Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - What was your favorite Sam Darnold moment vs. the Falcons?

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy re-live the Vikings win over Kirk Cousins and the Falcons Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and it is time for a Monday morning Murph. As even before we're recording here, we just cannot stop talking about Sam Darnold's performance. Specifically for me, the 52-yard touchdown to Justin Jefferson. But it's one of those Murph where you could just pick your favorite touchdown of his day and break it down. Is this the best performance that you have seen in have seen by a Vikings quarterback in person, probably by any quarterback, even quarterbacks against the Minnesota Vikings, inside U.S. Bank Stadium. Sam Darnold, five touchdowns, and even Kevin O'Connell was complaining

that it was not a perfect quarterback rating, but it was darn close. Yeah, I would say in person, either as a fan or in a press box, that was probably the most complete statement game I've ever seen. And I say statement game because of all the obvious storylines and circumstances surrounding it. You've got his predecessor coming back for an emotional game, probably more so for him than anyone else, Kirk Cousins with Atlanta. And then you also had the scenario where it wasn't a, as you mentioned, I mean, Atlanta was coming after Cousins. They had found some ways to really turn the interior Vikings offensive line into a turnstile, which isn't the first time this season, but it seemed pretty dramatic that they were having protection issues up the middle. And as you mentioned, the 52-yard bomb to Jefferson was impressive because not only did he escape sort of a free blitzer,

a free safety that was coming in on him and step out of that trash in the pocket, but to roll to his right and still have the wherewithal to keep his eyes downfield, he probably could have run for that first down or at least come close to the sticks. And we've seen him do that in the past. Doesn't hurt to have Justin Jefferson with a 50-yard radius around him and not a defender in sight. I don't know how that happens. I know I think Mike Hughes fell down coming back to try to find him, but pretty bad idea to leave the greatest wide receiver in modern history without anybody around him within 10 yards of the end zone. But, you know, it's it's also easy to see that and and either not get your feet straight, not get your eyes set downfield and airmail it or underthrow it and actually bring the defense back into it. I mean, he threw that thing 50-some yards.

It had to be right on to Jefferson so he could just walk into the end zone. But when you look at the totality of what he's done in the last four weeks since really, really flaming out in Jacksonville and raising alarms about whether midnight had struck and, you know, the pumpkin was going to return. I feel like he's played the best quarterbacking, you could argue, maybe some of the best quarterbacking in the NFL over the last four weeks. And 11 touchdowns, zero interceptions, the production he had yesterday, and to just watch him enjoy that on the sideline during a television timeout

as the Vikings were kind of, you know, putting the final touches on a 21-point victory. And then you wrote about this today, too, is just you could sense that there's some pent-up emotion there. This has been a long nine-month journey for him since he arrived in Minnesota. I don't think anybody on the planet would have seen him on December 8th towel waving on the bench to a frenzied crowd after the greatest performance of his life and also delivering the statement that, yeah,

it was right to move on. It was right to use me as a bridge. Maybe we'll see J.J. McCarthy next year. Maybe we won't. But at the moment, the Vikings have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and there's no sign that he's going to be regressing anytime soon. Yeah. So a few things there. Kevin O'Connell told Sam Darnold when he walked off the field, you know how many quarterbacks in the league are able to make that throw? There's so many

things about that specific play. What number do you think he used, by the way? It was coy. Do you think there's only one? Did you think he made Darnold the guy, or do you think he put an asterisk by that? He wouldn't reveal that. I mean, truly, though, even like he's not being rational in that moment. So maybe he just says, do you know how many quarterbacks can make that play? Like rhetorically meaning not very many.

But if we're trying to figure it out how many could we come up with probably four maybe Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes I'm not sure there's too many beyond that maybe yeah maybe Burrow is Burrow yeah Burrow's he's a playmaker for sure so the thing that impresses me well does Burrow is Burrow. Yeah, Burrow, he's a playmaker for sure. So the thing that impresses me, well, does Burrow escape the safety, though? That's a question. I mean, I guess probably. So, yeah, we're talking about five quarterbacks. He escapes a free-running safety, a guy who probably runs a 4-5 or 4-6

coming right at him. And Kevin Seifert tweeted out the screen grab of three atlanta falcons players chasing after sam darnold in the backfield he goes to his left swings around in front of them which is already kind of a crazy idea to begin with and then every single player in the league probably runs for the first down there and that's where only Allen only Mahomes I'm not even sure if Herbert like thinks to do it only Burrow thinks to do it he's running full speed away from these guys and then just looks down and realizes oh yeah I could just throw that ball 50 yards I mean when you're running full speed to the right sideline and then you look downfield and see Justin Jefferson

with his arm up and go oh okay I can just throw that ball that far while running that way. I don't think the TV truly did it justice how fast he was going and the angle in which he had to turn his body and throw it. But this guy, the other touchdown to Addison, there's a collapsing pocket. It looks like someone hits his arm and the ball still gets there and he still makes a play. I mean, this is what I wrote about last week, Murph, the arm talent and the playmaking talent of Sam Darnold is just a straight up game changer. And when you can pair that with him playing true

quarterback, go through progressions, sit in the pocket, sometimes manage the game, sometimes throw the football away. You have something truly special that's happening here. Yeah, the velocity on the pass that he made to Addison, I think 90% of quarterbacks when you have your right guard pushed into your body as you're releasing is probably going to be a balloon ball. And it wasn't. It was as high and arcing and on target as you could expect, despite having a massive, probably 700 pounds of humanity in your face with an oncoming rusher and your guard. And then to have the wherewithal to decide to make that throw, and then to have the confidence that you're going to find a receiver downfield, who, by the way, Jordan Addison, I think, you know, we may be in a position now where we're calling the receiving core 1A and 1B as far as Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison is their' comments after a game or even during a week, too,

you can tell how much Darnold has galvanized that locker room. And it isn't just because he's won 11 games, and it's not because he's just playing at the highest of high levels the last month. This began in the offseason. I mean, this began when he showed up. He showed up humble. He showed up ready to work. He showed up ready to kind of flush the past without dwelling on it, as he's been very publicly stoic about that. I mean, you want to talk about one game at a time discipline. That's what he's been since March, which is admirable because there probably have been times where he's ready to bust out in front of a microphone and say, you like that?

