Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Would you rather be the Vikings or Texans?

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

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No, that is not dedicated to backup and journeyman quarterbacks, though maybe it kind of is with the Houston Texans history of quarterbacks. What's up, Rivers? Just over here pondering about the career of Dave Ragoon and what could have been. Oh, man. Tell me that you didn't try him every once in a while on Madden. Was he left-handed?

He was, yeah. No, I did not try him on Madden. I was a full David Carr believer. He's turning this thing around, okay? This is the year. Finally got Gary Kubiak in here. He's going to thing around, okay? And this is the year. Finally got Gary Kubiak in here. He's going to make all better.

Oh, well. You know what? Can we actually, since you brought it up, Vikings fans are really into Tank for Trevor at the moment, and I feel like there are a few franchises who might sort of side-eye and say, you know, that number one overall pick doesn't always work out. What was it about David Carr that didn't work out? Was it just the team around him or what?

I mean, it's interesting. It's actually really hard to find, you know, videos of those games, the 2002 Texans. Even the 2003 Texans is pretty hard. The first game, obviously, now that you walks the first game, he looks terrible. And, you know, it would be interesting. One of the things I'd love to do one day, just find all those videos, is go back, look at all the throws, be like,

was this really a guy that we were supposed to believe in? Or was this just, you know, false hope the entire way? And people seem to build up around the sacks that, well, you know, he got hit a lot and, you know, he took things a little bit too weakly in the pocket. But did he or was he just always that way and we didn't think about it? I have asked my friend Sage Rosenfels about this, and I think his answer was more along the lines of sacks and pressure are a

quarterback stat, maybe even more than they are an offensive line stat and I think that fans in Minnesota might agree that the Vikings had just as bad of an offensive line in 2016 as they have right now and yet Kirk Cousins is more impacted by it than Sam Bradford was because Sam Bradford got rid of the ball quickly and I mean how about you know even Phillip Rivers getting rid of the ball as quickly as he is in Indianapolis now because he's old and not that he could ever really move to begin with, but he definitely can't now. So I tend to buy into that, that if you are getting sacked all the time,

and this goes in some ways for Deshaun Watson, that that's a thing you're going to continue to do even if you beef up the offensive line. Yeah, I think with Watson it's a little bit more of an interesting calculus because kind of how he wins is kind of one of his best traits is utilizing and leveraging all his athleticism and kind of playmaking ability to deal with that sort of thing. So obviously it's going to hold the ball a long time. But the way the offense sets up always tries to play into that too.

And like hot routes are not entirely sure he grasps. So I think maybe more hurt by that offense than people would imagine. Okay. I want to talk to you about, because that is an interesting discussion of just like different quarterbacks and the pressure that they create and things like that. and I think that Vikings fans have finally got it down that the front office not building around the interior of an offensive line when their quarterback stands in one spot in the middle and interior pressure gets in his face it's like we really

do have the exact polar opposite quarterbacks here in Deshaun Watson and Kirk Cousins, and that's an interesting discussion. But from the big picture of these two franchises, neither one is in a very great position at this moment with the Texans 0-3, the Vikings 0-3. And let me just ask you broadly, and then we can work our way from there, would you switch entire rosters with the Minnesota Vikings right now? No, because Deshaun Watson. And Deshaun Watson is the best player in the roster. Obviously, I think by any kind of objective ranking, probably a top 10 quarterback.

I think some would venture top five. I'd be in that category. I think the Vikings have a decent roster, you know, top to bottom compared to the Texans. But any time I get to start with, you know, Deshaun Watson, Laramie Tunsell, and J.J. Watt, I think that's the pick for me. Yeah, I tend to agree with you. And this is why the tank for Trevor thing keeps coming up, is that if you were to ask a lot of teams with young quarterbacks

and people who cover them, you know, would you switch rosters, a lot of people I think would say no because of Kirk Cousins and his contract. And it's not that Cousins can't be good at times. He was very good against the Tennessee Titans just the other day. He was very good last season and got them a playoff win. But if you can't have a guy who can overcome things or who is a special, like you said, top 10 or at least top, I mean, even top five quarterback in the case of Deshaun Watson, then everything else sort of doesn't

matter in the same way. It still matters if you have a good three technique or a good, you know, deep cover safety or something, but those things just don't matter as much. And I wonder what you think about the short term of the Texans and whether Watson is in a situation where he can turn this entire thing around like happened just a couple years ago, or if there's a little too much up against him right now. So I think it's very negative. We're all, I think, you know, this is year seven of dealing with Bill O'Brien. We're all kind of inured to this now. We're all tired I think, you know, this is year seven of dealing with Bill O'Brien. We're all kind of inured to this now.

We're all tired of the excuses. We can see kind of the writing on the wall that the head coach will never elevate this team into being a championship contender. Now, like, as far as actually competing for the playoffs, sure. Yeah, I mean, they got a great chance to get back in. No offense to the Vikings, but not the Steelers, not the Chiefs, not the Ravens. Those are three games that, you know,

it's all pretty excusable to lose those games. I think given the seven, seven playoff teams now, and the fact that Sean Watson's a roster, I still have, you know, fairly high hopes of playoff appearance this year. Well, what has to happen? I mean, this team has just bled points on the defensive side, which we know quite about here for the Vikings. And actually, I've been looking forward to this one because I think it could be super fun. I think the Vikings found some things out last week,

especially what they could do with Justin Jefferson. And I also think that there is very little chance on this planet that they go all the way to Houston and they slow down Deshaun Watson with the way that they've been playing on defense. So what has to happen in order around Deshaun Watson in order for them to get back in the race? And I'm sure that of course starts with a win against the Vikings here Sunday. Well, I mean, the, the biggest thing holding back the Texans

for the past three weeks has been offensive play calling and kind of the remnants around it, where we've got David Johnson doing inside runs in the second half of the Pittsburgh Steelers game and getting like one yard a pop. I think he wound up with like 23 yards and a half. And just, it was a disaster. It was giving away downs.

It was malpractice. When you watch Deshaun Watson run a two-minute drill and it goes 75 yards, 50 seconds, and you come back after the half and your offense just looks like it was designed in a parking lot for, you know, Pop Warner kids. It's frankly disgraceful that we have to talk about Deshaun Watson turning it around because Talon Rodham is fine. It's all about the coaching to me right now.

And that's something that Bill O'Brien has said multiple times this week that he has to do a better job scheming up the run game. So I think it'll probably be different from what we've seen so far. But, yeah, he's got his team with the run game. He can't do just inside zone all the time. Actually, I have a question for you. Sure, yes. This caught my eye when I was doing the preview.

