FILM: The Minnesota Vikings are ACTUALLY pretty good at running the football!

FILM: The Minnesota Vikings are ACTUALLY pretty good at running the football!

The dog in the street. Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. We just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. All right, folks. That’s right. PE, I will say the commenters are uh they are they are finding us for being later than the 940 central time that I posted for this. Dude, that comes from being on 212 and nobody knew they’d be doing construction tonight and it’s down to one lane and I was like, we found tonight to do this. That today was the day that we had to do this. The one day we were going to go live. Wow. We’re just going to be fine. Our bus. No excuse. No excuse. Well, we are live for the this is the first time all season that we’ve been live for trenches here with our guy, 10-year NFL trenches veteran, former Minnesota Viking, co-founder of the Oine Committee, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, social media, and a man who loves himself, a pie from Kowalsskis, the Rhino himself, Alex Boon, live on the Purple Daily YouTube channel here. I was thinking about that the other day. I haven’t had a pie in a long time, dude. Somehow it is. And I’m gaining weight massively, but I’m I need a pie for sure. Is it gains season, bro? Is that weird? It’s gains season. I’m enjoying the kids. Most of them are kind of like the off season a little bit, so they’re all gaining weight. I’m gaining weight. It’s great. It’s great. Let’s go. I know. Uh well, I So, I I took liberties here because I feel like we can do the McCarthy breakdowns all season. We’ve done We’ve done McCarthy breakdowns. There’s pass protection stuff in here. But my biggest gripe over the last few days and watching that game on Sunday is they need to run the ball more in specific situations. They are one of the most uh they are the most passhappy team over the last four years and this year in short yardage, third and fourth downs. I didn’t love the I know Jefferson one-on-one on the outside. We’re going to take that every time. I’d rather just run the ball, right? Um so I took liberties here, Boon. I grabbed all of the successful run plays from that game. Vikings offense against Ravens defense just to prove a point that they’re actually pretty good at running the football. Yeah. Positive Phil wants to spread a message here for everyone saying they’re it’s not just me like bitching into a vacuum. They can run the football, man. They’re not the Eagles from last year or the Colts, but like they can run the football a little bit. I gotta be honest and I’m going back to look right now and I’m trying to find out how many times they ran the ball, but I 13. That’s it. Okay. So, I think it was it was 13 called runs and then McCarthy scrambled a handful of times. Yeah. Well, yeah. I’m not going to count the ones that he really ran for sure. But that was the one thing as I was going back to look I wanted to see and Aaron Jones nine, Jordan Mason four. Yeah, that’s that’s my biggest gripe with you because I went back and rewatched the game. That’s that first play in the second half that goes for like 15 yards. It’s duo, right? It’s just 12 personnel duo and it’s a lot of hey, we’re just going to line up and punch you right in the mouth. The minute it goes for 13, it’s it’s the wing left 93 duo. Let’s just let’s just do it right. Like, let’s just keep beating on these guys. Cuz if you notice at the end of the game, the Ravens get the ball. They just start running the ball and they’re running it and they’re running it. They weren’t even going for more than like four yards, but they just kept putting it on it, right? And all of a sudden, it’s just we’re bleeding the clock. And at some point, you have to look up and go, “Dude, we’re winning this game. We’re winning 10 to six. Like, let’s let’s drain as much clock as we can. Let’s not be the guys that are playing desperate, but let’s play smart. We have a young quarterback. We have two running backs here that we’re handing the ball off. We’re pitching the ball off. Like, the play designs were super fun, but all of a sudden, you turn the ball over, right? Like the interception. JJ falls down and it’s like that was like third and one and you’re like what are we doing right? Like, and I know people can go, “Oh, well, you know, it’s who he is.” But it’s like, but you’re winning the game and on third and one, you throw a 40 yard bomb. And I know the receiver fell and it wasn’t like PI or anything, but it’s like, but that’s just like the luck of what could happen. And here we could have just handed it off for a five yard gain, a two- yard gain, right? And you just move the sticks a little bit more. And I think at times, and I said this earlier on the show, like I think KO kind of gets caught up in the I’m going to out scheme you, right? and I’m going to reinvent the wheel and watch what we do. You you brought it up to us about the He passes it what 14 times and ran it six and of the six times that they ran it they they converted five times, right? So it’s like it’s Yeah. That’s on the third uh and fourth and shorts. Yes. Yeah. And it’s like with the 14 you’re like what are you doing? But the only conclusion that you can have and even going back to look at that game like the interception it’s like they’re just going we’re going to outsmart them. Watch. They think we’re going to run it. It’s like no they all think that you’re going to pass it now. Like I think everyone knows you’re going to pass it and they’re almost daring you to run it at the same point. Yeah. And uh and and sometimes I feel like, you know, I’ve been piling on this for like the last couple weeks and I mean I I I sometimes feel like I hate criticizing play callers, especially I respect and think Kevin Oonnell is one of the 10 to 12 best coaches in the league, at least coming into the season. And who am I to sit here and like poke at his play calling tendencies? It’s it’s it’s such an easy