gunnarthor

I thought this was a good article on JJ through four games. https://www.dailynorseman.com/general/92758/insight-into-j-j-mccarthys-performance-after-four-games

I love the guy but if can't stay healthy ...

Man, football fans are just the worst. On the Pride of Detroit, fans were claiming their window was closed after the Vikings lost. Kinda fun to read when its not your team. As for the Vikings, 1) Kwesi's drafts aren't nearly as bad as people want to claim. Yes, Cline and Booth didn't work out but Cline's ankle also popped out of his skin. Ingram and Nailor were good picks from that draft. The next year we got Addison, Hockinson and Blackmon (who looks like we should have kept). I know some people want to claim Turner a bust but he's second on the team in pressures and playing pretty solid overall and JJ has played exactly four games. Jackson seems like a pretty good guard already and Mason should be used more. Late round picks like TID, Ward, and Rodriguez are part of the defensive rotation already, and Reichard is a really good kicker, We've also acquired good cheap talent like Redmond, Pace, and Jackson that no one wants to credit. I think it's also worth remembering that fans soured on Spielman despite good drafts b/c he sucked in free agency and putting together a cohesive plan for the team. Now we have a GM who seems to have a real plan, has implemented it, makes moves quickly to adjust, and who specializes in cap management and fans are still freaking out. We're fine. 2) JJ looks good. For all the years of fans claiming Cousins wasn't as good as his elite numbers showed, it would have been nice if the same fanbase could see the obvious talent that JJ has shown. He was not the reason we lost to the Ravens, he played well. Watching him, you can see that he has the talent to be an elite QB and he's getting there quickly. As long as he stays healthy, we will be fine. That doesn't mean he won't have hiccups. His first interception was a bad throw. He got lucky he didn't throw another pick to Smith late in the game. But the arm and decision-making look good for a 22 year old QB with four starts under him. He needs reps and needs to stay healthy. 3) Claims like the locker room is divided and tensions are rising is just utter unsupported BS. There is no sign of that at all. The team hasn't quit. There is no one pointing fingers or going off in the media. Culture-wise, KOC and Kwesi have built something pretty good. 4) We're 4-5 despite a brutal opening schedule and having our starting QB miss five games. 2-0 in the division with both wins on the road. Hopefully we're going to be 6-5 in two weeks and 4-0 in the division. There is no elite team in the NFC right now. We should have beaten Philly and we beat Detroit on the road. This team is good enough to beat anyone in the NFC.

Part of the reason the Browns and the Jets (and generally bad teams) are who they are is because they constantly fire coaches/gms/qbs and don't let things develop. I like our owners on this. Speilman was our GM for 15 years, essentially. Some of those years were pretty bad but the Wilfs trusted him instead of kneejerk firing him. If KOC can't develop JJ (and I think, outside an injury, he will), I want him to stick around and get another shot, not fire him.

You're gonna feel really silly when they win the Superbowl in February.

This is basically my thoughts as well. I don't know anything about playing QB at the NFL level (obviously). Kurt Warner said that he was really good because he didn't even see the line, he only saw the coverage and completely ignored the rush. Kept his eyes downfield. But then he started getting hurt, sacks went up, and he said he started looking at the line, seeing where the guy was coming from, rather than watching the coverage. It took him years to fix it, but he did. That's always what I'm most worried about with a QB. Say what you will about Cousins, he stayed in the pocket, took some monster hits, but kept his eyes down field. Wentz had happy feet. So did Ponder. Darnold famously saw ghosts. What I like about McCarthy in his few starts is that he doesn't seem scared, he keeps his eyes downfield, and he goes through his progressions reasonably well. He missed on some wide open passes and he had a surprisingly high number of batted balls at the line but those seem fixable. Hearing ghosts, watching the rush rather the routes, those seem like harder things to correct.

I hope the eagles do the tush-push 20 times tonight

Bynum - he was good with us, too. I'm not sure he's "better" as opposed to "still good." Kelly - yeah, concussions but Fries - he hasn't been as dominating. Add in the reports on Ingram in Texas and Bradbury in NE and I think there is real smoke here. I'd be ok with a new o-line coach after the year. Blackmon - this one hurt. IIRC, there were reports in camp that Blackmon didn't want to do special teams and was getting burned by practice squad WR in practice. So we got a 6th rounder for him in next years draft. Not sure what happened but hopefully the team evaluates why it came to that decision.

Taylor seems like an obvious one to go - he lost the locker room. Have coaches come back from that? I like Stefanski but he's a bit overrated as a HC. I do think he'd be an interesting voice to bring into MN to discuss offense philosophy with KOC. Love KOC but he has too many people from the McVay school around him, needs some other points of view. Morris might stick around, depending on Penix. I think his players really like him. Those coaches stick around a bit longer.

I can't believe McDaniel lasted longer.

I think KOC is our best coach since at least Denny and I really do think he will win a Superbowl for us. Completely all in on him. But I will say that this year, the Vikings offense seems to be very undisciplined. Lots of pre-snap penalties. Some of it might be JJ's cadence - it's loud and quick and might take a bit of getting used to - and part of it might be the injuries along the line. But I don't like it.

Gads, that's honestly terrifying. I haven't watched a single Giants game but is his line crap or is he reckless? Or is it, as much as possible in the NFL, just dumb luck?

That would make sense because something strange was happening. But then the coaches should be riding the refs.

Does seem problematic.

No, it was passive. I explained why the Wentz/McCarthy comment didn't fit. You came out of left field with the silly Turner comment. Totally passive aggressive.

I assume this is some kind of passive aggressive shot at drafting or something? Turner played well again today.

Honestly, Wentz and McCarthy are very different. Wentz had happy feet and bailed early. McCarthy has to work on reads and touch but that will come with reps. Wentz' issues are much harder to fix.

So, the Vikings had 13 penalties, 3 turnovers, and turnover on downs another three times. Meanwhile, Baltimore fumbled three times but kept it all three times. Honestly, keeping it as close as we did is kind of impressive.

I'm sure he's not happy but he didn't seem to go diva on him either. He wasn't giving up, he wasn't yelling at the coach or the QB, he was playing hard. I'm sure everyone is a bit ticked.

In any given Sunday expectations, the Bills lose to the Dolphins and the Saints knock of the Panthers (that one doesn't feel as big).

I don't think he was ticked at JJ, I thought he was ticked at the refs. He was being held on several plays, and not getting the calls. On the second pick, he fell down but you could argue that the defender pushed him down and should've been flagged. But he never looked back and yelled at JJ, which he could have on some of the balls thrown to him. He's also never had major 'diva' moments, even last year when Darnold was in the midst of like a four game meltdown.

Yeah, that was weird. I'm sure there will be lots of hot takes but we're 3-3 in one score games. Lots of chances that we missed.

Bummer of a loss

Shoot

Ok, long TD drive to send to OT would be wonderful