Plenty of credit/blame to go around, but if I'm the Vikings, what I'm working on this week is game ending drives. Not game winning drives. They work on that aplenty. But a series of high percentage short passes and runs that you can go to when you have the lead, the ball and you need to run 2 minutes off the clock.
Considering you already have a pretty good offense, you're going to have a lot more luck with that than trying to fix a defense mid year.
Every assumption made by the team, the coach, the play callers, etc should be that the defense will not be able to stop them in a final drive....and plan accordingly.
Quote: @MaroonBells said:
Plenty of credit/blame to go around, but if I'm the Vikings, what I'm working on this week is game ending drives. Not game winning drives. They work on that aplenty. But a series of high percentage short passes and runs that you can go to when you have the lead, the ball and you need to run 2 minutes off the clock.
Considering you already have a pretty good offense, you're going to have a lot more luck with that than trying to fix a defense mid year.
Every assumption made by the team, the coach, the play callers, etc is that the defense will not be able to stop them in a final drive....and plan accordingly.
want to end the game... score early and often and put the fucker out of reach in the first half and let the air out of the ball in the second half while still mixing in enough passes to keep the defenses honest. I have seen this offense try and kill clock by running into a stacked box to many times to think that they are capable of running out a clock on an even average NFL defense. Zimmer tries to justify it by saying the goal was to get the other team to use their timeouts, I have heard him say this after multiple late game let downs where our offense goes 3 and out on 3 straight runs and then the other team marches down the field for the win or tying score.
IMO a prevent defense is as bad of an idea as a clock killing offense that is so run heavy that it fails to keep the opposing defense honest. I cant blame Kubiak because we have seen every OC under Zimmer try and "run" out a clock and the results are often the same, we dont have the OL to just impose our running will on the other team.
Quote: @1VikesFan said:
Like I said in the original post 15 yds in their last 8 offensive snaps. Yes, the offense played a good game, at least for most of 2nd half. Yes, the defense did not play well. But they had this fucking game in their grasp and Cousins and the fucking offense failed, they could not hold onto the ball when they needed to.
Did you ask yourself why we were down with 1:40 left? Why was Dallas within 2 scores with 1:40 left? Blaming Cousins for horrible defense is about as bad as it gets.
Quote: @mgobluevikes said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
Like I said in the original post 15 yds in their last 8 offensive snaps. Yes, the offense played a good game, at least for most of 2nd half. Yes, the defense did not play well. But they had this fucking game in their grasp and Cousins and the fucking offense failed, they could not hold onto the ball when they needed to.
Did you ask yourself why we were down with 1:40 left? Why was Dallas within 2 scores with 1:40 left? Blaming Cousins for horrible defense is about as bad as it gets.
Never blamed Cousins for the defense, where the hell did you get that from? I said the offense could have ended this game by not tanking when they could have ended it and not put the defense back on the field hoping they could stop Dallas. If you're gonna give me shit make sure you are being accurate.
Quote: @1VikesFan said:
@ mgobluevikes said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
Like I said in the original post 15 yds in their last 8 offensive snaps. Yes, the offense played a good game, at least for most of 2nd half. Yes, the defense did not play well. But they had this fucking game in their grasp and Cousins and the fucking offense failed, they could not hold onto the ball when they needed to.
Did you ask yourself why we were down with 1:40 left? Why was Dallas within 2 scores with 1:40 left? Blaming Cousins for horrible defense is about as bad as it gets.
Never blamed Cousins for the defense, where the hell did you get that from? I said the offense could have ended this game by not tanking when they could have ended it and not put the defense back on the field hoping they could stop Dallas. If you're gonna give me shit make sure you are being accurate.
He is being accurate, the defense gave up 31 points to a 2-7 team while the offense scored 28 points (3 TDs by Cousins). Somewhere the defense needs to hold onto a lead...and they didn't.
Quote:
@ArizonaViking said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
@ mgobluevikes said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
Like I said in the original post 15 yds in their last 8 offensive snaps. Yes, the offense played a good game, at least for most of 2nd half. Yes, the defense did not play well. But they had this fucking game in their grasp and Cousins and the fucking offense failed, they could not hold onto the ball when they needed to.
Did you ask yourself why we were down with 1:40 left? Why was Dallas within 2 scores with 1:40 left? Blaming Cousins for horrible defense is about as bad as it gets.
Never blamed Cousins for the defense, where the hell did you get that from? I said the offense could have ended this game by not tanking when they could have ended it and not put the defense back on the field hoping they could stop Dallas. If you're gonna give me shit make sure you are being accurate.
He is being accurate, the defense gave up 31 points to a 2-7 team while the offense scored 28 points (3 TDs by Cousins). Somewhere the defense needs to hold onto a lead...and they didn't.
@ArizonaViking said:
Quote: @ 1VikesFan said:
@ mgobluevikes said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
Like I said in the original post 15 yds in their last 8 offensive snaps. Yes, the offense played a good game, at least for most of 2nd half. Yes, the defense did not play well. But they had this fucking game in their grasp and Cousins and the fucking offense failed, they could not hold onto the ball when they needed to.