like fan on the couch thing to do is like he’s a bad play call like well I’m I’m bringing evidence and data to the table here and I’ll I’ll give you one more four years he’s been here for four years in those third and fourth down three or less. So short yardage third and fourth down Mhm. the Vikings pass the ball almost 70% of the time in those situations which is far and away the most of any of the 32 teams for sure. Yet yet they have one of the worst conversion rates. Best rates. I know. So it’s like, all right, wait. Hey, you know what that is? Wall head. Yeah. No. No. Guys, don’t worry. Eventually this wall will fall, right? Like you’re going to knock yourself out before anything happens. Aka, you’re going to get yourself fired. You asked us the other day, what would be a reasonable ratio to run past? I said 9010, right? You should be on third and short. I think like Marshon Lynch is my running back. I’m going to dare you to stop this guy, right? Like, yeah. And I used to love when the coaches would be like, “Everybody knows what we’re doing.” And you’d be like, “Everybody does know what we’re doing.” Like, this is it, man. This is where you earn your credit as an O lineman. And I said this on the show, and I think it kind of got overlooked, and Jay kind of got mad at me, but at some point it’s an indictment on your O line. And you can say it’s not, and you can be like, “It’s in his blood. It’s in his DNA.” Dude, I know that at some point if I had the scariest O line and I was guaranteed a first down like like the Eagles do with the tush push, right? They just do it cuz they know it’s going to win and they’re like, “Hey, the chains are going to move and here comes three more plays.” Like I feel like KOC gets so into like here comes the big play. They don’t know it’s coming. We’re going to surprise them and it’s like oh ball gets bad at the line of scrimmage and you’re like that was stupid. Why would we do that? Right? Like could have ran for a first down right there. like you that and I think at times that’s what drives me the most nuts is when he throws it gets batted down you’re like could have just could have just walked across could have fell over and got that first down for us but you didn’t and you do that was the third I looked at the third down cuz eventually I’m like man they’re coming off the field and I said this before the show but dude be flow giving him massive flowers early in the game throwing everything at this team right dropping safeties in the box blitzing almost every single play coming from all different angles blitzing this guy this way and all of a sudden this guy walks up and this guy comes the other way, right? Coming through the middle, coming to the outsides like just putting constant pressure hitting Lamar, getting to Lamar. That’s when I was like early in the game, I was like, “What? We got something going on here. We’re back to what was that? Miami days. I’m having fun again.” The problem and then and then they wore down a little bit cuz like Well, it wasn’t even that. I’m not even going to say it was it was the fact that they got put right back on the field again right away, right? They get the ball on their side of the field and they’re like, “Guys, we got our backs against the wall.” They they have a great stand. I think they held him to a field goal. Next drive ends up being another turnover on their side of the field. It’s like, here goes the defense again going, “Hey, man. We’re not We’re kind of pushed up against the wall here.” And that’s where you look at it and go, “It’s not really the defense’s fault.” That’s really the offenses and special teams. I can’t really get mad at a defense that’s been out there for two straight quarters on their side of the field. Like, at some point, you go, “Hey, man. You held him to a field goal. Appreciate you. We owe you.” and then you come back out and turn it over later and then the turnover on downs and it’s like there’s so many things and we haven’t even gotten to the eight false starts. Like there’s just I know dude and it’s like you know what it is? It’s sloppy. It’s sloppy football. I’m not going to get mad at Dallas Turner for destroying the quarterback and getting called for roughing the passer. Which, by the way, dude, I don’t even know what we can do to these quarterbacks anymore. I’m not even going to say it. I don’t even I’m an O lineman and you don’t even have me looking at this like yeah good for I was like that’s terrible. You’re that poor guy is going to lose 30 grand now. He didn’t even do anything but his job like it’s you look at that and you’re like gee penalties and it’s like well that’s a stupid penalty right and I think the defense had a PI later but other than that it was all like pre- snap on the offense and that is sloppy ball. What is the most I know you’re not like in the room or you you you’re not like listening to the cadence cuz you’re not in the huddle here, but like what is the most likely reason for eight false start penalties at home? I mean, one of them was called on JJ, one of them got called on Justin, a bunch on the O line. Like at some point I’m looking and I hear everyone going, “Well, they’re saying things on defense.” And it’s like, “Are we really going to resort to the Pop Warner things?” Like, I would have read that the next day and been like, “Gross. you’re all officially fine for being gross and stupid, right? Like number one, we would never tell somebody that somebody beat us like that in a mental chess game. Like, oh, all we have to do is say hut hut and they’ll jump off sides. It’s like we’re not those guys, okay? What it is is we were sloppy. The entire game was sloppy. You’re talking about two interceptions. You’re talking about a fumble on the kickoff return, eight pre- snap penalties. Like, it’s just not how you win a game. And if you’re talking about giving the ball to Lamar Jackson, one of the best run or quarterbacks in the NFL who’s just coming back from injury, I think the game started and they were kind of