Minnesota Vikings????

Magico Gonzalez · 14-09-2015 1:27pm

Game day, I have a nagging feeling that Blair Walsh is gonna cost us with extra point misses from the extra distance. Losing Sullivan makes that O-Line look even more suspect, AP may be super human but he needs some sort of assistance there. Not so much worried about pretty Teddy as I am not getting the run game moving and blowing a load of FGs and potentially the odd extra point because Walsh has gone to pieces.

Magico Gonzalez · 14-09-2015 1:28pm

ps...even though there aren't many of us, can we get the ???? out of the the thread title!!?

D9Male · 14-09-2015 5:12pm

I am a lot less positive than I was a few weeks ago. I think injuries might bite us. Good to see our divisional rivals throw away good chances. The Pack won't be passed at the top, I think.

Magico Gonzalez · 14-09-2015 5:14pm

D9Male wrote: »

I am a lot less positive than I was a few weeks ago. I think injuries might bite us. Good to see our divisional rivals throw away good chances. The Pack won't be passed at the top, I think.

Worryingly the bears didn't look as bad as i thought they might.

Tonight will reveal a lot.

Hulk Hands · 14-09-2015 5:24pm

Jesus Sullivan gone too? Feck. Massive stuff tonight. Serious hope that this D will be excellent. Anthony Barr for Defensive MVP!!! OL is a massive worry obviously. Enjoy anyway guys

Magico Gonzalez · 14-09-2015 5:26pm

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Jesus Sullivan gone too? Feck. Massive stuff tonight. Serious hope that this D will be excellent. Anthony Barr for Defensive MVP!!! OL is a massive worry obviously. Enjoy anyway guys

Probably gone for the season. We're stuggling in there, but one or two more injuries and we'd be really really screwed.

Hulk Hands · 14-09-2015 5:32pm

Sorry on holidays. Jesus he's out for 8 games. Christ this could be bad. I think Teddy's movement is thankfully excellent so might negate things a bit. Still thats our best two OL's gone out of an already struggling line

Magico Gonzalez · 14-09-2015 6:50pm

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Sorry on holidays. Jesus he's out for 8 games. Christ this could be bad. I think Teddy's movement is thankfully excellent so might negate things a bit. Still thats our best two OL's gone out of an already struggling line

I'm less worried about TB and more worried about our ability to generate any kind of running game with that patchy OL. There hasnt be a lot of evidence for it in the pre-season and AP is going to need some sort of help from the OL. He's a legend, but he can't run through holes that don't exist!

Magico Gonzalez · 15-09-2015 2:15pm

Well that was completely awful. Serves me right for daring to be hopeful!

TB was rattled and made some poor calls, Norv didn't help. Why after the first turnover did he not give the ball to AP instead of going 3 and out and letting Blair Walsh continue to be the worst kicker in the league.

The OL was made of paper, a huge big porous sloppy mound of nothing. No wonder Teddy was rattled. Surprisingly Kalil was ok, Fusco was dreadful.

Run D was so bad. Soooo bad.

Just a generally jittery poor performance. Looked like a team that drank their own pre-season kool aid and came in high off it, got their a$$es handed to them by a not terrific SF team, all credit to them.

You could complain about some of the calls, but look, we were grim and we need to face up to it. Over to you Zimm, big test for you.

D9Male · 15-09-2015 5:09pm

Agreed on all of that. Bad performance all round. Run defence shredded. OL useless. Poor from QB and AP didn't do much even when he had some room.

Only chink of light is that 9ers were clearly pumped up and primed.

That said, I would take 8-8 now.

D9Male · 15-09-2015 5:11pm

Wallace looks good, though.

Magico Gonzalez · 15-09-2015 6:34pm

When Clemmings sacked his own QB I should have went to bed. I know it now.

Magico Gonzalez · 15-09-2015 6:35pm

Also..why didnt we started running short slant pass plays, dinking screen passes over the top of the DL.

