January 14, 2025 • 32 mins
The conversation delves into the Minnesota Vikings' disappointing end to their season, focusing on their playoff performance against the Los Angeles Rams. Key themes include the underwhelming performance of quarterback Sam Darnold, the scrutiny of head coach Kevin O'Connell's decisions, and reflections on the season's expectations versus reality. The discussion highlights critical moments in the game, the implications for Darnold's future, and the overall disappointment felt by fans and analysts alike.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Minnesota Vikings put up another embarrassing performance to finish
off the season, and in totality, they had four losses
this year against the same two teams. They lose to
the Rams and the Lions in the regular season back
(00:21):
to back games, and they finish losing to the Lions
and Rams to finish out the year. That is classic
Minnesota Vikings. And we're gonna dive into everything that we saw.
I got a page full of notes from this implosion
(00:41):
by the Minnesota Vikings, and there's so much to talk about,
so many storylines to touch on. Because the Minnesota Vikings
were fourteen and three, they more than doubled their win
projection betting sites, and yet they finish the season in
(01:07):
a terrible fashion. And like I said, we're gonna touch
in it all here, So let's just go ahead and
get into it. Sam Donald, I don't think i've ever
seen a stock drop so fast from an NFL player
like this before Donald stock was low before the year began,
(01:31):
goes thirty five touchdowns twelve picks, completely changes the trajectory.
Spot Track had him on like a fifty four million
dollars per year deal following this season, just a few
days ago, and now following his performance against the Lions
and his performance against the Rams, this guy is gonna
(01:52):
be lucky to get a three year deal from the
Giants or Raiders. Sam Donald has completely imployed. And those
regular season numbers that he put up that were so spectacular,
the throw that he put on Justin Jefferson versus the
(02:12):
Seattle Seahawks, all of those things are gonna go by
the wayside because of what he did in the final
two weeks of the year. He's still gonna get paid
a decent amount of money, but the fact that he's
gonna get one hundred million guaranteed or one hundred and
fifty million guarante, kiss that out the window. Donald easily
(02:35):
lost thirty to forty million dollars in totality because of
the way he played these final two games for the
Minnesota Vikings. And think about this. Donald was sacked nine times,
and he was sacked nine times, which ties an NFL
(02:58):
postseason record. Donald is responsible for most of those sacks,
and he was responsible for holding onto the ball to long.
Donald was not seeing things clearly. He once upon a
time talking about seeing ghosts when he was with the
(03:20):
New York Jets, and that's exactly what we saw from
Sam Donald versus the Lions and versus the Rams. The
dude completely choked when it mattered most. You think about
the interception to Jordan Addison, he was the attempted receiver
(03:42):
on the play. Naylor's were streaking wide open down the
middle of the field. You think about the strip sack fumble,
and that play was ruined from the beginning. The play
clock was winding down, guys weren't in the right formation.
Is completely chaotic from the get go. Donald gets the
(04:03):
snap off and it was just utter chaos right away.
He holds Donald the ball too long, which was the
story of the game, and loses the ball. Rams go
up seventeen to three. There were so many moments in
this game where if the Minnesota Vikings could have just
put something together, this could have been a competitive football game.
(04:27):
And instead, everything went against the Minnesota Vikings. And it
wasn't unlucky, it wasn't poor circumstance, it wasn't rigged. The
Minnesota Vikings failed to make plays offensively and defensively when
they needed to, and the Minnesota Vikings are solely responsible
(04:53):
for this loss. Sam Donald stock has dropped. His stock
has dropped so fast that Pelosi wasn't even able to
sell it in time. Donald stock has crashed, and it
has crashed so hard that I think Dick from having
(05:16):
fun with Dick and Jane is over there on a
television screen telling everyone how valuable Sam Donald is. Right now.
This was a piss port performance from Donald on all fronts,
missing receivers wide open, holding onto the ball too long,
(05:38):
and even on the touchdown drive to Hockinson, Hockinson, Naylor,
and I think there was even another one bailed Donald
out because every throw was behind the open wide receiver.
Donald could not put anything together in this football game.
And there's no doubt that the Minnesotas are gonna be
(06:01):
looking towards J. J. McCarthy, And you know, the idea
of franchise tagging Sam Donald look wonderful once upon a time,
one year, forty one million dollars to bring this guy
back to see if he can duplicate what he did
with the Minnesota Vikings this year. Scratch there, Throw that
(06:22):
out the window, because you're not paying this guy forty
one million dollars a year on a one year deal
for those two performances that he put up in the
most crucial parts of the season. And just to contrast
Sam Donald's performance, look at what Matthew Stafford did. And
(06:44):
you know those numbers aren't special. I mean, nineteen for
twenty seven, two hundred and nine yards, two touchdowns, zero picks,
a passer rating of one hundred and seventeen point seven.
Good numbers, not special numbers. But what you saw for
Matthew Stafford in this game was a quarterback that was
getting rid of the ball on time and on target.
(07:05):
It was three step drop and throw. Donald was three
step drop, pump, hesitate, pump, move a little bit sack.
