Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Will the Vikings carry over what they found vs. the Colts? (A Fan's Only podcast)

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

Matthew Coller answers fan questions, from why the Vikings screen game worked against the Colts to whether the defensive changes were driven by players to whether they should try to avoid playing in San Francisco to whether Kirk Cousins has earned an extension to if Justin Jefferson would be unhappy with not playing for the receiving record. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Liquid Death, delicious water that's bringing death to plastic. Learn more at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello and welcome to another episode of purple insider this is a fans only podcast so we'll get to a lot of questions real quick the only update to give from tco performance center is that garrett bradbury will not be playing he's a good example of a guy that they need to just make sure that he's up to 100 because aust because Austin Schlotman is a replacement level type player. And Garrett Bradbury has shown a lot of improvement in his performance this year. Eric Kendricks and Cam Dantzler are questionable. Now, if Kendricks is not feeling up to it a hundred percent, then Brian Asamoah, and that could be interesting to get a look at him in a full

game because I just checked on this and Asamoah has played 68 snaps so far which isn't really big enough for us to get a sample size on and Eric Hendricks is 100% a guy that in the playoffs you're going to want and need at 100% and in the lineup. So if they proceed with caution, it would not be surprising there. If Dantzler is active, that will get into the, is Duke Shelley going to remain as the starter, which I think a lot of us believe that he should, or would they have Cam Dantzler back out there after he had had a really tough week against Detroit

and then Shelley played really well last week against Indianapolis. So that's something to keep an eye on. So that's all I got really from TCO Performance Center. So we can get into your questions here. The first one coming from Ivan, longtime supporter of Purple Insider, says my X's and O's question for you this week is about the screen game with Delvin Cook. It popped when they needed it. Where has it been?

How can they get more of that against an aggressive pass rush? And please, can we get number 26 involved? That's Kenny Wong Wu on one of those screens. I wish I had a great answer to tell you the truth. I really do. I think that the execution of their screen game has just been poor in the blocking a lot of times where it's somebody doing something wrong or not developing at the right pace or a missed block. I do not think it's been Delvin cook is the reason. And this sort of goes to running backs being used as receivers usually comes down to the execution around them or the scheme of how they're used for their effectiveness as a receiver, rather than say going down field

and running routes and things like that. That's why when you look at Delvin Cook's say, you know, yards per attempt or yards per catch a couple of years ago, it's really good in 2019. But then this year it's been very poor up until the big game. That's just comes down to the execution around him. We saw that when he gets in space, he knows what to do. I mean, he can create a big play under almost any circumstances still. So yeah, I think it's really just been maybe how it's taught when it's dialed up. And Kirk Cousins made a point about this. He said that Kevin Stefanski used to tell them that those things are either,

or either he said, gosh, it was either outhouse or the penthouse or something like that with screens. I mean, they're kind of boom or bust in themselves, that if you hit a screen, you can get a big play out of doing almost nothing from the quarterback and kind of get a you know an easy 64 yard play where you just throw it in zero yards to the running back or those can get blown up I think Indianapolis was really playing so far back with everyone trying to keep everything in front of them that on a couple of the screens they they just weren't

aggressive enough they weren't aggressive enough. They weren't there and they allowed Ezra Cleveland to get out. Christian Derisaw threw a guy when I was watching back on tape. I forget who it was. It might've been Stefan Gilmore, but somebody was going to try to make a tackle and he just threw them across the field. They have the athletes to be a really good screen team, but they just haven't gotten everybody on the same page. And then the tight end screens can just be thrown in a garbage can and lit on fire. Those tight end screens very rarely work, um, trying to kind of bring a tight end inside. It's sort of the Andy Reed stuff with Travis Kelsey, but he's a little bit different than

anybody else in the league. And the way that those are executed, um executed are kind of specific for him so I think that they could throw those out but one of the screens that they had successfully was you know the one where Derrissaw threw a guy was really just a standard type of screen where the linemen you know they block a little at first and they pull out and then you just kind of dump it off to the running back and they got 10 or 15 yards out of it. I don't know where that's been. And it might've been just a little bit too much creativity from Kevin O'Connell trying a little too hard to add an extra wrinkle and forgetting about the standards. And I think that that's one thing that Gary Kubiak did very well. And Kevin Stefanski did

very well is they remember the standards. They remembered an outside zone handoff with Delvin Cook works and a basic screen to Delvin Cook works and set, you know, sending him out of the five wide receiver, you know, set and having him, you know, run a route or something like that. You could throw that in every once in a while or surprising the opponent with a tight end screen yeah you can do that but don't forget that sometimes the simplest stuff is the easiest to execute for the offense and can be hard to stop and has been hard to stop over many many years in the NFL and you know the other thing is too KJ Osborne should have been getting some of these screens