D9Male · 15-09-2015 10:24pm

I wonder. Maybe Teddy struggles to have more than two ideas in his head at once. All in all it was a very frustrating game. Next week is crucial.

Magico Gonzalez · 21-09-2015 2:50pm

All round improvement, defensive line good, secondary very solid against a great receiver core, OL much improved, linebackers stepped up and AD started making things happen. We'll give him a pass for the fumbles.

Good win against a division rival. Even the kickers looked half decent!

D9Male · 21-09-2015 8:09pm

AP is back. He is some chap when he builds momentum. I would like a bit more care with the ball, should have been 3 turnovers. But tough to argue with over 190 total yards.

Teddy was brilliant.

Defensive backs were tip-top. Detroit score highly when up against weak pass defences, we were not weak yesterday.

I am more optimistic now. But I fear we have faced two very weak teams so far.

Magico Gonzalez · 21-09-2015 8:30pm

I think we can after Rivers next week, bang him up and keep Allen out of the game.

D9Male · 21-09-2015 8:58pm

You make it sound so easy!

Magico Gonzalez · 22-09-2015 3:53am

D9Male wrote: »

You make it sound so easy!

back on the purple kool aid!

D9Male · 28-09-2015 2:17pm

So what was the verdict from last night? I saw the game on condensed view, and I thought that AP and the defense basically won the game for the Vikings. AP was really phenomenal. His yards after contact was particularly impressive I guess (haven't seen stats, but I reckon half his yards were after an attempted tackle.

But aside from the result, I am positive. Maybe Week 1 was an aberration. The offensive line seems to be getting its act together. Teddy has the platform to really kick on and establish himself as a top tier quarterback. But he was hesitant and looked nervy.

Magico Gonzalez · 28-09-2015 2:45pm

D9Male wrote: »

So what was the verdict from last night? I saw the game on condensed view, and I thought that AP and the defense basically won the game for the Vikings. AP was really phenomenal. His yards after contact was particularly impressive I guess (haven't seen stats, but I reckon half his yards were after an attempted tackle.

But aside from the result, I am positive. Maybe Week 1 was an aberration. The offensive line seems to be getting its act together. Teddy has the platform to really kick on and establish himself as a top tier quarterback. But he was hesitant and looked nervy.

Yeah, looking at TB in comparison with Carr he has looked pretty average. He would really benefit from a more physically dominant option to throw to in pressure situations. Someone freakish likes Julio Jones, Megraton or Gronkowksi. We just dont have that.

Barr was great, Phil Rivers must be in Ribbons today. Nice to find a team that makes are OL look brilliant.

Next week vs the Broncos we will face some serious heat, they banged up Stafford all night last night so I worry about getting much change there. Hoping we can get through to Manning and shake him up. Broncos will have much better coverage than the Chargers too. Tough game for Bridgewater to get his zen back.

D9Male · 28-09-2015 2:57pm

We should lose to the Broncos (their D is sensational), but the next four games are all a toss of a coin.

Home to KC
@ Lions
@ Chicago
Home to Rams.

Assuming we go into that stretch 2-2, we could come out of it anywhere between 2-6 and 6-2.

Magico Gonzalez · 28-09-2015 3:31pm

D9Male wrote: »

We should lose to the Broncos (their D is sensational), but the next four games are all a toss of a coin.

Home to KC
@ Lions
@ Chicago
Home to Rams.

Assuming we go into that stretch 2-2, we could come out of it anywhere between 2-6 and 6-2.

I'll eat my hat if we don't beat the Bears! The others could go either way, agreed.

Hulk Hands · 30-09-2015 6:03pm

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

I'll eat my hat if we don't beat the Bears! The others could go either way, agreed.

