Quote: @HappyViking said:
I can't believe I now have more faith in our passing offense than our pass defense. My how quickly things can change. Wilson, Stafford, Rivers, and Rodgers will have a fairly easy time with our pass D, IMO, but I think we'll probably find a way to win at least two of these games.
The Bears D is still good, but I'm thinking we can handle them. Their offense is just bad.
I'm hoping Zim can find the "fix" needed for his D, but I'm afraid it is what it is. Hope I'm wrong, of course, and they come out flying after the break.
Sitting at 8-3 right now is better than I expected so - SKOL Vikings!
wilson will be a handful because of his mobility, I think we can handle the other 3 due to them being low risk to run. seems Zimmer prefers to keep the mobile QBs in the pockets vs going hard for the sack.
Quote: @JimmyinSD said:
@ HappyViking said:
I can't believe I now have more faith in our passing offense than our pass defense. My how quickly things can change. Wilson, Stafford, Rivers, and Rodgers will have a fairly easy time with our pass D, IMO, but I think we'll probably find a way to win at least two of these games.
The Bears D is still good, but I'm thinking we can handle them. Their offense is just bad.
I'm hoping Zim can find the "fix" needed for his D, but I'm afraid it is what it is. Hope I'm wrong, of course, and they come out flying after the break.
Sitting at 8-3 right now is better than I expected so - SKOL Vikings!
wilson will be a handful because of his mobility, I think we can handle the other 3 due to them being low risk to run. seems Zimmer prefers to keep the mobile QBs in the pockets vs going hard for the sack
beat seahawks, chargers, lions.
lose to packers and bears
lifelong fan's hopes and dreams are crushed again.
Quote: @StickyBun said:
@ MaroonBells said:
@ ArizonaViking said:
Rhodes is not a safety and probably will never play that position. Their have been very few corners moved to safety and been successful.
Most corners don't have or tackling ability to play safety. The ones who did transition late in their career (both Woodsons, Aneas Williams, Lott, Barber) tended to be the bigger bodied corners. Like Rhodes.
The thing about Rhodes that is alarming is that 3 years ago he shut down everyone. Then he started having trouble with the smaller, quicker receivers (Adams), but still held his own against the bigger, more physical types. See Julio Jones week 1. So the Vikings put him in mostly shadow coverage against Courtland Sutton on Sunday and the results were not great.
The rule changes on how DBs can play WRs in 2017 is what made Rhodes a much lesser than player.
That is only a part of it. Does anyone remember when Xavier returned an INT for a TD in '17? I believe he was clocked with the fastest MPH of any run that season.
Rhodes has always been about being physical with WRs. At the LOS, at the top of the route, while the ball was in the air. He was sneaky good at pushing the boundary of what was legal and wasn't.
But he didn't NEED the physicality to cover any kind of speed deficiency. He used it to give him an edge. So the rules changes took away some of that edge, no doubt.
That isn't the whole story. Look at him at the LOS. As Jimmy mentioned, he's stiff. Tentative. Can't even get his hands on guys to jam them within 5 yards of the Line, which is certainly still legal.
Honestly, he looks like Waynes did as a Rookie and into his 2nd year. Doesn't trust his speed to recover from any mistakes. Slower. More tentative. Doesn't trust his recovery speed AND can't be as physical.
This is how you go from All Pro to benchable in two years. Did he get old? Too swoll? Too many injuries? Who knows. But he looks finished as a guy you put on an island. When the McClaurens and Suttons of the world are consistently beating you the jig is up.
Quote: @MaroonBells said:
In summer I said this was an 11 win team. I'll stick with that. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if this team won out to go 13-3.
Seattle at home isn't what it used to be. And I'm not sure we should be afraid of their 25th ranked defense anyway. Chargers are vulnerable. And most of the fans in that game will be in purple. The rest at home.
Agreed. We have to stop Wilson's magic. If we can do that, we will have a great chance to win there. Home isn't that special for them anymore. Their defense doesn't have that swagger. They can't run the ball.
Homer sez we could run the table. Realistically we may lose 1 or 2, but I don't see where.
Quote: @MaroonBells said:
@ ArizonaViking said:
Rhodes is not a safety and probably will never play that position. Their have been very few corners moved to safety and been successful.
Most corners don't have the size or tackling ability to play safety. The ones who did transition late in their career (both Woodsons, Aneas Williams, Lott, Barber) tended to be the bigger bodied corners. Like Rhodes.
The thing about Rhodes that is alarming is that 3 years ago he shut down everyone. Then he started having trouble with the smaller, quicker receivers (Adams), but still held his own against the bigger, more physical types. See Julio Jones week 1. So the Vikings put him in mostly shadow coverage against Courtland Sutton on Sunday and the results were not great.
