk about the offensive line but a few quick thoughts to just get to you in the wake of the signing number one Dalton Reisner has to be an upgrade, but I don't know for who. I don't know if it's for right guard, for left guard. Could it be for center if they are concerned about Garrett Bradbury long term? There has been no indication that they're going to put Bradbury on injured reserve. But if his back injury looks like it's going to be a long-term thing and it's not just going to heal up quickly and he'll get back out there, could Reisner be even under consideration as a

center? I mean, this guy has played only left guard throughout his entire career, but as a college player, he did move around quite a bit. I mean, I don't know if that's an option or not, but watching back the film against Philadelphia, I felt like the center and the right guard were the biggest issues along the offensive line. And so I assume that this is for the right guard position for Dalton Reisner to replace Ed Ingram at right guard and become the starter. But I don't know that 100 percent percent for sure because when you look at the performance of the entire interior offensive line none of it has been very good so far I mean you could make an argument that Ezra Cleveland had a good first week but nobody had a good week against

the Philadelphia Eagles and it's just been so much of a struggle for those guys. And they've allowed, you know, strip sacks. They've really struggled to get anything going in the ground game that, I mean, he's an improvement somewhere, but I'm not a hundred percent sure where since he has played only left guard for his entire career. And just looking at his career numbers, I don't know how much of an upgrade it's going to be in the run game, which has been a huge struggle for the Vikings so far. Last year, a 53 grade against the run or in run blocking for Dalton Reisner 2022 by PFF. A good run blocking grade would be like 70.

A great would be 80 and average would be 60. So below average run blocking grade. But that is less of a concern than the pass blocking, which has not seemingly improved at either of the guard positions in any significant way. And that's where Reisner has been very good over his career. He has never allowed 30 pressures in a season last year, only 29 graded a 72 pass blocking 73 the year before all by PFF. But he's been one of the more effective and efficient pass blockers in the league, which is, it is odd that he was still out there for as long as he was out there. Maybe he was just waiting until the minnesota

vikings got desperate and here they are desperate and it does make sense to do this now because it kind of felt like with this expanded little bi-week or mini buy that it was now or never also i mean you're sitting at oh and two kind of now and never from that standpoint. And when they moved Brian O'Neill's money around, when they restructured that after not doing it all offseason, that was kind of a tell that it was in their mind to potentially bring in Dalton Reisner. But there is a little bit of second guessing that I think we have to do here. And I'm not sure whether this is fair or not, because I don't know everything about what went on when Dalton Reisner visited,

what their discussion was like, what his price was like. Maybe his price went down because it's a couple weeks into the season and nobody else was calling except for the Vikings. I'm not sure. But it was pretty foreseeable early on in training camp that the guard position was going to be an issue, that the interior offensive line was not in great shape.

And it wasn't a situation where you could throw in the next man up because Blake Brandl has played tackle his whole career. And then they moved him to guard to give them a little bit of depth this offseason. But I mean, that's not a guy who you would say could play the entire season he's somebody you're hoping could fill in a couple times if he had to and Ingram as poor as he was last year they gave themselves no backup plan if things went wrong and I'm assuming it's right guard, if it's left guard, well, the same thing goes. Because Ingram and Cleveland were both in the top five in pressures allowed last year. So you could have made an argument for either side, replacing either guy to get an improvement. I've always felt like if you have one weak link, you can survive it.

If you have two on the offensive line out of five, that's just too many weaknesses and opponents will take advantage. So maybe with Reisner coming in, at least he can shore this up and solidify it a bit and give them maybe only one weakness, although I'm really not sure about the status of Christian Derrissaw, not sure about the status of Garrett Bradbury, and injuries are going to be an issue. But Reisner would appear, based on his history with the Denver Broncos,

to be a very large improvement. I mean, he gave up essentially half the pressures of the two guards last year for the Minnesota Vikings. So this is the time they, I don't know how quickly he's going to get in. If he's going to play right away. I don't know if he has a team issued iPad that they gave him weeks ago, and he's been studying the film and the playbook and is ready to go, or if it's going to take a little bit longer, but the sooner, the better for Dalton Reisner to get in the game. It's been a failed experiment running the offensive line back the way that it was. And there's been lots of questions about it through the offseason. And my response has always been, well, where was that cap space coming from?