Ive been waiting a long time to come out of Soldier Field with a win. Even in 09 when we shouldve been in the Superbowl and the Bears in a rut, we got beaten there. We'd be 2-3 pts favs in that game as things stand

Magico Gonzalez · 30-09-2015 6:51pm

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Ive been waiting a long time to come out of Soldier Field with a win. Even in 09 when we shouldve been in the Superbowl and the Bears in a rut, we got beaten there. We'd be 2-3 pts favs in that game as things stand

I have to believe we can stop Jimmy Clausen. If not, it's going to be a long season. I know I am getting carried away, but we have to take something out of Soldier Field. As a team we need to beat divisional rivals when they are weak, and you could not be any weaker than the Bears right now.

Not much hope against the Broncos though. I hope we can keep it respectable but they will stop AP and our passing game doesn't hold out much hope right now. Charles Johnson has been pretty weak, at this stage I'd be almost in favour of given Patterson a look, might as well get him out there somewhere.

Hulk Hands · 01-10-2015 1:09am

I assume Cutlers back by then? Johnsons been nursing injury

Magico Gonzalez · 05-10-2015 2:25pm

I feel like as far as losses go that hurt a lot less than wk 1. A lot of pluses on offense , the OL line still a huge problem but Kalil wasnt too bad. TB picked it up this week, Diggs looks like a real threat. Patterson continues to underwhelm, he cant be too far from being cut. Losing by 3 to the Broncos is no shame.

D9Male · 05-10-2015 4:10pm

Yeah, but I started to believe in the fourth quarter. It is the belief that kills.

I was impressed with Teddy yesterday. I thought that the Broncos D would absolutely fillet him. And they kind of did, but he managed to pass very well when he did get the chance.

KC home and then two trips to divisional rivals next up. We kind of need to win all three and go into the Rams game 5-2 to have a chance of a playoff run.

Magico Gonzalez · 05-10-2015 4:24pm

I feel good about KC at home, which is probably why it will it will hurt so much when Alex Smith and his feeble arm beat us!

Kidding,...i hope.

D9Male · 05-10-2015 4:29pm

KC are better than their results so far. 1-3 team they ain't. Look at the teams they have lost to so far this season. Denver, Green Bay and the Bengals. They are likely to be top 3 seeds in the AFC this season.

kennyb3 · 05-10-2015 4:51pm

D9Male wrote: »

KC are better than their results so far. 1-3 team they ain't. Look at the teams they have lost to so far this season. Denver, Green Bay and the Bengals. They are likely to be top 3 seeds in the AFC this season.

We (Bears) are playing them next and I watched KC against the Packers & Bengals. They are as usual decent defensively (Marcus Peters has done very well at CB), on ST's and have Charles. However their Oline is awful and Smith seems to either be getting worse or more nervy - pulling it down quickly and running. They've no receivers (no TD's to receivers in forever) and look to Kelce constantly.

They are not a team to fear imho. I think we can run them to within a score even at Arrowhead. I think the Vikes can definitely beat them.

While KC's record is false possibly false, their one win was by 7 points over the Texans (not exactly impressive) and they are very poor offensively.

Magico Gonzalez · 05-10-2015 5:10pm

When we face up to teams with no OL and a qb not firing on all cylinders, it's a good match up for us if we can generate on offence.

Magico Gonzalez · 19-10-2015 2:20pm

If the Broncos game was an acceptable loss, yesterday's game turned into a pretty ugly win. Not a great day for Teddy.

Diggs has to cement his growing importance in the side, Wallace had a nothing day where Diggs broke 100 yds receiving. Still have problems with Sendejo at safety.

D9Male · 19-10-2015 2:42pm

No idea how this season is going to progress. Yesterday's game looked very ugly.

Looks as if the best we can hope for is that Bridgwater will become a serviceable quarterback. He makes some really bad plays and doesn't look to be a guy who can change his mind more than once in a play.

Our division is pretty bad. That, along with the poor record of other wild card possibles in the NFC (Dallas, Philly, St Louis, Seattle all have losing records) gives us a squeak. This might be one of the years where a 9-7 record gets a wildcard slot.