all year long because he is really good at his run after catch and he's a hard guy to take down he's kind of a rock solid guy who runs extremely hard which i think is why he was a good punt returner in college and they threw a few of those screens and of course indianapolis had to be playing off for these to work really well but they threw a couple of them where kirk cousins Cousins takes the snap, just turns, fires it down the line of scrimmage to KJ Osborne. They get a couple of blocks, get 10, 15 yards. And Adam Thielen talked about how Osborne got nine yards after the first contact of the play, because that's the kind of runner he is with the ball in his hands. These are things that they can

repeat. Like, will they have 64 yard touchdowns and 20 yard you know bubble screens to Osborne like maybe not every week but every once in a while those are going to hit and those just make for very easy completions almost like their run plays and make the quarterbacks life easier so I think it was the execution of those and it was also a little bit to do with the circumstances and maybe them simplifying to some extent and i just don't think kenny wong was going to be involved in the offense you know at this point if they haven't really used them we could see him in a garbage time situation uh where you know maybe week 18 if they're playing all backups that madison starts and kenny Wong Wu, or maybe even just

Wong Wu and Ty Chandler. And they just sit Alexander Madison altogether along with Delvin cook because they feel like they need both of those guys. But when it comes to crunch time, it's going to be Delvin cook. That's we've seen that over and over throughout the Zimmer era. And now with O'Connell, it's just going to be Delvin cook. They're not running out too many other people outside of him. So I, yeah, I just wouldn't worry about the Kenny Wong will part of it.

And at least the way that it's gone this year, it doesn't look like they view him really as a running back, but more as just a kick returner every once in a while. I think it would have made sense to work them into a handful of plays and maybe they've got something dialed up to surprise an opponent for the playoffs but it just seems like they don't trust him to be in there which I don't entirely understand because just put the ball in his hands and he could do potentially special things but that never came to fruition maybe he got a little behind with an injury in training camp. I'm not sure. I have not understood that.

But when we asked Kevin O'Connell about it earlier this year, he might as well have just shaken his head like, nah, guys, it ain't happening. Delvin Cook's the running back, and that's that. This comes from Paul. Says, question for the show. Is anyone else getting Treadwell vibes from Jalen Rager? Seems like the guy keeps making costly mistakes. On the pick six, he was drifting from the target spot.

On the deep ball interception, he simply gave up on the route. There have been other drops since arriving to the team. Am I being too hard on him, or does he make others nervous when he gets on the field? Yeah, I think what you saw is there's a sweet spot for somebody like Jalen Rager. That sweet spot is where he runs, you know, a little jet sweep or potentially a screen that I was just describing to KJ Osborne. He is not any kind of downfield wide receiver. His numbers for downfield throws are as bad as I've ever seen. I think it was something like in Philadelphia, I mean, two for 24 when throwing over 20 yards and targeting Jalen Rager. It's just not something

that he's really capable of. He made the one good catch on kind of the hero throw from Kirk Cousins against the Jets. And we all took notice of that. And I think that if you're talking about some underneath stuff, some quick passing, things like that, Jalen Rager is another button that they can push. But I remember a few weeks ago after he made those couple of plays, I got a few questions about like, hey, could he take over some of KJ Osborne snaps? And the answer is definitely not because he's not an all around wide receiver. He is a good athlete. And you see that on the punt returns and you see that on the jet sweeps, but it's closer and he's not of this level of Cordero Patterson, but it's closer to a Patterson thing than

it would be a Laquan Treadwell thing because Treadwell had no athletic gifts. I mean, he was strong and he could go up and get it in college, but when it came to the NFL, he wasn't out jumping anybody. And so he couldn't run the routes correctly. He couldn't get the route depths and he wasn't beating people for contested catches. So they really just couldn't get anything out of Laquan Treadwell. I do think they could put the ball in the hands of Jalen Rager from time to time and you can get something. And honestly, I think that Jalen Rager might be the same kind of deal where he, and they were kind of drafted in the same area of the first round as well. He might be a running back. I mean, I don't think that's crazy to think about as somebody that,

you know, could catch swing passes or a toss or a pitch or something like that out of the backfield. I just think that's who Rager is. I don't think he can master contested catches or the details of routes that go into it. And you're right. I mean, I think that looking back at it, both of those interceptions were on him, and he can't be trusted. It might be Jalen Naylor who's more trustworthy

if they had to go to somebody else and he's a rookie and i haven't even seen him play but just from the sample size of jalen regger he is clearly not an all-around wide receiver but he can be the occasional weapon uh next question comes from at writer churchill friend of the show uh says i'm curious about the defensive leadership i i think that they'd be advocating for changes. So either Ed isn't listening or doesn't care, or the defensive leadership is staying silent. So yeah, I think that this question was asked maybe before the Lions game or after the Lions game when things were going so poorly. This is a hard one because yes, the leaders of the defense

