Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What parts of the Vikings' win are sustainable?

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles talks about what he liked about the Vikings' win over the Giants and whether the things that went right will continue as they face a much, much tougher opponent Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and guess who is back for Tuesday morning left guard? Jeremiah Searles. We actually have a lot of guard play analysis to get to with you, Jeremiah, but you must be feeling pretty good. You got a Huskers decided win you got a blow out win for the vikings the chargers a former team of yours did well there's another team in the east that maybe in carolina we don't have to talk as much about how that went but buffalo another

former team of yours did well so overall a very good searles weekend why don't we just start out with the bigger picture of this we have not had a lot of purple insider blowout podcasts for tuesday morning left guard so give me your impression of what happened in east rutherford you know i'm trying not to overreact I really am because the Giants are not I mean that's a two or three win maybe four win football team like they just don't look very good but at the same time it is a lot to get excited about there's a lot to look at from that Vikings team and go okay maybe we can be frisky and fun this year like I don't think we're putting ourselves in the realm of contenders because you watch teams like the cowboys and the niners and the eagles and like

okay that's a different class of like contender types but then you look at the vikings and go we can win some games with the tools that we have and the players that we have and if we execute like we did on sunday and don't have mistakes and that was i thought that was a very clean game overall like if you don't beat yourselves there's that was, I thought it was a very clean game overall. Like if you don't beat yourselves, there's enough talent on this team that I think you could make some noise in the NFC North. Right.

You get an early fumble. There's penalties, but I noticed referees around the league. We're very excited to take that thing out of their pocket and throw it on the ground. They've been waiting. They've been waiting since February, man.

They want, they want, they want to affect the game. I want to be part of it. That, that it that that's that that tackles six inches from the belt line i better throw the flag on this guy god that rule pisses me off matt that rule drives me nuts there were a few i mean yeah an opening night they got all up in the game and then they definitely did in the vikings game as well yes where oh there's a punt let's make sure we call someone for holding even though nothing happened I like when referees if

there's something on a play that was totally on the other side and doesn't matter at all just let it go if it didn't affect the play and that happened a few times with things that weren't that involved Bradbury had a hold where I don don't know, was that really a hold? And then, I mean, even the Giants have a big beef in that game too, because the pass interference on Addison, I give credit to Addison, who was not that physical at the catch point last year for getting in the business there with the corner,

but he interfered more with the corner than the corner did with him. So maybe we'll try to work on that go on to week two so aside from a couple of penalties and the fumble the interception was super random just the ball popping up in the air but when you talk about execution to me the tying of the run to the pass you and i talked excitedly about the idea of a running back actually succeeding we got exactly what we wanted from aaron jones and then working off that in the past game a running back actually succeeding. We got exactly what we wanted from Aaron Jones and then working off that in the pass game.

Aaron Jones is going to be a difference maker. I mean, you and I got to see him do it against the Vikings in person and for a lot of years, and he left, and I think he's playing with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. I think he's looking at going, I was one of the best running backs in the league, in my opinion, at one point in time. I still have that, and he ran the ball extremely physical. He did some

things in the past game that are going to be able to create matchups if it's man coverage, if it's one-on-one coverage, and you want to try and cover him with a linebacker, he's going to expose that. But if you can hand the ball off to that guy over and over and not make Sam Darnold throw the ball 40 times a game, that's the recipe for winning. And now it helps when your defense is not letting the other offense piss a drop. And fat guys, you text me and go, the game's so different for you fat guys when you're ahead. It's so true. It's so much easier.

It's so much more fun. It's so much more physical, downhill, point of attack type of stuff. But also, we haven't had running back play like that since Dalvin Cook prime. I mean, that shown, and I know it's week one and let's not overreact, but he showed some things this in that week one that you think this guy can be the workhorse and the carries of 15 to 25 carries a game type of player going forward. I want you to explain Aaron Jones to me as funny as it is to call you an elite athlete. Truly though, if you play at the NFL level, you are, but you've seen linemen like Trent Williams, who the Vikings are going to face or Christian Derrissaw, where there is some matrix that they see

or some way their brain is wired that works differently than everyone else. And I think this applies to Aaron Jones. And the touchdown run is so freakish to me, even though it looks so simple, he gets the ball. And yet the guy looks like he was running 90 miles an hour when he burst out of the backfield on that play. And to see what that anticipation and having been on the sideline for many camp practices, knowing how fast things actually develop out there. How is that possible? Why does this happen for

certain people because whatever it is aaron jones has so much of it is understanding your capabilities as a player and then understanding when to take advantage of that and when not to right understanding like hey if i bounce this based off of what i'm seeing in this half a second read that I have, do I have the speed to outrun this contained player or is he going to catch me? And understanding the difference when to take that shot and try and make the big play or, hey, I don't think I'll be able to get around him. Let's put my foot in the ground, get north and south and get four yards in a cloud of dust. And Aaron Jones, for me, has one of the best feels for that type of moment as anyone in the NFL.

