Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings suffer a crushing loss to Dallas -- who are we blaming?

Episode Date: November 23, 2020

Matthew Coller and intern Paul go right to the pie chart to decide how much of the Vikings' 31-28 loss was on Kirk Cousins, where we would place the other blame. How the Vikings' defensive line struggled to pressure Andy Dalton, why the Vikings aren't allowed to call themselves the "cool kids" of the NFC now and what it all means for the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Grant Wall, and this is American Prodigy, ready to do from Blue Wire Podcast. Hello and welcome to the, wow, they actually lost to the Dallas Cowboys post-game podcast. Matthew Collar here along with intern Paul. Why don't you tell me where you want to start, intern Paul, or I will rant about how the internet is mad at Kirk Cousins for not winning that game and how bizarre that is, even as a general Kirk Cousins critic and analyzer of his contract, watching that football game and coming away with,

boy, that quarterback just not good enough. I don't know how to help you there with that opinion, and I'm sure we'll get into it, but you spin the wheel of different things that went wrong for the Vikings and decide where we're going to stop and talk, Paul. Well, I think that might have to kind of be the story because at one point I wanted to bring out who are we going to blame, maybe assess that, give out a pie chart for something. But I think we won't be able to do that and it probably will come up earlier than maybe asking the question. But Kirk has to come up because I don't think he deserves any blame for the way he played and still he might get some. So does he deserve any of it I don't I don't believe it the way he

played his stat line was fantastic his passer rating was fantastic I was looking at some of the advanced metrics he was one of the best quarterbacks this week if you grade him for the rest of the season he's up there with a ton of really really good players and at no point really during this game until the Cowboys went up did I think the Vikings were actually going to lose this game the offense was just clicking so well and I just thought okay they're playing Andy Dalton something's going to happen at some point they're going to get a pick which they almost did in the end zone they just didn't hold on to it so at no point did I think they were going to lose it then even I had a some a pretty decent amount of confidence when they got

the ball back there with a minute or however much left and then Justin Jefferson drops the ball Adam Thielen drops a hard catchable ball potentially and then the fourth down play is the fourth down play and it's what happened but just Kirk should we be giving Kirk any blame here because I really don't think so if we're going to do somewhat of a pie chart of blame I think I'm giving Kirk Cousins two percent of the a hundred percent of blame and 98 is spread amongst almost everyone else even Justin Jefferson who drops a ball at the very end when they needed him to catch that and run and the thing about Justin Jefferson and that pass even though it is not a spectacular Kirk Cousins throw he hits the wide open man with plenty of room to run for the next 20 yards I mean we're talking about one of the

most explosive wide receivers in the NFL with the ball in his hands and there was room to go and so who knows what happens after that and I think that maybe that's what Justin Jefferson was thinking about and of course I'm not going to say, you know, trade Justin Jefferson or anything, but another example of Cousins being let down, just like he finds Delvin Cook over the middle as they're going down the field toward the end of the first half to potentially get right back in the game

and take the lead, actually, in that situation. And Delvin Cook gets hit hard, and the ball just pops out in the air. And it was almost like everything that could go wrong around Kirk Cousins went wrong, and he just kept putting them on his back and dragging them back into the game, back into leads. They get down after the Tony Pollard touchdown. He brings them back and gives them the lead. He gives them a chance, and I don't know how you could pin a game like this on Cousins unless you turned it on with the one minute left to go.

