In this episode, Taylor reacts to the epic & historic NFL comeback of the Minnesota Vikings in their win over the Indianapolis Colts. When he talks about the Vikings, he breaks down the anatomy of how the come back went down, his thoughts about Justin Jefferson’s Ascension to complete elite wide receiver and how he feels about the good & bad things Kirk Cousins doesngoing forward. When he switches to the Colts, he talks about the decision making that led to the defeat, how he feels about Jeff Saturday and the current state of the roster.
In this episode, Taylor reacts to the epic & historic NFL comeback of the Minnesota Vikings in their win over the Indianapolis Colts. When he talks about the Vikings, he breaks down the anatomy of how the come back went down, his thoughts about Justin Jefferson’s Ascension to complete elite wide receiver and how he feels about the good & bad things Kirk Cousins doesngoing forward. When he switches to the Colts, he talks about the decision making that led to the defeat, how he feels about Jeff Saturday and the current state of the roster.
Taylor: What's up, everybody? It's the Roundtable sports podcast. My name is Taylor McLeann, and it's been another jampacked weekend of football. You know, you'd think that I'd be feeling a little bit tired of it or I'd be feeling like I've been running a marathon. But with all the football that's been going on and the high quality of these games and the excitement of these games, I feel like it's week one in my heart, and I have plenty of drive to finish off this football season strong. Speaking of finishing strong, before we get to the Vikings, let's give a shout out to Evergreen Power Solutions. They're the sponsor for this podcast. They're a concierge power service. We're going to go in, shop for the best rate that they possibly can get you right now in your area here in Texas, because this is only for our Texas listeners. And then when your contract would normally run out or you would have to go in there and shop for rates again, they're going to come back in, renegotiate the rate for you, see if they can get you a lower rate. If they can, they will. If not, they're not going to have your rate go any higher. For someone like me that forgets to deal with all that kind of stuff, it's perfect. Give them a call, 8886-6586, use prompt number two and tell them that Taylor McClain and the Round Table Sports Podcast sent you. Now let's go to the football. And I mentioned finishing strong, and that's precisely what the Vikings did on this day. A truly roller coaster game in a truly Vikings way. It'd be one thing if this game was an aberration and that games didn't typically go in this roller coaster type fashion for the Minnesota Vikings, but that'd be far from the truth. As a matter of fact, I would say that this game really is the pinnacle of the way the Vikings have been playing recently and how much they have been up and down at any given time in a game. Obviously, this one's pretty extreme, with it being the biggest comeback in NFL history, being down 33 to nothing at halftime, and hell, being down 36 to seven with 20 minutes left of game time is pretty up and down. Although obviously it was mostly downs to start the game. Even when the 33 points that the Colts would score in the first half was being scored, it still felt like the Vikings were the better team. I said in a group chat that I have with nearly all Minnesota Vikings fans that this is going to be really sad to be the better team, but have not started playing until too late in the game. It also happens a lot to the Cowboys, where there'll be something wonky happen in the beginning and you can't really get your wheels underneath you in the beginning, and then all of a sudden you're trailing and trying to get your head on straight. Obviously, for the Cowboys in this game, it was quite the opposite, that they were the ones that kind of fell apart in the end. But for the Vikings, especially early on, it felt like everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Whether it was the two fourth downs, the pick six that got called back because of forward progress, the Vikings were getting the ball moving, and Dalvin Cook gets the ball poked out by Zayer Franklin. It was just one thing after another. Penalties. I mean, it just all seemed to be going against the Vikings during that first half, but you could still see signs that they should be doing better than they were right before Dalvin fumbles. They have a beautiful run the linemen, get out in front and get in space and get on top of their guys, and then Dalvin is able to use his speed and explosion to make that play happen, and then right on the next play, he's gaining yards. And it didn't seem like a particularly good strip either, or hard strip. It wasn't like somebody came in there and Superman punched that ball out. But still, like I said, it was just everything that could possibly go wrong was going wrong at that point. On a quick side note, I do think the NFL has to do something about the fumbles with forward progress being called or all these little wonky rules. They have to kind of impede the play at that point. I get that you have to blow the