Magico Gonzalez · 19-10-2015 3:28pm

D9Male wrote: »

No idea how this season is going to progress. Yesterday's game looked very ugly.

Looks as if the best we can hope for is that Bridgwater will become a serviceable quarterback. He makes some really bad plays and doesn't look to be a guy who can change his mind more than once in a play.

Our division is pretty bad. That, along with the poor record of other wild card possibles in the NFC (Dallas, Philly, St Louis, Seattle all have losing records) gives us a squeak. This might be one of the years where a 9-7 record gets a wildcard slot.

It's disappointing to watch what we hoped would be a franchise qb struggle. He had decent protection y/day so the OL can't be the only excuse. 9-7 would be an amazing result for us this year. I'd take it now with bells on, playoffs or not.

Is it 17 starts for Bridgewater now? I suppose we have to give the guy a chance, see if his potential can flourish, not much room for that in the NFL unfortunately.

Hulk Hands · 19-10-2015 3:34pm

Thought yesterday was positive overall. The Chiefs are a good side and they were destroyed, the margin of victory didn't reflect the game whatsoever. Our D, without one of its most important components in Griffen, stuffed the Chiefs.

It's a bit of knee-jerk to be condemning Bridgewater now. Just one game ago he had his best ever game as a pro and everyone said what a mature young QB he was to give a performance like that against that D with zero OL help. He had one bad int yesterday but the other was just good play by Peters.

Sooner we get Sullivan back, we can reorganise the OL to get Clemmings more help. Hes a liability at the moment, albeit in a tough situation. Be interesting to see who starts when CJ is back, him or Diggs. For some reason I think Norv will be reluctant to bench the former given how he saved our season offensively last year. You need Wallace in there if you even for the extra attention he warrants

Magico Gonzalez · 19-10-2015 3:37pm

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Thought yesterday was positive overall. The Chiefs are a good side and they were destroyed, the margin of victory didn't reflect the game whatsoever. Our D, without one of its most important components in Griffen, stuffed the Chiefs.

It's a bit of knee-jerk to be condemning Bridgewater now. Just one game ago he had his best ever game as a pro and everyone said what a mature young QB he was to give a performance like that against that D with zero OL help. He had one bad int yesterday but the other was just good play by Peters.

Sooner we get Sullivan back, we can reorganise the OL to get Clemmings more help. Hes a liability at the moment, albeit in a tough situation. Be interesting to see who starts when CJ is back, him or Diggs. For some reason I think Norv will be reluctant to bench the former given how he saved our season offensively last year. You need Wallace in there if you even for the extra attention he warrants

Has to be Diggs, on merit. I don't want to sound like i'm dumping on TB, but he needs to find a way to improve on his decision making. He's been inconsistent.

Anyway, my overall feeling is that rather than being playoff dark horses we're still a work in progress. I like Zimmer as HC much more than I like Norv as offensive coordinator too.

D9Male · 19-10-2015 3:53pm

I don't think it is too knee jerk to be giving Teddy a hard time. I feel his good game was more of an aberration than anything.

The stats are not good. He is 26th in the NFL among starting QB's. He has passed for just 3 touch downs in five games. I would love to be wrong, and our OL has not really helped him. He is doing a fair bit with his legs, which does help. But he just seems to freeze a little bit. He takes the sack when he should throw it away. He is hesitant. I don't know. Maybe I look at him a bit too critically because I really want to win and he is the easy fall guy, but I am not impressed.

Hulk Hands · 19-10-2015 4:23pm

D9Male wrote: »

Looks as if the best we can hope for is that Bridgwater will become a serviceable quarterback. He makes some really bad plays and doesn't look to be a guy who can change his mind more than once in a play.