And the only thing you saw was the very last drive. And you said, that's old Cousins for you, just botching a potential game-winning drive. And look, I understand that there have been many of these throughout his time as a Minnesota Viking where he's got the ball in his hands with a chance to go win it, and they come up short. That was the Rams game in 2018 is kind of what this reminded me of, where they were going back and forth, the defense wasn't

playing very well, and then Cousins gets a shot to go down and tie the game. I think it was in that situation, doesn't come through. This has happened, let's see, Seattle maybe a couple of times. He didn't, of course, get a fourth and one run that he didn't make, which is definitely his fault also. But we tend to look at Cousins and go, well, he's not a winner, and he's a 500 quarterback, and you have validity in saying some of these things. He's not worth the price. All those discussions that we have Monday through Friday. But on this particular Sunday, so you have to separate the big picture

Kirk Cousins problems with this particular Sunday of, let's see, November 22nd in the year 2020 against the Dallas Cowboys and say they did everything to work against him, and he overcame that. He actually moved in the pocket at times. He actually took some hits at times and made plays. They, two different times, put the offense back behind the sticks with goofy penalties. One was a chop block, like they still have chop blocks in the NFL. Another is offensive face masking, which, huh? And so they pulled out all the penalties they could. And both times, Cousins was able to overcome that and continue to drive

down the field. In the first half, I know I'm bouncing all over the place, but in the first half, he throws a perfect drop in the bucket pass to Justin Jefferson, an A-plus accuracy type of throw that you can only make on Madden with guys with 90 accuracy. And the next play is a run. And the next play after that is a run. And then the next play after that is a screen. It's like, are you guys working against Kirk Cousins the last two weeks to try and see if you can put him in every tough situation

and whether he can come through? So he did in almost all of them, but the drop was too much to overcome. to try and see if you can put him in every tough situation and whether he can come through. So he did in almost all of them, but the drop was too much to overcome. And another just real small thing about the game-winning drives, and it's a good, fun discussion of game-winning drives, fourth-quarter comebacks, and all those things. But most of the time, you don't come back in those situations because the other team knows what you're doing. They know that you have to throw the ball. They can just come after you. An offensive line, are you fixed? Not really. And I don't know if Ezra Cleveland is the

difference maker here or not, but Dallas was able to get after Kirk Cousins regularly. This game reminded me a lot of what happened against Tennessee, where Cousins played a good game. There were some opportunities to put the other team away that they didn't come through. But at the same time, when you evaluate the quarterback performance, you have to give them like an A. Even the fumble is,

they didn't block on the fumble where he sacked and loses the ball early in the game. And I also, I mean, yeah, you got to hold on to the ball, but unblocked guys that are a problem. So in this game, I look at it and say, don't use this one. Don't use this one to say, oh, look, say Kirk Cousins got to trade him. There's lots of things you can use for that argument. Not this game. Here's what this game says. If you thought after the last three that you were really close to being a great team, you're not.

That's to me what it says. And you really weren't in Green Bay. They almost beat you despite 50-mile-an-hour winds and Rodgers not having one of his best weapons. Detroit gave you some free interceptions in the end zone, and Chicago was inches away from catching a ball and bringing it in. Eventually, the football gods swing back the other way, and a lot of that happened today. So very little overall blame for this game on Kirk Cousins in my mind, Paul.

Yeah, I think the blame on Kirk Cousins is just kind of a lazy cop-out that people can make if they see that last drive and it seems like Cousins is just gonna be the scapegoat for fans no matter what the outcome or performance because in the Packers and Lions game it was he's not doing enough for the amount of money that he's making and the Bears game he played really well his stats weren't eye-popping so I don't think anyone was rushing to give him all the acclamation after that game. And then this game, if they win, it's all because of him. The defense, time after time, was given a lead and they struggled.

And it was players that we were used to seeing struggle. It's a backup cornerback just explicably not tackling someone it's Harrison Smith diving on a like a short in route instead of going over the top for the Omari Cooper route that burned them I think late in the first half so the the blame can be can go around in a lot of different directions but I think what we've learned about Kirk Cousins time here in Minnesota is it doesn't really matter what the outcome is going to be. It's going to be something revolving around Kirk Cousins and him not doing enough. But the fact is he threw for, what was it, 311 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions. Davin Cook was effective, but not exactly like the sole reason that they won this game at all.