whistle, and once the whistle has been blown, then the play is over and everything. And they have been a lot better about swallowing their whistle at times and allowing the play to go on because they know they're going to get to review it. But this trip, Michael Pittman and then the other clear fumble recovery for a touchdown, also not go their way was nearly devastating. Also towards the end, Christian Derrisol went down and he had been out for a couple of games with the concussions and whatnot. And the good thing is, after the game, he did tweet out that he was just having cramps. So that is something that you can put yourself at ease with if you're the Minnesota Vikings, because he is a big part of what makes this offense go, and his ability to pass block, obviously, but also be able to run block and get guys in space is very important. So good news is you should still have him in the mix there. Oh, by the way, also, I forgot to mention the punt return. I realized now, or the punt that was blocked in the list of bad things that happened that got this game off to a really bad start. The weird thing was, though, even with all this stuff going long, I felt like the Vikings defense was coming through for them in a lot of those moments. They bent and a couple of those times, especially with the fourth downs, they were already pinned pretty deep in their territory, but they did not break and kept the Colts to a lot of field goals that had they converted any of them into touchdowns, they might have won this game. Chase McLaughlin, otherwise known as CMcK, is great and is highly effective in salary cap dynasty because he doesn't make very much. But I can't help to think that there was some really blown opportunities here for the Indianapolis Colts overall. And then on top of that, you missed five opportunities because you kicked five field goals. Not all of them were right there at the goal line either. I mean, there was a 52 yarder in there, but you could have kicked another 52 yarder and put the game out of reach completely, but instead you went for it on fourth and one. So very curious in the grand scheme of things how that went down, and you have to give all the credit in the world to the Minnesota Vikings on that part of it. They were penetrating. They were playing hard, and they really did uplift this team and kept giving their offense opportunities to get themselves back in the game. The story is that Patrick Peterson told the offense that they're going to get stops and that they just needed five touchdowns. That's what he said, and that turned out to be absolutely true. The five touchdowns plus the two point conversion got them to overtime, where they put themselves eventually in position to kick the game winning field goal with no time left. Once again, a very Vikings way for this to go down. Even in the midst of the comeback, kirk throws a pick all the way down the field where Jalen Raeger stops running for it. I know this probably isn't a new thought, but the irony isn't lost on me that he's on this team, and the Philadelphia Eagles could have drafted Justin Jefferson instead. One pick earlier. So that one Kirk pick was definitely Jalen Raeger's fault. You could see it on his face and on Kirk's face that was supposed to happen was that Jalen was supposed to keep running and run under that ball, but it wasn't a great ball by Kirk either, necessarily, but still, guess that's a sliding door thing for the Philadelphia Eagles that they'll have to live with. And the fact that he's on the Vikings does make me laugh a little bit every time I saw it, but I wasn't laughing when I saw that pick happen. And luckily for him, the defense once again bailed him out right in that moment, got the ball back, and they were able to convert and get everything taken care of with a little bit of time left and then actually left a little bit too much time, and they traded puns. And of course, it all had to be drama because literally everything with the Vikings this season seems to have been drama of some sort. There's all kinds of stats out there about what kind of team this is and are they as good as their record says and all that stuff. And certainly you fall behind to a team that has a little bit more on the offensive side of the football, or maybe even Jonathan Taylor doesn't get hurt on the third play on kind of an innocuous looking hit that I didn't think was going to knock him out, but it sure did. You got to think Jonathan Taylor maybe pushes some of those piles and maybe they do get that first down on fourth and one. There's all kinds of sliding door issues with the way this game happened, but still, Taylor going out at the very first play in the very first drive excuse me. And then to have the game play out the way it did was really weird. But then again, as my group chat said, this is just how it is and what they expect. I felt like all of them by the end of it, needed a meme where they're smoking a cigarette and their hand is shaking and they're just trying to calm down from this roller coaster ride that has been the Minnesota Vikings this season. But to their credit, spin it however you want. Jonathan Taylor. Better team. Matt Ryan, who is now the