Where were you taking away from to add to the offensive line? But I also think, and I hope I wasn't dismissive of that question because I also think that there was an opportunity and they didn't take it with Reisner earlier this year. And maybe they had to wait on restructuring O'Neal. I don't know. Some of these things will get answered. Some of them won't. But, you know, I think that it is a fair point for anyone who says, dude, we could have seen this coming, that this was very much foreseeable, even just at the end of last year, that you would need this type of player. And here we are with this team having to scramble to now get Dalton Reisner in after two weeks of very serious struggles on the interior of the offensive line. So maybe this will mean we don't have to talk about it as much the rest of

the way. Maybe, maybe, maybe we'll definitely be talking offensive line play. I'm sure. So there you go. The Vikings have their guard Dalton Reisner. I'm not sure why it took so long and this should be an improvement. The question is, is it going to end up too little too late I mean if they don't beat the Chargers is that too little too late and there should be

some regrets there and will they have any cap space to sign anybody else like if they're in the mood for bringing people in well you know look at the way they played against the run against Philadelphia and after I watched it back I no, Philadelphia is not the only team in the league that's going to be able to do this. They put in two tight ends and they just overwhelmed the Vikings defense, especially in the middle. And that could probably continue to happen. So there are players out there, Akeem Hicks, Linval Joseph. Would either one of those guys want a job? I don't know.

We'll see if there's anything next. So there's the quick sort of instant reaction. Now, we had a really good discussion with Brian Murphy, the typical Monday morning Murph. Let's go to that conversation right now. And, you know, Brian, if it had been Friday morning Murph, it would have been crabby Murph. It would have been tear this team to the ground, light everything on fire,

trade everyone, possibly fire a coach. And then you watch the NFC North play yesterday and you go, well, maybe it's not that bad. How are you doing, Murph? That's why you keep it on Monday. Don't overreact on Friday morning when you can change all kinds of narratives come Monday morning. Yeah, you got to feel pretty good if you're the Vikings. You shouldn't feel pretty good at all at being 0-2, but you should feel a lot less hungover this morning than you would have been on Friday morning. morning considering all three of your NFC North rivals did you a favor yesterday by variously

blowing not showing up or perhaps revealing their true stripes and I'll let you guys all figure out which teams those are the um you know 0 and 2 right now I think ESPN had a stat out the other night I think it's 11 and a half% is the playoff rate for those teams that start 0-2, but I think you alluded to this this morning in your piece, Mr. Collar, that there's 0-2 and then there's 0-2, and right now the Vikings just feel like 0-2, whereas the LA Chargers, who are coming into U.S. Bank Stadium, are much woe-in-two. So you've got a wounded opponent that feels a little bit more desperate with a coach on the hot seat and an excellent quarterback who can't seem to get the rest of his club to play to his level

rolling into town. And, you know, Caroline is never really all that intimidating. So suddenly woe-in-2 does feel like, you know, you can get back to 2-2 and reset here pretty quickly. Yeah, it certainly felt like if Detroit was going to win, if Green Bay was going to win, then you are looking up that mountain a little bit as the Vikings are going, okay, well now you have to make up multiple games

versus two teams in your division, And that hole feels pretty big. But then with both of them botching those games at the end and one and one, it's a one game difference between both of them. And are you ready to just count out Chicago and just be like, okay, that's done. We don't have to talk about Chicago anymore. We can just focus on Detroit and Green Bay as the Vikings actual competitors for this season. I can, I feel like writing off Justin Fields. I don't know about

writing off the Bears quite yet, but I have not seen Justin Fields really take advantage of his opportunity. And this franchise is certainly snakebitten at the quarterback position for 50 plus years. But also, you know, they built this team. They made a commitment to this team, to their quarterback. And he is underachieved badly this year. I mean, and if you look at the coverage and just sort of what the voices are coming out of Chicago, It's, it's the body language, the attitude, there's almost a defeatism, defeatism there that has sort of set in and a malaise. And that,

that is enough to at least if you want to take a buzzsaw right now and shop the NFC North into three teams. I think right now you've got obviously the Vikings at 0-2, but staring up a little bit more confidently than Chicago is. Green Bay had the game in hand in Atlanta yesterday. Jordan Love had the game in his hands if he could have just completed a quarterback sneak that apparently he did not get the call right in on time. Again, a young quarterback, some hiccups there. His coach, Matt LaFleur, tried to jump on that grenade, but Love was having none of it. So he basically admitted, I screwed that up. I didn't get the play called in time.

Green Bay ends up losing a winnable game in Atlanta. The Lions, you know, they got the big, of course, win on Thursday night to start the season. They come home against Seattle, which was going to be a beatable game. You had a packed house. You had a lot of expectations. And then you had Jared Goff with a very ugly pick six that set them up for an overtime loss. The Lions are going to be here for the long haul. I think Green Bay is probably going to be in the mix for a while as well. I think Chicago, if you're not ready to give last rights, you might be calling the priest. Yeah, but I think that with Detroit yesterday, it just looked so much like a Detroit last year game

