Manny, Murph, & Matthew: Analyzing value of Vikings Week 1 win

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1:00Head to biome.health slash GLP1 and use code podcast to get 15% off. At QVC, shopping is more than just checking out. It's discovering something new every day. Start with today's special value. Then explore exciting finds across the brands and categories you love. From beauty and fashion, to home, culinary, and outdoor living. Shop now at QVC.com. Nothing that I enjoy more. They're getting together with these two fellas on a Monday night to break down a real football game. Man, he got it quickly. Can you confirm my love and appreciation for Lamar Jackson stems all the way back to probably 2017? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. We were working together at 1,500 ESPN at the time.

2:02And you were all in on Lamar Jackson. And even when the Vikings had signed Kurt Cousins in 2018, you were thinking like, maybe they should have gone the route of bringing, you know, maybe bring Case Keenum back and have him be kind of the bridge guy and you develop Lamar Jackson behind the scenes. And who knows? I also know that you had to thought that Mike Zimmer would have loved Lamar Jackson as well. I think so. I think so because he would love his competitiveness and leadership connection with his teammates and all that sort of stuff. But anyway, just so you could confirm that I am not making that up. Anyway, welcome to our first Monday night round table, Brian Murphy, my friend. How are you feeling throughout yesterday's contest? I think social media has always opened up the door for everyone to have the wildest over reactions to first, second and third quarters when how many times must we see the Minnesota

3:04Vikings win a game in crazy bananas fashion? And you just think, don't you regret yet, tweeted all that stuff. So what was your feeling, Murph, throughout the game yesterday? Yeah, I was able to have a few of those real time tweets. I was able to weave them into my column in a past tense way. Like that was something that happened to somebody else because it did have that feeling of, come on, not the first quarter. He's 10, what does he 10 plays in? His first pass was clearly not what anybody wanted to see or witness. I mean, the optics of that interception were pretty bad as well. I think what this kind of does though is it really, it does underscore how much of an afterthought Carson Wentz was from the time he suffered his season ending injury last year until he kind of came back on the field yesterday in the sense that it was all about Kyler Murray, it was all about Jay Jay McCarthy. Even though everybody kind of figured this is sort of a fake, fagazi kind of competition,

4:11but we'll play along anyway. Wentz played along as well. Here he is already in the first quarter of week one being asked and not just save this game against this rival, but also kind of give everybody a chance to take their breath and say, are we going to have competent quarterback play 15 minutes into the season, which is all anybody wanted to talk about during the off season was if they could have competent quarterback play, then look at all of these other doors that open, all of these other opportunities, all of these other positive developments when you look at that raster. I understand the knee jerk reactions, but it was a one off as these backup successes generally are. I don't know how sustainable it is. He started what four games last year and wasn't all that inspiring. They're going into Chicago now and Chicago just put a 52 point. I do not feel as confident going into Chicago as I would have going into US bank stadium,

5:1427, 28 hours ago. I just feel like it's, it did stave off disaster, but there's a lot of work to be done and a lot of to be concerned about. 59 points, Murf is what you turned it off too soon. I know you missed that one last touchdown. We'll definitely get into that matchup and what it means and so forth. And you know, man, either is another universe where the Vikings don't come back in that game. They convert that cubie sneak. They score a touchdown. They put the Vikings away. And we are talking about Kevin O'Connell very differently because I think what you could say now that we know the entire result is that he handled Carson Wentz pretty well. They ran the football even when it wasn't entirely working. They played a lot of field position. They forced Jordan love to travel the entire distance of the field many times in order to beat them. They pressured the heck out of him and eventually he cracked. We know that now. But if it turned out differently, I think what we would have been saying is, hey, dude,

6:17if you had maybe mixed in a rep or two for Carson Wentz in the off season, then maybe he would have been a little bit sharper because there were five or six passes where all Carson Wentz had to do was just throw to a wide open guy. But I mean, the guy hasn't thrown any real past. He wasn't even taking any reps for most of the off season. He was just standing on the sideline and watching JJ and Kyler go back and forth that I think if it turned out to be a really bad game for Carson Wentz and he wasn't such a great old pro. And this is why those guys are the backup quarterbacks when we love them, the journeyman. But if he wasn't really ready to go and it had been a nightmare, we definitely would have been saying, man, why did you have to take on that quarterback competition for so long and not give Wentz an opportunity? I think it speaks to the tight rope that they walked this off season. And also how good of a backup Carson Wentz really is. Yeah. You know, you just kind of look back at the game, especially the start of it.

7:19And it was about his disastrous start for the Vikings as you could imagine. I mean, the first pass of the game by Kyler Murray is just a heave-ho. It was sort of shock put into the air and it just gets picked off on unbelievable blitz dialed up by Jonathan Ganon out of the gate like that. And then you know, you look up and a few minutes later, the packers are basically up by two scores because Christian Watson explodes for a long touchdown. And I'm not going to lie. For a minute there, I thought, is this going to be like the Bill's game from 2018 where it's just a disastrous start and the Vikings just never recover? And then I was especially thinking that when Kyler Murray went down with the concussion and then here's Carson Wentz getting thrown in there without taking any, you know, without taking a lot of reps during training camp and getting a little bit of time and preseason, but not really enough to get back into the groove of really running this offense and developing a chemistry with the receivers.

8:20And it was admittedly it was kind of a mixed bag for Carson in the game. I mean, you know, he missed some throws. As you said, he had some open receivers that he couldn't quite hit. But I think it's important and you give Carson Wentz a lot of credit now. He did this did kind of happen and he got away with it because the packers committed a penalty. But he didn't throw that sort of torpedoing interception, that back wrecking interception that would have really cost the Vikings. And again, the one day through in the end zone was negated by a penalty by the packers. So they were kind of bailed out a little bit, but I think it to your point, the performance, it wasn't a great performance, but it was almost exactly what you would hope a backup quarterback can give you given the circumstances. And I think that it, I think you have to give Kevin O'Connor a lot of credit for at this point, making the right decision for QB2.