captain of two of the worst meltdowns in NFL history, but also give the Minnesota Vikings credit that they've been winning these close games and they have been mounting these different comebacks, which is something that you typically have to do in any sort of Super Bowl run as well. I don't know that the Vikings would be my Super Bowl pick in the NFC by any stretch, but at the same time, you have to give them respect in that they're not out of any game. They fight hard, they believe in each other, and clearly have some pretty solid nerves at this point, whether they did or not beforehand. I mean, just this amount of subjection to this amount of pressure and the sheer difficulty of these comebacks really bodes well for their ability to win those type of games in the playoffs. Obviously, having someone as dominant as Justin Jefferson was on this day and has been for most of this season, is a big part of what drove this comeback and a big part of why the Vikings are where they are at this point. You watch Justin for these handful of years so far, and he's been good from the get go. It took him a second to get all the way going in year one, but still he's been good the whole time. But I think what we're watching is a man take the step to that elite level of wide receiver that is completely complete in every aspect of the game. He might not be a physical monster at six 1195, but he feels like he plays so much bigger than that, and I guess it's because of his catch radius and his ability to jump and go get it that makes him feel even taller. And I think that part of it is that he's being used in a lot more creative and different ways than he was before. Even with the offense sputtering at times, it still feels like they're finding more and more creative ways to get just in the ball. And his route tree has just exploded into all kinds of different things. To see him break off Stefan Gilmore on that touchdown kind of speaks to it. Everybody's so intimidated. Stefan Gilmore is like a hall of Fame, probably like fringe hall of Fame type guy, and Justin has him on skates during the game. Not that Stefan didn't have moments for sure. He played Justin pretty tight, but he was still able to get open at crucial times, make plays over the middle on the outside. He took a huge hit, too, and managed to maintain the ball, take the hit, get the penalty, draw other penalties, and of course, get them in position to kick the game winning field goal. They don't make this comeback without Justin. I think that's pretty obvious to say, and I think the same thing can be said for KJ Osborne, who had his 1st 100 yard game this season and had a career high in yardage by a pretty good margin between the two of them. They were fighting so hard and making explosive plays. KJ always plays hard, but it really came out today with them having to throw more in the end to get back into this game, that they had to put KJ out there a little bit more, and it really worked out for him. Having his explosive playmaking out there really worked out, and he was catching everything as well. Having Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen feeding you information on a day to day basis and sharpening iron when it comes to having all of them out there certainly couldn't hurt anything. And without the playmaking from both of them, the Vikings are nowhere near this game. My overall point, Justin's ascending to this next level of wide receiver, that there's not a lot that these guys can do to take everything away from him because of the different route combinations he can run, how smooth and fluid those routes are, and guys just can't simply stay with that. When you've got the physical talents that he does, when you move the way that he does, and you have a good amount of power to go with all of that speed, it's a winning combination, and it's been big for Kirk Cousins as well. I've always had some kind of misgivings about Kirk Cousins as a quarterback. Number one, that's going to take you to a Super Bowl, but those seem to be lessening as Justin Jefferson seems to be rising. One of the biggest problems I have is that Kirk's second play, so if you break a play into one, what the intended play was, and then the second play being what happens when that play breaks down. Haven't really been a fan of what Kirk Cousins has put up on film when it comes to those type of plays. We saw it a little bit today when he was making reads, especially in the first half when he was kind of holding on to the ball a little bit too long and he was taking sacks, and it wasn't like the Colts were really blitzing a whole lot to get those sacks. They were putting guys in the coverage. Kirk wasn't really throwing anybody open at that point during those times. And then all of a sudden the defense is on you and you're on the ground. That was a big part of what got them into problems in the first half. I think the desperation of the situation helped a little bit with that first half. But then also Kirk has a new secondary plan when it comes to what's he going to do with the ball when everything kind of breaks down, and it turns out that plan is throw it up to Justin Jefferson. I noticed last week when they were