Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings survive 3 Darnold INTs vs Jaguars

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press break down how the Vikings got away with Sam Darnold's messy day in Jacksonville Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. The Vikings beat the Jacksonville Jaguars version here from Jacksonville and I have nothing more to say about it. That's it, they got the win and let's not talk about anything else because it is going to be a rough ride talking our way through the Vikings victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. 12-7 the final score. One of the most dominant performances that the Vikings have ever put on in terms of yardage differential and possession differential that we have seen. They controlled the ball all day. They ran the football. They threw it to TJ Hawkinson endlessly and on defense one of the premier games that Brian Flores's unit has put on it reminded me very much of last year against the

Raiders in Las Vegas the way that Mac Jones and the Jacksonville offense outside of one drive never really came remotely close to scoring again and even when they got a good break because Blake Cashman committed a face masking penalty, which apparently you can actually call in the NFL, it ended up being still a Mac Jones interception at the end of the game to close it out. And the Vikings are now seven and two. And here we are left with maybe the gnarliest feeling that we have had all season long. And last week was a little bit rough in itself. The fact that the Vikings got booed off the field last week, but in the second half, they came back together. They pretty easily beat the Colts and it was like, okay, well, most things are sort of figured out and onto the next one.

And the expectation coming in was that the Vikings would just annihilate the Jacksonville Jaguars and we would all move on with our lives, but they had to make it a lot, a lot tougher than that. So I am left feeling like, what am I supposed to do with this? The Vikings are seven and two. That is way ahead of the record that we would have expected from the Vikings at this point in the year. When we were going into the season, I think this was one of the games that we would have been talking about. Hey, this will help them get back into the season after a tough start, but instead five and oh, two straight wins. You could make an argument. Well, seven and two is seven and two. You are what your

record is and onto the next one against another team that isn't very good. And when you look at the possession and yardage over the last two games against two bad teams, it's been completely dominant for the Minnesota Vikings. The defense is back. The offense is moving the ball in a world where Sam Darnold doesn't throw those picks. And trust me, we will go into all of it in a world where Darnold doesn't throw those picks and they even get field goals down in the red zone. We would have been shrugging our shoulders and going, oh, well, a pretty good win. Move on with our lives. But those three turnovers leave such a bad taste in your mouth because it isn't something new for sam darnold in fact i have now counted up six times

that sam darnold has thrown an interception inside the 25 yard line and is that going to continue to be a trend with darnold throughout his history as a quarterback that has very much been the trend for him not necessarily red zone interceptions but just interceptions and big mistakes in general and then we saw that more today I think the overall feeling from most walking out of the game and let me know in the comments Dave Mizutani from the Pioneer Press will eventually join us here on the show he went down to the locker room because of my flight. I'm on a little bit earlier than usual, but I got to get back to the airport. So I'm starting solo here.

So I'm going to need your questions, your comments after this one. And help me out for how I'm supposed to feel about this. Because sometimes in the NFL, you have to win ugly. There's no way around it. The Kansas city chiefs are undefeated and they probably have seven of their wins have come ugly, including today where they had to block a field goal to win against the Denver Broncos in Kansas city. I'm sure they're saying, well, it's ugly, but Hey, we're winning. What's the difference. But when we start to pick apart everything that happened here today with Sam Darnold, he looked a little bit antsy at the beginning of the game.

And you could kind of tell something is not 100% right in terms of how comfortable he was feeling in the pocket, feeling with what he was seeing. And the answer to that was to move the ball by getting it to TJ Hawkinson. And he was very good at that over and over again, first downs, long drives, running the football effectively, all the things that we asked for. And that's why it's so hard to talk about because everything that they did on offense, aside from inside the 25 yard line, was exactly what you would have said that Kevin O'Connell needed to do a couple of weeks ago when the offense maybe was struggling to stay on the field they were talking about how they hadn't had many plays well they had a lot of

plays today and they had a lot of first downs today and it wasn't so much an explosive offense but that slow churn offense that I had been asking them to have. And yet they get down into the red zone and three different times, very, very bad decisions by Sam Darnold. Now, one of the interceptions was very questionable in terms of the referees. Now the ball should never be there, but how it was not overturned when it looked like you could slow it down and see on the video that the ball was on the ground and never really truly secured. And my understanding is I obviously didn't see it because I'm here, but that the broadcast and Dean Blandino also talked about how it looked like the ball was still moving.

So once again, we play the what exactly are the rules type of game with this team. But as far as Darnold's performance, it was the Darnold's performance that everybody was afraid of for a long time here, that he had thrown a couple of interceptions. And last week, he throws two bad ones, just ill-advised. What are you doing type of interceptions. And then today comes out and throws three more of those, but at the worst possible times that ruined long drives. One of the drives took 10 minutes only to end on an interception. Uh, but at the rest of the game, he was able to scramble for first downs. He was able to throw underneath to TJ Hawkinson and they ran the football effectively with two and even Ty

Chandler got in the game, different running backs after Aaron Jones got banged up and they end with 400 yards of offense. It's hard to ask them to do anything else in terms of how they performed on a play-to-play basis, except for the quarterback at the end, not coming through. So a lot of you, of course, are reacting to Darnold's performance as in this guy should have been pulled or they should go look for someone else, which is insane. Of course, they can't do that at this point. And they certainly cannot pull him for Nick Mullins, who, if you remember throws four interceptions every single time he plays, this is the roller coaster that we all strapped ourselves into at the beginning of the

season. And think about with a roller coaster, just how it works. So when you're a little kid, you want to, you see it, you want to go on it and you're like, Oh, this looks like it's going to be really fun. Kind of crazy. Right? And so your parents say to you now it's a little scary. We're just warning you. And then when you get to the top and you get to go down on that dip, you start freaking out because it's not, it's just, it's not exciting. It's scary. That's how I feel like the experience is with Sam Darnold, where we all say, you know what? This is going to be a roller coaster with him. Look at his past career. Look at what he's been. Look at the interceptions, the sacks. We know how it's going to go. There are going to be days where he frustrates the heck out of you and you go, what are you doing? And you