9:21I'm not sure JJ McCarthy would have been able to step in and handle that situation the way that Carson Wentz would have, because there's just not a lot of that experience from JJ. And you know, there's obviously struggled in the preseason. And I think it just really showed that Kevin O'Connor made the right call of having Carson Wentz as QB2. And, you know, we'll see how it goes the rest of the way. I completely agree, Manny, that Wentz is a guy who falls into the category of last year's started five games. One is not even really a game where he was out there playing hurt. So just call it four. They went to sometimes it's messy. Sometimes it's ugly. Sometimes someone's wide open and he over throws them or misses them. But one of the things with Wentz is that he just keeps fighting like he's not, I mean, remember that Pittsburgh game, they could have won like they had the ball with a chance to go down the field and score. Even though he had played kind of a mess of a game and I felt the same way, they get the Miles Price kick return. It sets them up. They need one big throw from Carson Wentz.

10:22Bang, he comes up with it to TJ Hocketson in the end zone to put it at 2217. I think everybody went, oh, like all of a sudden, there's a game that's going on here. Now because Carson Wentz didn't make catastrophic mistakes and was able to do just enough and also with Kevin O'Connor, not putting him in a position where he's throwing 40 passes, because I'm sure when you're down in the game that you're like, come on, like going off fence, like you start to get antsy, but I didn't think that he lost his mind and started having Wentz drop back time and time and time again yesterday. What did you make Murph of the strategy of Brian Flores to blitz the Green Bay Packers, every single freaking play that they had throughout this game. It was truly a remarkable strategy for Brian Flores, but how did you think that it played out for him to just push the gas pedal all the way down? Well, he pushed the gas pedal and Christian Watson just kind of sort right past everybody

11:24and was at a bigger engine for a period of time there. But I thought it was, you know, it's week one. So it's an ideal time to throw everything, to throw new wrinkles. Not a lot of teams have a lot of tape, but even though these rosters haven't changed over that much, obviously Green Bay had some issues on the offensive line. They were there to be exploited. The lack of Josh Jacobs means their run game is neutered at best. I think probably Flores smelled some blood in the water. And if Flores smells blood in the water, he's going to unleash what he can. And what's interesting is that they didn't panic defensively. I mean, it's easy to think of what happened offensively with how bad the start was, what happened to Murray, the uncertainty surrounding Wens, and you're already in a deficit situation. The defense found its legs. They found what they needed to do in making timely stops. I mean, their third down defense, particularly later in the game, was outstanding. The turn, they won the turnover battle.

12:25We obviously know about the big fourth and one stop. But to me, I thought it was, it was well rounded on both sides because a lot of these, these defenders have been in the situation in Minnesota where they know what happens when the quarterback carousel starts spinning. And they automatically kind of take on a lot of that extra load, both psychologically and physically. And that is an easy way to burn yourself out, not only in a game, but in a season. They kind of stuck with what they knew. And the big playmakers came to play. I mean, Van Ginkels and Cashmonds, even Harrison Smith got a hand on a ball. Dallas Turner looks like he is finally emerging to be the stud that we thought he was. He got home a couple of times. He's gone on some key plays. So it feels like the defense knows who they are. They know what can be successful. And maybe they're not going to have to adjust their style or their attitude based on what may or may not be happening on the other side of the ball. Because there always seems to be something happening on the other side of the ball.

13:26And it's usually chaotic. And the fact that the defense actually came up and did their part. And also, you know, I think got the crowd back into it. I mean, offensively, you know, the strike to Hawkinson certainly sent a jolt through US bank stadium. But it felt like the air was sucked out pretty early. And the defense actually brought back some life to the building too. You know what I was thinking about throughout is that sometimes when you're in a predicament, the only strategy that you have is to do something a little crazy. So let's say that you're down 20 in a game in a basketball game. Well, you're going to have to shoot your way back into it with a bunch of threes. There's no other way to get back into a game fast other than trying to hook threes and hope that they connect or if you're a hockey fan out there, how about just pucks to the net, right? Just like taking shots from absolutely everywhere and seeing if anything hits the back of the net. And sometimes it works. I felt like the same thing a little bit here where if you're Brian Flores, whether it's

14:28intuitive or whether it was the game plan already, you're probably thinking Carson Wentz is our quarterback right now. And our chances to score 40 points on offense are not very high. So what if we just try to create turnovers, even if that risk results in 181 yard touchdown, I mean, anybody who's played Madden has definitely used the strategy before where you send engage eight over and over again. And yeah, you're going to give up some touchdowns, but you're also going to get picks and sacks and everything else. And if you get a couple of those, you can completely change a game. And that's exactly what they did. I would not advise 80% blitz rate for an entire season. I think those safeties were in hell at times with the O Jackson and Josh Mattellis, but I also think that it worked exactly the way you think it's going to work at US bank stadium that crowd wears quarterbacks down and getting chased and hit. Dallas Turner had six hits in this game. You're getting crushed all game long. If you're Jordan love eventually something's going to break and the offensive line too gets

15:31stressed and strained by all those time and time and time again. There is a cumulative effect that I think showed up in that game, Annie. At QVC, fall shopping is more than just checking out. It's discovering the brands you love across beauty, fashion, home and culinary all in one place. Whether you're getting ready for crisp mornings, cozy nights or everyday moments, QVC has what you need for the season ahead with brands like Laurie Geller, philosophy, ninja and so many more shop now at QVC.com. This January, Bear Nuckle Fighting Championship takes over the ocean. The inaugural Bruce Cruz sells for Miami to the Bahamas aboard the Norwegian Jewel, three straight days with pool deck bear knuckle fights in the Caribbean, massive parties, beach events, DJs, cigars to kill the tastings and non-stop action. The light up reveals coming soon. Cabins are disappearing fast and the prices won't stay this low.

