Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Vikings survive Soldier Field and beat the Bears in OT

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press talk from Soldier Field about Sam Darnold's incredible game against the Bears to pull off an overtime victory and bring the Vikings to 9-2 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to Soldier Field. Matthew Collar and James Catani here inside the press box at Soldier Field, which is why we're being a little bit on the quiet side from our usual yelling and screaming in our spot inside US Bank Stadium. Here to react with you to the 9-2 Minnesota Vikings beating the Chicago Bears in only a way that you can win a game at Soldier Field. I'll tell you when the Vikings kicked the field goal at the end with Parker Romo to go up by, was that 27 to 16? I thought, okay, let me just write my recap here, give my reactions, just typing away, typing away. And okay. Oh, I look up and there's a long kick return the heck is going on here and

then i okay well let me go back to writing the recap it's fine this will be all right and then i look up again caleb williams throwing a touchdown and then all of a sudden all heck breaks loose with an onside kick and then we're going to overtime just like that and you know i see already in the comment section people calling it an ugly win and i think that that there's yes and no to that it's a weird win because the vikings had to do it in overtime but i actually thought that overall they played a much better game than the last couple of weeks and the biggest takeaway here for me is sam darnold his game winning drive was incredible and after the game i was talking to nick mwinning drive was incredible. And after the game, I was talking to Nick Mullins about it, who came in the game for a single play and completed a key pass, by the way.

And Nick said, look, people got to start talking about Sam Darnold. I mean, and they did when he was 5-0, but he has the Jacksonville game and there's frustration with the turnovers. The last two weeks, the way he has bounced back has been nothing short of remarkable. And this was another argument for being Sam Darnold's best game. I mean, he completed passes. He didn't turn the ball over. And then when he takes a sack right there, you could have just said, okay, make sure you get a couple of yards and then punt the ball away, play it safe. First downs, another setback with an offside. And then he completes the big pass to TJ Hawkinson to set up the win. They ran the ball more effectively. They were able to play off that, but his connection with Jordan Addison just went through the roof in this

game. Addison with a takeover. That's why you were drafted in the first round type of game. And overall, the Vikings defense did play well but then at the end not being able to slow them down and and sam darnold made up for that so even a game where the defense was not perfect they were still able to make up for it and come away with a 30 to 27 win dane they're nine and two uh your reaction i think you hit the nail on the head. We're obviously going to get into all the intricacies of the game, how a 27-16 point lead turned into a 30-27 win in overtime. We're going to get into the nitty-gritty. But when you just kind of zoom out and you look big picture on what this win means,

I think it means the Vikings will go as far as Sam Darnold can take them. That was always going to be the case this season. But I think this game proves that like, if you need him to win you the game, he can't six for six for 90 yards on that final drive in overtime. You mentioned he gets sacked on that opening play of overtime. You know, second and 17 completes a pass,

keeps the chains moving. It's just, this is the type of game. I think you needed to see. After kind of a weird wonky stretch there, he starts 5-0, and then people are saying, ah, the clock has struck midnight, he's turning back into a pumpkin. This is the type of game you needed to see to say, okay, the Vikings are still legitimate contenders.

They can go as far as Sam Darnold can take them. He was spectacular today it did turn from maybe just kind of a ho-hum sam darnold day into a really really good one in overtime so if the vikings just do their job if they recover the onside kick if they don't allow caleb williams to go down the field and no time flat to maybe make this thing interesting maybe we don't have this takeaway about sam darnold today but when chips were on the table in the extra session sam darnold was the best player on the field um and i thought when you kind of walk out of this game people can say it was ugly and it certainly was like down the stretch um but the takeaway from this game to

me is that like they've got a quarterback and And Sam Darnold, he's proving once again that he isn't just this fairytale story that was fun for a month. He's a legitimate quarterback in the NFL. And I think the Vikings are in pretty good hands moving forward with him at the helm. And where I thought it was similar to last week, and this is a better opponent, although Tennessee won today. Maybe we'll get a mention of that from the fans who talked about how the jaguars lost to the lions well the tennessee titans were actually a little better maybe than their record and the vikings beat them last week on the back of really a great performance by sam darnold and i thought last week was really really important for sam darnold to build some confidence coming

away from that really difficult game against the Jaguars, because I think we all had that feeling of if it's going to melt, it's going to melt right here and right now after this Jaguars game. And is this where he starts throwing a bunch of interceptions and losing his confidence and falling apart in the big moments? And then to make plays last week and to keep them on track when they didn't run the ball well and really be the reason that they won last week, I thought coming into this game, he started off very confidently,

made great plays right away, right off the bat, and then he gets them down to the goal line and they fumble. And they did actually fine in the red zone today overall. They got three touchdowns, but I joked in my recap, like, do you believe in miracles every time that they did? And they finally punch one in with Aaron Jones, who said that he's never gone this long ever in his career without a touchdown rushing in. And his throw to Jordan Addison in the end zone was really good to get them a touchdown.

But right from the start, I felt like Sam Darnold was dialed in and that we were going to get a good Darnold performance. And part of that was that they were able to run the football. And so to get kind of punched in the face there by the fumble early on. And then I also got the sense on the other side that Caleb Williams was going to have a good day. It didn't necessarily start out exactly like that, but you could see that he was getting the ball out of his hands really quickly. And it almost reminded me of what the Rams did against the Vikings because they threw a lot of those bubble screens and quick passes that were looking for the receivers to get yards after catch, which teams have been able to do against this team. And then he made a few truly spectacular plays. I mean, just one of our big picture takeaways from this game has to be that the Vikings

will be battling against Caleb Williams for many, many years to come. And you're going to see a lot of wow plays, wow throws, wow scrambles. He was super, super impressive today. Takes the bad sack at the end that was costly kind of a rookie moment there for him but just back to the offensive side they were able to hit explosives they were able to move the football and even if they lost cam robinson which we again you sort of go oh boy is this going to be the thing that really takes this apart and they still were able to pass protect fairly well uh i thought darnold had good

pocket presence today he took the sack where he held on to it too long in overtime and was able to bounce back from that but didn't feel like he was under pressure all day didn't feel like he was hanging on to the ball or doing stupid or crazy things he just seemed very dialed into this game and was able to move the ball consistently it wasn wasn't one of those, oh, well, they got one big play for a 98-yard touchdown and then had a bunch of three and outs. It didn't really go that way. I mean, and at the end, it should have been the dagger drive where Mullins came in and made a play.