where their offense was pretty functional. But if they make a mistake on offense, they're going to lose because their defense is just bleeding points to the Seattle Seahawks. And Seattle has a really, really good offense. They have, I think, you know, one of the best receiving duos in the league. Gino Smith looks like a legitimate, solid second tier type of quarterback in the NFL, sort of in that same Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins type of tier, which is a compliment considering his career was as a backup. But I think it's legit that he on a weekly basis can put up big numbers still though, the whole thing with Detroit, part of the discussion of can they be better? Can they be that much better this year

was how much better can their defense be? And their defense was not better yesterday. And it is just one game versus them playing well against Kansas City. But Kansas City was missing Travis Kelsey in that game. It's like, I'm going to need to see a lot more from the Lions defense to believe that they are strong enough to be considered as one of the better teams in the NFC because I think that it's already after two weeks we're seeing that Dallas and the 49ers are in a different tier than everybody else I thought there was a lot of flaws in that Philadelphia team that I wouldn't quite put them to that level and then the next tier down is it could be kind of anyone but you have

your Seattle you have your Detroit like they're very similar teams and the vikings are probably in that tier somewhere in the long haul it really comes down to this week murph because if they beat the chargers then you feel like all right season's back on you can get to two and two pretty quickly you can get to three and three by the time you've played the 49ers all right there you go uh but if they lose this week, then it's over. I don't really buy all those stats of you have this percentage, that percentage, because all 0-2 teams are a different story. But if you get to 0-3, overcoming that is almost impossible. There's only a handful of teams that have done it since the 80s

that have started that bad and gotten to the playoffs. So I feel like the Vikings can be right there with teams like Seattle and Detroit and Green Bay that are in the middle trying to fight for all those spots Atlanta New Orleans they're a tier down but it just it feels weird to say the whole season comes down to this game against the Chargers but it kind of feels that way well absolutely I mean 0-3 is a death knell. And you also have a vulnerable, wounded opponent and a desperate opponent in the Chargers coming into town. You're at home, so you need to redeem yourself from the week one loss to Tampa. Although, you know, Tampa Bay looks a little bit better than maybe we thought we were. Maybe Baker Mayfield has a career.

He certainly has one so far. Anything against the Bears defense, though. Anything against the Bears defense. I don't know. I don't know how much credit to give there. I don't think the Vikings and that, believe me, they're not looking this big picture. They're looking very, they better be narrowly focusing on the problems in their house because,

you know, you can, you can talk about turnovers and yes, seven turnovers in two weeks is, is, can be fatal. I love how coaches and players love to talk about how, well, we can just clean that up. And if we, if we just take care of ball security, that that's something we can handle in house. Yeah, I guess it is from a technique standpoint, but you're also vulnerable. Now teams know you're loose with the ball. It's not so much INTs. It's just putting the ball on the ground. And you've got systemic issues on your line. You've got three starters down on the offensive line, which was suspect coming into the season. And that got really ugly really fast. But you also have a defensive front that can't stop the run. Gave up 250 plus yards against Philadelphia on the road.

The turnovers only exacerbated a time of possession battle that was no battle at all. It was Philadelphia had the ball all the time. The Vikings occasionally had it. And these are issues, you know, you go back to the playoff game against the Giants where the Vikings were physically manhandled, both on the defensive and offensive lines. So these are not issues that you can take care of and maybe brush aside as self-inflicted mistakes with penalties we can clean up or turnovers we just got to secure the ball better. I'd like to know how they're going to suddenly become more physical, suddenly become more formidable on the front. I don't see that happening overnight.

So those are issues that could plague them long-term here, and that's going to force both schemes to adjust to that because now you're going to need to get Cousins getting rid of the ball quicker. You're going to need to probably bring down some more people to stop the run, at least until you can prove you can stop the run, which of course we all know opens up the passing game if you're dropping defenders down into the box. So that's as X's and O's as I'm going to get,

probably on a daily or weekly basis as far as football goes. But that's what concerns me more than simply saying, if we can take care of the turnover problem, we're going to take care of a lot of issues. Yeah, that is true. But you also have some, you have injury problems, you have depth issues, and you have questions about how physical you can be. And that's a week-to-week challenge that they're going to have to overcome. All of that being said, though, I don't hear or see sniping.

I don't feel like, it doesn't feel like this is coming off the rails. It feels like these two losses can be viewed in isolation for what they were. You see where the schedule lines up now. It does look like a path to two and two is attainable, which does allow you for a huge reset. And then we talk about, you know, yeah, the Chiefs and the 49ers are coming in, obviously San Francisco's on a different level. You know, I'm not going to dismiss the Chiefs, but the Chiefs have some issues right now as well. They look stronger defensively than they do offensively. So I still don't want to face Patrick Mahomes with the game on the line, but I also don't feel as intimidated perhaps by the Chiefs as I did, you know, as much as 10 days ago.