like catching their footing like what are we doing? He took a sack early on. He took a hit and I was like, “Oh man, this is going to be so fun.” But like you said, they just wore down on the defense, right? And all of a sudden these rush lanes that looked amazing the entire game, all of a sudden the middle breaks open and if Lamar sees it open, he’s like, “This is me.” Right? Like I’m gone. And instantly, what’s the defense do now? Now we got to watch this guy, right? Like the linebackers are dropping back into coverage and they’re watching him and they’re trying to catch their lanes. It’s just so much going on. And it all starts from sloppy ball turnovers. Just not good. Not good. Yeah. And that’s why positive Phil thought. Let’s look at something that that I’m asking we’re asking for them to do more of reasonably, but they’re pretty good at it. They’re they’re like I think they’re four and a half yards a carry this year. killing it, dude. I was wonder what are you doing? You’re winning. Just do this. And you know what it is? It’s not sexy enough for KC. And that’s what it is. He’s like, listen, it’s got to be 40 yards in the air and spin like a spiral or I don’t believe in it. And it’s like, dude, or it didn’t happen. Yeah. Right. Three yards in a cloud of dust. Somebody give me Woody back. Where’s he at? So, we’re going to we’re going to break this down here for the for the live audience. You’re going to just get to watch this film session uh in action here. If you’re if you’re listening on demand on Apple or Spotify, you could queue up YouTube here around the 12minute mark. Oh yeah, we got our hats. Hold on. We got our hats. Let me take this. I was as soon as I got this today, I go, “Man, they were like three for 14 on third down, too.” Big third down here. Let’s go. Big third down here. My My wife My wife’s like, “What is that?” She’s like, “What did you get?” He goes, “It’s funny. What does that even mean?” Cuz what’s the brand? It’s uh and they’re, by the way, not an advertiser, but uh if dad, it’s dad brand. My So my wife said, “What’s what package did you get from dad brand?” And I said, “Oh, that’s the big third down hats.” And now because she said the brand out loud, she’s been getting served ads for the dad brand on her phone. That’s what you get. Spam your phone. So, do us a couple favors before we uh before we jump into this film breakdown. Click that subscribe button and the like button on the Purple Daily YouTube channel and this video. And also, while you’re at it, click the subscribe button on the O line committee YouTube channel where you can find Alex Boon, Jeremiah Sals, and myself multiple times a week podcasting, breaking down film. And then a week from this Thursday, Thursday, November 20th, it’s our next Purple Daily Unplugged event live at Buffalo Wild Wings in Roseville. Uh, we’re going to be hanging out, mingling 6:00 to 6:30 and then a a Purple Daily Unplugged podcast from 6:30 until around maybe 7:15 leading up to Thursday Night Football. We’ll hang out uh probably eat a wing or two, drink a Pepsi or two, and uh talk some ball with you guys. So, it’s open to the public. Come on in, hang out with us a week from Thursday, November 20th is the date at Roseville Buffalo Wild Wings. Let’s go. Let’s talk dirty to me, Phil. All right, let’s pull this up full screen and let’s watch let’s watch the Vikings run the ball pretty successfully. I mean, not every one of these is uh you know, it wasn’t like there were no 70 yarders broken here, but they’re moving the ball forward fairly effectively running the football. There was a couple losses in here. I cut those out cuz I’m positive, Phil. I think there was only two losses, two really losses of the run game. But dude, honestly, a two yard gain, a three- yard gain, it’s a win for us. Why? We’re moving the ball down the field. The clock is running. Here we go. We’re in a dot set. Some sort of two by two. Go figure. My guy loves his two by twos. We We got uh And then there’s two. By the way, dude, playing like a one this weekend. Love to see that. Don’t you? He’ll block too by the way. He’ll block a little bit. So will Thelen, be careful cuz he’ll cost you. I’m kidding. Don’t get mad, Thelen. I saw you yelling. The vein on his forehead was popping out and bulging. It was making me die laughing. I think there might have been a little little more behind that frustration for him. Listen, we’re Look at these doubles right here. Look at these little doubles. Love this. This is simple insert, right? We’re running off the ball. We have our little mup up here. And at the same time, we have our aback side. This is almost like an inside zone. And we’re just having Naylor come in here and block this the safety, the fourth element, who was Kyle Hamilton pretty much all day. Became their fourth element. I mean, he they want him to be their rover, but this is a great job. Go back real quick. And for those that don’t know, the Ravens have always been historically known to have pause these massive dudes in the interior, right? Like remember Goose? They just did a thing on Goose the other day. Man, I I remember watching Well, we had the Yeah, we had like the the one remaining remnant from that broadcast team cuz Moose was in the booth for this game. Yeah. Yeah. Remember when Moose and Goose and Kenny Kenny album on Fox? Moose Goose and Kenny here at Soldier Field. True story. Pause this for a second. When we were playing um we were playing the Vikings in uh 2010. We were walking down the street. We were walking into Manny’s and was with Randy and Frank, whole bunch of dudes. We ended up running into Goose because he was doing the sideline reporting. I have never met a human that big in my entire life. I was like, “Oh my god.” I was like, “You were a three technique.” He’s like, “No, boss. That was a nose guard.” I was like, “Oh my god, you are so big. So such a big such a shame.” But this is what they’ve been forever, right? Like these big dudes in the middle. They love to be able to get them to