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18:430 7 8 6 7 and Louisiana. Yeah, I mean, it's it's funny. I know I remembered a couple of years ago when we were breaking down. I think it was after that jets game and we were kind of breaking down about how you know Kevin O'Connell just kept hitting that pass button just hitting the pass button pass button pass button pass button. Don't like yesterday Brian florist was just hitting that blitz button just blitz blitz blitz blitz blitz same button over and over and over. I'll let him up relentless pressure on Jordan love and it it it felt like I mean, certainly early on love was kind of having his way. He was chucking that ball up in the receivers. The athleticism and the speed that the packer receivers had was really burning this defense. But you could see over the course of the game. He kept the blitz is coming and they were getting closer and closer to actually getting to Jordan love and rattling him and once they started to like get to him and hit him a lot more, it changed a lot and it really just kind of flipped the game on its head.

19:47And you know, I think it's one of those things where Brian Flores just has an understanding of what you know what is needed in a specific moment or a specific situation. Now, is he going to blitz 80% of the time against Caleb Williams? Probably not. I would probably advise against it because Caleb Williams even more so than Jordan love can really get away from guys and take off and run and can burn you that way. But it just feels like Brian florist just knows when to dial up certain things in certain situations and it's why he's the best. Why he's one of the best defensive minds in this in this league and you know, sometimes the defense is going to get burned. I mean, we've seen this the last couple of years where you know, we saw it in the green bay game at Lambo two years ago where you know, they kept the pressure coming and you know, the packers eventually got back into that game and the Vikings were up by three or four

20:48touchdowns. So it there's going to be situations where that happens and the defense is going to get burned a little bit. The payoff, the talent in that front seven, you know, there may be some questions about, you know, how the safeties are going to hold up in situations like that, how the corners can can cover guys one on one. But when you've got a guy like Dallas Turner who's just an absolute road runner when he gets when he just pins his ears back and just goes after the quarterback and you've got other guys like Levi Drager Rodriguez who stepped up big in the run game as well. We've got a young talented crop of players that can really make plays and make things happen and hopefully for a lot of these guys, you know, see what happens with with Kayla Banks over the course of the year and see if that there's improvement there. But a lot of these young guys are getting a lot more opportunities to play and these are guys that already have some experience in this defense as well. So they're going to continue to get better and better.

21:49It's going to be fun to watch. You know who Dallas Turner reminded me a little bit of yesterday was Vaughn Miller. Just lining up on that outside super aggressive and hitting super ball of 50. I mean, the way that he was not just getting around the edge with speed, but how fast he was getting to the quarterback and hitting him and not getting penalized. They're not late hits like he is right there over and over again against the quarterback who's very good at getting rid of the football. Normally, that's impressive. And then there were other rushes where he just drove into someone and drove the back using his power and strength, which is something that we haven't really seen. I would love you guys to kick around this subject here. Are you now after this game and this may sound really weird, but it's a 17 point victory at home against the green Bay Packers. Are you more or less confident in the 2026 Minnesota Vikings after they were able to pull off a win like that? I can see arguments maybe for both sides.

22:50But I'm more or less confident that this can be a serious contending team. I would be more confident to weigh in on that confidence if I knew exactly when Kyler Murray may or may not be back. That would help. That being said, I feel a little better because of the way they pulled it out, because of the way they overcame the adversity. And the way they kind of conducted themselves, you know, many was talking about Flores too. It reminds me, he's been here this long now where there's so much continuity and trust between O'Connell and Flores. And that can't be overestimated. I mean, we know what the revolving door is like with coordinators in this league, especially if you have success. We also know why Brian Flores is still here. He's got pending litigation. So, you know, at tip to the US court systems for keeping Brian Flores in place. But at the very least, they know that Carson Wentz came in as cold and rusty as could be.

23:51And they eliminated a 12, you know, they erased a 12 point deficit and turned it into a 17 point win and did it with, you know, and as O'Connell will say, all three phases, right? That's where the differences were made. I feel a little better because of, you know, I've always talked about scar tissue and adversity and how the rhythms of a season and injuries and bad officiating and weather and, you know, tough losses. That stuff adds up over the course of 15, 16, 17 games. So by the time you are into December in early January, you are extremely battle tested. You know who you can rely on in difficult situations. You know how guys are going to respond when put in difficult situations. And I think that only brings a team together and grows it. Now look, you'd rather be, you know, at all times you'd probably rather be 14 and three. But most teams can't be 14 and three. You know, there's a, there's a concentration of talented, hard, fought and hard working

24:54teams that end up with 10 wins. But our sharp and committed and as dangerous as it may be a 13 or 14 win team can be. So because of that, I feel like, you know, that was pretty much that counts for two in the win column. Everybody else in the NFC North, including Detroit and Chicago one. So to keep pace early like that to take green bay down a notch is going to matter. I mean, that tiebreaker is going to matter come December. We know that we're going to be talking about it incessantly. The only thing that gives me a little bit of pauses. I don't, I don't know what the shelf life of Carson Wentz will be. I don't know how the Vikings are going to fare in a potential shootout in Chicago with Wentz at the helm. We still don't have any kind of complete or even half complete picture of Kyler Murray yet who's now going to be coming out of a cushion protocol, which, you know, can be dicey.

