Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What Jeremiah Sirles wants to see next from Sam Darnold

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

Matthew Coller and former Viking Jeremiah Sirles discuss Sam Darnold's big day against the Falcons and how his circumstances presently are so much better than they have ever been Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles here for Tuesday Morning Left Guard. And Jeremiah, the topic du jour here in the nation of Roger Goodell's National Football League is Sam Darnold, Sam Darnold's future. And Wes Phillips, the Vikings offensive coordinator, even said that Sam has already proven the doubters wrong and the rest will take care of itself, which I think that that's very accurate, actually. But I was thinking about Darnold and as we try to project where he's headed for this year, can they really compete for a Superbowl? What do we need to see from him down the stretch? And then his case for the future,

something came into my mind. That is Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. And I wondered to myself, how much better is Justin Jefferson jordan addison than the receivers that sam darnold was playing with before and uh you know what my research found what a lot i mean we all knew the jets were bad but i don't know if we knew they were this bad that sam darnold he failed before he even got the pencil in his hand to take the test or they made him take it with no pencil at all uh so i was looking through and i'm just poking through all right who who was his receivers in his first year who was receivers in his second year did he ever have anybody kind of like this and i knew

that robbie anderson and jameson crowder played for that robbie i don't know if he had been chosen at that point or not but uh jameson crowder so i'm pulling it up and i'm looking at his targets all right crowder he was more of a slot guy levion bell uh demarius thomas was a pretty good player, but was aged at that point. And then one of the leading receiving targets of Sam Darnold in the year 2019 was someone named Vincent Smith, and it was spelled with a Y. V-Y-N-C-I-N-T. This person got 31 targets. He played only four years in the nfl out of limestone university and apparently he's from

bavaria this is who he was throwing to in his past i think terrell prior was sprinkled in there too right the old converted quarterback running converted running quarterback to wide receiver that never really panned out that was in his rookie season yes oh my god i mean we talk about it all the time these young quarterbacks coming into the league it's really easy for us to go oh they suck but football's a team game and if you don't have guys that can create separation that can run good crisp routes you're not gonna succeed but it's impossible to succeed as a young quarterback without help around you and that's what happens when you're really good in college you go to a really bad team it's just how it works it's the nature of the business sometimes you just gotta escape hell before you can figure out life

um do you know where limestone university limestone this he is vincent smith was the only football player ever to come from limestone university to make the nfl and all all respect all respect to mr smith for making it from Bavaria to Limestone to the NFL. I think that Jordan Addison's probably a little better, but you got any guesses? Can you give me a region? Can I get a region of the United States? Give me a northern or southern of the midline of the United States. Okay, I just discovered that Jericho Cautry is their head coach currently of

limestone university. The limestone saints are from the South. South. I'm going to go somewhere in Alabama. Okay. It's a good guess. It's South Carolina. So they just make up universities to have football teams.

They got so many kids that want to play, but yeah, that's kind of the point, though, is even when we go through his leading receivers, Le'Veon Bell was another one that he was throwing to all the time who maybe didn't have his... He was washed at that point. He'd taken a year off from the Steelers.

That is the blunt way to put it. Bashad Perriman was his second leading receiver in 2020. Denzel Mims, Jeff Smith, Chris Hogan, former Buffalo Bill, Chris Hogan, Frank Gore was on the team. I mean... None of these dudes are in the league anymore. And that was

four years ago. That wasn't like, oh, back in 2015 when he was throwing to these guys. No one that you just named I don't think is on an nfl roster right now i really don't mims was i know mims was on the broncos for a little bit maybe two years ago he might still be but i don't think he plays much but like none of those dudes are starters in the nfl right now the 2021 panthers did have did have DJ Moore who played really well when Sam Darnold

threw him the football, but then Robbie chosen was his second leading receiver. And that's some sort of wild stat line. He was 53 for 110 throwing to Robbie chosen that year. And the next receiver was Tommy Tremble. Is he still in the league? Yes he is still in the league Tommy's in the league yes so there you go he's a possession receiver special teamer I mean he's not he's not a starter on anyone's lineup no one has him as their fantasy receiver right now oh and former CFL or Brandon Zylstra also had 25 targets from him it's just different man it's just different and as i was watching the tape back there's a catch from uh jordan addison on 42 yard throw after it's 21 21 and darnold's getting a little bit of heat and he just it's like whatever he's down there somewhere he shakes off the guy

there's a lot of contact he makes the catch you just go none of those were getting caught outside of dj more for this guy's whole career and so as we assess well can he keep doing it is he going to turn back to the old sam not unless these guys get traded to the jets i mean i think they're gonna stay here a while i think what we're seeing is that sam darnold when he has these things around him can do special things that That's the whole point. And sorry to Vincent Smith, we made fun of your college. Yeah, it's to the point of he was a third overall pick for a reason.

He has talent. Talent doesn't just disappear. Now, talent will diminish over time as father time goes, but the quarterback position is kind of the one that defies that because of the development it takes to play that position. You can actually become better as you get older. You don't have the arm strength, but you can get better with your decision-making, with your anticipation, with understanding defense. And when you aren't having success as a young player, like Sam didn't have, you're not really developing that other part of your game because you're just worried about,

can I just get the ball to someone? Can someone just catch this oblong thing that I'm throwing to them? Please. It's not as much of, okay, we got that. Now, hey, let's learn about this coverage scheme or let's learn about how to pick up the blitzes. You're just so focused on throw, catch. Sam this year, even when you go back and look at him early, he just looks so much calmer and so much more confident.

