MVP: DJ WONNUM & THE VIKINGS-PANTHERS MATCHUP

us and something great for me. We're listening to the Minnesota Vikings podcast, or as we lovingly refer to it around here, MVP. This is episode one fifteen, and can we say victory Wednesday? Still? Are we allowed to do that? Guys? It's always the turning point for the week to go to the next week. But yes, we can rebel in the fact that we did get a win this past week. It was just the manner that it happened. People are a little angsty about it, but I think the nice

thing is you gotta win. You're going to Carolina right before the bye keep the train rolland at this point, and that is why we have the Positivity Power minute, because we can't dwell on the negative. And speaking of positive things, we have a special co host today on the podcast. You just heard Jay Nelson, who's here with us every week, but this week we have Vikings team reporter Eric Smith. He is all over Vikings dot com with his incredible writing. He's a great follow on Twitter

at Eric Underscore l Underscore Smith. I wanted to make sure I got that correct. He's also on Viking Entertainment Network's latest show, Opposing Viewpoints. Hi, Eric, Well, hello guys, thank you for having me and man out to a great introduction. I feel all warm and special inside there you go. I know when I start, when I was writing it, I was like, wow, I'm like writing a proper introduction, the official official welcome to the show. Well,

thank you this happy to be here. Yeah, I know you've been here before, but we're excited to have you around again. And kind of continue talking about this Vikings team who were walk off winners against the Lions. It's now two and three on the season, with one more game before we hit the buy and it's a big game on the road at the Panthers, and so Eric, we usually do this whole event session when we lose. Luckily we don't have to do that this week. I'm

glad for that. Let's let's be positive. Yes it was ugly, but we gotta win. So yeah, let's let's focus on the w and that is what matters. So we call it the Power Minute of Positivity. And Eric, because you are it's a guest co host this week. I'm gonna have you go first, Okay, So I'm gonna put you on a timer. We're gonna count down from sixty seconds and I as much positivity as you can. Okay, I'll bad lead off. There you go, all right, and three, two, one, okay,

I'm gonna start with Greg Joseph. And you know, a lot of people wanted to get rid of him, honestly after Week two when he missed against Arizona fan who're upset with the long history of kicker struggles with this franchise. I think a lot of fans who were just like, whatever, let's move on to the next guy. And Mike Zimmer was like, wait a minute, let's give him another chance,

and he delivered. Came through on Sunday again, Detroit set his career best with fifty five and then obviously none none of his four field goal were bigger than the fifty four yarder. To end it, so happy for Greg. The other thing is the Vikings pass rush is much much better than it was a year ago, and probably that has to do with Daniel Hunter being back and

Everson Griffin being back as well. Both of those players did not play for the Vikings last year, but they are probably two of the of the ten or so best pass rushers the team has ever had, and so it's good to have those two guys back in the fold. And then the last thing is, you know, I know it was ugly, but I'm glad they gotta win. Oh where the money? Glad to know I win? That works too. Okay, what else were you gonna say? I was just gonna say as we go into Carolina, you know it hasn't

been the prettiest season so far. Yeah, and just a chance to get to three and three, to give yourself a chance to be competitive after the buye. I think that needs to be harped upon. Comparative to last season where you kind of tripped coming out of the gate, You're at a point now where you're better than you were last year. Kind of the same situation, but you have a chance to write the ship sooner than last season, and so that that is the positive spin on that.

For sure. If you win Sunday and you're three and three, you kind of reaf that and say, okay, let's take a deep breath. You know, the schedule is very tough after the bye, but at least you have a chance to be competitive. If you fall to under five hundred and you lose in Carolina, it's just really tough flooding the reft of the way. And Carolina right now is feeling the same way too for them. You know, they've they've played a bunch of games at home so far

this season. They see us walking in the door and saying, you know, we need to get right as well, because they are going to play a ton of games on the road coming up here for the rest of their schedules. So this this game Sunday, I think is gonna be a bit of a dog fight for both teams trying to make sure that they're on the right side of that win. I can honestly see, whoever wins the game, it may be in contention at the end of the year for a wildcard spot, and whoever loses it's maybe not.

It's funny how you can kind of you try and make those like predictions and see down the line and how things are shaping up already. But only time will tell, all right, Jay three two one. I think the most positive thing that I can say about this past weekend's win was the fact that you did get to win. We've just been talking here about the fact that you're on the doorstep of being five hundred here before the bye, which I think is something that fans will definitely take.

I know inside here, I'm sure the players and coaches are also looking at it saying this is the only option moving forward for us. For me as a fan watching that game on Sunday, like I said before, there was a little bit of ankst that came to it, But the fact was you saw Greg Joseph hit two fifty plus yard kicks in order to bury that game, in order to seal the victory, even when it looked

kind of dire there right at the end. But for me, the fact that Greg Joseph hit both of those kicks, there is a kind of a hurdle there that you have now for the future. You know that if it comes down to needing a thirty seven second drive at the end of a game to try to bury a long kick to give yourself a chance to win the game. We have the ability in the capability to do that. On top of that, Justin Jefferson in the first half was on fire in that game. Hopefully he can do

that again. This way you go, there, you go. Yeah. I know this is the powerment of positivity, but it is frustrated and to not see him as dominant in the second half of the game, knowing that that was something that works so well, and I don't particularly think the Lions made all these crazy adjustments to keep him out of things. So hopefully we'll be able to see

more of jjcase clearly. And something I think we've talked about previously on this podcast is that teams have to choose between Theeland and JJ and the past two weeks they've really negated Theeland, which has made Justin come alive, and so it's kind of like this like back and

