The Minnesota Tim Podcast#525: Sam Darnold THROWS 5 TD PASSES in Minnesota Vikings win vs. Falcons!
Minnesota Tim and Daniel Heins discuss the Minnesota Vikings' impressive victory over the Atlanta Falcons, analyzing key performances, particularly that of quarterback Sam Darnold. They delve into the dynamics of the Vikings' offense, highlighting the importance of both Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. The conversation also touches on the future of the team, playoff prospects, and a sponsorship segment featuring Snap Fitness.
The Minnesota Vikings defeat the Atlanta Falcons forty two to twenty one and advance to eleven and two on the NFL season. And I got the cross shirt on. My friends got his blessed shirt on. Y'all repid hard. Here we go. Mister Daniel Hines is joining me for the first time on the Minnesota tim podcast to discuss the recent Vikings victory where Dad's where husbands were responsible, so we got to take kids to game sometimes. Dan, Thanks for taking time to join the podcast.
You sent me. I'm like, wow, my schedule, Brielle, we're leaving early. Yeah.
Well the yeah.
Well, if this video gets you know, ten million downloads and views, although it's you just hitting that refresh button every single.
Time, they're the good dance.
Yeah.
Well, I appreciate you taking time to join the show today and let's just discuss it. Vikings dominate forty two twenty one, not even close. Well it was until the fourth quarter where the Minnesota Vikings put up twenty one points of the land of Falcons put up zero. Your takeaway from the dominating performance.
I mean that was There's still a lot of questions, obviously, because as you just mentioned, it was. It didn't feel dominant. It fell dominant for about ten minutes, you know, during the fourth quarter. And there's definitely some things that we should talk about regarding some run defense, and you know, maybe a few things that we have to be concerned about. But I would say the first thing is just thank you for not having it be a nail bier for every every minute of the game. We needed the dress the holidays. Just being a Minnesota Vikings fan in Ja, you know, we needed a good win like that, So I would that's true.
They put up Kevin O'Connell's record, and he's got a great record in one score games. But going back a few years ago, they were what thirteen and four, and every single win they had was like a one score game. Last year a lot of one score wins in the NFL. You play close games, so I'm not gonna hold that against you, but every once in a while, it's nice to have a little treat and you know, give us a little blowout action.
And then the fourth quarter, well, actually in the third quarter.
I was thinking, when Donald threw that bomb to Jefferson, you go up twenty one to thirteen, and it's like, wow, this game's over, Like, that's the play that's gonna be the thing, and that's gonna be the moment when now the Falcons go down and scoring five plays, rushing the ball right down the throats on the Minnesota Vikings go for two point conversion, get the two point conversion, tie twenty one to twenty one, and it's like, okay, Minnesota Vikings offense, you gotta go make plays again.
Yeah, and they did. Right. Think that was the crux of the game. I think you can take so much away from that. I mean, the first thing, we have to just give love to Sammy Darnold man. I mean I was just looking at some of his tds. You know, Lamar Jackson already had his game this week, so this puts him third in the league in touchdowns only behind Lamar Jackson and Burrow. You know, I mean that guy's got twenty eight touchdowns. Now, I mean it's starting. My daughter came up to me, or she was in the car with me, and she goes, you know, are we gonna are we gonna keep Sam And I said, well, probably not. He's he can't afford him. And you have to think, you know, what do you think he was in me scenario. I told her basically he would need to get probably to an NFC championship game, perform very well, if not even get to a super Bowl. I think you if you do that, a lot of cap space. I know we don't want to spend it on Sammy d. But I mean there's there's got to be an argument. I don't know how right.
There definitely is right.
I mean, the question is that the Minnesota Vikings have to answer do they believe that J. J. McCarthy can play to this standard that Sam Donald is playing this year? Because this is a move that could possibly get the guys in the organization fired.
You move off of Sam Donald.