would be advocating for changes uh and patrick peterson made that clear that they were um before last week about playing tighter coverage blitzing more often being more aggressive taking more big swings as opposed to playing gosh they were playing half the game or more like it was prevent defense and that was just biting them and i and i i don't know why still um you know we may look back at that as this defense potentially improves down the stretch and go what were they thinking i don't know so peterson said that that did happen as far as them having a dialogue with ed donatel and that is part of the sort of ethos of this entire team is collaboration and listening to the veteran players but i don't know that they were doing that for the rest of the season until Kevin O'Connell finally had to say, let's get a little more aggressive here. Let's change up the coverages here. Let's get Harrison Smith rolling up to the line of scrimmage a little bit more. And it sounded like in the second half of the game against the Colts,

from the way that they told it, that Kevin O'Connell basically went to Ed Donatell and said, come on. I mean, let's go. Let's make some of these changes. And they were successful against a very poor offense, but I think the process was actually right. So, you know, when it comes to the players and coaches relationship, though, the coach is going to be the one who's pushing the buttons and the players have to do their job.

So you can have a dialogue, but ultimately someone's in charge. So even if the players don't like what's happening, they have to execute it. I don't think you can ever look at the players and say, oh, well, why didn't you guys, you know, fight for a scheme change? Well, they might have been behind the scenes, but it's not like they're going to have a mutiny or something. If, you know, they don't like the scheme, they're going to do their best to execute it because that's what they're there for. That's what they're paid to do. So, you know, there, there's a, there's a tough balance with players when it comes to that, because, you know, I think that you can go too far if you think like a good example would be Stefan Diggs in 2019.

Like Stefan Diggs was right. They should have thrown the ball more. They should have thrown the ball to Diggs more. He's pretty much proved that in Buffalo, has he not but the way that he went about getting his message across by skipping practice and then telling the whole world that he wanted to be traded or saying there's truth to all rumors that was the wrong way to go about that the better way is to have that dialogue behind the scenes and you know what if they don't listen to you then you address that in the offseason you do your job for the year and then in the offseason you deal with it and try your best through the season because you're not the coach. They didn't

pay you to coach. They pay you to run the routes that they dial up and they pay the coaches to dial it up. So that relationship gets muddied a lot in football with star players. But for the most part, there's only a certain amount that the leadership can really say when it comes to the schematic type of stuff. It's the most wonderful time of the year, folks. And what I mean is that time where you put liquid death in your family's stockings just to see their reactions. No, seriously, I know you guys have heard me talk a lot about liquid death for weeks now, but it's become 50-50 in my household with soda, which is something I never thought would happen. The biggest thing is that it comes in a tall boy

can and this mountain water tastes fantastic when it is ice cold out of the fridge. Plus, I appreciate their care for the environment. Liquid death is bringing an end to plastic bottles one can at a time. Plus, they donate 10% of profits to end plastics that don't get recycled. Check out liquiddeath.com slash insider or go to Hy-Vee Whole Foods 7-Eleven or see where you can get Liquid Death at liquiddeath.com slash insider. And yes, it does fit in a stocking. Okay, the next question comes from John. Says, regarding the offense's third quarter lulls,

would it be possible to pre-plan for the opening plays of the second half, analogous to what's done to open the game? Kirk's major strength, and I believe the reason he's been as successful as he has in the NFL, is his ability to prepare. Can we further capitalize this and give Kirk and the offense some scripted second-half plays that can be perfected in practice the week before? A few crisp plays to start the second half could provide some needed momentum at halftime. I realize the second half is time to adjust, but if we could anticipate some of those adjustments

or save a few plays until the second half, that could have a serious benefit. I think the ability to rehearse the exact plays during the week prior to the game is a big deal for this offense, evidenced by their success in the opening drives. Yeah, that's an interesting thing because they did try that last year. I remember it being brought up that they were unhappy with the way that they had played outside of the opening script. And I mean, there's a lot of similarities between last year and this year with that. You know, of course they got going in the third quarter against the Colts, but it has been an issue for them for a lot of the season of coming out very flat in the second half. And even the first drive of the second half against the Colts they went quickly three and out but I think the hard part you kind of referenced it in there is if you

script second half plays but the opposing team is dialing up something completely different on defense than you expected then that's pretty tricky to figure out how those fit because I thought Jeremiah Searles did a great job earlier this week explaining on the show about halftime adjustments, where the coaches are looking on their play sheet from what might work from what they're seeing. So a good example of this is the Chicago game where Chicago came out and played the exact defense that the Vikings expected, and they shredded them on the opening couple of drives with their first 15 or 20 scripted plays. But then Chicago changed its defense and they had to adapt and they didn't get it locked in really until the fourth quarter. And that's the hard part about all