forth pull between the two. I've gotten a lot of fan email this week being harsh again the Viking the offense of philosophy, and Clint Kubiak and Mike them are in saying, you know, why don't why aren't we throwing the ball more you know, and I see their point because you know, Justin Jefferson is a special talent and sometimes you just got to throw him the ball. And you know, if it's third and eight, you know, I'd rather throw him the ball than than maybe anyone else

on the team. Honestly. The thing that was crazy on Sunday was watching some of those throws that Kirk was hitting him with on the sidelines especially. I mean he was bracketed, double even triple covered sometimes and Kirk was dropping in the bucket. And the nice thing with with JJ and Feeling and those guys, they are savvy enough at this point as receivers they don't show their hands until the very last second to prove that the ball

is going to be right there. And there were multiple times in that game as I was, you know, running stuff up in the control room watching it, and I'm just like, that was an incredible throw. And so there's another positive piece there for me is just the fact that Kirk was dealing, and you know, it just kind of again proves give him some time, he will slice

and dice you. And when you have a team that was without Delvin Cook again on Sunday and you're looking for a big time playmaker to step up and make some plays. Having Justin do that in the first half really gave you a shot in the arm and just proves this team can have multiple weapons on offense. And I'm looking forward to seeing what happens again here coming

up on Sunday, hopefully they can unleash the Beast again. Well, I'm going to put myself on the timer now, Eric, if you want to do the honors and just press

start three two line go. I kind of want to piggyback off of what you're talking about with Kirk Cousins because I think everyone saw the moment at the end of the game where he was shoving Mike Zimmer and I know it's like kind of went viral and little did we know he was miked up for NFL films, So then everyone got to hear exactly what the exchange was, which if you haven't gone on Twitter and taken a

look at it, it's definitely worth seeing. But I think it's so important that they were able to complete a game winning drive because you saw it against the Cardinals, you saw it against the Bengals. They can drive the ball down when they need to. They can get into scoring position when they need to, and they haven't been

able to capitalize on it. And so for me, that was a huge vote of confidence, not only for your positive note on Greg Joseph getting that kind of like just confidence, straight confidence back in himself, not that I think he lacked any but that he was able to do that in front of the home crowd really convinced them. And then also that they were able to capitalize on a game winning drive boom. I love being right on time.

Nicely done, Thank you. I don't know if any of you've seen Good Morning Football's Peter Shreger, but Peter Shreger was actually talking about our season so far this year. Yeah, I welcome to the fold. As a Vikings fan, you know,

there's always a time in the season. There's always been multiple games where you're like, man, we were that close, and yeah, that's happened multiple times here and that that's where I think a lot of this angst as well from Sunday came from as just people saying like, man, we haven't fully put a full game together this season.

We had a really good game against Seattle, but we haven't seeing the ability to just take an opponent that you should handle and just finish it completely across the board offense, defense, and special teams, and I think everyone felt like Sunday should have been one of those games because it kind of you were stuck in the mud and it went the way that it did on Sunday. I really feel like this team is going to be motivated on Sunday to come out in Carolina and really

put their best foot forward. And even in the Seahawks game, though as good of a win as that looked, it was good defense in the second half, the offense was you know, not there. So it's still not like that complete game performance that we're looking for, which is kind of exciting because you know the potential is there, but at the same time you're like, all right, when is that moment going to happen. Yeah. So we're obviously five games in and four of those games have been decided

by a touchdown or less. I think the potential is there. I think there's also maybe you know, the games go along and you're in more and more of these close games, I think I'm starting to realize that maybe this it's just who the Vikings are and that you know, we're not a bad team. You know, I know we have a sub five hundred record, but we're not a bad team. But we're probably not in the upper echelon, you know, with Arizona and Buffalo with only having one loss or

no losses. We're probably right around in the middle with a potential to be good, you know, but a thing don't break our way, then maybe we slide down a little. So that just kind of who the team is right now. We're just kind of right there in the middle with a bunch of other teams. And that's probably what the NFL is. That's just a bunch of parody and it's who can make plays each week. If you if you make the plays like we did on Sunday and have

a final drive, then you win. If you don't make the plays against like we did against Cleveland, and you lose. That's that's how it works. The NFL tends to be a battle of attrition, right and it usually is one of those things where every team has issues with injuries, every team has as hurdles that they have to overcome. If you think about it, so far this season we have had adversity and that you lost Delvin for multiple games here or at least hasn't been right for multiple games.

Michael Pierce has now been injured. But then you're starting to see also kind of the glimmers of hope with Anthony Barr coming back this week, and then you know there's people that are pointing the finger that Deissau was getting some more run this week as well. Yeah, playing with my bullets, Like there are the the detriments of losing some of these players, but there's also you know, you're you're adding a lot of potential talent coming in

here for what could be. So again, there are more places to sell hope here that your team is still trying to figure it out. And there are a lot of teams in the leagues that are that are that way. And how many times we've seen at a hot team that started at the beginning is the one that falls off. The team that's been trying to figure it out finally puts it together at the end of the year. Just what I was going to say, because you just never you need is to make a run towards the end

of the season. What you did in the beginning matters as far as getting into the postseason, But as long as you're a team who's finally clicking towards the end, you might be hotter than a five and oh Arizona Cardinals team. And if you look right now at even a team like Carolina, they it off three. No, they were they looked right. I thought they would win the division. I thought they were world beaters at this point. Tom Brady now is kind of like, yeah, okay, I got

something to sound like that. It's exactly right. But the thing for me with Carolina is that Shack Thompson going out and a couple of their other playmakers that they've had that have been on injuries as of now. That's why I think they've got a sense of desperation coming up here this week too, is that they've lost some of the the big playmakers on that defense that's been very, very good. And I think they're they're kind of potentially regressing a little bit where we're kind of ascending a

little bit. But but even after this last weekend, everyone's going to say, you got to prove it yet. Yeah, speaking of great defensive playmakers, that is who our player guest this week is. It was quite a performance on Sunday, earning his first sack ever at US Bank Stadium defensive lineman DJ Wanam. So let's bring him in now on the Minnesota Vikings podcast and for the first time on the Minnesota Vikings podcast, We've got Kings defensive lineman DJ Wannam.