But also even on that drive, Sam Darnold was extremely good to be able to move the football. He converted third down and longs on multiple occasions. I mean, you just can't say enough. This stacking up back-to-back excellent games will grade all the units later. But it's just huge for what's coming next for him to be able to do that because what's coming next is a lot of home games against good teams and against teams that are racing for the playoffs.

That's what they've got going the rest of the way in this season. And to come out of here, the toughest place for this team to play historically and have you think that you've completed this great victory and you could easily kind of relax at that point. And then to lock back in and Dalton Reiser said after the game that Sam Darnold just never has ups and downs and maybe that's because of what he's been through in his career but we didn't see ups and downs from him I thought it was a really consistent performance from the first drive all

the way to the last drive yeah and I think that's something that we're coming to realize about Sam Darnold is we we've spent a lot of time covering a quarterback who when it did start to go bad it would just kind of snowball out of control even when Sam Darnold and he's shown a couple times this year that he will do some crazy silly stuff it really hasn't felt like it's just all piled up on him even the game against the Jaguars where he just continued to make the same silly mistake in the red zone, they still, as an offense, gained 400 yards. Sam Darnold has an innate ability to shake things off

even when things aren't going great and just kind of turn it back on. I asked Brian O'Neill after the game, what did you learn about Sam Darnold today? And he said, I learned everything I needed to learn about Sam Darnold every day since April. And that basically is just saying he's always the same guy. So what did Sam say to you guys when you guys walked onto the field in overtime? He said the same thing he says to us anytime he's in the huddle. And I think that there is something to that. There is a cliche there, obviously. But I think there's something to that where it doesn't feel like at any time he's frazzled, he's rattled. And I'll tell you what, the time to be frazzled and rattled is when you are up, and just say, like, we're fine, guys.

I don't think you can say enough about that. There aren't a lot of quarterbacks, I really feel, in the NFL who can do that. They had the win in their bag. Sam Darnold said he was expecting to recover the onside kick and take knees. And the next thing you know, he's playing in overtime. So, you know, like you said dalton riser said i said brian o'neill said like we're just learning more and more about sam darnold each week um and that's why i think this game like look you don't want to be up 11 and then end up in overtime but the

byproduct of that is you learn something else about sam darnold and it's that he's tough as hell and he will he's in the literal sense, very tough. He shook off a foot injury, asked him after the game, like, did you know when you were walking off the field if you were going to be able to go back in? And he said, honestly, no. He said, I was on the sideline and I started to feel better. And then two plays later, I thought I could go.

So he's tough in the literal physical sense, but he's also mentally tough. And I think we're learning that more and more each week. And that's just, that's a really good sign for the Vikings now sitting at nine and two with, with everything they want to do in front of them. They're, they're, there's still a lot that this team can accomplish. And I think Sam Darnold being at the helm of that,

learning more each week about him, you have to be feeling good about where this team could go. I think so too. And they also will not be playing defenses as strong as this one going forward. And I'm sure on the Chicago side, they've got a lot of critiques for their defense, maybe particularly in the run game, because this team was sputtering against the run. Vikings were last week but they didn't have Jeffrey Simmons they didn't have Devondre Sweat like Tennessee did so they were able to actually get a push up front which meant a lot to the overall production of the offense I do think

that Sam Darnold needs that when they play good teams that they're going to need the running game but Aaron Jones looked pretty spry today he didn't have to go to the injury tent. He looked like he had some bursts back and maybe that's just getting a week to heal from that rib injury. That's been bothering him. Or maybe they just had some favorable matchups or maybe, you know, Dalton Reisner was a little bit more back on his game, but I thought it was just a good performance by Aaron Jones on the ground. And Kevin O'Connell did stick with it. I think at one point it was like 20 passes and 18 runs or something. And there were a little bit of times where of course he's always going to lean more on Sam Darnold, but, and his quarterback, but that they were able to

consistently rip off some big plays in the run game. And it wasn't just three yards, three yards, Cam Akers came in, had a 12-yard run. So on the offensive side, it's pretty hard to criticize when you end up with 30 points and that kind of showing from Sam Darnold. But we do need to talk about the end of the game and what happened there. Because this defense last year against Chicago, I was flashing back a little bit to that night game where they were winning. They punt the ball away. And then all of a sudden, Justin Fields is leading a game winning drive against them, something that we kind of never saw coming. And this felt a little bit that way with not just the defense not being able to get a stop there at the end or on the two point conversion, because even if they get the stop on the two-point conversion, the game is essentially over. And they allowed Caleb Williams to convert that.

Defensively, for a lot of the day, it did seem like Williams was a little bit confused at times, but then other times made great scrambling plays, spectacular plays. Their offense did move the ball fairly consistently. And this was sort of a similar model to that Chargers game with Keenan Allen, where it was throw a bunch of short passes to Keenan Allen. Only it was him. It was a dunes. A it was DJ more. And I look up at one point and Caleb Williams is completing like 75% of his passes and is scrambling and is making plays. Does it concern you that this is the best quarterback they've played in weeks? And they put up all those really good numbers against you know the joe flacco they avoided anthony richardson and

then you know last week even against will levis a less experienced player who had some good moments against them but does it concern you that when they've played good weapons and i think williams is a very talented very very talented quarterback i don't know if you can qualify him as a great quarterback yet, but he's a great talent for sure that they were able to move the ball, score points, and then the defense was not able to shut them down in the biggest moment. Yeah, it would concern me a little because you kind of, at some point have to look at it through the prism of how far can this team go um and if

caleb williams is going to slice and dice you for 340 um and i think other quarterbacks and other quarterbacks this year have proven you know jared goff matthew stafford they've proven that they can move the ball in this defense so there has to be a little bit of concern coming out of this game i think um but also i just kind of want to just tip the cap to caleb williams and i would assume like brian flores loves to tip the cap to people they say if it's a good game sometimes you just gotta tip the cap he was really good today like he was really really good today so yeah i guess part of it would be a little concerning because you're going to see better quarterback play the longer your season goes.

A lot. If you get to the playoffs, if you want to make a run, you're going to have to shut down the better quarterbacks in the league. So if a rookie quarterback comes in or I guess you go into his house and he's able to put up 340 on you, he kind of moved the ball at will, you know, in the second half. To not have any concern would just be a little bit foolish, a little bit stubborn. So I think the fact that he was able to move the ball effectively in one breath is just an example of how good he is and how good he's going to be. But, yeah, they need to clean things up.