of this is like, maybe it's in part, Kevin O'Connell being a first year head coach. This is the only time, second time he's called plays before and getting to a point where he's comfortable understanding how to read the, what he saw in the first half and applying that into the second half with the coaching staff. And it also could be a little random. And this is why you don't want to overreact sometimes to things like this, because it can be just a weird anomaly that it's kind of gone that way. Like you're right to say that Kirk Cousins opening script has always been really, really good because he can get it down. He could prepare. He can be ready for it. And then when things start to change, that's where it gets a little bit more difficult for him, I think. And that's why I also think in the fourth quarter, when they're down in the game and

the opposing team is playing a coverage that he recognizes, I think the guy is great with pattern recognition. But when it's not there the way he expects, that's when he gets a little bit flustered. And in the fourth quarter, when teams are playing this kind of prevent or shell against them, he knows that. He knows how to rip that apart. And I think that's been one of the reasons he's been so successful late in games in recent years.

So scripting the second half, it's possible, but it's also a little tricky. And you think about they had a short week going against the Giants. There's only so much practice time. You're trying to rest some people in practice. Like it's, it's, it's not an easy thing to do. I think it is possible that they could go into games saying, let's save a couple of the things we prepare for the second half instead of using everything we have. Um, but it's, it's sort of easier said than done, I think. And I, and I don't know that it really worked for them last year when they tried to do it, but it's an interesting, it's an interesting idea. Um, I just think that you have to be careful with kind of trying to solve every single problem. Um, and maybe that

one needs to work itself out, uh, just with Kevin O'Connell getting more experience and maybe, you know, something like coming out in the second half and as simple as not trying to win the game right there on that first drive, like not trying to do too much, keeping it simple, throwing a couple of screens, running the ball just to get them, like you said, get them rolling a little bit and get a first down or two. It's either they get rolling and they go score a touchdown or it's three and out. Like those are the only two options for this team. They never have like a five or six play drive and then it sort of peters out. It's either touchdown or three and out. And that's kind of how it is, which I think also plays into that too, because if a lot of your three and outs have come at a certain quarter, then that's going to look like you don't know how to play in that quarter when maybe, you know, next game they won't score in the fourth, but they'll do all their scoring in the third. So, you know, sometimes it can be hard to figure out like, is that thing actually a problem

or not? And, uh, you know, I think maybe there's something there, but I'm not entirely convinced that they need a big change. Uh, next question comes from Mitzi says the best leaders in all areas, not just in sports are those who adapt their style based to their team strengths not force their way of doing things on others it seems that koz understands this the offense needs to play to its strengths like with jefferson then you have donatelle who continually blames the players instead of expecting uh accepting accountability that his scheme may not be the best fit for the players. Remind you of any other recently fired coach, Zimmer, who insisted on running the ball.

Why don't coaches at the highest level understand this fundamental leadership principle? Is it pride? Is it lack of awareness? Stupidity? Something else? Yeah, it's an interesting question. And it is funny because I think that if Donatello had his way, I'm not sure that he would have changed everything in this last game. And it really sounds like Kevin O'Connell demanded that it happen. And so maybe that's another part of being a good leader for Kevin O'Connell is sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions that maybe, you know, another person who's in

a leadership position doesn't want to make a serious change. Like Donatello didn't sound like he wanted to make a change at all. After we talked to him following the lions game, it just didn't sound like he thought that it was his fault or his scheme or anything. But then some of the changes they implemented absolutely worked against the Indianapolis Colts. And that's why, you know, the guy who's the head coach is the one who has to call the shots on offense and defense. And it was a reasonable criticism of Mike Zimmer that he would just sometimes with the offense say, just run more, like just run more. Oh, it's not working. working just run more and that's not really a

solution where it seems kevin o'connell looked on the defensive side for actual solutions but this is a major issue with coaching in general and you do still have a concern about it with donatelle because i 100 agree with you mitzi where when you see a coach who does not think there's anything wrong with the way they're dialing stuff up, red flags go up because you should always be adapting. Players are different. Opponents are different. And I think this is one of the reasons that Cliff Kingsbury has been such a bad coach

in the NFL, where halfway through the season, a lot of times you have to adjust on the fly to what's working and what's not. And it seems like he's always just been, no, my system works. And anytime someone says my system works, you really raise an eyebrow and go, well, you know, it might have worked for this team that had great corners, but you don't have great corners or you don't have corners that play this type of zone coverage or you have a safety and and i know that i keep like going back to this but you have one of the best safeties to ever play the game

