Morning Joes

Co-host Joe Oberle and Star Tribune's Mark Craig talk: The NFL hosted its (nearly) annual AFC-NFC Pro Bowl game this past weekend and I woke up from my third quarter nap in time to watch Vikings running back Dalvin Cook score on a late touchdown reception. He appeared to keep the football (I am thinking it was his first Pro Bowl TD). The game apparently meant more to the players, who seemed to be enjoying themselves, than the many NFL fans who have been criticizing for its lack of competition—such as this: More importantly, the Vikings new GM Kwesi Adolfo-Menash made his first and biggest decision of the offseason (if reports leaking out are to be accurate) in the hiring of Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell to be the team’s next head coach. KOC as we will refer to him often, still has one game to play next week in Los Angeles before he is officially announced as the Vikings head coach and can take over the reins for the foreseeable future. Let’s hoping he will have earned the rights to be

Joe Oberle and Mark Craig Post Conference Round Podcast Topics A season to remember. I Hate to see the season coming to an end. Only one game left. Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah was named right after left the air last week. Is the right man for the job? Vikings head coaching candidates Pro Bowl preview AFCCG review: NFCCG review: Tom Brady retires: The Vikings need to keep drafting QBs—that’s what this league is about. Defense in the NFC; Offense in the AFC: Prediction segment recap:

Wild Weekend of NFL Games Arrives a Week Later Two weekends ago the NFL held its Wild Card Weekend, which we called a misnomer due to several blowouts and games that were anything but wild. Well, the playoffs made up for it this past weekend when the Divisional Round of the playoffs were as “wild” as anything we have ever seen in the modern era. There were four Divisional playoff games and each came down to the final play to before they were decided, and one of them, the epic in Kansas City between the Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills will go down as one of the best ever. The two teams displayed excellent quarterback play and exhausted defensive performances, which resulted in 25 points being scored inside the final two minutes of the game (an NFL playoff record). The Chiefs tacked on a walk-off touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce for the win and jump started the discussion once again about the playoff overtime rule which dictates that if the first team to have the ball in OT scores a TD the game

Poorly Named “Wild Card” weekend features Blow Outs and Blown Calls The NFL Wild Card weekend wasn’t very wild last weekend. Of the six games played, five of the home teams won and the other game—between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys—was a flag-filled slog that eventually came down to the last play that never took place. The other games feature blowouts and lent credence to the thought that adding a seventh spot to each conference was little more than ill-advised money grab. Which means in the NFL that they are here to stay. The games, many of which were snooze fests, do set up some interesting match ups in the divisional round this weekend. The Green Bay Packers will rejoin the competition off their 1st-round bye and host the upstart niners, who held on for victory over the Cowboys when their OC called a QB draw with little time on the clock and watched that clock tick away before they attempt a game saving passing into the endzone. Goodbye to the perennial favorite Dallas squad who will n

Joe Oberle and Mark Craig talk about the Black Monday after win against the bears. The Vikings beat the Chicago Bears in their 2021 season finale at U.S. Bank Stadium by the score of 31-17 but there was almost no joy in Mudville. The win, which included perhaps the Vikings best second half of the season, serves only to give them a lower draft pick (by one position), come up short of record numbers for the star wide receiver Justin Jefferson and marked the final game of head coach Mike Zimmer and General Manager Rick Spielman with the Vikings. Whether you loved Zim or loathed him, the end of the Zimmer era is a sad day in Purple Nation.

But we all knew this was coming. The Packers have been ascending while the Vikings’ ship sprung leaks and has been bobbing in rough waters, waiting to submerge. The fact that the Packers got to plunder them again while the Vikings are cast under a raging sea of uncertainty is just more bitter, salty water for the Purple fan base to swallow. The Purple faithful must wander another arid offseason with likely no rudder to steer them to safe harbor. Tune in for the wake. Mark Craig from the Star Tribune and Joe Oberle from Vikings Territory/purplePTSD are here to dissect this latest debacle on the VT Breakdown podcast. Join us as we go over the following topics and look for clues for the way forward:

Mark Craig from the Star Tribune joins Joe Oberle (senior writer for Vikings Territory/purplePTSD) on the VT Breakdown to discuss and analyze it all.

VT Breakdown Co-host Joe Oberle and the Star Tribunes Mark Craig talk the Vikings win over the Bears along with all the other stuff going on around the NFL.

Vikings Territory Breakdown Co-host Joe Oberle and the Star Tribunes Mark Craig talk win over Steelers and look forward to the Bears. All season long, Minnesota Vikings fans have watched their favorite team build leads of at least a touchdown only to watch them to disappear and lead, more than once, to losses. But never in this season of gain and loss have we seen what happened last Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In that game, the Vikings had a 29-0 lead until there was roughly two minutes left in the third quarter—and then the game changed.

Vikings Territory Podcast Co-host Joe Oberle and the Star Tribune's Mark Craig.

Joe Oberle and Star Tribune's Mark Craig talk about the 49ers game and look forward to the Lions game.

Joe Oberle and Star Tribune's Mark Craig talk close win over Packers. Vikings fans have come to learn over the years that “we can’t have nothing nice.” And in 2011, particularly, that saying is true, as the Vikings have blown leads seven points or more in nine of their 10 games this season. In fact, the Vikings have played games eight games this season that were decided on the last play of those games, and often they came up on the losing end of them. Well, they finally got something nice—a 34-31 last second victory over the Green Bay Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The most confounding team in the history of the NFL, the Minnesota Vikings, flew to Los Angeles and beat the surging LA Chargers 27-20.The Vikings did it with their most complete game of the season when their season was on the line (which could be said about every week) and kept themselves relevant in the NFC Wild Card race (.5 games back at the moment). Who would've thunk it? Well, apparently Mark Craig of the Star Tribune (and co-host of the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast) thought so. He said last week that the Vikings were due for a pay off from sticking together and playing hard despite a lot of adversity and complaint from the Purple Faith and the Purple Prose (the media).

The Vikings, to paraphrase former Minnesota head coach Denny Green, knew who the Baltimore Ravens were and let them off the hook. Joe Oberle and Star Tribunes Mark Craig talk another loss.

Joe Oberle and Star Tribune's Mark Craig talk Vikings after another poor performance in Prime Time on Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys.

Joe Oberle and the Star Tribune's Mark Craig talk Vikings win over Panthers.

Vikings Territory Breakdown Joe Oberle and Star Tribunes Mark Craig talk about the deflated win over the lions and what this team has in store for the rest of the season. Along with talk from around the league.

The Minnesota Vikings lost at home to Kevin Stefanski and the Cleveland Browns on Sunday and the VT Breakdown podcasters are here to dissect the festering carcass. The Vikings may not be done yet at the near-quarter pole of the 2021 season, but it sure smells like (you know, that festering carcass thing), but Joe Oberle and Mark Craig from the Star Tribune are on hand to tell us just where they are and where they need to go.

Joe Oberle and Startribune's Mark Craig talk Vikings Big win over Seahawks. What went right, What went wrong, Next Week—Browns at Vikings and around the NFL

Joe Oberle and the Mark Craig from the Star Tribune talk what went right, what went wrong and a look ahead to the Seahawks game.