All of that being said, that game is still a ways off. The Chiefs can write themselves pretty quickly, and that's still going to be a challenge. Bottom line is they can get to 2-2. They obviously have to win Sunday, but they can get to two and two and then you can start re-evaluating you're almost like you get you get a redo on your first two weeks and that's rare in the nfl folks i just got my latest box from grill masters club in the mail and i want to tell you about what's inside grill masters club sent me a pineapple chipotle barbecue sauce, a peach barbecue rub, an all-purpose marinade, and Lane's kunami seasoning. Plus, a nice little spray bottle as well. And the cool part is that it comes with a booklet of instructions on how to get the most out of all of it. I'm set for the rest of the summer and fall for all things backyard barbecue. Go to grillmastersclub.com

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H- BetterHelpHELP.com. Yeah, the odds at 2-2 and 3-3. NFL operations, when they switched to 17 games, put out this huge chart. Like, what are your big picture odds? And of course, it applies differently to every team because you could be a pretty bad two and two team and have some good luck and then you stink or whatever but it's it's still under 50 percent and even if you get to nine and eight this is where it is hard for the Vikings even if you get to nine and eight it's still about a 50 proposition to even make the playoffs so that's the tricky thing about starting oh and two

is that now you have this uphill climb through the whole rest of the season. And what you're going to need is to beat some teams you're not supposed to beat. You mentioned Kansas City. You mentioned San Francisco. You're probably going to need something like that. Yes, you can get back to this 500 dance, but that's where it gets hard is the rest of the season, even to have a 50% chance at the playoffs, they need to go 9-6 the rest of the season, even to have a 50% chance at the playoffs,

they need to go nine and six the rest of the way, which isn't a ton of room for error. And that's why it is Owen tombstone, because then it means you have to be a pretty darn good team. And, you know, you have to win three for every two that you lose the whole rest of the way. And if you've already lost two, that's not the easiest thing to do. But if they can win this week, then you feel like, all right, the things that you're banking on with this team being competitive are there. And I'm not a hundred percent convinced how there they are, but if there was ever a team that can help you get them there, like, so they're talking about how great

the passing game looked. Yes. But at one point you're down 27 to seven. So we've kind of been through that a million times over the years of, Oh, look, they're down 20 points and, Oh,

they had these amazing scoring drives. Good for you. We've gone through that before, but I also look at the chargers and their defense and how poor it is and how bad Brandon Staley's defenses have been since he's arrived there. And I think it's a good enough opponent where you could say they could beat you, but it's also an opportunity for Justin Jefferson to go for 200 yards, Kirk cousins to have the big win here, to have time to throw the ball, to get receivers open, like to, to do the things that they're sort of

saying this is what can carry us despite all of those other weaknesses like this matchup sets up for that yeah it does i mean look at you know cousins what i think he dropped back 44 times the other night now that was as much out of necessity as it was probably planned uh but despite being double teamed despite being being the focus of every defense out there, Justin Jefferson has put up 150 plus yards both times. Jordan Addison looks like he's a playmaker. He's for real. I think people thought that, but he's definitely proven that. In fact, I think you could argue he's rocketing past KJ Osborne as the second, as the 1B to Justin Jefferson's 1A. What I find interesting, and I'll be curious to watch, is this is the first time Kevin O'Connell has really dealt with some adversity, right?

I mean, the boy wonder had 13 wins last season. The Golden Horseshoes reigned on the team all year long. There wasn't a lot where he had to really prove his mettle as a crisis manager. Because let's be honest, part of being an NFL head coach, a lot of being an NFL head coach, is managing crises, either off the field, on the field, in the locker room, self-doubt. You've got 53 players to manage and coaches. Now you're 0-2. Are you going to start doing things that maybe is outside your comfort zone because you feel like you have to overcompensate?

That trickles down from the head coach to the coordinators and to the players. Are the players on the field now thinking, I have to make a play here at this moment because our season is on the line? You almost see a little bit of that in Jefferson trying to outstretch and get that touchdown late in that quarter when he fumbles over the pylon. I don't necessarily view that as a desperation play. I look at it as a superstar trying to make a play. How many more times are non-superstars going to try to do something desperate to make a play and that's going to expose something else on the back end? It bears watching how

O'Connell manages this week in preparation, despite all of the things that broke well for Minnesota yesterday. They're still 0-2. They are still facing a daunting task to get themselves together and make the playoffs. So how is he going to handle the scrutiny? How is he going to handle the temptation to tear things up and try something different? How is he going to handle if, you know, players do start moving outside their comfort zones during games and trying to make things happen? How's he going to manage that? If they fall behind on Sunday, what's the crowd reaction going to be? How is he going to allow that to dictate some of his decision making? Most NFL coaches will tell you, no, I crowd reaction going to be? How is he going to allow that to dictate some of his decision-making?