and you're asking him to play you know way back in a deep type of role where instead he's probably at his best when he's up at the line of scrimmage like this these are the adaptations that you're supposed to make as a coach so So I 100% agree with you. I think Kevin O'Connell has been himself on the offensive side pretty malleable throughout the season. And it's just been bizarre to see the juxtaposition between one side of the ball that if they have a bad game, they adapt and make changes. Some games they've been a bootleg and rollout play action team. Sometimes they've been a five wide and rollout play action team. Sometimes they've been a five wide. Sometimes they've run more, you know, they've, they've really changed week to week or even

half to half. And, uh, you know, here's the defense just doing the same thing over and over again. So I think that they did make progress from that perspective, big progress against the Colts. But if they come out and do the same stuff against the Giants and give up big plays and give up tons of yards, we're going to go, what is it for? Like you have to stay with those adjustments and you can't just say, oh, well, we had to be aggressive because the Colts, you know, we needed big plays against them. And now we're going back to our system,

how they continue to adapt and do the things that they did last week will be something to watch over these last couple of games. But on the whole, I think that it's a very good test for a coach. Are they changing what they do to the players? Or are they just saying, hey, I know what I'm doing. You need to just do what I say. And I don't want to hear from you because that's, that's not exactly a great way to lead. I totally agree for that. All right. Next question comes from the wizard

of was on Twitter. How did the total snaps for the defensive line look this year compared to the last couple of years? Seems like they are more committed to a consistent rotation. Well, in previous years they would just not stick with it very much. in previous years, uh, they would just, uh, not stick with it very much. Yeah. No. Well, I mean, the thing is that in previous years, specifically like 2017, 2018, I mean, you just had one of the best defensive lines in the entire NFL. Uh, you didn't have to really take out Everson Griffin. You didn't have to take out Daniel Hunter. You didn't have to take out Linil Hunter. You didn't have to take out Linval Joseph a whole heck of a lot. I think one year he played like 60% of snaps, which was

absolutely crazy for a nose tackle, 60, 70%. Tom Johnson had a really good year mixed in. So, you know, I think that was part of the reason they didn't do it much. And then in the last couple of years, it's just been hard because the talent was simply not there. I'll look it up right now as far as how much they've played. So Z'Darrius Smith and Daniil Hunter. Wow, Daniil Hunter has played a ton. He's played almost 800 snaps. So he is not coming off the field almost at all, which is sort of typical Daniil Hunter stuff.

Z'Darrius Smith is at 683. So that could put him in the ballpark of somewhere around 800 snaps. Harrison Phillips, 611. Delvin Tomlinson has missed some time, 455. And then they've used, like you said, they've used a lot of other players. We've seen DJ Wanham at almost 500 snaps. Wow. That's more than I expected. Although this team, this defense is going to play a bleep load of snaps. Cam Bynum already is at almost a thousand snaps so far this year. I mean, and he's played every single snap this season. So that's how many they've played on defense. So out of 977, we've seen Daniil Hunter play 80% of that. Zedarius Smith play about 70, Harrison Phillips 60,

and then DJ Wanham about every other snap. So you're right that there has been more of a rotation. James Lynch about 25% of the snaps, Patrick Jones about 23%, Jonathan Bullard mixed in, Kyrus Tongas played almost 200 snaps so far. Yeah, they've used a lot of bodies up there. And we even saw Asasia Tomowo get in on the action as well. Ross Blacklock, before he got hurt, played 139 snaps. So, yeah, I think that it has been much more as far as sticking with the rotation.

Although, you know, a lot of these guys have played fairly competent football. You know, DJ Wanam has 31 pressures this year. And, you know, that's third on the team, actually, which, you know, kind of does speak to the lack a little bit of effectiveness of the pass rush outside of. Patrick Jones has created a handful of pressures and Kyrus Tonga, I think has done a very good job at stuffing the run and rotating in with those other run stuffers. So yes, yeah, I think that of course, personnel has to dictate it first. And when you have Zadarius and Daniil fully healthy, you know, when last year Everson and Daniil both were out at the end of the year, I mean, there's only so were out at the end of the year. I mean, there's only so many people you can use at that point.