How much do you like that? I just feel like he's, you know, what he's gone through in the last four years or five years has really kind of positioned him for this kind of success because you really can't appreciate what it takes to be an elite quarterback in the nfl until you do it and when you when you're confronted with bad coaching bad ownership decisions uh revolving door of offensive coordinators when you you're saddled with the New York Jets and the Carolina Panthers, the perpetual rebuilding clubs, it's easy to get disillusioned and start questioning your own talent. Nobody's ever questioned Sam Darnold's quarterback talent, his arm strength, his physique, his

ability to flip the ball into tight windows or fire it into tight windows, to hit the sideline routes, the outs, the hard passes. He just hasn't been in a position to succeed, whether it's been poor offensive line, not a great receiving core, or chaos above him in coaching and management. So for him to have been able to settle down in this environment with a quarterback-friendly coach, a superstar receiver, quality offensive line, good leadership already in the room, nobody expected Darnold to come in and be the alpha male, but he's earned that right now. And I think that the team recognizes that and

is treating him as an alpha male quarterback, as every team should. But he had to earn that. And he's earned that over the course of nine months. Just to see him on the bench towel whipping the crowd as they showed his statistical mastery of the day and watching his teammates react to that was almost as enjoyable as seeing him react to that. Still a long way to go. Still a lot of big time plays to be made and pressure games to be played where your opinion

could change in a hurry. But I feel like he, I think yesterday's performance really established Sam Darnold as the Vikings unquestioned leader on offense. I don't know how long that's going to last. It may be a matter of weeks, but right now Sam Darnold is the alpha male in that room. The towel wave at the end. My understanding is that they did not show it on TV. So I am very sorry to all of those who didn't get to see it. It was during a TV timeout, I believe.

Yeah. I mean, that's one where it would have been, and maybe they didn't catch it with their cameras. It would have been nice for everybody to see. The Vikings did tweet it out, so you could check out their Twitter, but it didn't have the sound with it to hear the pop. They talk about that in WWE when somebody comes out and the crowd goes absolutely insane.

This was one of the biggest pops that I've ever heard in US Bank Stadium because I don't think anyone expected him to do it. And just to describe the scene, as you said, they're showing his stats. They just show him over there on the sideline and he's kind of just sitting there because, you know, whatever, doesn't know he's going to be shown on the, on the Jumbotron. And then he grabs a towel and jumps up and starts swinging it. And you could see, he was kind of yelling like, let's go or whatever, that kind of thing. And for Sam Darnold to be so kind of straight faced all the time and not

somebody who's trying to pump everybody up like that to have that outburst. I think it showed what this has meant to him. You could kind of feel the whole journey, as Kevin O'Connell calls it, kind of hitting him at once. Like, I'm doing this. I can do this. When so many times before he was made fun of for saying he was seeing ghosts or failed with the Carolina Panthers and so forth.

And environment absolutely matters, but he matters. Like every quarterback who was a top three pick could have gotten cynical, miserable, entitled, frustrated, blamed other people. I thought it was so impressive when he came in and everybody's poking at him with, hey, tell us, blame the Jets, blame the Jets, blame the Panthers, blame somebody else. Come on. Here's the blame stick, you know, and he's refused to ever do that. And Brian O'Neill said to me yesterday, because I was like, what is he like, you know,

in the huddle and everything else and just as your leader? And he said that he takes the blame for things that aren't his fault like that's behind the scenes that's not leadership too right the way that he acts in those press conferences he's not a quote machine but i think that's him i think that he just approaches it like one day at a time like the cliches that are there and that has really paid huge dividends the other thing that koc said after the game, which I thought was a really great story about both of them was coming out of Jacksonville that Darnold kind of went back to the drawing board to go back and look at what had worked for him, study the things that had gotten

off in Jacksonville and why he had thrown those interceptions. And O'Connell said the reason he was so happy with that win is because he felt like it was a win in Jacksonville, but also an opportunity to really teach and coach and improve Sam Darnold. And since then, he has been the number one quarterback in the NFL since that happened. And I think that says a lot about both of them, because that was a moment in Jacksonville where the whole world said the wheels are coming off and Sam Darnold is going to go back to being a turnover machine. And since then, he has not even been anything close to that. And his reassessment and the coach's attitude toward it, those things coming together are the result of one of the best four-game stretches you're ever going to see. Well, and self-awareness is another great quality of a leader and the ability to recognize your flaws

and your commitment to correcting those. And you're right. It would have been convenient for him to chalk up Jacksonville as, you know, I got to do better, but, you know, that we won and I'm not concerned about that. I mean, to take ownership of that and recognize there were things he wasn't seeing correctly. There were positions he was putting himself in to make poor throws, to make bad decisions, to actually recognize that and get back to work on that is probably something he's learned over the last four years.

Whereas when you're a hot prospect coming out of a football factory like USC and you're in New York, you're probably not reflecting and you're probably not honing your craft the way you should when everything's been handed to you. He knows how tenuous his career could be. He knows how tenuous being a starting quarterback is in the NFL. And to recognize that moment and not take it for granted and get back to work and trust yourself, your skill set, and trust your coach, who's your biggest advocate, but is also, you know, a fellow quarterback. And we've talked a lot about KOC's abilities as a quarterback whisperer. Daniel Jones may learn this too. That helps to have an advocate in the room as opposed to just an old crusty defensive guy who couldn't be bothered with quarterbacks. I feel like, you know, I'd love to, you know, fill him up with a darnable truth serum and really get an idea of what it was like last year to be on the sidelines in San Francisco and be so out of sight and so out of mind and literally just being a placeholder on a club zero expectations if you're in the game it's a disaster because brock purdy can't play

you're on a super bowl team that's doing everything right with a great coach and you're just sort of a you know an ornament off to the side you know you're you're a piece of furniture you're not necessarily relevant to that and what must go through a a person's mind when they have been really humbled and cut down to size by the industry they thought they were going to thrive in? I would be curious as to what get a soft landing in San Francisco, surround himself with quality people, take the pressure off, and really absorb being a quarterback as opposed to battling, trying to earn your stripes. I think that, and I don't know this for sure, but I have a feeling that that experience last year in San Francisco might have been more