Like you can't just have these dagger cuts, keep continuing to come open over the middle of the field. Even after they, they allow the onside kick recovery, there's an opportunity there for the defense to just stand tall and say like, no. And instead they complete like a 30 yard pass to DJ more on the very next play. So there are things there that they need to kind of improve on. The good news is they continue to work on these improvements while sitting at 9-2.

They continue to win these games. And I can't overstate that enough. I said that back when they were 5-0. Like, you don't have to give these wins back. Now they're sitting at 9-2. They don't have to give any of the wins back. And they get to keep moving forward. Definitely room for improvement, but there are very few teams in the league that can say they are in as good of a position as the Vikings right now moving forward. You're sitting at 9-2 with a chance to go 500 the rest of the way and win 12 games. And if you're better than 500 the rest of the way, you win 13. And if you're better than 500, the rest of the way you win 13 games and have one of the best seasons that this team has ever had in its history.

And you're not that far away from that. And of course you could say, well, there's going to be better teams than the bears, but I don't really know how true that is because the bears are three plays away from what being seven and four, uh. A Hail Mary that was well covered by everybody. A last week, a blocked field goal. And the Vikings blocked one again today. And I was talking to our friend, Kaylin Kaler, who works for ESPN, and she had talked to Patrick Jones after the game. And apparently Patrick told her, we thought they were going to fix some stuff and they kind of didn't. So we just blocked the field goal.

Okay. There you go. So that was an important play special teams hey if you're an all three phases person today was your day because the special teams were very much involved uh in this game but i do want to stick on uh caleb williams there for a second because i i thought that the as far as the defense goes well an onside kick is super random. Those almost never work. And it seemed like the kick was almost so bad that it fooled Johnny Munt, who was blocking. And then it hits him, and that's why they have that play still, I guess. Because it's really, really an odd, random thing. And then this defense, we know, is not going to be perfect.

But the things that it does well, it has to do well. And one of those things is when it gets pressures, it has to get sacks. And it did in overtime when Caleb Williams held the ball for the rest of eternity, but he escaped so many. I mean, there were five, six, seven times where he did hold the ball for a long time and they did get after him.

And then suddenly he's jumping over somebody. Poor Andrew Van Ginkle is going to see him in his nightmares because he got a ton of pressures in this game. And then it just couldn't get sacks on Kayla Williams. So I don't, I can't entirely blame the defense for a great talent making great plays when you wouldn't expect almost any other quarterback in the league to make some of those plays and that's why he is selected number one and i i want to give a caleb williams

a ton of credit for the way he played in this game he continued to fight he was clutch he made a lot of accurate throws he had some tight window throws that just kind of blew your mind the velocity of the football coming out of his hand. There aren't too many guys who throw the ball as hard as Sam Darnold. He does. And, and it was, it was fun to watch.

I mean, in this, that's all I could keep thinking during the game was I'm going to come here to soldier field for the next 10 years and watch this guy play against the Vikings. And it's going to be, it's going to be high entertainment every time we see it. So I think from that perspective,

you know, Vikings fans don't want to see that but it's going to be it's going to be fun every time that the vikings come here to play against him in years to come because he's not perfect but he's also a really spectacular talent but just uh circling circling back to the defense they stopped the run and that was huge in this game. It's been huge in this recent run because when they played against the Rams and the Lions and they ran against them, my thought was this is going to be an issue. And over the next coming weeks, are they going to just collapse and start giving up big gains in the run? That has not been the case. So what they've done is they've

said, we're putting it all on you, Will Levis. We're putting it all on you, Kayla Williams. Try to beat us because we are shutting down the run. And for the most part, they didn't put up a huge point total. And I don't know what I'm supposed to tell them to do better as far as the onside kick. It's just really random. The kickoff, though, do you think that they could have kicked it through the back of the end zone and they didn't? But why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't they give them the touchdown?

Did they think that they, or the touchback, I'm sorry. Why would they give them a chance to return it? I have no idea. At any point this year, or I would just assume at any point, Parker Romo could send that thing out of the back of the end zone maybe the winds were swirling we'll talk to matt daniels on tuesday

and ask but that's it's it's such a weird high leverage random play i wouldn't even give the bears an opportunity to return it there um it almost paid and bit them in the butt but dallas turner pretty big play on special teams chase that guy down but like yeah it's it's just hard to look at what the defense did kind of in the aggregate and then kind of put in what happened in the final on the final drive just because it did feel really random that they were even in that position but yeah I think um it was just a strange you know close to the game um with that kickoff return being a very small sliver of of why the game ended up being so weird right well why don't we get into individual performances because i think that'll help us sort out some of the other things that we saw in this game and you know it also is funny because it could have

been over on a 40 yard justin jefferson touchdown that was taken off the board for a brandon powell pick play uh this if they had lost there would have been some referee related things we might have gone back to a few times in this game maybe it's that's the case for chicago too but i i didn't feel like the rest were too involved except for jordan addison makes an unbelievable catch and then is like tackled and there's no flag but then there were a couple justin jefferson down the sideline so i guess it evened out uh today but i was thinking about if that pick isn't called which you see kind of all the time but brandon powell may be too much too

much blocking there and it was a deserved call i I just think that they don't always call that. And if they don't, then that's just a touchdown. And we're probably just walking out of here. And instead, the door gets opened for a lot more things to happen. But going back to Sam Darnold, I don't think there's anything less than an A. Maybe an A plus is in the cards there. I don't know what his final box score is. I kind of don't care

i i really thought i mean just from the being here watching him operate this the times where he could have fallen apart could have melted down could have let it slip a little bit the fact that he overcame the injury uh the the circumstances here the defense i believe they were seventh best in opposing quarterback rating coming in and the fact that his left tackle goes down in the game it's it's an a for me i assume it's that for you as well what was his final score or final box score i would say a plus because he finishes 22 of 34 for 330 two touchdowns and like i said he was six for six for 90 yards on that last drive in overtime um had to throw for 90 yards because they took a sack and then they obviously also had a penalty that backed them up.