You got your first sack in US Bank Stadium this weekend. What was what was the crowd reaction like for you? It was amazing, man, just haven't being able to get my first second US back stadium this year. Just hearing the crowd and being on the big play manages made it even better. You got a big bear hug from your teammate to deal Hunter. What was that like? I mean,

he probably was pretty stoked for you. Yeah, he was. Man, you know what I'm saying, I've been always you know what I'm saying, just following them, trying to walk into the footsteps and just him you know, being excited for me. You know what I'm saying. Just making that big play

was a big thing for both of us. What is it like to you know, I know you probably don't look at it like you're playing in his shadow or anything, right right, No, of course not, But there are probably people out there that are, like, you know, it's got to be hard sometimes, Like it's great to learn on one hand, but on the other hand, hard to handle that pressure. Yeah. I don't really look at it this pressure. I mean, it's most like social media stuff, which I

don't get on as much anyway. So I mean, I just I just taken a roll with you know what I'm saying, getting better each week, and I'm just gonna continue doing that. You know. For somebody who scrolls Instagram and online shops while watching TV, that's me, I find it. I think it's hard to turn that off and not do that because of this day and age of social media. Where and how what do you do in order to like not tempt yourself from looking at that stuff. I

honestly don't know. It's just kind of a natural thing that I do. I don't. I just don't just don't get on it. Just don't go to it, you know what I'm saying. So don't know, it's pretty easy for me. Yeah. Do you do you have the apps on your phone though, or do you like get rid of them during the season and bring him back on. I get rid of Twitter because that's where most of the stuff is. But Instagram, you know, so I keep I look on there every

now and then. But yeah, one of my one of my favorite people to run into in the hall here since I've been here. I've only been here since June, so I'm fairly new, just like you. My favorite people to run into the hallway with is Andre Patterson. Oh yeah, he's always in a good mood, yea. He is so nice and just chipper all the time. I know, you get to see both sides of him. Maybe when he's a little bit more fired for sure. But what is

it like playing for somebody like coach pat Oh? Man, It's it's amazing, man, just the history that he has behind himself, him having no John Randall and all those great you know, saying defense Alama that he's developed or throughout this game, and just being able to know what I'm saying, just come up in this system, especially being a rookie and then now my second year playing under him and learning know what I'm saying different things under him.

Is it's a great thing, you know what I'm saying, because I can see the future from myself and just getting better each day. How would you rate your level of improvement from the first day you stepped the practice nine and day difference, man, you feel it. Yes, it's a night in day difference. You know. I'm but I'm still getting better each day. But compared to last year, I was like two forty five soaking with playing a fourth technique. It was it was. It was a long season.

But you know what I'm saying, I definitely can see the improvement drastically. What are you at right now? Right now, I'm at two sixty Oh, okay, carrying the extra beats hopefully in those muscles, right. I mean you got to work hard for that. I don't think people realize how much you have to like, how much food you have to eat. Yeah, especially with the amount of work, the games, the practices. Nor I'm saying, if I missed one meal, that's like four pounds that I've lost just off of

missing the meal. Yeah, so you gotta stay on it each day. I mean sometimes it feeling you have to kind of force features. That's what exactly what it is. Well, good thing the Vikings Cafeteria has good food. Can't complain about that part. You can't complain. Can't complain. Um. You know another thing that's different for you this season is that there are a lot of veteran faces, but newer

faces for you. I know, last season there was it felt like a lot of new guys, first year, second year players, and now there's a little bit of age in the room, a little wisdom. I guess you can say, how has that dynamic changed from the past two seeds?

Like from last season of this season, it changed a lot because you know, we gotta got a lot of guys that have seen different things, you know what I'm saying, that have experienced and being able to go out during you know what I'm saying, just as I'm playing, they're telling me. You know what I'm saying. What they're saying based off of you saying that past experience. So just having them in the room and meetings is a big

change for us and something great for me. Yeah. I mean, you think the youngest guy on the line right now, right, I mean, that's got to be like you're just soaking up all the knowledge. Oh yeah, do you ask a lot of questions I learned based off with just like listening, observation, observation. They're listening, so I mean I asked the question here and there, but I'm mostly just listening to them while they're saying they're talking them, shotting it down, writing it

down there like okay, I got it. Yeah. Do you feel like you have a notebook or do you take anywhere every day? You got good handwriting? Yeah, it's pretty good. Okay, good. I mean I wrote notes down for this interview and I'm like, oh gosh, what did I write there? Even read what I'm writing. But that's no, that's a good It's a good practice to have. Right. So this is a big it's a big game this week. You've got the Panthers a chance to go to get to three

and three before the bye. I know that every game is a big week and that's how you approach it. But heading into this one with the opportunity to play an offensive line who's struggling with injuries, a quarterback who's not playing his best right now, when you see that kind of stuff, it is it. Do you see a better game plan to get to the quarterback? You know, mostly keep it the same, you know we can and week out, you know say we respect each and every

one of our opponents that we play. Um, you know what I'm saying, And just going into the game, you know what I'm saying, We're gonna always you know, whoever it is in front of us, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna do our thing, you know, So we're gonna get after them. So regardless of the opponent who we're playing, you know, I'm saying, we always you know, saying, look up and respect the opponent. But you know what I'm saying,

