2018 regular season thread

[Sedale Threatt]

poor reiff

Pretty pathetic. Nobody on the offensive side of the ball deserves to hold their heads high so far, but the line has just been miserable. It's impossible to do much against a defense this good when you're getting dominated like this up front. Witness that last third down ... zero chance of success when you're getting sacked before you've even completed your dropback.

[hermes]

need the defense to get a stop, can't expect the bears to keep turning it over

[hermes]

well jeez

[hermes]

should have tried the no huddle earlier

[hermes]

all robinson does is catch tds

[hermes]

whew got it

[hermes]

the ref expert or whoever always seems to disagree with the roughing the passer calls but then say but the league will support the call because that's what they want to police out

just seems like the expert (and announcers) are holding on to the old rules on this so they'll always disagree. yeah these hits wouldn't be called under the old rules but those aren't the rules anymore

yeah people might not like it but that's where we are

[hermes]

better start getting familiar with the wildcard standings

and we have a rough schedule to close

[Jedzz]

Pathetic offense. Playing not to lose for 3.5 quarters again. Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot and opening the door for the very thing you are scared of.

Have never had to say it before but Elfien had a bad game. Cameras picked him out a few times blocking thin air and his QB is on his back. He was lost today.

DeFillippo should be gone in the morning. Waiting until there was 50 seconds left in the first half before giving Rieff any help on the left, and then at most it was little Cook. No TE?. Just get rid of him and let Cousins call his own plays. This is already beyond silly.

Vikings added a much better quarterback and install a much worse short game offense that will occasionally throw it deep when they believe no one expects it. Brad Childress ran this very offense. Who thought it was wise to bring another Philly OC here? Oh sorry, he wasn't even an OC yet.

[Worm Guts]

It gets kind of old blaming the offensive coordinator all the time. When the line can't block anybody and your QB isn't mobile, your options become severely limited.

[Jedzz]

It gets kind of old blaming the offensive coordinator all the time. When the line can't block anybody and your QB isn't mobile, your options become severely limited.

The Oline was terrible last season, and the season before it, and the season before that. Only the offense was pretty good last season at times with Shurmur. He had figured out what needed to happen.

There is such a thing as making it harder on your Oline and that's what this OC is doing. I'll detail more on that if need be. But the protection issue alone. What in the flipping world was he waiting for to add additional blockers?

If your front 5 Olineman are garbage, make it 6 bodies. Make it 7 if you have to. They could have went to a two tight end type formation for pure blocking. They could have went to a jumbo formation and plowed snow all day. Anything. Stop wasting first downs with a standard dive up the middle out of your standard formation that wasn't working. Mix in draws, one step timing routes. More slants. More play action. More rollouts. Buy your QB some time and then push downfield and get them on their heels. Not with occasional 35-40 yard hail marys to your second or third best best deep route guy (Diggs) either. But once you get them backing up you start reaching for 15 oand 18 yards. That's plenty difficultly level for this highschool squad.

This guy is in over his head.

[Jedzz]

Diggs by the way. He's starting to look like Jerrick McKinnon. Trying to prove how shifty he is. Standing there wigglin proving how he can shake them out of their boots and get a whole two yards more. Enough of that. In the past, Diggs caught the ball and either spun away once and bolting off, or just changed directions and bolted off for more yards. Now it's dance party usa. Meanwhile the rest of the secondary is closing the noose around him. It's up to the coaches to get him back to what works.

[Worm Guts]

It gets kind of old blaming the offensive coordinator all the time. When the line can't block anybody and your QB isn't mobile, your options become severely limited.

The Oline was terrible last season, and the season before it, and the season before that. Only the offense was pretty good last season at times with Shurmur. He had figured out what needed to happen.

There is such a thing as making it harder on your Oline and that's what this OC is doing. I'll detail more on that if need be. But the protection issue alone. What in the flipping world was he waiting for to add additional blockers?

If your front 5 Olineman are garbage, make it 6 bodies. Make it 7 if you have to. They could have went to a two tight end type formation for pure blocking. They could have went to a jumbo formation and plowed snow all day. Anything. Stop wasting first downs with a standard dive up the middle out of your standard formation that wasn't working. Mix in draws, one step timing routes. More slants. More play action. More rollouts. Buy your QB some time and then push downfield and get them on their heels. Not with occasional 35-40 yard hail marys to your second or third best best deep route guy (Diggs) either. But once you get them backing up you start reaching for 15 oand 18 yards. That's plenty difficultly level for this highschool squad.

This guy is in over his head.

This years offense really isn't much worse than last year offense. I'm not really sure where you're getting that perception. The yardage and points averages are a tick higher, while the league rankings are a little bit lower but we're not in the bottom half of the league.

[hermes]

Diggs by the way. He's starting to look like Jerrick McKinnon. Trying to prove how shifty he is. Standing there wigglin proving how he can shake them out of their boots and get a whole two yards more. Enough of that. In the past, Diggs caught the ball and either spun away once and bolting off, or just changed directions and bolted off for more yards. Now it's dance party usa. Meanwhile the rest of the secondary is closing the noose around him. It's up to the coaches to get him back to what works.

yeah that was pretty noticeable a few times, weird

diggs, you are shifty but its easier to make people miss when you are moving forward and being shifty - not being shifty in place

[Jedzz]

This years offense really isn't much worse than last year offense. I'm not really sure where you're getting that perception. The yardage and points averages are a tick higher, while the league rankings are a little bit lower but we're not in the bottom half of the league.