You really can't do a lot of rotating when that's how it looks. Because your third or fourth or fifth guy just was not really going to help you win. So I think that injuries dictated some of that in previous years. But Zimmer was never a huge defensive line rotation guy. And we're seeing it more and it's possible that it could pay long-term dividends especially for Zedaria Smith and Daniil Hunter and they could do it even more here down the stretch because you know they have that opportunity to not desperately need to win these games to get in the playoffs. Folks, you have just days left before Christmas, so make sure you're going to

SodaStick.com to get all of your Minnesota sports-inspired goods. That's hats, t-shirts, hoodies, SodaStick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Use the promo code Purple Insider there for your last minute holiday shopping. All right, this one comes from Max on Twitter. The 49ers now officially scare me as much as the Eagles and Cowboys do. Looking at current records and tiebreakers, I think the Vikings will have to win out to clinch the number two seed. I know I shouldn't look that far ahead, but it's super important to host the 49ers in a potential divisional round matchup and not play in Santa Clara. I think the Vikings' chances to win the

game there would be 35% at US Bank Stadium and less than 10% in San Francisco. Do you agree with this assessment? And do you think it's still more important to rest our starters in week 18 if number two is at stake? Thanks for all the content. I'm a lifelong Vikings fan from Washington, DC. Started watching football in 98. Love Randy Moss. Going to my first home playoff game at this year's wildcard game. Oh, nice. Nice. Good for you. That's awesome. Yeah. I, I totally agree with you that even though it's Brock Purdy, San Francisco is an absolute house and they are a bad matchup for the Vikings because they have ridiculous receiving weapons all over the place. They have an incredibly good scheme and the best offensive play caller maybe in the league in kyle

shanahan and then the defensive line now nick bosa versus christian derisaw would be a heavyweight fight for the ages but the rest of that d-line you want to talk about rotations and superstar talent i mean san francisco is a violent and physical and aggressive defense that just annihilates opposing offensive lines, which I think is the worst possible matchup for the Vikings. They're going to have to beat someone. If they get to the Super Bowl, this is the thing. They will have to beat someone that has a good defensive line. You're not avoiding everyone. It's going to be Washington. It's going to be Philly. It's going to be Dallas. It's going to be somebody who has a great D line. So one of those three teams, the Vikings will have to figure out a way to deal with the interior pressure and to consistently produce on offense and beat those teams. I think the

weapons for two out of those three teams are pretty scary. Really, CeeDee Lamb is the only receiver on Dallas, but um their offense obviously with tony pollard can still be really good as the vikings saw at u.s bank stadium and and that's the thing like it wasn't that wasn't really your question but you know when it comes to playing them at u.s bank stadium versus on the road it is really interesting because i've tried to figure this out like how much is the home field advantage really worth? And I think going out to San Francisco or Philadelphia specifically, the way that this team has played in those two buildings, you probably can't avoid it with

Philadelphia if you end up playing them. Of course, if they get the one seed, which it still appears that they're almost a lock for that unless they fall apart and the Vikings win the rest of the way but going out to San Francisco specifically that is not really something they want to do I it's very hard to play out there it's on grass it's outdoors it's in their place and we saw what that looked like in 2019 and I think that San Francisco is just as strong as their 2019 team and I'm not sure that the Vikings are as strong as they were in 2019 overall the numbers would indicate that the Vikings this year are not quite as good as that roster and they got run out of that building so I do agree with you there but I also think you have to get there. And this is where I just go back and forth. This is, this is a very hard one to form an opinion on because if you don't rest your starters and

someone gets hurt, you're not going to win anyway. And that's where I kind of just keep going back and forth. And Kevin O'Connell, the same thing where he's going back and forth on it as well. He wants to give people rest. You know, he probably doesn't want to play Justin Jefferson in week 18, but also knows that that number two seed could be a big deal for the second round. So, yeah, I mean, I totally see your point. I guess the place I land on it is if you think that they should fight tooth and nail to the death for that number two seed, I can't really disagree with you. And if you think they should rest the players, I can't really disagree with you.

So this choice is going to be a hard one for them. But your assessment of how they match up, San Francisco has just about the best spread for the media of any place in the NFL. So I'm not going to argue if I got a little trip out there. I remember, you know, in that playoff game, the weather was super nice. I walked from my hotel to the stadium. It was like a mile and a half. It was just a really pleasant day for me and no one else,

not on the Vikings, but for me, it was fine. And that's what really matters here. So, but yeah, no, you're, you're right to say that I think matching up with San Francisco and Santa Clara is pretty scary. And I wouldn't be surprised if they try maybe something like, remember what Chicago did against the Vikings in 2018, which was they played the starters early in the game and they kept an eye on the scoreboard elsewhere and then pulled the starters later in that game. They might end up doing that in Chicago, but I think we'll know a lot more as we go forward. All right, this one comes from Terry on Twitter.

