week 5 Vikings @ Saints MNF

hermes · Post #1 » by **hermes** » Fri Oct 3, 2008 6:29 pm

NEED a win here, or its a very steep hill to climb

Saints have had some injuries, including their top Wr, but still have a top notch passing game, and will throw it a lot on the Vikings d, which could be missing Ej Henderson

Vikings will come in looking to try and get the offense going on a bad saints defense, which allows 250 yards a game through the air, and 122 a game on the ground

the vikings need to get a pass rush to disrupt Brees or he will sit back in the pocket all day and pick them apart, completion percentage of over 72

How will the Vikings cover Reggie Bush, who will most likely look to do the most damage catching passes (31 receptions on the year, leading the team by a wide margin)

AP has to be established early and get him going, and control time of possession to keep the high powered saints offense off the field

Absolutely need this win Vikings, GO out there and get it!

GO VIKNGS

gjn19 · Post #2 » by **gjn19** » Tue Oct 7, 2008 8:37 am

what a win...we had no business winning this game. NO lost it.

Positives:
- we finally opened the play book and went deep to get the strenghts out of berrian...and he delivered with good catches (one drob that he should have had though). chilly gave gus the chance to win the game...and he throw his body at risk to do it. also, got play when chester threw that touchdown. what chilly needs to understand: he has to do this all the time, not just when an ultimatum by ziggy is spoken out. finally, finally we exposed our opponents who put 8-9 and threw the ball deep.
- berrian (also getting the crucial call to set up the last field goal). some fantastic catches, but they are expected of a #1 reciever
- our d-line was ok. they put enough pressure on brees (the best QB in the league) to get him out of sync...not an easy task, considering that brees is probably the fastest thrower in the league...and they created turnovers, which was crucial to winning this game.
- longwell doing his job
- finally, our secondary looked better. I wonder if it has to do with missing henderson. herron is much better in coverage and helps the guys back there more. it's clear to me that either greenway and henderson can't play along each other...they do the same thing...and if they are on the field, we're missing a covering LB, a quick LB. Maybe we should switch to a 3-4 with herron in and ray edwards out. leber was all over the place. what a great team player. winfield was not exposed and had several key plays. tyrell johnson is coming around. he's getting better every day. his covering skills are much improved.

Negatives:
- our o-line was bad. no running game what-so-ever. pass protection was so-so.
- our special teams suck so big time. 2 punt returns for a touchdown? you gotta be kidding me.
- griffin still sucks. every big play went his way. i can't cover my grand-ma and let's way too much room to everybody.
- chilly needs pressure to open the play-book, and i'm afraid that now he stays for the season. he will close the play-book again now that he's safe and we're in for a long season.

This could potentially be our turn-around this season, but with chilly, i still have my doubts. we should win the next 4, and we are in the thick of it.

Post #3 » by **Worm Guts** » Tue Oct 7, 2008 2:55 pm

gjn19 wrote:- finally, our secondary looked better. I wonder if it has to do with missing henderson. herron is much better in coverage and helps the guys back there more. it's clear to me that either greenway and henderson can't play along each other...they do the same thing...and if they are on the field, we're missing a covering LB, a quick LB. Maybe we should switch to a 3-4 with herron in and ray edwards out. leber was all over the place. what a great team player. winfield was not exposed and had several key plays. tyrell johnson is coming around. he's getting better every day. his covering skills are much improved.

I don't think Herron was out there much in passing situations. Leber and Greenway were the guys out there in the nickel and dime defenses. Leber seemed to be making a lot of plays in the secondary. The Vikings did miss Henderson in short yardage running situations.
It's hard to feel good about the game but the Vkings have Detroit next week, if they win that they'll have a shot at the Bears for first place in the division. Hopefully the Vikings can figure things out and get rolling before then.

hermes · Post #4 » by **hermes** » Tue Oct 7, 2008 10:26 pm

whew, big thanks to the Saints for giving us that one

need to get AP going though

good win, hopefully get us going in the right direction

i take that back, it wasn't so much a good win, but a wins a win
i'll take it

Sedale Threatt · Post #5 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Tue Oct 7, 2008 11:41 pm

It makes up for the Indy game, which we should have won going away. So we're right about where we should be.

Other than our ridiculously bad special teams, I have to say the most alarming part of last night's game was how poorly our offensive line played. Gus was lucky he made it through in one piece. If they don't pick it up, big time, he isn't going to survive, and then we're going to be in major trouble.

Still, even with all the negatives, it was nice to see us hang in there, take some body blows and come out on top. That's something we can build on, especially with some creampuffs coming up on the schedule.

hermes · Post #6 » by **hermes** » Wed Oct 8, 2008 2:17 am

McKinnie coming back didn't help too much, maybe it will take him a couple weeks to get going, keeping Gus alive for the remainder of the season should be a top priority, along with doing something about special teams

Sedale Threatt · Post #7 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Wed Oct 8, 2008 3:01 am

I was thinking about that, and it's a good point. At the same time, the guy's a veteran, and a good player. He should be able to step in and have a positive impact, not a negative one, rust or not. To be fair, I didn't sit there and analyze every single player along the line. So perhaps Bryant did have a good game. I just thought, overall, the unit had by far its worst game of the year; considering it's such a collective position, everyone bears responsibility.

hermes · Post #8 » by **hermes** » Wed Oct 8, 2008 1:10 pm

and i was a little concerned about the offense not doing much against this bad saints defense, i'll give credit to the saints they obviously came to play on defense and had probably one of their best games

i think the lions game comes at a good time, get everyone on track

Post #9 » by **revprodeji** » Wed Oct 8, 2008 3:08 pm

many people in the know are convinced that Childress would be gone if we lost. That being said this is the first time I have ever been upset we won.

Post #10 » by **Worm Guts** » Wed Oct 8, 2008 3:09 pm

I wouldn't want Childress fired midseason, I don't see how that does the team any good.

Post #11 » by **revprodeji** » Wed Oct 8, 2008 7:54 pm

The team has talent, legit talent. But we cannot call offensive plays and we lack discipline. Every week it is a matter of us having the potential to score as Bob Dole and trying not to shoot ourselves in the foot. Talent wise we are a great team. But if we are playing from behind we cannot run nor can our defense play the style it wants.

I am fine with Childress if he buys a pair for Bevy

Post #12 » by **Worm Guts** » Thu Oct 9, 2008 12:16 pm

revprodeji wrote:The team has talent, legit talent. But we cannot call offensive plays and we lack discipline. Every week it is a matter of us having the potential to score as Bob Dole and trying not to shoot ourselves in the foot. Talent wise we are a great team. But if we are playing from behind we cannot run nor can our defense play the style it wants.

I am fine with Childress if he buys a pair for Bevy

Firing a football coach in the middle of the season is basically giving up on the season. Football is too complicated to fix somebody else's mess overnight. We can fire Childress after the season, but I think we have to live with him until then.

Post #13 » by **revprodeji** » Thu Oct 9, 2008 2:56 pm

True...

I think if we can improve our play calling and discipline it would be fine. Ironically the things he is supposed to be able to do.

Whatever happened to the 2-back set up with taylor? Most of the big games by peterson last year came in part because taylor wore out the defense in the first half.