You can't do that in playoff football. You can't do
that with a young Los Angeles Rams defensive front that
was sacking him in the entire game. You saw zero
(07:28):
adjustments from Sam Donald and from the Minnesota Vikings offense
in this football game. And right now you pull up
X and Kevin O'Connell is getting ripped. O'Connell is getting
hammered right now, and he's going to be the coach
(07:49):
of the Year. But you think about O'Connell and his
run with the Vikings. He is a brilliant head coach,
and the Minnesota Vikings will resign him to a contract extension,
and they should resign him to a contract extension. His
first year thirteen and four, lost of the Giants. Second year,
(08:10):
injuries happened, scratched that year, third year fourteen and three
with Darnold, and then you get blown out in embarrassing
fashion versus the Los Angeles Rams team that's going through
chaos in Los Angeles, and he got blown out on
(08:31):
a neutral field in a game where both the LA
Rams and the Minnesota Vikings offenses were doing silent counts.
You could look at the quarterbacks and you could look
at the way they were communicating with the offensive line.
And this was as neutral a site as an NFL
(08:54):
came could ever get because you heard Minnesota Vikings fans
boo and you heard Los Angeles Rams fans boo. This
was a mix of Vikings and Rams fans and DraftKings
had the Vikings favored by two and a half, which
went up a point and a half when the game
(09:17):
got moved to Arizona. But O'Connell's regular season success has
not translated into a playoff success yet, and he deserves
criticism because the Minnesota Vikings offense was not ready to
(09:41):
play versus the Detroit Lions or versus the Los Angeles
rams and adjustments weren't made for Sam Donald. And Donald,
I will say is largely responsible for the Vikings offensive
woes is incompletions. He's holding on a all too long.
(10:02):
The dude crumbled when it mattered most. But O'Connell certainly
deserves his fair share of criticism. And you think about
Donald stock going down thirty to forty million dollars perhaps,
and o'connle stock is gonna is going down too. The
Vikings will still retain him as head coach. They'll still
(10:23):
do the media tour where they talk about how great
of a coach he is. But there's no doubt that
his number is not as high as it could have
been if he took Donald to the NFC Championship game.
Because now this is two years out of three that
your team won at least thirteen games in the regular
(10:44):
season and zero wins when it matters most. Troy Aikman
had a great quote in the Football Game. He's like,
you know, when you have games like this and you
have a fourteen and three record, it basically means nothing.
The fourteen and three record basically means nothing. And how
(11:07):
true is that the Vikings record regular season could have
been ten and seven wild card team, make the playoffs,
lose first round, same thing. The fourteen and three record
is practically meaningless at this point in time because they
(11:28):
just got rocked against the Los Angeles Rams. And when
you think about the expectations, and there's a lot of
just be happy that the Vikings made it this far.
People out there, just be happy, just be positive. They
were only supposed to win six and a half games.
(11:50):
They weren't only supposed to win six or seven games.
That was the betting line six and a half games
before the season started. But the Minutesta Vikings changed expectations
based on how they played and performed this season, So
the expectations didn't become let's just be happy to make
(12:10):
the playoffs. The expectations became their legitimate Super Bowl contenders,
and all season long I erode this idea that the
Vikings weren't and then at the end of the year,
when the Vikings were riding an eight game winning streak,
I finally got sold on them. And then what happens.
They put up a lousy performance against the Lions and
(12:33):
a lousy performance against the Rams, and I predicted the
Vikings to lose this game. I actually predicted Rams twenty
seven to twenty four, and I got the Rams score right.
But the Minnesota Vikings offense was pitiful. From Sam Donald
to the opposive line to the rushing attack, everything was awful.
(12:53):
Aaron Jones thirteen carries forty eight yards. Camp Akers five
carries thirty nine yards. Donald four carries nineteen yards. Donald
was sacked nine times and lost eighty two yards in
those sacks, twenty five for forty two hundred and forty
five yards. You think about the future of Donald and
(13:18):
it certainly does not seem like it's a possibility that
he will be returning in a Minnesota Vikings uniform next season,
because maybe there will still be our Raiders or Giants
that throw them all the money in the world and say,
you know what, the last two games, people will forget
about it. Your first seventeen games of the year, thirty
(13:40):
five touchdowns, twelve picks were incredible, and we think we
can duplicate that, and we think we can be a
perennial playoff contender with USQB one, but it certainly does
not seem like it's likely that he will be back
with the Minnesota Vikings. Some more talking points as we
think about and react to this game. The urgency Another
(14:05):
O'Connell point, The urgency in the fourth quarter. You know
a lot of times you see NFL comebacks that are
unlikely and crazy, and you always get the player quotes
that say, oh, you know, we just never gave up.
We just continued to battle every down in every possession.
(14:27):
You know, coach always believes in us, and our players
in the locker room believe in us. Blah blah blah, YadA,
YadA YadA, And in this situation, that couldn't be any
further from the truth. Because after the Minnesota Vikings did
not convert their two point conversion, when Donald threw it
(14:48):
to Jefferson at the two yard line and he got
tackled right away, that game was over and the Minnesota
Vikings acted like it was over. I love how fourth
quarter vikings are down eighteen points, you need to put
up points quickly, and that's when the Minnesota Vikings decide
to try to involve the rushing attack and remain balanced
(15:11):
and keep things unpredictable for the Ramps. At that point
in time, you are burning clock and you are playing
in the favor for the Los Angeles Ramps. So the
fact that the Vikings were running the ball down eighteen
(15:33):
showed a lack of any potential belief. It was already
a long stretch for the Minnesota Vikings to have any
chance of tying that game and going into overtime. And
the Minnesota Vikings wiped out any potential long stretch, of
(15:54):
any chance of any percentage to tie that game when
they decided to run the ball, not just once in
the fourth quarter, but they ran the ball multiple times
and killed the clock. And the Rams were thinking, from
their perspective, this is the best offense we could ever
ask for. Right now, we're sitting playing a preventative defense,
(16:17):
trying not to give up a big play, and the
Minnesota Vikings are running the ball and burning their own clock. Unbelievable.