So anytime Sam Dardle needs to step up today, he did. It's an A-plus for me. I think we're pretty effusive in our praise of him to open the podcast. So I can't give him anything else than an A, and I'll go up to A-plus because I thought he was really, really good all game. But he was really, really good when the Vikings needed him down the stretch. When you consider the circumstances, the fact that it was a better team that we've seen in recent weeks, I want to say that was the best game of the year for him. And it very well could have been the best game of his entire career yeah uh with the pressure the fact that he's leading a winning team and you're coming here it honestly may have been the

best game of his entire career so yes a plus sorry i didn't include the plus but he does deserve absolutely an a plus for this game maybe the plus goes to nick mullins for the one pass completion it was big it was big that he was able to complete that, but his poise, the fact that he got on the same page with Addison, he threw accurately deep intermediate, got the ball out of his hands without taking sacks. And I know that every time he drops back, people are going to go, is this the one, is this the mistake that's going to happen? It's going to take down this game. But, you know, I think we've seen that in a couple of games where he's been good. I don't know any quarterback in the league this year that's been good in every single game.

But after this one, you can put his name in the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL. The bigger sample is the top 10 quarterbacks. And he actually is not going to play defenses of this caliber going forward. So again, sort of an opportunity for him to continue to build on this and really believe that this is an offense with its full group of weapons. Now with the way that he is connected with TJ Hawkinson, getting Addison involved can be this dangerous. As far as the running backs go, I also, I don't know what you would give them. I would also give them a very high grade. Yeah, I would probably have to drop down to like at least a B though, because of the early fumble for Aaron Jones.

But when you just look at what they were able to do, you know, they ran the ball 27 times today. They gained 124 yards. That's 4.6 a pop. And Aaron Jones ends up with at a 4.8. Cam Akers only had three carries. So he was a 4.8. Cam Akers only had three carries, so he was a 6.3. But I think what Aaron Jones was able to do, kind of leaning on him,

the 22 carries, shaking off that early fumble, I just thought overall the run game was everything you needed it to be today. The only issue was the fumble. So it's hard for me to get to that a um because when you're fumbling on the opening possession of the game after moving the ball so well after popping a 41 yard gain um it does take a little bit of the winds out of the sail but when you look at just big picture of what the running game was able to do what what it was able to open up for the Vikings as a whole, I'll go B only because of the fumble.

But the fumble was a really big deal. So overall, good game for them. Big mistake in the red zone. I guess B also because they continuously cannot run in the red zone. But they even scored a touchdown. They scored a second-half rushing touchdown, which never ever happens um for the vikings so overall pretty good yeah i know by the way guys that we're uh talking on the quiet side um just not always the the best circumstances with press boxes on the road and uh so we're trying to keep it down a little bit but

appreciate the patience on that normally uh in a game like this we would be kind of screaming our heads off at the end about how crazy it was and everything else uh as far as uh the running backs go though aaron jones playing the way he did today and it's not an amazing run defense but aaron jones having a little bit of that jolt back that he did not seem to have. I also noticed that Kevin O'Connell was mixing in Cam Akers at times in the middle of possessions, which I wanted to see him do. Because even though Akers didn't run a lot in this game, just getting him in there for a play or two. So you have Aaron Jones later in the drive a little more fresh. Get him out of the game for a play. Get him back have aaron jones later in the drive a little more fresh get him out of the game for a play get him back in rotate those guys that was important for him i think it being

as close to 100 as he possibly could be and this was the first time that in weeks that even against the jaguars he was banged up he's dealing with the rib injury. He was out for some of that game and then had to come back in. He averaged around five yards carry against the Jaguars, but it was more of a struggle. There wasn't that, oh, he spots a gap and then he flies through it and gets a big game. It was more of a grind out. Every run is like five yards. And today, right off the bat, it's a big run and run and oh okay they're going to be able to use aaron jones in this game and for him to get in the end zone to prove that they actually can run a ball in from the goal line although there's a fourth and one where they still don't want to run on those

close situations and maybe that's a questionable play call to have sam darnold out of empty with no risk of even running the football on a fourth and one that might have been if they lose something we question a little bit more on that play call Sam Darnold could have run for a first down had TJ Hawkinson's good play by the Bears defender I think he got a hand on it but the trust the relationship between Kevin O'Connell offensive line running backs and short yardage, and the trust of just the running backs are going to get it seems so low. And then fumbling is not going to make it any higher. That's also two weeks in a row that Aaron Jones has fumbled.

That cannot happen. He has had a fumbling issue at times this year, fumbled earlier in the year with a chance to put away San Francisco. But if you gain what did he get 106 yards today if you gain 106 yards i think we have to at least go b as far as the wide receivers what do you think of justin jefferson's lack of overall involvement in this game and let me just throw a little asterisk on that, that if you included pass interference yards, he's over 100, I think. Or maybe it was like 35 on one play down the sideline and then another at least 15 on another one. And then it's taken off the board on the pick play. Those three alone would have made it 100-yard day for him. And instead, he ends up with something like 27, but one of the catches is at the biggest moment where Darnold finds him over the middle on kind of a slant route in overtime. I think if Justin Jefferson has a low statistical game where Addison goes off and Hawkinson is huge and you get into the end zone on a play where for Jalen Naylor, everyone follows Justin Jefferson and Jalen Naylor goes into the end zone.

I have very few complaints about that and how it played out because the offense and Darnold was so effective, but they were able to take Justin Jefferson out of this game. That's the second time in three weeks that a team has really not been beat by Justin Jefferson. So what did you make of that? I think Justin Jefferson probably said it best this week when he was basically talking, he was doing his weekly access about how teams are defending him and how

basically whatever shows up on film does not show up when, when the game rolls around because every single defense in the league kind of tailors their coverage, tailors their scheme to taking him away. And someone asked, how would you cover you? And he said, I'd do the same thing. If it's between let Justin Jefferson beat me or let everyone else beat me, I'm not letting Justin Jefferson beat me. That was his words. So that's how I feel about this today is I would venture to guess, look, I know he likes his stats, but I also know like it is not lip service.