beneficial than anything else he had experienced in the NFL in the past, even though he barely saw the field. If he did at all, maybe some garbage time. That is what I would be curious about, is what do you learn about yourself in those moments? You know, you're staring out at that field, you're watching all of these players succeed, players that were undrafted or farther down the draft chain than you were, whether at your position or anywhere else. It's got to be an incredibly humbling experience, but also a motivating experience. And he just seems to have found the right spot. And the right spot opened up, how's this for a pivot, because the Vikings made the right decision by moving on from Kirk Cousins, who made the right decision to grab as much long-term security and money as he could,

and had earned through 13 years in the NFL. But it was, you know, I don't think it could be ironic anymore that Sam Darnold had the best day of his career and literally solidified himself in the fan base and in the locker room on the day his predecessor returned emotionally for what was supposed to be his vengeance game. And to see the two paths that Darnold and Cousins seem to be taking in their individual careers and the two paths that the Vikings and the Falcons have taken because of their choices and the ramifications of those decisions, how well it's worked out here and how tenuous it looks in Atlanta for Cousins. I mean, Vikings fans couldn't have written it up any better than their quarterback, who was brought in as a journeyman for $10 million outplaying the guy that they let go

and that their front office decided not to pay. I think the mental reset for a quarterback is something that teams need to pay attention to in the future. Because you look at the way Bryce Young came back from a benching, the way that Anthony Richardson came back from a benching, both those guys played much better football after that. And with Sam Darnold, I think that that's what it was. And there's just so much piled on top of you as a top three draft pick who failed in New York. So you're going to get all of it there. And then with Carolina, he played really well at the end of the 2022 season, but I swear no one saw it because they fired their coach. They just didn't have any games that they were playing for the playoffs or anything else like that down the stretch,

but he did play really, really well there, and I think that that's what caught Kyle Shanahan's eye. He got into a game, maybe it was against Baltimore with San Francisco where Brock Purdy was struggling and it was kind of out of hand, and he played extremely well and showed that he was really prepared so I think that he did take last year to focus on how can I use this experience to be better and I had asked him that about San Francisco earlier this year before they played him like how did that experience help you and what he said was that he watched Brock Purdy I mean think about. Like you said, there's no arrogance in Sam Darnold.

And that is maybe the number one reason that he has been able to do this because he is not an arrogant person. He doesn't think, I know it all. I was a top three pick. Look how talented. He said last year he watched Brock Purdy. And what he took away was you don't always have to be the hero. Sometimes you can just run the offense.

In fact, most times you can just run the offense. And if you know where to throw the football and you just do the way it's drawn up, that a lot of times with coaches like this, it's going to work. Now, with Matt Rule, it probably wasn't going to work. So you can understand why he may not have trusted his coaches and was always trying to make crazy plays in New York and Carolina. But he realized that you can play point guard, and that's become another cliche.

But for him, the cliches are all true and all effective. The other thing is, too, Murph, Jordan Addison's emergence over these last couple weeks has been incredible. He's gone from a guy that we all knew was super talented from day one. I think his first preseason game, he made some insane catch. His first training camp, he was lighting people up. We're going, OK, I guess they drafted the right wide receiver. It's been a little rocky at times since then.

There's been some up and downs with production. There's been some up and downs with production there's been some up and downs uh downs off of the field uh and even throughout this season wondering all right is he really going to get involved is he going to get on the same page he had two ankle injuries that no doubt slowed him down from getting open early in the season and then they probably win the lions game if he ran the right route at the end and it didn't seem like he was fully dialed in. So you're saying, which direction is this player going to go? And these last couple of weeks, maybe it's health,

maybe it's confidence. I don't know what it is, but the light has come on with Jordan Addison. And now, I mean, it's, it's not right to be comparing him to Chris Carter, but it's the same effect.

It's the same effect when you have two guys that are this good at tracking the football. And how many times would Sam Darnold have been able to throw it up to a wide receiver and have him make these catches in the past in Carolina or in New York? Not very often, but now your life is different when you have someone like Jordan Addison playing next to Justin Jefferson. Right. I mean, you know, to take the Carter analogy a little bit farther, I mean, when he was here with Moss, I mean, Carter was considered, and this may be a tough label, but a possession guy.

You know, the guy that would make the third down catch, that would toe tap the sideline. If you needed five yards, he'd get you six. That was the kind of receiver he was, whereas Moss was, you know, de-pantsing defensive backs and stretching the field and shaving the top off the defense, all of those cliches that kind of came out when he exploded onto the scene. I think Addison is a little bit more like Jefferson in the sense that he can outrace defenders down the field. He can out defend or out or box out and out battle a defensive back and put himself in a position to make great catches.

High, low, behind him, in the middle of the field, along the sidelines. And to have that kind of a dual threat where you're literally telling the defense, pick your poison, because the Falcons, it looked like, without breaking it all down, at least in the postgame chatter, they were a little looser on Jefferson. They did single him up, whereas opponents in the last month have not seemed to be willing to do that. It seems like every defense has said, look, we're not letting Jefferson beat us. Let him throw to Hawkinson. Let him find Addison if they can. If they can get a running game going or if they can maybe have Aaron Jones.