25:55Just to get him back on the field. And then when he's on the field, you know, trying to manage the contact with him. So I, because of that, I don't know big picture. The long term impact is going to be, but from a confidence standpoint, it, it's certainly better than losing your quarterback, losing the opener and looking bad doing it. There's no wider difference than you'll ever find from a win in a loss in week one than what we saw yesterday. Because if they lost, I don't even know, I don't even know what we're saying. It's just how can you go forth with this backup quarterback and you give up a million yards to Jordan love and that assuming if they had lost and that, then they would have given up more defensively and all that. How could you have any confidence in who they are or whatever? And we talk about their resilience to get to nine and eight. But like, congratulations, you got to nine and eight. You know, here we go again. I think would be the main conversation and we'd probably be picking, you know, the win

26:55loss record on Thursday to be like six and 11 going forward if they had had a really bad loss yesterday. But on the other side, you find a way to win in eventually blow out fashion. It's like, well, how can you not believe more in the rest of the group that is not the quarterback? I mean, Justin Jefferson had two or three all universe catches that are so classic Justin Jefferson, but insane reaction to the ball in the air, the throw where Carson Wentz is, I don't know, he's throwing at 10 yards over his head. He flies up like Spider-Man and grabs that ball for a first down got the drive going. It's like the receivers they have. Addison was open two or three times if Wentz just throws it to him wide open. He gets some receptions. Oliver made some catches. Hawkinson was back. They have the offensive line talent to be much better than they were yesterday and they have the defensive talent and defensive mind to win a lot of football games, regardless of who's a quarterback. The thing for me, man, he is I think I'm more confident in a lot of the things that I saw

27:56in training camp that I liked about this team, the fullback Levi Drake, Rodriguez, Tyngram Dawkins, their development stuff like that. My belief that Harrison Smith is very needed increased after yesterday. He is very, very, very needed out on the football field. It really just comes down to can Carson Wentz stay healthy for a couple of weeks? He got hit in the knee and it was like, uh, are you okay, Carson? Shake it off, shake it off. And he got body slammed at one point. He does hang on to the football for a long period of time before he throws it sometimes, trying to make a play. So there's I would say that would be the biggest concern. But if you told me that Carson had to play four weeks, I think you could still come out of that two and two if not even three and one because you end up with this victory right here. Yeah, we talked when you and I were when I was picking the schedule Thursday, we talked about how, you know, it's just one game and it's the first game of the season, but how,

28:58you know, the dynamics of the, you know, between a win the loss of this game, even though it's just one game and it's so early in the season to make these grandiose feelings about what's going to happen. But it would have been devastating if they would have lost that game yesterday. You factor in, you know, it's a divisional game. It's the first game of the season. Kyler Murray's first pass gets picked off. Then, you know, a few minutes later, he's knocked out of the game. You don't know what you're going to get out of Carson Wentz. You know, when it makes a nice play to Justin Jefferson for a touchdown to make it 12 to 10, but then the Packers get the insuing possession and march right down before the half and basically nullify what you just did. So now you're going into the half and you're like, what is, what's going to happen here? And then they, they're going to get a field goal to go up 22 to 10 and, and it's quiet in the building. It, it was, that was going to be bad.

30:01The Vikings did not do what they did in the fourth quarter and just explode defensively and offensively. We would, it would be a complete 180 and how we're feeling. And then you're looking at what the Chicago Bears did yesterday in Charlotte and you're like, well, how are they going to go into soldier field and, and, and go against that quarterback and that running game and that offensive minded coach. Yeah, there may be some question marks on that defense, but you're on the road in a tough place to play on a really talented, well coached football team. Are you staring down 0 and 2 and then you got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after that, which is not going to be an easy contest. So you would be potentially staring at an 0 and 3 start and then that's when every single question gets raised about the future, what's going to happen with this head coach? What are you going to do at quarterback? All of these things. Just Jefferson going to handle another season that is kind of a disaster.

31:04And now it's just like you, you, you, you do what you did in the fourth quarter and now it's like, okay, I can see them going into soldier field next week and finding a way to win that game again. I just wanted to piggyback on this because all I can think of is a year ago today or a year ago this week or maybe it was last week. We were talking about how disastrous the Vikings were and J.J. McCarthy was for three, quarters, etsyl, your field on opening night. And then he throws for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and he has his moment on the field. He has his post game interview. He has his moment in the locker room and you're thinking the sky is the limit for this franchise and this quarterback and within eight days it was pretty much old. So I'm not trying to package these two together, but the good vibes of one good quarter can blow up awfully fast. And many mentioned it too. They got to go down the Tampa before they come back home and that's going to be a tough, tough play. It's always a tough place to play. It's going to be hot.

32:05Baker Mayfield got his extension. I mean, it's the Tampa's a sneaky team. They came in here a couple of years ago in the season opener and put a weapon on the Viking. So this is an incredibly important win because of that and maybe all it does is buy them some time because Collar, you probably broke this down incessantly last year. Carson Wentz is staying power because he had what five starts as you mentioned. One was kind of a throw in. Can he sustain this for four weeks if necessary? I put September kind of as the, you know, week four as the expiration date. If Murray is still struggling to get back on the field or if he's healthy, but Wentz has looked okay and they're two and oh, now we have another series of questions. We got to deal with that we didn't anticipate because that's just the nature of the quarterback position in the National Football League and how baked in the KS is here in Minnesota. But I, that's what I was thinking is when we were talking about going into soldier field,

33:05I'm like, wait a minute a year ago, all was well in Viking land. All was great with JJ McCarthy, but they saw one quarter that fourth quarter really put a lot of lipstick on a pig for that performance and it kind of was emblematic of where things were headed. So, Wentz is pretty fragile still. He does hang out of the ball too long. He's fearless, but that may also be detrimental because he just, he's a guy that's played so much football and taken, had so many surgeries and been around the block so much. He's hanging on by his fingernails to this opportunity. And that's a great motivator and it's, he isn't a position to help the Viking succeed. I just don't know for how long. One thing I'm absolutely sure about is I have no idea what is going to happen ever with this team because who would be surprised at all if Wentz got hurt, you know, early in the Chicago game and JJ has to come in and then somehow plays well and then we're all talking about that like anything is possible with the quarterback situation.