He likes W's more. So if they lose this game and he finishes with 27 yards, I think he's pissed. And then I think he has every right to be. I don't think he's happy that he goes to catches for 27 yards, but I think he probably better than any receiver in the league right now, is able to understand the reason Jordan Addison had 162 yards today, the reason TJ Hawkinson finishes with 114 yards today,

is singularly because of me. You mentioned the Jalen Naylor touchdown. That's like a good microcosm of what the entire game looked like. All these guys are running open because they get one-on-one matchups because Justin Jefferson draws doubles. Justin Jefferson draws triples. So I don't think he's going to leave Soldier Field feeling awesome because he more or less admitted it this week that he cares like he wants to put up these

numbers and we know that um but i i also know that he can see kind of the forest from the trees and understand like if you're taking me away and my guys are eating i'm okay with that so i if this becomes a trend if justin jefferson's getting held to 20 yards every week i do think we will start to have at least a little bit of an issue because the guy wants the ball. He's the best receiver in the league. But today in a vacuum, Jordan Addison should buy a mistake dinner. TJ Hawkinson should buy a mistake dinner

because those guys were able to kind of go nuts because all the attention was on Jefferson. So that's kind of my whole analysis on this situation. If you didn't watch the game, you see the box score. If you weren't paying attention today and you look at your fantasy team and you're like, what the heck happened? The coverage all dictated the ball had to go elsewhere. And Sam Darnold made the right decision over and over and over again. I just want to point out, because the 2022 draft took another hit uh yesterday when the vikings released the caleb evans that two of their draft picks were spent on jordan addison and tj hockinson and

if you can find more value than that with draft picks around the league uh other than quarterbacks let me know because those guys making opponents pay that's you have to make them pay for having that type of coverage on justin jefferson because if it's not tj hockinson and this is why i think we would see the offense stagnate at times throughout this season was that they didn't have the other answer when addison was maybe a little banged up and was still coming back for two different ankle injuries that he suffered, one in training camp and then one early in the season. He seems to be back to 100%. And here's how I know. Holy cow.

He was good. But, you know, when he has a bad game, then the drafts get brought up. But when he has a good game, it doesn't. But it should be brought up that when you're looking for overall value to your draft picks and what you've been able to build around your quarterback and his production is the most important thing in the NFL. This was Jordan Addison's football game. I mean, he dominated it, plays down the field, key first downs on third and long where he rose somebody off the line of scrimmage. The second and third options are as valuable as the number one option. When

you do the statistical breakdowns, this has been done about big games, the playoffs and what dictates success on offense. And oftentimes it's the number two, the number three, because defenses give so much attention. They play playoff defense against Jefferson every single week and Hawkinson today making them pay. He caught it off somebody's helmet. I think at least that's the way that it looked like, but how about throwing it up and he it's a penalty, but he mosses the guy and makes a great catch there. TJ Hawkinson's a special talent. And when he wasn't in there and they're trying to kind of workshop it and, you know, piece it together with two or three other tight ends, It just is not like it is with

a pro bowler who you spend a second round draft pick to acquire and you make one of the highest paid players in the NFL. He was so huge for them today. And then in the biggest moment drops back, Jefferson gets all this attention. Hockinson's running open. Thank you, Justin Jefferson. There's the game winning setup play for TJ Hawkinson. So as far as receivers go, I mean, it's an A plus for me. They were just, they were just spectacular. I don't know. I think there was one drop ish by Naylor, but I don't think there was any other ones. A lot of spectacular catches. Great work. Offensive line is an interesting discussion because when you lose Cam Robinson and you're still able to run the ball, still able to

grind out the pass protection to give Sam Darnold enough time, they were also heroes of this day, I think. Yeah. And Kevin O'Connell and Sam Darnold both went out of their way post-game to mention how much the offensive line leaned on the Bears defensive line. And I don't think that was by mistake. I think more than anyone, I'm saying they, Kevin O'Connell and Sam Darnold, appreciated the work those guys up front were able to do. People watching at home are probably always going to nitpick like, well, there was a big sack here. Well, you know, overall, Sam Darnold took three sacks, one big one in overtime.

He wasn't under pressure all day. I thought they held up really well. And I think he obviously went out of his way postgame to credit the fact that he felt like he was able to hang in. And then when you rush for 124 yards after losing your left tackle, I don't know if I'll go A, but maybe I would. It's hovering right around there. It just, it's always hard to dive right into an offensive line grade after without watching it. But I, I felt like we've watched so many bears games when a key mix was here where it

was just like the offensive line is trash and it was not trash today. It held up well. It's always going to have those sore spot moments. Maybe I would drop them down to a B plus because in overtime, It held up well. It's always going to have those sore spot moments. Maybe I would drop them down to a B-plus because in overtime, they allowed a pretty big sack. You could partially probably put that on Sam Darnall for not feeling it. And then they held. And in both times, Sam Darnall had to help overcome.

But they got to play a role in overcoming those mistakes too by holding up well in pass protection. So B-plus, but no complaints really because I think overall they were a big reason why the offense was able to move the ball as effectively as they did. The front seven discussion on the defensive side is a hard one to pin down because they were good enough to sack Caleb Williams. Jonathan Grenard really crunched him a couple of times. Andrew Van Ginkle was chasing him most of the day.

Some of the pressures and some of the looks clearly threw him off and they had to lean super heavily on quick pass, quick pass, quick pass, which is always going to make it much harder on the defensive line. You cannot overstate how important it was to stop the run because if they were able to run the football, and we know DeAndre Swift has crushed them stop the run because if they were able to run the football and we know deandre swift has crushed them in the past if they were able to run the football they would have had and they had the ball kind of all day in the first half anyway i think it was 20 to 21 to 9 in total time of possession early in the game because the vikings scored quickly and the bears had long drives but they were able to put it all on caleb williams and

that goes major credit to the defensive tackles jonathan bullard made a bunch of plays today i thought he was really good granard again played like a star and they're going to give missed tackles to idrivid giggle but those missed tackles were a guy looking a little michael vick like back there on a handful of occasions. He jumped over a dude. His acceleration is really spectacular, and he has a great sense for where bodies are flying at him, who's trying to tackle him. And I give more credit to Caleb Williams

than I give criticism to the front seven about the way they played in this game. And when they don't have a long kick return or an onside kick if you take that out of the equation then they would have allowed what 16 points and instead it ends up being 27 and looks a lot worse on their resume overall a good day for the defensive line i don't think you could give all the credit to williams though there were times where they needed to contain him better than they did and i'm thinking about that for next week and Kyler Murray as well, that you're going to have some quarterbacks that can scramble and they can make some plays. And the way that they rush is very wide, which does open lanes for the quarterback to get out and make plays.