He made a really good throw to Justin Jefferson the touchdown that Justin Jefferson caught another great route by Justin Jefferson um he did pretty much all you can ask for that last drive it wasn't like he stood in the pocket too long and he got sacked and there was someone open like he threw to an open Justin Jefferson he got a few yards on the Delvin Cook pass that he Delvin Cook ran out. Like, I don't know if that's play calling, there just wasn't something open, or just the way it goes sometimes when you leave yourself with a drive to win it with that much time, like the margin of error is so low. And what we've seen about the rest of this team is they're not ready to overcome

such a, like, small margin of error because the special teams was another just bag of, I don't know what to say about that. Call it an adventure. The defense wasn't great. The offensive line, I showed at least either it's as bad as their weakest link, which has been Dakota Dozier, but then also Brett Jones. I don't know how much Ezra Cleveland would have made an impact. The Dallas defensive line is just,

they've got some good players on it, and it just wasn't that great. But Cousins managed that really, really well. Like, he only had eight incompletions. He had the fumble, but I don't really, that was a weird play. I don't know if I really blame him for that. But he also got hit helmet to helmet, and they didn't call it, which is crazy because we've seen so many weaker calls get made.

And this was just one of those things of going against them. I'm sorry to cut you off there, but let me just make this point that if you want to work off of this game to get yourself out of Kirk cousins, like if that's your goal as a fan is to tweet enough times where the Vikings say, you know what? You're right. We're getting rid of Kirk Cousins. Your argument is not that he didn't drive for the game-winning

score because he made a good play to Justin Jefferson. If he runs for another 15 yards, who knows how that thing plays out? Maybe we're talking about Dan Bailey revenge game, field goal or a touchdown. Who knows, right? And even even then just like putting it all on one drive is pretty harsh if you go throw for throw he's really good in this game i bet i bet by pff he's going to get a 90 great like he was very very good i don't remember one ball that looked like the other team could pick it off or anything like that just several spectacular throws if you're going to be making that argument it's look at how many problems you have on this roster that you still need to fix. That the last three games did not prove that you were good on the offensive line, that you were good on the defensive line.

I mean, the defensive line, they don't have a single player who is an NFL starter. The closest thing is Shamar Stephan, who's more of a really good rotational player. The rest of them, I don't know. Afadi Adenabo, at times, more of a rotational player. Jalen Holmes had some moments, more of a rotational player. Hercules Mata'afa decided after last game he was going to put himself in the Hall of Fame, didn't see him today. So, you know, this is those types of things that happen where you have no pressure on the quarterback because you have four guys who are more of backups or rotational players on the defensive line

because you have cornerbacks that you pick up off the waiver wire, and who knows what the future of that position is even going to be. Jeff Gladney probably works out, but everybody else, I don't know. You've got contract situations with other players that you're going to have to deal with, and here's a guy who is good, but who is taking up a huge amount of your cap space when you have lots of other problems. That's your argument off of today's game, is that you have so many other weaknesses still, projecting even forward with development, so many other weaknesses still, that you can

lose to the Dallas Cowboys, who came in at 2-7 with their backup quarterback. So I think that that is, if you're going to make that case, that's the way you do it. You don't look at his last drive and say, ah, I knew it. You'll never win with him. I mean, especially where it makes it even harder for those people, and I get it, and there have been times where I've said, too, like, wow, Kirk, can you lead one of these? But when he did it in the playoffs against the Saints,

in the most difficult place to play maybe on earth, eh, it's pretty hard to just be like, oh, he can't ever do it. Well, he kind of did it there. So I think he's capable of doing it. But you need Justin Jefferson not to drop the ball. And, you know, I mean, I just think it says a lot about where they're at as a complete team, that there was lots of progress in lots of areas, but that did not fix all of the areas. Yeah, and I would just say as a counter to the Kirk Cousins, like, big contract thing,

