Bercich Breakdown: Vikings make a quarterback change, what does it mean?

Time now for the Bursitz Breakdown. Vikings make a change at quarterback due to an injury to Kyler Murray. Carson Wentz is your starter on Monday night. Football against the Bills. To break it all down, we bring in Vikings audio analyst Pete Bursitz. Pete, first off, we have to get rid of the customary, how you doing? Haven't seen you for a while. Good, let's talk football. All right, let's go right to it. Carson Wentz, how much does this change the Vikings' offense for Monday night? Hopefully not much in the running game. You're not going to get as much out of the quarterbacks as far as, you know, design bootlegs. You can still do those things, but, you know, so I don't see a quantum leap per se. It's the passing game that you hope. You get some juice out of it, and I think throughout the last couple of weeks, we've seen opportunities that have been there, and they've been missed for one reason or another. It's a breakdown here, or it's just as this goes on, everybody's digging deeper and deeper into Kyler Murray and exactly what's going on, and you're seeing guys open. You're seeing routes that are there, opportunities that are there. And For whatever reason, just not pulling the trigger. Like on the deep balls, two have been to Addison, one versus Tampa Bay, one versus Detroit, but there's been some other ones too that had the ball been delivered just a fraction of a second earlier, it could be double that, right? It's almost that simple in that regard. you. Guys being on the same page about when it's hot and who's the hot and what direction are we going, communication, all those things. Yeah. You know, it's hard to sit there. It's hard to sit as a fan. I know this. And hear the head coach talk about we're not far, we're not far. It's a play here, it's a play there. Yeah. It sucks, but sometimes that's the truth, right? Sometimes that is what it is. And how you get over that hump can vary. But maybe with Carson Wentz, we can get a little juice in the passing game, go back to some of the other concepts. That we've seen out of this passing game for a very, very long time. Uh, and, and it'd feel a little bit more like home, right? Like a little bit more like what these guys are used to doing. Um, yeah, I know Jefferson's got to be excited, uh, in that regard and we'll see if it shoots some life, you know, into this, into this offense. Now with Carson, he's not going to be mobile, right? The, the, the Bills are going to know where he is going to be and this team likes to blitz. They will blitz. Now, situationally, they like, if you're going to get third, you're going to be third and long against this team, you're going to get blitzed a lot. A lot of the kind of the classic old school nickel and linebacker and, you know, all the different types of stunts. And so a little bit more of a classic look in this defense when they pressure. But you got to know how to answer it. And they play a lot of man to man. So you need to be able to have the right routes at the right time and then also be very, very accurate. And for Carson, once just my concern or turnovers, just you don't need to force the football. Well, we were... If we are indeed a play here or a play there away, Wentz doesn't need to go out there and throw for 400 yards, right? He doesn't need to be up and down the field. He's just got to make one or two big plays throughout the course of the game, extend a couple drives, a little better on third down. We're not talking about a quantum leap out of the play, a quarterback. So there shouldn't be that pressure to put the ball, you know, to force the football, to do those things. If it's not there, if you're under pressure, just get rid of it, right? I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. If it's third and ten and you get pressure, you get rid of it, fine. We'll punt. We had six drives of four plays or less a week ago, right? So we can handle a couple of those here and there. That's not good, is it? Right. Well, no, it's not. I mean, that's 60% of your drives are four plays or less. Yes, so. Yeah, so. Those are the expectations. That's what you see. Defensively, they're going to have their work cut out for them. This is a very, very good offense. And, you know, we can kind of nuance the differences between what you're going to see this week with Josh Allen, right, versus Jared Goff, and then what you're going to get, you know, what you're going to get at the running back position with James Cook versus what you saw with Jameer Gibbs. Pretty similar, right? This is a good offense, so they're going to have, the defensive's going to have their work cut out for them. All right, you talk about this on occasion, about a team, when things are going bad, you could go back to your identity. Plays that you know work, that run well, that everybody is well-versed in it. And the offense really didn't have that the last couple of weeks, because they kept changing things and stuff. Can Carson Wentz kind of turn back that clock a little bit? I know the Vikings now are more run-centric, but if you have a guy like this that can get the ball out quickly, that can involve Jefferson more often, can they kind of get back and will the offensive unit feel more like itself knowing that we can make these plays that used to be our bread and butter? That's what you, I mean, that's what you hope, right? That's the shot in the arm that you hope to get the running game