But they did sack him at the biggest moment. They aren't really the ones that gave up all the yards on the kick return. They were put in a bad position there when he was able to score the two-point conversion. But there wasn't a ton of pressure on him all day, though. It wasn't like every drop back, he's freaking out and losing his mind. So I guess I would give them maybe a C- or a B minus. Yeah, I probably would say B minus just because in like the highest of high leverage moments, Jonathan Grenard comes up with a huge sack that basically just forces a punt. Not Caleb Williams' best day or best play there where you could throw the ball away

and he kind of runs around and Jonathan Bernard makes him pay. Um, but that play alone probably could get me up to in the B range just because everything is going off the rails. Oh my gosh, what's happening. Um, and then the best pass rusher on the team says like, all right, I got this. And in sacks, Caleb Williams for a loss of 11, um, basically forces a punt right there right there. But I think you're onto something about just the, I don't want to say inability, but like that they weren't able to contain him. Like part of that, he gets credit for. And Brian Flores even mentioned that this week when we talked to him, he said, our plan is to not let him break contain.

But in that same breath said, that's everyone's plan every week um you know back in the day it was probably everyone's plan not to let michael vick run around and uh sometimes they just can but there were times where it felt like fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me like the wide angles that they're taking on on these these edge rushes um and caleb williams is just able to kind of put his foot in the ground and escape outside like that happened multiple times throughout the game um so part of that goes back onto the vikings um but their ability to stop the run week in and week out now like 78 yards it felt like Caleb ran for more yards than he did he

finished with 33 I think it's because he was scrambling all over the place um and throwing the ball sometimes where it probably felt like he gained more yardage himself um but overall the Vikings ability to stop the run I think bumps up the grade even for the front seven um because it makes them so singular and what the Bears had to do to move the ball. So yeah, I'd probably say B-. There were areas where they needed to be better. But overall, I think they did what they needed to do outside of a wonky couple of minutes there at the end.

Like you said, if it's not for the long kick return and the onside kick, they lost 16 points. After all that does happen, they tighten up and they force a punt. So we'll get to the back half of the defense. But I think B- for front seven is pretty fair. Yeah, I think so. Now, the back half of the defense, i would have to give more along the lines of a c minus or d plus uh there were some big plays that were made in there there were also some drops some misthrows that they benefited from they dropped a couple of opportunities to

intercept the ball cam bynum wasn't able to make a play early in the game that might have shifted it a little bit. They were diving in tight windows that didn't make plays. They gave up a lot of explosives in the secondary today. Maybe they just thought that Williams couldn't identify some stuff with their zones or be patient enough to pick them apart. But he was, and they didn't tackle particularly well on the yards after catch. There's the deep throws that he made out of structure that were successful what did caleb williams end up with for his

passing by the way he finished with 340 yeah 32047 for 340 7.2 an attempt two touchdowns that's a 103 rating so that's that's pretty good yeah that's a lot and and the fact that they weren't able to cover up when they needed it most because after the long kick return you can easily just get a stop there not easily but you could just get a stop there and the game is over and then we never talk about that return ever again and they allowed open wide receivers keenan allen just continues to give them problems it felt like dj moore ro Roma Dunze, the guys that you're saying, take away one of them, take away two of them,

and you're going to be okay. And it really seemed like they took away none of them. And this is something that is a legitimate major concern as we go down the stretch here, because it's going to be Marvin Harrison Jr.

and Trey McBride, and then Drake London and Kyle Pitts and B. John Robinson and D.K. Metcalf and Jackson Smith, the Jig London and Kyle Pitts and Dijon Robinson and DK Metcalf and Jackson Smith, the Jigba and the Lions and the Packers. And there's lots of really, really good wide receivers and they just cut another corner and there's no one coming to help. And I think what the overall strategy is, is to cause so much pressure that the quarterback just makes mistakes.

And they didn't pick off the balls today when they had a chance. They got a couple of sacks by doing that, but it wasn't enough up front to really help out the secondary. And when other teams have good receivers, they will win these matchups. Gilmore has been okay this year, but he's not someone you can lock someone down with. Byron Murphy Jr. gets attacked at times. They know that Harrison Smith isn't as quick as he used to be. They were using a lot of deception with him. There are just players that you can attack.

And if you're walking out of here going, what's my big concern about the way the Bears were able to come back? Because it was pretty random. It is that they have to play these big zones in those spots because they can't just lock down wide receivers and other teams have had success in those hey we got it we got to have one we got to have a drive against this Vikings defense and unless they get a sack like they did it in overtime or an interception on some crazy throw by Mac Jones or Will Levis they are often able to find people open.

Yeah. And I think that's, that's, I mean, that's always kind of going to be the case with, with Brian Flores until the Vikings give him, and they've given him a lot, like a lot of his defense was a by-product of a spending spree in free agency. So it's not like the cupboard is bare, but until they give Brian Flores a legitimate legitimate shutdown corner like i think he's gonna continue to sit in these zones because he knows like if you single someone up um you're probably at a disadvantage more often than not um in that matchup so like it's it's not it can't all be on the front seven like you have to get pressure um part of the like the accountability has to go on to the secondary of like even if they don't get home here we need you to not give up a

25 yard play um and just like anecdotally right after that that kick return or right after the onside kick recovery i'm sorry they do heal up the 25 yard play um i'm sure they would have loved to sack caleb williams there i'm sure they would have loved to sack Caleb Williams there. I'm sure they would have loved to pressure him into an errant throw. They didn't. They needed the secondary to step up there. It did not. So C- feels fine. D- if you want to get into the Ds, that's fine.

When you get sliced and diced for 340, it can't be too high of a grade. The one thing that could have upped the grade is if cam biden doesn't drop an interception usually he doesn't he did today um it just it didn't feel like they were sharp didn't feel like they were crisp often this secondary can make you pay for mistakes even while they're struggling themselves they didn't do that today either um so it's not their best day um and i don't think we're breaking news i think most guys would probably agree with that um when a rookie quarterback goes for for over 340 on you but you make a really good point that if you're going to

survive having a secondary like this which is not the fastest they can't play up on people and just press the heck out of uh other receivers receivers and take them out of the games. Not guys like a Doonze, not guys like Keenan Allen, who's a great route runner. He's also a big dude. He looks like a tight end out there. I've always thought that whatever, I don't know what his height and weight is, but he always looks huge to me. Maybe that's because he's always having a huge game. Every time he plays against the Vikings, they kept him under 18 catches, which is actually an improvement from the last time they faced him. But the, it's going to rely entirely on, do you pressure the quarterback

into horrible decisions? And then do you take advantage when the quarterback makes horrible decisions? And I didn't think Caleb Williams made horrible decisions today. And I definitely didn't think they took advantage when he did give them a couple of opportunities to do that. And that's what you end up with is a passing game that was effective. They stayed on the field. They got open receivers. I think that was as weird as the special teams were. That was the worst part of the game for them is that they allowed those receivers to control the game in a lot of ways throughout.