just push this pocket. They’ve always had great outside guys. They’re they’re having trouble as of lately. They’re getting back to themselves because they can let Kyle Hamilton do this. But what Naylor does a great job of sticking his nose in here. And I want you to know there are not a lot of receivers that would do that, right? It’s a huge job to get him to come in here. But at times when Naylor comes in here, it kind of gives a play away too, right? Like we were wondering why he’s so close to the line. Safety’s coming down. They’re like, “Okay, this is probably going to be some point like maybe a little bit of a run, right? This is a great job of the double teams, the point of attack. Look at Darasaw. He moves that three technique down.” Yep. Right there. and does a great job of getting square to come off. If he turns and puts his butt in the hole instantly, it forces the running back to make a decision, but instead when he just climbs on that linebacker, the running back has so many options. Great job up front. Yeah. Also moving the line of scrimmage, right? These dudes are I’m telling you, man, they get a bad rap and it kind of drives me nuts. So again, this is not this is like a two three yard gain here, but think about how many times the Vikings either through penalties or sacks or whatever it is are are now moving backwards from the sticks. If you can fall forward for three yards, I’ll take it once in a while. I think Kevin Ocon looks at that as a loss, like a lost opportunity. Oh, for sure he does. I told you if it’s not 40 yards and in the air and sizzle, he doesn’t like it. He’s like like, do you think this is a successful play right here? I think this is a su successful play because it’s the offense beating on the defense. You have to take the fight to them eventually. You can’t just let these guys tee off on you and twist you and pass rush you. I got to be able to come off with my guard and watch this. Just bury my face in your face and see what you want to do. Right? It’s us beating on Kyle Hamilton a little bit. It’s us beating on Rocoan Smith a little bit. Right? It’s us getting them so that when we need them in play action, they’re a little bit slower. Go back a little bit here. I think it’s the three technique that ends up making this play right here. And it’s because this movement across the center’s face. See right there? We have a All right. So, this is technically counter because we’re pulling for the end man and we’re pulling to the strength. If we were pulling to the right, it would be called stutter. But because we’re pulling to the tight ends, it’s called counter, right? Everything has a meaning. Every word in football means something. And the minute you say it, instantly it hits the O line’s brain as got it. Pulling strong side. We’re technically deucing this. Pause. I don’t know why he comes off. I think initially it was because he saw color, but he should stay on this. Was he? Who are you talking about? Uh Donovan, keep going. Got it. Oh, Diamond Jackson. Okay. Yeah. Mhm. I think initially the nose kind of rocks a little bit front side and he’s like, “Oh, I should come off here.” Keep going. Yeah. right there. And if anything, go back just a tiny bit. He throws Darasaw off, which is that’s a tough block for the tackle, right? Like you’re expecting your guard to be there for a while with you and you’re kind of just one-on-one block. But right here, you would love Paul’s Ah, go back one frame. You’d love to see Aaron go outside with this cuz like Vanoi like right like right here, Vanoi kind of gone up the field. Cut left right now. Right. Cut left. He cuts left right here. Just see what happens. But he’s a great he’s a great running back and all great running backs are always told power has to stay in the A gap. Frank Gorey used to say that constantly. Power stays in the A or it’s not power foot 16,000 yards 16 years. You couldn’t make a better man. Here we go. They hit they hit on a couple big passes. The big pass down uh to Naylor and sets him up. Dude, this is the first drive. They’re like they’re just going down and having they’re doing their way, having their fun with them. This is a this is a walk in, dude. I don’t even know if he gets touched. Whoop. Super easy, man. They they’ve been really good on the scripted the last two weeks. I’ll give them that. Really good and balanced. I’ll be honest. If you’re not good with your scripted plays, you should be fired instantly. Like, it’s your chance to go out and get what you want. Hey, real quick. So, the Ravens are doing a lot of this these these like sort of late moving slides up front. So, watch the defensive line here. So, about to snap it, but wait. Whoop. Let’s all four guys shift toward the middle. what are they doing and how does that A lot of that number one is to draw us off sides right like you’ll notice it’s kind of an abrupt shift but they can get away with it cuz they’re allowed to move before the ball snaps but two a lot of it is to kind of mess with your calls so before they move we’ll have a call right like say we’re like hey deuce backside’s like a whatever it is all of a sudden they shift you have to recall everything like you have to make sure everybody knows what you’re doing right because all of a sudden go back just a couple frames you’ll notice everybody starts on the outside shoulders of the tackles and the guards and they move to the inside. See these guys right here? Okay, so watch they go out. So right now, pause. We could have something like a deuce on and this tight end would be by himself. And instantly they shift. Boom. Boom. Boom. Now we’re all Dallas. Dallas. Dallas. Dallas. Now you’re all by yourself. Pause. Because the backside centers by himself technically right now. he can a this but the tackle just took the tight end off of being alone and now it’s like that’s why I’m saying this is all just happened in a quick snap and everyone’s got to communicate this and now we know we’re in the cadence like we can’t really slow down they do a