To understand, I don't have to press the big play. It'll come to me. But knowing when to shoot his shot, knowing when to look at this and go, I can make this happen in a split second and go. And that doesn't happen unless you have complete control of your body and complete control of how to like operate your speed and your agility. But his burst for being an older running back is still extremely good. Right. So many times you'd like those guys as they get older, they try and bounce that outside and they just don't have that second gear that they can just drop and turn the jets on. And I saw that out of him multiple times this game where he broke through the first layer or he got out to the edge and he just turned on a completely different

speed and just beat everyone to the corner. Yeah. It kind of reminds me with him of an infielder or something where if you were going to line up Aaron Jones with younger running backs in the league and say, run a hundred yards. I think he finishes toward the back, but you don't have to run a hundred yards. You have to run sometimes 19 on, on an explosive run. What is this? What does that look like? I forgot, had to go back and review. Oh yeah. Delvin used to have these. Yeah. I remember what this looks like. Two of them in a row on a pl what? Uh But also, did you see the Giants after those two big runs? That's exactly what we were talking about last week is you can really make that other team

feel pretty helpless. But with him, if he's running three yards in this burst, it's still there. Just like an infielder would have to take three steps to go over and field the ground ball. They don't have to run big distances like an outfielder. So I think that impacts what, just what that looks like, quickness, burst, all that. And some guys I think who have that four, two speed from the start, they rely so much on how they play with that. Or I think Jones understands exactly how much burst is there and what he's going to have to do to get to the place he wants to go to. It's freakish to watch. We've seen it many times as he annihilated the Vikings. How much in your mind did Aaron Jones's success help Sam Darnold?

It's the key point for Sam to have success, right? You look around the league at some quarterbacks that are not Mahomes, Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott. You don't want them to be the focal point of your offense. That's a recipe for losing. But if you can have the running back be the focal point of your offense and then have Sam Darnold be the support and the point guard and the wheeler and dealer, that's where you need it to be. And so if everyone's keying on, okay, Aaron Jones is killing us. We got to get in the middle here. We got to do our things.

And then you wrinkle in Sam Darnold with shots and the quick play action game and then taking your shot to Jefferson when you can, that's going to be the key for Sam Darnold to have the most success because he did a really nice job when they called upon him, right? When they said, hey, Sam, now it's your time.

Like now's the go, but there's not as much pressure on Sam when you're not going, hey, you got to do this for us. Like it's on you, right? If there's not as much pressure on sam when you're not going hey you got to do this for us like it's on you right if it's not all on him that's just gonna be better for everyone involved it most certainly was not uh with what aaron jones was able to do i want to play a little game with you i like games i want to talk about what is going to continue and what we think will be hard to sustain from a blowout win because everything went so right. I doubt over 17 games, everything goes as right as it did in this one. Otherwise

we're talking about the Vikings potentially going to the Superbowl. So some of this stuff will end up hitting potholes. Let's begin with the protection for Sam Darnold. Overall in this game, it was good. He did face quite a few overall pressures, most of them from one big old fat guy that we were concerned about in the middle and also came from the same part of the line over and over again. But on the whole, Sam Darnold was given a lot of clean pockets to operate from. Do you think that this can sustain in the coming weeks, or will this become troublesome for the Vikings? I think it can sustain because this whole line,

four out of five guys played incredibly. Number one being Christian Derrissaw, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeau. It didn't matter who lined up across from him. He just beat the piss out of all of them, right? I mean, you talk about pass pro not being passive. Go watch Christian Derrissaw pass protect. It's not a finesse and like, let's just stay in front of you. Like he's trying to beat you up in a pass rep, which you don't see a lot of tackles doing. Most tackles are just trying to hang on, right? Like, oh my go but i mean he's taking his set he's getting hands he's trapping he's getting on top of them he's driving them out of the pocket when they're trying to go

if you can have protection from your left tackle like that it's hard to generate pass rush right and then you go on the other side with brian o'neill who is equally he's not as much of a brute as derisai is but he's much more technical and it's really hard to get around him unless you kind of just catch him on one foot or overpower him. But technically he's so sound in his set. So if you can protect the edges, you're going to have to start either saying, Hey, we're just going to dial up things to come from the middle and try and get to Sam's feet from the middle, because I don't think you're going to have a lot of ability to come around the edge. But another unspoken thing about Aaron Jones is his pass protection ability