JJ McCarthy's a bust and acts you're out, You're gone, like there's no doubt about it. And right now he's playing like a franchise quarterback. Twenty eight touchdowns, ten interceptions in a game versus Kirk Cousins, where you know the story is about Kirk returning to us, being stadium returning versus former team. He goes out for five touchdowns, has a passer rating of one hundred and fifty seven point nine, which is just a few points. I don't know how it is out of perfect passer rating one hundred and fifty eight point three right zero point four from a perfect passer rating twenty two for twenty eight three hundred and forty seven yards, bomb to ads and bomb to Jefferson, bomb to Addison, bomb to Jefferson. I mean, that was his best career NFL game by a mile, and he is putting himself into that MVP conversation. But going back to your point of can we pay Sam Darnold. The further he goes NFC Championship Game, super Bowl, well, the more his dollar goes up from a team like the Raiders or the Giants or some other organization. And here's the problem with Sam resigning him. That is, he's not a guy that Howardy had a big contract extension like Kirk Cousins has had and would be willing to kind of negotiate at the table a little bit with the Vikings and maybe taken a number agreeable on both sides. He had his first big rookie contract because he's like a top three pick, but then he never got a big contract over that because he was a bus with the Jets and with the Panthers on his backup. But the now, he doesn't have that second big contract, and this is his time to cash in with an NFL franchise. So there's no way that Sam's agent or Sam want to do that because this is his one time to make it for the rest of his life and for the rest of his family. This is generational wealth. And I think about kirk Cousins. They only got booed, and of course he's gonna get booed. He left the Vikings organization, but he did what we all would have done. Okay, you got a two year contract sitting here from the Vikings, or you got a four year contract worth one hundred million guaranteed from the Falcons just sitting right, what are any of us gonna do. We're gonna take the money. There's there's no doubt about it. So Darnold's gonna do the exact same thing. And the Vikings just have to hope that, you know, their investment in J. J.
McCarthy is going.
To pan out taking a step further. And this is why I told her it's extremely unlikely, because it is for their jobs, and you're putting your trust more in Kevin O'Connell and his system and his coaching than you are, and thingham Darnold at this point, he had six years with multiple coaches. You got to look at that that lineage and go, Okay, what's different this year. Talent around him, offensive scheme and coaching, that's what's different. And so if you look at JJ McCarthy, he might not have white the arm that SAMs. I don't know enough about JJ McCarthy's intangibles.
What I do well, Darnald's arm is elite level. So like and you saw.
It today, I mean say what you will. He's been managing games, and he's been managing games with an amazing offense that's got us to eleven wins. But today you saw some of those throws. I mean even that wide open throw to Jajon that's a running on the throw off of one foot dagger down the fields. Even when the defender fell off of it, he can't have a chance. I mean they got down to him so fast. And so those are those are maybe a few intangibles, but really you got to back Kevin O'Connell on this one, and you got to back the draft pick. And I do think that guys like Sam Donald, those mid range managers with a little more upside on on on the performance side, are there, And so I mean, you have one, you just signed one to the practice squad and Daniel Jones. You know, eventually Sam Donald, you have some options there. And I think the move is not to I just think it's it's I'm just happy for Sam and I'm obviously happy for the Vikings. I want to see him frush it. But yeah, so I think all those things aside, We're probably not gonna sign him, but you know, I had to. It's amazing, it's amazing.
It's amazing, it is amazing, it is It really is five touchdowns, first time that's happened in the Minnesota Vikings uniform for any quarterback since Dante Colepepper back in the early two thousands.
And I can't help but wonder, and.
Now Kevin o'll konnall understand that's the situation, kirk Cousins coming back.
Everyone does.
I can't help, but wonder if Kevin O'Connell, the offensive play caller, not just the head coach on the Vikings, is trying to needle kirk Cousins a little bit like I don't think I don't necessarily think it's a coincidence that Sam Darnald in Kirk Cousins has comeback to the Minnesota Vikings threw for a career high five touchdowns.
I think he's poking at the bear a little.
Bit and saying, you know what, suck on this in Atlanta, have a fun flight back. Kirk Cousins, by the way, zero touchdowns, and he's had zero touchdowns the last several games. So you think about Sam Donald twenty eight touchdowns, ten picks for the year, Kirk Cousins has seventeen touchdowns, fifteen interceptions on the year, and we're paying Sam Donald ten million dollars a year.