we're excited for a Sunday. We're gonna get aft through it. Yeah, you know, it's it's funny. We're in Halloween season and and I'm I'm expecting Sam Darneld to see some ghosts on the field day. So. Um. But speaking of Halloween, word on the street is that that is your birthday. Yeah, that's my birthday. That's crazy growing up. What is it like, I guess to have your birthday being on such a

kookie holiday. Um, it's definitely different for sure. But like as far as like celebrating it, when I was younger, we pretty much didn't. I don't know for what reason, but my mom didn't really let us go outside and trick or treat or whatever get candy. No. So I mean, but you know what I'm saying, it's it's definitely different. It's cool. Just being able to say my birthday Halloween. You know what I'm saying. That's different. Nobody really birthday.

You know what I'm saying. It is on Halloween. So yeah, I was gonna say, do you have like a favorite Halloween costume growing up? But it sounds like I got no costume? Did you dress up in college at all? Never? So you you have, you have a Halloween birthday, and you've never worn a Halloween costUS, never worn a Halloween costume. I think we've I feel like we need to change that. Yeah, I feel like you gotta change that. But here's the problem. We have a game on Halloween, so you're gonna dress

up as a Vikings football player. So it's it's a very popular Halloween costume for other people. Oh yeah, explain your business uniform. It's your business glowth Well, you know I had this like exciting, well not exciting, but I had this little fun Halloween game to play with you. But I'm not sure how many of these things we

can get to that you'll be on board for. So it's basically just like a Halloween to get to know you a little bit better, DJ, because I know that you know you're new around here and fans are kind of getting to know you, and um, do you have a favorite Halloween candy? Favorite Halloween candy or candy? And John wrong, I'm gonna go jolly renches. You know what I'm saying. Based Okay, So do you prefer like fruity candy to chocolate candy? Um? So, I like both chocolate.

You know what I'm saying. I gotta go white chocolate. The cook is in cream bar, you know what I'm saying. That's that's my favorite chocolate book. As far as like candy, sweet Wise, I'm gonna go jolly renches. All right, I'm gonna need you to do an audible thumbs up or thumbs down? Okay? Are we cool with candy corn thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs down. I'm with you on that one. I don't understand candy corn me neither. What is your What is in your opinion the best Halloween or horror movie?

I'm gonna have to go Paranormal Activity. That's a horror movie book, Jason, Jason, Man, you like some of that real dark? So I love I love scary movies. Do you really love them? Yeah? I don't know if I can handle that. He's actually everyone of them. How many hot hot like do you do you watch them regularly? How many would you say you watch like a month? Um, horror movies maybe like three or four? Man like to be scared? Um, I just like I just like the thrill.

I just like seeing it. There you go, There you go. So your a roller coaster guy, then if you're like, okay, no roller coasters, Okay. I was going to ask you what your favorite Halloween tradition is, but I mean, I guess it's just celebrating your birthday with your family. Well like Halloween, like we're always well, I'm always nor our football season, so very true. I'll never really get the chance to celebrate it anyway. So well, let me ask you this. Um, I know you've got big plans for

your birthday this year being Halloween. Um, is there any family going to be in town or anybody going to be celebrating your birthday with you? Yeah? My parents are actually gonna be able to come to their first game in US. Yes, Oh my gosh. That's amazing. So they weren't able to make it last year, no, because of COVID, right, so they'll be here. Oh my gosh, they're gonna be

so pumped for you for sure. When you when you know they're out there, do you kind of like have a little electric juice in your you know, a little springing your step, just a little bit, a little bit mo. Yeah, especially my dad, you know what I'm saying. He always jacked up, So just having him there, it's gonna be a big thing for him. Yeah, for sure. I wish you're brother could make it out. Huh. He's got it deep in the SEC schedule now. He got a long

season for himself, so maybe he'll play with me. Who knows, who knows? Who knows. You'll have to talk to Rick about that. Well. Thank you so much, DJ for joining us here on the Middle of Eggings podcast. We'd like to have a good time over here and get to know you a little bit better and best of luck on Sunday. Thank you all right, big thank you to

Vikings defensive lineman DJ Wanna. What a fun guy and honestly, it was so great to see him breakthrough, get that first sack of the season and get all that love from his teammates right after. Yeah, Jay's progressing well, you know, he did not start Sunday everything. Griffin got the starting play with him, so, you know, I think fans are kind of wondering, Okay, where is he at in his progression? I think he's doing just fine. I mean, he was

a fourth round pick. No one expected him to come in and be Danio Hunter, even though there are a lot of comparison to him when he got drafted. Let's not label anyone like that. I mean, that's just too lofty of of expectations. No, And I think Andre Patterson's pretty careful about that label as well, because he has made the comparisons before, but mainly more like the motor his personality, not really comparing the physical attributes, or like

his athletic ability. When he gets labeled, you know, compared in any way to Denil, people expect double digit sacks, especially when he's in a starting role. So let's maybe timper that a little bit and just let you die a break, right, Yeah, let him let him just be him, right. That's that's so true though. I mean you got to think, like, as much as it's beneficial to have Daniel Hunter there to mentor him and bring him up, it's also got to be like, Wow, I wonder like the expectations for

me or you know, I'm a completely different player. My expectations should be treated as such. Yeah, every player is different and every player is kind of their own entity. Um, you know. And with with the Vikings long history of great pass rusher too, there's there's always high expectation for any defend the vand or defensive lineman to get drafted here. So yeah, I think DJ is doing fine. Yeah, I