should not be affected one bit outside of maybe some of the option type plays where the quarterback is, is actually, uh, in fact, Carson, I think ran one of those, one or two of those, um, uh, against Green Bay on opening day, just because they were, they were in the playbook for, you know, uh, for Kyler and they had to call, they had to call something that they practiced, but, um, Having enough time to tailor everything. The running game shouldn't be affected. The passing game, and what I'm talking about with concepts, I'm just talking about a drive and a dig and certain things over the middle of the field. Harkin. Hockinson is emerging as a big threat, and having a chance to look at the film, you're seeing a lot of what Detroit was doing. Really doubling on both sides with both receivers and they're kind of leaving the middle of the field wide open for the tight end for, you know, for Hockinson to kind of roam and do what he does. And had that ball, had he not had to jump for that ball and go down, that would have been a touchdown. There was a ball delivered a little bit high to Justin Jefferson. That could have been a touchdown. That's what I'm talking about, right? That's two touchdowns right there. That changes that game against Detroit 100%. So those are the types of plays. Again, we're hoping that he can make, but the route concepts, whatever the coaches want to do, I think they have a little bit bigger playbook than you would for a normal backup QB, number one, because he's experienced, but number two, he's familiar with... What this offense was, what they wanted it to be a year ago, right? When they wanted it with J.J. McCarthy or even before with Darnold and the concepts that we have in the passing game are going, you can bring some of those back that everybody's familiar with, everybody's comfortable with. The O-line's going to have to hold up a little bit longer because those things take some time. So, you know, that's, yeah, I think you can, and again, We don't need... We don't need a bunch of explosive passes and then combine it with a bunch of sacks, holding penalties, and turnovers. We don't need to go that far. We just need to tweak it a little bit, right? A play here and a play there, that's all this offense needs. All right, Justin Jefferson, for the first time all year, it really got to him, the lack of success he had against the Lions. Didn't talk to the reporters afterwards. In other words, He did have a huge game with him all the way back to last year in London and had success earlier in the year with Wentz. Why do those two, do you feel, have such a good rapport, even though they're not together that much? Um, just, it's just Wentz's style. He's tall, tall in the pocket. And then, uh, Jefferson can run some more of those routes across the middle of the field. Um, I, you know, I, I do think that Kyler Murray and he have a, have a rapport as well. Um, I just think Wentz might throw a little better deep ball and that's where Justin Jefferson's dangerous, right? That double move area behind the linebackers, all those things. So, yeah, it's... It's the system itself that I think is going to maybe set the clock back on that to what a lot of guys are a lot more familiar with. I mean, and that's what you hope, right? You hope that they have, and they're going to get a whole full week of practice, so that's going to be good for them. Extra day to prepare, all those different things all, I think, help this transition with Carson Wentz. All right, let's talk about the defense last week. Usually we don't have to spend much time on the defense because they're so lights out. Last week, though, Detroit was able to get some big yardage running the ball. In the second half, you've already alluded to that James Cook is the same kind of back, maybe not as dynamic, but is very good. Did Detroit expose something on that defense or was it just that they were out there so long they got tired out as that game went on? Yeah, I don't know necessarily if they exposed anything like a trick play or anything like that. There would be a couple extra tight ends in the middle and just old school kind of running the ball that way. What Detroit did do is keep our defense on the field, and they ran the ball. And the left side of that Detroit offensive line with Penei Sewell, Mahogany I believe is the left guard, they're good. Those guys can move bodies, and a lot of those runs were cutbacks that way. Or ended up going that way. And, you know, they had the patience to do it. And, I mean, Jameer Gibbs is the best running back in the league right now. James Cook is very good. He's probably more agile, more slippery. The man makes some cuts on tape that just blew my mind. On a zone play, cutting back and just... Making two Ravens defenders absolutely miss. He's not as strong of a runner, right? Jahmyr Gibbs, you've got to all day long bring it to him to bring him down. Sione Vaki was very good at running after contact. Do they have that as much? Ty Johnson's a good running back. He's solid. He's their third down guy. Not quite what Detroit did. So they still may be able to move the ball and move the chains, but are they going to be able to get as explosive as Detroit did? And it wasn't until the third quarter. When we had Jahmyr Gibbs wrapped up in the backfield and then we let him out, right? He took a, what should have been a minus four run going to his right, spun that thing around a la Barry Sanders and went 12 yards the other way. That