Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - We might as well talk about the Vikings' chances against the Ravens

Episode Date: November 5, 2021

After a week picking apart the Vikings' brutal loss to the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday night, we finally turn the page and discuss some of the news items leading up to the Vikings and Ravens. Garrett Bradbury is on the COVID-19 list, so does that mean Mason Cole is going to take his job? Why has Bradbury been so disappointing? Plus, let's talk about when we can second guess. With Danielle Hunter out, is it OK to wonder if they shouldn't have traded Stephen Weatherly? OK about the Ravens... are the Vikings going to beat them? What do we make of the way Lamar Jackson has had to carry Baltimore? Will we see adjustments from the Vikings? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar along with Sam Ekstrom. The schedule here on the podcast being shifted around a little because Courtney Cronin is not available this week. She's out of town. She does not have COVID. She's not on the COVID list. She wanted everybody to know that, but out of town.

She's like doing a speaking engagement at Indiana. It's like a pretty big deal. Yeah, no, very cool for her, but not available for this podcast. So here you are, Sam. So we shuffled around when you're doing the game preview of sorts and imagine there's a game that we haven't talked about at all, really on the show. And for good reason, I think. So let's start right off by just talking about some of the things that have been going on with this team and how they will impact the Vikings against Baltimore, because lo and behold, the season is not actually much more like all right well season is still very much on so let's start off with Garrett Bradbury goes on to the COVID-19 list and this will open up the door for Mason Cole to start at center presumably and this is one where man if you told me in 2018, 19, 2019, when he was drafted, that people would be like, oh, this should be interesting to see what this former sixth rounder from the Cardinals that they picked up for nothing can do.

I guess I wouldn't have believed you. I would have thought that we would have had, by now, much higher standards for Garrett Bradbury, that a loss of him in a big game like this, you would have felt like, oh, this is the big problem for them. He's a key player. Instead, it's maybe a Brett Jones addition by subtraction potential. Yeah, the Mason Cole bandwagon, it's not filled by any means, but I think it could get some followers, some people jumping on board if he has just a respectable performance, particularly in pass protection, because that's the Garrett Bradbury kryptonite. And he hasn't had that third year

jump that I think we were anticipating. I think you and I both held out hope that, you know, sometimes it takes these guys a little bit. Allegedly, he gained some strength, but the numbers still come up. And it was the same way in the Cowboys game where he was a big culprit, where the powerful defensive lines set him back in pass protection. And the run blocking is still pretty good. But it's no different than what we've seen. It's not different enough to start talking about Garrett Bradbury any differently. And his future is obviously up in the air with the 50-year option coming up.

Probably not going to get picked up, I wouldn't think. And then obviously this is when legitimate players start thinking about extensions. That's probably not going to happen. I mean, if you're the Vikings, you might even start your, your thinking to what's next at that position. Um, still half a season to go. Um, Mason Cole's in a contract year, so you can't really think of him necessarily as a future piece either. But, um, for this particular season, if you could somehow catch lightning in a bottle with a random backup who people pilloried when you traded for him, we were even like, what are you doing? How is this a real solution? I think it helped seeing Mason Cole in preseason because he was actually really good

going up against mostly twos, but he was solid there. So that's actually pretty compelling to me to see what happens with Cole, presumably Cole. I think there's an outside chance that it'd be Dozier, but probably not. So I've got several thoughts on this. First is I, as you were talking, was wondering if it's even possible to have something like this rile up anyone at this point so there were previous points in viking seasons where uh we were looking at every minute detail and saying hey should they be playing brett jones over dakota dozier because they need slightly better pass protection and he's an improvement and you know the offense can do this and that if cousins is clean and you know all those sorts of things um and then

now i sit here thinking i i wonder if there's just shrugs for everything like this and that's one of the reasons we haven't gotten into the minutiae of the team this week is everything feels like it just means nothing in comparison to the bigger picture of if you don't win this game and you don't win in los angeles and what all of that means. But I think it's worth going back to and circling back to Garrett Bradbury has not just been a, oh, well, you know, you didn't get the value out of that pick. It has been a flaming bus fire of a selection in the first round. And when we talk about Kirk Cousins contract,

one of the things that you have to have happen, if you pay that much for a quarterback, it's not impossible to win. If you pay that much for a quarterback, you have to hit on draft picks though. And I know that drafting is random. We have draft nihilism on the show where it's like, look, nobody knows, but it's a reality that you have to hit and this is not just a miss this is a you are playing the worst center in the nfl every week in garrett bradbury right now he leads the nfl in pressures allowed with 17 he has the lowest pass blocking grade of any center in the nfl and overall he's 24th he's making no impact discernibly from other centers on the run game like it is an upgrade to play mason cole because it has to be he's dead last in the nfl and so to play mason cole you're probably going

to get even if it's poor it's still better and then there's another part of me that also thinks about the oli udo decision and how we just haven't really like questioned why mason cole wouldn't have gotten to try at guard if you recall there was a a whole thing when he uh got picked up mason cole of like hey you know at guard he played four games and had this pff grade which you know we know is a little bit flawed and how you're thinking about that but only udo right now is 45th ranked by PFF. By the way, Ezra Cleveland, 44th. That isn't working either. But that's 45th out of maybe 50-something. I mean, one of the worst guards in the league.