So the Texans have not allowed a completed pass over 20 yards this year yet. The Vikings, in my research, had the highest average target distance in the NFL right now. How do you think that will work out? Especially with the fact that it's a couple of deep wide receivers these days, I think it works out bad for the Vikings. I mean, that's what, that's really been the last two weeks, kind of the Achilles heel, but if you can even call it that, really, the whole body is broken for the defense. They don't pressure the quarterback a whole heck of a

lot, which gives plenty of time to go down the field for receivers. They can't cover those receivers. They have had boneheaded mistakes in terms of just communication and mental errors and all those things that have left people wide open every week. Now, the first two weeks, the receiver dropped the 50 or 60-yard throw in the air, but they could have allowed more deep plays than you're even talking about. And then last week, some guy named Raymond, a receiver for the Titans who sounds like a made-up player that you draft in Madden or something, you know, when you go into the draft and you don't upload it from the college football game and then you just have to pick random names.

Well, that's Raymond, wide receiver. And he catches like a 60-yard pass against the Vikings and is wide open. So, I mean, when you have no-name guys who are getting wide open deep down the field, I mean, and especially a quarterback like Watson who's so capable of making those throws if you give him time, I mean, it just has everything sort of pointing to this is going to be one of those games where we're talking about something similar to last week, 31-30, big plays, and I think the Vikings will probably control the ball a little bit better than they did in the first two weeks with Dalvin Cook.

He's run pretty well so far. But it just has this feeling, which means I'll be completely wrong, that it could actually be really entertaining for both of us. Yeah. Let me throw some respect on Kalief Raymond raymond's name real quick um whenever somebody catches a touchdown and they were like the punt returner the kick returner those ones hurt the most because you're like we just got burned by the returner yes yes and and look i mean i'll admit to not knowing every single player on every afc self team so So every once in a while, you know, it will pop up where

you're like, wait a minute, this is the guy who beat you. This is the guy who smoked you. I mean, Mo Alley Cox the week before, I was not very familiar with the stylings of Mo Alley Cox. I love his look and I love his name, but I didn't expect him to look like Ben Coates or Tony Gonzalez against the Vikings. This is very unique for us, Rivers. It's very different to have this feeling of some rando comes in here and smokes your defense each week. I'm not used to this. Mo Alley-Cox is 10'3".

I don't know if you saw, what was it? I think the account is Jetpack Galileo just tweeted a picture of Mo'Hally Cox catching a touchdown, except he blew up Mo'Hally Cox to get him bigger on the screen because he looks like a giant. And that's what I took away from watching that game. That's great. I mean, this happens all the time where you have, like, there was a guy

named Eric Swoop who a few years ago ended up having a big game against the Vikings. So of course, fans remember it as the Eric Swoop game. And then, you know, but this year there's going to be one for every single team. So it'll be a lot to remember. I want to, I want to just, I know we're kind of ping-ponging back and forth. So let's, let's stick with this and then we can talk a little bit about sort of the future for each of those two teams. So when it comes to Bill O'Brien, do you feel trapped? I mean, people from the outside are looking at that situation and saying, in terms of head coach, general manager, he's both,

and it just feels like you couldn't be more stuck that with him than you are is that like an accurate depiction of Bill O'Brien and in Houston yeah that's that's kind of where it's at at this point um you know Bill O'Brien took over in 2014 and I think it's fair to say that he has systematically rooted anybody on the team that isn't working directly for him. Kicked out Rick Smith. You know, the defensive and offensive coordinators at this point are complete newbies. Never called plays before he got these two jobs. And, you know, the only people on staff that have experience are like romeo cornell

and carl smith with other teams so yeah it's it's really like it's interesting because a lot of fans are really upset about bill o'brien but without bill o'brien know, there's nobody here on football ops at all anymore. So what happens is you probably go have a McNair ownership search firm, kind of hire somebody. I don't know if people are going to be happy with that either. So it's interesting to kind of balance those two things and, you know, just the visceral hatred of what you see in front of you versus that uncertain future. Yeah. And how does the DeAndre Hopkins trade play into this? Because clearly there's not a whole lot

of justification for what they traded, what they got back. And I think PFF has Hopkins as their like number one receiver so far. And I'm sure that doesn't shock you. I mean, I think you would have looked at Houston before the outside eye, not following the day-to-day and said, well, you know, they're not perfect, but you can make a lot of sense of the Laramie Tunsil trade. He's really good at football and they're going for it and they have their great quarterback and you can respect that and appreciate that. But once that trade was made, it almost sort of threw up a flag to everybody else like yeah this organization might not really know what it's doing and recently with the Vikings we can

relate to this a little bit of not quite having a direction making moves to win now but then also making moves to rebuild for the future trading away Stefan Diggs but then signing Cousins to a contract extension, all those things sort of playing against each other. And I wonder if it feels that way with Houston too. You know, let me just recite David Johnson's stat line for the last two games. 24 attempts, 57 yards, one touchdown. Leroy Hort would be pleased with that. 39 receiving yards.

Leroy Hort would get more behind his offensive line. Yeah, no, he would. That's right. When David Johnson got those last two games. Leroy Hort, if you need two yards, I'll get you three. If you need five yards, I'll get you three. That quote from him, and that's kind of maybe David Johnson, he's just really into getting three yards.

Maybe he can't run inside. Somebody should tell Bill O'Brien since they've run inside on 80% of the run plays before. Yikes. But, yeah, the DeAndre Hopkins trade is a sore wound for this franchise right now. And it's something where I don't even talk about it that much on Twitter anymore because the second I do, everybody gets really upset about it. Everybody really is just like there's a lot of visceral reaction. And it's wild, you know.

You have an offense, and the kind of reasoning they gave was, well, we've got speed now. And they've thrown, I think they've completed so far like four 20-yard passes on the season in three games and you're just like what are we doing here guys this is this is we have made our team worse in every way and you know just watching this on this year getting going three uh the the homers the people who were just kind of like, you know, resigning with team line have gotten very quiet over the last couple weeks. Oh, man.