Most NFL coaches will tell you, no, I'm never going to let the crowd or outside or external pressures dictate that. But they're all human beings, and they all feel what we all feel in the building at the time. So these are things that O'Connell really hasn't had to deal with. But right now he's on a three-game losing streak, and his team has not looked good in those three losses. So I'm going to be curious to see how he reacts. I'm going to

be curious to see how Jefferson reacts and how the rest of the club reacts to trying to do, are they going to stay the course? Are they going to try something different? Are they going to be more aggressive? And if they are more aggressive, in what areas are they going to be more aggressive? And what's that going to mean, maybe as far as unintended consequences? Because, oh, by the way, you know, the Chargers may seem like an underdog, but they're also a desperate team. And they've got a head coach who's probably now on the hot seat coaching for his job. What are they going to pull out? And oh, by the way, Justin Herbert is still an elite quarterback who can tear you apart at a moment's notice. So a lot of interesting things going in. If these clubs were one and one or two and oh, I wouldn't be looking at the same things I'm going to be looking for

in the preparation and the execution of on Sunday, which is how are the Vikings going to handle any signs of adversity early and how are they going to basically prepare any differently than they have the last couple of weeks with Kevin O'Connell I'm curious what you think of the message and just the way that he's handled this oh and two because he is focused in his comments to us really strongly on the turnovers. And he's talked about how they're going to, I don't know, practice high and tight or something this week, which I don't, I'm not sure that there's really much more you can do to practice it. A lot of them were weird. Like you have to give the Brandon Powell,

you have to give credit to the guy on the Eagles who just made an unbelievable play. I mean, Justin Jefferson 10 out of 10 times, he's going to reach that ball out and try to score. I mean, Justin Jefferson, 10 out of 10 times, he's going to reach that ball out and try to score. I promise he is. And even Kirk Cousins kind of made fun of it. Like the other night, he was like, they tell these guys not to reach out,

but your stars do it all over the league. They score on that play. It was just a weird thing that almost never happens. And, you know, I don't know. I don't know if there's like real practice time that should be dedicated to it or that you just have to say that because it sounds like as the coach, you're doing something about these fumbles. I'm not really sure, but he's focused so much on that in his comments and then kind of layered in things about the other stuff, like the running game,

not working and why that is. And some of the offensive line blocking and so forth and the defense versus the running game. He was kind of defending that saying like, well, every team's not Philadelphia. And we were trying to kind of force them to run a lot and see if we could put them in a bad situation, you know, to have Jalen hurts pass. Now, I think that's not a great strategy like asking the Eagles to run they will and they did but I just the overall message has very much been oh we're right there we've got this low point differential which you guys obsessed over last year with the point differential which by the way was predictive of who they were so I don't know what that jab's

about but you understand what I'm saying like Like it's been very much the, well, it's just kind of random events that have cost us. We're a good team. We're going to go forward. And it hasn't been like, we need to clean up this, this, this, and this. And it kind of reminds me a little bit of actually how Mike Zimmer handled that early 2021, where he was defensive of the team. He even came out at one point and gave us a whole speech about all their stats. Well, we're top 10 in this and top 10 in this and top 10 in that.

And we're like, okay, well, you're still all in three or whatever. But, you know, I guess that message of we're going to make it, it's going to be fine. It was just turnovers. And now we're going to go forward. Like, how do you think that he's handled that? I think it's fine, but you can only go to that well once, right? You can only go to the book, but for these random occurrences, but for these strange happenings. Okay, that's fine.

You can make an argument for that. You can make a case for that. But you've been physically manhandled in the trenches for three straight games going back to last January. You're down three starting offensive linemen two weeks into the season. What are you going to, you know, where is that mystery solved? Where does that, you can't necessarily coach aggressiveness and willingness to beat your man at the line. I mean, football in the trenches is a messy, ugly, brutal game. We only see parts of it, you know, in super slow-mo. But these guys live it day to day, both in film and also on the practice field.

They know it really does come down to, like, do I want to, you know, murder my opponent on the other side of the line? And how many more times can I do that than he will? I don't know where you're going to shift that. That's kind of a mental makeup. That's kind of a physical mano-mano battle that you really don't necessarily win in the coaching room. You certainly don't win at the podium.