obviously it's there, and you're going to be able to make the point that you want. But, like, they still have, two, I don't forget what round Julio Johnson was picked, but they have two mid round defensive tackles that both haven't panned out at all. Fourth round pick Jalen Holmes is a guy you're hoping one of those guys after three years of sitting behind learning from Andre Patterson, those are guys that you're supposed to at least make average starters. It's don't hand out a huge contract to Anthony Barr when he obviously hasn't been worth it you've seen what Eric Wilson's been able to do like not without Anthony Barr there like his contract not a great contract to give out Dalvin Cook not a great contract to give out so yes the Kirk Cousins

contract is at the center of it because it's the most it's the quarterback it's the one everyone looks to he's the most visible person that is making bad plays that you're looking at. But it's not like they could have taken money from other places and put it to where they needed to be. Like Michael Pierce was at this point not a good contract because he's not out there. I don't know how much you can blame him for that. But like Kirk Cousins isn't the only bad contract

that's causing them to not have space elsewhere. So I don't think you can totally put it on Kirk Cousins isn't the only bad contract that's causing them to not have space elsewhere so I don't think you can totally put it on Kirk Cousins because as we saw Andy Dalton played well but not that great at all and so if you're not paying Kirk Cousins who are you paying you're paying a bad quarterback to not do very well and I'm not sure they're in any other situation if they have someone else on a cheaper contract because they're probably not going to be as good. They're not throwing for 314 yards and three touchdowns. They're not elevating this team for how bad they were today. So that would be my comment. I want to remind you to go to SodaStick.com

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SodaStick, original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. So I think that your case, if you want someone else, is that what you could do, and I agree with this, is if you moved on from Kirk in a trade where you did not have to pay out a huge dead cap spot for him, that you could have someone else as your quarterback and give them a lot to work with for an offense and then dedicate the other money to fixing a defense. And that is a totally reasonable philosophy that I think if you looked at today, you might say, yeah, you know what? Adam Thielen made a one-handed catch again. And Justin Jefferson is wide freaking open and he catches everything near him. And, you know, Irv Smith is good.

And don't forget about that either. And Kyle Rudolph, if he's here, is going to catch everything you throw at him so someone else could do in the ballpark of what Cousins did no one was overcoming today except for you know your great quarterbacks even but even like Deshaun Watson who was spectacular today he loses games when his team does stuff like this even quarterbacks that are decidedly better than cousins when there are a bunch of mistakes around you still end up seeing losses so that would be i think your best view at this if you want to move on from cousins which again i think is reasonable and i think it's arguable that a better route would be hey we can get very close to this performance against a horrible dallas defense that is mostly a joke they caused a couple turnovers today on you know good plays by we can get very close to this performance against a horrible Dallas defense.

That is mostly a joke. They caused a couple of turnovers today on, you know, good plays by them, but mostly a joke. They can't cover anyone. So could another quarterback who costs less do the same thing to bad teams and not come through at the very end or maybe come through at the very end.

And then you allocate the other cash toward defensive positions that you need to improve or offensive line positions to not have a journeyman left guard to try and stock up the best offensive line, to have a number three receiver who's not BC Johnson. Gosh, I liked BC Johnson coming into the season after what he did last year, but he's just, he gets a catch and then face masks a dude like what? So that's, that's your case. So, and that's like off the beaten trail of what we're talking about overall with this game, but I'm helping you. If you're arguing with people on

the internet about Kirk Cousins, that's what your case is that a lot of quarterbacks could have done what he did today against Dallas. You need a complete roster to win. And we're seeing around the league, all sorts of teams that really show you, you need a complete roster to win. How about Philadelphia who has a quarterback that was in the MVP conversation a couple of years ago and now throws it to the other team every third play. Like it just, it makes such a big difference um they still showed today that they have the most important part which is the offense which was good aside from some turnovers but like really good and really explosive as always cook is great as usual and justin jefferson's great and adam thielen's great you can be set up really well for the future with that and if you want to

bring in someone else they they'll probably succeed. So ask me other things about the game because this is like one of those things that I kind of get stuck on and go forward. And we, I think, will have plenty of time to talk about the quarterback position going forward here. Yeah. So if we're only assessing 2%, 0% Kirk Cousins, where are we allotting that other percent? Because there were a lot of things that went wrong.