Yeah. And that has sort of happened here with the people who were pleased to see Stefan Diggs traded that, you know, replacing those guys as great as Justin Jefferson looked last week for the Vikings. Trading receivers who are at the absolute top of the league and their game are not easily replaced by, quote, speed guys, or let's bring in, you know, Randall Cobb and put him in the slot. And I also think the idea, and maybe I don't know if you agree with this,

but like philosophically, I think having one or two amazing receivers is probably better than having a bunch of guys who are decent or do one thing well. Because then if someone gets hurt, it's sort of the house of cards falls apart as opposed to one guy who can carry you with his excellence like Stephon Diggs really did for the Vikings offense last year. Well, I mean, with the Texans also, you know, what they did was they got rid of their one guy who really effectively deals with with press coverage um rattle cob obviously older uh

shifty but but not really a guy isn't who's going to be press uh brandon cooks very fast can't be be press coverage at all uh will fuller has some experience with it, of course, but not really that kind of receiver either. So, I mean, Texans on third down now are, you know, kind of at a point where they're dropping back, waiting for somebody to win a man and nobody's winning on some of these downs. And that's been a problem for them. I think it's very easy for, to, as a coach, even to kind of have that upper level philosophy. Oh, well, yeah, I would like everybody to get involved.

And, of course, my tight end will be wide open down the seam for a 40-yard game. But it doesn't play out that way that often, and you kind of need your stars. Right. I mean, that's what it kind of comes down to is can you beat that guy like all these coaches think that they can scheme anything they want to scheme and it's going to work and so forth and they're all geniuses and we're better off without them and so forth but a lot of times these plays are drawn up for one person to beat another person and if it's Stefan Diggs or DeAndre Hopkins versus another person they'll probably win that battle.

And so at least the Vikings, though, have a young receiver who has a lot of talent to look forward to. And this is sort of when you talk about trading franchises and rosters, the one argument that I would make, and I totally agree with your assessment, that it's really just about the quarterback and I can really just build anything else. But the anything else is having Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen changes the game there. Having a running back at least, well, expensive can play, unlike David Johnson so far in Dalvin Cook, and a lot of

top pieces on the defensive side. It seems to me like there's some years of Deshaun Watson's prime here that are being left in the dust by the fact that the rest of the roster just doesn't have a ton of talent. Is that a fair assessment? I think the roster is more talented than the results they've put out so far on offense. I think for me, this is a failure of coaching and a failure to understand how the game has changed in 2020 when you're running inside zone over and over and over again with David Johnson, not knowing that he's not a good inside runner. When you're basically ignoring RPOs, when you have Deshaun Watson on your roster,

a cheat code, a quarterback who can make the running game very easy, and you just refuse to use him at all. This to me on offense for the Texans is just, you know, is Bill O'Brien have too many roles now where he has to have direct primary input that he just can't coach anymore, you know? You don't have time to scheme up a new run game every week when you're, you know, combing the transaction wire, when you're trying to bring in five, five to try to replace AJ Moore, when you're getting COVID stuff from the league and trying to bring in five, five, he's to try to replace AJ Moore when you're getting COVID stuff from the league and trying to read it.

Like, I don't know that he has the ability to good head coach in the situation. I could see that. I mean, asking, I mean, in the past, there are very few head coaches who are also general managers.

And there's a reason for that. Is Belichick the only other one in the NFL right now I think he might be and I know that that was a Mike Holmgren thing that got debated constantly back in the day about Holmgren being the GM and being the head coach but those guys are pretty superior to Bill O'Brien I think in terms of how how he's able to coach man that is a that's a and that's exactly like why I would think that there is a case to pick the Vikings in this case. Maybe if you get the coach in front office too, then you pick the Vikings. But I also, in a way, I don't know what to do, Rivers.

Maybe you can help me with this, of how to evaluate the Vikings head coach and general manager in a year that's as weird as this. And maybe it's different from your perspective because Houston was supposed to be better and supposed to compete for the playoffs and so forth. And that hasn't happened, but I'm having a tough time with it, especially this week when the Vikings have to miss a practice before going down there because the Titans didn't want to tell people that one of their coaches got COVID or something.

Like I don't know how this works into your formula of evaluating everything. I think with the Vikings, you have to kind of take the 20,000-foot view here and be like, okay, what happened this season that Stephon Diggs demanded a trade, and we had no way to make the offense work without him they didn't get into it to replace him they got rookies rookies are great but they aren't always ready right away and i think kind of that deep passing game you know you obviously you're hoping that jefferson's just instant hit right now but but i mean in all likelihood you're hoping that Jefferson's just instant hit right now. But, I mean, in all likelihood, you're probably being consistent for a while.

That's kind of what rookies do. How much of a pass you're willing to give, I think, depends on how much you read that dig situation as inevitable or was it something that could have been solved. And this is something that comes up often with the Hopkins thing too because Hopkins wanted a new contract. He got a new contract in Arizona, but how much of that new contract was on Bill O'Brien for not giving it? How much of it was on Hopkins for demanding it with three years left?

And then you're kind of just like trying to figure out the code here of where you want to land. And for me with Hopkins, I think it's very real for them to demand a new contract as, you know, like the 10th highest paid receiver in the league. But other people disagree. Other people are very vehemently, you know, pro coach, pro GM, pro ownership, I guess. So I guess that's a better question for you. How do you think the situation played out and do you think it's,

it was inevitable? Yeah. I mean, because of Diggs is, I think ability to see the writing on the wall of where this was going to go and his reasonable frustration about a team being built around a running back in a running game before being built around one of the best wide receivers in the NFL I understood his frustration and why he wanted to go and I think that managing your top players is a skill it's not just well you know that guy's mad so you got to get rid of him and I think that sometimes we look at it that way well you know guy's just a diva I gotta move on from him but you know, that guy's mad, so you got to get rid of him. And I think that sometimes we look at it that way. Well, you know, guy's just a diva.

I got to move on from him. But you know what? I mean, these are really, really competitive people who are also, you know, celebrities and have a lot of money. And sometimes you have to deal with how they want to be treated, right? And I think that the teams who figure out ways to do that, and the Vikings have with making sure they pay people, but the teams who figure out how to deal with the personalities often succeed.

And I hate to just use the Patriots as an example, because it's sort of boring and annoying to be like, the Patriots are great. See, they do this, this, and this. But like Cam Newton, they're willing to take him on, and they're not concerned that he's going to ruin their locker room or something Stefan Gilmore they just give him a raise they just said you know what I don't know if we paid you enough last year so here's some more money take that does that make you happy do you enjoy more money and I'm sure he said yes I'm ready to play again because you gave

me more money and so with the digs point not figuring out a way to acquiesce to him in some ways to make sure that he was getting the ball more often, to make sure that he was putting up the numbers he wanted to put up. It probably, there was some room to make some concessions and figure that out that they didn't want to take. It might work out for them because now he's not a great player on a bad team, which I think he would have been here at this point. So for them, it might be a little different because they could take more of the long view with that and say, okay, you got Jefferson, that's exciting. And you go from there with that cap space. But I just, I think that how you deal with your top players is a really big deal in the NFL. Yeah. And I mean, that's something where, personally, kind of where I landed on the Hopkins thing was, you're Bill O'Brien. You are the only person that represents this organization on a football level in any real

way. Like, we can talk about Jack Easterby as like the GM. Okay, that's nice. Jack Easterby has no power here. You're Bill O'Brien. Your guy wants a raise. It's your job to manage the egos in that locker room. Right.