The turnovers, I think, you know, it's fine. He can point to the fact that, yeah, we can. These are also professional athletes, by the way, that have been taught ball security since, you know, peewee football. So I don't, I don't get this. I don't know if you're going to be able to do much from a practical standpoint. You can dedicate some time this week to ball security and talking about it. But at the end of the day, your opponents, every opponent knows where their opponent's weaknesses are in terms of handling the football. The Vikings are vulnerable right now and they are a target. And you know, the Chargers

defense is, is going to be having tackling drills where it's like one hand on the ball, one hand on the player, get to the ball, get to the ball, both special teams and taking on their offense. So I, I, I, he's saying the right things, but you can only do that so much because he said all that after the Tampa loss, and then four days later you committed four more turnovers. So that is not something that's going to fly much longer. What I'm going to be more curious about is if he adjusts anything schematically or personnel-wise that will address physical, getting out physical, getting out

performed in the running game on both sides of the ball? What's he going to do if suddenly those changes that he made during the week maybe don't take immediately? Do you revert back to what you're known for and what you've been practicing during the preseason and leading up to these first two games? And then if you're a player, do you wonder like, well, what is our philosophy? Is he panicking on the sidelines? I mean, those are the things that you look for in a young coach handling crises because Bill Belichick has handled, you know, he's 0-2 for the first time in 21 years, but I would trust Bill Belichick has handled you know he's 0-2 for the first time in 21 years but I would trust Bill Belichick handling being 0-2 more than Kevin O'Connell so let's see

let's see what he's going to be like and and is he going to be defensive uh this week answering questions again about all of this are the what's the locker room attitude going to be is it going to be dismissive is it going to be you, acknowledging that we haven't played up to our potential, but for these handful of events, we'd be 2-0? Are they going to be, you know, kind of cavalier about it? Or are they going to take ownership? And are they going to at least acknowledge, you know, you hate to say week threes must win and our season rides on it, but the arithmetic says it is. So are you going to acknowledge that reality without getting swallowed up by the drama of it? Or are you going to be dismissive of it as, you know, outside distractions? Well, you know,

outside distractions can be an internal reality right now. And that's what the Vikings are facing. Yeah. I think with Kevin O'Connell that you hired him to be able to navigate the ship without maybe bombing your own ship and having it sink like Mike Zimmer did a few times. Right. Right. I mean, you're you have him here to be able to be a much more calm voice and a positive voice as well. And I think there is such a thing as being a little bit too on the positive side, but I'm not sure that he's that because it's not like if you ask him, Hey,

what happened to the running game? And he's like, no, it's fine. I don't know what you're looking at. He's not like that. Like, no,

I mean, he's going to give you a breakdown of that, which makes me think also inside the room that he is acknowledging the shortcomings that they have that have caused these losses beyond just, you know, what happened with the turnovers. And then there's some element to you. This is your point. You can't go trying to change everything because you lost two games based on turnovers. And it seems that he understands that. So I think that he's handling it fine so far. But I also think of as an NFL season is kind of like survivor where everyone gets to the Island and they're very excited and they want to have fun and make friends and everything else. And by like the fourth week,

they're eating bugs and they've lost 40 pounds and fallen in a fire and they want to go home. So like it can, it can turn into that very fast with NFL head coaches where then they're just losing it. And that's why they put it on TV, for when the people lose it. And that's why we like it with football, is when that happens as well. So that's why this game is so important. But also, I think that it is an interesting test here that they didn't face at all last year because they started 8-1. But since then, they have not been a good football team

since they started 8- one, but since then they have not been a good football team since they started eight and one last year, the sample size is growing of mediocrity or just playing not that great. So you've got to prove at some point that all these positive words are true, or people are going to look around and go, I guess you're just being positive for positive sake. Let me ask you this Murph is a total different question, but the last number of games that I've covered at U.S. Bank Stadium, trying to think back how far, they haven't been that great. So they got down by 30 points to Indianapolis. I know they won, but still, they lost the playoff game. They lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers I am seeing or at least feeling or might be just my perception less intimidation from opponents when they come to U.S. Bank Stadium than before is that is that a real thing am I making that up like you were there for the the first week I think the noise is still there but I wonder if teams have figured out ways to adjust to it and are aware of it where maybe they weren't before it might also just be personnel like we kind of attributed this success of Zimmer's defense in

part to U.S. Bank Stadium when it was really just Everson Griffin uh who deserves even more praise after watching DJ Wanham and Patrick Jones struggle to create pressure but do you think that it's like an intimidating building still in the same way that it felt like when it opened? It's an interesting question because, you know, from a personal standpoint, the game against Tampa, that was the first time I'd been in the press box since the Minneapolis Miracle game, just because I hadn't covered the team on a regular basis since then. And I mean, the Miracle is, you know, will go down as one of the greatest sporting events I've ever seen, moments I've ever seen live. And that was an incredibly loud environment. I'm sure it was loud against the Giants. It sure seemed that way. Didn't really make a difference.

