2023 Vikings Regular Season Thread

[Aggies7]

4 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Pretty clear that the ref got the players wrong—#70 had come into the game as an eligible receiver a couple of times previous, but this time #68 (Decker) was the eligible guy. Lions got robbed IMHO. 

Dont they usually announce over the ref’s mic when a lineman is eligible? 

[Parfigliano]

4 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Pretty clear that the ref got the players wrong—#70 had come into the game as an eligible receiver a couple of times previous, but this time #68 (Decker) was the eligible guy. Lions got robbed IMHO. 

In favor of Dallas who the NFL and TV broadcasts would LOVE to see all the way to the super bowl.  Coincidence?  Conspiracy?

[stringer bell]

28 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

Dont they usually announce over the ref’s mic when a lineman is eligible? 

Yes. The ref announced that #70 was eligible, which was wrong. After the game, the ref said that #70 had reported as eligible and it appears to me that he was wrong. Detroit head coach Campbell said that he had told the refs before the game about this exact play. 

I don't know if the Lions could have corrected the error with the play clock running and it might take away the surprise element of the gadget play. It's sad that the ref can't/won't admit his error in this.

[Aggies7]

1 hour ago, Parfigliano said:

In favor of Dallas who the NFL and TV broadcasts would LOVE to see all the way to the super bowl.  Coincidence?  Conspiracy?

Dallas hasn’t made an NFC championship game in almost 30 years. If the NFL is rigging things in their favor, they’ve been doing a terrible job of it 

[Mike Sixel]

I'm not sure we want Flores back. They are worse than awful against average or better teams. 

[Aggies7]

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm not sure we want Flores back. They are worse than awful against average or better teams. 

I don’t even know how you describe tonight defensively. It literally looked like a tank job. I don’t believe it was but I don’t know how else you explain tonight defensively. Injuries? They blitzed maybe a few time and played 12 yards off the line. And the tackling was as poor as I’ve ever seen. 53 first downs allowed in 2 games. WOW

[Mike Sixel]

7 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

I don’t even know how you describe tonight defensively. It literally looked like a tank job. I don’t believe it was but I don’t know how else you explain tonight defensively. Injuries? They blitzed maybe a few time and played 12 yards off the line. And the tackling was as poor as I’ve ever seen. 53 first downs allowed in 2 games. WOW

Like last week. And the week before.

[Aggies7]

7 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Like last week. And the week before.

You had guys open by 15 yards on plays where Love just ran around for a while. Looks like the secondary had no clue about coverages 

[Danchat]

16 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

I don’t even know how you describe tonight defensively. It literally looked like a tank job. I don’t believe it was but I don’t know how else you explain tonight defensively. Injuries? They blitzed maybe a few time and played 12 yards off the line. And the tackling was as poor as I’ve ever seen. 53 first downs allowed in 2 games. WOW

They blitzed quite often but the Packers picked it up. It took a while but teams have finally figured out his blitzes, and the DBs can't hold up when the pass rush doesn't immediately hit. The front seven has a single player who can generate pressure (Hunter) and with Wonnum down they have nobody. Hicks and Pace weren't getting home as blitzers, Jones II is a bust who has no business being a every-snap player, and the DL is only comprised of run stuffers. It's a recipe for failure - the whole offseason plan was rotten from the start. Adding Davenport (injured), Murphy (fine), and Lowry (bad) and then only spending a 3rd and 4th on DBs was not a good plan if they wanted to be competitive... and also not a good long-term plan as Davenport is a FA and Murphy has just one year left.

 

9 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Like last week. And the week before.

The Vikings blitzed 63% against the Lions - yes, 63%! They just consistently picked it up with their elite OL and punished them for it. Flores is damned if he blitzes, damned if he doesn't. Their play against Green Bay was inexcusable, but the personnel blows.