34:06I think if you're trying to hit the most likely scenario, then you would say that Wentz can get them through to a two and two or three and one record by the time Kyler Murray comes back. I mean, the by week is only week six. So I mean, you could really take your time with that if you get a win against the Chicago Bears and give him as much time as possible. And then who knows at some point, you know, we might end up talking about like because we thought this is going to happen last year like a should they just stick with Carson or something like that. But looking at the way the schedule plays out is really important to handling this importance of the win over the Packers and then kind of this question about bringing back Kyler. His health is number one. And I think last year there were, I don't I don't want to I don't want to say they made mistakes, but the results were not good with bringing back Ryan Kelly a couple of times. And it just shows you I don't know that anyone made a mistake. I just think it shows you how complex concussions can be, right? Where you can seem fine.

35:08You could pass every test and then get out there and some guys might come back fine and you never hear of it again. And some guys might be right back on IR pretty quickly. So you want to give Murray as much time as possibly can have if you don't win this game, we're feeling like Owen tombstone is right around the corner. And if you lose the Chicago the season is basically over and we could start talking about Trinidad Chamblist or something, right? If they if that happened, you get a win. You could go all in two in the next two games. Miami is week four. I mean, that's like a free space on everybody's, you know, look what happened to them yesterday. They got steamrolled by a pretty mediocre Raiders team. That's a game you could win with almost anybody a quarterback because you're just vastly better than them. And Flores is going to be full revenge mode in that one. What was it? 80% make it 99% against Malik Willis in that game against the Miami Dolphids. And then they go down and play the Norell and Saints after that. Even if you get to the by week at three and two surviving the loss of a quarterback,

36:12you're in really great shape. And this is why you bring back Carson Wenz as I think a top 10 backup quarterback in the lead because he gives you a chance to win a game like that. And I don't think that we're talking about, oh, they have no chance going into Chicago, which speaking of which, man, the fan dual question of the day was the Vikings opened as five and a half point underdogs to the Chicago Bears. So we could start to push this into next week. Now, what did you see this weekend that would influence how you feel about this game? Like just give me like a like a single or two things that will shape how you feel going into this game between the bears and the Vikings and really how much we should make out of the two teams performances in week one. You mean like specifically what I see from the Vikings yesterday? Well, if you want to, I mean the bears too, they ended up having an absolutely crazy day, which we all got to watch leading up to the Vikings game. So I'm just thinking like one or two things that are on your mind here to just move us

37:16into the conversation of next week, they're playing the Chicago Bears. Well, I'll start with, I'll start with the Vikings first. I think what's going to be huge, you know, based on what we saw yesterday is a commitment to the running game. That was, I think that was absolutely huge and you know, statistically the Vikings didn't run the ball particularly well yesterday. But I think the fact that Kevin O'Connell didn't panic. I mean, he's down 12 points in the third quarter. And this is a head coach that wants to throw the ball and he wants to throw the ball down the field and get big chunk passing plays. And he stuck with the run game and he was patient with the run game. And again, there was, I'm sure most of the time he was thinking, Oh, Aaron Jones just carried the ball for a yard and a half. Why do I need to keep running the ball? But he stuck with it. Jordan Mason eventually broke off a long almost 30 yard run and that put them in pretty

38:20good position. So I think on the road against Chicago that, you know, that can potentially be a difference maker in being able to sustain drives, especially with, you know, factoring and probably it's probably going to be Carson Wentz, a backup quarterback still. So it's probably not likely that the offense is going to be very explosive. So if you can, you know, get creative with your run game, maintain, you know, long possessions, keep Caleb Williams off the field or at least limit the amount of possessions that the bears are going to have. I think that can work in your favor. As far as the bears though, I mean, I think based off of what we saw yesterday, Caleb Williams is, this kid is, this kid's scary man. He's, he's scary with his arm and his legs. And I think it is going to take a strong performance on the ground from the Vikings offense to just limit. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't believe in, you know, Brian Flores being able to dial up some things to, you know, try to limit the damage that Caleb Williams can cause.

39:24But I don't think, you know, this kid is so talented and Ben Johnson's such a smart offensive mind that I don't think that there's a defense in this league that can just completely shut that offense down. There's too many. The quarterback is too talented. The running backs are, I mean, both of them swift and manunguy are both outstanding. The receivers are young and talented and fast and good. I don't think there's a defense in this league that can completely shut them down. So it's, it's going to take a creative, you know, effort, I think, from the Vikings offensively to try and keep Caleb Williams off the field as much as possible. And then, you know, Brian, Brian Flores can dial up some timely blitzes to sort of rattle Caleb Williams and come up with a big stop when, when the time is necessary. Then I think that's probably the path to them being able to win. I do want to make Murph a week to week league point here that in week two last season,

40:25the Detroit Lions dropped 52 on the Chicago Bears in week two last year because what we've seen happen. And Jim Harboss said something about this. He said something like, yeah, we made a bunch of preseason mistakes. I'll tell you for the Vikings offensive line. So I had a chance to watch the tape with surles. We just pulled it up on a zoom and watch the tape together this morning, just because football. And the number of kind of like mental errors or obvious things that they botched in the run game was pretty shocking. Like stuff that was fairly basic, fairly basic communication. You're at home. It shouldn't have happened. But what week one has become is a glorified preseason game because none of these guys play in the preseason and no matter how much you prepare, you show up and they have a different front than you've ever seen before. You're like, what do we do with this one? You need to know how to solve it, which happens by playing together in real football games. So week one is very bizarre. It's very weird, which leads to my question for you, Murph, which is how much of Chicago's