But we're not letting Justin Jefferson beat us. And yesterday the Falcons seemed to dial up a little bit more pressure and get a little more aggressive with their safeties and allow Jefferson to roam a little, which, man, when Darnold spotted him the first time, the dam broke. And then because it seemed like in the last few weeks, you know, Jefferson would emerge in the fourth quarter for a big catch or draw a pass interference to sustain a Vikings drive, but it was Hawkinson and Addison that were getting the glory in the end zone or Josh Oliver or Johnny Munt or Aaron Jones or anybody but Jefferson. And now I don't know if the Falcons were broken on defense because of this, or they, they saw something else that, that maybe, maybe if we concentrate a little more on Addison, maybe if we take away Hawkinson underneath,

because Hawkinson wasn't really a factor much at all until late, that did allow Jefferson to roam free. Now, not as free as the 52-yarder that was clearly broken, but it seemed like that now with Addison almost a 1A and 1B situation, it's whack-a-mole for defensive coordinators, and that's not successful. And Darnold seems to realize that. And if Darnold's able to evade pressure and step out of pressure and show some nimbleness in the pocket, that not only can he pick up five yards to salvage a broken play or get to the first down stick on third and eight, where his cousins would

either check it down or run right into pressure. The versatility and the options to go off script to make plays downfield, when you have two wide receivers that are as elusive as Addison and Jefferson are, the whole playbook and the whole opportunity to really dominate an opponent opens up. And I really felt like that was the first time we saw the Vikings utterly dominate and pummel a team over four quarters with their offense. Early in the year when they were 5-0, we remember those first quarter stats. I think they were, what, 37-0 over a period of time or something that absurd, where they were just pummeling opponents, but then slipping in the second half where, you know, a lot of three

and outs, maybe an untimely turnover, and suddenly your defense is under stress again. The defense was under stress a bit early in the game yesterday. The time of possession was, I think, a two to one margin at one point. But once the offense really, really came to life, that's the first time I've seen the offense really dominate a game for four quarters. Whereas throughout the season, it seemed like the defense would be on for two or three quarters, particularly at the end when they needed them most. Or the offense was just taking the opening possession and scoring seven points and you're getting 14 to 21 in the first and second quarter, and then hanging on.

This was the first time the offense really took over the game and ended it, and that's a good harbinger. It also shows, I think, where Darnold's play has been elevated so much that everybody's kind of following with him, and I think O'Connell is recognizing that he's spreading the ball around it was really fun to watch them just take over a game at home offensively and turn the fourth quarter really into a party at U.S. Bank Stadium we haven't seen much of that because it's usually been a nail biter um and it really helps the defense uh catch its breath and stay sharp uh as we get going down the stretch here too

the drive gosh there were five touchdowns so i'm trying to think of which one it is i think it was going into the fourth quarter they, like the defense had gotten gassed, and it was clear. Was that the 98-yarder? It wasn't that one. They scored a lot of points. If that's not your most dominant drive, I mean, what a day you must have had. Right. No, I did want to bring up that drive because it's a little bit of a message

to Kevin O'Connell. It was the first time I've ever seen Kevin O'Connell just keep running. Like that was the first Kevin Stefanski, Gary Kubiak-ish drive that I've ever seen from O'Connell where he just went, you know what? We can run the football here. Run, run, run. Safe play action pass, which I was for. I mean, those are ones where you can always throw the ball away. And then handoff, handoff, handoff, handoff, handoff.

Like that was so impressive. And it's something that I have like brought up many times. Like, hey, you could just keep running when the other team isn't stopping it. And they weren't at the end of that game, but it was actually after. So I should have had the box score in front of me. But when Atlanta scored really fast,

they had that response drive they got the two-point conversion tied it up 21 yeah yeah 21 21 then the Vikings after that so desperately needed a long drive to keep their defense off the field and they were able to come up with it and that was the type of when you're talking about complete offensive performance they did it in a lot of different ways it was here's a 50-yard touchdown but that wasn complete offensive performance, they did it in a lot of different ways. It was, here's a 50-yard touchdown, but that wasn't the only one. They did have longer drives. They did have possession drives in the second half.

They did have a 98-yard drive where a lot of it was handing the football off and then one dump check down to the backup tight end, which I kind of was thinking about David Morgan from 2017, how he's a blocking tight end that they used to roll out every once in a while for a key first down or something. And this does have a Thielen and Diggs type of feel with TJ Hawkinson, I think has a little more stretch the field than Kyle Rudolph, but still is always there for you underneath when you want them. And we're seeing a quarterback that everybody counted out, utilize everything that he has here, and then the running game coming to life.

And Aaron Jones getting some confidence, getting a touchdown, getting over those fumbles from the past. I mean, this is what – And Cam Akers getting some real clock-killing action. Yes. Yeah, and this is what it feels like to have a complete team. Now, just we have to talk about the defensive side they gave up a lot of yards they had to rely on catching the football

when kirk cousins threw it to them but the amount that they've been on the field is a worry for me just they need a week where they're out there for 40 plays or something or 50 plays, not always on the wrong side of time of possession. Teams can run a little on them now recently. And what teams are really doing is completing these short passes to just have long drives. And I guess if you're Brian Flores, maybe you're conflicted because you're like, okay, that's great because you're not getting any explosives, but it's not great because Sam Darnold and Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are sitting over on the sideline because they're completing short pass after short pass. Ivan Pace Jr. being out has turned out to be a huge issue for them, I think, because there's no real

replacement. But I think this is going to have to be a situation where they lean heavily on Sam Darnold going down the stretch because they're going to play good quarterbacks and good offenses here in these last few weeks. It's going to have to be this way because it's not an easy answer to solve a defense that is worn down like this one is. Yeah, I mean, anybody that's been listening to us talk every Monday, I mean, I've been pounding that drum since, you know, September or October. You know, the amount of snaps the defense has to play, the high leverage stress snaps in the third and fourth quarters when they were just hanging on or trying to keep the game in hand,

that took a lot of miles and a lot of starch out of them. And again, it's a veteran unit. So you got to wonder how many weeks that can add up. And I do remember glancing, I think it was in the, it must've been in the second quarter of just glancing up at the scoreboard during a timeout. And I think it was 16 and a half minutes for Atlanta and maybe six for the Vikings.

