Master Class in defensive football scheming this year...

Would love to see him him here another season or 2 - after that I think he'll get settled with the NFL and be a HC candidate for real

I put it at 50% - should be more imo. 

But there is enough smoke out there about him leaving that there may be some legitimacy to it.

to someone Ive been dogging all season...

Aaron Jones Sr yesterday could have tapped out and instead took a beating for the team. 

That was a hella example to set.

What a weird year in the NFL. Seriously. 

• Want to bag on a team? I give you the Detroit Lions. Their chances of making the playoffs are on serious life support (6.6% chance), so what's changed? I mentioned months ago that it was possible they just don't have the fight or grind in them after blowing and choking away 2 seasons where they were arguably the best team in the NFL. Is their window closed? 
  
• Along that vein, what happened to the Tampa Bay Bucs? Or even the Washington Commanders? I get it, Jayden Daniels has missed a decent part of the year but they look like complete ass. Add the Baltimore Ravens. And the Kansas City Chiefs. Maybe a handful of decent teams, but a buttload of mid to horrible teams. 
  
• So those fans that live in Minnesota and have PTSD about the Packers every year, how do you feel about Jordan Love now? How many more games do you need to see from him to feel that he's probably much closer to above average than great? 
  
• JFC, Drake Maye. You're smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy. Nothing but major props to that kid. 
  
• Ashton Jeanty: overrated? Probably too early to say, but 3.7 yards a carry isn't 'generational' to me, despite the team you are on. 
  
• The Tush Push keeps getting less effective every year. Refs aren't letting their guards fire off the ball a millisecond early or line up illegally anymore which diminishes the effectiveness greatly.
  
• Dallas is the most underperforming organization in NFL history for all the media hype they get EVERY...SINGLE....YEAR. 
  
• The strangest thing this season is all the low-yardage games by QBs this year, its amazing. Josh Allen threw for 130 yards yesterday. Mayfield 145 yards. Take a stroll through various boxscores of games throughout the season and they are everywhere, for every team, almost consistently weekly.
  

That's pretty amazing in this day and age.

Not that it matters much at this point, but I thought it was due to the Burns strip/sack, but evidently it wasn't...


McCarthy suffered an injury to his right hand late in the second quarter. He left the game after a monster hit by Brian Burns, who was unblocked off the right side of the offense. McCarthy fumbled the ball, and it was scooped and scored by Tyler Nubin, a 27-yarder that made it 13-10 Vikings just before halftime.

Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell said after the game he did not yet know the extent of McCarthy's injury but it apparently happened before the first-year starter scrambled for a 12-yard rushing touchdown with 2:01 remaining in the second quarter.

"I was actually concerned with the angle that I had when he did run it in. I just wanted to make sure he, you know, I thought he got hit in the head or neck area going into the end zone, but he was clean there," O'Connell said. "And then I asked him if he was all right. He said he was. And obviously we had just scored a touchdown, big moment. But then we went out for the next drive. That's when he seemed to have some discomfort there, so we'll evaluate it and make sure we find out what's going on there.

O'Connell said McCarthy didn't mention discomfort when he returned to the sideline after the touchdown.

"I've done something pretty similar — quarterbacks hit their hands all the time, whether it's helmets or defenders and things like that," O'Connell said. "It happened to me in college, and I didn't even know I had a significant injury until the next time I took a snap.

"We ran the ball in first-and-10 [on that drive], and then just trying to throw a simple receiver screen, very similar to what we had thrown to Justin [Jefferson] on some of those third-and-long conversions," O'Connell added. "And I'm not sure he was able to even grip the ball, but I don't know if he knew or not at that point. I have not had a chance to talk to him. They took him away to evaluate him. But yeah, he was unable to grip the football."

Thus, having Burns unblocked was part of the play's design, since the intent was for the ball to come out fast.

'Connell said he was pleased with multiple levels of decision-making and execution by McCarthy before the QB left his ninth career start.

Vikings.com

So have we considered converting any of receivers to cornerbacks since they obviously cat catch.

The Vikings’ flight to Newark, N.J., returned to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport less than an hour after takeoff on Saturday afternoon because of a mechanical issue with the plane.

A team spokesman initially said the Vikings were boarding a new plane for Newark shortly before 5 p.m. However, a little before 6 p.m., the Vikings said the were still awaiting the arrival of a second plane and still intended to depart Saturday night.

The team eventually left MSP a second time at 7:43 p.m., with an expected arrival at at Newark just before 11 p.m. Eastern.

According to data from Flight Radar, the first plane turned around just southwest of Madison, Wis., at 2:05 p.m., and landed back at MSP at 3:04.

While crews attended to the plane, the team deplaned to switch to a different charter jet.

“Shortly after departing, the team plane experienced mechanical issues that required a return to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport,” the Vikings said in a statement shortly before 4 p.m. “The team will board a second plane momentarily and is expected to arrive at Newark International Airport later tonight.”

Travel glitches happen infrequently for teams taking charter flights for road games, but they aren’t unprecedented. Before their 2016 game in at Green Bay, the Vikings had to depart their plane in Appleton, Wis., by a cherry picker after the plane slid several feet off the runway and got lodged in wet grass following touchdown.

The Vikings lost to the Packers the following day, and were eliminated from the playoff race.

STRIB

Hat tip, I didn't think they could do it 


Congrats to them. 

 the Vikings games versus Lions and Packers will absolutely influence  NFC  playoff seeding. 


For JJ it's not playoff experience but it's the next closest thing because the games matter.

Minnesota is out, I get it, l BUT  they can  do someb major  damage on the way out. 



US Bank Stadium is gonna  be rocking ... 

LFG!

UFA's:
Harrison Smith 
Ty Chandler 
C.J. Ham 
Jeff Okudah 
Rondale Moore
Josh Metellus 
Eric Wilson
Jalen Nailor
Andrew DePaola
Ryan Wright 
Carson Wentz
Justin Skule
Matt Nelson

RFA's:
IPJ
Ben Sims

ERFA's:
Jalen Redmond
Bo Richter
Zavier Scott

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/...6/team/min

Great game last night with Bama coming back to beat Oklahoma. Miami and A&M in a dogfight this morning. I still think Notre Dame would have beaten any of these four teams if they would have been let in to the playoffs, but that's another conversation. Ole Miss and Oregon should roll later