This feels, considering the offense put up the points that it did, it feels pretty obvious where we're going. But just let's hear it. Where is the blame coming from? I just think it really starts with defensive line not being able to put any pressure on Andy Dalton. Now, through his career, I will give Andy Dalton this. He is an NFL quarterback. He is not career, I will give Andy Dalton this. He is an NFL quarterback. He is not a joke. He's not a laughingstock. He's not Ben DiNucci. He's not,

oh my God, you lost two blank. This is a guy who has more wins than losses in his career. And one of the things that he's always been sneaky good at, and you can look up the pressure numbers, he's always been good at getting rid of the ball pretty fast, even when he had some bad offensive lines and lost games in Cincinnati. So he did a good job there of not hanging on to the ball, not taking sacks, not getting pressured a whole heck of a lot, a couple times, but not a whole lot. But not being able to pressure him from a defensive line that was starting to get excited about some of the things they did over the last few weeks was a huge failure and allowed him to do whatever the heck they wanted to do. So defensive line deserves, I don't know, adding up to 98% is going to be hard. Let's give Kirk like

5% to make these numbers a little easier on me. Let's go defensive line, like 20% not being able to get after the passer at all. Let's give the corners who got burned a bunch of times and allowed third down conversions and fourth down conversions. And like you said, Chris Jones, who's on the team and is a player for the Vikings, deciding I am absolutely not tackling Tony Pollard. Is that Derrick Henry there that was running by him? Is this Jerome Bettis or Tony Dorsett running by Chris Jones? This is Tony Pollard, my man.

Like, please, what are you doing? That is intern Paul playing corner, and they're like, go tackle that NFL running back. You're like, no, I don't think I will. On that particular play, so I've seen this one a number of times by lots of teams, the blocking scheme on that one, you have the wide receiver go out and block the safety. And your hope is that your corner is kind of left one-on-one with the running back. It's like a favorable matchup.

Now, when the Vikings had Trey Waynes, he would just tackle that guy. It would be a five-yard game, and then you just move on with your life. It's not that great of a play. But Chris Jones, my gosh. And so the corners, they get their 20% too. Jeff Gladney, I know, was in not horrible position against C.D. Lamb when he caught the touchdown, but he also wasn't in good position either.

How about Amari Cooper getting a fourth and six? So once again, the coverage unit sort of reminds us, oh, yeah, they've got some problems when it's not Nick Foles and the Chicago offense coming at them. So now we're at, what, 45%? Let's see. I mean, coaching probably deserves a nice little 15% to 25%. Let's go 25% coaching. Get these special teams together.

And that means taking K.J. Osborne off of the football field. I know that that didn't hurt them, but immediately it was like jarring. Like, what just happened? And then C.D. cd lamb i think was punt returning just dodges a dude easily goes up the field for 20 something yards special teams was bad i still put that on coaching run run screen pass after a 27 yard pass by cousins to jefferson i put that on coaching with not being more aggressive against one of the league's most embarrassing past defenses

in Dallas who doesn't even have their top draft pick corner because he's out so coaching deserves a nice little 25 percent where am I at with that let's see uh do I got about I got lost I see why this is so hard for Courtney to do now let's see I have five five on Cousins, 25 to the corners, 25 to the D linemen. So that's 55%. 25 to coaching. 25 more to coaching. So I'm up to 80. Where do I put – how about just like the football gods and bad luck for the rest of it?