can't explain it at all when he's five at O and he's got some passes that should have been picked off that aren't caught. Everyone says, ah, don't, don't look at those. Don't worry about those. And then now that you've hit the downswing of the roller coaster, it is pretty terrifying and, and pretty frustrating. And I think that that's how it's going to be with Sam Darnold. And there really isn't anything they could do about it. Now, that doesn't mean that Kevin O'Connell called the perfect game here today. I certainly had, once again, some critiques over a trick play. Kevin O'Connell getting one for one last week in trick plays, maybe a little bit too much confidence there and comes into this one with

a chance to put the dagger in the Jaguars late in the game, decides to run a double reverse that goes backward for seven yards. And then even with third and one late in the game, this man refuses to run the ball on short yardage. I don't know why. I thought maybe Cam Akers would help out a little bit with that, being the tough running back that he is, but instead tries to run a play action. Sam Darnold gets sacked for a big loss. And there were times where O'Connell could have been less aggressive. There were also times where I don't even think he was supposed to be that aggressive and decided to fire the ball into traffic. I mean, sometimes with Darnold, I think the real Achilles heel is it's not when he can throw on time and he sees things that aren't there or sees or doesn't have the footwork or the setup to be able to make the throw that he's looking for. Because a couple of the decisions,

if the throw was okay, it wouldn't have been that bad. So the one that he threw in front of Justin Jefferson, if he throws it up over the top of Jefferson and it's either Jefferson in the back of the end zone or nobody, then it's a fine play. But instead, he under throws him and it gets picked off. And that's another frustrating part of Darnold's game where he was completing a pretty high amount of his passes again for the second straight week. And yet for the second straight week, the ones that went bad went super bad and mike i agree with you there's too many late decisions and he just feels like he is not okay with a check down that or maybe there's not as many check down options as uh the vikings should have i don't know but there was one of the interceptions where Aaron

Jones and there were three, so I don't remember which one, but I think it might've been the Jefferson one where Aaron Jones is coming underneath on a check down and Darnold just decides he's not going to throw that or doesn't see it or doesn't think of it as an option where I feel like the best quarterbacks in the NFL understand when to use that fourth and eight might not be the best time to use it. But there are a lot of times during a game where checking down underneath is, is there. And Sam Darnold does not do it as often as I think a lot of the best quarterbacks. he also just doesn't seem to have a great sense of if we just get a field goal here, it's fine. Darnold going for broke, firing the ball into

the end zone on all of these plays. And it's kind of like last week where he's rolling to his left. He's got nothing there. And he says, no, I have to throw for this touchdown. And with the way the defense was playing today, it was game manage this and you'll be fine. Get field goals and you'll be fine. You don't even need touchdowns to win a football game like this, as was well proven by shout out to Parker Romo coming from the XFL last year to the Vikings, making all of his kicks, the long snapper that they just brought in. Really good job by all those guys to figure it out. Wasn't perfect. Wasn't flawless right down the middle. Wasn't flawless snaps, but they did enough to put enough on the board to win this

game as hideously as they did. So I'm going back and forth between, all right, we knew this was going to be a thing at times. We knew that Darnold was going to be frustrating at times, that he would make you want to rip your hair out at times. But overall, they've continued to win games and they're seven and two. And not every game in a great season, no matter what team it is, is always going to be pretty. For the long term, though, there doesn't seem to be any answer whatsoever when it comes to the turnovers and sacks that Sam Darnold takes. The other side of it just has to be really good. And today the other side of it was pretty good. I thought the other side of it was really good against Indianapolis, but it was not good enough.

And the other side, I mean, the running game, which was good today, the play calling, you can't have trick plays go sideways and you can't have those plays where you're taking a sack on third and one where you could just run the ball. You just can't have any hitches in the operation. You can't have a bad defensive performance either because you're probably going to end up with your defense out there multiple times in the game when they shouldn't be because of turnovers. That means, as we saw in the first five games, that the Vikings have to take the ball away from the other team every game in order to continue winning each week. So I know that there is going to be a ton of frustration with Darnold. There's no talk whatsoever, not even begin of talk, of changing the quarterback.

He is going to be the quarterback for the rest of the year. Okay. Like that's not even beginning to be a discussion because it was much crazier with Nick Mullins than it was under Sam Darnold. But at the same time, it does make you wonder if it limits the ceiling of this team. I still don't think that even at seven and two, we were ever talking about them as a, this is a Superbowl favorite. I don't think that even at seven and two, we were ever talking about them as, Hey, this is a Super Bowl favorite. I don't think so. But when we look at them on paper, we look at the advanced metrics, the expected points added, which is going to be amazing for the defense for this game.

When we look at the DVOAs, the things like that, one of the big takeaways is going to be that they are matching up with a lot of the other best teams in the league in terms of those advanced metrics, even despite the fact that Sam Darnold is having some of the problems with turnovers that he is. And part of that is the yardage where they just out gained the opponent by so much. I mean, and that's the thing. If I just showed you the box score and I didn't show you how many points they put up, I just showed you the yardage, the time of possession, the rushing, passing, the defense, every part of that, you would have said 27 to three is what they won this game because it looks like total domination. And it really was. They had the football all day long. And TJ Hawkinson was absolutely tremendous.

There's a reason why he's a pro bowler. There's a reason why I thought that once he came back, the offense could have these longer drives and could hold on to the football longer as they did today. And I like that strategy. I like trying to throw underneath to TJ Hawkinson and try to frustrate the opponent and wear down the opponent and be able to run later in the game. I think that it works. And I think it did work in a lot of ways today. That's why it's hard to talk about a game that you get to the end and you go 12 to seven. Huh?

I mean, this might be as silly as a three to nothing last year, except for in that game against the Raiders. They didn't move the ball effectively really at all today. It was just entirely based on those Sam Darnold turnovers. And on the defensive side of the ball, you can't praise the defense enough for today. I mean, they just bailed out Sam Darnold and the offense time and time again. And Mac Jones at the beginning of the game actually looked like he was going to have a decent day.