And I thought this is a terrible pace that they're on right now. And Cousins was picking up third downs. They were extending drives, short passes, a lot of soft spots that look like in the secondary. As you said, they weren't necessarily always leading to seven or even three points. But they were keeping the defense on the field and they were keeping Sam Darnold and company on ice. And I think what we saw yesterday now is almost, if you can have an opportunity the way the Vikings did and Darnold did

yesterday to kind of pick and choose where to put the ball and how to surgically march a team when you need it. If they can sustain a couple more of those drives in the first half, that maybe don't lead to points, or maybe they do lead to, you know, Will Reichert hitting the upright and no big deal. But to keep your defense fresh with a dominant offense now in a run game and maybe O'Connell's willingness to exploit that run game, keep some of the tricks in the bag, especially in the red zone. It's a conversation for another day, but I just feel like that the offense can help the defense and complement so much more. And I think you're going to need defensive stops in the fourth quarter of a playoff game. And they'll sustain drives that you had in the first and second quarter that may not bear fruit could benefit that defense when you need a stop with two and a half minutes left and your opponent crashing the red zone. So yeah, that's something to keep in mind,

but I think the offense could be the best help for the defense. And the way that they played yesterday, so well-rounded and so complete, there could be a blueprint there for, for evening that stress level. And maybe, you know, I can't imagine the defense will have a 21 point lead in the fourth quarter anytime soon.

But to be able to have that reserve in the tank is going to be so much more beneficial as we head into January. Last thing, the crowd yesterday, phenomenal in U.S. Bank Stadium. I thought they turned it all the way up to kind of playoff level. Do you think Vikings fans now after this, is this a turning point for them buying into this team I'd love to declare that but you know that it's it's a skeptical scarred bitter tribal fan base so I I'm sure there's a lot of nitpicking about the defense um and and the the the soft spots there but I I feel I mean this was only the second home game I was at.

I was at the Detroit game, which was highly entertaining as well. I think there is a sense, I think we're going to remember the towel waving. I mean, if this Viking team does something special and ends up in New Orleans on February 9th and, you know, brings a Lombardi trophy back here. There will be many, many, many, many books written about the 2024 season. And I guarantee you they will all reference the fourth quarter, December 8th, against Atlanta with Cousins basically killing the clock

and trying to get out unharmed in garbage time. And Sam Darnold waving that towel and being accepted and embraced by the Minnesota fans. If not a turning point, a seminal moment. You know, that's where this team kind of arrived. I think that's what you'll see. I agree. That was a very, very memorable game yesterday.

Great to have you there in the press box, Murph. Great to have you every single Monday. People can go read your article over at purpleinsider.com as well. Thank you, sir. Yeah, but we didn't even talk about Cousins. Go read my column. I kind of chronicled his sad return. Oh, the Falcons quarterback?

Yeah, yeah, I know he's dead to you, but it was relevant yesterday. Not worry about that. All right, have a good weekend. Unless they play him in the playoffs, then we'll talk about it again. All right, we'll see you, but not was relevant yesterday. Not worry about that. All right. Have a good day. Play him in the playoffs. Then we'll talk about it again. All right. We'll see you, Murph.

All right. Take care. Football. All right. I still have some time to answer questions, so I'm going to scroll back in the comments and answer your questions that you've been thrown out there. Questions and comments during our discussion.

But first I want to mention that Manny and I did a pretty darn good job last week with our hires and lowers on underdog fantasy. We went higher on Kirk cousins, Sam Darnold, Justin Jefferson, and Bijan Robinson in their totals and bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,

bang hit on each one of those in a shootout game. So if you want to play along over at underdog fantasy, you could play along with the pickups. There's also plenty of fantasy games for all sports, easiest app to use and a great sponsor of course, of this show. So we always appreciate that. And a way to support the show,

sign up over at underdog fantasy for the stretch run of the football season by signing up with the code purple to claim your special pick first time deposit offer up to a thousand dollars in bonus cash must be 18 or older terms apply concern with your play call 1-800 gambler or visit mc ncp gambling.org. Okay. Uh, digit says veteran quarterbacks with high IQ will pick apart and wear out the defense. Can we outscore very good defenses in these instances? It's how many very good defenses will they be playing would be my question, uh, veteran quarterback like Baker Mayfield, and they've got a running game now and good weapons. But when it comes to their defense, it's just okay. Like, is there any team that they're, that they're going to play that has a defense where you would say, oh man,

the Vikings can't possibly outscore them. Phillies is pretty good. The lions is really banged up. It was good earlier this year. The Packers have their moments. They also have their down moments. There isn't a team they're going to play that has a dominant defense. The most concerned I would be is about, honestly, the Rams, because their D-line is so good and can get after the quarterback the way that they did against the Vikings and slow down the run game. But there aren't that many teams that are great on defense. They're not all the Falcons who have a really terrible defense.

What you're saying though, it is a concern about how opposing quarterbacks have been able to continually find those receivers in the middle of the zones and deal with the blitzes. And Kirk cousins did it on several instances yesterday where he was able to drop back and find people open over the middle, get the ball into the hands of his weapons, taking a snap, getting rid of the ball quickly into the playmakers hands, running the football, which they did when they wore him down. This is the biggest question mark I have about the Vikings defense is if they face golf in the playoffs, even Baker Mayfield, if it's him, Jordan Love gets a little antsy. I don't know if he

is able to be that patient, but Jalen hurts their running game. How is that going to match up? Realistically, what they need is to be able to have quarterback play like they've gotten the last four weeks where, yeah, you're going to get sometimes where the other team scores and they move the ball and it's not always going to be what it looked like against the Texans earlier this year. But when you get your opportunities, you have to put up points, you have to hit on explosives. And I think that they also just have to learn to control the football a little longer early in the game. The opening script so often seems like let's whip down the field and score as fast as possible, which is great. And you want to get ahead. But sometimes it seems to get away from

possessing the football as it goes along. And they did it for a few weeks, but maybe just because the opportunities were there against the Falcons. That's why they went for the big plays. The first half of Arizona, it seemed like they were big play hunting a little too much. And they then got into possession in the second half. I think they need to do that a little bit more often earlier in the game. Is the faithful. I'm amazed the amount of disrespectful commentary by some of the national media today. Heard one show analyst said the Vikings got lucky on Sunday and Darnold wasn't anything to worry about. Yeah, I mean, I think that what analysts are saying on national TV shows probably isn't much to worry about. Yeah. I mean, I think that what analysts are saying on national