And that was a failure to manage the egos in that locker room. But you're over it, though. And so are the Texans fans. Oh, yeah. Totally. Totally. There's no way that I watch Cardinals highlights every week and sob. No.

No, I wouldn't do that. Rivers, I have a couple of quick Texans questions for you, and then you can tell me who you think is going to win the game. Just random questions, but who is the best quarterback in Texans history not named Matt Schaub or Deshaun Watson? Is it Tony Banks? Why is it Tony Banks? No, I mean, I think it's Ryan Fitzpatrick.

I really do. I have, I have gained a lot of respect over the past five years as just kind of the ultimate, you know, mercenary. I'm going to get this job done. It's going to look ugly, but we'll have, you know, a competitive team. And I think that's what Ryan Fitzpatrick is and what he embodies. I totally agree. He and Brian Hoyer are kind of like the same person a little bit.

And both of them had their day where they at least gave you a competitive shot with decent teams there. And Fitzpatrick, I covered him at the very beginning of my career in Buffalo. And he is just as great as you think he is. Like he has a great sense of humor. He's got an incredibly good outlook. And what you don't expect from someone who went to Harvard is that he's hilarious. And he relates so well to everyone around him. And I think that's one of the reasons that he's had such a long career is that he just is a relatable, funny guy

who gets along with everybody. And if you have a 10-win team, he might be able to get you there a couple times. And if you need him to help a young quarterback, he's going to do that too. What's the greatest moment in Houston Texans history? Well, I mean, I think the easy answer for most people would be that 2011 number one playoff win, Bengals, particularly the T.J. Yates throw to Andre Johnson, which kind of Andre Johnson had been on the roster for so many years, been put upon by bad quarterback play and held back by bad defenses.

And it was just so amazing to watch him catch that ball. It's great. And even though the Texans that year should have competed for a Super Bowl with a healthy shot and that kind of got derailed, it was still really great to see Andre Johnson in that moment and that spotlight get kind of the line like he deserved. All right, last one because Koobz was talking about that one today, and so that was his kind of shining moment there as well.

Last question I had. But remember, he talked about that J.J. Watt pick six. He did not talk about Andre Johnson. That's right. Andre Johnson was the Texans. And that was my last question is because my friend, Sage Rosenfels, obsesses over Andre Johnson. I mean, he just looks at him as the like quintessential star wide receiver from his personality how he handled

himself to the stats he put up and his dominance as well and sage when he was playing his main thing was throw it to andre johnson every time and that's pretty much tex history. But he is a guy that kind of goes under the radar from that era of great wide receivers. So will he be a Hall of Famer, Andre Johnson? I mean, if you're asking me if he should be a Hall of Famer, the answer is yes. If you're asking me if he will be, I have no idea how he's going to be perceived. Do you think he's overlooked? I think that, you know, he kind of fits conveniently under, like, Marvin Harrison in those years, Reggie Wayne in some of those years,

Randy Moss, contemporary. Calvin Johnson was a contemporary who I think was – I think I would say Calvin Johnson was objectively better in his best years than Andre Johnson. Yeah. Like, if you were building a team in the mid 2000s, like the answer was to me, it was always Andre Johnson. He could do it all. He made it effortless and he had the mental skillset to back up those physical traits that is lacking in some receivers.

I think he definitely belongs in the hall of fame. I mean, five 100 catch seasons is something that not too many people have ever done. And the fact that there weren't other great wide receivers right there. I'm curious, I'm going to look right now. I always like to poke around. I don't know if you ever use this the Hall of Fame monitor on pro football reference, which you know, is not perfect, but it kind of gives you a snapshot of what kind of chances the guy has. And his kind of looks to me like he should absolutely be a Hall of Famer. He's 19th among all wide receivers ever on the Hall of Fame monitor, and the comparable receivers to Andre Johnson are Michael Irvin, Julio Jones, Art Monk, Antonio Brown. He's ahead of Andre Reid. He's ahead of Andre Reid.

He's ahead of Calvin Johnson. I think that he should have a great chance at it. He's right in the ballpark of Isaac Bruce. It's just can he get the kind of momentum behind it of people remembering how great the guy was. So we'll see. He deserves it. You kind of have to remember with him also,

like all those guys had their number two at the Torrey Holtz. They had, in Reggie Williams' case, he had Marvin Harrison. Alvin Harper, yeah. The Texans, like as far as I can tell, the number two receiver you point to is Kevin Walter here. And I'm not going to throw any shade on Kevin Walter, fine receiver, not really the number two you want on your team. Owen Daniels was good when he was healthy.

He's a tight end. Like, there was nobody for Andre Johnson on that team playing with Matt Schaub and getting kind of like that early, the early version of the Kyle Shanahan offense in 09 and 2010. Like, nobody else on that team that scared you. Who do you think will win this National Football League contest on Sunday? Are we having that contest? Are we sure?

No, I am not sure because everybody could show up in Minnesota tomorrow and we could have 15 positive tests and we shut it all down. But let's pretend in imagination land it's happening. I'm really torn on this game. I actually am. The Texans' biggest problem right now is their run defense. Dalvin Cook ate the Titans alive last week. I think that the Vikings are going to come out,

try to establish time possession, that sort of thing. That's a normal game for them. The question for me is how successful the Texans are going to be at honoring that on their own offensive end. Because at this point I've almost abandoned hope of them getting, becoming a good run, a good run defense again. Maybe it'll happen. I kind of doubt it, but maybe it'll happen. And making David Johnson work.

I'm going back and forth on this. I still haven't landed on where I want to pick yet. I think I'm going to pick the Texans to win, but it's not going to be – it's going to be a close game. I think I am too, and at this point, the Vikings have sort of changed their messaging from, oh, we're going to be good this year and competitive, or at least that's how they were sounding,

to we're looking for signs of improvement. And I also think if we get in a close game and the quarterbacks are Deshaun Watson and Kirk Cousins, I'm going to take Deshaun Watson every single time. And I think that that's exactly how this one will go, that Houston will hit big plays, the Vikings will hold onto the ball for longer, and they'll you know, get a lot of out of Delvin cook. And even Gary Kubiak hinted at some different things for Delvin cook this week. But at the end, if it's a final drive and it's 36 to 32 or something,

and Deshaun Watson needs to go win, he'll probably do it. So that's the way I'm going to lean as well. But either way, this is a, you know, it's kind of a fun tone to this podcast because like your team is kind of a mess and my team is kind of a mess. And it's like, where do, what do we do here? Rivers? Well, we talk about Tony Banks. That's what we do. That's the,

the answer is always to talk about journeyman quarterbacks. That's what it always is. Well, uh, rivers McCown.com is the website, and eventually I will push you enough to make that a sub stack like I have. It will get you there at some point. You do awesome work. A must follow on Twitter, especially this week, if people want the Texans' perspective of things.