I mean, he scored a touchdown. He had a big celebration and he was throwing the ball fairly effectively early on, but then it just completely came apart for Mac Jones as the Vikings defense created more pressure against a worn down offensive line. And then the coverages seemed to confuse Mac Jones. They really couldn't run the football very well. Tank Bigsby got hurt early in the game. Travis Etienne had a few plays where he gained some yardage,

but was not consistently running time and time again against the Vikings defense. So they shut down the defensive line. Jonathan Grenard had a couple of great plays in the back field against the run. They were trying to throw swing passes, run bootlegs. They were trying just about everything with Mac Jones and the Vikings defense gave up absolutely nothing outside of that one touchdown drive. And we kind of said going into this section of games, Flacco, Mac Jones, we didn't see coming. They probably lose if it's Trevor Lawrence, by the way. So that might be one thing to think about is that honestly, that might be something

that they got away with here, having Mac Jones, but he struggled so much. Once the Vikings started throwing pressures at him, Ivan Pace got to him, Blake Cashman got to him. Their blitzers were getting in because the Jaguars were not able to pick up those blitzes. The coverage, Byron Murphy, again, coming through with a big interception. At times, we have talked about Byron Murphy as someone who's been frustrating. Cam Bynum continues to prove that he's a guy that the Vikings should extend and want to keep here.

And then he did the Olympic breakdancer celebration, which I don't know if you guys saw on television, was pretty darn impressive to pull that one out and do the entire thing when it came to the end zone. So the defense just made play after play, splash play, shutting down runs. And if you are a great defense, then you should have a day like this against Mac Jones and give your team an opportunity to win ugly. Now, I think that's another part of it too, is over a season, we're going to get a myriad of different performances from someone like Sam Darnold. Early in the year, Darnold was

unbelievable. He was hitting everything. He's hitting deep shots. He's playing on time. He's not getting pressure too often. And there have been adjustments, I think by other teams. One of those adjustments is that everybody knows that Kevin O'Connell will never pass or will never run the ball on third down and short. And they seem to be blowing up some of these passes. There was bound to be adjustments to Sam Darnold. And I think that's part of it, but I also think some of it is just who he is and who he's always going to be. And when a guy like this plays for another team and not your team, you always think it's great. Like people like watching Jameis Winston, because you never know if he's going to throw five touchdowns or five interceptions. Like, oh, it's a wild ride. It's fun.

When it's somebody else's wild ride, you can enjoy it when it's your own. It can be incredibly frustrating. I've always thought overall that as long as the Vikings got 10 to 12 good games from Sam Darnold, that they had a good enough defense and weapons to make up for it and still make the playoffs. But now, I mean, overall, what have they gotten? Four good games out of, no, maybe six. Six good games, and they found a way to win two of the bad games against the Jets and now against the Jaguars. Those aren't great teams, but they're finding some ways to win those games.

Let's see. Betwixt comes in with the super chat. Thank you, Betwixt. Really appreciate that. Just a reminder, for nine games, we have four rushing touchdowns with Aaron Jones. This is coaching 50%, Darnold 50%. Yeah, no, I don't think so, Betwixt. I would not put that percentage on the interceptions.

I think that the interceptions were 95% when it came to Sam Darnold today. Those decisions were just awful. And at times there were people open and he didn't throw the ball to them in the red zone. Sometimes it seemed like he panicked and just tried to fire it into a tight window. When he sits in the pocket, one, two, three, four, it seems like the longer he sits there, the worse the decisions get. Because then he starts to see things what

they call flash. And when he sees things flash, that's when he tries to fit it into a window or throw when he doesn't have the real platform. Because when Darnold has a good platform, he's the best thrower or one of the best throwers in the entire league of just set the feet, throw on time. But when he has to just quick flash, pull the trigger, I don't think he's that accurate all the time. And we certainly saw that today. It wasn't even so much of the decisions, but the accuracy. I think when it comes to play calling, that's a difficult thing because I have my criticisms, which you guys have heard numerous times throughout the year. I also watched O'Connell's play calling lead to them holding the football for 40 minutes in this

football game. I mean, there are times where you just think, Kevin, could you understand who your quarterback is? I think that may be what you're getting at. Kevin, understand who your quarterback is. You've got the ball. You are in field goal position against a team that can't move against you. Just hand it off. Just run something simple. And instead, it ends up, here's Sam Darnold trying to fire it into the end zone.

And sometimes it just maybe needs a reminder to Sam Darnold that he is not playing for the New York Jets anymore. He doesn't need to try to win the game himself. But I also feel like we've reached the point where there's no telling Sam Darnold anything. This is just who he's going to be. And you have to work around it. And sometimes working around it means that he's going to be. And you have to work around it. And sometimes working around it means that he's going to win a game for you. He's going to put up huge numbers and be super efficient and hit deep shots down the field. But other times he's

going to throw these interceptions. I think that the way defenses are playing them, they've always tried to put a cap on the offense. They've always tried to play deep over the top to try to slow down Jefferson, but especially these last two weeks, the Colts and the Jaguars really did that. And they did it pretty well. They didn't allow anything deep. There was another interception that was brought back by a flag where he tried to throw the ball deep to Jordan Addison, and that didn't work out and it was picked off, but that play didn't count. But how many throws went deep down the field today?

There was one that was an overthrow to Josh Oliver. Aside from that, there has not been too many of those throws over the last couple of weeks that have been those bombs that we saw early on. So instead he was working it underneath and I think doing a good job of it for the most part, playing off of the run, throwing to Josh Oliver a few times, getting the ball to the tight end. It still remains an issue that he can't find Jordan Addison, but Addison made a great catch on, on a out route that was maybe 10, 15 yards down the field. That's where this is so frustrating.