And I think that can go all the way back to, I remember you texting me during training camp being like, dude, Sam can throw the piss out of this football, right? And just getting that confidence through training camp of, man, these dudes are actually going to throw these and catch these dang things down the throw. All right, KOC, give me more, give me more throw all right koc give me more give me more give me more give me more and now you're seeing the synergy between koc and sam donald the synergy between jefferson and addison and donald everything is clicking for the minnesota vikings offense right now so the question is over the final four games of this season what do you need to see from sam donald to buy into him going into the playoffs and going toe-to-toe with any of the National Football Conference's best clubs? The same as that he's been doing.

I don't need to see any more. I think that could be the trap that he may fall into is he feels like I need to keep pressing. I've got to keep pressing. I've got to keep pace with the Josh Allens. I've got to keep pace with the Patrick Mahomes and the Lamar Jacksons. Dude, you don't. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Keep doing what you're doing. You're playing at, I mean, we could say top five quarterback in the NFL right now. Top seven, maybe somewhere in there. That's great. You don't need to be top two. You don't. And you probably won't be because those guys are gods at some point, right? Like, I mean, Josh Allen literally did one of the most unbelievable

things I've ever seen in my life on Sunday night. So just continue what you're doing, because the only thing that's going to stop you is if you start to regress in the turnovers, if you start to regress in your decision making because you're pressing i think if he can just hit cruising altitude right now and just maintain this high level of play that he's been doing i think he can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the nfl i think so too these last four weeks have been an extended stretch of great quarterback play and really the first four weeks was an extended stretch of great quarterback play and bumps in the road happened to every great quarterback in the league including Josh Allen

including Patrick Mahomes everybody has had a bad game here or there even historically if you look at all the great quarterbacks it usually is how often can you be somewhere between good and excellent is what separates the good quarterbacks. And the fact that he has a hundred plus quarterback rating in 11 of these 13 games is one. It's kind of wild because my expectation for Sam Darnold was going to be even through those training camp practices that some would be mind blowing. This guy is a megastar. And then other ones, Sam was a little bit off today and you got a little shaken up by Brian Flores, his defense and practice. And then it

wasn't quite the same, but his consistency now on a week to week basis after the Jacksonville game. And there was this assumption that it was just going to go up and down and up and down. If he can finish with what three of the final four games, two of the final four games, because the other part of this is when you talk about the playoffs is what is your upside? This was always my issue with the previous quarterback is that even when he played well, it wasn't good enough. He played well against the New York giants in that playoff game. They scored what 20 points that day. It just wasn't good enough. And with well against the New York Giants in that playoff game. They scored what? 20 points that day. It just wasn't good enough. And with Sam Darnold, when he plays at his absolute best,

look at the Chicago game, look at the Falcons game. I mean, you are talking about the top, top end of playmaking, tight window throws, deep passes, everything that is the highest level of play. And I like to think about mind experiments all the time. And I was thinking about this this morning, that if the Buffalo bills had not picked Josh Allen and they had picked Sam Darnold and think about what Sean McDermott made that organization into a stable franchise that was in complete disarray when he got there after Rex Ryan and they put Josh Allen in and they developed him. And then they got them receivers. They got them linemen and they got him. And then they got him receivers.

They got him linemen and they got him a defense. They got him a coordinator, Brian Dable. Is Sam Darnold just Josh Allen? Like, I don't know, but it makes you wonder if he ended up going to Baltimore and was backing up Flacco and didn't have to get in right away. And they developed him in Baltimore and gave him all the things that that team has. Like, would he have just ended up here anyway? I don't know, but I'm starting to think so I want to say yes but I don't think the KOC effect could be overstated because would he maybe have the talent to end up here

probably right the talent is obviously on display for all to see did he have the right people in his life at the right time to unlock that talent? I think is the better question to ask. Was Dable, I got to watch what he did with Josh and it was excellent. The way he worked hand in hand and developing Josh Allen into what he is. Now, you know, Dable leaves and Josh just continued on that trajectory moving forward there. You talk about some of the young quarterbacks that have had a lot of success, like the people around them from a coaching aspect, from a mentor aspect have all been great. And so if he had KOC or what did KOC find in him to unlock that next level potential? Because he is the quarterback whisperer and he's going to be a very expensive coach to

keep for the Minnesota Vikings next year but if I'm the Wilfs I don't care you write your number I'm gonna slide this over to you write it down and then I'm just gonna put it on this check and hand it right back to you right he has done such a tremendous job and it cannot be overstated of what he's done for Sam Darnold in his career to unlock whatever this this next level Sam sam darnold we have seen is so the quarterback whisper thing is very interesting to me because i in some ways i think like yes of course like look at the way that he used his own experiences and then goes out and get josh mccown who had shared experiences but played a lot more and they can work off each other so koc can't be in the quarterback room

