2021 Vikings Season Thread

[TheLeviathan]

Just now, gunnarthor said:

This is a nice looking offense

We love to rag on OCs....this guy calls a good game.  Cousins is sharp as hell too.

[cHawk]

5 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

We love to rag on OCs....this guy calls a good game.  Cousins is sharp as hell too.

Bradbury still looks pretty bad unfortunately

[TheLeviathan]

1 minute ago, cHawk said:

Bradbury still looks pretty bad unfortunately

That was a BS call.  His block on the screen sprung Mattison.

[cHawk]

3 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

That was a BS call.  His block on the screen sprung Mattison.

Yeah it was a good block but he still gets shoved back in Pass Pro.

Maybe he’d make a good run-blocking tight end but I don’t like him as a center.

[cHawk]

The offense looks really good. But they won’t make the playoffs with this defense. Zimmer should go if the defense doesn’t turn around.

[Vanimal46]

Kirk is playing excellent football right now

[cHawk]

14 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Kirk is playing excellent football right now

Klint and the OL (outside of Rashod Hill) are also looking solid.

[TheLeviathan]

The offense looks damn near unstoppable.

[gunnarthor]

Cleveland is really turning into a solid guard. 

[TheLeviathan]

It's another high quality game from the OL.  This is a really nice win.

[Vanimal46]

The defense woke up a bit. That roughing the passer call on Griffen was egregious to say the least. 

[Mike Sixel]

Great game by Cousins. Still have no idea what this team is 

[cHawk]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Great game by Cousins. Still have no idea what this team is 

We’ll find out next week. The Browns OL and Secondary are much better than that of the Seahawks.

[TheLeviathan]

3 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Great game by Cousins. Still have no idea what this team is 

A really good offense seems to be true.  Either way it sure seems like you can say this about 95% of the league.  Weird year.

[cHawk]

Roethlisberger is going to go out like Eli Manning. Kinda feel for him.

[Vanimal46]

Zimmer’s got 3.5 months to cobble together a decent defense… I don’t think that unit will win us any games alone this year. They just need to be okay to keep our offense on the field. 

[Mike Sixel]

3 hours ago, cHawk said:

Roethlisberger is going to go out like Eli Manning. Kinda feel for him.

I hope he goes out worse. Much. 

[nicksaviking]

19 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

I don't understand how this defense is this bad.

Too many new pieces, it was a concern that it would take awhile for them to gel.

Not that Breelund's issues are that he needs to gel, he's just not good.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

I hope he goes out worse. Much. 

I hope he sticks it out until at least week 14.

Although, I guess I've seen Mason Rudolph play too; the Vikings need not be scared of any Pittsburgh QB. They really seemed like a club that should have been going big for a QB in the draft last year.

[Mike Sixel]

1 minute ago, nicksaviking said:

I hope he sticks it out until at least week 14.

Although, I guess I've seen Mason Rudolph play too; the Vikings need not be scared of any Pittsburgh QB. They really seemed like a club that should have been going big for a QB in the draft last year.

Meh, not what I care about, but I get it. I don't wish injury on anyone, but if he is an awful player this year, I'll be marginally happier.

[gunnarthor]

The way Cleveland's defensive line ran through Chicago scares me. It'll be a pretty big test for our o-line.

[TheLeviathan]

44 minutes ago, gunnarthor said:

The way Cleveland's defensive line ran through Chicago scares me. It'll be a pretty big test for our o-line.

Agreed, though schematically the Bears made no adjustments.  The edge the Vikings have is their skill players are so good at getting open that it allows us to quick throw on people.  The other thing the Bears didn't do enough was use the screen game.  The couple times they did it was effective, but they didn't go back to it.  

The Vikings screened a lot to get the d-line to backdown and then hit them over the top.  I think that gameplan can work again, but you're right....this might be the best defensive line they'll see all year.

[cHawk]

5 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

The way Cleveland's defensive line ran through Chicago scares me. It'll be a pretty big test for our o-line.

The Bears OL is 32nd in Sacks Against% at 15.15% (yikes!!!). The Vikings OL is 7th at 4.00% (and no, I don’t believe in PFF grades).

The Seahawks DL isn’t great, the Browns DL is way better. Rashod Hill could get absolutely manhandled.

Also the Browns OL hasn’t been great to start this year, that’s surprising.

[nicksaviking]

The line has been better the last two games, but Cousins also isn't throwing deep as often as he did in the past. His yards per attempt are down and so are his yards per completion. Small sample-size, but maybe Clint realized something his dad never did; that you have to get rid of the ball quicker if your OL isn't any good.

I don't think it's Cousins who is taking it upon himself to check down either, because Thielen and Jefferson are still getting most of the targets and their yards per target are way down from last year.

[cHawk]

28 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

The line has been better the last two games, but Cousins also isn't throwing deep as often as he did in the past. His yards per attempt are down and so are his yards per completion. Small sample-size, but maybe Clint realized something his dad never did; that you have to get rid of the ball quicker if your OL isn't any good.

I don't think it's Cousins who is taking it upon himself to check down either, because Thielen and Jefferson are still getting most of the targets and their yards per target are way down from last year.

They probably won’t be a “big plays” offense but they could definitely be an up-tempo offense that scores a lot of points, while also burning the clock.

The OL has impressed me. The stats, so far (SSS) look a lot better than last year. Guard play has been way better.

I think another thing that’s been helping Cousins out is using the 3 WR sets.

[nicksaviking]

37 minutes ago, cHawk said:

They probably won’t be a “big plays” offense but they could definitely be an up-tempo offense that scores a lot of points, while also burning the clock.

The OL has impressed me. The stats, so far (SSS) look a lot better than last year. Guard play has been way better.

I think another thing that’s been helping Cousins out is using the 3 WR sets.

I wonder who convinced Zimmer to do these things after 8 years of dragging his feet?

Or maybe it was decided for him?

[wabene]

16 hours ago, cHawk said:

The Bears OL is 32nd in Sacks Against% at 15.15% (yikes!!!). The Vikings OL is 7th at 4.00% (and no, I don’t believe in PFF grades).

The Seahawks DL isn’t great, the Browns DL is way better. Rashod Hill could get absolutely manhandled.

Also the Browns OL hasn’t been great to start this year, that’s surprising.

Perhaps Da Bears are going to muck up Fields development.

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

The line has been better the last two games, but Cousins also isn't throwing deep as often as he did in the past. His yards per attempt are down and so are his yards per completion. Small sample-size, but maybe Clint realized something his dad never did; that you have to get rid of the ball quicker if your OL isn't any good.

I don't think it's Cousins who is taking it upon himself to check down either, because Thielen and Jefferson are still getting most of the targets and their yards per target are way down from last year.

They still took a lot of middle and deep shots though too.  I think what you're see is we're attacking all levels of the defense based on what they're giving us.

Dude still had nearly 9 yards per throw.  It's not like we're checking down and dinking and dunking.  When he dropped back he had a lot of clean pockets.  Not to mention the massive, gaping holes they are opening in the running game.

These last two games the O-line has been a top 10 unit.  Maybe top 5.

[cHawk]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

I wonder who convinced Zimmer to do these things after 8 years of dragging his feet?

Or maybe it was decided for him?

Who knows? Maybe it’s Klint.

[cHawk]

1 hour ago, wabene said:

Perhaps Da Bears are going to muck up Fields development.

Nagy is not off to a good start in terms of developing Fields. He’d be better off starting Foles this year than Fields.