think everything will continue to start. He has really really come into his own and honestly, I get so juiced just watching him. I did the Game Day Live interview with him last week and he said, he's like, I love how candid he was. He was just like, I want to put a whoopon on him. You don't really get sometimes like people that still talk like that, or players they're very like, don't give them bullets and board

material whatever. Sin's like, I don't really care, and I'm going to say it because that's what I want, and I just it's very refreshing. Yeah. I think the Viking have benefited from his play this year, but also the energy that he brings. I mean, I think the team with desperately lacking that a year ago. All right, well, now let's bury the past and look forward to the future. We have a huge game on Sunday, the last one

before the bye week. The Vikings completed that three game homestand and now they're on the road at a Carolina team who's dropped the last two games. So they're kind of not feeling too high, as we mentioned a little bit earlier in this podcast, and we're feeling good. So we're gonna give We're gonna go around and do what we always do to prepare for this big game. We're gonna go with the two things we're excited about with this matchup and one thing that makes us nervous. So

Eric took the honor's last time. We'll let you go first in this one. So take it away justin Jefferson. Throw him the ball. That's probably I won't go on a long rant just throwing the ball. He had five catches for one hundred and four yards in the first half and just dominating. But in the second half he only get two targets, two catches for twenty yards, and if you look at the stat line, you say, oh, okay, seven catches one hundred and twenty four yards. He had

a good day. But those of us who watched the game, I think we know the potential was there for so much more. And you go back and watch the film and some kind of misthrows from Kirk where JJ was open, and like I said earlier, just throw the guy the ball. I'd rather throw it up for him and really anyone else on the team, honestly, and sometimes you know, I know the Vikings have a run first approach, and that's the nature of Mike Zimmer. He wants to ground and

pound and wear down the other team. But if you have a player who's a top to me, a top five wide receiver in the league, you have to get him the ball as often as you can. And I know that the coaches and players have said, well, you know, they kind of changed up the coverage and they were bracketing him and rolling in safety over the top. That happens every game, and that happens Dafon Digg, DeAndre Hopkins.

You know, all the number one receivers in the league have that coverage, and yet they still find a way to be productive. So maybe, you know, let's plan for that a little bit, and I'm sure the coaches do so if they do kind of bracket him, Well, what play or what you know, bundle of plays can we go to that will beat that? For as much as we want to be a run first offense, to me,

he's the best player probably on the team. Honestly, I mean, well, when Dalvin Cook is not in the lineup, he is the best player, don't you think, the best skilled player? Because Dalvin Cook is questionable and we don't know if we'll see him on Sunday, we don't know when we'll see him, and so when it is a game where you know he's not going to be in the lineup, yeah, that would be awesome to see it kind of thrown

around a little bit. I think the one thing I've noticed about these coaches, you want to be your identity. But at the end of the day, most coaches say, like I want to create the best plan for the players that I have, and like you said, if you if you see the ability to pass more, maybe that's you know, something to keep in mind, because I think that's usually what coaches trying to do, and coaches also

want to win, so honestly, how can we win? You know, I posted a tweet the other day, like I said, the Vikings like to run the ball. So the tweet was, you know, the Vikings ran the ball twenty eight times on Sunday, but six of those times we're second and eight or longer, and that's not a surprize. We know the Vikings like to run the ball, even on second and long, but those six runs only total twelve yards. And it's fine if you run it on second and nine and get six yards and then it's third and

three and you're in a much more manageable situation. But if you only get one yard, then it's third and seven, and then you know, that puts you in a tough situation. I understand the need and the want to run the ball, but if it's second and long, to me, two passes had a better chance of getting of moving the sticks than getting a first down, then a run and then a path, especially if you're throwing it to JJ one or two of the times. So you know, I'm not

saying we need to throw to him every play. I understand that the Vikings like to run the ball and are good at running the ball, but if we can just maybe like move the sliders a little bit on how often he's getting the ball he's just such a dynamic talent. Maybe we can sneak into the offices and just kind of doctor it up a little in the playbook. I'm just kidding, don't get mental about Yeah, I understand, I understand the team's offensive philosophy, and I think an

approach that can work. I also think it'd be a dynamic wide receiver out there. Try to get him the ball as much as you can. All right, Number two thing you're excited about, Yeah, Christian dar saw right. Yeah, I mean, finally an id to see them contributions from

more rookie players. I know that eleven man rookie class has kind of had a little bit of a tough go with it with injury and playing time, but Sunday was the first stepping stone of him being the starting left tackle hopefully for a long time for this franchise. He was effective when he was in there too. Yeah, Yeah, I thought he played well, you know, he only played I think twenty eight snaps. I think Rashad played thirty nine, so it wasn't exactly a fifty fifty split, and that's understandable.

You know, he's kind of still working his way back from that procedure he had in August, and he's still kind of getting back into football shape. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if there's another rotation of Source again Sunday. But I think after the bye, if you're kind of going to have like a two game rotation type thing after the bye, then maybe that when he's the full time starter and you know, it could be a case where he takes over that spot for the next ten years.