all the time he needs somebody that can see the things that he sees as a former quarterback. I also think that the mentality approach, this was really telling to me that when O'Connell came out of that Jacksonville game, he, I'm sure, was aware the whole world was going, see, that's why you don't sign Tim Darnold. He throws a pick. But Kevin took it as, this is an opportunity to reset with Sam and get him back to what was working early in the season. And in the middle of the year,

it's hard to refocus your fundamentals and the fundamentals of the scheme. And yet that's what they took time to do that week coming out of it, because it was almost like he had to see it go bad to know all right we can't just you know keep running it out there the same way we have to keep updating it all the time to make it play that way and to have that sort of fix it attitude as a coach as opposed to what are you thinking what are you doing why did you do that what is

wrong with you why did you make a mistake you're ruining the game like that there is a and i know who that sounds like but there's there is you saw the the old hard knocks i told you this you get my point it's not just his positivity i think it's his always let's fix it let's fix it let's fix it together you and i are going to work on this and we're going to fix it together that really resonates well with his quarterbacks yeah absolutely and again that's the former player and i i love when more former players get into coaching roles get into mentorship roles because coaches coach and they've been coaches their entire lives, right? I mean, some of the greatest coaches never played the actual

game of football and I'm not taking anything away from those guys because they're brilliant and they put in so much work, but there's just something about, Hey man, I put my hand in the dirt too. I know what happened here and it sucks. Like I get it. Guess what? I got picked up by Fletcher Cox too. It's not fun, right? That's not a good time, buddy. I think that that can't be overstated from a relational relationship standpoint of common common ground. And especially at the quarterback position where you are the focal point of every conversation, right? We haven't had a podcast once this year. We haven't talked about Sam Darnold, just like we didn't have one where we didn't talk about Kirk cousins and every podcast across the country, the quarterback plays the number one focal point, because that is the

number one reason why you win or lose football games. And to be able to come to someone and say, Hey, I see what happened here. Here's how I saw it. Tell me how you saw it. Okay. Here's okay. So that's how you saw it. Here's how I saw it. How should we move forward from this? That cannot, that little conversation there is so different than a coach. It's like, I've coached this shit for 20 years and I've never seen someone throw this ball before. Right. That's I've heard that. I've heard that exact quote from coaches before. I don't coach this. I don't want to see this. Like that type of stuff is not helpful for a lot of people. And I don't think that's Kevin O'Connell. I don't think that's Josh McCowan. I don't think that's anyone. I mean, Chris Cooper's a former

offensive lineman. Who's the line coach. They have a lot of former player voices in that building and coaching roles. And I think that's a big reason why you can see that pivot and you can see that back to fundamentals piece because the coach can just walk in and go, nope, we're not doing this anymore. Here's what we're getting back to because this is how you do it as a line of scrimmage and fighting through contact. That was the biggest criticism I had of him last year was that he was getting stifled at the line of scrimmage sometimes when they got up on him. And the other thing was that playing through contact to catch the football is just something you have to do in the NFL. If the refs called everything, then, you know, they would just be throwing flags all day and the defensive backs know that. And there's been a couple of times where he's being interfered with as he's making the catch. The Chicago one was agreed. The same thing is kind of happening in the 42 yarder that he had,

but increasing his strength, figuring out how to play through that contact that also stems back to the wide receiver coach and drafting him stems back to the wide receiver coach because Keenan McCardell being an absolute freak when he played at tracking the football what do you think he loves the most guys who track the football Jordan Addison that's why they didn't pick Quentin Johnston because he was an underneath guy with stone hands who runs after the catch yeah right they they picked the guy who is the matrix when it comes to catching the football and tracking it in the air i mean even the first touchdown it's way under thrown because darnold's arm gets hit and he just stops

on a dime the corners go flying all over the place and just brings it in the ease in which he catches the ball it looks like the ball weighs nothing when it gets to him that also stems back to kena mccardle and his work so i think part of it's like when we talk about the the whisperer it's like okay number 18 whispers a lot of this and addison is whispering a lot of this and his coaching staff is doing it and his attitude is part of it and they have 140 quarterback rating on play action so the the this it's it's kind of everything about the environment that he's created that has allowed Sam Darnold to be this. And I don't see that changing over the final four weeks and then

into the future. I don't know, but all these things are going to be here with Sam Darnold. The point is that I I'm looking at this each week and going, I think this is just awesome quarterback play. I don't know. Sometimes the football gods throw you a twist that you didn't expect. Yeah. And it's just everyone feeling like Sam has turned into that type of quarterback that you feel like you can win any game with him. Right. You, I remember when I had Phillip Rivers was as a rookie, you never went into a game thinking, man, we're not going to win this game because you knew that 17 could just do it. Like you just knew he could do it. He's been doing it for years. Same thing I think brings true with guys like Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts at times, right? The team has a belief that this dude's playing so well right now. It doesn't really matter what's happening out here. He's

going to keep us in it and give us a chance to win at the end of the year, at the end of the game. Sam Darnold, initially that was not the feeling, right? It was more of a question mark. Can he do it? Can he get us to 20 points? Can he do all this? And we've graduated past that point to where the whole team's going. I need to play my best because if Sam keeps playing like this,

we can blow teams out. We can win games close. We can do any type of way we need to win football games. As long as Sam keeps playing like this, we're going to give ourselves ourselves a chance and it just elevates everyone else on the football field from the offense to the defense the special teams when your quarterback's playing up here it's your job to match him right and it's kind of vice versa if your quarterback has a slump you feel like you have to play better to get him out of it but if you're chasing your quarterback that's where you see the great teams start to really make runs. There might be a way to evaluate this of how many games did you win in a given season because of

your quarterback? Like this is why QB wins has to be considered. It's not the lone stat, just like interceptions or touchdowns. Isn't the loans that there's no one stat, but Peyton Manning won 12 games or more every single year. How, Because even when everybody else didn't play well, you could win because of the quarterback. I think that the last three games are all you won because of the quarterback. They screwed up Chicago and almost gave that thing away. He went and won the game. Arizona, they struggled for a lot of that game.