And I guess we're talking here again about, well, looks like you mismanaged the old offensive line. Eh, Vikings? Right. I mean, this had the potential to be better, and even at one point looked like it was going to be better, but the same problems have been the same problems. Yeah.

Udo started out decently enough that it was almost like he bought himself some time to struggle with that nice start he had, but now it's been consecutive games, three or four consecutive games where he's been a liability. And I thought the Cowboys game was a great example with Bradbury struggling mightily, Udo struggling mightily. So two interior linemen and therefore Kirk Cousins struggling mightily. It's not that difficult of a formula to figure out that when those pieces break down, the quarterback in turn also breaks down.

The Vikings remain hesitant to bench guys for performance. I was actually surprised that the Christian Derrissaw thing moved as quickly as it did because that's not really how this team operates. And maybe it shows you that Wyatt Davis could be a play down the road or somebody else. You asked about Davis today, and I'm not sure we got the most ringing endorsement of him. Dakota Dozier is not going to inspire anybody, except for the fact that he's a veteran and might have a little more knowledge of the offense. But you don't have many options

right now. Kyle Hinton might be the most appealing option at guard. So here we are once again talking about an offensive line that doesn't seem to be greatly improved and another offseason potentially coming up where you've got more questions than answers. I think Udo is an RFA. Bradbury might be going into a lame duck year. And you needed two of the three wild cards to work out. And so far, basically none of them are. Derrissaw has worked out the best in the limited time. So your tackles are looking good, but it's that interior. This team just needs that stability there more than most teams. You know what's crazy is to look at the list of players who are among the top in the NFL in terms of guards and their grades.

Now, it's very possible that just Cousins staying where he stays in the pocket has an impact on this. The PFF will tell you that it doesn't, but I don't see how it couldn't that the quarterback just doesn't move. But there are some of these guys that were, they were around, uh, Wyatt Teller was traded for, for almost nothing. I think he was in Buffalo and then Cleveland traded for him. Trey Smith was a late draft pick. He's sixth by PFF. Um, Quinton Spain has been a free agent several different times he's 13th elijah vera tucker is 14th though he struggled a bit in pass protection but has really good run blocking of course they didn't have the money to go after an andrew norwell or joe tooney but they're up

there um kevin zeitler is top 20 he plays for baltimore he's another guy that you know was sort of out there for possibilities and this team decided to put a lot of its money into the defensive side and not kind of go all in on some of these decisions and then also you know they didn't go out of their way to keep riley reef which so you've kind of got the hole you open one hole and you have to fill that but then you know you're dealing with other holes because of it and so it it feels like we've reached the point and it just is sort of a reminder of like, oh yeah, you know, we've been criticizing Zimmer, Clint Kubiak, Kirk for kind of not being able to get enough.

But here we are again, having the offensive line discussion, like let's not let that go underrated because they still rank at the bottom of the league in pass protection. And maybe Mason Cole is a slight enough upgrade now i want to talk about daniel hunter being out a little more because we have not discussed that at all that for one it's an interesting opportunity for kenny willekes who apparently has been lawrence taylor in practice according to the vikings um but i really liked what i saw from kenny willekes in preseason. His athleticism is, I don't want to say, I don't want to do the underrated thing, but everyone says motor.

It's his motor. His actual athletic profile is pretty good. I think he has a chance to do something and be a player. He's not going to be anywhere close to, um, Daniel Hunter. I just think that by the end of the year kenny willekes is the starting uh defensive end and not dj one i don't disagree with that i'm glad you said it because it crossed my mind and i didn't know if it was too hot of a take but they trotted out kenny willekes a practice squad player to talk at the podium today now granted they did that with

one yesterday too so they're it's equity there's equitable um and they brought in a veteran nate orchard today who presumably i think would get elevated and and take a spot the apple of my eye nate orchard yeah former uh former bill former other teams too come on nothing on that journeyman apple of my eye um Yeah, no, I'm really poor at... He can patch the hole like a pumpkin patch. Yeah, he's... Never mind. I was going to try something, but I'm just not going to wade there. I don't have the pun gene like you do. But I think that with, you know, I'm always of the opinion that if you're dealing with day three picks, I mean, who cares if it's a fourth round pick or a seventh round pick?

