12-06-2022, 03:31 PM
Brief.....
- What A Difference A Year Makes: I still suffer from PTSD from the past couple of years and the leads blown in the last 2 minutes; I am honestly not sure how many of the close victories I need to fully heal.
- Tackling: It seems to me that the Vikings poorly tackled in the past couple of games. That may be only my perception as I looked it up and the Vikings have a total of 53 missed tackles for the season -- which is middle of the road. Interestingly, the teams with the least missed tackles are the Giants, Commanders and Rams.
- Rush Defense: Kudos for the rush defense showing up big time. Might be the best game I can remember over the past few seasons. Usually it feels like every run gets few yards before contact but it was stellar on Sunday. On the other hand, the pass rush was MIA. Seemed to me that they game planned to keep White in the pocket (despite him not being a running QB). Weird that they didn't run many stunts or blitzes to make him feel uncomfortable. The defensive game plans usually leave me scratching my head.
- Pass Defense: The Vikings had 13 pass defenses on Sunday which is the first time they reached double digits in pass defenses this year. Against Dallas, they had 1. Granted this is somewhat a product of the Jets throwing so much and the Jets targeting farther down the field while in catch-up mode but it still is interesting to me. Smith and Bynum had 5 combined. Shelley had 2 -- could he become the slot corner or is his size too much of a detriment? Fundamentally, he looks sound.
- Cousins: Though the center of the line held up pretty well this week, it is clear Cousins doesn't like pressure in his face. He sailed quite a few balls on Sunday.
- Depth: One of the things that have made me really happy is the coaching staff's willingness to rotate in players (especially on the defensive side). I think it helps at the end of games but I think it will pay off as we approach the end of the season.