There's a lot of plays that I could think of in this game that were well-designed or Sam Darnold did a good job. His scrambles played a big role in this game. And then he just lost his marbles when they got inside the 25 yard line. And that has happened repeatedly. But to your point, Betwixt, I do feel like in the red zone that the running game in the red zone is something that they have not quite figured out. And I don't think that a Kevin O'Connell offense will ever figure it out. He wants to throw for touchdowns. And I think it was Dane Mizutani earlier this year who said that they're asking, or maybe it was Andrew Kramer on the show. They're just asking Darnold

to do it all in the red zone. And eventually that's going to bite you. And that is what happened today. If we take a deep breath though, in, in, in terms of all the freak out of how ugly it looked and how bad it was, the Vikings are seven and two, and let's think about their next two opponents. And I'll start to get to my grades and we'll see if Dane Mizutani can get up here from the locker room in time to pop into the show real quick. So I'll start going through my grades for each position. You could give me yours in the comment section as well, but they're seven and two and their next two opponents are the Tennessee Titans. And if they play like today with the interceptions, they could lose, but the Tennessee Titans and then the Chicago bears, their fans were cheering fire

floos today and they lost to the new England Patriots. Once again, they still have a very good chance to be nine and two. So how far am I supposed to go with saying the coach doesn't know what he's doing? The quarterback is terrible and all that sort of thing. When you have a team that is making an argument for being the best defense in the league. And at least with the tight end back in TJ Hawkinson, they have been on the field and completely, completely dominated the time of possession over the last two weeks. So now they are going into these next two games with a defense that is not worn down anymore.

And it was against the Rams and it was against the Detroit lions, but now it's a fresh defense facing will Levis and a very much struggling Kayla Williams. So am I supposed to say the season is over? Sometimes it does feel like, uh, that is the case. And, uh, you know, be twixt another super chat. And I appreciate you. Anybody who wants to jump in with that is, is uh says uh defense covering for koc and darnold right now only darnold i i just don't agree i just don't think koc called a bad game i think he had some bad calls i think he had some very bad calls the double reverse is just insane i don't know i'm supposed to do about that and i I do, I do agree with you

that they could have run the ball more in the red zone when they had opportunities to get field goals. And he has said, and this is where, this is where I have to with Kevin O'Connell, where we all have to just go. I don't know what to say. He's going to trust Sam Darnold. And sometimes that means interceptions. And sometimes that means 300 yard games where he completes 80% of his passes. That's just how it's going to be. But when you completely steamroll the other team and every facet outside of the red zone, I can't say the coach had no idea what he's doing. They were on the field the whole game on offense. So let's go through it. Let's go through it.

Let's go through the grades. You guys are jumping in already. A lot of obvious ones maybe for the quarterback, for Sam Darnold. Yeah, I think with Sam Darnold that any quarterback, not maybe Mac Jones, could have won this game against the Jaguars today. Any NFL quarterback who could have at very least just thrown underneath to TJ Hawkinson and probably 90% of quarterbacks, even backups, do a better job in this game than Sam Darnold did of trying to get the ball in the end zone when throwing three interceptions. And man, just think about how different this would be if they just kick field goals. There would have been a blowout if they just kicked field goals instead of the interceptions from Sam Darnold. Have you ever tried to explain football to a little kid?

It can be near impossible to make it make sense sometimes. Heck, my football writer friends who have young kids are always talking about their funny efforts to get their kids into the game with them. But there is help. I want to tell you about Future Fans, a new brand that helps little kids become big fans with storybook-led activity boxes. What makes Future Fans unique is that instead of explaining the rules of the sport directly, they embed concepts into parallel games and activities. Everything is introduced through a storybook that guides the entire Future Fans experience. It's genius, and kids pick up on the concepts instantly. As an example, they've created a beanbag toss game

with four tries to teach the downs in football and then that later connects back to the sport itself through a storybook. Imagine your kid asking to watch on Sundays and being right there alongside you for all the ups and downs of Minnesota football. If you want to share your love for football with a little one, your kid, grandkid, niece or nephew, Future Fans is the best gift for a sports fan and their little one this holiday season. It's only $49.99 at futurefans.com. Use the code PURPLE to get 10% off.

Again, that is futurefans.com, code PURPLE, and unlock a lifetime of memories with a kid in your life starting now. Wade says, the game plans have 100% of the points scored by the new kicker and snapper work to perfection. Thank you for the super chat. Wade, my whole point is, and maybe I'm not making it clear enough, that when your team on offense is moving the ball, running the ball really, really well today, great job by Aaron Jones, and TJ Hawkinson, your pro bowler that you paid so much for, is doing great, catching everything and getting first down after first down how can i say when

the quarterback freaks out and loses his mind and throws interceptions that the coach did that uh the only way you could say it would be if you're saying that uh they should have run the ball and i agree and i'm about that i'm about running the ball but i also think that those weren't passes that were some of them weren't even into traffic. The guys were open. It was just bad throws by Sam Darnold. Uh, B twig says, can't both things be true. KOC has done great overall, but it's play calling on third down in the red zone will bite us in the playoffs. Well, I don't know. It depends on who you play in the playoffs. And I mean, I, I don't know. I don't who you play in the playoffs. And I mean, I don't know. I don't

know what I'm supposed to say to that. The playoffs are a really long way away. Do I think that interceptions like that from the quarterback limit what you can do if he throws those? Of course. Of course. Darnold, if he has a game like that, you will lose on an interception. 100%. There's no question about it. But when it comes to the play calling, they converted a bunch of third downs today. I just think it's very convenient to talk about that when if they get into the end zone on those drives, this is a flat-out blowout.

And I think if you're questioning three or four calls in a football game, then guess what? You watched a football game. I don't know that I've ever watched a game where I didn't question some calls. So that's my point is how far do I want to go? I want to criticize the double reverse. I want to criticize leaning into Darnold again, too much in the red zone. But I also, I think if Kevin O'Connell were standing right here, he'd be like, how many yards did we put up? Because receivers were open and Hawkinson was open.

The other thing is, too, Darnold missed some open shots down the field as well. That's my thing is, does play calling cause you to throw those interceptions? No, the quarterback's decision-making causes that. So I don't think you can just say, well, they didn't score a lot of points. So the coach sucks. Like that's, that's my point. Dustin says, I love this team, KOC, Kweisi, and I'm excited for McCarthy. Yeah.