Wanham shouldn't get precedent just because he was Andre Patterson's pet cat. It should not matter. It should be who's performing. And I feel like Willekes' elevation, you know, and I'm glad that they're prioritizing him over Patrick Jones, because it seems like he's ahead of him at this point. Patrick Jones has not exactly gotten ringing endorsements either from this coaching staff. And Willekes got a year in the system, too, where he got to learn. And sometimes that redshirt year, whether you're healthy or hurt, can make a pretty big difference. He came in with a lot more system knowledge than Patrick Jones did,

and now it seems to be paying off. Now, we haven't really seen this high motor yet with our own eyes. It's more hearsay. We've heard it from Clint Kubiak today was raving about Kenny Willekes. But DJ Wanham is doing nothing to block him from jumping up. DJ Wanham, I think, is 42nd of 44 defensive ends who have 50% of snaps. And he's getting less than a pressure a game. So it's not really going great with Wanham. And that's one player that you kind of needed to step up this year, too, on that defensive line. You needed to get something from that second-year crop.

And maybe Willekes is the guy, actually, instead of Wanham. So I'm going to read you a little number here when it comes to their edge rushers or even just the whole defensive line in terms of pressures. Daniil Hunter had 31 so far this year in seven games, or really six and a half. So that's about five- a game by the way note on that on pace going into the Cowboys game on pace for the same number as 2019 so if you're wondering like whether he was like as effective yes he was as effective as the best version of himself he was playing monster football and so he has 31 leads the team next is everson griffin who has 25 just having a great year in

fact um very similar in terms of the pressures per pass rush to daniel hunter that's how good everson griffin has been the next most so remember 31 25 the next most yes yeah go ahead um watts uh delvin tomlinson 11 that's the drop. So now you go from, in terms of your pass rush, 25 to 11 to Sheldon Richardson nine, which is one of their biggest bust signings. I mean, he's entering like Tajay sharp sort of category of, did they actually even sign him? Or did we imagine that? And then DJ Wanham on 200 pass rushes, more pass rushes than Everson Griffin has eight. Everson Griffin has 25 pressures on 195. DJ Wanham has eight on 206.

This man cannot get anywhere near an NFL quarterback. So it is Kenny Willekes time in my mind. I mean, it's any anybody but the guy who's shown no ability whatsoever to pressure the quarterback is the way I would look at it, but also, well, that's not good. I mean, I just, Daniil Hunter was kind of holding this thing together and now there's a lot of pressure. There's going to be a lot of pressure on those corners. It's just hard. It's just hard to see against the quarterbacks they're facing without Daniel Hunter. Well, you're not going to get doubles on Wanham to free up Griffin anymore.

You know, that ship has sailed. Suddenly you become very easy to neutralize. And your best play is probably to throw someone in there that the Ravens don't know much about, like Willekes, and try to get pressure that way. Now this isn't quite as much of a pressure game as it is a discipline game. Like this is a game where the ends need to be tackling and run fitting and like very, very assignment sound football. I think, you know, against Herbert and Rogers, like those are the games where you really want to have your pass rush put together. And Jackson can throw the ball, too, but it's much more of a option based. It's a tough prep. It's a totally different game plan.

It's even different than Kyler Murray, who is more of a freelancer where the Ravens have the QB runs as part of a design. This is a game I'm actually super excited to watch it because working a beat, you don't get to watch as much outside football beside the Vikings and we miss a lot of Ravens games. I'm really pumped to watch this guy because who knows where Lamar Jackson will be at the next time the Vikings play him. This might be the one time that you get to watch Lamar Jackson take on the Vikings at his best, and I think that's going to be fun. Imagine my, well, sadness slash excitement of when Patrick Mahomes was out against the Vikings in Kansas City.

It would have been so much fun to see Patrick Mahomes at his peak. In his building, where we will be for eight years in a year where they won the Super Bowl I mean that would have been very cool but then we saw the game that the backup quarterback salvage for them to get a first round bye and then eventually use that home field advantage to reach the Super Bowl so memorable in its own way but you're you're right about that I mean when a great AFC quarterback comes in here that we don't see or just plays the Vikings in general, it's exciting. And in a way, I talked about this maybe last week, but the Dallas game gave us an opportunity to break down everything,

like how their offensive line, defensive line, corners, quarterbacks, receivers, all that stuff when we thought Dak was playing. And to not have that because this week has felt really like you know a slog for everybody here who's dragging themselves in in front of the podium and being like yeah no we're really excited about this game you know I mean it's um I feel like you get robbed of that excitement of just like the build-up and talking about how they're going to take on Lamar. I have a philosophical question for you, though. When do you believe it's OK to second guess?