The lack of urgency just showed so much in that moment.
More things to talk about. Remember Jordan Addison's important catch
(16:41):
first quarter, Vikings down ten zero, which I'll get to
in a moment. Vikings got the ball, It's like third
and three third and four, Donald finds Addison, and this
was an incredible catch by Addison. Somehow he snags the
ball out of mid air after bobbling it once he
(17:02):
goes to the ground without bobbling it. And I just
remember thinking in that moment, what an important catch to
keep the Minnesota Vikings in this ballgame. They eventually kept
the field goal down ten to three and things unraveled
from there. But just think about that moment. Remember Jordan
Addison's big catch in the first quarter when he kept
(17:25):
the Minnesota Vikings alive in this football game. Just shows
you how embarrassing it was that that catch in the
first quarter kept the Minnesota Vikings alive. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. More
stories to touch on One of my favorite stories of
(17:49):
the game. Gruger Hill, the Minnesota Vikings special teams player
that somehow did not block the punt from the Los
(18:10):
Angeles Rams punter. It literally went underneath his shoulder pads.
I slowed down the video to zero point five and
watched this thing ten times, and some way, somehow I
still couldn't believe it. The ball is right there and
(18:32):
somehow Krueger Hill misses. You think about plays that could
change the outcome of the game by game changing moments
segment that I do every football game, whether the Minnesota
Vikings win or the Minnesota Vikings lose. And this is
one of those moments. That's a game changing moment because
(18:54):
that block could have changed the trajectory of the Minnesota
Vikings in this football They clearly needed a takeaway of
some sort in this game to stay alive and give
them any hope or chance of beating the Rams when
Sam Darnold was imploding, and this was the moment. This
(19:17):
was the chance, and somehow Gruger Hill missed it. It
was one of those Madden glitch moments where you literally
go to the instant replay and this is like Madden
two thousand and nine on PlayStation two where the ball
literally goes through the helmet of the defensive player into
(19:37):
the wide receiver's hands. That was this moment. The Gruger
Hill moment was a Madden glitch, unbelievable. They bollered off
sides on the LA Rams first possession, another game changing moment.
This reminded me of the Minnesota Vikings matchup versus the
(20:03):
Green Bay Packers back in It's at twenty eleven twenty twelve,
when Adrian Peterson had the career rushing season and Christian
Ponder steps in and has a decent season for the
(20:24):
Minnesota Vikings, and Joe Webb gets inserted into the Minnesota
Vikings starting lineup because Christian Potter goes down with an
elbow injury. And I'll always remember this is ingrained in
my head. The Packers are going for it on like
(20:45):
fourth and one or fourth and two, and I think
it was Kevin Williams, an all time Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle,
falls for the fake, goes off sides, Packers go down,
score touchdown, and all momentum goes to the Green Bay Packers.
Based on how the LA Rams played in this football game,
(21:07):
they probably would have got the first down and scored
a touchdown regardless, but you've got to make him earn
it a fourth and one free first down. A shout
out to Everson Griffin Jonathan Bullard. You cannot fall for that.
You cannot fall for the offsides or the fake hike,
(21:30):
because you're just gifting the Los Angeles Rams a free
first down and who knows what would have happened on
that play, and who knows how that one play could
have changed or shifted the momentum or the outcome in
this football game. And La Rams score a touchdown three
(21:52):
and out score a field goal, which you think about
how bad the rest were of Minnesota Vikings fans will say,
And the only reason why the Rams kicked a field
goal on that second possession was because the Rams offensive
lightman was called for a bogus late hit, late block
(22:15):
when the play was still clearly going. The Rams offensive
lineman pushed a Minnesota Vikings defensive player over. They throw
the fifteen yard flag, they kicked the field goal, So
the Minnesota Vikings were given gifts and the NFL is
not rigged. Just for those that needed to hear that
on this podcast, the Matthew Stafford controversy. Another big play,
(22:46):
Vikings down ten to three, Stafford allegedly fumbles, Blake Cashman
picks it up, runs it in the end zone. Tied
football game, Vikings are back in it. Vikings offense can
is nowhere to be seen. But this was the moment
that the entire team needed for a spark and then
(23:07):
officials call it back and there was so much argument
over this call on X and the NFL officiating crew
got it right. It was not a fumble by Matthew Stafford,
and it also was not an intentional grounding. Puka Nokula
(23:30):
was in the vicinity of that play. He was right there,
and Matthew Stafford shoveled the pass in the direction and
in the vicinity of Poka Nokula. And I don't understand
why this play was so controversial because Matthew Stafford had
(23:51):
possession of the ball and it was just like a
shovel pass in the NFL. It was a shovel pass
to Puka no Coula, but it was an incomplete pass,
like he had possession and lost possession of it. It's
not like there was some tuck girl play where because
of some weird random ass rule that this was a
(24:13):
fumble or an incomplete pass, And this was the right call.