Fair enough. Fair enough to bail on a seven and two team. I don't know. Sometimes it's a win guys. I mean, we did this dance last week as well. It is a win. So there are seven and two and there's a long way to go here. But I think, I think calling KOC's play calling is just to, to call it terrible is ridiculous. They have been on the field for out of the last 120 minutes, probably 80 against Indianapolis and Jacksonville.

I just, I don't know what he's supposed to do differently to make him not throw interceptions. When this man has thrown interceptions his whole career, he's usually thrown more than this. He's been in the top five in turnover worthy plays every single year of his career where he's been a full-time starter. Every single one of those coaches, I guess, called the worst plays because they got picked off. So if Darnold isn't good next week, he'll continue to be the quarterback.

I don't know what they're going to quit the franchise. They're not playing Nick Mullins. They're not signing Ryan Tannehill. That's asinine. They're not doing anything else. Guys, they are going to play Sam Darnold and ride the roller coaster to the end. Could it hurt them in the playoffs? Yes. I don't know what you want me to do about it. We're nine games into the season. So it's always going to be

this thing with O'Connell where he has decided that he is going to lean into Sam Darnold's ups and downs. You've seen the ups. Today was a major, major down. That's the roller coaster we're on. There wasn't a better option for the Vikings. Did you want Jacoby Brissett? There was not a better option for the Vikings than leaning into this, and it's gotten them to this point.

But when it comes to Darnold throwing three interceptions, that's something that he's always had these games. And you could tell early on that he just did not feel comfortable in the pocket that things were not coming out quick enough. And if your criticism is of Kevin O'Connell, buddy, let's have a better sense for when Sam Darnold is not at his best and lean into, Hey, you're in the red zone, a screen pass. The screen game has disappeared entirely. That's a, that's a legitimate criticism. So I'm not saying it was, I'm not saying it was great. I'm not saying the play caller, Kevin O'Connell deserves an award for today. It's more that I think we got to put the right percentages on it. Cause the original question was 50% on each. And I don't agree

with that when they did so well, otherwise, and even with running the ball, they ran the ball extremely well today. But I, I feel you on when you get to the red zone, you can't just ask the quarterback to do everything. That is a, that is a completely legit criticism. So yes, Sam Darnold gets, I would give, I guess a D minus because he definitely completed a lot of passes and then ruined a bunch of drives. So it's either an F or a D minus. Uh, I think the fact that they were able to have a lot of completions, get the ball to Hockinson as much as they did, have 10 play, 15 play drives, that he does deserve some credit for that,

but only to move it up from an F to a D minus. So Dane Mizutani walking into the building here for the Pioneer Press has just come back from listening to Kevin O'Connell and, uh, listening to the Vikings locker room. And, you know, Dane,

I just started giving out the grades and I was trying to decide between F and D minus for, uh, Sam Darnold, but let me get your opinion since you're here, the, uh, debate within the chat.

Uh, and, uh, it's been a good one guys. I appreciate it. I mean, I'm not this week. I'm not joking. There are other weeks where maybe I would have been about Kevin O'Connell play calling and how we factor that into what happened today offensively, how much goes on him. I will tell you, my opinion has been, I don't know what he's supposed to do about Darnold

freaking out and throwing the ball like that, but I get it. Some of the third and short stuff, the double reverse, what is your take? Yeah, I'm sure the third and one came up where they're just trying to run the clock out, they're moving the ball, and then he decides he wants to throw what he called, he was hunting an opportunity there because he felt they were packing the line in. He said he was hunting an opportunity there because he felt they were packing the line in he said he was hunting a walk-off so i think he was basically saying he felt that they could pop an explosive there which just goes back to it's just the ethos of kevin o'connell it's always going to be and we're going to have these debates as long as he's the

coach because i do think at his core he wants to push the ball downfield. Even on third and one, he wanted to push the ball downfield. So yes, he plays a role in some of this. He was talked, you know, he talked a lot about the shell coverage.

The Jaguars are playing basically inviting TJ Hawkinson to catch whatever it was, eight, eight, nine balls, Josh Oliver over like the Jaguars. We're not going to let the Vikings beat them over the top. But I think when we talk about the new shell coverage that's kind of gone throughout the NFL, and are the quarterbacks patient enough to play with the shell coverage?

I think Kevin O'Connell, that also tests his patience. So I think there were times where his play calling left something to be desired. That said, no, the interceptions are a ton or a hundred percent on Sam Darnold. The first one stuff play. He's expecting Justin Jefferson to win. Justin Jefferson doesn't win right off the line.

Like he almost always does tipped in the air. Those happen. It's not ideal, but those interceptions happen. The other two can't happen, can never happen. It's not ideal, but those interceptions happen. The other two can't happen, can never happen. And it was interesting talking to Sam Darnold after the game, because he basically said, yes, that can't happen. And at the same time he said, but I think if I would have put the ball in a different spot,

like there were opportunities. So I think O'Connell and Darn darnold are match made in heaven because they they both want to push the ball down the field they both want to be aggressive um and i think it's kind of live by the sword die by the sword thing with the vikings some days it's gonna look awesome and some days it's gonna look like this so yeah i'm sure you're into the grades and you said d minus for darnold yeah i mean i well, I think when you put up that many yards, you can't go F. Yeah, that's fair. Just to comment on what you said.

This is my whole point about Darnold and O'Connell. So earlier in the show, for those just joining, I compared it more in a more detailed way to a roller coaster. Yeah. As in you tell your child before they get on a roller coaster what it's going to be like. You're going to go up and down. You're going to be really scared. And sometimes you're going to want to get off. But then it'll be fun in the end.