They couldn't get Arizona off the field. He went and won that game. And then the same thing here where they're going back and forth with Kirk, they get a turnover. They take advantage of it. They put up a touchdown that he's executing in the red zone because they refuse to run the football into the end zone and would rather triple reverse or put Aaron Jones at quarterback,

or I don't know, hand off to the fricking kicker or something like that. Just any, anything outside of passing with Darnold does not work in the red zone. quarterback or i don't know hand off to the freaking kicker or something like they just any anything uh outside of passing with darnold does not work in the red zone so it's all been on his shoulders and he's done that and that's to me the separator like if you can win because of your quarterback when the rest of the team doesn't play that well on a given day that's exceptional type of quarterback play yeah i couldn't agree more you know and you heard acheman last night talk about it when you're talking about joe burrow right like hey zach taylor just feels like he can't take the ball out of joe burrow's hands

that's why they don't run the football first of all i'm an offensive lineman i hate that right like i get it dude he's really good but can we please just like push on these guys a little bit instead of getting pushed on for 40 plays a game um but to your point of quarterback wins watching the atlanta on the flip side you see the opposite effect they can't run the football which blows my mind with bijan robinson tyler algier and that offensive line so it's's falling more onto Kirk. Kirk is losing them games, right? Kirk is losing them games. And look at the Raiders,

right? Aiden O'Connell, Gardner Minshew, like losing those games. It's really a fine line. It's a very fine line of that quarterback winning the game, quarterback losing the game. And there's few that can consistently live on the win the game side.

And those are the guys you kind of talk about pro bowlers all pro type of years year in and year out seeing at the top of their divisional race seeing them at the top of the playoff run eight months ago i would have told you hi zakai you told me sam donald will be on that side right like yeah i mean six wins vegas said right yeah that's probably i'll probably take, right? We were all in that weird space. It's kind of just a fun ride that we've strapped ourselves into of, let's see where this thing goes. And there is still that fear in the back of every Viking's mind

of this is going to come crashing, burning from the heavens at any moment. But I just don't think Sam has given me a reason to think that is what's going to happen. Like Sam has proven me week in and week out that he's going to continue to get better. He's going to continue to ride this train and go forward. And I just, I'm really happy for him as a former player and seeing what he's gone through. I'm really happy for him as a guy and as a player, and he's going to set himself up for a great contract next year okay i need you to break something down for me because the now the signature play of his season is the 52 yard touchdown to

justin jefferson that is the one where 10 years from now somebody says hey remember remember that season sam donald went crazy yeah remember that touchdown where everyone ran at him at once and then he had to dodge everybody and run away and throw a touchdown? The quarterbacking on that was incredible. The offensive lining on that was not so good. These last couple weeks, they've done these overload blitzes and the Vikings have struggled to sort these things out. Explain to me what should have happened on that play and how they're supposed to handle

when teams are sending too many guys to one side. Yeah. So what happened on that play is they lined up in a double mug look up front, right? They had two linebackers standing in both a gaps and then Simmons, I believe he was the strong safety at the time was standing outside the left tackle. So there's actually four to one side, three to the other side. What happens is they bail the defensive end out over Cam Robinson, and they run a three-man game where the three technique runs out into Cam Robinson.

The linebacker standing on Garrett Bradbury's left runs into Brake Blandle. And then at a very lightning quick speed, they wrap Justin Simmons all the way around the center. And so what has to happen there is it needs to be a three-way bump. Those are really hard to get done at very quick times. Because when they line up like that, you expect maybe four off a side or three off a side. Very rarely do you see the safety wrap up the A-gap from that position. So in an ideal ideal world they go bump bump bump and they slide everything back and they'd slam the door there and then sam could sit

there in the pocket what happened was the defensive end kind of rubbed hawkinson as he was getting out so cam couldn't really make that decision of is that guy still rushing or is he dropping and that split second is all it takes for a guy that runs 4-5, 4-4, to wrap quickly. So they don't end up getting a bump. Dalton Reisner doesn't get back in time because he gets bumped back from O'Neal. So he has a true free runner coming up the A-gap that is a very good football player.

He's been playing at a high level for a long time. And he just does a great job of sidestepping him, climbing the pocket, not doing what he was doing earlier in the year where he tries to do the spin out lamar come out the back side like that doesn't work unless you run 4-4 like lamar does climbs the pocket to the left feels the escape climbs back out to the right bradbury's got in front of him and he actually has nailer like 10 yards in front of him for just a nice easy dumping catch or he could have ran for probably 20 yards with Garrett Bradbury as the lead blocker. This dude just went straight, I'm a hunter.