I mean he learned from Aaron Rodgers how to pass protect right how to see it how to go and he is one of the best pass protecting backs in the NFL as well as far as the way that he gets his hands in front of guys butt guys up so if they want to start sending blitzes up the middle Aaron Jones is going to be there too so I think it's very sustainable to keep sam donald under pressure we saw it with kirk last year he wasn't pressured a lot before he got hurt i mean it started kind of going off the rails he started rotating quarterbacks in there but you know i think that if sam can play within the scheme within the pocket and not try and press things i think protection is going to be very good all year it was the irony of all ironies that finally he didn't get pressured. And then he got a season

ending injury after surviving all the hits from previous years. Blake Brandel received a 91.2, I believe PFF grade at left guard. This I had to rub my eyes. This is the highest left guard grade I have ever seen as a Viking reporter. That's not exaggerating. That is a fact that no left guard grade i have ever seen as a viking reporter that's not exaggerating that is a fact yeah that no left guard has had a game where they graded that high in run and pass protection from blake brandle what did you see from this mountain of a man in his debut i mean you're going against one of the best in the business and dexter lawrence and i thought blake played phenomenally i mean i turned that tape on and I was like, is this Quentin Nelson or is this Blake Brandel?

Right? Like what's happening, but he has, I don't know what he did last off season. And again, we'll see if it's sustainable, but he came out there and he played with great discipline in his technique. I thought he threw his hands tremendously.

And then he generated a lot of power in the run game. Some of the double teams between him and Garrett Bradbury were very seamless. They glued their hips together. They go. And I also think this is just coach Cooper doing a great job of developing guys within this building, right? Developing guys and understanding their strengths and what to do and how to press on them and talk about a guy that there were some question marks of what's he going to do when he comes in and those types of things. He took that and said, this is my job and I'm not going to give it away. And if he can continue to play like that, then I feel really, really good about the left side of this offensive line. I was shocked at the number being as high as it was, but as far as training camp and all that,

I don't fancy myself good enough at this to be able to tell what a left guard is going to do when we get to the regular season, unless it's really bad. If it's really bad in camps, okay, well, I can guess that that's going to continue, but if it looks fine, then what's the difference between being really good and really great. That's going to have to play out when they get out there. But Cooper has believed in Blake Brandel and they have believed. And I assume they're taking their cues from the offensive line coach as everyone should, that he has been a believer. As soon as Dalton Reiser got here, he went over to the right side as the backup, because that's something we also have to talk about here as far as will it sustain or not, uh, because they do have this weakness, but

just judging on what they seem to think of Blake Brandel, My expectation was that he was going to look like a starter. I didn't think he was going to look like a difference maker. He won't do that every single week, but this guy is a mountain. He is a huge man. So him moving people, that's what they liked about him so much last year. And the reason why he got the job was because Dalton Reisner was really only

a pass protector only. And this guy can be a difference maker in the run game. And I just don't know what to do watching a left guard play like this. Yeah. And you pair him next to Darisaw. I mean, those are two powerful sumbitches moving dudes, man. I mean, you look at the way those two can run off the ball and get their hands on people. And I mean, I saw them have Dexter Lawrence up on one foot at one point in time.

I thought he did a really good job of engulfing linebackers that wanted to split through. I mean, Bobby O'Kerrick came running through, and all of a sudden he runs into Brandel and just stops, right? It was like, oh, okay, there's some weight behind that. Like, that's a head-hitting linebacker. And, you know, if he can just continue to do those type of things, and he's not going to blow your socks off athletically.

He's not going to be a guy that you see running out in the screen game and he's going to clock us 17 miles an hour as he's chasing down the safety. That's not who he is. But you start looking at what the identity of this Vikings offense wants to be with a run-heavy team with Aaron Jones and Ty Chandler and those guys. He's the perfect kind of guy to have in there next to Derrissaw and Bradbury that can be a road-grader type. And And then again, I was more concerned about his pass protection than his run blocking. And he showed that he's taken a big step in his technique at the run at

the pass blocking, uh, staff piece to it. Can this line be sustainable if the right guard plays the way that he did? And I know they're not playing Lawrence each week, but this was Ed Ingram, I believe his lowest graded by pff game he's ever had and considered some of the games that he had in the past and six pressures allowed was the most since the beginning of last season may have been the philadelphia game was the last time he allowed this many pressures to not see a step forward there it is only week one but it was the week one that they didn't want to see him have. Yeah, it's almost kind of every year we're like, okay, Ed, did you put it together? Did you finally, did we make the jump? Did everything click?

Did you have a strong training camp and you're going to carry it over into the season? All those things. And so much of offensive line play is confidence. And if you start a game in a year out like that, it's really hard to regain your confidence, no matter what anyone tells you, right? Hey, it's week one. Dexter Lawrence is an All-Pro.

It's going to be okay. Well, guess what? You're going to face another All-Pro this week, right? And then you'll probably face another Pro Bowler the next week, right? It's just nonstop in the NFL. There's no week to catch your breath. It's not like, oh, I'm going against a redshirt freshman this week. Woo! There's none ofstop in the NFL. There's no week to catch your breath. It's not like, oh, I'm going against a retro freshman this week. Woo!