And I only ask this because of the Stephen Weatherly thing. I think it's a little stretchy to say, man, you know, you let go of Weatherly and then Hunter gets hurt. And now your depth is bad. Like, bad move, guys. Right. But I also think that there are times where you can say, look, you know, drafting a center in the first round was pretty risky. And there's a good chance that doesn't work out for you. It's not a position of value that you should really be picking.

Right. You know what I mean? And I wonder if, like, the Weatherly one pushes the edges of second guessing well i i do agree with you it is a hindsight second guess that i've probably perpetuated in some way but um i'm sure they don't do it number one unless they felt like they had a viable somebody else to step up. Seems like it was Willekes, who at the time of the trade really was not on our radar. His name didn't come up until the following week. And then we came to realize, okay, you're basically replacing Weatherly with Willekes, mano a mano. So with that in mind, you're right where you would have been before.

You know, if you had Weatherly and someone went down, you know, it's sort of the same number of bodies you're working with. We have to think of roster size beyond 53. If you're on the practice squad, you're basically part of the team. It's basically like you have a 69-man roster. Nice. Thank you. And that, you know that allows for more flexibility. They bring in this Nate Orchard guy.

He's on the practice squad, but he's basically in the mix because they can elevate him for free for the next two weeks. They can elevate Willekes again. They don't have to make any definitive moves with the roster because of all that flexibility. And secondly, we were tearing apart Weatherly for being so ineffective, for getting passed in the rotation, Wanham beat him out. Obviously, Griffin passed both of them. So to say that they would have been better off with Weatherly, who was as ineffective as Wanham, essentially, getting to the passer, that's probably a little disingenuous. You're probably better off grooming somebody who's got a future with the team. Even if they are ineffective, they still have more of a future than Weatherly,

which I think, yes, makes this not the best second guess in the world. I'd be more prone to second guess the Mike Hughes trade, which I mentioned in an article earlier this week, who's actually doing super well with Kansas City relative to the rest of their defense. And, you know, Mike Zimmer knows this. The corners get hurt. You can never have too many of them. And Zimmer admitted that they made that trade because they weren't sure he was going to be healthy. Well, but you only got a seventh round pick, so it really wasn't that much you got back in return. And clearly he is healthy, so it must not have been that dismal of a situation. Anyway, that's an aside. Back to you.

Sam Ekstrom here, wondering if you're stuck on your company's injury report. In an unfortunate situation like that, it's good to have someone in your corner. That's where Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer Law can help you understand your rights under Minnesota's workers' compensation laws. There's enough uncertainty in our lives nowadays that the last thing you want is to feel helpless if you wind up in a bad situation after a workplace injury. Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer will fight for you if there's been a wrongfully denied work comp claim so you can get the benefits you deserve. If your claim's been accepted, they help with rehabilitation disputes,

medical disputes, help you get a second opinion, and ensure you're getting all the benefits you're entitled to on an accepted claim. Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer will provide you with dedicated and experienced disability attorneys that have secured their clients tens of millions of dollars. Our good friends Mike, Pat, and Evan will handle all that messy legalese to and from the insurance company about your claim while you focus on what's important, your recovery.

And there's no cost involved for reaching out to Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer. In fact, you don't pay a dime unless they successfully obtain your benefits. You get paid, then they get paid. It's that simple. The website is yourminnesotaworkcomployer.com, where you can find a phone number to get a free consultation. This is an attorney advertisement from Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer, yourminnesotawnesota work comp lawyer.com

yeah i think that if you brought up the possibility at the time that this could come back to haunt you then i think you get to go back and say we could have seen it coming so on the matter of stephen weatherly it shouldn't have been super heartbreaking for anybody that he was traded but he is an NFL player who's been in the system who has filled in before and not been a laughingstock now maybe he's just not a good rotational player I don't know but I think we did look at that at the time and say all right well they really have to believe in these guys behind him and so if that ends up being the case and kenny willekes comes in and plays and again i'm gonna i'm not gonna like

stake my career on kenny willekes but i do think that there's something there and they see them in practice every day so they would know all right whether lee is just falling behind even kenny willekes it's time to move some space from that perspective, then yeah. Uh, but it always was a possibility if you lost either one of these two guys, Hunter and Griffin, that what's behind them is nothing, nothing with any sort of proven experience of being a good pass rusher. And this is why here's the second guess is, and you were right about this. And I was not, I thought Steven Weatherly in Minnesota would be fine and be effective at least like he was in 2018 and 2019. And the day that

they did it, you said, really, really guys, you're bringing in another guy that, you know, can't really do it like they did with Shamar. Stefan, just bring him back, bring him back. He knows the system. Um, when there were other pass rushers and we're going to see one, Justin Houston. I mean, that guy stayed on the free agent list for how long? This year before signing with Baltimore. And Vinny Curry gets brought up all the time. He's sort of a journeyman pass rusher.