I think we have won, right, So.
What were your concerns? Like, what did you what did you see that you know, I'll ultimately worried you because that for those first three quarters were pretty tight.
They were tight, and I guess the one thing that stood out to me a little bit was the rushing attack, right the Atlanta Falcons. I'll share the screen with everyone so it can check out the rushing attack. But it's not like they steamrolled us all day every day either. Like there's a little concern from the rushing but at the same time, Falcons only scored twenty one points.
As far as I'm concerned, this.
Was as close to a perfect game that the Minnesota Vikings could play all around. Offensively, zero turnovers, defensively two picks and b Jonn Robinson. There stood twenty two carries for ninety two yards. They didn't run for all over one hundred h Tyler, their backup running back, nine carries sixty three yards. The receivers Darnell Mooney won forty two, Ray McCleod eight for ninety eight. So you know, they had some They had some big, splashy plays that had moments. I think what stood out to me was that it seemed like the Atlanta Falcons had some short throws that were that became splashy. They had some short intermediate routes that they ended up taking for thirty forty yards at time. So there's nothing really that jumps out at me where I'm less like, oh crap, like this is not good. From eleven to two football team down the stretch after this game, it's overwhelmingly positive. The Vikings are getting hot at the right time in the NFL season, and that was my concern early on in the year, like they started out five and oh, but who cares if you start out five and oh? The Eagles were like ten and oh last year, but they collapsed down the stretch.
The Vikings are eleven and two.
They went like this, and then they came back down and then they're soaring back up again, and that is great.
Great. Now, I think the last two games we've averaged about one hundred and fifty yards on the ground. And if I'm Floras, that's what I'm looking at. It's pretty clear that the Vikings defenses that then don't break opportunistic squad. They're gonna give up some yards. They're going to give up some time of possession. They tend to hold people more to the three than to the seven. Although these are these are teams the last few games, you know, the last few weeks that we also have to recognize are middle of the road teams as well, and so we have to factor that those turnovers are going to be more crucial getting stops on first down where these runners aren't picking up seven yards of pop and giving the entire playbook, you know, over to the quarterback to kind of tear us apart. So I do think Flores has a little bit there. I think you can look at the last two games and you can make an argument like, if the good teams get the idea that they can put up one hundred and fifty rushing yards on this defense, there's going to be a lot more seven point scores going forward when we start seeing the Detroits and the Phillies and the green bays of the world, and you know that's gonna that's going to see what we're truly made up here. So the other aspect of it is, you know, our offense, when it explodes, it explodes. But there tends to be this tick tick boom, and sometimes the ticking gets a little annoying and it takes two Today it wasn't too bad. It was fairly steady. And I'm with you, there's no reason to be hyper critical here. I'm nitpicking forty two points at home. This is exactly what the Viking needed. This is amazing. Let's celebrate, I mean crazy, you know, my daughter just goes, how many wins do we have? I'm like eleven. I'm like, who'staw Let's just go back for a moment, pause and just remember that not a single person, not any minute, like except some die hard, old brain dead, you know Viking fan that's just all in on Super Bowl every single year. You know, there's two cents like that's being objective that saw the Vikings any better than five hundred this year? We are do we clinch a playoff spot? I mean it's got to be closed.
It's close.
The Cardinals and the Rams I think have to lose for a playoff spot to be clinched. And the Cardinals are playing the Seahawks and the Rams are playing the Bill. So two possible scenarios that are very likely.
You looked at the playoff, you know, a situation. I was really rooting for green Bay. I mean talk about that green Bay Detroit game. I was torn because it's one of those rare nfl O eighthist is where you win every single play as a Minnesota Viking, right, yeah, exactly, list rooting for every you know, good play or bad play. And but at the end of the day, I was weighing the analysis and I'm like, no, I want green Bay to win. I want to shot at the division and I'm looking at I'm looking at the you know, all three teams have a fairly difficult you know, mid ranged to difficult schedule because they're all playing each other. We played Green Bay, we played Detroit, We r Chicago, and then we have Seattle in there. Green Bay and Minnesota, Seattle, and I think Detroit has the tougher of the schedule because they have to go to Buffalo.
