2022 Vikings Regular Season Thread

[Vanimal46]

We made it. Week 1 is here! And it’s Packers week…

[Mike Sixel]

I literally have no idea what the o or d will look like. But if Bradbury isn't a sieve, I do think the o will be very good for some reason. 

[nicksaviking]

It would be fun to have a shoot out offense once again.

Not a ton of holdovers in the defensive front seven, but most of the DBs are the same. As a group, they were pretty bad last year, I'm hopeful a scheme changed doesn't make them even worse.

[Mike Sixel]

7 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

It would be fun to have a shoot out offense once again.

Not a ton of holdovers in the defensive front seven, but most of the DBs are the same. As a group, they were pretty bad last year, I'm hopeful a scheme changed doesn't make them even worse.

I can't see how the DBs could be even worse....

[nicksaviking]

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I can't see how the DBs could be even worse....

As bad as they were, they did have a Pro Bowler in the group. If everyone else plays as poorly as they did last year and age or a system change finally does in Harrison Smith it would be worse.

Though, I'd think that in switching from a 4-3, Strong Safety might be the LEAST impacted position. Not that I'm an expert.

[gunnarthor]

Any predictions before the season starts?

Me: Vikings 14-3, win the North, lose in playoffs. Bills finally beat KC in playoffs and win superbowl over SF. 

[Mike Sixel]

CBS has MN picking 12th in their recent mock drafts. No way they are that bad.

MN wins 11 games, maybe 12. Win a playoff game, then lose. I'd be thrilled if the Bills won it all (assuming it isn't against MN).

[Vanimal46]

If Hunter and Z Smith are healthy and starting 15+ games, I think 11 wins are possible. 

If I had to bet money on it today, I’d say 8-9 wins. Still don’t have much faith in the defense. The talent is due for a sharp decline (Harrison, Pat Peterson, Kendricks) or has major injury concerns (Hunter and Z Smith). 

[RpR]

Vikings 8-8-1

[cHawk]

4 hours ago, RpR said:

Vikings 8-8-1

10-7*

[Danchat]

9-8

[nicksaviking]

On 9/8/2022 at 11:09 AM, Mike Sixel said:

CBS has MN picking 12th in their recent mock drafts. No way they are that bad.

MN wins 11 games, maybe 12. Win a playoff game, then lose. I'd be thrilled if the Bills won it all (assuming it isn't against MN).

Yeah, I mean the Vikings don't even have to be good, to have a good record. Their schedule is crazy easy. 

I'll say 11-6 but even that means they're losing to a few lousy teams. The AFC East and NFC East look to have one good team combined, and that's 8 of their games, which speaks nothing of what should be (but likely won't be) at least four wins in the NFC North. I guess others are free to like the Dolphins, Cowboys, Saints and Eagles waaaaaaaaay more than I do though.

[gunnarthor]

18 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, I mean the Vikings don't even have to be good, to have a good record. Their schedule is crazy easy. 

I'll say 11-6 but even that means they're losing to a few lousy teams. The AFC East and NFC East look to have one good team combined, and that's 8 of their games, which speaks nothing of what should be (but likely won't be) at least four wins in the NFC North. I guess others are free to like the Dolphins, Cowboys, Saints and Eagles waaaaaaaaay more than I do though.

I think this is a good point. The NFC and the NFC North are both pretty weak. Green Bay, Tampa, SF, LA are, I believe, the universal top four in the NFC. After that, it's open and one team (hopefully the Vikings) can easily surprise.

[Vanimal46]

ZaDarius Smith and Danielle Hunter should have a field day today against GB. Both of their starting tackles are out, as well as their #1 in Lazard. If we can’t generate a TON of pressure today, I’ll be very concerned about our defense. 

[Danchat]

The line has gone from GB -1.5 to MIN -2.5 in the past 24 hours… ?

[gunnarthor]

Cripes, the AFC is loaded. Pitt/Cincy is a heck of a game.  

[Mike Sixel]

Great first half. Pretty bad second half by the O. Nice to win.

[LVTwinsfan]

Can’t think of a better way to start the season, than beating the snot out of the Packers

[LVTwinsfan]

6 hours ago, Danchat said:

The line has gone from GB -1.5 to MIN -2.5 in the past 24 hours… ?

I got them at Minnesota + 1.5, they get no respect

[Vanimal46]

Excellent start to the KOC era. 

[cHawk]

The team looked way different under O’Connell. The defense played well, the offense went for it in the final two minutes, and the whole team played with more gusto.

[LVTwinsfan]

14 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Great first half. Pretty bad second half by the O. Nice to win.