This is one of the main reasons people have praised BW in his career thus far. His ability to work through his progressions is very good and the exact opposite from what we has from Ponder previously. He's also shown a touch of "Favre", when a play breaks down he can innovate and keep it alive (such as the flip pass to Peterson for a big gain against the Chargers). Strange comment

D9Male wrote: »

I don't think it is too knee jerk to be giving Teddy a hard time. I feel his good game was more of an aberration than anything.

The stats are not good. He is 26th in the NFL among starting QB's. He has passed for just 3 touch downs in five games. I would love to be wrong, and our OL has not really helped him. He is doing a fair bit with his legs, which does help. But he just seems to freeze a little bit. He takes the sack when he should throw it away. He is hesitant. I don't know. Maybe I look at him a bit too critically because I really want to win and he is the easy fall guy, but I am not impressed.

How is the good game an abberation? Did you watch last season? Or the Lions game even? We're a massively run first offense, his stats are never going to be up there. In all 3 games we've won we've been ahead early and just needed to manage the game out. In the game against the Broncos we had to chase and he showed he can air it out very well. Even against the 49ers aswel, although the whole thing was a shambles that night.

He's taking sacks because he has the bravery to step up in the pocket, despite terrible protection for the most part. His movement in the pocket is thankfully excellent, I shudder to think how we'd get on with an immobile QB. During the off season Vikings fans were embarrassing by proclaiming him as the next elite QB etc, when that was never going to happen. He is however as expected, a mid level QB at the moment who should progress into a comfortable top 10 guy.

As for Norv Turner, he's one of the best things to have happened the franchise in a while and its going to be a kick in the stones when he eventually gets another HC slot elsewhere. Zimmers knew to the role and you can tell the influence Norv is having over everything. Not sure how everyones not delighted with him given what we had to put up with from our OC before him

D9Male · 19-10-2015 4:27pm

I am judging him as a decision making QB as that is what he is sold as. I don't see someone who can change his mind more than once.

I saw maybe half of the games last season, and saw all of the Detroit game. I think a lot of QB's look good against Detroit, becuase they are shit.

Listen, I agree his protection has been poor (but not that bad). He moves well, he looks up. It is just he looks like he panics to me. Maybe I am wrong, I just don't agree it is knee-jerk, as I have been saying it for a while (and others have too).

kennyb3 · 19-10-2015 4:52pm

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Thought yesterday was positive overall. The Chiefs are a good side and they were destroyed, the margin of victory didn't reflect the game whatsoever. Our D, without one of its most important components in Griffen, stuffed the Chiefs.

I really don't think they are. Even with Charles they were average and without him they are well below average. Smith has been very jittery this year and pulling it down way too early.

As i predicted on last page of this thread, we (the bears) would give them a good game and you should beat them comfortably. We beat them at arrowhead. The scored 10 offensive points, 0 in the second half.

I only saw your game on redzone so can't comment on it. Just wanted to point out your way overrating Kansas city. They've talent on defence but it hasn't turned up fully this year but their offence is pure awful right now.

Hulk Hands · 19-10-2015 5:24pm

Chiefs went off 5 point underdogs in Lambeau field, favs against the Broncos and 3 point underdogs against a team off a bye yesterday. The markets rate them as a very good team. I'd say they're in the 12-18 range, which is average I suppose when you think about it

Magico Gonzalez · 19-10-2015 5:38pm

Re Norv: Some of the play calling this week was pretty off. Hand offs to Peterson out of the shotgun which never ends well, running him into a brick wall all day. Sometimes looking for creative solutions ignores the obvious more pragmatic ways to win. Maybe it's more of a case that we are not really in shape for a Norv Turner offence. I'd like to see us get the basics down, I'd like to see more of Asiata too and less of Mckinnon. If the qb isnt firing on all cylinders lets focus on what he is doing well, if the rush blocking isn't in great shape then lets not run into brick walls with hand offs out of the shotgun. I dunno...I just don't see the players we have are in tune with the Norv offence.