Yeah they played Buffalo. Yeah, I think Buffalo.
Fans for a Detroit loss. There there's a real chance we're playing for the division in Detroit, and so not.
Just the division, but the bye.
Yeah, the bye throughout the playoffs, like if we beat Detroit at Detroit.
And that's ultimately what it comes down to.
And that's where I camet with the Pennon that I was rooting for the Packers because can the Vikings beat the Lions on the road.
Well, I'm gonna guess no. But at the same time, the Lions.
They beat Green Bay by three last Thursday, they beat the Bears by three. They they beat us by It's not like the Lions are some invincible team, even though the national media wants to make them, and I think by everyone's talking about Lions, they all Lions. They're a good team, they're eleven and one, but it's not like they're just blowing out every team forward to the zero.
More injuries at all. They can't afford any more entwines. They are is beat up and destroyed as any team out there. So I mean they're and I like the I mean there's a soft spot in my heart. I mean, this is going to be blasphemous as a Minnesota Vikings fan, but when you want.
I think there's a soft spot. Everyone's hard. Yeah, yeah for the Lions, for the Lions. Everyone loves the Lions.
It's really interesting. But I mean I wanted I want the division it's coming down, and I want home field advantage. And I don't see why at this point we shouldn't be in the conversation for this. And I think National, you know, National will now kind of lump us in after a dominating win. We got what Chicago nacks and then the addled in Green Bay. The NDA is that right? Okay, get Chicago more likely, although it's the Bears, it's the bid, nothing's guaranteed, but but.
Right, the Bears have been playing competitive football recently.
Five in the sixth seed really isn't that big a deal.
I mean, I think, I think, I.
Think, I think it's a huge deal. Yeah, I mean that's true. Tampa versus Seattle, I think I think that's true. I guess when I compare those two teams, i'd rather have Tampa.
Baker Mayfield scares me. He's a giant, slick man. He's beaten, true, he's beaten.
Yeah, yeah, you know he is.
He scares me a little bit at home. I almost feel like Seattle's will play. But either way, it's just such a bummer when you, you know, imagine a scenario where we could be fourteen and three and going on the road to play a seven and eight eight and seven, right, yeah, right, yeah, no, No, we're not playing for second here. We're not playing for fifth seed, sixth seed, like we we need to have our eyes on Detroit and we gotta believe we can do it. And I think I think, you know, the odds favor right now, but they're not bad.
Definitely not, especially with the way that they're ascending right now.
Sam Donald should be in the MVP conversation.
And I have a big rants about the MVP, Like I have an issue with the award because it's just a reputation, take your turn kind of award. Like Lamar Jackson one has won two, but it goes my homes Lamar Jackson. Now this year is going to be Josh Allen because he hasn't won one. He had and it's Josh Allen's turn, and the Bills are ten and two, and Josh Allen's like the media hype guy this year because the Bills are good and he's a great quarterback. Like, don't get me wrong, but the conversation in my mind's already over. I don't think Donald has a chance to win it, but he should win it based on where he has the Minnesota Vikings this year and the numbers that he's putting up. But Kirk Cousins, here's a stat last four games, and they have a rookie quarterback mind you sitting in the wings, Yeah, from Washington, who took his team to the National Championship Game the prior year. Zero touchdowns, eight interceptions. Falcons are oh and four. Theory here, the Falcons would have made the switch to Michael Pennix Junior this week against the Vikings. But it's the Vikings and it's Kirk Cousins homecoming two Minnesota, And now that this one's out of the way, Like now that the Falcons are zero to four.
I think they put in Michael Pennix Junior next week.
They gave Kirk Cousins one final hurrah, like, Okay, do your thing against your old team, put up a bunch of yards, put up a bunch of touchdowns, have your classic rivalry game.
But I'm predicting, and I could be way off.
On here, that the Falcons are going to make that switch to Michael Pennix Junior this week.
I mean, i'd probably disagree and that against it only because they're still in the divisional hunt and they just paid this guy one hundred billion dollars.