Stafford had complete control of the football and if he
didn't throw the incomplete pass, he would have just taken
the sack. But unlike Sam Darnald the entire game, Matthew
(24:34):
Stafford was aware enough and knows how much a sack
influences and impacts a drive negatively, so he got rid
of the football and kept the Rams drive alive. That
was not a fumble. It was nowhere close to a fumble.
And as Sam Darnald did the exact same thing, and
(24:59):
the NFL officials called the exact same way, the Minnesota
Vikings fans would have reacted and called it a great call.
This was a situation where Minnesota Vikings fans were upset
because of their own bias towards their football team. And
(25:23):
this is where an objective mind like myself helps a
lot in this situation. Troy Aikman, Joe Buck, the NFL,
ESPN officials guy, all of these unbiased objective dudes agreed
that this was not a fumble by Matthew Stafford. He
had complete control of the football and it was not
(25:46):
a fumble. He knew what he was doing. And credit
Matthew Stafford for making a magical play because he could
have tooken a sack, but he didn't. Kept the drive
alive and I don't remember if the Rams scored or
what happened, but it was a brilliant play by a
veteran quarterback that was prepared for this moment, unlike Sam Donald.
(26:15):
Another point in this game, the fourth and two Kevin
O'Connell before halftime goes for it. Vikings down seventeen to three,
they put a touchdown on the board seventeen ten to
get the ball third quarter to start touchdown, seventeen seventeen,
tie game. That's what Kevin O'Connell's thinking, and the Minnesota
(26:35):
Vikings offense hadn't gotten anything going the entire game. Fourth
and two, you give yourself a chance, and of course
Sam Donald, I'm sure he took a sack because he
took nine of them. Can't remember all of them, but
I think he took a sack on that one. Sam
Donald takes a sack, of course he does. That was
(26:56):
the right call to go for it. I saw some
people debate online whether you know you should have punned
the ball, go up seventeen, stay down seventeen three at
halftime instead of going down twenty four to three. There's
no guarantee that the Minnesota Vikings are only down seventeen
to three at halftime. If the Minnesota Vikings punt the ball,
(27:20):
there's a greater chance that they're going down seventeen to
three because you pin them down at their own ten
or five yard line or whatever. But there's no guarantee
that the Rams don't go down the field and kck
a field goal or score a touchdown, and the result
is similar. It's fourth and two. A lot of NFL
teams can pick up at first down on fourth and two.
(27:44):
Dan Campbell certainly would have went for it. I bet
Sean mc they would have went for it if their
team was down fourteen points fourth and two right before halftime.
He tried to get some momentum, some spark going and
late in the game, or a third quarter Donald incomplete
(28:04):
pass to Naylor wide open down the middle of the
field through at about three feet behind him. Comes fourth
and five. Vikings pump the ball and the Los Angeles
Rams go all the way down the field and kick
a field goal. It was the exact same situation. Instead
(28:27):
of fourth and two is fourth and five. The Rams
went all the way down the field, burn all that clock,
and kicked the field goal. So there's no guaranteeing that
the Rams wouldn't have scored if the Minnesota Vikings punted
on fourth and two. I love that play call. I
love the aggression because you got to pick up two
yards and then you have the final two minutes until halftime.
(28:53):
Just score a touchdown and with Donald playing as poorly
as you was playing. It gives the team an opportunity
to create a spark and make something happen. And Darnold,
like most of the game, failed But I liked the aggression.
I liked the play call because the Minnesota Vikings had
(29:16):
to do something. They were desperate, and O'Connell showed his
desperate play calling or decision making throughout this football game,
like the challenge that he threw. Kyrie Williams was down
by a mile and he threw the flag. Anyways, the
challenge flag that is to try to make something happen,
(29:39):
and there's just nothing happening. There was nothing happening. This
was a full on implosion by the Minnesota Vikings. And
podcast is almost over, but I want to wrap up
at this point. After the Packers lost to the Eagles yesterday,
I said, hold on, let's not to celebrate too hard
(30:02):
this Packers loss until the Minnesota Vikings. If the Minnesota
Vikings beat the Rams, then we've been advanced further. Then
we can break about how much further we've gotten than them.
And we got Sam Darnold, and now the Minnesota Vikings
are in the exact same position as the Packers, except
the Vikings got blown out twenty seven to nine, and
(30:25):
we're favored by two and a half points to win
this game. So that's why you don't celebrate too hard
when your divisional arrival loses in the playoffs, because now
the Packers can come right back at the Minnesota Vikings
fans and say, you know what, look at you, guys.
You just got blown out by eighteen points. It was
(30:50):
an embarrassing game, a full on crumble by all parties
from the Minnesota Vikings offensively, defensively, special teams, tough, tough,
tough way to go, and a season that once felt
(31:17):
so special. And this is what I also learned from
this game going forward, I am not going to call
a season special until I know it's special. Mid season,
I'm like, oh, this season is special. Beggings are five
and oh, here we go five and o, here we
go fourteen and two. This season is special. The Vikings
(31:37):
are going to beat the Lions because this season is special.
I learned something this year. The season is not special
until you win multiple playoff games. I'm not calling this
season special until it proves to be special. And that's
what I learned from the Minnesota Vikings season this year.
(31:58):
In a situation like the NFL, when do you have
to win to move on? One game? It's not like
a seven game series where it's basketball and the best
team always wins. This is one game to advance and
anybody can win. And the Minnesota Vikings just got pounced
(32:23):
and their quote unquote special season. Anyways, thank you for watching,
Thank you for making this podcast part of your day.