There's none of that in the NFL. And so if you don't start off strong as an O-lineman, you're kind of behind the eight ball playing to regain your confidence. And it's a lot easier to spiral than it is to climb yourself out. And I just hope for Vikings' sake and for Ed's sake that he can kind of put this one to bed, learn from it, and then hopefully still take that next step. I'm not ready to write him off completely but Dalton Reisner sitting there going I can play better than that and that's going to be the hard part is at what

point does Cooper look and go I got to give Dalton a shot I got to give Dalton a shot and see if he can show on game day that he can play better than what Ed Ingram is folks Folks, U.S. Cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like. Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones. Less ironically, a phone company wanting people to use their phones, less ironic.

Let's find us again with us mode from us. Cellular visit us, cellular.com slash built for us to get started. Right. I think that Ingram has three weeks because that's when dalton riser could come off of ir and when he comes off ir if it's been three games that are much better okay we go forward if it's been three games of the same and you're bleeding pressures from that side if you stick risner in this and brandel's playing even remotely like he did you might have one of

the best pass protecting units in the entire league i'm perfectly willing to sacrifice a little bit on the run blocking on one side yes to have sam darnold get more clean pockets because when he wasn't a clean pocket he really threw the ball very well you ask me one what do you want to know if it's going to sustain what do you want to know is is the brian flores run gun, get after the quarterback, blitzing like crazy, going to be able to sustain like it was early in the year? Or are we going to see a fall off like we did on the back end of the year last year for his blitzing heavy defense? Yeah, I thought it was interesting that the blitz numbers were down

from where they were last year against the Giants, which is a good sign to me because that says you can rush the passer more often with four. Daniel Jones made it very easy to rush the passer. He, even when he had time and clean pockets, he made them into not clean pockets. And that's always the funny thing about pressures because on the giant side in their meetings, they're saying, look at these pressures, the quarterback allowed. And on the Viking sides, they're saying, look at all these pressures we got. This was great. Let's just do that again. I guarantee you, it's not going to be that easy against the San Francisco 49ers who get the ball out quickly. They get it to guys underneath.

They can't just run after the quarterback, but being able to use Grenard Van Ginkle and even a little bit of Tillery, a little bit of Harrison Phillips, you don't need a ton from them. You just need a little from them. So you're not constantly sending Ivan Pace. Then when you do send him or Blake Cashman, then the quarterback goes, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, that now I got a linebacker coming at me as opposed to, I know this linebacker is coming. He's always coming after me. And I think it was eight rushes for Cashman, seven rushes for pace and a handful for Harry and a handful for Metellus, but it wasn't 20 of them out of Daniel Jones's dropbacks. And that's what they need to sustain the rush. So my question is more of, can they sustain the rush from the edge rushers without having to use too

much of the blitzing game? Because once you have to lean on that blitzing game so much, look at the quarterbacks they're going to play. There's so many veterans in here that they'll figure it out. The Matthew Stafford, the Jared Goff that you're going to see down the road. I don't know what to think of Roger's debut. You're going to see him a few weeks into the season. If he improves off of that, he'll be able to diagnose stuff and get rid of the football. So I, they did, as far as you talk about confidence, building a confidence of a defense playing against the quarterback that was struggling that much is fantastic. But this week is the true test. So really even just from a broader perspective, can they keep getting after quarterbacks like that?

I'm going to say yes, because they have more talent than they did last year. But I don't think to that degree that they did against Daniel Jones. Yeah. You know, I was Tillery for me was a shining kind of spot of a spark, you know, and they mentioned on the broadcast that floors has said, you know, if you just don't put too much on his plate and you just let him go be the God-given athlete in size that he is, then he can go do it. And that's what I saw out of him is he wasn't thinking. He was just going out there and just trying to be a really good pass rusher. And if you can get 10 really good pass rushes out of him a game, that can be a difference maker for him. And they lined him up kind of everywhere. He was outside was inside he moved around a little bit and so i think he

brings a wrinkle there and it's weird for me to say this but i think our pass rush is better this year than it was with the neil hunter last year because it was the hunter show right you just you knew you had to find where 99 was and then slide to him and let someone else beat you you kind of gotta be a little bit more tactical as an offensive line of, hey, who are we going to slide to? Who do we need to make a priority in this? Is it this guy going to come? Is that guy going to come?