And they went with somebody who had zero sacks last year. Hadn't had a sack since 2019. So I think that there is some second guessing here of you knew that Hunter was coming off this injury. You knew that Wanham didn't really show much in his first year. And your only response was at the very end of camp getting Griffin. And it's worked out for you really well. But if it hadn't, we'd be in the same spot talking about like hunters alone on an island. Can I just rant quickly about Vikings fandom in general and just fans and people I see that, and I think this is a little bit of a problem with certain players,

that you latch on to a moment, a play, a performance, and then extend that out to define the player. I'm thinking of Sheldon Richardson against the 49ers in 2018. I'm thinking of Stephen Weatherly, who had the sack that produced Linval Joseph's epic pick six. I'm thinking of B.C. Johnson doing well in his first game. D.J. Wanham sacking Rodgers once last year to clinch that game. Those plays generate articles, headlines, feature stories about those players. But oftentimes you forget that Weatherly was really not that effective outside of a couple of performances in 2018, just like Richardson was also up and down, just like B.C. Johnson was actually not that effective. And I think that's what people

ran into with Weatherly was his limited success was it's a small sample size sport anyway. And then when you cut into like a smaller piece of the pie and try to isolate it, I think the writing was on the wall that this could be a disaster. And that was why I was kind of against the move from the beginning. And I don't know, what's a Fadioenebo doing by the way is he on a roster somewhere I don't know I thought did he get cut by the Giants he's been off and on because they tried to make him another three tech and that clearly didn't you know work out amazingly here so I'm I don't know I don't know what's going on with that didn't uh Eric Wilson recently get cut I was shocked by that. He did. Yeah, me too. Seemed like a really good player. Yeah. Not that the bar is super high for the bar is super high to clear what bar has done so far this year.

But I was kind of on the train of I know that Eric Wilson is not as good as Anthony Barr, but he's healthy and he can cover. So clearly whatever system they were putting him in did not fit as well as this one. And's healthy and he can cover so clearly whatever system they were putting him in did not fit as well as this one and that's a big deal too and while we're at this why don't we run down a couple of other things sort of like what we thought and whether it's worth second guessing because I think that's a fun way to kind of look back and say like what did we expect from it and what did we sort of predict and then how it turned out. Mackenzie Alexander is the Vikings lowest graded player on defense. DJ Wanham is second lowest, by the way, Rashad Breland, not too far ahead of Mackenzie Alexander. He has received absolutely no criticism

that I've seen from fans media. Um, but this signing has not gone well looking at how opposing teams have produced against him. 105 quarterback rating when they're targeting him, his coverage grade is a 48 and he gave up the big play, um, that really changed the confidence of the Dallas offense. I mean, they were going nowhere. They were doing nothing with Cooper Rush. And then all of a sudden, you know, Alexander gets burned. And I know Xavier Woods said, oh, we didn't give him any help. But Alexander gets roasted and he's just he's not played well since returning. And I guess that's one where you look at and go, I thought this would work out great.

I thought this was a great signing. Low money. Someone who knew how to play with Zimmer before had a decent history, and this one has not succeeded. Yeah, this one's interesting because I'm looking at the numbers just like you are, and he's not targeted that often. He's given up one touchdown, which was the big play last week. And I actually looked at his grades a couple times during the year, and I thought, it seems worse than the eye test. It seemed like he was sort of a net neutral to me, and then obviously a liability on the one Dallas play. So I can't figure this one out, because I haven't felt like he's getting routinely exposed. He hasn't made any

splashy plays necessarily. I think I'm willing to let it play out a little bit longer. I think there are more liable players in that secondary because the slot is just not that often going to be sort of the one responsible. It's more the outside guys that are on the island. The slot gets a lot of help. So for that reason, I think I may be a little less concerned about it. Maybe I should be. I don't know. I'm not going to bury Mackenzie Alexander yet because I just haven't seen enough one-on-one coverage instances where he's flat out getting torched other than Cedric Wilson last Sunday. And I want to be true to what I just said about people latching on to positive plays, maybe too, too tightly. I also want to not overreact to negative play like that. So I'll give him some leash. And I don't think I second guess it yet. I think that

signing did make sense at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see how it plays out. But again, it's cheap. It's one year. And you can go a different direction if you need to. Yeah. I just think that overall, when he's not playing at even the average level that he was before when he was here, it's, it's not a success then. And I thought it would be, I thought, well, if he gives you average play and it has like a 70 grade or whatever, and is, you know, giving up completions, but making plays and that kind of thing, then you're fine. Um, now there has been a lack, speaking of that, like there's been a lack of through through the entire secondary, playmaking. Those grades will go up when you make an incredible interception,