And you know what, man? Even though we don't bump into each other too often with the Texans and the Vikings, we should do this again soon. I hope we do. Absolutely. Yeah, I have a great time on this podcast, Matthew. Preview for this game for me. I write a big detailed stats preview every week coming up on Friday.

So check that out. I want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. If you have not seen this stuff yet, you've got to check it out. One of my favorite designs is of the Metrodome. I have a T-shirt of this one myself, and it's perfect for those of you who grew up going to the Metrodome. All of their apparel is screen-printed here in Minnesota on super soft, super comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. And we're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order.

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and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how. Hot Rod style. Earl! Johnny! With our spin on football headlines, with a mix of frozen tundras. Let's be a cold weather team. Neck rolls. I want to do boom! And grass-stained jerseys.

Good old-fashioned guts was probably the biggest difference in the game. All right, we haven't done it in a while, but it's time to do some hot routes. And this is a little bit different than our five questions after games with Intern Paul because it's midweek and we are preparing for the Vikings to play against the Houston Texans. Paul has questions. I have answers. What is up, Paul? Not much, Matt. I'm excited to talk some Vikings. Just hopefully no more tests pop up in the next day or two. Obviously, it takes a little bit to get maybe all the tests that could come in accurately. So just crossing my fingers for Sunday and

hoping they're not canceled and this doesn't become a thing throughout the league for a while. Yeah, and we also don't want this podcast to be old the minute it goes out because if they test positive tomorrow and they have to reschedule the game, that will be bad. So the Vikings did practice as we record this on Thursday and should be good to go and may have dodged a pretty serious bullet here with the Tennessee Titans having some problems. And just along those lines, Vikings should be ticked, I think, not just because they lost to the Titans and they had the tests after. But it sounds like this might have been a little more preventable had the Titans been straightforward. I just wonder what would have happened if the Titans had told everyone, hey, we actually have had some COVID in our building this week. Do you still want to play NFL and then or wait

another day to see how the tests come back? Because if they waited one more day, they would have gotten all those positive tests back and known that they shouldn't have played that game. But also, I guess a test case in some ways for what happens when you play against a team that has some COVID issues. Can you get out of there without having it spread to the other team? And at least for so far, the answer is yes. And Eric Triggerman explained that your contact with the other people, because it's only eight seconds at a time for different plays, is actually not that much.

It's considered sort of low- risk contact. So there's that. Why don't you get into whatever you have to get into here with five questions, because we could just, the COVID thing, you just end up down a rabbit hole and then you get into, but what if we can't play the Super Bowl and everything's going to fall apart here? And I hope that doesn't happen. So what do you got? No, no, no COVID questions. Those used to be a staple of the off-season questions. True. They will not be here weekly, or at least for this one.

So I guess my first one is they're 0-3, and obviously we know Zimmer doesn't like to lose in the preseason even. So 0-3 isn't how he wanted to start. So how has he handled the losing? How has the building handled the losing? Is it hostile in there? Is it relaxed, the Aaron Rodgers message? Where are they in that spectrum? Yeah, it's definitely not relaxed because that would imply that they will get it turned around. I think when Rodgers said that, he was figuring on a playoff run, and they eventually did go on a playoff run. And if you're the Houston Texans at

0-3, maybe that's what you're saying is, hey, we played Kansas City, Baltimore, and then Pittsburgh on the road. We'll get this thing turned around once we beat the Vikings and so forth. But if you're the Vikings, reality has to have set in that this is what you're going to be dealing with this year. And the message out of the building for this week is totally different than it was last week. Last week, it felt like we've got to get this turned around. We've got to get these problems solved.

We can't make these mistakes. And like an urgency to have to beat the Titans to turn our season around. And once Steven Gostkowski went, I don't know, like full Morton Anderson on that thing or Adam Vinatieri or whatever. I mean, he was the greatest kicker of all time for Sunday after missing three in his first game. But of course, against the Vikings, that doesn't happen. So after he went off and made six field goals and you lose that game, you fall apart at the end, I think that it's sort of settled in with a lot of people. Okay, this season does not have Super Bowl written all over it.

This does not have the urgency of previous years. This is going to be about progress. It's going to be about improvement. It's going to be about setting yourself up for the following season, or if you make enough progress and see enough improvement over the weeks, getting yourself at least into the race and feeling like it was a solid season. I think that's the reality that set in throughout this week is you just have to make everyone better for the future, and that's part of your goal because Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer did sign contract extensions. And I would also imagine that to some extent the Wilfs have got to look at this and say, we don't get our home field advantage for this season.

We're now losing a practice to COVID. We have rookie corners. Like, this is a lot to overcome. And to expect them to win a division title with all those things working at once was probably too much from the beginning. The other way to look at it might still be, hey, a lot of people picked this team to win the division. And the Bears are 3-0. So maybe it shouldn't be as bad as it is but I think or it

just felt like from what Andre Patterson said from what Mike Zimmer said that they're looking at it through a little more realistic lenses now than they were the first couple of weeks yeah I guess it'll just be interesting to monitor it going forward because if they continue to lose and we continue to say, well, 2021 is the year they're kind of built to do better, I feel like they just need some positive momentum. Like Zimmer can't be super hostile. Like they would want an ideal scenario where it would be like the Falcons last year where they're going 6-2 to finish. Obviously they wouldn't hope for the start that the Falcons had this year,

but I think if we continue to get to the point where playoffs are mathematically out of the question, and so Zimmer can't even continue to try to get to that point, even if it seems unrealistic, how just the mentality of the locker room shifts. Because he's been here a long time, and you just know what that means when a guy's been in the building for so long, and the message can just start to wear on people. So if losing does anything to that, I'd be interested, because if they're winning, it won't matter. But it's just how that all balances out.