It was pretty loud against Tampa. But crowd noise, you know, you can't create crowd noise. You have to create moments that create crowd noise. momentum, seizing the moment, big plays at big opportunities. Crowds are going to react to how their anxieties are during a game, and Vikings fans are among the most anxious out there. They know there's always an existential dread that sort of hangs on, and you can feel it coming, and they feel it coming. So I think it's important, you know, they were, I think, tied 10 to 10 with Tampa at halftime, but it didn't feel great. It almost felt like they were playing with some house money. The second half was they were nonexexistent. In the fourth quarter,

they were really non-existent. And there really wasn't any energy in that building. I would argue that U.S. Bank Stadium, from an architectural standpoint and a design standpoint, and from a big moment standpoint, is as loud as any building is in the NFL. But that's incumbent upon the Vikings to create those moments because you can't just lean on the crowd and demand the crowd, hey, we need the crowd at your loudest. Hey, we need that. Yeah, well, the crowd's going to react to how you're playing, not because they're told to be loud, even though the scoreboard tells them to be loud and the decibel meter challenges them to be loud. If it's third and eight and you're winning by 14 with five

minutes left, that crowd is going to be loud. If you're trailing by a touchdown with three minutes left and it's third and two and you're backed up into your own territory, that crowd's already dreading the worst in some ways. So it feels almost a little bit artificial. So I would argue that it's incumbent upon the Vikings to create the moments and the opportunities for the crowd to really take the Chargers out of their element and also create an intimidating environment that allows you to be aggressive, that allows you to run around and make plays, that allows you to take advantage of those third and longs. But you got to have those third and longs deep in enemy territory and not past the 50-yard stripe when you're trailing because that's when it gets a little bit, there's more trepidation,

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And that's a really interesting thought because Matt Daniels, special teams coordinator, he mentioned when you go to Philly that you can get the crowd to turn on their own team. And I saw that the other night because they had a couple of possessions that weren't great, and the Philly fans started booing them off the field, which I was like, wow, this is a, this is quite different than anything we usually see. Usually the, I mean, it's at the end of the half. If you're down 21 points, then the Minnesota fans will boo not seven to three and you're

having to punt or something, but they will turn on a different way. That way is the most Minnesota way, which is just being like, no, I'm not cheering. Just like, I'm not going to boo, but I'm not going to cheer.

And they get deflated fairly easily. I think in that building where you're totally right. When it is the big moment, when it's the Packers and you need one stop to win, it's going to be the loudest building in the entire NFL. But if it feels like it's not going their way, you can just feel the crowd being like, oh, not this again.

Oh, we're blowing it. And it's just not the same sort of energy. But I also think, too, that just in the NFL as a whole, when you look across the league, the home advantage has dissipated a bit in the league. And I think that teams figuring out how to deal with the noise with lots of hand signals and adjustments and things like that. And they practice it all week. They know where they're playing. They know what it's going to do to them. And then you have to take advantage of it.

Like they'll give you the noise on the third down and 10. But you've got to use, you know, use that to fool the offense. And I think Zimmer was very good at it, at throwing things at them that forced adjustments along the offensive line. I think Brian Flores should be, and we're going to have to see that though, but then you also have to cover people. So it's kind of, it's very much a chicken and egg type of thing. But I think what we should say is the 2017 defense was really, really good. So maybe it felt like that advantage was bigger than it actually was. Last thing, it has been suggested to me by some fans, and I don't know if I endorse this,

that losing this game would not be the worst thing. I'm not saying fans are cheering for a tank or cheering for a loss. Everybody in the building is going to want their team to win. Everybody, I think everybody on the whole wants their team to win every Sunday, even except for maybe if it could get you Andrew Luck with one loss and the Vikings couldn't pull off that loss, but you get my point. However, if you go to Owen three and then you start kind of peeking over at Saturday football and look at some quarterbacks and you go, I see some. I see some quarterbacks. How would you feel about that notion, Murph, that if this doesn't work out, that it might be better for them in the long run? Yeah, I think pragmatically at 0-3 with a 35-year-old

lame duck quarterback, yeah, that sounds like the philosophy you should take. As a fan, as an organization, boy, that's going to be a hard sell to start laying down with 14 games to play. I don't think Harrison Smith is going to sign on to that kind of philosophy. And I think over the years too, we've, we've both in the NBA, even a little bit in the NHL now too, where, you know, tanking has become almost a cottage industry. And to me, it almost feels like it's almost like the easy way out. It's almost like, it's like I can validate my denial. I don't want to acknowledge the fact that my team is awful and I should demand more out of the current product on the field.

I'm going to fantasize that there's some guy out there playing somewhere, as you said, on Saturday afternoon, who's having a marvelous moment playing against much lesser talent, putting up video game numbers. and if we could only position ourselves to be in a place in April where we can call that guy's name then that's going to make everything so much better and then think of the possibilities with an elite college quarterback name your guy right now in college throwing to Justin Jefferson and throwing to TJ Hawkinson and working with a young Kevin O'Connell. And you can allow yourself on, you know, September 20th to think of how great the off season's going to be when we can just talk about the potential of a number one quarterback.