and this group just does not do it. I mean, if you're a quarterback, you shouldn't be afraid of throwing right into their chest because they're not catching the football when it comes their way, like Brashad Breeland last week. And that's been the case with Alexander. He's never been a playmaker, wasn't a playmaker in college. And so I don't really expect that to change, but you're right that even by those PFF grades, they're small samples. One bad play can be really costly, but in real football, one bad play can be really costly too. I want to know what you think

of the Baltimore Ravens as a whole, as a contender, as a opposition to the Vikings, and as like where they are sort of even in their trajectory as a team. Yeah. I thought they were winning a little bit unsustainably early in the season. The Chiefs come back very tough to do. Very impressive. The 66 yard field goal. They, they did to Detroit exactly what the Vikings did to Detroit. The 16 point comeback against the Colts. You're not going to do that all season. Um, so they really only have, they have a couple wins on their resume that were convincing. I think their defense is pretty decent. And then the Bengals exposed them, which I think they probably had coming a little bit.

But the way that they got exposed, particularly through the air, was pretty telling. And I think that if I looked sort of at the underlying trend in the, the underlying, uh, trend in Baltimore. Um, I might be a little concerned that they can't continue like playing from behind as well as they did in, in the first half of the year. Um, you know, once again, proving that running backs don't matter, they've had three with season ending injuries and they just keep, you know, ticking them off. All right. Latavious Murray, come on in here. I will root for Latavius Murray in this game because we love Latavius Murray. Great guy, yep.

Yeah, fantastic. Le'Veon Bell's on the roster. Devontae Freeman, it's like the old washed-up running back Hall of Fame. Like how Washington used to sign every defensive player who used to be good like seven years ago. Yeah, seriously. Marquise Brown seems like he's legit now based on his start. I didn't necessarily see that coming. Mark Andrews, pretty nice as well. I think Baltimore is a legit contender in the AFC because I don't know if the AFC has like unbeatable teams and I think

they might be the best of a pretty even bunch I mean Las Vegas running away with that is Tennessee running away with that I mean the I was looking at this yesterday the Chiefs I think are still a decent favorite in that conference because no one wants it are you going to give it to the crowning the Bengals no right um so I there's just a there's a lot of room for Baltimore to kind of go and take this thing and I think as long as they've got the coach they have the quarterback they have um they're going to be in a good spot because Harbaugh is going to make the right decisions and he and Lamar have an amazing relationship which is such a driver of their success is that good for the head coach and the quarterback to be on the same page is that I mean he might he might he might distract him from uh

working with the defense a little too much you know giving up 41 to Cincinnati yeah that's true so uh anyway um there's a few things that come to mind for them. Number one is I have heard so many times already, and I'm going to keep bringing this up, especially if we get to our skull searching, which if you're new to the show, that's where we start to interview people about the prospect quarterbacks. So many people have said it's just not a good quarterback draft class. Just can't do it. It's not a good quarterback draft class. Lamar Jackson was drafted 30 seconds. There were a lot of guys over him, including Josh Rosen and Sam Darnold. If you're a first round talent, we do not know. We know that you're a first round talent, but we don't know if you'll succeed. A lot of people

thought Mac Jones should be a third round pick. He's the best quarterback in the rookie class at this moment. I don't know whether he'll be the best long-term. The point is that he was a first round talent and that gives you a chance. That's one part of the Lamar Jackson thing I think is interesting. The other part is that he has become such a great thrower of the ball, aside from his occasional ducks, that he is now carrying this team. And it's sort of like laying out the model for them of they're going to pay Lamar Jackson and what's it going to look like their roster is going to be flawed in the future. And he's going to make them good still because he's this good at throwing and running. And I think even as his running maybe cools down later in

his career, he'll be able to throw the ball well enough. And that goes again toward, oh, the guy can't throw this pattern in college or whatever. It's like, I don't know, man, if he's a first round talent, then he's got a chance to be a great quarterback and change your franchise. That's the most interesting part of it to me, that franchise in general, of how he's completely transformed them from sort of floundering and middling with Joe Flacco at the end of his career to completely change the face of who they are, that they now compete for championships every year. The other part is, like you just said, they're flawed, though. And if they lose this game, they're going to be on their sports radio and podcast ripping the hell out of this team for being a fraud, being mediocre for not being good enough and i and i wonder and they're coming off a buy too yeah i wonder about like the motivational factors and the vibes of these two teams this team has been as mopey as we've ever seen them they get it you lost the cooper rush it's not it's not great and you could see it in their faces and their comments