41:28performance do you buy that Caleb Williams is here? He's arrived. He's a superstar. That team has an offense at least to compete for a Super Bowl, clearly not a defense, I think, but they could be just a circus. And how much is yo, it was week one, that's probably not going to happen ever again. Yeah. And I wouldn't say Carolina is the most formidable opponent, probably to go up against either. So it's not surprising. I what the production is surprising. I mean, the bear shattered, I think a half dozen team records, not only just for week one, but just in terms of, you know, offense about put. It's never been a franchise known for its stellar quarterback play and downfield passing. So the fact that we, but the talk throughout the offseason, not a Chicago, and this is the talk in every market. Everybody's getting better. Everybody's mastering the playbook. Everybody's taking it seriously. But it sounded like Ben Johnson was layering in a lot of confidence in how he felt about

42:31Williams understanding the role of quarterback, you know, the fourth quarter come back, the athletic ability, the playmaking, and I mean, he carries himself like a superstar just because of his pedigree from where he went to college, all of that he's been on a pedestal for a long time. But I think what Johnson's been saying and maybe his bearing fruit here is that he recognizes his role as the commander, the leader, and also, you know, being, you know, being relied upon to make the right decision at the right moment as opposed to just going into that same, that same bag and grabbing that same, you know, bag of tricks of pulling something out based on your athletic ability. The fact is he's kind of combining both now. He's becoming a good field manager. He's clearly got, I mean, the receiving court didn't even put up a ton of yardage. I mean, they did put up yardage, but not what you would think in a 59 point blowout where they're still a ceiling for that receiving core.

43:33As Mani said that one, two punch in the back field is as good as what Peyton and Sui were back in the day. And again, you have an, you know, you have a, a coach who is clearly comfortable with himself, his scheme, his quarterback, and Chicago seems chic because they've earned that right to, to feel chic. And when you do what you did last year with sort of the fourth quarter comebacks, you have the specimen you have in Caleb Williams, and then you have a week one performance like they did yesterday, it does lend itself to you do not want to get into a shootout with the Chicago Bears. That being said, you can get into a shootout with the Chicago Bears because their defense is awfully porous or at least it looked that way yesterday. I don't know if Carson Wentz can get into a shootout with Caleb Williams. I feel like the Vikings are going to probably, they're going to, at the very least, do not fall behind 12 points on the road or it's going to be over quickly. If they can hang around, hang around, establish a little bit of a run game, eat some clock,

44:35keep Williams off the field for a couple of drives in each half, then it might come down to a couple of big plays in the fourth quarter. And I feel pretty good about them being able to handle that at soldier field. But if this gets off the rails early like it did yesterday, I don't see anything stopping the bears running away train. So the thing about the bears is they really can't get after the quarterback when Wentz was not pressured yesterday. He went 10 for 15 with 123 yards, three touchdowns. That's 131.4 pass rating, 81.6 pf grade. If you give a pro quarterback time to throw like Carson Wentz, he will find guys and he has great receivers. And the other thing is too that Carson Wentz is actually going to get to practice. Imagine how great this guy is going to be. He's like, what do I do out here on this grass? What do I? How do I do this? I thought I was only allowed in the meeting rooms, but he's going to get to practice with Jordan Edison, Jawan Jennings, guys that he really struggled to find. He was kind of just going out there blind to doing what he could.

45:37And there's even some details like just watching the tape back where you go, oh man, I bet he thought he was going to turn that way and he turned the other way or you know, I thought he was going to go out of his break a little bit faster because it's such a detail. He's a very detailed game and we talked about that a lot last year with the accuracy and timing of JJ McCarthy. Well, you know, Wentz hasn't gotten to practice with these guys, even where he was in the pocket on a particular play, impacted how they blocked. And he ended up getting a pressure where if he actually gets to prepare, then maybe he'll know where to be in the pocket when he's doing these plays. So I think that Carson Wentz can have a good game against the Chicago Bears. Bryce Young, I would have him as like the 25th best quarterback in the league and he had a great game against them. And he doesn't have he has Jaylen Coker, who I think is good. Ted Rowling, McMillan, who I think is good, but the not Jefferson and Addison and Jennings, there's a lot of opportunity there. The concern that I think Vikings fans have had in the back of their mind and they've been in denial about even though they had the comeback win against the Packers and the playoffs,

46:39even though they almost beat the Rams. There may be one throw away from beating the Rams and the playoffs and going to the NFC and the NBA chip game is, well, maybe Caleb actually stinks and got lucky at the end. There was a year where Vince Young, you remember this man, he where what was it like O7 or something like that where he just won a bunch of games in the last minute. He was pretty terrible, but he like ran around and won some games and it was crazy. He had won against the bills. He wasn't any good. And so I think they were kind of hoping like maybe he just got lucky. I don't think so. I think that you're in for it for a really long time. But the thing about Caleb Williams, though, man, he is he is not perfect when it comes to consistency with accuracy. Do we think the plan is going to be to blitz the heck out of him again? I think it needs to be entirely on send it all against the run and do everything you can to stop that run game and force Caleb Williams to win it by himself, dropping back and throwing the football kind of like they did with Jordan love.

47:40Yeah, I think if you take the running game away, if you shut down Swift and Monangai, I think it puts a lot more pressure on Caleb Williams. I mean, Caleb Williams did play for Lincoln Riley and he did really kind of emerge last year and made a lot of crazy circus plays and heroic plays. Because when you overly blitz a guy like that, he can tend to just pull a rabbit out of his hat every so often and just make some things happen. But I do think that if you take the run game away and you put everything on his shoulders because the argument for the way the bears were so successful yesterday is because they were able to run the ball with so much effectiveness. And it allowed Caleb Williams to really just settle in and be the field general that Ben Johnson wants him to be and just pick apart a defense and go through his reads and everything.

48:43If you take the run game away and you kind of speed up that clock and you apply a lot of pressure and you confuse him, then you might force him into trying to be a superhero and make some plays and then that's when he is prone to make some more mistakes. So I think if you can find ways to, I don't know if you're, I don't know if blitzing at 80% of the time like the damage or love is going to be necessarily be the answer. But I think if you can disguise some coverages which we know Brian Flores likes to do occasionally, certainly with Harrison Smith, you disguise some coverages and you confuse Caleb Williams a little bit and make him, you know, make that clock in his head kind of go haywire. I think you can force him into making some mistakes and going back to the Caleb Williams from two years ago under Matt Eberfluss and, you know, and then you can maybe take advantage of some opportunities. But I don't know man, it's a tall order. Those two running backs are really good.