And they're like, oh, that sounds great. And then when you have that really scary down moment, they let me off. Like, I don't want any part of this. That's how it is with these two is what they're leaning into. What they are is they are home run hitters and strikeout guys they are ryan howard from the philadelphia phillies where you're going to hit home runs and you're going to have big days from darnold and sometimes and this goes to the nature of questioning play calling sometimes if you run that little play action and hit a deep shot on third and one everyone's like whoa o'connell that was so cool i've never thought he was good at figuring out

when is when and so you just have to strap in and hope that it works out for you and it ends up on the right side of variance uh it was that decision i i also think we figured out when these happen though dane about darnold and this is the job of the coach to fix it. It happens when he's sitting and he's sitting and he's sitting and then it's, oh, I think I see something or he's rolling out. Oh, I think I see something. And no, you didn't, or you couldn't get your feet there. But how much can you change in the middle of the season?

Like he's just going to throw these. He cannot throw them in the red zone. That's really the end of the story today. And I think O'Connell does have to try to protect him against that sometimes. Yeah. And that is where I guess it does go back to the play calling at its core. Like the interceptions in the end zone are definitely on Sam Darnold, but maybe there is like,

if you can tell pretty early on today, and I think we all could tell like a little off, little off the rhythm, wasn't always there. It seemed like he was overthinking it a lot. Couldn't process fast. There are, I think opportunities then to call a different play that maybe doesn't take three seconds downfield to develop and have to go through two or three reads. So yeah, it's a rollercoaster. I think that's a perfect way to describe it. And the rollercoaster analogy really does work because there are ups and there are downs. And at the end of the day, the season's been fun.

There's seven and two, but they, you know, there are going to be some down moments this year. The down moment, I guess the bright side is the down moment came in in a win today um but i don't think anyone's feeling super great about it especially like even being in the locker room like they they're all saying the right things they they won they're not going to apologize for that um but every single person we talked to on the offense made it very clear like thank you defense for coming through um and i think everyone in the chat everyone who's watching every vikings fan that watched the game would agree like if the defense does not come through completely

different story completely different conversation we're having right now gifting is hard but here's a hint give the gift of connection from us cellular not sure what that means here's a slightly more specific hint you can choose four free phones and get four lines for 90 a month from us cellular your family wants new phones how do we know they told us the good news is that compared to wrapping presents you are great at getting hints so take a hint and get them four free phones and four lines for 90 a month us cellular built for us. Okay. So this is the weird thing is we're going to, and we'll have to speed it up a little

so I can catch my flight. But, uh, the running backs were great today. I mean, you want a minus, uh, I don't know who's grading here. I guess we're both grading a, a, my, I mean, Jones was great. He pounded forward. He was on the field a lot. He got banged up. He came back somehow. Cam acres, even Ty Chandler had an eight yard run. Everything except for the double reverse was effective. And this is this where I keep having trouble with the KOC criticism, because what have I been saying all year? I want him to run more. I know

you can run with this offense. I want you to stay with it. I want you to have 10 minute drives, stay on the field. I was praising Kevin Stefanski and how, Hey, there were some drives where he just pounded the face of the other team. They ran the ball a lot. What was it? 32 times. You're pulling up the box right now. something times for 100 and whatever yard i mean it was a good running day they ran 43 times today for 169 yards so yeah we could just go hey i don't even need the minus like aaron jones 5.2 yards of carry cam acres i think maybe you'd want a little more out of him than than you got today 2.9 um but i think like overall, he was able to shoulder some of that workload, which is why Cam Akers is there. It's not necessarily to be Aaron Jones. It's to spell Aaron Jones. And he did that effectively today. I might jump all the way up to A because Aaron

Jones came back in the game. He got hurt. He talked about how he felt his ribs. He was worried at first that it might be broken. He went back, got an x-ray, everything checked out. And he said he knew he was ready the moment he was on the sideline. He'd come back after getting an x-ray, comes back negative. He puts a ball in his hand. This is the most football thing ever. He said, I knew I was ready when I put the ball in my hand and I felt like I could go. And then he got back in the game.

So that toughness, I do think they needed him in the end too. It's an A. And yeah, I guess the commitment over 40 rush, over 40 carries. I never thought I'd see the day. Well, that's what I mean is this is more along the lines of the game plan that I wanted. And if they kicked all field goals today and didn't throw interceptions on senseless or inaccurate throws, and they won 20, if they kick seven field goals and won 21 to 7 we would have said what a dominant performance they just put on uh the wide receivers

and tight ends that's a wonky one because the quarterback cannot make the throws that went wrong jefferson does have to win on his route but he was also getting grabbed uh off the line of scrimmage. And it's not always going to be easy to run slants and stuff with him because they are so physical at the line of scrimmage with him and try to get away with anything they can. There weren't really drops or miscues, but also factor. We have to factor in. Addison really didn't get the ball very much today. Made one really nice catch.

Hawkinson, though. Hawkinson on his own a plus what a player a plus and the rest of the guys I don't know were average it just sort of whatever was supposed to happen happened but the fact that they could not go down the field uh you know that is a defense I mean this is a bad passing defense but they also passed a lot successfully. I don't know. This is a hard one. Yeah. I still think I'm probably at around a B because they moved the ball. And to your earlier point, if they just kicked seven field goals or if one of those interceptions just goes for a touchdown and they win 20 to 7, we're saying it wasn't the best day day but the offense looked good the offense moved

the ball um it just looks worse when when the points aren't on the board when the offense doesn't score a touchdown um and then obviously when you're throwing interceptions in the red zone but the vikings did a good job taking what was given to them and just because we're so used to justin jefferson going for 130 yards game, and he didn't do that today. Like, I think the Jaguars made a concerted effort to take him away to kind of do the Patrick Mahomes thing with the Vikings and dare the Vikings to, like, kill them by death by a thousand cuts. And for the most part, they did that.

They moved down the field. The one drive was 17 plays long. Went to TJ Hawkinson like three or four times on big third down conversions so i think the pass catchers did their job today it wasn't gaudy stats so i don't think we're getting to an a level but as far as okay the jaguars want to play us in a shell we're just going to find these little openings underneath they did that for the most part and i think we do get spoiled and justin je Justin Jefferson's the best receiver in the game.

And we're almost used to triple digit receiving yards from him. And when you see 48, you say, well, were they that good? TJ Hawkinson had a really good day. Josh Oliver continues to emerge as a pass catcher, which I think is going to be valuable.