You know, we don't know, but he looked good. He taught room to grow, and that's expected, you know, of being in your first NFL game. But I think that the potential with him is high. And we all know if you can get a franchise left tackle for you know, the long term, that one of the best options in the best area to have covered. Every team begs to have that, especially when they draft a guy coming in. I mean, we even saw a last week Penasol with

the Lions out there. You just you know that they're expecting him to be out there for a decade plus and they go through and you invest somebody that high

in a draft pick. I just think Mike Tice this week was on skull Stories with Pete Bursach and they were talking, you know, any advice you have for Christian darrisaw and his answer was essentially, as the game starts to slow down for you, it's it's going to be easier, but to start just rely on your technique and all the things that you've been taught over the years, because just have that base to know that, you know, there's a reason you've been drafted this high, there's a reason

this team has brought you in. Revert to back to the things that worked for you. And I think that was the thing that people were talking about after Sunday, was just watching some of the plays and saying, you know, dropped the anchor and just really held his own against some of those guys that were really bull rushing. And there was a lot of things to be excited about for Christian Dersa. Yeah, I think he's only going to get better. I think that he's gonna get thrown into

the fire, honestly. I mean Carolina has Brian Burns, Dallas has the rookie Micah Parsons. If you look down the second half of the schedule, almost every team we faith had a lethal pass rusher, and that's probably the case every week. I was like, I feel like that's been the case so far, but it seems like the best of the best are coming. Yeah, we played both Bosa

brother coming up. TJ. Watt turned down for what. Yeah, he's definitely taken the mantle from his brother too, just as far as being one of those elite pass rushers. So Christians definitely gonna have his work cut out for him. When you know, it was almost like it was almost like a baton on just a tiny bit, right, just because the age difference to age injuries, all that kind of stuff that jazz TJ. You know, Yeah, he's definitely

one of those guys. So you're right, I mean, Derris Saw definitely he's gonna have to mind his speas and ques and be ready every single week when that's gonna I mean, that's gonna be the way it is for the rest of his career. So this is just you know, I mean, getting ready to go and hopefully for a bright future. So Eric, let's get to what you're nervous about for Sunday. Same thing I've been nervous about every

week now, and that's our run defense. We've given up a hundred yards every game this season, and you know, I thought that Barr coming back would help, and I think it did a little bit, but Michael pierced without. So that's kind of a Cat twenty two where you haven't had a full, a full arsenal yet. I don't know what it is, but it's just it's just not clicking. And I think the talent is there. You know, we

deinly have all the pieces. If you if you go to each individual player in the line up, you say, okay, that player is good. But collectively, you know, we just haven't been able to stop the run and we've given up, you know, one hundred yards in every game. I think we're one of five teams that have done that. And yeah, it's there were twenty second and run defense right now. It's it's not it's not great, but um, you know the past, the passing defense is obviously much improved. With

Anthony Barr kind of back in the mix. I think maybe with him being in charge of putting everyone in their place, it could be a little bit more effective. If Christian McCaffrey is not as effective this game, that could also help out fingers crossed. Um, I don't wish anybody any injuries. I just mean, if he's just not one hundred percent, it might not be awful to see us seventy five percent McCaffrey right right. If McCaffrey goes, you know, he's a dynamic talent for sure, and you

know in both the run and the pass game. But you know, it'd be nice if we have a game where we hold him to seventy yards rushing and get him in third and long a lot and you know, get five or six sacks. That that's the ideal way that the Viken want to play defense, and that hasn't been the case. I mean, like I said, one hundred yards to out on the ground in every game so far this year. Eventually that's going to wear you down

game by game. But also once we get into November and December two, if you're trying to stop the run forty times a game, that's a tough flooding. Offensively, they've been kind of a mirror of what we've had the last couple of weeks as well, with McCaffrey out. You know, Chuba Hubbard coming in number two, guys stepping in. He had some pretty good weeks as well, And so if McCaffrey's in there, you have to account for him, no

matter what. You have to put spies on him, you have to basically have people just mirroring him for the entire game. Chuba coming in there for their offense. It's literally like Madison walking in for ours, where he's a different skill set and at Oklahoma State he was he was a beast, and so for you know, defensively, Andre Patterson, those guys are going to be looking at this trying to figure out, Okay, how do you game plan for McCaffrey,

how do you game plan for Hubbard? And then on top of that, you know what I'm going to talk about here coming up here, Sam Darnold is going to be there X factor as well in being able to keep that offense moving. If we were to be able to stop both of those running backs, well, all right, then let's just dive right in then, Jay, I like the t So let's go with your two things you're excited about of one thing that makes you nervous, all right,

picking up on what we were just talking about. Then for me, um I will I will jump into the I'm kind of excited about the fact that we get to play Sam Darnold this week. Yeah, you're you're dancing a little bit on the fence of what direction that team is going to be able to go depending on Sam's play. But given what happened the first three games versus the last two games, I'm actually kind of excited about the fact that we get to play Sam this week. On the first two games, he was he was fairly

lights out. He had eight hundred and eighty yards passing sixty eight percent completion, three passing tds, three rushing tds, only one pick in six sacks. So you're still able to get to Sam. But in these last two games that they've had, especially against Dallas, He's only through thrown for four hundred and seventy eight yards in those two games. But one of those games he had a three hundred yard game. So this last game he only threw for

one seventy eight. But in that span he's had three passing tds, two rushing tds, five picks, and eight sacks. So like there is a formula there for Sam to if you get in his face, he will make mistakes. I know we've we've said this week after week after week this season, especially with your your Baker Mayfields and those kind of guys as well. Jared Goff. Yeah, it's like between Mayfield, Goff and now Darnald. It's like where

teams have had success. Especially Dallas was up the gut and it was getting in his face and making him uncomfortable because the pocket wasn't necessarily there. They've currently had three offensive linemen that have gone on ir so far this season, and one of those guys was Pad elf Line, who we all know. And then their offensive tackle Cameron Irving was listed as questionable with an injury as well.

