Vikings' Defense Keys Playoff Hopes Despite Offensive Woes

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00:00Uh, Sam Darnold, I mean, shaky game to be honest with you.

00:03I mean, the Vikings defense, Vinny, is going to carry them to the playoffs.

00:06I don't know that they're a team that can go very far though, honestly, with the way

00:09that they play on offense.

00:10And by the way, what an embarrassment for the Colts yesterday.

00:14And this notion that Joe Flacco was like the savior, boy, it was like the opposite of that.

00:18I would hate to think, uh, Vinny, that, um, the Colts go back to Anthony Richardson.

00:23I got to tell you, I would.

00:24I mean, that, that was a horrible display of football.

00:27They just touched Joe Flacco.

00:28This guy was going down, uh, every single time.

00:31No disrespect to him.

00:32He's had a great career.

00:33But this idea that all of a sudden that they had this idea that he was going to come in

00:37and be their savior again, that seems foolish at this point.

00:40Yeah.

00:41Joe Flacco needs everything right to work.

00:43And we saw that a little bit with his stint in the last season that he had with the Browns.

00:49But when we look at this team, the left tackles out of this game, that's a disaster.

00:53I mean, he's a very good pass protector.

00:55So you knew the Vikings pass rush was going to come after him.

00:59And then when you have Joe Flacco back there, what is he doing?

01:01He's basically doing Anthony Richardson things, throwing it up, hoping some guys catch it,

01:06except Joe Flacco is not going to run and give you anything out of that.

01:08And that's the head scratching thing I think they did with Anthony Richardson is like,

01:12let the guy run.

01:13He's in his second year.

01:15He's really fast.

01:16Let him run out of a slump a little bit.

01:18And it's really surprising because Shane Steichen did that with Jalen Hurks.

01:22He let him run a lot in year two, and then he developed, and then all of a sudden he

01:26used the top flight passer.

01:27So I thought they were going to follow the same path.

01:29What they're also not doing is forgetting about the running game here with Jonathan Taylor.

01:34I don't know what they were doing in certain personnel sets where he was not there, but

01:38Richardson makes Taylor more dangerous too, because you've got to worry about two rushing

01:41threats out of the backfield.

01:43So I don't know, Shane Steichen not really having his stock go up here this season with

01:48his treatment of Richardson.

01:49And four and five, they're not going anywhere.

01:52They're not touching this playoff race.