this team right here in Baltimore, they think they should be a championship team, and they've got to be embarrassed how they went into the bye, and they've got to know if they lose to a 3-4 team that everyone is going to start going after them as not being good enough. I think there's a lot of motivation there, and I will be very interested to see what the motivation is here if the Vikings decide they

really want to fight or if they get down by seven points in this game and just go, I don't know, man, pack it in. Yeah. Well, I mean, Baltimore like Minnesota has been playing down to people. They have not had fast starts whatsoever and they've had to come back from behind and they've got, you know, they seem to play really well in that spot. And weirdly, so do the Vikings. So who's going to jump out in front of this game? Who's going to have that early edge? You know, can the Vikings institute one week late what they had hoped to coming out of the bye where they supposedly were going to clear up, you know, so many of those three and outs and the offensive malaise. And that didn't happen.

Mike Zimmer pointed out, I think, at one point they had nine straight passes in the second half, and that's going to, again, create the reaction to run the ball more, and the Vikings probably will try to hammer it with Dalvin Cook once again. Have you checked the forecast for this game? I don't know what kind of weather we're looking at, but I assume it's going to be football weather. Yeah, I don't think it's a factor. I think it's just regular, like, normal weather patterns. You were not on the beat, like, either of these years, but the, by the way, it's 57. The 2009 and then 2013 Vikings-Ravens games would deserve their own podcast for how crazy they were, the second of which was in a blizzard. Folks, football season is in full swing,

but we've got basketball and hockey getting rolling as well, and SodaStick has got you covered. You have to see the Moose t-shirt designs for Marcus Foligno. You could also get your hands on the very popular Dollar Bill Kirill shirts as well. On the basketball side, the design with three wolves howling at the moon, perfect for the spooky fall season. And the design with the wolf carved into the state of Minnesota is just awesome. It's very cool stuff.

And hey, for you college football fans, check out the Tanner Morgan t-shirts as well. Soda Stick has tons of hats and hoodies with all their great designs on them. You will love it. Go to SodaStick.com. That is S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K. Check that out today. Use the promo code Purple Insider for free shipping. And also follow myself and SodaStick on Twitter for our

giveaways. Folks, have you ever thought about taking a bike to work but figure it's too far or that the hills are too steep? Or heck, who wants to show up to work covered in sweat? Well, that's why you need to check out the electric cruiser bike from my friends at Boogie Bikes. The Boogie Bike gives you all the experience of saving gas, getting outside, and feeling the wind through your hair. Say if you have a haircut like that Green Bay quarterback. But you don't have to be an Olympic cyclist in order to get all those benefits. The Boogie Bike has a strong yet quiet motor, sensitive pedal assist,

and a very comfortable seat for you to cruise along for miles and miles. Don't settle for a low quality bike. The Boogie Bike is built in Wisconsin using its highest quality parts from around the world. And honestly, it looks cool and goes fast. Go to boogiebikes.com, get yourself an electric bike today and use the promo code SKOL to get $250 off your purchase and a nice basket as well. By the way, there is no risk within the first 15 days. You can try a Boogie Bike and Boogie Bikes have an industry-leading five-year warranty as well. Again, go to boogiebikes.com. Check them out today. Like who would, I don't know, there's always one game a year that's sort of like that but who

would ever think you'd score about four touchdowns back and forth in the final two minutes of that game let me let me give you a nugget about the 2009 game because it's less talked about we're on a total bunny trail right now but it's a podcast so who cares um the ravens come back from 17 down in the last 10 minutes um and mixed in with that were some like amazing vikings plays too like brett far like peterson had a 60 yard run um brett farve had a bomb to sydney rice but the vikings kept settling for field goals ray rice is going off he might have been a rookie at the time flacco is getting blitzed to heck and throwing yolo balls and like Mark Clayton is catching them and other Ravens receivers names escape me. Anyway, the Ravens miss a pretty easy field goal to lose the game.

And Paul Allen on the radio call actually dropped the Minneapolis miracle line, the original, he called it the Minneapolis miracle. Really? I didn't know that. Yes. Which I've, I've always wanted to bring up. I don't want to kill PA's call of the real miracle, but that was the original that he deemed the Minneapolis Miracle. I did not know that. Yeah, a little nugget for you. This is why it's fun to go back and watch old games. This is why YouTube is great. Did you see that ESPN Classic is shutting down? I did did that's a shame except youtube right has all youtube has taken over for it but uh i remember when i first got cable because i grew

up without cable as um many people have made fun of me for around here not no including my wife not knowing like references to spongebob and stuff like that uh but um espn classic when i first got cable was on all the time because i just loved watching old random games that they would pick and so i'll have to look that one up because that um just sounds nuts my favorite recently has been watching old ale michaels monday night football games they're just great the broadcast is so much fun that's my whole comment on it but it's just it's so much fun frank and ale and dan if you grew up with it, or if you, you know, just sort of were a football fan at that time, they had it locked down.