How many plays did he give up against Sutton? The one big contested catch is all I remember but I missed the first series by Denver.
Denver had 5 big plays that were 70% of their offense in that game. 2 were highly contested, Waynes misplayed the ball on the wr pass. Another was a difficult back shoulder that Hughes was in tight coverage until the WR stopped on a dime.
It's all about Coaching. Taking entire halves to adjust to stacked boxes. Playing Zone and getting picked apart by backup QBs for long stretches. Pass Rush is gone and not much blitzing or exotic looks to make QBs hesitate.
Zimmer will have a specific game plan for Wilson and Erin. But he has shown time and again this season that he'll go straight back to vanilla looks and zone against Rivers and Mitch/Chase.
The team has come out flat after damn near every bye week in Mike's tenure. Even with a specific plan to stop Wilson I expect the Offense will need to carry the day. On the road, at night. Too much to ask.
Rivers has fallen off a cliff so even playing Zone should be enough to win in LA. Crazy good pass rush, though. It will probably be a low scoring thriller.
The Vikings can't cover the Lions WRs. I expect them to win in a shootout. Bears will play hard but are a mess.
The GB game is the really intriguing one. Rodgers has lots of weapons. His HC isn't one of them. Expect Zimmer to finally empty the playbook and show Matt Fluer De Lice every look under the sun. And their Defense gives up lots of chunk plays. Teams are very evenly matched, IMO. Pukers have better pass rush and CBs but don't play up to the talent. Going to come down to TOs and Special Teams play. I'm thinking Cousins fumbles and Bailey misses a kick or two to hand them the win.
3-2 to finish. All games close, close, close. 11-5. What happens in the Playoffs is entirely up to how aggressively Mike and Kevin get with the playcalling. If they're vanilla like the entire KC game or the 1st half against the Broncos they can't beat anyone on the road. If they're aggressive from jump street like they were against the Cowboys they can go on the road and beat anyone.
I think they lose to either Seattle or LAC, not both and win all 3 at home. Final record 12 - 4.
Quote: @purplefaithful said:
The season got to the final quarter in a hurry didn't it? I like the later bye, hard to believe by the next game it'll be December.
5 games left:- @ Seattle
- Lions
- @ Chargers
- Packers
- Bears
3 of the last 4 @ home, all divisional games. You couldn't ask for the schedule to fall more favorably - we'd be howling if that was GB lol!
8/3 right now, I'm feeling winning 3 of the last 5 is about right.
11/5 ? Thats pretty good record. Hope it's enough to win The North..
I don't think there is any good chance to win the division unless the Vikings win the next 5. GB has 4 likely winnable games (Redskins, Giants, Lions, Bears in GB), so that puts them at 12 wins with a better divisional record than us. So we have to hope SF beats them next week and we can control our destiny. 13-3 is a lot to aim for but I don't like our chances as a wildcard team on the road for 3 rounds of playoffs.
Quote: @JimmyinSD said:
if we dont win out... we lose the North and any chance of a home playoff game IMO. We go into the playoffs on a 4 game winning streak as the #6 seed.
right now we are 1 game back of the pack, and we have 2 loses in the division. Assuming the Pack loses to the 9ers this week that puts us in a tie, but we wont hold the tie breaker with the pack so even with us beating them in december, another loss would have us back in a tie with them and they would have the better division record so they win the north and we are a wild card.
unfortunately I dont see Zim having the troops ready to go in Seattle so thats an L, and then we win out 4-1. end the season 12-4 and are a wild card.
however I dont see us going in to lameblow in the wild card round, i see the packers at 12-4 and winning the #3 seed by some new tie breaker that will forever be knows as the rogers tie breaker rule, but I think the saints are going to lose at least 2 more and we end up in nawlins for the WC round.
with a loss to the squawks next week I think we end up tied with them at 12-4 as well, but once again we lose the tie breaker and end up as the #6 seed.
49ers have their tough stretch of the schedule coming up... Packers, Ravens, Saints, better Atlanta team, Rams and Seahawks. No way the 9ers win their division over the Hawks IMO. I say we lose in Seattle and win out the rest. As you say, hard to overtake the Pack for the division. But, you never know with divisional games and it'll be hard for the Pack to sweep the Bears and Lions. If GB doesn't falter, we take #5 seed.
I could see Seattle and Green Bay getting #1 & #2 either way. Saints #3, Cowboys #4, Vikes #5, 49ers #6. We go into Dallas and beat them again, then a tough ass road game into Green Bay or Seattle. Then IF we win, into GB, SEA or NO. The NFC is stacked this year. 
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