Because, I mean, chop block. There were calls. There were flags. There were calls, there were flags, there were not flags, and Harrison Smith making a regular old football play and then getting flagged for it, but the other guy who caused the Delvin Cook fumble hitting a defenseless receiver real hard with his body. I'll go with that too.

I'll give just general bad luck 20%. But to me, that's just the luck that they had go their way for the last couple of games. So I don't know. You think that's fair? Sorry, that was messy. No, yeah, no, that's good. And on that final point, it's the bad luck now eliminates them from a meaningful playoff conversation. I mean, they're still in it.

They would have to really run the table, but it's the hole they put themselves in. And they, they, when they started one in five, they allowed themselves to not have, they couldn't have a loss cause 20% of it be caused by bad luck because they put themselves in a hole where that was going to be insurmountable. So now I kind of want to transition to that because they're in a really weird spot now they're four and six they are two games behind the Cardinals had they won their one game behind the Cardinals and from all the different tiebreakers I was looking up they were going to own a lot of them against the Cardinals they had some easy opponents coming up theoretically now we see that no no opponent's going to be. I think we probably knew that before this game,

but it just was reinforced after this game. But now there are two back of the Cardinals. There are one back of Chicago. There's a chance that there's eight playoff teams if the NFL can't keep COVID under wraps, which is looking like it could be a real possibility just the way America is handling COVID. So I wouldn't be shocked if there's eight

playoff teams. I'm not going to rely on that, nor would I want that. But there's a realistic possibility that there's eight playoff teams, in which case the Vikings are very much still in it because Chicago has that right now. And I don't think we expect Chicago to be moving up anytime soon. But they're also just a game out of the worst place in the NFC. The worst team in the NFC is three and seven or something like that. So they're, they're very close to that too. So where do we, where do they go? Where should fans want them to go? I know where the team is going to try to go. They're going to try to win because they still have a mathematical shot at

this and they still have a halfway like realistic potential shot at it but how do how do we approach going forward because they're if they win they're squarely in we're pushing for the playoffs we have a really good shot now it's i don't know where we go is carolina a win we can even semi count on is jacksonville even at this point like I it's it's all up in the air I don't think many people expected this to be where we're at after after like we what we've seen the last two weeks right you expected to be facing Carolina and feeling like this is a huge game get yourself back in it you expected to be uh tonight as we record this rooting against the rams and watching other teams and saying i hope this team loses i hope that team loses and now

you're well a couple of wins away from having this conversation again at any point i mean you need to beat carolina and then you need to beat jacksonville which is likely because they're so bad but also they're going to get Gardner Minshew back eventually and have at least a fighting chance against you. I mean, if Dallas at 2-7 can beat you, and so can Atlanta with no wins, there is no one you should look at and say, guaranteed win. And I needed to see them win this game to say, okay, now they're going to start really stringing these

together. And now, hey, bring on Taysom Hill and hey, Tom Brady's not perfect this year and all those types of things. And now we really can't say any of them. You know what it reminds me of is, were you cool? Like, were you one of the cool kids in high school, Paul? I don't know. I want you to explain what you mean by that. I don't think so, but I don't think I was super uncool. I don't know. Okay, that sounds like something that someone who was super uncool would say. So I'm going to just continue with the metaphor. Let's say that there's a group of cool kids in your high school and you want to hang out with those cool kids. So you buy some cool clothes and you try to act cool. You learn their lingo a little bit. You go up to them and you're like, hey, my fellow cool kids, how is it hanging? And they're like, oh, okay. You got some like similar sort of a vibe to us cool kids. Like maybe you can hang out with us. Great. And then you just spill your lunch tray all over your body like a nerd and that

is exactly what the vikings did today like they were hey we're one of the playoffs these were not like them bears those are the losers over there they have a quarterback look at their coach fire them oh lions lol ions i'm saying right and uh so the cool kids, the Tampa Bays, the New Orleans, they're like, oh, take a look at that old Vikings. They seem pretty cool. And then you show the world, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're not one of the cool kids. And that's the way that I look at this team, that as we go down the stretch here, there will be other times where they play well. They might even have an upset against Tampa Bay. But there's going to be more of these.