Predator. And then there's 18 and just launches it. Beautiful quarterback play. Stuff that a 26-year-old mobile, healthy quarterback can do. And just keeping the eyes downfield not panicking too i watched it he had two hands on the ball as he was climbing through the pocket it was just a great job the line did the best they could i don't really fault the line for that one that's a really really hard pickup but again if you're kirk tom brady drew breeze one of those guys that can't

really move you turtle you fall down because you can't escape it. But Sam just beautifully escaped out of there. Well, and that was the thing is with the other guy on the other sideline, you go, this was the reason that you have to move on because there's no way that he's escaping that type of play. I didn't realize that the defensive end actually dropped out on that play because I thought it was more guys to that side. But I feel like Arizona was doing that where they were sending more guys to one side, and I think Atlanta copied that on a handful of plays,

and they did struggle at times to be able to block that thing up. And I think that this is what we're going to see going forward, which is teams saying, all right, let's make him make that play over and over again. But the thing is somebody did an article. I think it was maybe the ringer about Sam Darnold as a basketball player and how prolific he was. And there's highlights out there that you can watch and he's a baller

and you watch his highlight reel from early in his career. And it's that like that's not the, it's really the short stuff and the routine plays that were the problem when he was throwing to vincent smith it wasn't so much limestone finest it was not go limestone go saints it was not the the baller plays and so now there's this combination of a routine dig route that's 12 yards down the field, looking for enough yards to get you in field goal position that he converts. And if you can eliminate the sacks, they have the fourth highest sack percentage. This is where they need to figure that out. And I guess my question is now, is this just a new adjustment for the line? Is some of it, the fact that risers never

played right guard before Robinson's still figuring it out that opponents are just saying we're going to make you sort this all out and honestly the the backfield has not been good at pass protection when cj's not there uh i don't know like hammakers had a really good career of blocking but when he's in there it seems like they say all right we're gonna make that guy pick somebody up because he has not been as effective this year at doing it. So I think if they figure this out, then they're, they're going to be a serious problem for anyone because then somebody's open and Darnold's going to find him. Yeah. And cause that's the, that's the decision that I've watched last two weeks. D coordinators make against KOC and Sam Darnold is they have too many weapons to only rush for and let him sit back there and find the open receiver.

The best bet we have is let's try to get to his feet, move him off his spot. But the problem is the really talented receivers now in one-on-one coverage, right? So you have to kind of make a decision here because I don't think, and you correct me if I'm wrong, I'm trying to remember as I watch the tape back, when they only rushed four, they never really got home. It was a lot on these blitzes and these

stunts and these movement and you're exactly right teams are blitzing the back against the vikings because aaron jones cam acres have not been very good in blitz pickup i have a true one-on-one square the guy up in the in the hole and butt the pads and then mirror him they're getting creased they're getting edge which is we is making him move side to side, which then is no line. You don't have eyes in the back of your head. You don't realize Sam Darnold's right there, and you turn around.

There was a QB hit, right? I do think they're going to continue to pressure more. I think they're going to continue to pressure more, especially interiorly. I think we're going to see a lot of games between Reisner, Bradbury, and Brandel because those guys have not been passing stuff off in the middle very well at all, whether it's a linebacker pick and a DN loop or a TT or like this one down, down around those types of things just require very quick communication, very quick of getting off,

snapping guys with your hands. That's been a weak point the last two weeks. Teams are going to continue to press and push on that weak point so we feel like we got it figured out and this was uh so bradberry between weeks 8 and 13 had been in the top 10 in pass protection and then this one was the uh-oh he grades in the 20s by pff game and so my assumption was oh grady jared must have just got him you know i can't see everything at once in the stadium so i got to go look at the data and it really wasn't, it was really the linebacker that they kept sending and they couldn't sort it out. And then one time he got beat by a Goldman. Who's just one of those big, strong beasts. Brian O'Neill shockingly got beat around the edge one time. That's not something that'll continue to happen. That was just a weird play, but sorting out those guys in the middle,

that guy Wilson for the Cardinals, they kept sending him. He would just stand there. I'm just a linebacker. Oh no, I'm blitzing. And they didn't see him. Didn't identify it fast enough. Didn't pick them up. This is something that they have to be able to do in order to negate this because you can't be asking your quarterback to make these incredible scramble plays all the time, or it's going to be an issue. Nonetheless, 42 points, the best offensive output of the Kevin O'Connell era. Now they're going to face Chicago, Seattle, Green Bay, Detroit. I think that these four games down the stretch here are going to tell us a lot about who they are,

particularly because I don't think the defense is ever going back to, Hey, we're just going to shut everybody out and get a bunch of sacks. And that's going to be it. They're just too worn down. They're too banged up. It's going to have to be the offensive show. Yeah. It's going to be a complete script flip from early part of the year. I mean, I still think this defense is going to continue to rush the passer and get well, but the bend, but don't break. We're going to be a complete script flip from early part of the year. I mean, I still think this defense is going to continue to rush the passer and get well, but the bend, but don't break,

we're going to let them into the red zone, not score type of thing is I think a thing of the past to all your points, but it's good because I think this offense needs a little bit of pressure on them to feel like I got to go out and score every single time. They kind of play with that edge. Now the last three weeks, it was a, it is now our turn to shoulder the load,

right? For the last couple of years, the Vikings defense has kind of wore this badge of honor of like, Hey, we will win us the football games. It's flipped a little bit. And every defense in the NFL is built to rush the passer with a lead, right?