And obviously the players have a ton of respect for Zimmer, so I don't think he'd lose the locker room or anything like Matt Patricia might. But I'd just be interested to see kind of what the general vibe is of the team if they go 0-4, they go 0-5, 0-6, 0-6 because I mean the coaching staff is only gonna have so much patience and the player and the fan base is only gonna have so much patience and there's just not much of a way out of it at this point and these things can change quickly this week it seems much more of a everything's going wrong for us and we're gonna have to just try to make progress and see if it bounces the right way for us to get back in the race eventually. But if you do get back in the race, if you do win a couple of games,

and then it still falls apart toward the end, we could be talking about some very tense moments as we go forward. And Kirk Cousins already seems to be locking everybody out, I guess, when it comes to asking him questions, asking him for explanations for what happened. He's tweeting out apologies now. Yeah, that was very strange with Kirk Cousins and his tweet. That was just really generic but kind of weird to even send it out. Never quite know what to make of his tweets. Because he, it's like everything with Cousins has always been a reaction to the reaction.

So, you know, in 2018, he decides to kind of aggressively explain what happened at times. Saying, you tell me when he was asked about certain plays. And he would say, well, you know, if we made this block or I was there or whatever. And then 2019, he was taking too much responsibility for stuff that wasn't even his fault. And then this year, he seems to be taking the approach of not saying anything at all. And I just wonder how long he can keep that up

because it doesn't really speak to his personality. He's more of a talker. He more of wants to explain what happened and not just talk in really generic platitudes. And so does he eventually get sort of frustrated? Does the media get frustrated and turn up the heat with questions? I don't know. Like who knows how this thing, you know, ends up playing out. It's very difficult to play it cool through 16 weeks of things going wrong and being questioned and you know getting frustrated and things like that so the tension level right now I don't think is particularly high in a way um if it was going

to be this week the whole COVID thing with the Titans sort of took the edge off of that because that was everybody's focus. But if you get to 0-6 or something, there's going to be some frustration there. And I agree, monitor and keep an eye on what happens there. And the same thing goes for if you get a winning streak and then fall apart again. So with Zimmer, there has been a lot of tension through the years, and there's been a lot of drama through the years, sometimes caused, sometimes not. And I just think that it's a feature of the Minnesota Vikings under Zimmer is that there's a lot of stuff kind of just happening at once. And people, you know, say things in the media that upset other people. And just, you know, this has all happened throughout the years.

So I will definitely be keeping an eye on that. Yeah, let's, I think we're just hoping that Kirk Cousins doesn't turn into Stefan Diggs on Twitter. That's, if he doesn't start doing that, then we're really in a bad spot. So let's hope that doesn't happen. All right, we'll move on to the next hot route. At what point should we be alarmed that we haven't seen Ezra Cleveland at all, or he was just active last week?

And, I mean, we're seeing what's happening to Drew Samia. Pat Elfline's hurt. Dakota Dozier hasn't been great in that left guard spot either. The tackles obviously have been played relatively well, so it wouldn't come at one of those spots unless there was an injury, but are we at any point, are we alarmed at this point, or when would we start to kind of be like, okay, where is this guy, because, I mean, it seems like the Vikings need an answer there, and it's not what they currently have, so why not? I will say that if we do not see Ezra Cleveland get a start, especially at the end of the year, if they're

out of it, then you should be alarmed. So let's just say that they beat the Texans this week, they lose to Seattle, they beat Atlanta, and we kind of just ping pong back and forth from here on out. And they just, even if they have a 500 record from here on out, they're still a bad team, right, the rest of the way. Let's say that they do that, and you get toward the end of the year, and there's two or three games left, you're not really in the race, maybe you would need a miracle to end up getting even just in consideration for the playoffs with three or four games left, and you're still starting Dakota Dozier, then you should be concerned, because there would be no reason whatsoever to continue to start Dakota Dozier. He's not a starting NFL left guard.

He's been plowed over for these first couple of weeks. I mean, this interior offensive line is far worse than it was last year, far worse. And if you're not able to put in Ezra Cleveland at that point because you think he's going to get completely demolished, then wow, I mean, how can you feel excited for the future? I wouldn't even be surprised right now, and this might make some people rip their hair out, but if they extended Riley Reif in the offseason, assuming that they don't draft a tackle with their first round pick, which could happen, the guy from Oregon is, you know, supposed to be a generational tackle

prospect. And so if everyone else at the top takes quarterbacks and you are right behind them at fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, wherever, you could land him. Then you start him right away and move on from Reef. But if Cleveland isn't anywhere in that ballpark of being ready to play at all toward the end of this year, that's probably not a great signal. And just like with Drew Samia, where the fact that he wasn't even competing for a spot in training camp with Pat Elfline, if you can't even compete with a guy who was one of the lower tier of offensive linemen last year in the league, it's a problem. And usually they don't mess these things up once they're in the building

and once they're practicing. The front office in the offseason, it's always much harder. But once the coaching staff gets them out there, this team doesn't usually like totally whiff on a guy and not play someone who's better than whoever is starting. So, yeah, I think it's not something to panic about yet, but look down the road here, and I think we'll have a sense for it this season.

So is it safe to assume, like, if Drew Samia continues to do what he's doing, which I don't see any reason why it wouldn't continue, and same with Dakota Dozier, we'd see Brett Jones and Abiyant Collins before Ezra at this point? Because if we already know Dakota Dozier is not an NFL guard, which you just said, like, why wouldn't they try something else? And is it really just it wouldn't be Ezra because he's really not ready? Or do you see a scenario where they're losing and they're like, okay,

what the hell, let's put him in? Yeah, I don't think that you can put in Ezra Cleveland at right guard. I think you could put him in at left guard where you had him at training camp and all through practice and all that, and that's where he played on the left side in college. I don't think you can ask him to switch left guard where you had him at training camp and all through practice and all that. And that's where he played on the left side in college. I don't think you can ask him to switch to the opposite side of the line because you're just going to get your face beat in at that point. That's hard for a veteran to do. That's even much, much harder for a rookie who's never even played the guard position.