They just don't have a complete enough team, and they make far too many boneheaded mistakes that they're going to have another loss that we don't expect. They're going to lose to Chicago when they come here. They're going to lose to Detroit in the last week of the season when Matt Patricia has been fired. It is now a guarantee that there's another stinker that's on the way that will sort of reveal them for what they've always been,

which is not a great team, a team with a lot of very, very good players, but with so many holes that they can't really be in that race. So that's kind of the way that's like the, a long way of getting to that's how I see them now is more in the mix of the teams that are looking up saying yeah we'd love to be there and it's probably next year that we're there but right now we don't really belong in that conversation so that's the weirdest way I could possibly

describe that yeah I appreciate you coming at my high school life and bringing me back to those days. But I think the Vikings just, they don't give me many signs that they could be a good team and that they're just getting unlucky with the way that things are going. Like if they had a good special teams, I think that's a sign of a well-coached team, a team that's kind of got their stuff together. If they're not making bonehead in the States, if they're taking advantage of field position swings, if they're manufacturing those field position swings even if it's okay we got downed at the two yard line we're going to bring it back to maybe the 35 and then we punt and we it's not going to be glamorous but we just reverse field position really quickly they're not

tackling guys and they're not like sound in that like that's another big sign of if you're a good team if they were tackling guys if they were making the fundamental plays correctly then i'd say okay maybe they they have the building blocks to get hot and to keep going it's just a couple of these things but when it's the when it's those things that are holding you back when it's the tackling when it's the special teams things those are the things that it's just like okay okay, you're a young, inexperienced team that's just struggling with the basics of football. And when you're put under pressure to we need to win, otherwise this could be the last game

that meaningfully keeps us in the playoffs, that's when you're going to break. Those are the things that are going to break because those are the things you need if you're going to climb out of this hole. And they're just not there yet the corners aren't there yet they're not allowing as many big plays but they're still allowing coverage like mishaps that have cost them they're not tackling guys well the special teams is trying to make a good play but then they don't get Chris Boyd isn't set so then it's revoked and then he gets a blocking in the back on a punt return like those are things that teams don't do if they're good and so I don't

think the Vikings can say that they're good at all they barely escaped the Bears they lost to the Cowboys and even if they had won they would have barely escaped the Cowboys, and even if they had won, they would have barely escaped the Cowboys. The Lions are a mess, so that win was never going to look as good as maybe it felt right afterwards. Green Bay is just going to do weird things where they almost lose to the Jaguars and then are up to the Colts and then let the Colts come back in only to have a miraculous Aaron Rodgers drive and then lose it again in overtime. Like, that's who you're dealing with in the Packers. So, I don't know. They're definitely not one of the cool kids. They're stocking up on the clothes.

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That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. And the thing is that they could still have a growth spurt and be in position to be one of the cool guys. I'm still waiting for my growth spurt. Yes, you are. Although you had a girlfriend in high school, so you were ahead of me in terms of high school and where you stood. I'll tell you where I stood versus the cool kids. I won a chess championship in high school. So that is the best way that I could ever put it to you.

And I was on the table tennis team. So we're there. There you go. There we go. That's why the NFL players play in the NFL, and we talk about it, I guess, because we were not the coolest kids. Anyway, so I guess I was thinking just as you were talking there about how it is remarkable, though, that the coolest kids are kind of like the cool kids from my high school when like in relative terms not even that cool like not cool like out in the whole world cool just in their own little town that's the

NFC like the AFC okay they got Kansas City and Pittsburgh those are the real good teams but I mean take some hills starting the game and you know I don't trust Tampa Bay to be great and like you said about Green Bay they they're up and down. That the thing that the Vikings will look back at this year and say and have regrets is that they were on the doorstep so many times. Somebody tweeted me, Daniel, I appreciate tweeting me, that they have lost three games where they were leading at the two minute warning in the fourth quarter. I mean, that's amazing. But after one, you go, Stephen Gostkowski hits a bunch of field goals, bad luck.