D9Male · 19-10-2015 5:48pm

I read somewhere that AP ranks very lowly among NFL starting running backs this season on overall play (includes blocking, receiving, fumbles, etc.). It was before Week 6, but I doubt his ranking has improved much after yesterday.

Magico Gonzalez · 19-10-2015 5:53pm

D9Male wrote: »

I read somewhere that AP ranks very lowly among NFL starting running backs this season on overall play (includes blocking, receiving, fumbles, etc.). It was before Week 6, but I doubt his ranking has improved much after yesterday.

I dont know that those overall stats matter too much, he'll make big plays when he has the chance. Was he ever a good blocker? He's always been fairly poor there, same with the hands, there is always the chance one will pop loose. Those are things you can trade off for the big plays.

We're a better team with him in there, but we need to use him correctly.

kennyb3 · 19-10-2015 8:38pm

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Chiefs went off 5 point underdogs in Lambeau field, favs against the Broncos and 3 point underdogs against a team off a bye yesterday. The markets rate them as a very good team. I'd say they're in the 12-18 range, which is average I suppose when you think about it

Yep and 10 points favs versus bears - all of which were wrong. They are being rated on last years team imho and the fact they are seen as tough and competitive. Special teams not as good as last year, defence not as good and offence just awful.

So far they've beaten the mighty Texans by 7 points. Again the bears are a 4-12 / 5-11 team and they put up 10 offensive points all game.

Magico Gonzalez · 23-10-2015 4:51pm

Can we beat the teams we're "supposed" to beat? A win against the Lions would be huge, 4-2 would be excellent.

Magico Gonzalez · 25-10-2015 9:10pm

4-2 it is, lions came out of the traps quickest but we figured them out and shut them down. Huge days from kendricks, diggs and a 300+ from teddy bridgewater.

Hulk Hands · 26-10-2015 6:08am

BW is good again, wheyhey! Twitter is great fun during Vikings games I must say, some amount of vocal idiots

Not sure where the D was first Q but when they play like they did the rest of the game, legitimate top 5 group. Diggs looks a godsend. Entire wr corps looks nice now, 4 guys to come in and out, all of them comfortable outside or in the slot. Wish we'd go deep a little more, as with the Diggs TD today. Some amount of speed in that group. Rudolph too finally again showing the talent he flashed a few years back. Oline and safety across from Harrison still a mess, but the rests all looking very solid.

Just looking at the schedule, there's one slight upside to the Packers if they keep winning. We have them week 17, and if they have the no.1 seed sown up (a win vs Carolina will do it for them prob), then we'll likely be facing their backs ups. For us, likely to be an 8-9-10 win team bordering a wildcard spot, that could be huge. What looks like toughest game on the schedule could become very winnable

Magico Gonzalez · 26-10-2015 4:20pm

Hulk Hands wrote: »

BW is good again, wheyhey! Twitter is great fun during Vikings games I must say, some amount of vocal idiots

Not sure where the D was first Q but when they play like they did the rest of the game, legitimate top 5 group. Diggs looks a godsend. Entire wr corps looks nice now, 4 guys to come in and out, all of them comfortable outside or in the slot. Wish we'd go deep a little more, as with the Diggs TD today. Some amount of speed in that group. Rudolph too finally again showing the talent he flashed a few years back. Oline and safety across from Harrison still a mess, but the rests all looking very solid.

Just looking at the schedule, there's one slight upside to the Packers if they keep winning. We have them week 17, and if they have the no.1 seed sown up (a win vs Carolina will do it for them prob), then we'll likely be facing their backs ups. For us, likely to be an 8-9-10 win team bordering a wildcard spot, that could be huge. What looks like toughest game on the schedule could become very winnable

The vikings reddit thread usually goes into meltdown during the games.

Bears up next, another div win would be rocket fuel for our season.

Minnesota Vikings????

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