Who's having the hot hand right now? Who's Flores want to have lining up over who? So it's going to put a little bit more of a headache on the offensive line front because it's not just going to be so obvious of, oh, there's 99. Slide that way right and i also think too and this is no slight on daniel hunter no no what an unbelievable player that he was jonathan grenard has this thing where when he wins his rep and this is by the numbers he wins it super fast he doesn't always win his rep but and when he doesn't you're not going to notice him because he gets taken out this is kind of the outside linebackers struggle versus dns who can be more

of a pounding force more of a mac truck where some of these undersized guys you kind of have to swing big and look for the home run but when grunard hits the home run he is in the backfield almost instantly i didn't ever feel like Daniil Hunter was that guy. I Everson Griffin, I thought was who would just beat the guy in 1.5 seconds. And then he's sacking the quarterback or pressuring him where Hunter would wear his guy down and push him back, push it back. So when Justin Fields hung in the pocket forever, he would eventually get to him and sack him again. No slight. It's just a different type of thing. And they have multiples of these guys. And I just think Andrew Van Ginkle is a total game changer for this defense. He can do so much. His pass rush is excellent. We saw his coverage could be

really good too. So he's a, he's quite a player. I think they're upfront overall is much, much stronger than it was last year. Why don't we talk about the quarterback from your perspective? Now, look, PFF graded him a little higher than my homes for week one. And, uh, that's, Hey, look, you earned it. You make that throw, right? You don't, you barely incomplete any passes. The only pick was not your fault at all. And you make that throw to Jefferson. Hey, you deserve that PFF grade. We all know he's that throw to jefferson hey you deserve that pff grade we all know he's not going to grade the number one quarterback in the league for the entire season but how sustainable is it even grading on a curve here if we all know this was just one week

it's sustainable as long as the run game's sustainable i i don't think it's it's you can't say it's just, can Sam Darnold do this every single week because he can't, but can he do it if the Vikings run the football that the way that they've been ran the football this week, then the answer is more leaning towards, yes, it is sustainable, but it's the national football league. You're going to get into parts where it's a one score game. It's going to come down to a two minute drill either before the half or at the end of the game. And we're going to have to ride your arm to get down the field. That's just life in the national football league as a quarterback. That is where I still

have questions about Sam Darnold. You know, I obviously he's, he was a talent in college, top 10 pick top five pick, whatever it was, you know, he has the big arm, he has the arm talent, but I can't remember a time where I saw Sam Darnold take a two-minute drill with the game on the line and go down the field and be the guy and have confidence that he's the guy right I mean Tom Brady used to get in like shit game's over right and I'm not saying he's Tom Brady but I don't know if we can rely week in and week out on Sam Darnold to do that when we need him to, because it's going to happen. I mean, most games in the NFL come down to one score.

And so until we can see more of that situational type football from Sam Darnold, it's hard to answer that question with, yes, that's sustainable. What we saw this week with the play actions and the precision when we're running the football, that I think will be more sustainable throughout the year, but it's the X factor when the game's on the line. I don't know if that's sustainable for Sam Darnold or not. The one time he did it was against the 2021 Vikings, that defense that was so miserable at holding leads. Yeah, Cooper Rush, Sam Darnold.

There were some really interesting comebacks. I forgot about the Cooper Rush game. Yep, the winless Detroit Lions drove down the field, and Cam Dantzler decided that the end zone starts at the back line and not the front. And that didn't work out so good during that season. Yeah, the Cooper Rush one, the ball bounced off Rashad Breeland to C.D. Lamb yeah that whole thing but in general

Sam Darnold it's really when you're say in a situation where it's 17 to 10 in the third quarter and you need him to play from behind or 17-7 and go get you a touchdown drive and they know you're not running the football fourth early fourth early fourth quarter, mid fourth quarter. That's where he, just by the numbers, has not been a very good quarterback. And that is what separates guys who are great quarterbacks. This feels very Case Keenum-y, Pat Shermer-y for the game plan,

where if you could play from ahead all the time and you can play at a Mike Tomlin slower pace, let's not turn the ball over and have our quarterback only do so much. You can absolutely win a lot of football games like that. I don't know how many good teams you could beat like that. That's maybe the issue. And they are going to play a lot of good football teams. So at some points, they are going to need Sam Darnold to be able to carry them where it's a little more tricky as if Jordan Addison is banged up and they still don't have Hawkinson. Now it requires some players who aren't really difference makers to occasionally make a difference. I was just about to say,

I think not having Hawk in those types of situations is going to be tough because nobody loves a big pass catching tight end than more than a quarterback i mean their security blankets they're over the middle their big bodies their escape routes all those things and that's what hawk was for i mean so many years in detroit and that's what he was last year for the vikings and so with addison being out and hawk not being in obviously all the attention is going to 18 right if i'm a defensive coordinator i'm going to say we can't let aaron jones beat us we can't let justin jefferson beat us right let's try and take those two guys and put the ball in sam darnold's hands and make him prove to us that we can that he can beat us on his own through his

arm right and so i think we're going to see a little bit more some stacked boxes i think we're going to see a little more bracket coverage on jefferson and see if some of these other receivers and some of these other tight ends can create separation that can Sam Darnold hit them and so it's going to be interesting especially this next coming week of what the game plan looks like to try and force Sam Darnold to be the guy because that's what I'm doing if I'm a defensive coordinator I'm forcing Sam Darnold to beat me because like you said through the numbers it hasn't historically been great can he do it we'll see I think this is the best supporting cast he's ever had so I'm not saying that he can't do it with this cast but he still has to prove it to the rest of the NFL and everyone else that he has the ability to be the x factor one thing I also think is sustainable

