VIKES @ da BEARS 9/8/25

[TheLeviathan]

48 minutes ago, gunnarthor said:

Yeah, as much as we missed him, I'm really glad Darrisaw wasn't playing on that. 

I wonder if we see him back this week.  Like.....maybe he's actually healthy enough to play they just held him out purely to avoid that slop.

[nicksaviking]

11 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Soldier Field being treated by Chicago's Parks and Rec department is crazy... The Bears themselves is a $4-5 billion organization! 

Yeah, it's under-reported how bad the Bears ownership is.

They say they are a 'World class city' in the same press conference they say they want the public help in building a new stadium. America's other 'world class cities' New York and LA didn't get any public money except for infrastructure builds.

[Mike Sixel]

NFC player of the week.....

[Cap'n Piranha]

So I'm a day late (Tuesday is far and away the busiest day of the week for me), but here's my thoughts;

I only know one thing for absolute certain--JJM 100% has earned the role of captain, and has not just the respect but the buy-in of his teammates.  Watching the way the sideline reacted to his TD, where EVERY SINGLE PLAYER was completely ecstatic shows that at a bare minimum, we have a long-term true leader at QB.  I don't know if that's been the case since...Tarkenton?

I've been unsold on KOC being able to sustain a consistently excellent offense for a couple of years now, and last night didn't really move the needle a whole lot.  As good as the offense looked in the 4th quarter, they looked equally bad in quarters 1-3; reminiscent of games last year like the @GB (28 points in H1, 3 in H2), @LAR (14 points in Q1, 6 afterwards), or IND (0 points in H1, 21 in H2).  To use a baseball analogy, KOC feels like a pitcher with an elite fastball from a stuff perspective, but too often completely loses command on it.

The defense ultimately did enough to win, but did so against a team that increasingly seems like it has a completely broken offense, almost completely thanks to the QB.  The play of the D tackles was very encouraging, but it was an off night for edge rushers (10 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 PD, 0 sacks, 2 QBH) for AVG, JG, and DT combined won't get it down against better offenses.  It's only one game, and for most of the game there was no offensive support to help the D get a breather, so I'm not concerned yet, but it's something to monitor.

Reichard was great, and I liked the wiggle from Price--Special Teams looks like it might have a solid floor this year.

[Aggies7]

Apparently the Vikings didn’t escape week 1 as healthy as it appeared. 
 

 

[nicksaviking]

Cashman and Van Ginkel out is trouble. If Dallas Turner can't step up now, I'm not sure when he ever will.

Eric Wilson might have been a sneaky good signing though. They need to do everything they can to keep Ivan Pace out of pass coverage. They can't try to expand his game again just because Cashman is out.

[gunnarthor]

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46225933/vikings-lb-blake-cashman-ir-least-four-games

Cashman and Chandler to the IR. 

[TheLeviathan]

Cashman one definitely hurts in pass coverage.  Especially with Smith also out and limiting what we can do with Metellus.

[Parfigliano]

5 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46225933/vikings-lb-blake-cashman-ir-least-four-games

Cashman and Chandler to the IR. 

That not good.

[nicksaviking]

I really hope they don't get tempted to have Pace do any more than he already does in coverage. That went very poorly last year. He also appeared to be the one who lost coverage on Odunze last week for that late TD to make it close.

[gunnarthor]

28 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I really hope they don't get tempted to have Pace do any more than he already does in coverage. That went very poorly last year. He also appeared to be the one who lost coverage on Odunze last week for that late TD to make it close.

Yeah, I like Pace. He's a great story and really strong against the run. But I think I'd like the Vikes to play a bit more safeties (big safety?) to pick up his coverage slack rather than letting him cover their RB or TE. Also, Flores had AVG play some inside LB last year as well so we could see schemes with that. 

[nicksaviking]

I think you need more than Eric Wilson and an occasional Van Ginkel as far as ILBs in coverage. Still seems weird Eric Kendricks never signed. He's old, but his pass game instincts have to be sharp enough to be a better in coverage than Pace. Otherwise Kobe King and/or one of the UDFA ILBs are going to really need to do something.