great job and Darell look see look it’s like they got us a little bit you can tell they kind of got him cuz Dar is expecting someone to come help him they could have like where is my friend right it doesn’t matter I mean come on so all right little touchdown Oh, okay. We started out hot. Let’s start out hot, bud. Look at that move in the line of scrimmage there. Three yard gain. We’re going forward. Dude, I’m telling you, there’s more where this game came from, by the way. Some chunks coming. This play right here, if I’m not positive, this will be duo. This is the most playaction play in the world. Yeah, it’s duo. Look at that. We got double teams all across the board, right? We got our little deuce right there. Well, technically that’s a doom cuz a deuce would tell me I’m going across the ball, but a doom tells me I’m going to the mic. The M in the doom says Mike. Backside we have an A. This is classic A. B, you’re by yourself on the outside. Here, pause. This is where they kind of get it a little bit. It’s, see how these three guys have to go one for one for one out here. This is where it’s like these three guys putting pressure, especially Kyle Hamilton, the way he’s going to come over the top here, puts pressure on these three guys to win their blocks cuz technically these double teams shouldn’t lose, right? Look at this. Yeah. All I see is purple, purple, purple, purple. But the minute these guys come in here, it forces Aaron backside cuz those one-on-one blocks are a pain in the Yeah, but this is again, it’s it’s a win. Okay. You go forward a few yards and like you said, you’re you’re side benefits to this. You’re beating on them a little bit more, making their life a little harder, and you’re setting up for play action later in the game. You’re getting them to maybe take an extra step forward, right? So, it’s setting some stuff up if you want to use it. All right, let’s keep rolling. Little shotgun. Look at there. Look at this front, by the way. Look at all these Ravens up here. Yeah, you be low. You think you can do it better than us? Pause. I Are they Are they backing out or are they coming? Oh, this is the Okay. Yeah, this is the uh double pass. Technically, this was a Sorry, let me go back here. Technically, this was a run play, so I did throw it in here. But yeah, this is the crazy trick play. How do you feel about this? All right. I It’s be honest. I don’t I I don’t I don’t hate it. Here’s what I hate. I guess there there’s there’s two things I hate about it. If you’re gonna do this, this is a This is a third down and 11. I think it was 12. 12. Third down and 12. Yeah, cuz here’s the here’s the 10 marker and you’re back here. So, it’s a third and 12. If you’re gonna do this and you’re gonna come up a couple yards short, which they do, you got to go for it. I think I think you go for it on fourth down. Also, why are you putting JJ McCarthy out there to take That’s it right there. That’s my biggest point. Like, this kid just came back from injury. Why are we throwing him the ball across the field for him to catch and possibly get lit up by somebody? Like, there’s things in here that just make me go, he loved the Razledazzle so much. She has to see it, right? It’s not so much that he loves to throw the ball. It’s the fact that he loves these massive chunk plays that people are like, “Man, is that creative or what?” Cuz dude, pause. Go back real quick. Technically, if you were to like go I think I know what you’re going to say. If you just let if you just let Jefferson go here, pause it, dude. We’re two for two. Like, dude, just go. Right. We’re making things really difficult in order to be very creative and it’s not needed. Sometimes simplicity, especially on the field when you have young players, makes things really simple, right? Like people are like, “Oh, what do we have to do? Beat their head duo two, three yards.” Yeah. Cuz eventually one of those two or three yards is going to spring open. You just have to trust it enough, right? You can’t just run it once or twice and then go, “Well, we tried.” Like, you have to try it five, six, seven, eight times. Like you got to really go out there and have a commitment to run the ball because that’s how you’re going to set up the play action. Like eventually this stuff just doesn’t be believable anymore. And defenses are like we’re not buying this. Like we’re almost daring you to run the ball at this point. Yeah. It’s I don’t know, man. By the way, one of the uh let’s see, Max Muscle wants to know, did Boon howl at the Northern Lights last night? Did you get to see the Northern Lights? I did not get to see him, dude. I was up. I think tonight there might have been a little smattering, too. I’ve been at hockey every night. Dude, I literally just got home from hockey. I’d just be grinding run run film all night. He’s so jealous, dude. This grinding film. It’s okay. Parents watch me watch this game at the game. Okay, now we’re gashing a little more. Okay, now we’re having fun. Starting to break open a little bit, right? You’re starting to put them on their heels a little bit. Like, hey guys, we got to be serious about this. There’s another late shift right there. You can tell it’s starting to get to him cuz what just happened? We dropped a safety into the box. Like, we dropped another guy in. Not only does Kyle in the box, but now we’re like, you know what? See, this is, and I’m not saying I know everything or that I know what I’m doing, but I know that in a good offense, pause. This team has showed you clearly that this is cover one. Very rarely are they giving it to you this early that it’s cover one. We should be checking to a play action right now. Why? Because there’s less guys back there. It’s literally a numbers game. Gro used to get up and go, “Hit me with it. Love that captor.” He’d be like, “Listen, guys, it’s a numbers game. If there’s one back there, we want to throw it. If there’s two back there, we want to run it, right? You want to run or throw where they are not. It’s that