That's how you, that's how you build your defense to say, let's get a two possession lead, pin the ears back, go get them, boys. I believe this offense is good enough to do that, to allow to have guys because guys like Grenard can be that game-ender. You talk about guys like Von Miller in their career, Miles Garrett, TJ Watt, you hear the commentators all the time, go end the game with a sack, go end the game with a sack fumble. Grenard is turned into

that type of player for us and so if you can get a lead on this off with our offense and go put some pressure on this team to turn into a drop back you talk about the guys coming up the bears are a disaster braxton jones darnell right having really tough years protecting the quarterback seattle has finally got their court their two tackles back, right? Abe Lucas and Charles Cross, but they've had their fair share of issues of protection. Green Bay kind of got after this week as a passer team. Then obviously Detroit is Detroit, but I don't know if that game's going to matter.

I hope it does. I really do. I hope that's like a type of playoff environment. But you look at all these teams across the board and you're going, I think we can score on these teams, and we just have to make sure we can try and maintain a lead to let our defense go because I don't think we're going to track me with these teams.

That's the fear of you start trying to get a track meet and a shootout with a Green Bay. Kind of leaves things up to chance, and who has the ball at the end is going to win it. You don't really want to fall into that trap of track me type mentality. Is there something that you see for why veteran quarterbacks seem to be able to pick apart the Vikings, especially in the middle of the field? Because all the quarterbacks that have done well against them, they're all veterans, except for Caleb Williams, of course, was scrambling around like a madman and made some

great plays in that game. Overall, it wasn't a great game for Caleb Williams, though. Kyler Murray had a lot of good moments. Stafford, Goff. And had Kirk not thrown one of the most crazy passes you're going to see right to Josh, maybe he thought he was his old teammate. I don't know. He threw it right to him. But then, I mean, the floaty ball that just goes way over Kyle Pitts,

who can't play uh i was watching the tape back i like i don't know guys maybe you just stay away from tight ends in the top 10 he's first first off the bus and you want him wow he looks the part but then you look at compare and contrast the like mugshot pictures of the combine pictures and their skivvies of kyle pitts and bro Bowers. And you're like, give me that big guy. But then you look at production, like, oh, maybe not. Maybe I'll take this weird-looking, balding

white man. Hey, as someone who's got a hat on right now for a reason, shout out to Brock Bowers and all those that are part of the struggle. It's not gone yet, but I see where it's headed so but yes uh the he still pits was open on that play and kirk just throws it over him if he doesn't do that though they might

score if he just throws a rocket like kirk 2019 would have just stepped into one and throw it to pits and he runs in for a touchdown or something i mean we're talking about a catastrophic defensive performance in that game, and it wasn't great against the Cardinals. They've got to be able to get off the field at some point. What can they do here? There's not much they can do because they've built their defense on being an attack-heavy blitz defense.

When you blitz, that means linebackers are coming. That means that there's this gap between the linebackers and the safeties, and that's where teams, and the linebackers and the safeties and that's where teams and matthew stafford was really the first one to exploit this with puka nakua and those guys over the middle of these shallow crosses these deep in cuts of hey if they're going to send these guys and you see blake cashman or van ginkle up near the line of scrimmage, just go stand behind them and just wait because they're also not these down the field killer shots. It's kind of death by paper cut as you're going down the field, but that's just taking what the defense gives them.

And I think there's a little bit of Brian Flores philosophy of eventually they'll make a mistake. Eventually, if I keep coming after him, someone's going to miss the blitz protection. Someone's going to win. He's going to overthrow a a ball we're going to get to him one time I think there is a little bit that philosophy of hey keep everything in front of you nothing deep and eventually they'll screw it up as you play better teams with more established things especially in the playoffs it's a dangerous game to play because if you eventually go, man, we can't get home. The blitzes aren't landing. This whole line's playing really good. We haven't been able to stop anything. Now you're

kind of scrambling in game to make an adjustment instead of trying to figure out what's the best way to stop them throughout the week. I think they need Ivan Pace back. They have not resolved that problem. There's no backup Ivan Pace Uh, Jamin Davis has gotten after the passer a couple of times. He's just such a unique player. He pinballs off of guards. They can't stop him. He runs over running backs. He's so fast getting into the backfield that it causes a lot of problems, but it also allows Blake Cashman to be in coverage where now you're kind of relying on Cashman a lot. Gr gruge hill is a veteran special teamer at this point trying to help out josh metellus is a 210 pound guy trying to play

linebacker it's just a lot for them to ask of those guys and jaymond davis just got here was on another team's practice squad i mean this is just not a solution so when he comes back they have done well in every game that they've had both of those guys. It's just that they haven't had both of those guys a lot. I don't know if that's the complete solution. I'm going to throw this out there. Also, I would like to see Fabian Moreau keep playing