And that's where the problem. That's where the problem comes in the money.
I mean, hypothetically, you take out the one hundred million dollars.
So I would probably bet again it, although you know they're going to be lobbying for it. Atlanta's going to be lobbying for it. All The momentum is going to be pushing towards Bennet's junior. But the reality is they're still in the divisional hunt and and I think they'll give Cousins a couple more games and and maybe even a couple of games at the beginning of next season. So they don't look like they just completely crap the bed on this deal and before they put him in a backup role or try to dump his salary to someone else, or and that might be happening. I mean that could that could legitimately be happening in the offseason as well. There's plenty of need for quarterback. And I'm a big, big believer in as a player, as a character, as a person. I think you and I agree we're a big man as an individual as a man. So I could see I could see some interest in a team that's close, you know, maybe has some of those pieces, just like Atlanta was last year, that is willing to come in and take that. I bet you Atlanta would let him go cheap at this point. So they're willing to take the if they're willing to take the money. So who knows how that plays out. But you know one thing we forgot too is when you said it was a complete game, it really was because we had that turnover on special teams as well had the miss field goal. But Rikers is a little you know, little rusty. It's ye off.
The up right there, off the upright. It wasn't like a why left. It wasn't like a right right, you know, could.
First game back. So I mean, you know, I think we're looking good, man, I think we're looking really good. And I mean a thought. Think you predict five wins?
Definitely? Nobody. You talked about it earlier.
The over under odds for the Vikings this year were what was six and a half THEA DraftKings. Now they're eleven and two. So the worst that they can be this year is eleven and six. It's crazy. I talked about Kirk Cousins's number earlier this or earlier. Zero touchdowns, eight picks the last four games. Compare that to Donald eleven touchdowns, zero interceptions in these last four games.
Win Offensive Player of the Week this week. He'll probably win Offensive Player of the Month if he has another good week, and then he probably led to your point, because they won't give it to Donald. That would be they won't give the MVP to Donald, but they will give Comeback Player the Year for him. I think he's a lock for that at this point. Mm hmm.
They change up the rules somehow, so like he might not even quiet don't know what the rule is, so you might not even qualify for it. This year because there's some NFL rule change on that criterion.
It's like, oh no, we're gonna do it this way. Now, we're gonna do that. I don't know what it was, but before the season started.
Matter because he'd rather have twenty million, twenty five million a year.
And at the minimum other than you know.
A trophy, a trophy show. So you know that's the priv think. Everyone happy for him. Now, let's see what this guy can do down the road, you know, because this is it's looking pretty. And you know, the other thing that I took away is this is the prototypical offensive game that we're looking for. When you look at Addison, Jefferson, Hawkinson, you know, Aaron Jones, even Acres really blew it open that he's got something. Man, he is he has an ability to make the first guy miss better than I've seen in a I really like the way he runs in the backfield and so yeah, he's just you know, he's gotten yeah to him in the backfield. That's really.
Which is the craziest story ever? Did do you know him? Have you heard it coming back from two Achilles tars.
In La right? He was a ram Yeah, but then he played for O'Connell or in his offense, and he at some point.
Last year he was in Minnesota biking last year and then he tours the Chilles again, signed with the Houston Texas a summer, Vikings traded back for him and then his story is incredible.
So when you look at that statistically, you know, one thirty plus for Addison, one thirty plus for Jefferson, you know four for fifty yards roughly for Hockinson. You know, it's like this is kind of the distribution that you're really looking for when you know, when you line up the Vikings offense and you kind of drool over it on paper, which we arguably have the best and most talented offense in the NFL. I mean on paper, it's hard, dark, and and so this is probably the first time all year where I feel like this distribution of what this offense could really look like kind of statistically aligned with the potential. So if they can keep that going and they find the right balance, if O'Connell can keep the right balance there, and know how you know, one game it'll shift to one hundred yards for Hockinson, fifty for Addison or this or this. But if if he can get that mix right, man, We're going to give everyone we you know, look at absolute hell on the football field, you know.