49:45And Caleb is, he's getting better. He's just, he's getting better. And so it's a tall order. It's a road game. I think it can be done. I'm not. We're betting man though. I wouldn't, I wouldn't count on it right now. Just one quick point on that too. I was going to say that a lot of this all depends on what the Vikings are doing offensively. If they're going three and out, if they're not moving the ball, not chewing up clock, then all of that pressure and blitzing really leaves you exposed if you're picked apart. So I think a lot of it's going to be dictated by how the Vikings are doing with the ball. And let's flourish just says, well, we can't do anything. We're just going to have to send the house because our offense isn't doing anything. And we just got a hope for a turn over. And I know there were some elements of that yesterday, but this is probably going to be a different scenario. I think the biggest factor is that Nishon Wright is no longer with the Chicago Bears, the Viking killer who had two monster interceptions against them in his revenge games last year.

50:46Aaron in the comments asked how does Chicago's defense compare to the Bengals of last year? I think it's a really good comparison. I can't rush the passer. They've got a few guys in the secondary, but they're banged up. Their defensive coordinator always gets a lot of credit from everyone. But I kind of thought that it was relatively basic last year when they were in the playoffs and the Packers moved the ball against them, the Rams moved the ball against them. And now they're a worse version than they were last year. So I think it is a good comparison of Carson Wentz was able to keep the train on the tracks in that game, move the football. They ran well and they were able to come away with a win. So they needed Isaiah Rogers to score like three touchdowns or whatever happened. That was pretty crazy. But I think it is comparable. Yeah. So I want to spend a couple of minutes on the cheeseheads here because I just, we were talking about what we would be discussing if the Vikings lost and how bleak it would feel around here. If that was the case, how would you feel, Manny, if you were doing Packer radio in Milwaukee

51:48or something, if you had to do a post game show, if you had to do a morning show reaction, because I just don't know how you can look at this and see anything except typical of floor complete meltdown in a pretty important game. And they are too flawed. The offensive line is too flawed. The backfield is too flawed without Jacobs. I'm not sure it's a great defense. I mean, when Parsons comes back, it's probably going to be a lot better, but I'm not sure it's a great defense across the board. I would have liked to have seen the rest of the game with the starting quarterback against them. They were better than I thought they were going to be, but if you can't lean into Jordan love and have him throw 40 passes and win, like what is your option now? And how does Matt LaFlure dig himself out of this hole, which I think this one, even if they win some games, is not going to go away in the minds of Packers fans. And they couldn't run the ball yesterday either. I mean, that, and we knew that that was probably going to be a challenge for them without Josh Jacobs. And the fact that they just don't really have much of a running game right now.

52:51I mean, you are really putting everything on the shoulders on the arm of Jordan love to really kind of carry you offensively. And if defensively, if they're going to have problems too, they're going to need Jordan love for the throw for 350 and three or four touchdowns every single week to be able to win some of these games. And I think if you're a Packer fan, you see the way that game played out. And then the fact that it was against the Vikings, which always laugh when I hear Packer fans say like the Vikings are not our rival, you know, the Bears are our real rival, which, you know, I think the Bears are certainly a bigger rival, but it, you could have fooled me because every time the Packers lose to the Vikings, Packer fans are always just like really livid and really upset like how do we lose to the Vikings? Well, you know, that sounds like a rival to me. But yeah, I think when you, when you look at the way the season kind of fell apart last year when Michael Parsons went down, they lost them want a game since he got hurt last

53:54year. If you count, you know, last part of the season and we know the week 18 game against the Vikings was, you know, a preseason game because it didn't matter, but still they, it's, it's been, it's been really tough for them since Michael Parsons went down and we're still weeks away, I think from him returning. So how are they going to navigate? Now they got the New York Jets next week. I think the Jets are a little better than, then, I mean, you called it the Jets supposed to be a better team than what they were a year ago. That's not going to be easy, you know, the Falcons at home, you know, on a short week after that, you know, might, might work in your favor. But then they have to go to Tampa Bay and then they get the Chicago Bears at home and then they get Dallas. So it's not necessarily the easiest schedule ahead for the Packers too. So now you have to look at them losing that game the way they did yesterday. And are they going to be, you know, what kind of shape are they going to be when Michael Parsons and or Josh Jacobs returned to the lineup?

54:58Are they even going to be in a position where they're still in it? Or is this going to be, you know, are they going to be two and five, two and six? By the time those guys come back and you're at that point, okay, if we good to have them back, but you're really in an uphill battle. And then now all the conversations about is Michael for is Matt LaFlor going to, you know, survive the season. It's dire straits right now, I think, in Green Bay. I think so too. I mean, does Matt LaFlor stick around long enough for Michael Parsons to get back? I mean, there's even a question there. But remember when TJ Hocketson had the same thing happen at almost the same time of year, he wasn't back to like week nine. It took a really long time. A past rusher is such an explosion type of position. You really have to be back to truly be back. And I don't think that Mike is coming back. If they're struggling, I don't think he's going to push it in order to come back because he's got a long career to go and a lot of money to make and everything else.