was kind of the nail in the coffin because after that, legs started getting tired. I mean, that's. That's defense in the NFL, and that's our defense, too. Those guys up front, there's not one guy for one gap. These guys are multiple gaps. It's a wrestling match all throughout the game. And... Early on, if everybody's strong, there are going to be some gaps in there, but they're not going to be very big. It makes life easier on the linebackers, the whole thing. Then when those legs get tired. I'm tired. I'm tired. The linemen get pushed out of the way until you get to the second level of the linebacker. Now that little gap is an arm tackle instead of a hit, and running back runs through, set arm tackle. It's really that. That's really the difference. It's not very big. It's not a quantum leap. It's a small difference between... You know, early on in the game when everybody's fresh and then later on, and I see it on film every week with all kinds of defenses that, you know, they start out, they're killing the offensive line, and then by the end of the third quarter and in the fourth quarter, it's a totally different animal. You know, so they're going to have to hold up in time of possession in that regard is a big thing. That was another major 11-minute differential between Detroit and Minnesota. That we'd been doing well, right? 40, 40, 50 snaps a week for the defense for a couple of weeks in a row. And then all of a sudden you're out there for 68, 70. That's a whole, that's a whole nother animal. All, I mean, again, this is not, you might, you're asking me like what time it is. And I'm telling you how to make a watch in that regard, but it's not simple. It's not a, it's not a one thing, right? It's not a thing like offensively. It's not a thing. And so... Unfortunately, if it was one thing, it'd be pretty simple to fix. But a lot of things are going on. A lot of things have to happen. All right? Josh Allen, is he the most dangerous quarterback in this league? Oh, I thought you meant in the AFC East. Um... Yes, no, he's dangerous. He's very good. He gets rid of the football. When he does decide to run, he knows exactly when, if he's dropping back and it's the wrong route, he knows it's man-to-man. He pulls that thing down immediately and takes off. He's big. He's a lot bigger than you think. Like, if you see this guy on the hoof, he's a giant. Right. I mean, he's mobile. Um, as strong armed of a guy, as I have seen in a long time where he can, he can anticipate and get a football in a window down the field. That's remarkable, but there's the other side of that where he'll strong arm, some short throws that get tipped up and intercepted or, or, you know, some of those other things, but they. You're not going to see a lot of drop-back passing. The ball's going to get out quickly. They're going to do the screens on the outside. They're going to do – it's going to be a real quick offense. And And what will end up happening is they'll play fake to get the ball down the field for protection, right? Right. And, um, And – Dalton Kincaid is a tight end, but he's more of a big-bodied wide receiver. So you got to watch DJ Moore on the deep ball. DJ Moore's doing exactly what he did in Chicago, and that's go deep. So if he's taking a deep shot, DJ Moore is a big part of that. Kind of everything else is Dalton Kincaid. I mean, Dalton Kincaid's a really good route runner, and they like to set you up with... play fake and three guys to one side and then Dalton all of a sudden will just stab it and bend it the other way and Allen can, off his back foot, heave that thing 40, 50 yards in the air. That's where he's dangerous. So if you see him getting the top of his drop and then bang, just getting rid of that football, Seeing it clearly, that's tough. You need to get him kind of off of his original target. And then even when you do that, then you just got to pray that the guy doesn't make something happen. That touchdown he threw against the Raiders when he flipped it was insane. Right? It's insane. He's hard to bring down, even if you get to him because he's so big. So there's a lot of challenges. There's a lot of challenges there. It's different. Different type. Goff is as good of a pure passer. If you're playing seven on seven, he and Goff, that'd be a great matchup. Goff doesn't move, right? Goff doesn't stand his feet very well. This guy can't. Right. And that's the difference. So in that regard, he's... He's tough to deal with. So does Flores change what he does? Like last week it was, what, 80% blitz rate or the dropbacks that they were in his face with Josh Allen because Flores has had his best success against inexperienced quarterbacks where he can really confuse them. Josh Allen isn't going to buy into a lot of those smoke screens. So do they change how they present themselves or maybe not be so blitz happy because he's so good at finding the hot guy? You know what? I don't. That's a good question. I don't know. Here's the one thing when it comes to all that. If there was a week that you're okay with playing some man-to-man coverage-wise, I think this is the week. I mean, DJ Moore is good, but not great. But the whole Khalil Shakir, I think our guys can keep up with him. Keon Coleman, I think our guys can keep up with him. Thank So you may be able to do some different things, and if you're changing that, it's man, it's zone, and just all you're doing is getting the quarterback to peak for one more second, to just have him hold the football