So like, their offensive line is beat up and Sam is not going to be comfortable, especially if we're able to get push up the middle. So well, we saw what happens when your offensive line is not one hundred percent healthy this last week against this spiking spress fresh He's me given exactly what Eric was talking about there. You know, you're nervous about the run game because I think that they're going to have to try to rely

on that. But for me, it's if you can get to Sam in those situations and enforce him to make some mistakes, that's that's an absolute difference for our offense. Just flipping the field and getting Sam here in footsteps as the as the game's going on. I mean, it's almost like Sam Darnold will turn the ball over, So it's what you do with it afterwards. Yeah, you can't kick a field goal. You can't turn the ball over

again or punt like, you can't have that happen. And I think that's also part of the problem, is that, like capitalize on your turnovers. Absolutely. Yeah, you can't go three and out, you can't get stuck in the mud and those kind of things. Those can be game changers, and you just if you're able to make him make those mistakes, you have to capitalize. You're You're exactly right. Number two things that I'm excited about actually is something we talked about just a little bit ago, Greg Joseph.

I'm actually excited about the fact that, given the good note that we left this last game on, you know, I did a little bit of looking here. So far, he's hit five kicks of over fifty yards. Yeah, isn't that crazy. So it's been on it's been a long time since since. Yeah, that's the thing. It's it's been a long time since we've had um someone we can

rely on. From from deep like that consistently, and it just feels like, yes, there was the kick earlier in the season that that he missed from that distance at the end of the game. But I think as the season progresses and if if if we rely on him, or at least if he's called upon to do this, he knows he can do it. And so five kicks of over fifty yards, he's eleven and twelve on extra points,

in ten to twelve on field goals. So like, if he can continue to progress and get more confidence, I think it's gonna be great being able to trot him out there and expect for him to hit those kicks. Well. Yeah, especially like I said, if we're going to be in the clothes game, you know, if we're not gonna win by ten or you know, by ten, and I got that four of the five game that have been one possession or last, we're gonna need Greg to come through.

And I think that's why we've seen so are the season, And that's a that's actually a league thing too right now that, yeah, isn't that interesting? Well, how many missed extra points this weekend? Like broke a league record on that kind of stuff, which was crazy that that since the Green Bay game at the end where there were five miss kicks in the in the final essentially ten

minutes of gameplay was insane riveting television. But you know, and that think about the anks that those coaches and players are having during that game too, just we got it, we don't, We got it, we don't, And it becomes just this mental battle that point. But yeah, so for me, I'm just excited about the fact that you know, we have a guy here that that we expect moving forward is going to hit these kicks and and um, I think that's something that the entire team should be excited about.

The last thing for me what makes me nervous this week, it's kind of something we also hit on a little bit that Carolina defense, especially against the run. Um they've been super stout this season. These last couple of weeks, they have been leaky. So there is some game film there on what we can potentially do to to you know, neutralize that a little bit. But going into this week, they were number one in the league an opponent passing yardage. They were number two in the league in total yards

given up, number three in points allowed. In number eight in league against the run. So like that defense had been putting on like a historic pace through the first three weeks. But the fact that they're like many other teams,

including ours, they're dealing with some injury issues. And one of the biggest ones this past week when in the Philly game, they were without Shack Thompson, who was their leading tackler at linebacker, and I think, you know, with him out and then jac Horne went out with a foot and Justin Burress went out with a groin. Both of those guys went on ir prior to the Philly game. Like again, they're dealing with this battle of attrition and

injuries and stuff. So I think that there are ways that we can gash them, especially if Dalvin's in great if he's not, Alexander has proven that if we need to call upon him to carry the load when it comes to a running game, I think that, you know, the offensive line's gonna have their work cut out for him. But there are ways to exploit this defense. Well, that's exciting year because this offense one of these one of these games is you know, is going to have just

an insane performance. It's going to click and come together. Yeah, I think the potential is there. I mean, we saw that in Arizona. You know, they had a great game. We didn't win the game. Yeah, that's very true. One of mine is similar to years Jay and the fact that Sam Darnold will turn the ball over and you can rattle him and he's not feeling his best self right now. So I think that this Vikings past defense that's been top ten in the NFL. They have seventeen

sacks on the year in eighty six pressures. I mean, they they're going to be in their faces and especially with a beat up offensive line, so that's kind of I'm excited to see them continue their dominance. It really has been a very bright spot at a consistent spot in this team, which I think the consistency factor is the most important part of the point that I was

trying to make my next thing I'm excited about. I'm pretty pumped to experience my first Kirktober and so far, I think the hype is there, the hype is real. What I was most excited about is he kind of started October Kirktober off pretty pretty pretty bad. I'm on them, that's true, that's very true. But then he had that he had a bad game. Passer raining went way down against the Browns, but you know, he is eleventh in the NFL's when it comes to passer rating, which I

like to see, I think it can go up. I think that bad game that you know, that dud sixty percent I think was hit our sixty point seven passer rating or something along those lines, was what kind of makes his average creep a little farther down there. But

ten touchdowns, two interceptions. But I think the most important part of that equation, though, is despite the offensive line having moments of not as good play, I guess you could say they have only allowed nine sacks and I think that's pretty key because we all know Kirk does

better with time in the pockets. So it's the ninth fewest in the NFL, and so, um, you know that that kind of to me sets this up for hopefully the next two games are in October, so from what all the rumors about this being Kirk's month, I'm excited

to see that in Carolina. Yeah, he's played well. I mean, there's no denying that, and I think what's frustrating is I think the team, the Vikings, need to take advantage of the game where he does play well, because we've seen in the past, and you know, not every quarterback is going to be on for seventeen games. And when the game where Kirk is on and he's really on,

those games have to be wins. The games where he's not on, you know, people need to kind of pick up the slack around him and help carry the team. And that's that's where the two and three record, to me, it's frustrating. It through five games, I think Kirk has played overall really well, you know, and if we had a winning record, you'd probably feel better about it. But you're two and three and you're like, Okay, we got to keep digging ourselves out of this hole, you know.