In my opinion, Kirk Cousins has played great this year. Stats be damned. He's seemingly unafraid to push the ball downfield and into coverage and has played with a lot of heart. It is not time for Kweisi to be talking, or is it not time for Kweisi to be talking to Kirk Cousins agent about an extension? Well, no, I mean, I don't think it is yet. They don't have to do that until after the season. So they wouldn't have that conversation yet. I did say the other day that I think that what he did against Indianapolis would pretty much solidify a contract extension, but there's still some way to go here. I don't know that Kirk Cousins has been a different quarterback this year than he's

ever been before. I really don't. Like it's, it's hard to find anywhere. I mean, when you talk about pushing downfield and into coverage, like the crazy thing about this world is that we have stats for literally everything because it's the NFL and it's the biggest sport in the United States. And there's just so much interest that people are trying to find truths about everything all the time. And when you look at even Kirk Cousins, as far as like his aggressiveness rate, so you can look at this, like how often he throws into coverage.

It's the middle of the league, which is pretty much where he was last year. I mean, there's a kind of a rate for this, like how often you throw into tight coverage and his is no different than someone like Jalen Hurts or Tua or Daniel Jones or Jimmy Garoppolo. You know, he's not, he's not throwing into tight windows as much as like Dak Prescott, who's doing it as much as anybody in the league. Also his receivers are open a lot. So, you know, that's playing into it as well. As far as a lot of the other numbers with him, I know you said stats be damned, but they can be telling. I think that they would be kind of conflicting. He's not pushing the ball down

the field really hardly at all in comparison to previous seasons. It's his lowest rate of throwing the ball more than 10 yards down the field. So, you know, they do have to ask themselves how much of this is Jefferson, how much of this is scheme that someone else might be able to operate. But I think those are things that all get factored in. And you heard Kweisi say in that USA Today interview that Kirk is just good, but quarterbacks who win the Super Bowl are usually great. And you wonder if that exists somewhere in their mind. But I think with this season in particular, if you're the owners of the team, they probably feel the same way you do. And even if

there are some indicators, his stats being down a little bit, his age being where it is also the fact that it is truly impossible to lead seven fourth quarter comebacks again no one has ever done it again and if he and if he does it one more time he ties the record but even if you go look at what matthew stafford and we can go look at this what matthew stafford did the year after uh he led all fourth quarter comebacks. Like he's never done anything like that ever again. So he led eight in 2016, the very next season, he had one fourth quarter comeback and four, four game winning drives. But the next year he had zero and one. So it's not something that you expect even from a clutch quarterback year after year to be able to do that.

All those things have to be kind of factored in and age and what he's going to look like in four years or something. But I just don't see them at this point taking a swing at another quarterback when the ownership of this team is going to look at it and say, well, this quarterback just got us to 12 or 13 or 14, I guess is possible. They go three and oh, here, if they play Kirk at the end, if he gets them to 13 wins, I just can't see them saying like, no, no, that's, that's not good enough. We need to draft someone else. I think they'll probably push that ball down the road with another contract extension. So I think they will agree with you now looking, looking into the future. I mean, I don't think it's nuts to draft a quarterback,

but I also don't think they're going to look at it that way, you know, because of the age factor, because of where the roster is, but also, you know, you want Justin Jefferson to sign an extension as well. This off season, if you tell Jefferson, I can't guarantee who your quarterback's going to be in two years, is he going to be okay with that? I mean, he has to be very happy with playing with Kirk Cousins, seeing that he's about to challenge the all-time record. So if Jefferson is happy playing with Kirk Cousins, then they probably sign him to an extension.

Yeah, I think they'll see it very much the way you do. Uh, okay. Let's get to Cody here. Uh, I was listening to the Monday morning Murph podcast where you ask about what happens if they lose in the first round hard to do, but I think that you have to remember the expectations going into the season, a playoff appearance and loss is what i expected i thought it would be a wild card berth and lose on the road so in many ways they've exceeded expectations already the best part about this year is that it's been fun the team is likable and things keep being exciting anything beyond the first round is a bonus of course this is what i tell

myself now and if they do lose in the first round I'll probably overreact and demand they burn it to the ground. Well, you really are looking at it the same way I would tell you that everyone will try to look at it if they don't win. If they don't win in the first round, I think there will be a lot of people who say, look, hey, this is kind of what I thought would happen anyway. But you can't do that. You can't unring the bell of 12 or 13 or 14 wins. When you get to that level, it's not, I mean, look at Dallas last year. I didn't think that Dallas would win 12 last year. They won 12. They had the number one offense in

the NFL last year, and they lost in the first round of San Francisco. And they thought about, it seemed firing Mike McCarthy. Like, that's the implications of when you set the bar high, that's where it is now. Where you set it back at the beginning of the season, at this point, in my mind, does not matter. You can't lose in the first round after all this. If you get to 13 wins, you should be looking at yourself as a very legitimate Super Bowl contender. No matter what your point differential says, if it's plus 10 or 15 or 20, who cares? You won 13 games.