simple.” See, we’re running into a loaded box and we’re still gaining yards, right? Like they’re getting us done with it. I’m cool with it. Hey, what is it doing? It’s setting up for play action. This is how you set up for play action, right? Look where everybody’s going. Look where everybody’s going. setting up for a big play action in like week 13 at this rate. It’s going to be great when week 13 doesn’t help us. What would be great is right here. Look at that point. I know. I know. That’s how crazy it is. Look at Jordan Addison. Pause real quick. Go back. Watch Jordan Addison come running through this. I think it’s the B gap he comes right through cuz it’s not the Oh, okay. It’s the C gap. It is the left side here. Yeah. Yeah. Watch this. He’s going to come running through here. Now, watch. All these linebackers are going to step up and watch this safety just completely stepping up. Now, what if Jordan were just to like break an out route right here? Just break an out. Boom. He kicks out here. Dude, like dude, sometimes these play action and that’s another thing is like coaches get in the mindset that like play actions got to be way down the field. It’s like it doesn’t really have to be down the field, right? As long as the guy gets past his defender that’s sucked completely up because he’s totally afraid of this run, we have won this matchup. Here we go. This is the way for dude. This is a run formation if I ever saw one. I don’t know where the center starts. So this I believe this is the now we’re start of the third quarter here, right? This is the start of the third quarter. This is the start of the sequence in question here. Let me go back here. It’s 10 to 9. We’re coming out of the locker room. What are we doing here? Okay, let’s run the ball. What is this? 12 personnel. What play is this? We just ran it, right? Everybody was mad at me. Yeah, everybody’s mad at me. It’s only two, three yards. Yeah. Watch what happens. Watch what happens. real quick before I uh click play on this. I know you love statistics and let’s dig deep into the statistics. So, I found uh there’s a great there’s a great there’s a I guess you would call it u a football research company uh that works with NFL teams and has like a front-facing kind of stat database for nerds like me called sports and they literally list out every single team and and every personnel grouping that they have run a play in the percentage of times they’re in each personnel grouping and it and it has essentially 300 rows of Chiefs in 11, Chiefs in 12, Chiefs in 13, Rams in 13. Right. So, the Vikings have been largely an 11 personnel offense. It’s a it’s an 11 personnel league, which is three wide receiver sets. Fair. But according to their measurements, they’ve got uh they’ve got something called expected points added, which is basically like is your how good is your offense above or below average? When the Vikings run 11 personnel, which is like 75 or 80% of the time, it is the second worst measured offense in the NFL this season according to Sumer Sports of all of the teams and all of their personnel groupings. So, when I see when I see the two tight ends here, let’s let’s Yes, let’s change the personnel grouping, try something different, and see if it works. And here we go. Oh, it’s great. Look, same thing, right? We got our doom. I’ll let you watch this now. Go back real quick. Now watch. I want you to watch how far Rocoan Smith steps up into this, right? He almost blocks himself on this play. He makes this so easy for Will. Watch cuz he’s just going to step up in here. But it’s the same thing has happened last time. See, look at this. The minute you dangle that ball, they’re all running downhill now, right? They’re all like, “Oh, this is it. This is it, dude. We have officially started to set this game up for play action. We don’t have to do any more drop backs. We’re gonna give it to him because watch that safety made a real business decision, didn’t he? He should go back real quick. Y’all want to see a dead body? I guarantee you this guy got highlighted. Watch him. I don’t even think he gets blocked. Uh number 12 there. Not gonna what’s his name? Not going to work here anymore. First play of the second half, I’m running this the next play, I’m running it to the other side just to be like I just want to see how serious they want to be. So, this is where I want to tap into your offensive line psychology here. So, you come out of the half, you dial up a little duo, you hit it for 17 yards or 16 yards, you’re feeling good. All right, here’s the next play out of the half. Let’s run it again. Let’s see what happens. Let’s lean on him a little bit here. Little pitch out to the left. Oh. Oh, dude. Okay. Jordan gets tripped. He got he got the dude just the way he hit the ground I was like yo give him a lot of props because not a lot of run not a lot of receivers are coming in here right he comes across Jordan why he’ll come back on your screen here he gets smoked oh yeah he gets smoked it’s not the prettiest sixyard gains hey I got to say respect dude for doing it right go back real quick I can’t tell if this is this is See what happens is 45 gets in this crease with Daristo and he kind of leaves him cuz I think he thinks the tight end is going to block him. So this is this is Bob. Oh, so they’re they’re they’re leaving him unblocked because technically because Darasaw is not thinking he’s got him right. Darasaw has got his eyes on Roan the entire time and it doesn’t really matter because it is an outside zone. This is 90. This would be 97 Bob for us, right? We’re at the wing set. We’re running the ball outside. It’s just another reason. See these two big fatties in the middle? We’re trying to keep the ball away from him, right? And the best thing to do is to get him running sideline to sideline. And that’s how you start to tire him down. And then all of a sudden, you start beating on them. Yeah. You know what? Darasaw actually looks like he’s going through on this. So, I’m almost positive this was