for one more second. I think they're still going to challenge the running backs in protection, you. make those guys block, make James Cook block. Uh, that might be the spot that might be the weak spot, um, you know, over, you know, overall with, with that. So I don't think you, you don't have you don't want to reinvent the wheel and try to do something you don't. I. That number from the Detroit game surprises me because watching it back, we had a lot more four-man rushes than I remember during the game. So that's the ebb and flow, right? That's the ebb and flow of the season where sometimes you're rushing five, four, you know, three. So, yeah, you have to change it up with this guy. You can't – disguises have to be perfect because he can sniff them out. So this is less about trickery than just straight up. Just straight-up physical, you know, go ahead and try to block us because we're going to run your running back over. You might have us all picked up, but, you know, we're going to create problems. And then again, with Van Ginkle and Dallas Turner on the outside, you've got athletes that can pull Josh Allen down. Right, right. All right, starting the game, Kevin O'Connell has taken the coin flip several weeks. This crowd on Monday night. Could be a bit on the testy side. Now, Murray's not in, so they may be a little more relaxed. But it is a night game, and so we know what crowds are like at night. All right. Do the Vikings want, do they take the ball right away? Do they have to come out quickly and kind of calm the natives? Or just do what you do and the fans will follow as the game goes on? Yeah, I think when it comes to that, you've got to do what you do. I don't I don't necessarily think that decision is going to be based upon who you're playing, per se. I think it's going to be based more upon what you feel internally. So whether or not, regardless of who you play, whether or not you're going to defer or take if you win the toss, that's an attitude thing, right? Exactly. It's something that, you know, you bring up. Starting Wednesday, say, hey, we win this toss, we're taking the football, and we're scoring right away, so we're going to get that script down, those first 10 plays that we're going to run. I was going to ask you, who do you think they're going to introduce, right? Because, I mean, I think the poly market had it real heavy that it was the defense that was going to get introduced, like big voice guy Roach. He doesn't even have the offensive half of the flip card. He says, all right, we're going to do defense. And then all of a sudden with Carson, we may get an offensive introduction. You never know. It doesn't matter to me. I'm not going to watch it. I'm going to be watching it anyway. And you're wrapping up with Jefferson coming out last. That'll get the place rolling. That's not bad. I think so. I think so. That market has flipped. Yeah, yeah. It'll be real interesting. Last thing for you, 6-1. Usually in a division, but everybody is right on your heels all of a sudden, especially depending on what happens on Sunday. They could be even closer. What is the pressure like for this team moving forward? Even though they've had all this great success, they've stacked win on win, all of a sudden it seems to the fans who always jump off the cliff when anything goes wrong. Um, what's it like inside the organization? Do you feel, uh, I don't, you know what I guarantee I'd be willing to bet you if you talk to all the players and ask, who do you play next week? I bet half of them wouldn't even know. I'd be willing to bet you. I'm serious. You don't care about who you're playing in two weeks. You just worry about what's in front of you right now. There's no two, three weeks down the road. There's no sitting there going, oh, my God, we've got to go to Green Bay next and then to Mexico. It's like, holy crap. There's none of that, unless you have family that are going down there to meet you and you're helping organize the trip, right? Right? Correct. You know, you're... You're week to week, 100% week to week. Now, for us, we can step back. The game next week against Green Bay is way bigger than this game Monday night. Sorry, it just is. It's a division game, a chance to put yourself at least two games head-to-head, you know, away from, you get the tiebreaker. The tiebreaker is yours. So, yeah, if you are going to win, I hate to say it, but if you, You're going to win two out of the next three games. You want those to be against Green Bay and San Francisco because, again, San Francisco is an NFC opponent. That's why playing in Detroit in that game was so key because that's a division game, NFC. You You get that one. This is an AFC. know It doesn't It's not as heavy down the road. you So, and having been through so many seasons, you see these things pop up and come back to get you and all that. very But I guarantee you for the players and for the coaches and for everybody else, they'll worry about Green Bay at 10.30 Monday night. much. All right. That's when they'll start thinking about Green Bay. Well, you know what? We're going to think about the Bills Sunday night at 10.35. Because you'll join us then to chat about that. Plus, you'll be on Vikings Game Day Live. Even though the game is Monday night, the show remains anchored in the same spot at 9:30. Pete will be on that. And then, of course, on the call on Monday Night Football. Pete, thanks so much for the time. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Jim.