I think they backed off a bit and played a little conservative in the 2nd half. That’s ok, the defense was real good. I’m sure when the Packers finally scored many Vikings fans were worried but the truth is, the Packers were never a threat. 

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, LVTwinsfan said:

I think they backed off a bit and played a little conservative in the 2nd half. That’s ok, the defense was real good. I’m sure when the Packers finally scored many Vikings fans were worried but the truth is, the Packers were never a threat. 

 

It was a great convincing win, but I wasn't a huge fan of taking the foot off the throat in the second half though. Seemed way too much like the last regime.

There was a time Rodgers could have still pulled out that win with an offense made up of guys pulled off of the streets, so there should have been some concern that he could engineer two more touchdown drives. 

[gunnarthor]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

 

It was a great convincing win, but I wasn't a huge fan of taking the foot off the throat in the second half though. Seemed way too much like the last regime.

There was a time Rodgers could have still pulled out that win with an offense made up of guys pulled off of the streets, so there should have been some concern that he could engineer two more touchdown drives. 

I'm not sure the Vikes took the foot off so much. Our first drive we went backwards but got a FG (blown pass interference call was biggest play of that drive). Our next drive was a 5 play drive but, again, we had a penalty. We got to 4th and 2 at midfield. I was thinking we should go for it there but it's normal to punt there (the punt wasn't great). Our next drive was a 12 play drive that lead to a FG. And our last drive was a 7 play drive that ate up a lot of the remaining time. 

To the extent we didn't have the same success, well, the Packers are a good football team, we weren't going to score every drive. We kept going deep all day. I think the play calling was really strong yesterday, knowing that, even when we make a good call, the other team will occasionally defend it well. 

[LVTwinsfan]

36 minutes ago, gunnarthor said:

I'm not sure the Vikes took the foot off so much. Our first drive we went backwards but got a FG (blown pass interference call was biggest play of that drive). Our next drive was a 5 play drive but, again, we had a penalty. We got to 4th and 2 at midfield. I was thinking we should go for it there but it's normal to punt there (the punt wasn't great). Our next drive was a 12 play drive that lead to a FG. And our last drive was a 7 play drive that ate up a lot of the remaining time. 

To the extent we didn't have the same success, well, the Packers are a good football team, we weren't going to score every drive. We kept going deep all day. I think the play calling was really strong yesterday, knowing that, even when we make a good call, the other team will occasionally defend it well. 

I don’t understand the criticism of the Vikings, a lot of teams that didn’t play their starters in preseason failed miserably yesterday. I expected a win yesterday and I thought the game would be much closer. It was a great game one, the Vikings will get better as the season goes on. Beating Green Bay as they did yesterday is a huge victory. I’m not going to second guess anything they  did yesterday

[nicksaviking]

No complaints here, it was a re-assuring victory. 

The only nit-pick is that on that first drive of the 4Q, once they crossed midfield, they went back to running on first down. Felt a little like they were OK playing for a field goal and to run the clock down, when a TD would have sealed it.

But that might not have been the intent. Before Mattison got stuffed on the last first down play, they'd had success running it the prior two first down plays.

[gunnarthor]

19 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

No complaints here, it was a re-assuring victory. 

The only nit-pick is that on that first drive of the 4Q, once they crossed midfield, they went back to running on first down. Felt a little like they were OK playing for a field goal and to run the clock down, when a TD would have sealed it.

But that might not have been the intent. Before Mattison got stuffed on the last first down play, they'd had success running it the prior two first down plays.

IIRC, the Packers were playing six in the box against our three receiver sets pretty often. The announcers even pointed that out. So I think we ran it down their throat a bit in the 4Q. On the Mattison stuff, I think they went back to a normal alignment but Cousins didn't audible out. I could be misremembering all of this but that's what I think happened. I also remember from last year, Cousins saying something like he doesn't audible so that could be an issue as the season progresses but someone feel free to correct me.

[Vanimal46]

We dodged a major bullet not hiring Nathaniel Hackett as HC. That was the most moronic 2 minute drill I’ve ever seen from Denver. Choosing a 64 yard FG over letting their $250 million QB try to win it? Crazy. 

[nicksaviking]

16 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

We dodged a major bullet not hiring Nathaniel Hackett as HC. That was the most moronic 2 minute drill I’ve ever seen from Denver. Choosing a 64 yard FG over letting their $250 million QB try to win it? Crazy. 

Can you imagine the tantrum he'd have had to put up with if he'd had the reigns in Green Bay and put Rodgers on the sideline in favor of the kicker?

[cHawk]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Can you imagine the tantrum he'd have had to put up with if he'd had the reigns in Green Bay and put Rodgers on the sideline in favor of the kicker?

That sounds like a certain NFC Championship Game played in January 2021.