once again setting up a dramatic win that Kurt ducked his head while he was throwing it because he knew he was just kind of throwing it up there and going to let Justin try and make a play. And the good news is, Justin is so monstrous when it comes to the point of catch and has such good feel for playing through that kind of contact and still being able to make those catches with his gigantic hands that not only has it gotten Kirk out of some of his hesitation, it's also not a bad plan because he's just so good. So it's meant a lot more and it's led to a lot more successful plays when the play breaks down. And you don't have to be quite as reliant on play action to give Kirk the time he needs to make these throws. Those are huge developments overall and leads to a lot more successful offense. The other thing that really helps out a lot is that their offensive head coach actually knows what he's doing from a play calling and from an offensive standpoint, like, there's still plays that I really like from Kevin O'Connell that are really creative and put his guys in a position to succeed. Obviously, there were some problems early on in the game, but I don't relate that exactly to the play calling. As I said earlier, basically everything that could go wrong did go wrong early on. It's not to say that every decision was perfect on his part by any means, but overall, I do find him to be creative. I do see him working on all the different elements between getting Kirk in a place that he can make successful throws and play within the scope of the offense because, as I said, his Plan B is better, but he's still not a strong improviser and he's still not a strong second play guy overall. So you really need to set him up within the scope of the offense so he can get these throws out on time and not be tasked too much with being the Tom Bradyesque decision maker. Tom's in there going through his reads and progressions quickly and getting the ball out. Kirk's not that type of guy exactly. He's not throwing a bunch of guys open with anticipatory throws, especially ones that are improvised, and then he lacks the elite escapism of somebody that runs a little faster, which also plays into the second play thing that we were talking about. He can't scramble out like your Josh Allen's or your Patrick Mahomes because he gets fetched too easily, and we saw it a couple of times when he's kind of running towards space and somebody catches him from behind. They're not catching Jaylen Hurts and they're not catching Patrick or Josh or those type of guys. However slow you want to make it, Kirk is on that line where he's just probably not going to get you much in the yardage department, and that means that we have to rely completely on his throwing and on his pocket passing when there are those breakdowns. Even on that last drive, the Vikings did a great job of calling plays, getting Kurt and throws he can make, and he made those plays and he led that comeback. And as I said, there's probably callouses on the adrenaline glands a little bit for these guys just because it seems like they hit the Nozz. It is adrenaline nearly every game at this point. To launch these comebacks to get them in the position they're in right now. Doesn't look like it's going to lead to a number one seed, necessarily, with the way that the Philadelphia Eagles are playing in their record. But a number two seed definitely puts you in a better position than having to play the Cowboys or someone along those lines. That's for Dangshire. And the fact that the Vikings were able to pull this come back off today in the sheer amount of time that they pulled it off. I mean, this game was still out of hand late in the third quarter. I just thought there was not going to be enough time for this. And it turned out there was dalvin atoning for the fumble with that huge play, and then, of course, Hawkinson, who had been a little off getting the two point conversion, I felt like was very apropos. And as I've said with this team, it's filled with playmakers. The offensive scheme is interesting and has something and it probably is going to come down to Kirk and what defenses are able to make him do or not do on offense. And just like with Sean McVeigh and Jared Goff, a scheme and a head coach can put you in these type of positions to do things that you do well and succeed. The good thing for Vikings fans is that I still maintain that Kirk Cousins is about 30 times better than Jared Goff, because as bad as Kirk's second play might be, jared Goff is the worst. And you can summon bad Jared. It's kind of the same thing as summoning bad Kirk, though. You have to get him pressure, pressure up the middle, especially get him off his mark, make him improvise. Make him do something that's outside of the play. Some teams can do that. Some teams can't. In the end, the Colts kind of turtled a little bit on defense and offense and played deep coverage, ran the ball on the offensive side, and in the end couldn't get enough or quite enough explosive plays and couldn't finish enough drives to get this win. It still came down to a fourth and one they didn't get. So it was very close down to the very, very end, even the field