called like this cuz you can tell they knew that there was going to be a that with that wing set, there was going to be a big gap in there. And so it’s it’s not the cleanest thing here, but you even even sort of, you know, unclean, unkempt. It’s a six-yd chunk. So now you’ve run the ball twice. You’re out to the 46 yd line. And uh I’m not going to I’m not going to show you the interception here, but that’s what the next play was. They actually they I’m sorry. They um they had either like an incomplete pass in there or something that set them up for a third and one. And then that’s when they But after running the ball twice basically to midfield and it’s third and one. I just I don’t get passing in that situation with with if you if you got a if you got a higherend more reliable veteran quarterback, love it. Take your shot. Go for it on fourth down if you don’t make it, you know. But not too bad. But even I know, dude. I I don’t It’s just doesn’t it hit your brain so weird that it’s like we just came out in the second half with a statement play followed by another statement play and I can’t remember what the incompletion was, but then we take a chunk play down the field when we could have just handed it off. Like I I the simple things sometimes irritate me the most because that’s when the coaches try to reinvent that wheel and you’re like, “Dude, we could just we could just hand it off to Aaron Jones again. We could do that.” So, let’s uh All right, dust ourselves off here. Got the ball back again. I think now it might be a two-score game now. But doesn’t mean you can’t run the football. You know, you don’t have to just pass the ball when you’re losing as evidenced by another chunk. They still had a lot of time. I think there was like 10 minutes. So, it’s like they don’t there’s no panic, right? Dude, it’s all good. They’ve been I can’t believe they didn’t do this more. I’m not even kidding you. I cannot believe we did not do this more. Got hamone out here, dude. The hamster. Come on now. Waiting for my fullback belly. Go back real quick. Here we go. When we pull a guard to the strong side to the end man. It’s called. Look at this. There he is. Yeah. Look at Look at Donovan Jackson. Okay. Mackey. What’s this called? Uh is this uh is this is this trap? Is this counter? What is this? Counter. Remember tight end side. We’re pulling for the endman on the line. This is counter. Here we go. Tight end does a great job taking Vanoi. Donovan comes around. Does just enough. Ham does just enough to get these two guys. That’s a great job, dude. Look at that. And then, by the way, that motion that motion has three or four players all look at 14. So Kyle Hamilton to to Roqucoan 40 pull on the string, baby. They’re all pulling on the string, right? Going to motion Jordan Addison over here. All of them move and leverage themselves. This is a great What? What coverage? Hold on. It’s cover. What would you think this is? Man or zone? Uh well, I would think it’s zone because four guys shifted, not just one guy following. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. What two? And they they want to get him into the right position, right? They’re trying to line it up so the angles are good. Cuz right now you’re looking at this like, man, there’s some tough angles, right? Like you got to get really vertical at these. But the minute that you run this motion across Jordan Addison, instantly the angles for everything get way better. Now you can put more of an angle on stuff. And the more you can angle down and block, it becomes a lot easier. See how Brian now gets to go way backside instead of having to get vertical. Right now it makes everything so much easier. Oh, see, they can run it, dude. They can really ran the ball with him like terrible five times, dude. Yeah. I can’t believe we traded for him, too. What are we trading for? I know. We could have given the ball to Ham. Another pitch here. This one chunk. I know, dude. After this one, I was like, “Okay, what?” Seriously, let’s just run the ball the rest of the game. To be honest with you, with the inaccuracies in the fourth, I would not have been upset with watching this. So, we got uh what do you call this when it’s when it’s a running back and a fullback and two wide receivers? Is that 21 personnel? That’s uh 21 two running tight ends right there. And if and if instead of CJ Ham, it was Jordan Mason, you had two running backs, it’ be instead of a fullback, 21 pony. Is that the distinction? Oh, yeah. And the coach, he’s riding the old lasso. My favorite. Look at Naylor in there again. I love this. I love this. I love this flip. Real quick, I just because I mentioned him. So, here’s Na Naylor number one on the outside. Watch him crack down on this. This is Nice job. Is there Is there a receiver out there or No, I don’t think so. All right. This is taxi. So, it’s taxi because when the tackle has the widest, it’s your receivers. There’s your tight end and your other two skill position guys right there. All right. Yeah. So then this is taxi cuz the tight tack was pulling for the widest. If this were truck, he’d be pulling for the alley player. But instead, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love what Naylor does here. Get in here, though, cuz see how this guy kind of like gets on be a little bit, dude. Don’t be afraid to get in here. But Brian does such a great job of getting around this here. Let’s watch Brian O’Neal on this. I don’t think he’s 100% coming off that knee from like a month ago. No, I don’t think he is either, but he’s doing a great job here. Little 98. He gets out there. Look at that load. Look at him hunting for this guy 44. Just running for his life, dude. Yeah, Brian just chased just chased a guy down. Didn’t have to touch anyone. It’s a nice run, man. I got one more for you. It’s probably the whole day of runs. It is. There’s like two two other ones that were losses pretty much. Dude, did you see? I know. I know. I know. I’m not mad. You’re mad. I’m not mad. You’re