because he was good in this game. He was on his man. They did not target him. When Kirk looked his way, he had his guy covered and maybe just mix and match, give them a little more man coverage opportunity when Stefan Gilmore comes back, because that was something they didn't do a lot early in the year. But I think we've gotten to the point where we know if this defense is going to help you out, it's going to be sacks and it's going to be

interceptions causing pressures to cause mistakes, punching the ball out. And then the offense is going to have to take advantage. So let me ask you this before we get to love to see it, hate to see it. Let's just say, and if you need a pen and pad to answer this, feel free to grab one. Let's just say that I was going to give you a thousand dollars. I actually did this last week. I sent you a thousand dollars. And let's say I,

you had to use that to bet on the teams going to the super bowl okay so a bet to make the super bowl how would you distribute your one thousand dollar bets on which teams were going to reach the Superbowl? I'm taking my first 500 and I'm putting it on the lines. Oh, wow. Okay. I'm going, I'm going 500 on the lines. Cause I am very confident. They are the best team in the NFL.

The only reason I'm a little nervous will be the defense, but that offense, you talk about an offense that cannot be stopped. It seems they have had no hitch in the kitty up. Even when they throw five interceptions, they still find ways to win football games. So I'm going to go 500 on the Lions. I'm going to put 100 on the Chiefs just because of number 15. I don't love that. I'm going to go another hundred on the bills.

Then I'm going to go, I got 300 left. Yeah. Let's go a hundred on the Eagles, a hundred on the bikes, and then I'll go 50 on Green Bay and 50 on Pittsburgh. Okay. I like it. So the distribution here says that you think that the Lions far and away are a favorite to reach the Super Bowl. Yes. But everybody else is the dice roll.

Yes. Now, we may have to circle back to this. If Detroit goes to Buffalo, let's just say, and Josh Allen and that offense lights them up, and their defense looks really banged up, will that change your dollar figure for how much you would distribute for those NFC teams? No, I don't think it would. Okay.

Mostly just because of just the consistency in which Detroit has played with this year. Now, if they get blown out, that's a conversation. But if it's like an L.A. Bills game and they fall just short at the end because it was 54-49 and that whole piece there, I'll still feel really confident in the fact that not every team has Josh Allen. Not every team has that crazy. Now, you look at some of these other teams I mentioned, right?

You've got Vikes, you've got the Phillies, who's just a different animal with the way they run the football. But, you know, the Lions for me have just been so consistent week in and week out that it's hard for me to, even if they drop a game here, no one wins them all. It's tough to win them all in the NFL. If you drop one to a Super Bowl contender football team in a close game, it doesn't change how I feel about you. So I was thinking about Philly as I was seeing some of the drama that's going on there. They're one of the best teams in the league, and yet they've got drama.

I was thinking about something that Matt Daniels said to us a couple years ago about Philly. He said the key against Philadelphia is if you can get on them a little bit early, their own fans will turn on them. And then that just ramps up the pressure so much. And this feels fragile with them because of that. But all of these teams feel fragile in some way or another. The Vikings feel that way because the defense is kind of teetering. And with Sam Darnold, there still isn't this humongous body of work. And maybe it could come apart at some point with the lions. It feels fragile to me because their

defense is just not, it's just, it's not healthy. They don't have any players left. And so they have to outscore everybody, but you know what they, when you're trying to outscore everyone, you should punt more I've heard, but I don't know. I don't, I don't follow that logic. You know, Dan Campbell is like 26 and seven or something the last two years. He's probably doing it wrong. should punt more i've heard but i don't know i don't i don't follow that logic you know dan campbell is like 26 and 7 or something the last two years he's probably doing it wrong right just like koc is probably calling all the wrong plays for sure right it's actually you at home who's calling better plays than him kirk herb street they can't be kicking it go back to college kirk shut up oh boy it's just i mean it's classic football stuff to second guess but anyway that's uh neither here nor there the the packers like jordan loves kind of up and down at times

and their defense isn't perfect all these teams and then the eagles have this vibe problem they probably have the most talented team but their coach can't keep them together and their wide receiver seems to hate their quarterback for some reason no matter how much they win and i think if we're going vibes super bowl like the vikings have a chance man like they the who's who's the most healthy and the most together it is actually the bike it is yeah you're you're far away and we're getting to the part of december now where you're really going to start to see a separation i think in these in this group of teams that i just mentioned right i have the teams that are out of it. Guys are playing for the love of the game and the love of their job. Then you have this group of guys that are playing for home seating, playoff seating, and you're going to see a separation.

The vibes are high in Eagan right now. The vibes are shaky in Orchard Park after dropping one to the Stafford team there the other vibes if you're if we're going off vibes the vibes in Pittsburgh right now are good Pittsburgh is humming right now Russell Wilson's getting his life back together Najee Harris that defense is obviously still one of the best I mean if we had to pick a vibe Superbowl right now, it's probably Vikings Pittsburgh. Oh, Mike Tomlin knows what he's doing again. I'm shocked. I'm stunned. You know, why are they going to Russell Wilson? Are they insane? I don't know. Maybe Mike Tomlin knows how to coach a football team. I don't, sometimes it's just like, we got to talk about stuff.