So it's going to be left guard or it's going to be nothing, it seems, because if Reif goes down to tackle, that'll be Rashad Hill is his backup. And then Ole Udo seems to be his backup. And the other thing is, I would also add this. I get tweets about Ole Udo, and it's nice that he played well in Week 17, but he's not playing guard. He's not a guard. Ole Udo is a tackle. He is gargantuan. He's the exact opposite of what they want for playing guard. He's not a guard. Ole Udo is a tackle. He is gargantuan. He's the exact

opposite of what they want for a guard. It's possible, I guess, that they could try it, but he's never played guard at all. So the idea of, why don't you just play Udo at guard? It's like, you can't just do that. But I think that they should play Brett Jones as

their starting right guard going forward until Pat Elfline comes back because it is simply not a safe situation for Kirk Cousins if you listen to the breakdown with Jeremiah Searles at all so definitely uh gonna keep an eye on the Ezra Cleveland situation though because if I mean if he doesn't get in at all I don't know how you could say oh yeah well you know you're gonna be good at left guard because he'll just pop in there like that I don, I don't know how you could say, oh yeah, well, you know, you're going to be good at left guard because he'll just pop in there. I don't know. I don't think you can have confidence in that. And quickly before we hit the next tire out, I just want to ask about another rookie who was inactive on Sunday after being active the first two weeks. That's KJ Osborne. I heard

Marwin Maloof talk about it. He just was like, that was coach's decision. That's why Amir was out there. But are we alarmed at all at this point? I mean, I know he's a fifth-round pick, but he came in here to have that spot. He's kind of taking up a spot to just do that. So are we worried about him at this point? I mean, I really wouldn't worry about K.J. Osborne in general because he's a fifth-round pick. And if you get anything out of a fifth round pick, then great.

What I look at that as is last week, they believed that they could beat the Tennessee Titans and get on a roll and get going. And I don't blame them for that. They came within one point of that. They had the ball, they had a 12 point lead in the third quarter. You should think that you can beat teams at home and make a run of it where they were last year. I'm sorry, last week. But where they are now is a very different place.

The difference between 0-1 and 0-2 is pretty big. The difference between 0-2 and 0-3 is really big. I mean, if you had any chance for the playoffs, 0-3, you are now way the hell behind Green Bay and way the hell behind Chicago. Trying to catch up is going to be really tough. You'd have to get extremely hot. So if you're shifting your mindset a little toward, hey, if we win some games, and I'm talking about from them. I understand all the Tank for Trevor people want them to shift their mindset in the way to play Jake Browning or Nate Stanley, but that's not going to happen. So now you have to say, look, Amir Abdullah seems like a great guy,

but there's no reason to play Amir Abdullah over a rookie who might be good at this. And I'm also sort of curious of, like, what did he do? Like, what – I don't – he didn't, like, fumble. Did he run the wrong way or, like, what did he do? What did this young kick slash punt returner do that was so bad he got benched for the previous week? I don't know. But I think he should just play. And if he's bad at this, then you'll know he's bad at it. And if he gets it together and is good the rest of the way, then fine. But there's no reason now there's no reason not to play everyone who might have some potential for the future.

Yeah, and I think just, I don't have the stats right now in front of me, but Amir Abdullah, I think a couple times, took it out of the end zone last week and didn't get to the 25. I don't remember KJ Osborne having done that at all, like an ill-advised taking it out of the end zone either. So there's not even like that we can look back on. So yeah, that was just weird. I was curious on why he was inactive. But, yeah, moving on to our next hot route.

Through three games, Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson have the same amount of catches. They have 12 catches. So I think we kind of have an idea of who we'll end up with more, but is it out of the realm of possibility that Justin Jefferson leads this team in catches? Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football.

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And we saw that. I mean, he was running little short outs and getting wide open and if he can do that like Stefan Diggs did you could end up with him having a hundred catch season because you're going to go to him even if it's not 70 yard receptions which you can't count on each week but you're going to go to him with those short throws you're going to go to him with those short throws. You're going to go to him with finding ways to get screens involved, quick slants. There was a hitch that he ran and then took it 20 yards after the catch last week. Those things can be repeated week after week. Thielen, I'd like to see them use some more underneath stuff as well because he gets open on quick slants and hitches and different things like that, but it seems like they want to go down the field with Thielen quite often and if that's the case and Thielen has become your sort of downfield receiver

and Jefferson is more of an underneath guy except for the occasional deep route which he hit two of them you know last week impressively then yeah I could see Jefferson doing that just because he's more effective and he's just a lot quicker than Thielen. Thielen can get open for everything because of his route detail. But if you want to throw a two yard pass and hope someone's going to turn it into 30, you're going to Justin Jefferson now. And I, yeah, would not be super shocked. I mean, right now Jefferson, and this is very small sample, but is a top five graded PFF wide receiver. And last week, the fact that he lined up all over the field, the fact that he got open on all sorts of different routes

and not just like one route that they were using him on, I thought was very, very impressive. And I would not be surprised if he took off. I also wouldn't be super stunned knowing how it goes for rookies if that was a blip on the radar and it's a lot harder for him going forward with teams game planning him. You don't know where it's going to go. You've only seen the potential that he has. Yeah, I was going to add on there right at the end, just ask you, what's more likely, two catches for 12 yards on Sunday or like six catches,

100 yards and a touchdown? I'd say it's a big day. I'm going to go the six catches because I think that he's in a spot where he can just ascend from here. And I also think that Houston's defense is a thumbs down. It is bad. It's very bad. And the Vikings have a good chance to put up a lot of offense and a lot of passing yards this week that, you know, I think Justin Jefferson is now the clear cut number two and he's going to get number two targets, if not number one-type targets, if teams try to take away Thielen in the future here. I was looking through your mailbag responses just for looking for inspiration for questions on this. A couple times the trade deadline was already brought up, and whether Vikings players could be on the move, what's going to happen there.

So I guess not so much as do we expect them to trade at the deadline because it's still far away. We don't really know at this point. But who would you be most surprised and least surprised for them to move off of at some point this season? That is a very good question, Paul. I'm going to say I would be least surprised if they traded Anthony Harris because it just makes sense. Paying Anthony Harris around

the ballpark of where he's getting paid now next year is not something you really want to do. Anthony Harris is a very good player, but I think that you see Harrison Smith is much more the driver when it comes to the defensive success and much more repeatable. I mean, even in a year where everyone else is playing like bad, Harrison Smith is still making plays like he did last week against Ryan Tannehill with that interception. And again, I just want to say, Anthony Harris is a great story. He's a good player. He can help a lot of teams, but you might need a good defense for Anthony Harris's impact to be felt the most. And again, if you're not going to sign him, he's not in your long-term plans,

he can get you maybe a third or fourth round pick that's going to be helpful. What they can't do is try to hold out for a second round pick like they did this off season and then say, huh, I guess no one was willing to pay that. Weird, right? So that would be a not surprise.