Appreciate you listening. Hit that subscribe button and follow button
wherever you are watching and listening to this podcast. Thanks
for going on this podcasting journey with me.
The Minnesota Vikings put up another embarrassing performance to finish
off the season, and in totality, they had four losses
this year against the same two teams. They lose to
the Rams and the Lions in the regular season back
(00:21):
to back games, and they finish losing to the Lions
and Rams to finish out the year. That is classic
Minnesota Vikings. And we're gonna dive into everything that we saw.
I got a page full of notes from this implosion
(00:41):
by the Minnesota Vikings, and there's so much to talk about,
so many storylines to touch on. Because the Minnesota Vikings
were fourteen and three, they more than doubled their win
projection betting sites, and yet they finish the season in
(01:07):
a terrible fashion. And like I said, we're gonna touch
in it all here, So let's just go ahead and
get into it. Sam Donald, I don't think i've ever
seen a stock drop so fast from an NFL player
like this before Donald stock was low before the year began,
(01:31):
goes thirty five touchdowns twelve picks, completely changes the trajectory.
Spot Track had him on like a fifty four million
dollars per year deal following this season, just a few
days ago, and now following his performance against the Lions
and his performance against the Rams, this guy is gonna
(01:52):
be lucky to get a three year deal from the
Giants or Raiders. Sam Donald has completely imployed. And those
regular season numbers that he put up that were so spectacular,
the throw that he put on Justin Jefferson versus the
(02:12):
Seattle Seahawks, all of those things are gonna go by
the wayside because of what he did in the final
two weeks of the year. He's still gonna get paid
a decent amount of money, but the fact that he's
gonna get one hundred million guaranteed or one hundred and
fifty million guarante, kiss that out the window. Donald easily
(02:35):
lost thirty to forty million dollars in totality because of
the way he played these final two games for the
Minnesota Vikings. And think about this. Donald was sacked nine times,
and he was sacked nine times, which ties an NFL
(02:58):
postseason record. Donald is responsible for most of those sacks,
and he was responsible for holding onto the ball to long.
Donald was not seeing things clearly. He once upon a
time talking about seeing ghosts when he was with the
(03:20):
New York Jets, and that's exactly what we saw from
Sam Donald versus the Lions and versus the Rams. The
dude completely choked when it mattered most. You think about
the interception to Jordan Addison, he was the attempted receiver
(03:42):
on the play. Naylor's were streaking wide open down the
middle of the field. You think about the strip sack fumble,
and that play was ruined from the beginning. The play
clock was winding down, guys weren't in the right formation.
Is completely chaotic from the get go. Donald gets the
(04:03):
snap off and it was just utter chaos right away.
He holds Donald the ball too long, which was the
story of the game, and loses the ball. Rams go
up seventeen to three. There were so many moments in
this game where if the Minnesota Vikings could have just
put something together, this could have been a competitive football game.
(04:27):
And instead, everything went against the Minnesota Vikings. And it
wasn't unlucky, it wasn't poor circumstance, it wasn't rigged. The
Minnesota Vikings failed to make plays offensively and defensively when
they needed to, and the Minnesota Vikings are solely responsible
(04:53):
for this loss. Sam Donald stock has dropped. His stock
has dropped so fast that Pelosi wasn't even able to
sell it in time. Donald stock has crashed, and it
has crashed so hard that I think Dick from having
(05:16):
fun with Dick and Jane is over there on a
television screen telling everyone how valuable Sam Donald is. Right now.
This was a piss port performance from Donald on all fronts,
missing receivers wide open, holding onto the ball too long,
(05:38):
and even on the touchdown drive to Hockinson, Hockinson, Naylor,
and I think there was even another one bailed Donald
out because every throw was behind the open wide receiver.
Donald could not put anything together in this football game.
And there's no doubt that the Minnesotas are gonna be
(06:01):
looking towards J. J. McCarthy, And you know, the idea
of franchise tagging Sam Donald look wonderful once upon a time,
one year, forty one million dollars to bring this guy
back to see if he can duplicate what he did
with the Minnesota Vikings this year. Scratch there, Throw that
(06:22):
out the window, because you're not paying this guy forty
one million dollars a year on a one year deal
for those two performances that he put up in the
most crucial parts of the season. And just to contrast
Sam Donald's performance, look at what Matthew Stafford did. And
(06:44):
you know those numbers aren't special. I mean, nineteen for
twenty seven, two hundred and nine yards, two touchdowns, zero picks,
a passer rating of one hundred and seventeen point seven.
Good numbers, not special numbers. But what you saw for
Matthew Stafford in this game was a quarterback that was
getting rid of the ball on time and on target.
(07:05):
It was three step drop and throw. Donald was three
step drop, pump, hesitate, pump, move a little bit sack.
You can't do that in playoff football. You can't do
that with a young Los Angeles Rams defensive front that
was sacking him in the entire game. You saw zero
(07:28):
adjustments from Sam Donald and from the Minnesota Vikings offense
in this football game. And right now you pull up
X and Kevin O'Connell is getting ripped. O'Connell is getting
hammered right now, and he's going to be the coach
(07:49):
of the Year. But you think about O'Connell and his
run with the Vikings. He is a brilliant head coach,
and the Minnesota Vikings will resign him to a contract extension,
and they should resign him to a contract extension. His
first year thirteen and four, lost of the Giants. Second year,
(08:10):
injuries happened, scratched that year, third year fourteen and three
with Darnold, and then you get blown out in embarrassing
fashion versus the Los Angeles Rams team that's going through
chaos in Los Angeles, and he got blown out on
(08:31):
a neutral field in a game where both the LA
Rams and the Minnesota Vikings offenses were doing silent counts.