That's the type of performance over a season that Super Bowl contenders have. And so if they go out and lose to an inferior team that won eight games or nine games, no, it's not going to feel like, Hey, that season was fun. It's going to feel like you got hoodwinked. It's going to feel like you got scammed the whole season long by a team that sort of convinced you that they had some magic to them. And then it all ran out. Like that's how it's going to be looked at uh that won't mean that you have to pretend it didn't happen or not have had fun for these individual games but the bottom line is when you get to be this type of team that's where the bar is now set and really if we even

go back to at the beginning of the season we talked about this when they made the bets that they made and a lot of them have paid off way more of these have paid off than i ever would have dreamed patrick peterson's been great zadarius smith has been unbelievable challenging for defensive player of the year kirk cousins as we were just talking about has led them to these victories and had all these clutch plays and everything else and jefferson has just lit the world on fire as we expected him to do um we but we talked about when you make the bet not to retool some things not to reset your salary cap to legitimately harm yourself down the road with some of the moves that were made with the salary cap well the expectation is set at a deep playoff run that's where i was putting the bar uh i i didn't

think well if they go nine and eight and lose in the first round that that's okay i would have viewed that as a pretty big failure so this is kind of what i thought they needed to do to justify it they've done that they've justified everything they did last offseason to be in a chance to go into the playoffs with legitimate super bowl chances so. So, you know, go do it, go make it happen. Don't lose in the first round and leave everybody feeling like, what was it all worth? Uh, I, I, if they lose to a Washington or a Detroit or somebody like that, I don't think that day you're going to go, well, you know, not too bad. I think that day you're going to throw a shoe at your television because you're going to feel like, man, that was what everyone was saying about them all along.

All the analytical people, all the football outsiders, and everybody else, the PFFs, they were all looking at the stats saying, hey, you're not a real contender. You're going to lose in the first round. And I think their goal is to prove all that wrong and to keep the magic carpet ride going and go deep into the playoffs. I mean, at this point, I mean, truly, like, I know that a lot of you are preparing yourself for the potential for them to lose.

So a lot of this is like rationalization. But if you're not playing in Philly for the NFC championship game after the season you've had, I think it's a disappointment. That doesn't mean that's different from saying it was a failure. It's a disappointment. It's not a failure of what they did last offseason. That's a different discussion.

It's a success what they did last offseason. But it would be a failure for this team not to make it deep in the playoffs and have a chance to go to the Super Bowl, considering what they've done. Let's get in one more. Yeah, let's get in one more here. Let's see. This just comes from Matt. He says, after Week 17, let's say Justin Jefferson is sitting at 1,900 yards receiving.

How does he accept being rested for the playoff run? Well, he's not the coach. He doesn't get a choice. He doesn't get a choice in that. I mean, that's just how it is. Like, look, I'm sure he would love to go for the record, but you know what he'd love more as a Super Bowl ring. I mean, like I, when it comes to this, I agree with Mike Zimmer.

I didn't agree with Mike Zimmer last year because there was nothing to play for, but it's about the team winning. And if Justin Jefferson went out and tried to get his record and broke a toe, oh my gosh, you'd never forgive yourself. And they might, they might let him take a shot, but man, you would never forgive yourself. And Justin Jefferson himself, if he campaigned said, oh, I'll play it safe or whatever else, and went out and turned an ankle and wasn't at 100% for the playoffs, and they lost in the first round because they went for a record instead of a Super Bowl. Oh, man. I just, like, you guys are the imaginers of all the worst scenarios in the entire world.

When we report that Greg Joseph is having a good camp, all of you are like, ah, we're screwed. I mean, I can't imagine how you guys could be campaigning for Jefferson to play to get this record when you're really tempting fate. And this is not a franchise that should be tempting fate. So I, you know, I think that Jefferson has to do what's best for the entire team and not be concerned with that. I promise this season will be remembered for Justin Jefferson as one of the great season in history. I promise he will get paid like it. Yeah. He's if he's losing out by a whisker on a record with a chance to go a hundred percent healthy into the playoffs, I, that is a heck of a good trade-off. That's a great position to be in as opposed to saying, well, you know, let's play him in week 18. Cause there's no reason to live

and who cares. And we'll just throw him the ball and see what we can do. So, uh, yeah, when it's, when it's through the lens of trying to compete for a super bowl, it's much, much different. So anyway, thanks to everybody for all of your questions. I've still got more to get to. We'll definitely get into those, uh, next week. I know that some have kind of been left on the cutting room floor a little bit that are a little more evergreen because I've tried to get to the immediate questions here on the show. But if you've asked one, I've probably got it in the file and I'm trying my best to get through them. So thanks so much for all the questions and enjoy the game on Saturday. We'll talk to you then.