It's almost like you'd rather win the speculation game than actually win the games that are in front of you. And that I I've just never been somebody that appreciates. Tanking for a number one pick or tanking for a potential franchise savior, because everybody thinks that the next franchise savior is waiting for you in April. A lot of times it can be. but if you're beyond top five, I don't know if it will be. And I don't know if that's the proper way to evaluate yourself and your club as a fan is, well, they may be 0-3 or 1-5 right now, but I'm going to make myself feel a whole lot better by imagining the possibilities of having a new person come in and do all of these great things. I mean, great.

So maybe next year you're, you know, you're six and 11 and you're rebuilding. Is that where you want to be? 0 and 3 is an awful place to be and your season's probably over. But that means I want to demand more from the product that's currently on the field and the money I'm investing in now, not in necessarily the possibility, because you're constantly living in a fantasy land. And maybe in the fantasy football world that we live in and the Vegas-driven world we live in, it's better to live in fantasy land than it is reality. But this Vikings team, you need to demand more from the 2023 Vikings than imagine what could possibly be for the 2024 Vikings, especially still in September. What you just gave there was a beautiful speech.

And if I was teaching public speaking, I'd say, listen, listen to how well Murph expressed this thought and his feelings about tanking. However... However, I'm completely wrong. However. No, you're not completely wrong. Because what I've said since day one is if you call it a competitive rebuild, you can't leave out the competitive part. You just can't.

Because you made moves still to win this year, and that main move is bringing back Kirk Cousins. And if you had no intention to win this year, and that main move is bringing back Kirk Cousins. And if you had no intention of winning this year, then you should have traded Kirk Cousins. Because, man, I look at Atlanta and think if Kirk Cousins was on Atlanta, they would go to the Super Bowl. They have so much freaking talent on that team. And yet you didn't.

You didn't make these moves. At the quarterback position, you didn't draft somebody this year. You didn't start that ball rolling toward the future so you took a now and later approach we cannot just say now doesn't matter now does matter and also looking at the nfc north now matters make the playoffs like look at these teams they're not that special make the playoffs make something happen make you know make the most of the all-world wide receiving core that you have that might be top five, three in the league.

So you can't just throw that away and say it's fine to lose with all of those players. So I'm on board with you there. However, I mean, when you're talking about the draft status and so forth, the worse you are, the better you pick, the higher you pick, the better the player. I mean, it's just the reality, right? So no one thinks Harrison Smith should lay down.

But I think when it comes to the front office, you have to say, should we make the Hawkinson trade or whatever, you know, that they made last year? Should we trade a second round pick for a star to bring in here who's disgruntled or something that's older? No. Like, would you sign Dalton Reisner or some offensive lineman or something in a desperate attempt to win one more game? Like, no.

You're just going to let it play out. You're just going to let it happen would be the thing. Or if someone calls for Kirk and says, we're a Kirk away, could you trade him to us? And you're one in five, then you say yes. And you would be malpractice if you didn't do that. That's what I mean. So that's the thing. Like there's a difference between no players ever said I'm losing this game for our team. And I don't think any coach ever went into a week and said, and this is the Brian Flores lawsuit. And I don't think any coach said, oh yeah,

we're going to lose. because I want that L on my record of course not but is it is it tanking to go one and five and trade Kirk like kinda but also not really because you're just doing the smartest thing at the time so yeah I think but if you're taking the mentality that going oh and three is fine because maybe you can get a better quarterback that I can't agree with like to me you're there's lots of quarterbacks that are going to be in the draft you should be trying to make the playoffs still but if this keeps getting worse then you probably are hoping for losses at some point and that's going to be very very tough it's ugly I've covered it before in hockey Murph

it's ugly it's nasty you don't really want to see it but in the long run I mean look Joe Burrow number one pick to the Bengals Tua what was he fifth overall something like that to Miami Justin Herbert who's become a very good quarterback like these teams went to the bottom and drafted high like that's what you're looking for so anyway this should be very interesting you think they'll win Murph you think they'll pull? I do. I think they're better than they've, they've shown. And I think the chargers are, uh, not a formidable opponent. I think they're going to be a desperate opponent, but I think they're more desperate. I think the Vikings realize the opportunity and the stakes and it's a home game. Uh, I, I believe they'll win because they have to win um but that doesn't necessarily mean they

will yeah we uh one thing i know walking into that stadium is you never know and vikings chargers might just open a black hole in the universe somewhere because these two teams are so bizarre and weird so uh brian murphy we will look forward to your Monday morning Murph column and talking to you next Monday to break it all down as well. Thank you for your time, sir. All right, we'll talk soon.