goal to get it. That came down to the last second to a lot of people are killing Jeff Saturday over some of the play calling, the fourth and one, all of that. And I did kind of note that, that I knew that was going to happen, so I watched pretty intently to see kind of what the play calling was. Was it that bad? And they did get a little conservative, for sure. They ran the ball, a little screen action. In the end, they got lucky that they didn't get a second fumble, returned for a touchdown to even get this comeback, to bring it to overtime. I said that this Jeff Saturday thing was kind of a throwaway thing with the throwaway season in the first place when this first happened. So my expectations are kind of low for him. And he's had some rough stents. The Cowboys game. This game. I seem to do a lot of the Colts games. Somehow it seems like they've been playing some interesting ones. They played the Eagles tough. They had an interesting defensive game plan for the Eagles, too. They've had some stuff happen for them that I don't think is nothing. But I'm also concerned about what this means for his future as a coach and are things too simple? Is he experienced enough for this season? It is what it is. Why not try? Why not see if he does have something here? There have been good things happening here, and it's not like you were going to make the playoffs even though this division is still or would have been still kind of in range, I guess. But the Jaguars already have a leg up on making that comeback on the Titans anyway. And I did hear that you replaced the guy that had the biggest comeback with Frank Wright. You replaced him, and the guy you replaced him with gave up the biggest comeback and negated that record. So that's definitely out there, too. But you've got some players on defense. When you have Jack Leonard back, hopefully he's able to get back. You're going to have one of the best linebacking pairs in the NFL with Zion Williams. The forest. Buckner still is plenty good and has years left. Gilmore is getting a little longer in the toothquitty. Pay looks like a solid attic. And Gokway putting those two on either side of the forest. And Glover Stewart is good. Michael Pitman, I'm a little bit out on him being a super elite guy, but he's got something. And then you've got the offensive line identity with Jonathan Taylor. There's the bare bones of something here you can rebuild around, and now you're in the mix for the top five. You might be a little too far away to get into the mix of the top two, but you're not that far away either. I mean, the Chicago Bears are three and eleven, denver is four and ten, arizona is four and ten, and now you're four, nine and one. The Rams are four and nine. We still need to see their game against the packers on Monday night, but and if you're a fan of the Colts at this point and this isn't what you want to hear, you're bummed that they gave up this lead and that Jeff Saturday is having some growing pains. But did you really have other expectations that there wouldn't be some growing pains for a guy that's never been the head coach before? The fact that they've shown heart, the fact that they've been in a lot of these games and have been showing some interesting things with the coaching should give Colts fans a little hope. And if it doesn't, and in the end, this whole season, Turtles, like the Colts did in the second half, you go to a new regime anyway. You've got a better pick. You've got people that you can build around. Now it's just finding someone besides Matt Ryan, because I think Matt Ryan is pretty washed up. He has a lot of the same problems as Kirk. He processes a little better, but he's completely immobile at this point. He used to be like a one, and now he's a zero. Maybe he was even a two. He could move around a little bit, but that part of his career is over, and that seems to be a running thing with the Colts. So do you take your swing now? Maybe Will Levis is there at five, and that's the direction you go at this point. Maybe you're there for two. Who knows? Maybe you can trade up to two. If it is the Bears, the Bears have their quarterback for sure. Now we just have to see where the limit on his ceiling is. The Colts need a guy that they can kind of develop and see if they can raise their ceiling at this point. Well, that's what I've got for these two teams. It really was a great comeback and really kicked off the games for Saturday and having Saturday games in the right way. Clearly we're going to see Minnesota down the stretch. We're going to see if Justin Jefferson can get to 2000 yards. I'd like to see it. And he still has three games left and he's already passed his total from last year in receptions and yards without going over in his target. So bright future for him. Interesting immediate future for the Viking. And I know hopefully if you're listening to this point and on Monday when this is coming out, that you've recovered since then. Got a couple of videos coming out for this game. Going to have more throughout the week. There was a lot of fun stuff happening this week, so look out for that. Look out for more games on the podcast this week and have a great rest of your day.