TV shows probably isn't much to worry about here. It is something that people have asked me a lot, though, like friends of mine in the league or not in the league. It just, why aren't the Vikings talked about more in the national conversation? Well, one is Philadelphia moves the needle. People love to talk about Dan Campbell. People love to talk about Dan Campbell. They love to yell about Dan Campbell, put two dudes in a room and have them yell at each other about Dan Campbell going on for fourth down. That's going to get ratings or that's going to get clips that go viral on social media because everybody seems to have an argument about Dan Campbell and his fourth downs. You just got angry as I was talking about

it. I guarantee it. You thought I have an opinion on that. And that's what a lot of those shows are geared toward. They're not geared toward the most rational and reasonable analysis that you can have with lots of nuance and a two hour discussion about the Minnesota Vikings. They are set up to be debate topics that people will respond to on social media and come back for more the next day for more arguing. That's really what they're designed. And the Vikings are just not a team to have much argument about. Now they have the, should they sign Sam Darnold? Like they get, yeah, they can yell about that. I saw Shannon Sharp yelling about that today, but I mean, they're not built to have the discussions that we're having. It's just a different medium.

They're doing what they need to do business wise, but it's a different medium. So when you watch it as a rational person who has watched this whole season play out and you know, everything about this team, you people know who Jalen Redmond is. You have a lot more knowledge of the vikings you watching this show than they do on the national shows just because somebody played in the league or was a national reporter or they just hired them off the internet because they were popular or whatever that doesn't mean they actually know more than you about your team because you watch every play of every game and you read and you research and and you watch the game back and you follow all the reporters they that's not they

can't do that for 32 teams they're looking for debate topics and so the Vikings have been so uncontroversial that there's nothing to talk about here and it's also not considered one of the biggest markets it actually is a pretty big market but it it's not New York. It's not Philly. It's not LA. It's not Chicago. So it doesn't have that same type of, like, it's going to get this huge audience just because of how you're talking about it. But I don't worry about that. You probably shouldn't either. I think it's more telling that they're not talking about this team. It tells you that they don't have anything that's on fire. They don't have anything that's burning to the ground

because that's what it usually takes to get the attention of the TV shows is to be firing your coach, having your wide receiver go on the internet and say something or do something, to have your coach be doing controversial things or saying crazy stuff at the podium, you just don't have any of that. You just have a really good football team that's plus 99 is 11 and two and is right in the conversation to go into the playoffs and really compete. So yeah, I mean, but as far as yesterday, anybody who says that that was

lucky or whatever else, I mean, yeah, I mean, I guess you could say that the Falcons corners falling down was probably a good break for them and they took advantage of it. But the way that Sam Darnold operated, the way the offense, is it lucky that just the Jefferson gets 132 yards? I don't think so. He does that all the time. So I don't know. I just, I have felt this year more than any other year that the national conversation has just shifted so much to what teams and big markets are failing that they've missed out on a lot of good conversation about a lot of teams. It's not just yours.

It's not just the Vikings. It's just so much on something is on fire. We need to be talking about the Chicago bears constantly because it's the big market and they're struggling and call for the coaches to be fired. That's, that's just how those shows work and that's their business model. So it's not, it's not the business model of purple insider.

The business model of purple insider is to talk about Jalen Redmond making the football team and Gabriel Murphy. And, and remember last week when I read you all the, uh, Sam Darnold statistics and the statistical analysis, that's what the show is. And to have fun chatting with you guys. So we do our thing. They do their thing to quote Sam Darnold. It is what it is. Uh, Ron says Dallas Turner showed a lot of potential on Sunday. I thought he was okay. Uh, I got to go back and watch it.

As far as his PFF grade, it was above average or a little, just a shade above average. He had the one very notable pressure where he whipped into the backfield and made a play. He rushed the passer only about 16 times, dropped back and coverage seven. I think he was out there a good amount, but with Dallas Turner, they're very clearly developing him in a certain type of vision. And yesterday he was a part of a handful of plays, was flying around in some other plays. You can see the talent. It's just going to take some time. And I think there's a lot of opportunity here down the stretch with Patrick Jones banged up because now he's got to play a Patrick Jones type of role, which is sometimes rushing from different spots, sometimes dropping back in

coverage. That one's just going to take time. And we're not really going to know where he's at until he's got more opportunity. He's getting plays. He's out there on the field. He's just not getting a ton of opportunities necessarily to rush the passer. I see him in coverage a lot. They run the football. He's in on that. It's just the development that's going to have to happen for Dallas Turner, but they may need him. They very well may need him. So I think we'll get a good sense because when they've used them more, he's been pretty good. He was pretty good yesterday. He was, I thought very good against the Indianapolis Colts. So we're going to see more and more, and maybe by the end of the season, start to get a sense for what he really is going to be

or what his upside can be going forward and things like that. That's going to show itself as we go forward. How are they going to use him down the stretch will be something that i'm definitely going to watch uh wade says my only complaint yesterday was kirk not throwing a check down on fourth against us wanted it so badly he did fail on a fourth down by overthrowing somebody and that was reminiscent of some kevin o'conConnell fourth down pass calls on fourth and short where they incompleted passes. But, yep, there was a lot of typical moments. Real men something says our offensive line and our defense are my biggest concern right now.

Defense giving up a ton of yards. O-line giving up a ton of pressure. It truly is not a ton of pressure. It just feels like it because you're you watching your favorite team. When you look at the statistics from yesterday, and this is why I love stats so much, because they can confirm or deny something that happened. He was pressured on 13 dropbacks, which is like 35% or something like that of his dropbacks. It's a relatively normal number for,

for pressure rate. It's just that he got sacked on a couple of them and then he had to escape on another one. But aside from those, there were a lot of clean dropbacks where he was able to operate from the pocket. I really, I just,

I want to get this through. The offensive line is actually one of the better lines in the league overall. This is not by my secret opinion or metrics that I'm keeping on some notebook. This is by the PFF metrics, which I trust when it comes to offensive line play to tell us the real story. And also by my eye, I've seen the worst. I've seen the worst. It's not like this. I mean, even for somebody like Dalton Reisner getting pushed back a little as he does, but he's still giving enough of a pocket for Sam Darnold to throw the ball.