55:58So you want to be careful with and look what happened with Derrissal last year about trying to get back on the field and having things go wrong. They are in a very difficult spot. And I don't think that the jets are going to be a give me at all this year. They spent a lot of money on their defense. They got a quarterback who can really play. We know Geno can play. I mean, last year was such a wreck. Chip Kelly was the offensive coordinator. Geno can put up 400 yards any given weekend. That is a matchup that if they go to O and two, that's tombstone for them. I think with the Green Bay Packers and then they're going to be in a position they've almost never been in where they are looking up going. Wait a minute. We're actually the team at the bottom when it seems like most people in Green Bay think it's a birthright to just be at the top of the division. Murf, give me, did you want to add on that, Murf? I was just going to pile on Green Bay only because I just wasn't because it's convenient, although it is. But I think this is kind of fulfilling fans' worst nightmare because it's really validating

56:59all of the angst and insecurities they had about the floor at the end of last season. And the question was, was he going to survive Black Monday? Was he going to survive, even though it was later because he was a playoff team? Is he going to survive January? So by running it back and then having the same sort of flaws come to the forefront so quickly, which is blowing late leads and doing it in the manner in which they did it, when you sort of had complete control of the game, your opponent just lost their starting quarterback. And you have a chance to really, really put not just a dagger in the Vikings on Sunday, but really, really set them back for the season. And maybe erase some of those doubts that the fan base does have legitimately in the floor, which is his inability to close games and maybe manage crisis. It's already crisis. And I can't remember, I mean, you probably have to go back prior to Mike Holmgren, the

58:01last time Green Bay ever considered firing a coach in the middle of the season. So if this gets ugly suit fast, it's going to be fascinating to see the cheeseheads, the front office. You know, that's a franchise that loves stability and loves to brag about its community ownership and all the stakeholders and how smooth things have been running there for about 30 years now. I don't see any way out of an 0-2, 1-3 kind of spiral because of the pressure that's going to be, you know, the flame that has already been hot under Matt LaFourci is just going to be cranked up that much more. All right. Before we wrap up our first, we actually have real football games to react to a round table. I want you guys to give me your favorite slash most interesting thing from week one around the NFL, not Vikings or Packers related. Like what was the one thing that just totally jumped off the page for you? Like, all right, Paul is back, everybody.

59:04You go ahead, Manny. The Baltimore Ravens are really good. They are. They are scary good. And I know there's going to be question marks because it's a first year head coach and I kind of have that same feeling about Buffalo and the bills were able to pull out one yesterday and Houston too. But I mean, Lamar is just on another level and Derek Henry is still good at, you know, 30 plus years old. I mean, that guy's going to be wearing a gold jacket too. And that's, that's, that's team that's going to be really, really scary and, and you know, and I think Cincinnati is really good too. I think, you know, the Bucks were able to move the ball a little bit on them, but I think if Joe Burr was healthy, that, that team is going to be really excellent as well. It's going to be the, the AFC North is going to be a fascinating battle between Cincinnati and Baltimore. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. That's kind of my big takeaway. Merff. I say how vulnerable suddenly the LA Rams look and maybe that's an overstatement.

1:00:06It's easy to forget because they played Thursday night on the other end of the planet. But you have questions about how they decided to travel there. I mean, Collar, you've covered how many Vikings trips to Europe. I mean, they've got that down to a science. And yet somehow the Rams showed up a day before and had apparently threw them all off. The fact that Miles Garrett's knee is wonky and he's going under the knife. That's your big acquisition. That's probably why Aaron Donald came off the, came off the couch. So Stafford looked a thousand years old the other day. He's looked a thousand years old even when he was 30. So I'm not, I'm not throwing him out, out with the, you know, the, the dirty dishes yet. But I feel like all off season, everybody thought, well, look at the Rams and how they've consolidated power and they've got, you know, this young hip head coach and this battle tested quarterback and all these defense defenders and playmakers and how they fly around the field. They play an exciting brand of modern day football. And that was kind of thrown on its, on its ears the other night. And again, it just sort of shows you maybe the, the preseason height maybe was a little

1:01:11bit overheated, but also that's a tough division that they're in as well. And it's not going to be easy for the Rams. I think they're still very talented. I'm going to keep them as my, you know, my prime Super Bowl pick. But that was shocked at how quickly they looked shaky and vulnerable. So long way to go. But maybe they won't be playing that final game in their home stadium after all. You know what it looked like is the tale of two conferences in the AFC bills, Texans, Ravens, I mean, off to the races, right? The best teams were the best teams. Somebody had to lose that bills game, but it was such a classic battle between those two and the, and the Bengals, all the great teams, the great quarterbacks that we've talked about, they showed up in week one and said, all right, we're here to go compete for the Super Bowl. In the NFC, same Darnell's hip gets hurt in the very first sequence or whatever it was the second series. And then Miles Garrett is suddenly out and you're going, oh, it is a wide open national football

1:02:14conference. And that's the way I feel about it, even with Chicago getting lit up by Bryce Young and that offense. We don't know exactly what they're going to be. How about Detroit letting the New Orleans Saints come back from a couple of scores down to almost win that game with the two point conversion? Here's the Vikings with a quarterback injury. The Packers look like they're in peril already. It's like the NFC, I mean, even Philadelphia landed Dickerson is hurt. Their offensive line struggled. Washington didn't have a great day against them. Everybody is so flawed in the NFC. And I think what we added this week was the Los Angeles Rams to the conversation of flawed teams and the Seattle sea ox to the conversation because they both lost two of their best players to injury. Oh, national football league gets back. Roger Gidele, you've done it again in week one. Guess what? There's going to be a round table after week two as well after the Vikings play Chicago. I will be in Chicago for Sunday and we'll do the post game there. And then I'm going to fly right back and we'll be ready to do this show next Monday night.

1:03:19So thank you to you fellas, but there's a lot coming up this week. Jeremiah Seryles Courtney Cronin, as you would expect, is going to stop by the podcast. We're going to have JP Acosta from CBS Sports National Analyst. So there's a lot coming up. And then on Thursday, Manny will pick the schedule at knowing what we know now, which is nothing. So thanks, everybody. Nothing and everything. It's incredible. Thanks, everybody for watching again. Thank you to both of you guys for your time. And we'll see you all very soon. Football football football football.