Yeah, I guess they need a free three a little bit more, but overall, like I, I would stay at a writer on a B because I thought for the most part they did their job. And Sands' turnovers, I think the numbers overall on the offensive side would have looked a lot better.

I'm being told by the chat that the reason we're defending KOC's play calling is because we don't want to lose our press access. That's one that's never been thrown at us before. Has the Pioneer Press had had its credentials pulled from any pro sports team guys like let's grow up here also yeah i know all my years of criticizing mike zimmer and so forth and they still have me with one of these so i don't know i think actually just i disagree with you on some of your criticisms but that's a good way to get blocked in the chat. If you say that anyway so let's move on offensive line. I think only one sack. Yeah. It was a weird one because I felt like they were giving up pressure at times early in the

game, but the Jaguars didn't dominate the line of scrimmage. They certainly were able to get push in the run game. And there's always going to be the signature Ed Ingram play of the day where you're like, oh, okay, well, that third one play call, that was blown up when the guy over him. But when it comes to the offensive line, they did a good enough job to have the offense operate the way it was supposed to operate. There was some pressure allowed by cam robinson today thought that might happen against a really good opponent and i think that when we look at the grades from pff and things like that and go through the tape we're gonna go yeah yikes uh there was some bad plays there from the offensive

line but once again if you run like they did and you are the interceptions, Darnold's not even pressured. That's the crazy thing about those interceptions is that he wasn't even pressured. I thought it was fine. I'd give it maybe a B. Yeah. Darnold only took one sack and that shouldn't have been a sack because that shouldn't have been a pass. He took a sack on that third and one, which should have been a run up the middle. So take that away, take that play calling away. In that moment, the Vikings finished with zero sacks allowed today.

I know that's not how it works, but like that shouldn't have been a pass from the beginning. If it wasn't, they, they, they protected well enough and you're right. It wasn't like every single time Donald threw an interception, he was under duress.

He just had the ball too long in his hands. And when he does that, I think he speeds himself up and we see what we saw today. But 402 yards and 82 offensive plays like you don't do that without a pretty dang good performance from the offensive line. There were moments Cam Robinson got absolutely bull rushed by josh allen on on one play there was a play where ed ingram finished with his face in to the ground and everyone saw ed ingram just kind of looking around on that third and one like there's always going to be moments like that from an offensive line throughout the game but by and large they played really well today um i think it didn't really feel like he was under constant duress, even if at times they get paid to.

The Jaguars are going to generate some pressure over the course of a game. But I thought for the most part that the offensive line held up pretty well. Let's get to the defensive side of that, which is hard to not give a lot of A's. The defensive line slowed down the run game. Travis Etienne got a couple of big runs, but they couldn't run consistently, even though it was an even type of situation where they could have established the run and pounded away at the Vikings, but they did not do that. So much credit to the D line on that. Jonathan Grenard getting into the backfield for some tfls uh i don't really actually think mac jones was crazy under pressure but they were able to get a couple sacks if i'm giving out

the a i probably give it to the linebackers blake cashman coming back absolutely huge uh maybe his only demerit face masking as opposed to uh just bringing down mac jones but they were everywhere ivan pace was in the backfield. They were making tackles. And I think this is a game where we could point to and say, yeah, when Blake Cashman's in there, everything is different. So front seven, if you will, gets, I would say a B plus or an A for me overall. Yeah.

I thought once they decided to start heating up Mac Jones. It was like for the first quarter, like Brian Flores was content to feel out like what the Jaguars wanted to do. And that's when you saw the nine play drive where Mac Jones ends it in the end zone. He celebrated like you won the super bowl. It was probably a little cathartic for him, for that guy to come home to Jacksonville score touchdown. I think he saw that emotion out of him, but like once they decided to heat Mac Jones up, they dominated the game.

So I would say, and we'll talk to Brian Flores on Tuesday, why not do that from the beginning? I would imagine there was a method to the madness. But once they decided to bring the pressure, Mac Jones cowered and started to look scared again. So B, I think that's probably B plus is probably right there. Look, when they needed to, when the chips were on the table and the defense needed to make plays,

it was the entire defense collective as a whole making plays. So I can't go much lower than a B plus for either part, front seven or back, you know, the backside of the defense, because like I said, front seven or back, you know, the backside of the defense, because like I said, when I jumped in, like they don't win the game without a masterful performance on that side of the ball. Who cares how bad the Jaguars are? Like the defense still deserves their, their flowers for what they did today. And it does start up front. Yeah. The secondary coming up with the interceptions, that was also big. Cam Bynum,

that's not an easy play. I mean, you're going back and back and then kind of reaching up and grabbing it and somehow that's called it the one yard line make it make sense because he wasn't down so how are you down i i just i don't really get it but those are football rules for you i guess he should have picked it up because I thought he did the right thing, just taking a knee, but I guess he should have picked it up and ran it out. I thought if you caught it and continued into the end zone that it was a touchback and not a safety

and that rule is there specifically for that type of play, but it was a little wonky with the reffing. They weren't very good at figuring out if guys were in bounds or not things like that today. Uh, and also they weren't very good. And this hasn't come up too much, uh, because people are angry after this win, but the interception hits the ground. The second pick, I don't know what else to tell you. It just does what the rules are, how replay works every week we come in here and go no idea my friends so what makes the nfl so fun i guess is that you never know what

the rules are the ball moves around on the ground after the pick but it it is what it is my friends so uh coaching is the last one make that quick so we we can get our big picture and then I gotta go. It's hard because Kevin O'Connell, I'd say you passed because they won. You put up 400 yards. If I was just grading Kevin O'Connell, it'd be like a C+. But I would give an A-plus

to Brian Flores in the defense. They held him to less than 200 yards of total offense. Maybe I end up right around a B. There was some good. There was some good. There was some bad. People are going to consistently and always hate on Kevin O'Connell when the game looks clunky. And at times they should.