You could look at the quarterbacks and you could look
at the way they were communicating with the offensive line.
And this was as neutral a site as an NFL
(08:54):
came could ever get because you heard Minnesota Vikings fans
boo and you heard Los Angeles Rams fans boo. This
was a mix of Vikings and Rams fans and DraftKings
had the Vikings favored by two and a half, which
went up a point and a half when the game
(09:17):
got moved to Arizona. But O'Connell's regular season success has
not translated into a playoff success yet, and he deserves
criticism because the Minnesota Vikings offense was not ready to
(09:41):
play versus the Detroit Lions or versus the Los Angeles
rams and adjustments weren't made for Sam Donald. And Donald,
I will say is largely responsible for the Vikings offensive
woes is incompletions. He's holding on a all too long.
(10:02):
The dude crumbled when it mattered most. But O'Connell certainly
deserves his fair share of criticism. And you think about
Donald stock going down thirty to forty million dollars perhaps,
and o'connle stock is gonna is going down too. The
Vikings will still retain him as head coach. They'll still
(10:23):
do the media tour where they talk about how great
of a coach he is. But there's no doubt that
his number is not as high as it could have
been if he took Donald to the NFC Championship game.
Because now this is two years out of three that
your team won at least thirteen games in the regular
(10:44):
season and zero wins when it matters most. Troy Aikman
had a great quote in the Football Game. He's like,
you know, when you have games like this and you
have a fourteen and three record, it basically means nothing.
The fourteen and three record basically means nothing. And how
(11:07):
true is that the Vikings record regular season could have
been ten and seven wild card team, make the playoffs,
lose first round, same thing. The fourteen and three record
is practically meaningless at this point in time because they
(11:28):
just got rocked against the Los Angeles Rams. And when
you think about the expectations, and there's a lot of
just be happy that the Vikings made it this far.
People out there, just be happy, just be positive. They
were only supposed to win six and a half games.
(11:50):
They weren't only supposed to win six or seven games.
That was the betting line six and a half games
before the season started. But the Minutesta Vikings changed expectations
based on how they played and performed this season, So
the expectations didn't become let's just be happy to make
(12:10):
the playoffs. The expectations became their legitimate Super Bowl contenders,
and all season long I erode this idea that the
Vikings weren't and then at the end of the year,
when the Vikings were riding an eight game winning streak,
I finally got sold on them. And then what happens.
They put up a lousy performance against the Lions and
(12:33):
a lousy performance against the Rams, and I predicted the
Vikings to lose this game. I actually predicted Rams twenty
seven to twenty four, and I got the Rams score right.
But the Minnesota Vikings offense was pitiful. From Sam Donald
to the opposive line to the rushing attack, everything was awful.
(12:53):
Aaron Jones thirteen carries forty eight yards. Camp Akers five
carries thirty nine yards. Donald four carries nineteen yards. Donald
was sacked nine times and lost eighty two yards in
those sacks, twenty five for forty two hundred and forty
five yards. You think about the future of Donald and
(13:18):
it certainly does not seem like it's a possibility that
he will be returning in a Minnesota Vikings uniform next season,
because maybe there will still be our Raiders or Giants
that throw them all the money in the world and say,
you know what, the last two games, people will forget
about it. Your first seventeen games of the year, thirty
(13:40):
five touchdowns, twelve picks were incredible, and we think we
can duplicate that, and we think we can be a
perennial playoff contender with USQB one, but it certainly does
not seem like it's likely that he will be back
with the Minnesota Vikings. Some more talking points as we
think about and react to this game. The urgency Another
(14:05):
O'Connell point, The urgency in the fourth quarter. You know
a lot of times you see NFL comebacks that are
unlikely and crazy, and you always get the player quotes
that say, oh, you know, we just never gave up.
We just continued to battle every down in every possession.
(14:27):
You know, coach always believes in us, and our players
in the locker room believe in us. Blah blah blah, YadA,
YadA YadA, And in this situation, that couldn't be any
further from the truth. Because after the Minnesota Vikings did
not convert their two point conversion, when Donald threw it
(14:48):
to Jefferson at the two yard line and he got
tackled right away, that game was over and the Minnesota
Vikings acted like it was over. I love how fourth
quarter vikings are down eighteen points, you need to put
up points quickly, and that's when the Minnesota Vikings decide
to try to involve the rushing attack and remain balanced
(15:11):
and keep things unpredictable for the Ramps. At that point
in time, you are burning clock and you are playing
in the favor for the Los Angeles Ramps. So the
fact that the Vikings were running the ball down eighteen
(15:33):
showed a lack of any potential belief. It was already
a long stretch for the Minnesota Vikings to have any
chance of tying that game and going into overtime. And
the Minnesota Vikings wiped out any potential long stretch, of
(15:54):
any chance of any percentage to tie that game when
they decided to run the ball, not just once in
the fourth quarter, but they ran the ball multiple times
and killed the clock. And the Rams were thinking, from
their perspective, this is the best offense we could ever
ask for. Right now, we're sitting playing a preventative defense,
(16:17):
trying not to give up a big play, and the
Minnesota Vikings are running the ball and burning their own clock. Unbelievable.