So the defensive side of it, getting worn down, what are they going to look like going into the playoffs? That's why some of these guys are getting good reps, like getting Gabriel Murphy out there, getting Dallas Turner out there, even giving a little bit to someone like Dwight McLaughlin. Like they need these guys in, in games. They need them to have a rotation that is constantly coming in and out because even if they play a normal amount of plays 65 plays against the Chicago bears, that the play total is still growing and growing and growing each week. And I think that the Vikings it's like to their detriment sometimes are

hitting on big plays. I mean, when they score on that long touchdown and then Kirk comes back and response like, well, yeah, because the defense was just out there and sorry, Sam Darnold threw a 50 yard touchdown. You can't tell him not to. You want 50 yard touchdowns, but that's always been college football teams know this when they have those high pace, fast scoring,

run up and down the field, their defenses are always bad because they get worn down and then they're exhausted. And's where the vikings have to have a plan for that and they they had it for a few of the games but then i think they kind of lost that thread a little bit in the first half of the last couple games uh life is about the odds as if sam plays like he did yesterday on monday you have to wonder if this is going on a Kirk, uh, Kurt Warner light comes on type of run. It's all, I mean, Kurt Warner had one of the all-time great seasons. There's nothing that could be quite like that. But what we're seeing from Sam Darnold is that if you didn't know anything about Sam Darnold, this is the best way to figure out how you feel

about it. If you didn't know anything about you, just let's say you knew football, but you didn't know any background on Sam Darnold and you didn't know they drafted this other quarterback that you like. And then you watched the last four games. What would you think of Sam Darnold? I mean, it's not, did the, will the light come on? I mean, it's not, will the light come on? I mean, the light is on. The light is on bright over the whole season it is. I mean, this is top 10, top seven quarterback play in the league

is the accumulation of him this season. He's seventh by PFF. He's third by quarterback rating. These are numbers of quarterbacks who compete for super bowls franchise quarterback type of performances but also another thing that's worth saying is that if they have a bad game if darnold has a bad game against chicago against seattle We don't have to do the thing where we go, like, no, we've seen a couple of bad games. We've seen them bounce back. We don't have to do that with every, every single game does not have to be a referendum

at this point on how good Sam Darnold can be, because we've seen that over a pretty large sample size. Now, even going back to 2022. He's just good at playing quarterback for this football team. Whether if you take him and put him on the worst team in the league, would he be this good? Probably not. Who would? But I've always thought, don't apologize for what you could put around your quarterback when he plays great.

But then there's only so much you can do. There's only so much you can do with receivers, with coaching, with play calls. Sometimes you need a quarterback who has the pure talent to make it all happen. And that's where Darnold is different from almost any other story that's like this. The only one I could think of is what? Like Steve Young, where he had the talent, but was with Tampa Bay and it was a mess and then he goes to San Francisco and becomes an all-time great but that's another example of someone who had the talent and that's what Sam Darnold has is the talent to do this so we don't have to do the

real or fake every single week if he throws two interceptions in a game well yeah he's gonna throw some picks it happens like he maybe you know he'll take some s well, yeah, he's going to throw some picks. It happens. Like maybe, you know, he'll take some sacks or he'll have a bad game at some point because quarterbacks do sometimes even really good quarterbacks do sometimes over the last four, it doesn't seem super likely that he's going to just throw for 350 yards and have a perfect quarterback rating in every one of those games. But we have gone past the old Sam, real fake Sam, fraud Sam. Like, I think we've gone past that. This is just a really, really excellent passing game being operated by someone who's super,

super talented. And the rest in the future is going to figure itself out from there. Jeff says we haven't had a quarterback that could overcome in-game adversity since far of that element missing and means you're not a true contender. Some of that with Teddy early in his career, but even like you said about Bradford and it's not that, I mean, Kirk had comebacks. He had all those comebacks in 2022. It's not that he could never do something like that. It's just that it was so many times in big games that we walked out of there with a lot of excuses, a lot of, well, the line couldn't block the bears or, well, they hit Kirk early in the game. And that's why.

And it would be games against Washington with Taylor Heineke starting that, well, they hit Kirk early in the game and that's why. And it would be games against Washington with Taylor Heineke starting that, oh, a game-winning drive. Like, that's good. And, you know, one score wins count and all that. We went through that in 2022. But then the big game happens against Green Bay and you lose. They're just so often that was the case. And then we walk out going, well, the defense wasn't good enough.

Well, the guards wasn't good enough well the the guards weren't good enough well the whatever and we just haven't had to do that for this team because you do have somebody who gets put in a tough spot sometimes and finds a way out of it mike says if pace and gilmore can come back healthy and they can avoid any major injuries it will be fun to watch that is another part of this that is really big when we're talking about the defense is that they have been without either cashman or pace in a lot of these games and if they have both of them i don't think well they didn't lose any games without uh both of them for sure didn't lose any games, but when it comes to just how they play defensively,

they were really difficult to deal with when it came to having both Pace and Cashman in because Pace is a great blitzer. Cashman is a do-it-all guy and them trying to replace either one of those has been kind of a nightmare. Kamu Grugier-Hill made a couple plays early in the season. Josh Metellus is

being asked to play pure linebacker, which is really tough for a guy who's 210 pounds. They're running out Jamin Davis, who did pretty well in his handful of snaps. They need both of those guys healthy and credit to Fabian Morrow, who played really well in that football game, but you need Stefan Gilmore. If it's a fully healthy defense, and then you're looking at some other teams that are banged up on defense, like the lions, that that's your edge. That is your edge.