[Aggies7]

3 minutes ago, Danchat said:

They blitzed quite often but the Packers picked it up. It took a while but teams have finally figured out his blitzes, and the DBs can't hold up when the pass rush doesn't immediately hit. The front seven has a single player who can generate pressure (Hunter) and with Wonnum down they have nobody. Hicks and Pace weren't getting home as blitzers, Jones II is a bust who has no business being a every-snap player, and the DL is only comprised of run stuffers. It's a recipe for failure - the whole offseason plan was rotten from the start. Adding Davenport (injured), Murphy (fine), and Lowry (bad) and then only spending a 3rd and 4th on DBs was not a good plan if they wanted to be competitive... and also not a good long-term plan as Davenport is a FA and Murphy has just one year left.

 

The Vikings blitzed 63% against the Lions - yes, 63%! They just consistently picked it up with their elite OL and punished them for it. Flores is damned if he blitzes, damned if he doesn't. Their play against Green Bay was inexcusable, but the personnel blows.

It really didn’t seem like they blitzed much at all

[nicksaviking]

20 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

Dallas hasn’t made an NFC championship game in almost 30 years. If the NFL is rigging things in their favor, they’ve been doing a terrible job of it 

Dallas' post season ineptness is always a nice consolation prize to me, a Vikings fan.

[nicksaviking]

11 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm not sure we want Flores back. They are worse than awful against average or better teams. 

Yeah, I'm not sure either, though during that good stretch, I think we all kind of forgot about the fact that there's barely any competent players on the defensive side of the ball.

And the only one who is for sure competent, is about to leave in free agency. Adofo-Mensah's best defensive addition has been an UDFA line backer. Someone else needs to take over the defensive evaluations for the draft.

[Mike Sixel]

The leadership has one more year for me to be patient. But so far, I'd fire them all. This next draft better be better. Not to mention free agents. If Hunter leaves, that week be strike two for me. 

Once Kirk was hurt, they should have traded every impending free agent.

[Danchat]

12 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

It really didn’t seem like they blitzed much at all

The stats have come out... they blitzed 75.8% of the time!! 25 of 33 dropbacks for Love he faced a blitz. That's insane, and it's if there was zero pressure on him.

[Aggies7]

4 minutes ago, Danchat said:

The stats have come out... they blitzed 75.8% of the time!! 25 of 33 dropbacks for Love he faced a blitz. That's insane, and it's if there was zero pressure on him.

Wow. Maybe they were smaller blitzes then. Barely noticeable 

[Danchat]

22 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

Wow. Maybe they were smaller blitzes then. Barely noticeable 

I did a little bit of film review, they sent 5 or 6 blitzers on almost every play. It's a big reason why so many guys were open, though Akayleb Evans had a horrifically bad game in coverage allowing 119 yards... most of which were to Bo Melton, a practice squad call-up. Not a single Packer had a 100+ yard game this season until him!

The other big thing that stuck out to me was that the OL gave up pressure on 61.5% of dropbacks. Darrisaw, Bradbury, and Risner had their worst games of the year in pass pro. Ingram got benched for the ineligible player penalty.

This is the one game I can definitively say we lose with Kirk at QB. And not to mention:

January 1st 2023: Packers 41, Vikings 17

December 31st 2023: Packers 33 Vikings 10

I really hate this team sometimes...

[Vanimal46]

This is going to be one of the more fascinating Off seasons for the Vikings in quite some time. 

2 QBs, 1 feature RB, WR 3, LG, C, RG, the whole DL, 2 edge rushers, and a CB are all needs. 

This feels like just the beginning to a painful rebuild. 

[wabene]

Unless some of the young guys miraculously develop into useful players over the off-season, count this squad as gutted. 

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

Wow. Maybe they were smaller blitzes then. Barely noticeable 

I noticed the DBs blitzing regularly, but it was really obvious who was rushing. I mean you could see Matellus coming from a mile away.

[nicksaviking]

33 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

This is going to be one of the more fascinating Off seasons for the Vikings in quite some time. 

2 QBs, 1 feature RB, WR 3, LG, C, RG, the whole DL, 2 edge rushers, and a CB are all needs. 

This feels like just the beginning to a painful rebuild. 

Yeah, would have been easier with the picks they could have gotten from Cousins and Hunter and maybe Smith.

Or maybe not since complaining about Kwesi's drafts have been pretty much all I've had to contribute today.