And if they hadn't had so much success offensively, then they could have lost because of it. Special teams was an absolute journey today. Good and bad. It was good and bad. They block a field goal. Jerry Tillery gets a paw on a field goal. They recover a fumble because if I write about a special teamer,

he will be immediately awesome in the next game. This is proven. I was asking someone with the team, like, who do you want me to write about next? Like, who do you need? Who needs like a burst? Who needs a little jolt? Because I wrote a story about Bo Richter. Make sure you go to purpleinsider.football and check that out. And then Bo Richter jumps on a fumble today. That was a very strange bounce that they got and took advantage of it is a totally lucky thing i don't know if the blocked kick is a lucky thing because they blocked one last week and it seems like the vikings got the same push off of that left side and were able to get somebody far enough in up the middle when a lot of blocks usually come from the edge but

they took advantage there did something in order to get the amount of press that they were looking for. And then at the end, giving up the long return is just so unacceptable. I don't know why you're kicking to him and not out of the back of the end zone for a touchback. Maybe they were thinking, let's take a few seconds off the clock.

That feels like classic Vikings getting cute rather than just doing the safe thing. Just like when they had the go ahead, the go up by 11 field goal, but they have to go out and pretend they're going to snap at first. Just there's always got to be that little extra layer of, do you see how we coach? You know, no trick plays today. That was nice. But there was just that little, and they stopped the one trick play on a nice job by cam by him uh if they had given up that one the grade would have been much worse for the secondary but uh it was it just impacted the game in a lot of ways and when special teams

does that you just feel like you have no control as i'm sure offenses and defenses coaches reporters trying to cover the game what am i supposed to take away from that they had a random bounce you had a random bounce i guess it all comes out even in the end yeah how you look at it i guess um because i guess if they would have lost i think there was some people who would be calling for matt daniel's head and like neglecting the fact that the special teams also made two really good plays to put them in position. It's just like the nature of the beast at special teams. Like unless you're just quiet and do nothing or like make it a huge spectacular. Anytime a special teams blunder shows up in the game, it's going to be ultra magnified because that is just like part of the game that you just can't afford mistakes in and

two huge mistakes in huge moments while trying to close out a game that just can't happen so yeah the the mistakes on on special teams far outweigh the gains like yeah it's awesome that jerry tillery brought blocked the field goal yeah it's awesome that bo richter your guy jumps on a fumble but when you're up 11 and you need to close out the game the special teams cannot become part of the story just do your job and go back to the sideline it sounds crass but that that's how it has to be like good teams that that doesn't happen so that that can't happen in that moment um i do want to give a shout out to parker romo um two weeks after going four for four scoring all the points against jacksonville um it's a 29 yard field goal it's not like a crazy

hard field goal it's not a 27 yard field goal that that sometimes gets pushed wide left um but like there's pressure there and in your your parker romo you know will reichert is at some point coming back whether it's this season or next um this is not your job um and to come out in that moment and win them the football game um in like this moment where your career is kind of hanging in the balance if you start and you continue to do well, you might be a kicker in the NFL for a while. If you fall flat on your face and if you yank this one left, because there's pressure to win the game,

you might get cut tomorrow and no one will pick you up. It is very much like live or die right now for Parker Romo. And he came through in the biggest moment. Only bring him up because he is part of the special teams um and he won them the game today so you know he gets to kind of up the grade of special teams but overall like I don't know what we would actually grade them but the fact that they became part of the story cannot happen moving forward and uh Ryan Wright didn't punt very well today no he didn't and there were a couple of risks that brandon powell took that i did not like that there were plays where he should

have just called fair catch or gotten away from the football and he trusts himself a lot he's been a punt returner in the league for a very long time but that is playing with fire that is just screaming out to fumble one and then he did fumble one and it was ruled that he was down and he was but again feels like there's been a few of those where it's almost fumbling the ball uh making a risky play there's a guy bearing down on you and you decide to return it anyway because you think you can dodge that first tackler so overall this was a game where we spent a lot more time talking about special teams than usual for good reason it played a huge role in the game and it was just it was given takeaway but usually this vikings special teams has been almost

non-existent it's kind of been a ghost it's like reichard made all of his kicks and romo made all of his kicks when he came in and we just didn't have much to discuss. Ryan Wright has had a fine season up to this point. It wasn't spectacular, but it also wasn't terrible like it was last year. And today they kind of gave us all at once to discuss. On the coaching side, because I want to get to the big picture here, which is probably the most important thing out of this show. But on the coaching side, did you have, did you have nitpicks? Did you have beefs with what happened today? I mentioned the

fourth down play call, putting him in empty, trying to run a pass there. He had an opportunity to scramble for a first down, which of course we never talk about that play again. If he scrambles for a first down or the play call, but if you call a game that results in that type of performance by your offense, I'm going to have a very difficult time criticizing the coach. I think that Kevin O'Connell probably gets an A for that. And defensively, should have been in a position to win the game, didn't come up with anything at the end. The blitzes didn't maybe work as well as they should have and all the

different types of pressures they were able to resolve some of them in the second half but i don't i don't have a huge criticism of hey like they they botched some situational thing or game management or decision um did you have something no i i the only thing if you want a nitpick is that fourth and one. I think we touched on it enough. Overall, I thought it was, yeah, I mean, the offensive scheme worked. Clearly, they planned for Chicago to try and take away Jefferson, and they made them pay elsewhere. And the defense, I think we've talked a little bit about that by now,

but too much given up to Caleb Williams. But overall, there's like i can point to and say like that moment of the game that coaching decision derailed what like no there wasn't any of that so um i thought the coaching was fine today okay let's wrap up on the biggest thing is the vikings came out of the rams game with three opportunities to win three games against or wait, I'm sorry, four opportunities to win four games against four bad teams and to set themselves up to race down the stretch for the division, for the conference, for playoff position, for a chance to maybe in the playoffs go down the road against a much worse team and to show that they weren't going to have the 2016 collapse. It got brought up over and over after they lost those two games to the Lions and Rams. Are they going to fall apart? Are they going to let it slip away?