And I think it ended in maybe 97 when they went to Boomer Esiason and it was never the same after that. But, um, the, the Dan Deardorff booth was always a good booth, whether it was Gumbel or Michaels. Yep. He was great. What I loved about Dan Deardorff, and then we'll get to who's going to win this football game, I promise, is that, and you just don't hear this much except for maybe Tony Romo at times, but Dan Deardorff loved every play. Like every single play was like, you think this guy doesn't want to win this football game?

You see how he's pulling as that guard and hitting that linebacker and it'd be like yeah man football let's go you know just i i love that about him it would be four hours or whatever three and a half hours of just this guy loving all 120 plays that happened something about it he loved everything he was one of my favorites one of one of the great calls of all time i think was dick Enberg and Dan Deardorff calling the Keith Traylor interception return, the 400-pounder. And Deardorff, during the play, in his gravelly voice, hand it off, hand it off.

And Enberg is a legend. And rest in peace, Deardorff. Is he alive? I think he might. I don't know if he's with us anymore. I don't know. Enberg is not. I think he is. Rest in peace, Deardorff. Is he alive? I think he might. I don't know if he's with us anymore. I don't know. Enberg is not. I think he is.

Rest in peace, Enberg. See, this is a game, while you look it up, this is a game that my wife and I play sometimes, like Dead or Alive. There's so many legendary people that we just don't know. And if you had a flip card game. Deardorff, he's not that old. He's 72.

He's still alive? Oh i'm fired i'm fired up yeah that's awesome get him back on a broadcast why is he not why is he not dead why is he not on a broadcast i would love i would love to hear deardorf again i don't know but anyway that would be my suggestion anyways go back and watch games where Frank and Alan Dan are doing it. So anyway, like you said, we've gone way off the rails here with Baltimore Ravens, but sort of also where we're at in the season right now. It's just like, let's see what happens next. Who do you think wins this football sporting contest? I think that Justin Tucker hits a ridiculous kick and they lose that's what does it yeah i think

i'm so here's my other fun fact i looked at the the what's behind the last second meltdowns on defense and i think the assumption is that the v have been, like, very good before now, and this is new. But since Zimmer got here, they've given up the fourth most, like, last five-minute scoring drives in the league. And in the last two years, they've given up 11. Like, in 23 games. That's not many. That's a lot of drives and not many football games. Andy Dalton had one against them. Andy dalton did yeah it's uh it's it's crazy so i i tend to think that based on what the what

i know the ravens can do and the way this defense is playing i think that it's a plucky performance but i think baltimore in the end does its thing and gets the win that's going to put them back on track. I'm struggling with this because you could see the Vikings having one of those games like they had against Seattle, where it just all works and they go there and they beat them 30 to 17. And then everyone goes like, ha, see you guys. I was you. It was you guys. You were too critical again. You jumped the gun and then you lose the next two. And then we're right back where we were like that. There has been that sort of final breath many times for this team. I mean, even think about like 2018, they played Miami and it wasn't a horrible Miami team. It was a Miami team that was sort of battling for playoff spot. And they just bludgeoned that team like with a sledgehammer. And then they, then they did it to Detroit.

Cause every, you know, Detroit, everyone does that. But that game after, after they got rid of John D Filippo and they had this like surge of excitement of like, yeah, take that dolphins. Here's like 38 points on you or whatever it was. I forget. It was just a whooping. And then they did the same thing when it really mattered again with Chicago. So I wouldn't be surprised either way. And I also wouldn't be surprised if this whole team, if they get on the field and they give up the first touchdown, they go, ah, you know what? It's just this, we can't do this. I wouldn't be surprised that either because of the vibe around here but it could be one of those games too where Baltimore just comes out of the gate and looks

kind of like Seattle in week three yeah and then Zimmer does that that thing that he tends to do which is give up a lot of yards early and then actually make a pretty good adjustment and then it tightens up late yeah I mean I mean, I just, especially coming off of the team that I would never want to face is the team that's coming off like a really embarrassing loss, but both teams are, so I'm not sure I'm going to go with Baltimore here with lacking confidence. And I think I want to do it by like 10 points, like 30 to 20. Hmm. Daniel Hunter being out just changes everything for me. I just don't know how they're pressuring anyone the whole rest of the year. I don't know how they pressure anybody.

There's only so many blitzes you can dial up. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. And then every week it kind of changes around here and we'll see. But I appreciate you shifting around your schedule to be in Courtney's shoes. I didn't give you a pie chart for this. We'll save that for her for next week. So thank you for your time, Sam.

Thank you.