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

The leadership has one more year for me to be patient. But so far, I'd fire them all. This next draft better be better. Not to mention free agents. If Hunter leaves, that week be strike two for me. 

Once Kirk was hurt, they should have traded every impending free agent.

Yup.  When Kirk went out for season it was tank time for the draft.

[Aggies7]

54 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I noticed the DBs blitzing regularly, but it was really obvious who was rushing. I mean you could see Matellus coming from a mile away.

To be fair I was pretty drunk from about midway through the 2nd quarter on 😂

[Aggies7]

Lost in the moment is that the Vikings are now in last place, albeit tied with the bears. Did NOT see that coming after 6-4 happened 

[Aggies7]

JJ McCarthy with one of the worst interceptions you’ll see, right off the bat. Although negated by a penalty. He’ll fit right in in purple!

[gunnarthor]

16 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm not sure we want Flores back. They are worse than awful against average or better teams. 

Nah. Coming into the season, we were all terrified about how bad this defense could be. They didn't really add anyone (Davenport, I guess) and last year we were 31st in yards allowed per game and 28th in pts allowed per game, despite playing a second place schedule. This year we're 16th and 12th against a first place schedule, including holding the 49ers to their lowest point total of the year. That's a pretty substantial improvement without a huge investment in players.

It's also Flores' first year as a defensive coordinator, believe it or not. As head coach in Miami, his defenses got better after a few years so I think he can pinpoint problems and fix them. It also isn't helping that the offense is turning the ball over all the time.

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

Nah. Coming into the season, we were all terrified about how bad this defense could be. They didn't really add anyone (Davenport, I guess) and last year we were 31st in yards allowed per game and 28th in pts allowed per game, despite playing a second place schedule. This year we're 16th and 12th against a first place schedule, including holding the 49ers to their lowest point total of the year. That's a pretty substantial improvement without a huge investment in players.

It's also Flores' first year as a defensive coordinator, believe it or not. As head coach in Miami, his defenses got better after a few years so I think he can pinpoint problems and fix them. It also isn't helping that the offense is turning the ball over all the time.

I tend to agree. The personnel on defense is really awful. There was probably some smoke and mirror success for a spell there, but this is a really terrible group. 
 

And this is probably the worst group of corners we’ve ever seen, yet somehow we’ve complained less about corner play than we have in a decade. They’re definitely not doing their jobs, yet they aren’t getting picked on every single play. If anything Flores has found a way to band aid that issue in a way Zimmer never could.

[Mike Sixel]

32 minutes ago, gunnarthor said:

Nah. Coming into the season, we were all terrified about how bad this defense could be. They didn't really add anyone (Davenport, I guess) and last year we were 31st in yards allowed per game and 28th in pts allowed per game, despite playing a second place schedule. This year we're 16th and 12th against a first place schedule, including holding the 49ers to their lowest point total of the year. That's a pretty substantial improvement without a huge investment in players.

It's also Flores' first year as a defensive coordinator, believe it or not. As head coach in Miami, his defenses got better after a few years so I think he can pinpoint problems and fix them. It also isn't helping that the offense is turning the ball over all the time.

They literally played against you at QB for four or five games.... I'm ok keeping him, but I'm not convinced he's some genius 

[RpR]

Start Dobbs next game; he won 2 game (it would have been 3 had the kicker not missed a short field goal) and was no worse than the other two.

[Aggies7]

3 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

They literally played against you at QB for four or five games.... I'm ok keeping him, but I'm not convinced he's some genius 

He’s no Foge Fazio, that’s for sure

[Aggies7]

Just now, RpR said:

Start Dobbs next game; he won 2 game (it would have been 3 had the kicker not missed a short field goal) and was no worse than the other two.

Yuck, no thanks. Mullens is the only one of the 3 who showed consistency moving the ball. It’s unfortunate that his mind goes bonkers and he turns the ball over too much with wild throws he shouldn’t make. I think at the end of the day, you go with the guy who can move the offense. They all turn it over way too much but Mullens at least has reasonable throwing accuracy