After two, maybe you go, well, Russell Wilson had to pull a rabbit out of a hat. After three, it's a feature, not a bug. Like, this is who you are. You are a team that can't protect a late lead, who just does not have the people to be in that conversation for being a legit playoff team. I would also say that the door is still open, like you said, to get back in this race and the season is not over. I think it just says to us that if you go into a game very confident you're

going to win because the opponent is bad, you should look at a puddle and see yourself because you're also very flawed as a team. And I think that that's what we got out of today. Also, let me just say this before we wrap up here, Paul, it's been great.

Let me say this. Matt, Patricia, how's that working out? How's that working? How's that good? Is that going? Okay.

20 to nothing loss to my guy pj walker from the xfl you are all welcome for my xfl scouting and letting you know that pj walker is the man uh but this has to be it right i mean somebody asked me if if they could have another matt patricia rant and i feel like i've overdone it already but just why he had a job to begin this season will always baffle me after his performance the first two years and just being despised by almost everyone and completely clueless and then to be shut out by one of the worst defenses in the NFL in Carolina truly astounding congratulations Matt Patricia on being one of the worst coaches i've ever seen and so maybe we can end it that way yeah and and and if you're one of the vikings fans who is now fully on or is back to the school searching and is on the full-on tank another thing you can do in your

free time is root for the detroit lions and root for the chicago bears because i don't know if the bear if matt pat Patricia is beyond saving, but if Matt Nagy goes on a little bit of a win streak, maybe we get a Dan Quinn situation. You just never know. So if you are one of the fans that has given up. Root for them to stick around. I agree.

Yeah, if you've given up on the Vikings making the playoffs, you can root for the Vikings to lose, and you can root for those NFC North teams to win so they can stay mediocre to bad and hope that you can recover in time to capitalize on it. What a weird spot for everyone to be in. I mean everyone with the Vikings, their owners, their fans, us, because a game like this happens and we go okay well that was sort of fun for a couple of weeks to talk about a miraculous turnaround and so forth.

But they're also not going to lose the rest of the way. And we're not going to be talking about which quarterback you're drafting with the third overall pick or something. I mean, we're going to be talking about the most difficult position in sports probably, which is like 6-10, 7-9. to seven and nine so yeah um this this win is a real swing in that very weird awkward zone of like what comes next with this team um yeah and how to feel about this season yeah and something interesting is there's 12 teams that have three or four wins so like over a third of the league is kind of right where the vikings are on are we going for the playoffs are we tanking for a quarterback because most of those bad teams are kind of in that dilemma Denver New England the Vikings Detroit San Francisco Carolina the Giants Washington Dallas Atlanta they're all

in the same spot so these next seven weeks are for at the very least going to be very interesting because not all these teams are going to end up where they are right now. Some are going to absolutely fall to the bottom. Some are probably going to make a weird playoff run. And some, probably the Vikings, are going to end up 7-9. And we'll just have to see where it all plays out because there is a lot of uncertainty about just there aren't seven, one, and eight teams. They're all clustered together.

So something's going to happen here. I love that you hesitated on were you cool in high school and then revealed you were on the table tennis team. A, A. There was only – it was a big thing, big thing. Like 50 people tried out. Like eight people made it. So I don't know. 50 very cool people.

Very cool. All of the people that got cut by the basketball team because they were too short, like me. You're a cool kid to me, Paul. That's what you are. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you for your time.

And people can help me on Twitter, I guess, figure out what direction we're supposed to go with this from here. Like, do you still want to hear playoff talk? Do you want to have skull searching? Like, what would you like? I can do anything for you. So we'll catch you next time, Paul. Thanks for your time. Yep.