And they had zero letdown losses, zero, in a stretch where I think historically, Dane, every year I've ever covered this team that they have had one of them. And they nearly did in 2022 against the Indianapolis Colts and avoided it with one of the largest comebacks ever. But to me, that was still a letdown or meltdown game. Maybe that's Jacksonville and they still escape with the win but four and oh and nine and two i don't know what anybody can ask more for there's always going to be things that we're going to break down that we're going to critique that we're going to say how's this going to translate as they go forward but when would you look around the league there are so many games where the houston texans lose to the jets the texans lose to the Jets, the Texans lose to the Tennessee Titans today.

And I still feel like the Texans are a good team, but good teams have these losses. Did Washington lose today to the Dallas Cowboys? You see this all the time where there's these good teams who have bad losses and the Vikings had four chances to have that bad loss. And it just didn't happen. They did not have that bad loss. And it just didn't happen. They did not have that bad loss. And I think that that's huge, no matter how it happened. And now all they have to do is be an average team the rest of the way to have good playoff position,

a situation where they could go on the road with team, be the team with the better record. And they won 12 games in 2009 with Brett Favre and they've got a chance to do it again here uh it's it's a remarkable stretch because even though it wasn't always perfect and it was wonky and it was weird and it was ugly at times you walk out of it with Sam Darnold having two of the best games that he has ever had in his career and that also falls under the category of probably the biggest thing is that they've activated, to use an O'Connell word, all of their weapons.

And they have Darnold bouncing back from the game in Jacksonville. It's just extremely, extremely impressive to go 4-0 in the NFL anytime. And they have a five-game win streak and a four-game win streak in the same season. This team had every chance today to have the loss at Soldier Field that we talk about forever, the meltdown at Soldier Field, for everybody to come out and say, oh, well, they weren't really as good as we thought because they were capable of that loss and everything else. And they didn't do it. And now they have four home games in December, and there's a chance to even be better than a 12-win team. So I am going to find it hard-pressed, once again,

to go through another week of discussion and build up to the next game and be ripping them apart and saying that they're not as good as we expect because they just keep going out and showing that they are. And they'll lose some of these games the rest of the way, but winning the games against the lesser teams

was so important for their playoff position and for making this season what it looked like it was going to be when they were five and oh yeah and i think when they were five and oh everyone was looking for the first opportunity to say this these guys are frauds and then it happened like they lost to the lions which i mean people might not remember but it was a close game. They only lost by two on a last-second field goal. And then they went tough travel to the West Coast, and they lose two games in the span of five days. And that was the opportunity I feel like everyone who wanted to call them frauds jumped on and said,

here is where it ends. Here is where Darnold turns back into a pumpkin. Here is where the Vikings prove that the darnell turns back into a pumpkin here's where the vikings prove that the first five games were just an aberration and they go back to being just this average team that we thought they were going to be that vegas thought was only going to win six and a half games more or less and into your point like all they did out of that was win four straight games and yeah like would they have loved to blow out each opponent over the last month 100 does that happen in the nfl no and i think your point about what the tennessee titans did to the houston texans today is a great one teams in the nfl like you almost have to

account for it when whenever you do the the schedule, pick them, or whenever we do that show in the off season, like you almost account for slip ups because you can't just say like, okay, they're going to beat this team. They're going to beat this bad team. You account for the fact that in the NFL, good teams play down to their opponent and they lose those games. The Vikings at some points in the last month did play down to their opponent, but when push came to shove, they found ways to win the games. So anyone who was looking for that opportunity when they were dropped to 5-2, to say, like, here comes the snowball, it's going to roll down the hill, it's going to get away from them, they can't really say anything right now because they're sitting at 9-2.

Those people, I'm'm sure will come back out of the woodwork if they lose in the playoffs and they don't win the Super Bowl. Only one team gets to do that. But along the way this year, like all they've done is prove that they're one of the best teams in the NFL. Could it look better week to week? Absolutely. But this is the echo chamber that the Vikings fans live in live in so every win regardless of what it looks like unless it's the biggest blowout of all time we're gonna find things to nitpick and that's kind of the fun of it like that's the fun of being able to talk about a game like this but if you kind of zoom out and look at the rest of the league like there aren't a lot of blowouts

there are teams and then they play with their food against their opponents all the time. The Vikings did it at times over the past month, but they walked away victorious four and oh, and this huge stretch nine and two heading into the home stretch. And who knows? Like, I honestly, like it sounds crazy,

but they're only one game back of Detroit in the NFC North. They would need some help. Detroit would need to win, but I'm sorry, Detroit would need to lose a game. The Vikings would obviously then need to win to make up the ground, but we could be looking at, like, I just talked about the slip ups like a collision course week 18 for the NFC

North. Like that's not out of the realm of possibility. And I think that's just a testament to what they were able to do over the last month, this four and O stretch for the Vikings to take a word out of Kevin O'Connell's book of cliche phrases. Everything they want to do is still in front of them. And it's because of this past stretch. Right. And the thing to pick apart with this last bunch of games in this 4-0 run is just, are you concerned that they're not as strong as we once thought they were because these games were close? Or do you look at how they were actually played

and how much they really, truly outplayed the other teams, including today, where this should have been the two-score win. And this was one of those, all one-score wins are not the same. I mean, you're winning the entire game, you're controlling it the entire game. And because of some stuff that happens at the end, you end up with a one score overtime win, even though you played a better football game than your opponent. Every one of these games, they played a better football game from top to bottom. And they did, as you said, play with their food. They did allow stupidly the bears to stay in this one and not get a big stop and not stop a

kick return, but four and Oh, with four games where you were the better team on the field decidedly, I think in all four games, uh, bodes well down the stretch, but we'll find out what they're truly going to be over these last, uh,

six games and whether we're going to go into the playoffs saying, wow, they are that strong or, uh, we've got some things to be concerned about. We will find out and we will be, as always, covering every one of those games. And at least four of them in December will be at US Bank Stadium, where we'll be a little louder, I think, after the game. So thank you all for your patience with our quietness and for watching, listening and reacting to this game.

And we will catch you all back in Minnesota. Thanks so much, everybody, for watching and listening.