And that's why Sunday is it's such a big game. Put it all together for a week, you know, have Kirk deal, had the defense stuff up, and feel good about a full fledged wind Going into a buy third down makes me nervous. It always does. Right now, I feel like this is something that I felt good about

one game. I think it was the Seahawks game where they had a sixty percent conversion rate and third down, But overall it's a thirty nine point one percent nineteenth in the NFL, and if you want to sustain drives, which we so desperately need to do, it makes me nervous when they get on the field. I think what leads to more anxiety is the fact that Carolina leads the NFL and third down defense, and so I know that that was also something the Lions hung their head

on last week. You know, they weren't not that great on first and second down, but third down was kind of where they were able. The defense was able to get a lot of stops and a't someplace that we've struggled. I mean, we weren't great last week, and third down still able to come away with a win. But I think that also leads to the margin of victory being so small, is not being able to sustain the drives

and not converting on third down. Yeah, that kind of goes back to what I said about maybe trying to throw the ball the more. You know, if you if you throw the ball more and you have a chant for bigger play than and you know, longer, longer chunks of yardage, maybe you don't have to worry about third and seven. The distance is the thing that that fans are looking at it. It's third and seven. Why you're handing the ball off third and seven? Why are you

doing a quick dumb pass? You know, those those kind of pieces. I just I'm hoping that if we are willing to open it up a little bit more, whatever the heck that means at this point, because that's whatever, you know, that's in the zeitgeist of everyone's saying just open it up and let him throw and let him go crazy. It's more of the play calling at times. They're they're saying, just get the ball out of his hands,

Just get get the ball down the field. Just hand it off so that playmakers can make their plays for me. With third down, it's so much predicated on you got to get more than one or two yards of rush.

You've gotta get that ball down the field. And whether that is doing a quick screen, whether that is just throwing some outs to the sidelines, whatever it's going to be, get to your third and shorts and then make sure that you know if they know they're loading up the box, because we're probably gonna run it, switch it up and throw a pass just over the top or throw it down the seam, and just keep moving those sticks because

that's a game of momentum for the offense. And honestly, with Dalven out on Sunday, the run game wasn't great. If you look at the box score, you think, oh, okay, Madison ran for one hundred and thirteen yard done twenty five carries. Yeah, he had a good day, But obviously forty eight of those yards came on that one run. And even then he had to make a guy myth at the line of scrimmage. It wasn't like it with

a wide open hole, you know. So if you take away that forty eight yard run, then you're looking at twenty four carries for sixty yards seventy yards. You know, it was only two and a half three yards to carry that. That's not going to cut it. And it just it all kind of blend together. If you can't run the ball effectively on any down, then you're just not going to really move the stick that often. Yeah, very true. It is all just a circle of the circle of life. I don't know why that could popped

into my head for a second. There you're a giant Lion King fan. Giant, don't even This is a whole other podcast with my Disney obsession, so we won't go into that. But but no, Um, it's an exciting time. There's a big opportunity ahead for the Vikings this week when they hit the road to play Carolina, And honestly, I think what two weeks ago, we probably would have been a little bit more scared of this team and not maybe think a win was as possible or it was going to be a lot harder to get done

than we did, you know, two weeks ago. So that's always the positive note to end this podcast on. But um, we're going to do a couple of shameless plugs before we get going Eric, what you got going on? And cooking up this week? Either we do every week opposing viewpoints, looking forward to that that if you don't know that, that's the new show we started this year with Tatum and I and then we have a reporter who covers the opposing team. We've done it every week so far

this season. We try to make it fun, you know, lighthearted. Yeah, I feel like I walk away learning something about the opponent definitely every single time, kind of setting it up and then knowing what we have to do in order to negate what they talk about because I think you do a really good job of bringing that up. So yeah, I mean it's been a lot of fun and you get to know other people around the league, other personalities

and other opinions. So yeah, those are that's on Thursday, So those that'll drop on Thursday, and then Jay, we've got the Audible this week back for another week and this week's guest is probably my nomination for the Vikings locker room for the most interesting man in the world. This week's guest is Stephen Weatherly. It's great to have him back. He was in Carolina last season. Having Stephen back on this defense has been great to have him as part of that defensive end spot that's just been

rotating over and over again. And Stephen is always a great interview, so you never know what hobby he's picked up next. Very true, and I'm sure you'll talk a little bit about his time in Carolina too, and how you know excited he is for this week to get back there and play for the Vikings instead. Yeah, So so check that out Thursday night on Cafe n six to seven pm and then Friday nights for Fox and then Bally Sports and Earth this weekend as well. So

check those out for both radio and TV broadcasts. And then we've got the Game Day Live interview that I'm with Eric Kendricks this week. I'm super pumped to have him across the chairs for me. That will air on Game Day Live, which if you didn't know, happens on Fox nine at nine thirty in the morning, right to get you primed and ready to go for that noon kickoff and Postgame Live will be following the game. This week, we have four Vikings running back. Robert Smith, the legend himself,

will be our analyst for that game. So pretty pumped about that. He hasn't been here in three weeks because we've been We've been home, so just keep sticking too. The Vikings Entertainment Network, Vikings dot Com, all of the digital channels for all of the content to get you ready for Sunday's big game. Big thanks to Vikings Team report Eric Smith for jumping on the podcast today. Eric, thank you so much. We appreciate your time. Yeah, thanks

for having me. Looking forward to a good game on Sunday. Let's go right for Jay Nelson. I'm Tatum Everett. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.