But they put up 400 yards of offense. And if the quarterback doesn't turn the ball over three times, the scoring numbers look better. Incredible performance from the defense. So I'll just go B for coaching all around. Probably a C-ish for Kevin O'Connell. Probably an A-ish for Brian Flores. incredible performance from the defense so i'll just go b for coaching all around probably a c ish for kevin o'connell probably an a ish for brian florist oh i mean definitely to make the adjustment to then ramp up the blitz on mac jones he had no idea what he was doing after that

and to this is a good point that you made about for the most part they're taking what the defense is giving them but then it's like i can't do for very long. I need to have my big plays and try to take my shots. So I guess with O'Connell, what he's got to realize after today is that everyone is going to try to do this to you the rest of the way defensively. They're all going to try to do that to you the whole rest of the way, which is keep you thrown underneath. Wait till you get impatient. Try to you the whole rest of the way which is keep you thrown underneath wait till you get impatient try to steal the ball from sam darnold and like 80 of the way there for being patient and the 20 got them hurt at times so yeah i mean it's you have to separate the offense and defense the long snapper grade a the kicker the kicker gets an a the long snapper grade, A, the kicker. The kicker gets an A. The long snapper,

it wasn't perfect. But for those guys to come in here after an injury last week and get the job done and win the game, I hope that Parker Romo got a game ball. Great job by him to make his kicks when they needed it. So the big picture on this for me, Dane, is pretty simple. I think that you should strap in and prepare yourself for games where you might be frustrated at the end. They are also set up, if they win the next two games, to be 9-2 against two quarterbacks that are struggling, two organizations that are floundering. They're cheering for the coach to be fired in chicago will levis is playing against this team and as far as the the rest of the year goes the big picture a lot in the comment section of well this team can't win the super bowl i don't know what to tell you about that it is a long season and the v the Vikings are set up to race for the NFC.

Still, I don't know. Like it's sometimes it's going to be pretty gnarly and it was really gnarly today, but I also don't think we have to treat it like a loss because it was a win and it goes down to seven and two. And I don't remember any season where I've ever covered that a team has made the playoffs and every game was just awesome. And they don't remember any season where I've ever covered that a team has made the playoffs

and every game was just awesome. And they killed everybody. I w I wasn't covering football in 1998 with the Vikings. I was 12. So that's the best I can do. I think that a lot of your guys critiques are accurate and some of them are being frustrated. Uh, but when it comes to the turnovers from Darnold, I think that's going to be a week to week thing. Some weeks it's going to be okay and you're going to win and it's going to look great. And some weeks it's going to be like, what the heck just happened there? That's who they are. So your thoughts. I think that's a great point because like over the, like there's, we only get 17 of these things guaranteed, right?

Like 17 weeks a year, we get to watch football on Sundays. So I think every single time the team doesn't look awesome and amazing, a certain subsection of fans are going to freak out and think that they should fire everyone because we don't get to watch them do it until the following Sunday. If the Timberwolves stink one night, they play two days later. Same with the Wild. The Vikings don't. So now people who aren't satisfied with this 12-7 win

have to wait until they play Tennessee. So I get the instant reaction of like, oh, that was a horrible game. I waited all week to watch this, and that's what they gave me. But look, they won. And to Matt's point, you don't play great every single week. You just don't. And that's not us apologizing for for what they did or did not do today that's just the facts you can go through every single team the chiefs aren't eight no nine and oh i don't know what they are they played horrendous

some weeks and they just win like some some weeks it doesn't look great and and that's okay like i will say what kevin o''Connell said today resonated with me, and it's going to really piss off a lot of people in the chat. But it's like a good team wins that football game. I think he's right. Like, I think a bad team, like, makes an excuse for, like, the third Sam Darnold interception, and the defense says, you know what, screw this.

Like, we can't win today. It's just not our day. It was ugly. It wasn't pretty. Like, I can see, screw this. We can't win today. It's just not our day. It was ugly. It wasn't pretty. I can see there are certain cracks in the foundation that might worry people. But at the same time, you're 7-2. And if we take the team that we saw at the peak of their powers this year, which I do think they can get to at times,

they can contend with any team on any given week. It's just that some weeks it could also look like this. So look, they're still 7-2. They're going to get to contend in the NFC. They're one Lions loss away from Week 17 if everyone continues to take care of business. Or Week 18 being really, really important. Even if they don't win the NFC North,

Week 18 is probably going to be a really fun, important game between the Vikings and the Lions. They're 7-2. They're moving forward win the NFC North, like week 18 is probably going to be a really fun, important game between the Vikings and the lions. Like they're seven and two there. They're moving forward in the NFC. And I don't know like what else to say, but like, it's fine. If I told you in July that they were going to be seven and two,

but it was going to look ugly in Jacksonville. You probably would've been like, well, that's fine. Like we'll take seven and two. So I, I, I don't know. I'm at a loss with, with, with people being like, well, that's fine. Like we'll take seven and two. So I, I, I don't know.

I'm at a loss with, with, with people being super frustrated about another one. Okay. Let me just say this though. If Sam Darnold keeps doing that, they won't achieve much. That's fair. I mean, yeah, that's true. But at the same time, like, I think that goes back to like the very binary way of thinking about the NFL, which is I get it. It's fine. I just said, like, you only get 17 of these things. But like, can we win the Super Bowl or can we not win the Super Bowl becomes like, is this if Sam Darnold continues to play like that, no, they can't win the Superbowl. Even if Sam Darnold continues to play like he did through the five and oh start,

they might not win the Superbowl. So it's going to look like this sometimes throughout the course of the next eight games. It just is. Yeah. I don't know. And there's no, I don't know if there's any solution. It's only that you have to hope you're on the right side of it, because if you're on the right side of it, they could be the team they were at five and oh, and if you're on the wrong side of it, you're grinding out wins against the Colts and the Jaguars. But we know that they're going to continue to be aggressive. They're going to continue to lean heavily on Sam Darnold. And all I would say is strap yourself in.

So anyway, thanks everybody for watching and from from jacksonville what a time it was we'll never forget the time we all flew here to watch a 12 to 7 football game so thanks for everybody's time really appreciate it and we will talk to you when i am back in minnesota