So second guess, what do we do? What's the rundown rundown today uh who gave a second guess a coach like i don't know we're we're bored but mike tomlin's a guy wouldn't second guess uh too often so love to see it i hate to see it i just love to see the committee not including alabama you lose to vandy and you lose to oklahoma you don't belong there i don't care what your name says i don't care if you have not only the alabama fan base but the yankees fan base the cowboys fan base the duke basketball fan base all want bama in that is that is a joke from like 10 years ago but i'll still tell it uh good job good job by them the rest of it i don't know whatever i mean we can all fight but no bama was i want i want to see penn state on the blue turf man i think that would be so funny or the vols either one of those

blue blood programs right like the godfathers of college football take your ass to boise idaho my friends and enjoy that blue turf right i think that's going to be – what a great story for Boise. What a great story for the city. I just hope they don't get boat raced. Oregon got screwed. They got screwed. Georgia's path is so clear. It's so clear.

Oregon's going, we're the number one team in the country, and we've got to play out of Ohio State again, and then Texas, and all this stuff. I don't know know I love that the committee got it right though I love that the only three loss team the only three loss team in the playoff is the ACC champion right everyone else hey I don't care what your strength of schedule is got to win the games got to win them you have to win the games that's the ultimate status so I thought the committee did a nice job there uh my hate to see it north carolina

what are we doing with bill belichick trying to come to college football this man is not cool he's not charismatic he's not someone that's going to inspire a 19 17 year old kid that's going to sit in his office and go how are you going to make me a better person coach i'll get you off the insta face and we're going to read the manual right like it's just not this is not nick saban got out of college football because of the chaos of the transfer portal and all that and someone's going to screw up on his team he's like cut him be like we can't do that here. Coach. This is college. This is development.

I don't see this ending. Well, for anyone involved in North Carolina is going to pay him a King's ransom to come in there and he'll be gone in two years. Cause he won't be able to handle what college football is. Okay. Here's the counterpoint. Belichick's girlfriend's the same age as a lot of the guys who got the

extra year of eligibility he you're saying he can't relate to the youth what he's got a 24 year old girlfriend he can relate to the youth just fine that is that is a true statement but I just can't imagine him in a college atmosphere I really can't no I mean I just I think you'll have a record number of portal hits the second after his team meeting i think they hate to see it regarding that is just that we're if he does that is that does that happen yet i'm i haven't been on there was it was it was on the it was last i saw is there was like a 900 page manual of the upheaval of the program in which they was going to have to have to take control i was like yeah this is not good i mean i saw i was getting finalized earlier today but oh

okay we'll see what i hate to see is we're losing him as a media personality i absolutely love him as a media personality i he does a podcast and he's on tv all the time and he's always got great insight. And he talks about players from 20 years ago, which is big for me. And I just, I think he's great and he'll, he'll crush people and he'll say, well, that he doesn't know what they're doing. Every time he talks about the jets, it's great. I was going to throw out there. I hate to see it with the career of Derek Carr, which I'll just never really know what I'm supposed to do with because I don't know if his career is over I don't know if his time in New Orleans is over but he goes out of that game with a concussion after trying to leap over a person which just why

uh I mean he's always been good but never good enough and he had this great start to his career when they got them to the playoffs at what, 12 and four or something. And it's just been this mid, mid, mid. And then it seemed like he was doing well with John Gruden. Then they were going in the right direction. Then Gruden's emails. And then just like, then he goes to this, this franchise who just could not admit. And when I talk about for the Vikings, it could have been you

to get this, this could have been you with you. Just, they admitted that the mid quarterback is not going to get you there. And the saints just could not admit it. We got to keep trying to win. We got to go get a Derek Carr. The team was falling apart. It wasn't the team that drew breeze had anymore. And I don't know, I don't know how this guy keeps playing every single year. He's got career ending or season ending injuries happening at the end. I don't know how this guy keeps playing. Every single year he's got season-ending injuries happening at the end. I've always thought he was pretty good, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that, and I kind of hate to see it.

Yeah, I mean, he's one of those guys where you're like, yeah, he's probably like the 15th best quarterback in the NFL, which is maybe the worst place to be because teams are always going to look at you as a starter, but you're never going to be the guy you know what i mean you're always going to be like he's good enough to start in this league and he's good enough to be better than what we had but he's not the guy and so yeah it sucks and he just keeps getting hurt that's super unfortunate for him uh my love to see it the

tampa bay buccaneers getting Chris Godwin back, right? They lose a couple guys. They start figuring their lives out as they're coming along here. They vault Atlanta in the South race here. They're probably going to host a playoff game. Baker Mayfield's playing fun football to watch. Like they're getting over there. He's fired up.

He's doing the Tommy DeVito a few weeks back. I just think the vibes are high in tampa right now and i think that's a really that's not a team you want to see in the first round of the playoffs right now it might be the team that the vikings end up seeing the first round of the playoffs which could be really something i think uh just overall kind of encapsulating things we've been talking about the love to see it is look at this race. Look at this race. A lot of different teams could be in the super bowl. A lot of things could fall a certain way.

If it was, if it was Pittsburgh and the Rams, I mean, would it be the most shocking thing of all time? Like there's so many combinations that could happen. The race should be really fun to track. And of course we will track it all the way to the end. So Jeremiah, thank you as always for your insights. And we will do it again next week.

Yeah, right after the game. That'll be kind of like a game recap after that against the Bears. So thank you, sir. And football. Football.