is Kevin O'Connell like Kyle Shan Shanahan, really understands how defenses think. And the difference between a good play caller, good play designer, and not that great is I think not that great plays their system and runs their place. These are our systems. These are our place where I think what Kevin O'Connell does is he understands the rules of the opposing defense. When we put someone in motion, they are going to handle it this way. When we can move, just for example, CJ Ham on one of their bigger plays that got Darnold, I think some confidence that 22 yard gain to Oliver here's CJ Ham going out in motion. I think he ends up out wide and I believe someone pays attention to him

i mean you have to if somebody's out there and that gave an indicator to sam darnall i don't remember exactly how the play works but they do that a lot where it's let's just move a little guy here and just see how they react and get a good sense based on their rules and their history of how they play defense and then how they're going to react. Also, the other thing is too, having a true number one wide receiver, isn't just about the catches you make. It's also about the attention you draw and O'Connell in that play that goes to Naylor just understood someone's going to have to be there with Justin Jefferson, if not multiple someone's. So, and then Naylor ends up getting wide open because of it and just an interesting little

clever wrinkle that allows Sam Darnold to not have to do anything hard and yet get explosive plays I think that part can be sustainable yes and that's going to be Kevin O'Connell being great and I think he is I think he's a phenomenal play caller I think he can scheme guys open and now it's just going to be, can he continue to do it? And then can Sam Darnold execute it at a high level? Right. I have no, no doubt that Kevin O'Saacon can do it. We saw him do it with Josh Dobbs.

We saw him do it with Nick Mullins, with Kirk Cousins. Like he can do it. Can Sam Darnold execute at a high level? That's more of the question mark. Okay. So the punting, there was three out of four. No, I'm just kidding. There were three out of four that went inside the 20, but that's, I'm joking.

Corners. The corners were a non-story in this game. That's the best place they can be for the Vikings. The safeties did their jobs. Harrison Smith gets a pick. Josh Patel has played really well in this game. They're going up against IU. They're going up against Debo Samuel.

Juwan Jennings has become an extremely good player for that team. And then the following week, Nico Collins, Tank Dell, Stefan Diggs. Is it sustainable that the corners can be a non-story? I don't need them to be Darrell Revis, Sauce Gardner, Patrick Serté. But I need them to not walk out of the stadium going, the corners lost us this game. The best way that they become sustainable is what our whole previous conversation was about the pass rush. I think that if we can't get home and we can't get to the quarterback and we allow him to sit back there, that's when the corners become a problem.

That's when it's, I don't think they can hold up for four seconds if aaron rogers or brock purdy or who cj stroud whoever can sit back there and go first read second read third read no one's there bang right if they can do that that's where the corners are going to struggle but flores knows that and so i think flores is going to go more along the sides of well we had some success early with just sending our front four, front five. Let's start with that and give our guys some help on the back end and have our linebackers sit back underneath in that deeper zone piece to take away those underneath so that they really only can test our corners on the deep and the outside or the middle halves or whatever it might be. And give them a little bit more of a security blanket that is sustainable as long as we can get home to the quarterback if we can't get home to the quarterback then i'm with you i really worry about our corners holding up in tight man coverage or if we have to really start dialing it up to get to the quarterback and it's true man coverage across the board that's where i start worrying

about is that sustainable to have them and ask them to do that 30 times a game it's such a silly thing to say if they can just be winning all the time. Everything is so much easier, but it's absolutely true. If you can play those corners back and not ask them to be up on the line of scrimmage all the time because you can give up 15 yards and it's not that big of a deal if the other team gets into field goal position because you're winning and because you're controlling the ball. All those things worked against the Giants. There are going to be a lot more knock downdown drag out moments over the next couple of weeks where it is tight situations. And these players do have to step up with more difficult challenges. So I want to get to love to see it, hate to see it because there was so much that happened. I feel like you probably got

some things on your mind, San Francisco. Do you think they, let's put it this way. Not, do you think they let's put it this way not do you think they can win you always could think someone can win in the nfl any given sunday except maybe the giants the rest of the year uh what chances give me a percent give me chances that they upset the very impressive san francisco 49ers at U.S. Bank Stadium? 20%. The Niners are as complete as a team as you can ask for in the NFL, minus Christian McCaffrey last night. Still didn't have any issue running the football. The offensive line played phenomenal.