mad, Mackie. This is a fun one. This is uh Bet you can’t tell me what play this is. Is this inside zone? No. Come on. What do we just run to Is it duo? Is it duo again or counter? No, it’s it’s duo. Dude, this is what happens when you stick to the play. When you stick This could have been in the second quarter, though. We could have been doing this in the second quarter. So, we’re doubling here. Are we are we doubling 91 here too? To uh Kyle. So we call that an a backside. This is a doom to the mic. We’re quading this front side and then this is here up to zero. Zero. Who’s the mic? Boom. And then are we also doubling? Yeah. Remember uh duo is become the power form of zone. And we love zone because there’s always three combo blocks, right? Right. And the more combination blocks you can have in a play, the more success you’re going to have. So this is be replaced the new power. So instead of pulling the guard, we’re going to And here they don’t normally do a double team. Well, technically, see, now there’s still three double team. I see we doubled over here again. Okay, so you’re gaining more double teams, which means you’re gaining more advantages. And dude, this is I know this is late in the game, but this could have been earlier had we just stuck with the game plan. Just run a little bit more, right? Stick to simplicity. Look at that, dude. All purple jerseys, too. just driving dudes off the ball. It’s insane, bro. Highly engaged Justin Jefferson in this game. Yeah, nice job there. That was unnecessary shot. That was That was such a bad shot. One of his one of his weirdest games, though. I mean, one of his weirdest games. I mean, like, dude, I I don’t even know what to say about the fourth quarter. The ball was so wildly inaccurate at times. It was like, what is going on? He’s targeted 12 times. Yeah. for what? Five catches. How about the two-point conversion where he got completely decapitated? Yeah. Everybody was like, “That’s normal. That’s normal.” I was like, “Wow, we’re really not going to throw a flag on this.” Nothing. Nothing. Defenseless receiver, nothing. All right, cool. I mean, yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see on Sunday. Um, maybe. And JJ McCarthy was limited in Wednesday practice with cuz he banged his hand on a helmet and so he’s got a bad hand. Don’t don’t do that with me. A bad throwing hand to be specific. So that’s not good. Well, you’re going have to run the ball a lot more now this week. And they’re playing who they playing this week? The Bears. Yeah. The Bears. Yeah. I mean, defensively, if Blo can do what he did to Lamar, right, and say the Vikings can run the ball, dude, it this could be a game that they could win. Cuz I’m telling you, the Ravens had no idea what to do at one point. There was there was eight up, there’s four up, there’s six up. Like the changing in the variety and all of a sudden Harry’s coming and you’re like, man, everybody is live now, right? And that’s the one thing that can slow down these teams that now I I worry because a team like Chicago can run the ball at times and you’re like that could really just blow everything out of the water. But I’ll be honest with you, we want to do the same thing. We’re looking to do the same exact thing, right? Like the Bears are coming in here like, “Hey, how do you stop this defense?” You run the ball against them. How do you not get them ate up? You run the ball against them. And it’s like, “Okay, listen. We’re kind of looking for the same thing. So, let’s run the ball.” And if his hand really is hurt, run the ball, right? Yeah. Amen, dude. Alex Boon, the Rhino, the O line committee, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, the people love themselves a little late night boonie here. First time live this season on Trench’s episode. I know. Hopefully next week it’ll be a lot better. I I honestly felt good. Think about it. And I hate to be this guy, but like three turnovers, eight eight pre- snap penalties. Like, and you only lose by eight points. Yeah, I know. I know, dude. It’s frustrating. That’s the thing. The criticism on my end is like there’s a lot of people that are going down these different I think incorrect paths of like JJ McCarthy is garbage. Pump the brakes, wait 20 seconds, let’s see what happens. Or the Vikings are terrible. They’re not terrible. They’re not terrible at all. They’re they’re shooting themselves in the foot, right? Correct. All of a sudden, by the way, when they were like feeling over here just goes and like levels somebody in a screen and then looks back like I was I thought the ball was coming to me, dude. In no way. That was almost like the Guju Smith Font’s birth hit where I was like that was almost a little bit egregious. And then the the fit that he threw on the sidelines that summed up the day in my opinion. Like it was just a mess and it didn’t make sense and it was like listen. We’re trying too hard again. Slow it down. Keep it simple. Hopefully his hand is fine, but we’ll see. Yeah. Awesome stuff, dude. Appreciate your insight. And u we’ll be we’ll be making our picks on the O line committee for the weekend’s games. Our guy Thor Nestrom will join us on Purple Daily for a little Thor’s Day action. And we’ll see Boon here back on Purple Daily for some more film breakdown next week, man. All right. Yeah, hopefully a better week next week. Let’s go. LFG. All right. For the Rhino, I’m Phil and uh we’ll see you guys next time on Purple Daily, where we just want the Vikings to run the ball a little bit more and win a Super Bowl before we die.

Former Minnesota Viking Alex Boone joins Phil Mackey to break down film and prove that the Vikings ARE actually good at running the football! The boys dive into a run game cut-up from Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens that proves there are multiple gash runs to be had with Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason if the Vikings just commit to running the ball more often.

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