The lack of urgency just showed so much in that moment.
More things to talk about. Remember Jordan Addison's important catch
(16:41):
first quarter, Vikings down ten zero, which I'll get to
in a moment. Vikings got the ball, It's like third
and three third and four, Donald finds Addison, and this
was an incredible catch by Addison. Somehow he snags the
ball out of mid air after bobbling it once he
(17:02):
goes to the ground without bobbling it. And I just
remember thinking in that moment, what an important catch to
keep the Minnesota Vikings in this ballgame. They eventually kept
the field goal down ten to three and things unraveled
from there. But just think about that moment. Remember Jordan
Addison's big catch in the first quarter when he kept
(17:25):
the Minnesota Vikings alive in this football game. Just shows
you how embarrassing it was that that catch in the
first quarter kept the Minnesota Vikings alive. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. More
stories to touch on One of my favorite stories of
(17:49):
the game. Gruger Hill, the Minnesota Vikings special teams player
that somehow did not block the punt from the Los
(18:10):
Angeles Rams punter. It literally went underneath his shoulder pads.
I slowed down the video to zero point five and
watched this thing ten times, and some way, somehow I
still couldn't believe it. The ball is right there and
(18:32):
somehow Krueger Hill misses. You think about plays that could
change the outcome of the game by game changing moments
segment that I do every football game, whether the Minnesota
Vikings win or the Minnesota Vikings lose. And this is
one of those moments. That's a game changing moment because
(18:54):
that block could have changed the trajectory of the Minnesota
Vikings in this football They clearly needed a takeaway of
some sort in this game to stay alive and give
them any hope or chance of beating the Rams when
Sam Darnold was imploding, and this was the moment. This
(19:17):
was the chance, and somehow Gruger Hill missed it. It
was one of those Madden glitch moments where you literally
go to the instant replay and this is like Madden
two thousand and nine on PlayStation two where the ball
literally goes through the helmet of the defensive player into
(19:37):
the wide receiver's hands. That was this moment. The Gruger
Hill moment was a Madden glitch, unbelievable. They bollered off
sides on the LA Rams first possession, another game changing moment.
This reminded me of the Minnesota Vikings matchup versus the
(20:03):
Green Bay Packers back in It's at twenty eleven twenty twelve,
when Adrian Peterson had the career rushing season and Christian
Ponder steps in and has a decent season for the
(20:24):
Minnesota Vikings, and Joe Webb gets inserted into the Minnesota
Vikings starting lineup because Christian Potter goes down with an
elbow injury. And I'll always remember this is ingrained in
my head. The Packers are going for it on like
(20:45):
fourth and one or fourth and two, and I think
it was Kevin Williams, an all time Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle,
falls for the fake, goes off sides, Packers go down,
score touchdown, and all momentum goes to the Green Bay Packers.
Based on how the LA Rams played in this football game,
(21:07):
they probably would have got the first down and scored
a touchdown regardless, but you've got to make him earn
it a fourth and one free first down. A shout
out to Everson Griffin Jonathan Bullard. You cannot fall for that.
You cannot fall for the offsides or the fake hike,
(21:30):
because you're just gifting the Los Angeles Rams a free
first down and who knows what would have happened on
that play, and who knows how that one play could
have changed or shifted the momentum or the outcome in
this football game. And La Rams score a touchdown three
(21:52):
and out score a field goal, which you think about
how bad the rest were of Minnesota Vikings fans will say,
And the only reason why the Rams kicked a field
goal on that second possession was because the Rams offensive
lightman was called for a bogus late hit, late block
(22:15):
when the play was still clearly going. The Rams offensive
lineman pushed a Minnesota Vikings defensive player over. They throw
the fifteen yard flag, they kicked the field goal, So
the Minnesota Vikings were given gifts and the NFL is
not rigged. Just for those that needed to hear that
on this podcast, the Matthew Stafford controversy. Another big play,
(22:46):
Vikings down ten to three, Stafford allegedly fumbles, Blake Cashman
picks it up, runs it in the end zone. Tied
football game, Vikings are back in it. Vikings offense can
is nowhere to be seen. But this was the moment
that the entire team needed for a spark and then
(23:07):
officials call it back and there was so much argument
over this call on X and the NFL officiating crew
got it right. It was not a fumble by Matthew Stafford,
and it also was not an intentional grounding. Puka Nokula
(23:30):
was in the vicinity of that play. He was right there,
and Matthew Stafford shoveled the pass in the direction and
in the vicinity of Poka Nokula. And I don't understand
why this play was so controversial because Matthew Stafford had
(23:51):
possession of the ball and it was just like a
shovel pass in the NFL. It was a shovel pass
to Puka no Coula, but it was an incomplete pass,
like he had possession and lost possession of it. It's
not like there was some tuck girl play where because
of some weird random ass rule that this was a
(24:13):
fumble or an incomplete pass, And this was the right call.
Stafford had complete control of the football and if he
didn't throw the incomplete pass, he would have just taken
the sack. But unlike Sam Darnald the entire game, Matthew
(24:34):
Stafford was aware enough and knows how much a sack
influences and impacts a drive negatively, so he got rid
of the football and kept the Rams drive alive. That
was not a fumble. It was nowhere close to a fumble.