Trent Williams has been practicing all of, I don't know, five days and still went out there and was the best left tackle in the NFL. George Kittle, Devo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk dropped a touchdown because he has been practicing. So they're only going to continue to get better and better as the, as the year goes on. I mean, that front did a great job of getting to Rogers last night without blitzing. And then when they wanted to dial it up, you have Campbell and Fred Warner. I just look at them and go contender legit contenders Super Bowl or bust type of team and then the Vikings are more of that frisky and fun and can maybe make some noise but when you have to go in a heavyweight bout with a team like that for 60 minutes it's

really hard to think that the talent gap isn't just going to take over at one point and that's why i just don't think it's going to be an upset in u.s bank unfortunately i'll go 37 i like it a little bit higher just because it's the nfl and it is home it is home well one thing is that brian flores gave brock purdy more trouble than almost any defensive coordinator of the league last year when he had a lot less talent. He wasn't because okay at the end but even before that even when he had his faculties and he knew what he was doing he was they weren't dominating that game and that helps uh the fact that the interior d-line is really centralized on run stoppers helps to some extent. It's not going to be easy,

but the Vikings have the right positions with the position list type players with the linebackers. When teams have bad safeties and linebackers, San Francisco annihilates them. That's the strength of the Vikings. And I also think us bank stadium still has its potential to be a tough place to play and that the crowd will be a little more energized now with a fresh feeling uh in the building where would you uh sorry go ahead i was just saying in order for this upset to happen they have to start fast they they have to if i'm kevin o'connell and i win the coin toss i'm taking the football right i want to take the football and

i want to say hey let's go let's go get a lead on these guys. Let's put seven points or three points and put a little bit of pressure on them and make them play from behind. Even if it's quickly at the beginning, right. And just put a little bit of pressure on them and bring this place alive. If we come out and struggle on offense initially, and they go right down the field fast on the first quarter, I think things could get out of hand a little fast, but I do think if you can put some pressure on Brock putting this offense in an away stadium, that is, US Bank is as much a difference maker of a stadium as there is in the NFL. There's no doubt about it. And you can bring that place alive, then I can see you get, I can see your 37% for that. Where do you want to start? Love to see it, hate to see it.

My love to see it is, I'm just going to see it is i'm just gonna go with the homer my huskers hopefully wiping cu's hype machine off the map right the shadur sanders is gonna win the heisman and terrell owens on the sideline and lebron james tweeting about hunter and the big 12 runs through boulder i hope all that just goes because that team is not good. That is a bad football team that has some star talent on it. But I love that my Huskers took care of business year two of Matt Rule versus year two of Deion Sanders. You see the difference in the two programs,

and I am just so tired of hearing of the CU hype machine. And it was so fun to watch Shadur Sanders just pick himself up off the ground time and time again I did get to run into Phil Lodeholt and Pat Shermer after the game which was good to see them and I didn't rub it in their face was just kind of like hi guys I just wanted to come say hi it's good to see you because I thought Phil Lodeholt was going to break something during that game I was on their sideline watching the game and he just would come off the side and just not happy big scary Phil Lodehhold not happy but love to see it though my huskers are hopefully back and hopefully see you is done being talked about i like your wannabe mahomes quarterback i

think he can continue to get better he gets rid of the football like that about him uh and phil loadhold one of the few people who would make you look small, which is insane for how big he is. I love to see Baker Mayfield, 37 points he puts up, has an unbelievable game. Well, Cleveland, the team that moved on from Baker Mayfield, is an atrocity with Deshaun Watson. And they have no one to blame for but themselves. I'm not saying they should have stayed with Baker Mayfield there, but I know who they shouldn't have gotten as their quarterback. And it feels like karma has come for them as Baker Mayfield, who I wonder over the season how that's going to play out.

Like, is Tampa Bay good? But if Atlanta's no good, we'll see. And the Saints, you know, they have a chance to be in that playoff race again. They also have maybe top three linemen in the league and Tristan Wirfs, top five, something in that ballpark. But I enjoyed the coincidence of Baker Mayfield having one of his greatest games that he's played as a buck versus the horrific Cleveland Browns offense that could not do anything with Deshaun Watson, who is just toast by the way, it's, it's just over.

They can't play him. And as the karma continues to pile on the Cleveland Browns for what they did in bringing him in, they can't cut them. They can't trade them. The salary cap is a total disaster for them. And I wish them the best of luck as a franchise finding some way to compete poor andrew berry has built a great team that can't do a darn thing because of who they put at quarterback and you hate to see it but i well you love to see it yeah i mean i feel bad for some of the the defensive guys on that team because it's just one of those things where you have a lot of the pieces put into place but you're paying a quarterback a hundred billion dollars who can't produce and you're just hamstrung by it and i i'll be curious if that

locker room holds together as the year progresses or if some finger pointing starts going because yeah it's not it's not trending upward in cleveland any means. I'm going to say that if I'm in the NFC East, I hate to see that Mike Zimmer is running a defense again in Dallas. Yep. That defense is scary. Mike Zimmer, for all his faults, is an incredible defensive coordinator when it comes to scheming and blitzing and coverage and word of press and how to find weaknesses.