And this might be a hot take, so fire the hot take alert. We're wear and wear and wear and wear and wear and wear.
The Minslo Vikings offense goes as justin Jefferson goes Okay, I get it. He's the guy that draws the attention on the Minnesota Vikings defense. He's the most viable wide receiver on the Minnesota Vikings. But here's where the hot take comes in. The Minnesota Vikings offense is only going to be as good as the amount of time Sam Donald throws the ball in Jordan Addison's direction, Meaning because Jefferson receives and takes on all the attention from the Vikings defense, throwing at Jefferson's way all the time is not going to work.
And that's what Donald was doing earlier in the year. He was getting tunnel vision towards Jefferson.
He was throwing them the ball regardless of there's three or four guys, because he is that good and he can make that play. By what was happening midseason, he was throwing it to him regardless and Addison is wide up and down the field on to one on one coverage, and no one can hang with Addison when it's one on one. And now what we're seeing is a shift towards Donald throwing the ball deep to Addison, throwing in Addison's way.
And that's why he had three touchdowns today.
And when he gought that under route before he scored. I think his second touch down was after his long bomb, that little fiftiness, just the way he moved his hip out of the way, hop back and walked in. I was just like, I'm like, age is the gun right now, for sure, But you have a legitimate, game changing number one wide receiver on the other side in almost any other team, on any other team. And if Arnold can have the exre sane confidence with with Addison that he has with Jefferson and understand that he doesn't have to force it to either one of them because he has both, you're one hundred percent right. I'd say half of those interceptions he has on the year right now is because he zeroed in on Jefferson and forced the ball. And I like you said, I get it, Like how nice would that be? Did you be? Like? Where is.
Football?
You know who cares right and you can. You know, you're when you need seven points and you got twenty seconds on the clock and you gotta just you gotta go forty yards. Yeah you can still don't worry about it. Might catch that ball. So that's a beautiful thing. But you're right, it's and we're gonna be lucky to keep that guy. You know when his next tract. Yeah for sure, you know, didn't didn't get grayer older watching this one.
It felt good. Yeah, it felt light. It felt light. Yeah, it felt good.
But I think we've touched on numerous topics and we dove into the Minnesota Viking swing.
So you know what we need to do.
We need to talk about a future sponsor of the Minnesota tim podcast. Snap Fitness of andover Minnesota. Tell us about it, give us the details. Dan is the owner of snap Fitness. So Dan, come on to give me, give me the deeps.
It's the most beautiful Snap Fitness you've been into. It's seven thousand square feet, cool, owned and operated. Its absolutely Oh yeah, we're a triple threat. Okay, we're a triple threat. To look like Addison on an end around, right, Like we're a triple threat. Okay, we got we got youth athletic and preventative coaching. We're at the top of our game on the mindset coaching, working with future Division one athletes. We signed We had one signer Division one contract this year that we've been working with for three years. We got all of our middle schoolers in there. We're passionate about that. We got our lead trainer, Andy, who's amazing and runs our team of trainers, who focuses on your traditional gym stuff like you know, symptomatics like weight and diet and those type of traditional health measures. And then you have my transformational coaching program called seat First Coaching. This gets down into the mindset, the behaviorals, the psyche, the spirit. Why are you depressed? Why are you in those states? We got to do more than just exercise. At that point. We have to realign our vision of reality. We have to change our behaviors, and we have to change from the inside out, not just the outside it. And so we've been dedicated to this for almost a decade. We survived COVID as a gym. We're fighters. We fight for you, and really it's just all about you. We meet you where you are, You walk in that door. We know how difficult it is. And if you're not in Minnesota, if you're not close to us, we do all of this stuff online too, so feel free to reach out and ask questions and we'll support you. We'll always be honest, we'll tell you where we think you need to go and what you need. And there's nothing more enjoyable for us to come alongside and lift people up and make them better.
So and two things.
One, I don't invite anyone just to be a guest on the Minnesota Timbuccas. They're real, they're authentic, and they're good people. So Dan is real, authentic, and he's a good person. So I guess I said two things. That's three things, Dan Hines, appreciate you. Thanks for the time. My brother man