Marley says, did you see pictures shared by Adam feeling that his son and friends drew up plays for Adam digs Jefferson and McCaffrey? I'm fairly convinced that he could drop a better trick play. The KOC. If the worst thing that your coach does is struggle with trick plays and maybe tries too hard to hit deep balls, then that's a pretty good thing. If that's the biggest criticism, because there's a lot worse around the league but i just you gotta stop with that you got you know what's gonna happen is i'm gonna spend all

this time complaining about the trick plays and then the first play of the playoffs will be some double reversed 75 yard touchdown or something and then you could all laugh at me for complaining about it the whole time but it's not even just that they run trick plays which i don't love to begin with it's that they run them and they're always weird they're always like having ty they wouldn't put ty chandler in the game and against san francisco they wanted to throw a pass like what and yesterday a triple reverse you're flipping the ball flipping the ball flipping the ball and then throwing a screen in the red zone and once all your linemen go over to one side they know what's going on and it just i don't get it i just explain to me like i'm five why these trick plays are necessary we can just

hand the ball off uh ryan says i saw gabriel murphy got some playing time wondering how you thought he looked uh i will look at that on tape a little bit more when I go back. Tuesday is always my day to look at the all 22, but I can tell you he graded well by PFF above average grade. I had a pressure mixed in there, a couple of plays, but it sounded from Kevin O'Connell. Like they were very happy with the way that he play. I think he used the word flashed or hustle to the ball, something like that. Yeah. I mean, having somebody like that

show up on your defense that they were very excited about in training camp, they were really excited about Gabriel Murphy in camp. And then he's just here in the middle of the season. That's like getting a new player. That's like suddenly having a player show up on your team, like you signed him. And it's a little bit of an extra, just a body out there. And they're going to need that. And that's what I want to see toward the end of the season is just a little bit more of the rotating on defense earlier in the game. They've been doing it later in the game, but earlier in the game, they might want to start doing that, getting Gabe Murphy in there, getting Dallas Turner in there,

so they're not in the third quarter feeling extremely gassed. Marley says a majority of the teams, especially the Lions, have drafted extremely well in the top three four rounds quesadilla flamenta has not would be the same issue rick had expensive quarterback bad drafting i'm just like if they bring back sam darnold they will still have everything they have on this 11 and 2 football team, they will have cap space still to sign. Remember they're spending $40 million on the quarterback position as we speak.

And they did this. You guys just overrate the drafting thing. Sometimes it's not all. It's not whether you just draft the players. It's how many good players you actually have. It doesn't really matter how you get them. And I understand all there's not whether you just draft the players it's how many good players you actually have it doesn't really matter how you get them and i understand all there's a salary cap but when you're in win now mode there kind of isn't there's pushing money around and then down the road yeah you're gonna have to deal with that but uh there is enough cap space that they were able to create

and cash that their ownership is able to spend to bring in these guys that are free agents to extend the superstars and then to find the other pieces find a gabriel murphy who's going to play a role here find a jalen redmond find the pieces that have fit in the the drafting by the entire franchise has netted them a lot of really good talents like Christian Derrissaw, like Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and a draft pick spent for TJ Hawkinson. And then they've put together the defense in a different way by signing free agents that their defensive coordinator really wanted or getting Byron Murphy as a free agent. It all counts the same,

whether the guy's good or not. The Vikings have as many good players as any team in the league, and maybe the Lions are the only team that's a little better. The problem is you talk about how great they drafted. They tanked though. The Vikings did not tank. They were not in a position to tank with their ownership. It would have, I'm sure if if Kweisi Adafl-Mensah was drafting with all the picks that they had, they accumulated a million of them, then they would have done better. And you're going to have to prove it

if you think that drafting is not random. You're going to have to show me a study, show me a team that consistently did it well over a long period of time, because it's just not the case. The Vikings have drafted like 15 players. I mean, truly they've drafted like 15 players since Kweisi Adaflomenta got here. It to me, it's just foolish to talk about like, Oh, I just can't draft or whatever. I don't understand that

at all. Other than just the draft obsession and people are far too obsessed with the draft. So it's they're 11 and two. And if they bring back Sam Darnold in the future with all of the same things that they have now, they can continue to compete. And if they got an Ivan Pace Jr. are great players and undrafted free agent. Oh, well, of course you can't draft, but they'll have four undrafted free agents out here playing and it'll be like oh i can't draft okay well that's fine uh the the key to the thing is can you build a team that gets to 11 and 2 and they did and can you do it with a 40 million dollar cap hit from your quarterback position they did because they do right now so they could in the future Is that the same as having the rookie quarterback contract?

No, it's not, but it's act. We act like it's an impossibility that a team could have a contract for a quarterback and still win, even though every team in the NFC that's winning, except for Washington has paid their quarterback. None of this is impossible. The, the, the new Orleans saints stretched open their window. How long with drew breeze and they paid players and they added guys and all those things. And you can do it when you're in your window. The thing is that the quarterback has to be good enough. And at this moment, the quarterback is good enough. And that's Sam Darnold, but you know, draft drafting is fun. I will admit that drafting is really fun. Uh, Oh, Manny picking Detroit schedule. Maybe we need to

do that on Thursday. Uh, where's Drew McGarry's coming on later this week. I got to get the schedule for the media so I can figure out exactly when, cause Monday night football changes things a lot with the schedule. So Manny is awesome. I agree with that, Brett. Thank you. Um, how about the wild? Uh, I, I just can't pay attention to anything else until the season is over. But when the season is over, I'm back, I'm back on hockey. I'm back on hockey. Maybe I'll get to a game here. I'm going to try. I've got some things going on this week. I'm hosting twice on WCCO radio. If you guys want to check that out tomorrow night and on Friday. So I got a lot going on. I have not been able to

pay attention to, um, the hockey a lot. I mean, I've seen what the wild they're doing, but them in the wolves, like I'm only just kind of in the background while I'm, uh, while I'm working. So anyway, um, yeah, well, here we are. What a time Vikings are 11 and two, a lot to discuss this week. Kevin Seifert, Drew McGarry. I'm sure Courtney Cronin will pop in later at some point. So we'll load it up on a great guest for this week.

Jeremiah Searles tomorrow. Make sure you guys keep an eye out for that. And we'll see where this journey takes us, but man come off a game like that. And then Monday night football against the bears. What a freaking football season it is. So thanks you guys for the great chat as always tonight to Manny for picking the schedule as he always does.

And we will catch you guys always. It seems always every day there's going to be something new coming out. And even Sunday to Monday, I'll react to the games and everything else. So can't wait. What a great time to be talking about football. So thanks everybody for all of your time. And we'll talk to y'all later. Football.