I'm getting it from watching games and because I'm watching games I see that it's not the same offense per quarter. If you don't believe me you can go find the quarter splits on those stats. The massive majority is built on two short portions of all the games so far. The first quarter and the last quarter. A couple games have been the whole first quarter. But certainly none of which had a turnover in the first half. A turnover immediately changes everything.

[Jedzz]

Cousins also needs to stop throwing into triple coverage just because that's the play call. These moronic hail mary deep throws to Diggs or Robinson or Thielen should never happen when three defenders follow them deep. Cousins should see those defenders and pick a different route where someone has to be wide open or at least 1 on 1. Sure, some have been caught. Some. But drives are dying from these wasted plays too when three defenders following one receiver should mean an easy first down for someone else. I don't doubt that half the time Cousins is preparing his will in his head while deciding when and where to throw it. But triple coverage is tripe coverage. Throw away from that.

[Jedzz]

We've got a Coach who's kind of conflicted. He's got his finger on the pulse of a real fix for his team's offensive woes, but he's also stuck in a rut complaining about turnovers and calling out his best players for failures. He's got to take some blame for what's happened so far. This far into the season is on the edge of too late. It's his job to get this fixed sooner. But I'm hearing some good talk now and late is better than never!

Zimmer according to Tim Yotter https://247sports.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings/Article/Vikings-coach-Volume-of-offensive-plays-too-much-124997285/
I'll quote some of it.

“… Let’s just play football, you know? You run a really good out route, you run the out route. He runs a good curl, he runs the curl, you know what I mean? So maybe we just need to focus a little bit on not trying to trick the other team quite so much.”

Now you are talking Zimste! Stop trying to trick everyone and thereby tricking yourself out of your best plays at the best timing for using them. I agree Zim. Do what you are good at. Let them try and stop that. That way if you happen to lose it will be a case of them beating you, instead of a case of you beating yourself. Finally! (granted I'm not entirely sure what type of play calling he thinks it should be more of.)

Of course, Zimmer also made sure to call out players by name and question them again, droned on about turnovers again. You think that is wise Coach Zimmer? Did it help to harp on turnovers for two weeks leading up the Bears game? He wonders if anyone is listening to him. Sure they are Mike. They've got Turnovers on the brain because that's all you coaches talk about. Ever hear of anyone talk of self fulfilling prophecies? Yes I think you might want to question yourself a little too Zim. Ever hear of falling on the sword for your team and earning their respect, Zim? Have you?

Zimmer had stressed throughout last week that the Vikings needed to avoid turnovers, but when they committed three of them on Sunday night, he said the players either weren’t listening to him or didn’t care.

He continued to investigate those possibilities on Monday.

“I’ve asked several players if they’re listening to me or not, or if they quit listening to me – I didn’t ask them, ‘Did you?’ but ‘Do you think these guys have stopped listening to me’ and they said no.”

Zimmer said he now sees it as a lack of awareness.

Whoa boy. You lose me as soon as you start calling out those players yet again.

Weren't listening? What else were you saying for them to listen to? Did you talk all week about putting up 500 yards on the bears? Did you tell them you wanted 4 touchdowns and nothing short of a win? Did you tell them you expected them to drive the field over and over until a win was the result? Did you tell them you coaches were going to pull the plug out of the drain and go for it all game for once? No. You talked about the big bad Bears defense, the big bad Bears stadium and turnovers. They heard you.

I would quote more how he goes on to question whether or not there was QB pressuring really going on or not. But that is the wrong direction Coach! I see him conflicted between protecting himself in the public and starting to finally see what's wrong out on the field. Best concentrate on the field and stop trying to set them up to avoid making you look bad. That's not the right goal.

[Jedzz]

I wonder who Zimmer will throw under the bus next.

[Jedzz]

Diggs by the way. He's starting to look like Jerrick McKinnon. Trying to prove how shifty he is. Standing there wigglin proving how he can shake them out of their boots and get a whole two yards more. Enough of that. In the past, Diggs caught the ball and either spun away once and bolting off, or just changed directions and bolted off for more yards. Now it's dance party usa. Meanwhile the rest of the secondary is closing the noose around him. It's up to the coaches to get him back to what works.

yeah that was pretty noticeable a few times, weird

diggs, you are shifty but its easier to make people miss when you are moving forward and being shifty - not being shifty in place

You got it. Move forward. He was so good at this the previous two seasons.

I just remember Jerrick McKinnon trying to prove how shifty he was in practice all the time. Then we saw it occur in games and go no where.

[Worm Guts]

Diggs by the way. He's starting to look like Jerrick McKinnon. Trying to prove how shifty he is. Standing there wigglin proving how he can shake them out of their boots and get a whole two yards more. Enough of that. In the past, Diggs caught the ball and either spun away once and bolting off, or just changed directions and bolted off for more yards. Now it's dance party usa. Meanwhile the rest of the secondary is closing the noose around him. It's up to the coaches to get him back to what works.

yeah that was pretty noticeable a few times, weird

diggs, you are shifty but its easier to make people miss when you are moving forward and being shifty - not being shifty in place

You got it. Move forward. He was so good at this the previous two seasons.

I just remember Jerrick McKinnon trying to prove how shifty he was in practice all the time. Then we saw it occur in games and go no where.

How do you know what McKinnon was doing in practice?