He is great with it. And NFC East, best of luck because that defense is energized. It's new schemed. It's going to be a very, very tough task to score on the Dallas Cowboys. I totally agree. And this overshown gentlemen that they have, I saw a little bit of him and watching some of that game back and where they

got another one. They just have so much freaking talent. Eric Hendricks was playing great football for that team. Yeah. Mike's going to have a playing. And that's why I continue to roll out with the don't worry about the drama. Dallas is going to be really good. Don't worry about how much you hate them.

Dallas is going to be really good because talent always overrides everything. I'm going to throw out. I love to see it. Let's do it. I love to see Jacoby Bursette win a football game. It's just great. It's just great. Jacoby Bursette class human being he's bounced around to a bunch of teams. He's never really a true starter. He's one of those Ryan Fitzpatrick type of guys. And when those guys pull off a huge upset, and I don't know how many they're going to have this year, but when they pull off a true upset against the Super Bowl contender, I just love to see it.

It was the biggest upset. I think if you are in one of those leagues where you picked who's going to win. Survivor pool. Survivor. Oh, my gosh. That just eliminated 94% of them, I think. Yeah. And good for him.

Good for Jacoby Brissett because that team was just being talked about as being so bad, and no one wants to see him. Everyone wants to see Drake May. Congratulations on a good thing. And he got beat up too. I mean, there was a few times where I was like, he's not going to survive the rest of the year because as bad as they are, their line is not great at pass protection,

and he was holding his ribs i'm like man you're old like i think hendrickson had like 47 pressures yeah it was insane brutal i mean and just uh the fact that they just hung in there and they fought is a testament to gerard mayo and what that team did up there and it was just death by paper cut to the cincinnati bangles i mean they had like like the longest run, I think, was like 12 yards, and yet they still rushed like crazy, 36 minutes time of possession. I mean, absolutely nuts there. My hate to see it is rookie quarterbacks.

Welcome to real NFL football. Definitely not the preseason. It's not college. It's not practice. This is real football, and it's way differentseason. It's not college. It's not practice. This is real football, and it's way different than you're ever accustomed to. And Sean Payton, why you asked Bo Nix to throw the ball 46 times, I will never understand. And Caleb Williams, it was really fun to watch you dance around in the preseason and watch you dance around in college but these nose guards are 360 pounds

run a 4-7 and want to rip your skull off and feed you your painted nails so it's going to be some growing pains for these young quarterbacks I felt like last year the rookie class quarterbacks of Stroud and Richardson performed a little bit better in week one than what this class did but I'm also excited to see how this class grows like Stroud and Richardson did I mean Bryce Young is a whole different can of worms you know but can guys like Bo Nix and Caleb Williams and those type of players really start to figure it out here is September and October moves on and see who kind of separates themselves from the class but tough showing for all the rookie quarterbacks in week one yeah two real quick ones for me richardson versus stroud you mentioned just wow that's one that you

want to go back and watch 10 years from now again with the way that those two guys uh played and um oh the the lions final drive love to see it you and i talk about this all the time we say isn't it great when a team can just run over another team that's why you draft all those linemen that's why you pay them and jared goff doesn't have to apologize to anybody for handing it off nine times in a row he doesn't have to say sorry sorry my team's My team's awesome. I guess we won again. Apologies. It's like, if you're not Mahomes running around doing everything back there, you're just some loser or whatever. Like, actually, isn't this great that they can run the ball like that?

That was magical. And Ben Johnson, shout out to Ben Johnson. Almost everybody else would have hit the pass button because they couldn't help themselves. He don't, we're running it. Well, let's keep running it. Great ending. Great game, by the way. one rams and lions and then last one for me here welcome back jim harbaugh well hey how about it welcome back jim i mean the preseason was kind of a disaster and you're like oh what are we gonna do how's this gonna work but talk about just Giro football Harbaugh style football tough downhill JK Dobbins

Gus Edwards throwing your biggest pass play to a tight end I mean just classic Jim Harbaugh and they played disciplined football and found a way to win and I my favorite part about that game was the beginning when Jim is like pounding on Herbert and Herbert's like, ah, stop it. Like, why are you doing this to me? Right. And like, he thought he was going in for the hug. So then he like gives him the hug, but Jim like grabs him like, I'm not done with you yet. And he's like pounding on him. And you can just tell Herbert's like, I don't, I don't like this, but I mean, just, I'm happy he's back in the NFL and he got his first win. And I mean, if they can buy into what Jim Harbaugh is about, I mean, he's this cult leaders, they come, but if they can buy into it, then I think the Chargers will have a good shot of making some noise in that division.

I don't think anyone ever doubted how good he is at coaching football, maybe about his sanity otherwise. Yes. And if he avoids the NCAA pressing charges or whatever he may have done going forward. But there are no rules in the nfl so off we go what an incredible week one can't wait to break down week two with you after vikings and 49ers thanks so much for your time jeremiah we'll talk again soon man absolutely see you next week football football