And as Sam Darnald did the exact same thing, and
(24:59):
the NFL officials called the exact same way, the Minnesota
Vikings fans would have reacted and called it a great call.
This was a situation where Minnesota Vikings fans were upset
because of their own bias towards their football team. And
(25:23):
this is where an objective mind like myself helps a
lot in this situation. Troy Aikman, Joe Buck, the NFL,
ESPN officials guy, all of these unbiased objective dudes agreed
that this was not a fumble by Matthew Stafford. He
had complete control of the football and it was not
(25:46):
a fumble. He knew what he was doing. And credit
Matthew Stafford for making a magical play because he could
have tooken a sack, but he didn't. Kept the drive
alive and I don't remember if the Rams scored or
what happened, but it was a brilliant play by a
veteran quarterback that was prepared for this moment, unlike Sam Donald.
(26:15):
Another point in this game, the fourth and two Kevin
O'Connell before halftime goes for it. Vikings down seventeen to three,
they put a touchdown on the board seventeen ten to
get the ball third quarter to start touchdown, seventeen seventeen,
tie game. That's what Kevin O'Connell's thinking, and the Minnesota
(26:35):
Vikings offense hadn't gotten anything going the entire game. Fourth
and two, you give yourself a chance, and of course
Sam Donald, I'm sure he took a sack because he
took nine of them. Can't remember all of them, but
I think he took a sack on that one. Sam
Donald takes a sack, of course he does. That was
(26:56):
the right call to go for it. I saw some
people debate online whether you know you should have punned
the ball, go up seventeen, stay down seventeen three at
halftime instead of going down twenty four to three. There's
no guarantee that the Minnesota Vikings are only down seventeen
to three at halftime. If the Minnesota Vikings punt the ball,
(27:20):
there's a greater chance that they're going down seventeen to
three because you pin them down at their own ten
or five yard line or whatever. But there's no guarantee
that the Rams don't go down the field and kck
a field goal or score a touchdown, and the result
is similar. It's fourth and two. A lot of NFL
teams can pick up at first down on fourth and two.
(27:44):
Dan Campbell certainly would have went for it. I bet
Sean mc they would have went for it if their
team was down fourteen points fourth and two right before halftime.
He tried to get some momentum, some spark going and
late in the game, or a third quarter Donald incomplete
(28:04):
pass to Naylor wide open down the middle of the
field through at about three feet behind him. Comes fourth
and five. Vikings pump the ball and the Los Angeles
Rams go all the way down the field and kick
a field goal. It was the exact same situation. Instead
(28:27):
of fourth and two is fourth and five. The Rams
went all the way down the field, burn all that clock,
and kicked the field goal. So there's no guaranteeing that
the Rams wouldn't have scored if the Minnesota Vikings punted
on fourth and two. I love that play call. I
love the aggression because you got to pick up two
yards and then you have the final two minutes until halftime.
(28:53):
Just score a touchdown and with Donald playing as poorly
as you was playing. It gives the team an opportunity
to create a spark and make something happen. And Darnold,
like most of the game, failed But I liked the aggression.
I liked the play call because the Minnesota Vikings had
(29:16):
to do something. They were desperate, and O'Connell showed his
desperate play calling or decision making throughout this football game,
like the challenge that he threw. Kyrie Williams was down
by a mile and he threw the flag. Anyways, the
challenge flag that is to try to make something happen,
(29:39):
and there's just nothing happening. There was nothing happening. This
was a full on implosion by the Minnesota Vikings. And
podcast is almost over, but I want to wrap up
at this point. After the Packers lost to the Eagles yesterday,
I said, hold on, let's not to celebrate too hard
(30:02):
this Packers loss until the Minnesota Vikings. If the Minnesota
Vikings beat the Rams, then we've been advanced further. Then
we can break about how much further we've gotten than them.
And we got Sam Darnold, and now the Minnesota Vikings
are in the exact same position as the Packers, except
the Vikings got blown out twenty seven to nine, and
(30:25):
we're favored by two and a half points to win
this game. So that's why you don't celebrate too hard
when your divisional arrival loses in the playoffs, because now
the Packers can come right back at the Minnesota Vikings
fans and say, you know what, look at you, guys.
You just got blown out by eighteen points. It was
(30:50):
an embarrassing game, a full on crumble by all parties
from the Minnesota Vikings offensively, defensively, special teams, tough, tough,
tough way to go, and a season that once felt
(31:17):
so special. And this is what I also learned from
this game going forward, I am not going to call
a season special until I know it's special. Mid season,
I'm like, oh, this season is special. Beggings are five
and oh, here we go five and o, here we
go fourteen and two. This season is special. The Vikings
(31:37):
are going to beat the Lions because this season is special.
I learned something this year. The season is not special
until you win multiple playoff games. I'm not calling this
season special until it proves to be special. And that's
what I learned from the Minnesota Vikings season this year.
(31:58):
In a situation like the NFL, when do you have
to win to move on? One game? It's not like
a seven game series where it's basketball and the best
team always wins. This is one game to advance and
anybody can win. And the Minnesota Vikings just got pounced
(32:23):
and their quote unquote special season. Anyways, thank you for watching,
Thank you for making this podcast part of your day.
Appreciate you listening. Hit that subscribe button and follow button
wherever you are watching and listening to this podcast. Thanks
for going on this podcasting journey with me.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com