I think I would be surprised a little bit at Kyle Rudolph because I don't think he wants to go anywhere. I think he'd probably prefer to stay. The guy, I'll give you a dark horse that would be pretty stunning but would be kind of interesting, is Yannick Ngakwe. If someone was desperate and was willing to trade you a first-round pick because they believed they were going to make the Super Bowl for Yannick Ngakwe, then you could basically just upgrade from a second to a first-round pick. I am not predicting this. I am saying this is a long shot but possible because they're going to owe Yannick Ngakwe a lot of money

if they decide to keep him around, whether it's in a franchise tag or whether it's in signing him to a long-term contract. I think that it's a good idea to sign him to a contract long-term, play him and Daniil Hunter in 2021, and be happy with your good pass rush. We've seen that he can be a game changer with the strip sacks. At the same time, if Mike Zimmer is not pleased with the way he plays the run, which is generally not great or at all,

and wants an upgrade there, maybe in the draft or something, I mean, it all depends. There's a math formula of, is the guy worth that much money? And with him right now, what he's getting paid, very tradable. So that's my dark horse. And I think they would be making a mistake not to trade Anthony Harris to a team that's contending, if this continues to go bad.

I always want to put that sort of like asterisk with everything because it is the Vikings, and it would be such a Vikings-y thing to win this one, shock Seattle where they never win because Seattle has no defense, and then all of a sudden we're like, are they back you know so you never you never do know but those would be uh my two candidates yeah those the three that you mentioned Rudolph Harrison and Gakwe seem like the only ones that are that would really be in a position to unless you're going to go like off the board someone's just hoping to find some depth and they're they're finding it on your roster somehow

that the Vikings aren't using that depth already but But yeah, I'm interested in the Rudolph one. If he doesn't want to leave, that'd be a big point. I mean, obviously he's kind of beloved in the community here, but I don't know. It seems like offensive players get moved a lot at the deadline. Someone looking for a target that they can have and Rudolph going to a contender would make some sense for a team that doesn't have a tight end. And if Irv Smith can get going a little bit in these next couple weeks, maybe you feel better about that.

Irv Smith's a really good blocker probably, I think, by PFF much better than Kyle Rudolph at blocking. So you have that, like, you don't have to worry about losing that maybe. And so, yeah, I guess if he wants to be here, that's one thing. But maybe they see an opportunity to move off him, clear a little bit of cap space because they feel like they have that target. Because I thought they were going to use two tight ends a lot more than they have. But right now they're really not.

So if they feel like they can get by with one, they feel like Justin Jefferson has kind of taken off, they maybe don't need those two tight ends, that's the only maybe scenario where I'd see Rudolph being there being and maybe you want to find out if Irv Smith can be tight end number one just for the future he's off to a slow start I did the film piece about it I don't think it's his fault I think he's still good and will get a lot of catches this year but at the same time you're not sure whether he could play that Rudolph role and what Gary Kubiak wants in the offense so you could find it out by moving Kyle Rudolph. And I said, you know, maybe he doesn't want to

leave the community, but he could also look at it like, look, I'm the oldest player on the team outside of the punter and I'm not getting any younger. So if the Patriots want me to play with Cam Newton and go into the playoffs, then maybe I want to go there and try to win a Super Bowl with Bill Belichick and take another shot at it. And if I've got that opportunity, I'm going to go. So, yeah, there's only a couple players that are really at play here. Riley Reif would be another one whose contract anyone can get out of next year. So that's another one that could be a possibility as well

if they were comfortable playing Rashad Hill there, which I think that they are. And I'm going to have a story on this eventually soon about Rashad Hill and the progress he's made as kind of a guy that no one's paying attention to, but might be worth paying a little attention to, especially with Ezra Cleveland now being a guard. So, all right, let's do this as the last question. Let's just end with a little bit of optimism here. I just want you to finish this statement. It's not a question. It's just the Vikings win Sunday. If what? What happens if the Vikings win? I am going to say that they will win if two things. If they can get Deshaun Watson to turn the ball over more than once, because I don't think they're going to stop him much, but if they can intercept him,

strip sack him, whatever, and they will win if Justin Jefferson goes over 100 yards. If he goes over 100 yards, that means you're passing successfully against a defense that's not that good against the pass, and you're rolling and then you you win if jefferson steps up again then you've got a good chance but you know i think with this defense it's basically like if you don't pick off passes or get strip sacks and cause turnovers you're just not going to win they have to be that kind of defense i thought you were going to say what's it going to take for them to get on the run that I described earlier and that I don't know the only thing that's the thing that is going to take is like Vikings madness that's

what it's going to take is a bunch of lucky breaks that never happened to this team except for once a decade and all of a sudden they sort of come together but based on Steven Guskowski making six field goals which I had uh our friend Eric Eager run the math on that, and he came up with a 28% chance of Steven Gostkowski making those six field goals. So, you know, that's how it goes sometimes. But, yeah, I don't know about you. What do you think that – what would you give for a percentage for their chance to win? I think it's kind of a coin flip for this game.

I mean, both teams are 0-3. Both teams are, I mean, it's cliche, but really want to win. Like, whoever loses, like, their season's done, pretty much. If someone wins, they're going to talk themselves in. If Houston wins, we lost to three really good teams. Like, we finally played a team that is kind of on our level, like that we are supposed to beat and we beat them. And then the Vikings can kind of say the same thing.

Green Bay, 3-0. The Colts, 2-1. Like, Tennessee, 3-0. Like, they're not playing horrible teams, and I know each one of those teams contributed to that winning total, so it's not like the Colts have played any great teams yet. But still, I think any team that not like, it's not like the Colts have played any great teams yet, but still, I think any team that like, if they win,

they're going to feel good about potentially being able to do something. I would just say they just need to get healthy. If they can get healthy in some spots, like there's cornerbacks, just popping up every single day on the injury report. Vikings need like a full week of practice. Like you're going to have injuries a full week of practice. Like it's just really not things aren't going your way so a win could kind of kick that off you know they

don't have a full week they're missing all these guys they win that game then they're feeling okay well we just kind of we kind of beat the odds we went into Houston with all this happening right one it galvanizes the squad yeah this is the then, yeah, the Seattle game doesn't look good, but if they win that, I don't know how you don't at least have some optimism moving forward because that's the brute of their schedule. They've got the Jags. They've got Carolina. They have the Lions coming up, all those winnable games.

As much as Bears fans want to maybe think Foles is going to take them somewhere, that's still a winnable game. Definitely. Yep. Yeah. It needs that. Key is that Seattle game. Like that could kind of turn them around.

But I think to get to that Seattle game to a point where you feel like they could win, they got to win this week. Right. If you're 0-4, there's no turning around. You're just done. Like the season is over. If you are 1-3 and then suddenly 2-3, then you're in the mix with a lot of teams. But if you are 0-4, good night.

You should start playing Ezra Cleveland. So, Interpol, great stuff. Always appreciate you jumping on. A midweek appearance that hasn't happened in a while, but you will be back after the game against the Texans with five more questions to ask, and we will catch you all then on Purple Insider.