Did you ask yourself why we were down with 1:40 left? Why was Dallas within 2 scores with 1:40 left? Blaming Cousins for horrible defense is about as bad as it gets.
Never blamed Cousins for the defense, where the hell did you get that from? I said the offense could have ended this game by not tanking when they could have ended it and not put the defense back on the field hoping they could stop Dallas. If you're gonna give me shit make sure you are being accurate.
He is being accurate, the defense gave up 31 points to a 2-7 team while the offense scored 28 points (3 TDs by Cousins). Somewhere the defense needs to hold onto a lead...and they didn't.
Where he is was inaccurate was stating I blamed Cousins for the bad defensive showing. Nowhere in this thread did I say that. The offense, not saying Cousins, also turned the ball over twice leading to 10 points. Defense has a bad game but this loss was not all on them and once again Cousins failed with the game on the line.
Quote: @ArizonaViking said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
@ mgobluevikes said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
Like I said in the original post 15 yds in their last 8 offensive snaps. Yes, the offense played a good game, at least for most of 2nd half. Yes, the defense did not play well. But they had this fucking game in their grasp and Cousins and the fucking offense failed, they could not hold onto the ball when they needed to.
Did you ask yourself why we were down with 1:40 left? Why was Dallas within 2 scores with 1:40 left? Blaming Cousins for horrible defense is about as bad as it gets.
Never blamed Cousins for the defense, where the hell did you get that from? I said the offense could have ended this game by not tanking when they could have ended it and not put the defense back on the field hoping they could stop Dallas. If you're gonna give me shit make sure you are being accurate.
He is being accurate, the defense gave up 31 points to a 2-7 team while the offense scored 28 points (3 TDs by Cousins). Somewhere the defense needs to hold onto a lead...and they didn't.
True...but how can you expect them to? This is a bad, banged up and young defense. We have to play like we know that.
Take what you do well and shove it down their throats. Two drives to put the game away, pitting our strength against their weakness. All we need is a couple of first downs and it's game over. And we can't do that? Again? For like the 4th time this season? You just can't keep giving teams the ball back like that and expect to win. It's like leaving a barfight with your baby sister inside.
Quote: @1VikesFan said:
@ ArizonaViking said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
@ mgobluevikes said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
Like I said in the original post 15 yds in their last 8 offensive snaps. Yes, the offense played a good game, at least for most of 2nd half. Yes, the defense did not play well. But they had this fucking game in their grasp and Cousins and the fucking offense failed, they could not hold onto the ball when they needed to.
Did you ask yourself why we were down with 1:40 left? Why was Dallas within 2 scores with 1:40 left? Blaming Cousins for horrible defense is about as bad as it gets.
Never blamed Cousins for the defense, where the hell did you get that from? I said the offense could have ended this game by not tanking when they could have ended it and not put the defense back on the field hoping they could stop Dallas. If you're gonna give me shit make sure you are being accurate.
He is being accurate, the defense gave up 31 points to a 2-7 team while the offense scored 28 points (3 TDs by Cousins). Somewhere the defense needs to hold onto a lead...and they didn't.
@ ArizonaViking said:
Quote: @ 1VikesFan said:
@ mgobluevikes said:
@ 1VikesFan said:
Like I said in the original post 15 yds in their last 8 offensive snaps. Yes, the offense played a good game, at least for most of 2nd half. Yes, the defense did not play well. But they had this fucking game in their grasp and Cousins and the fucking offense failed, they could not hold onto the ball when they needed to.
Did you ask yourself why we were down with 1:40 left? Why was Dallas within 2 scores with 1:40 left? Blaming Cousins for horrible defense is about as bad as it gets.
Never blamed Cousins for the defense, where the hell did you get that from? I said the offense could have ended this game by not tanking when they could have ended it and not put the defense back on the field hoping they could stop Dallas. If you're gonna give me shit make sure you are being accurate.
He is being accurate, the defense gave up 31 points to a 2-7 team while the offense scored 28 points (3 TDs by Cousins). Somewhere the defense needs to hold onto a lead...and they didn't.
Where he is was inaccurate was stating I blamed Cousins for the bad defensive showing. Nowhere in this thread did I say that. The offense, not saying Cousins, also turned the ball over twice leading to 10 points. Defense has a bad game but this loss was not all on them and once again Cousins failed with the game on the line.
It just seems IMO, that your blaming Cousins entirely for the loss. As if, the Dallas defense didn't know the offense would have to pass every down with only 1:40 left from the Vikings own 25 yard line. You got to hold the defense little responsible for the loss and not full expect Cousins to win it. Dallas defense was probably in a dime defense with 6 defensive backs covering what, 3 wide receivers? The odds of pulling it out were pretty slim. There is a lot of blame to go around, but somehow all focus goes to Cousins. Yes, Cousins fumbled and so did Cook. Do we get rid of him too? The defense has to step up and hold a lead sometimes and not expect the offense to pull it out of their arses al the time.
Put yourself in Zimmer's shoes. The way he wanted to win that game was to put Dalton on his butt and hold onto that 4th quarter lead. Nobody is talking about the INT Boyd dropped to win it.
The Vikings only sacked Dalton once and only pressured him 4 times the entire game. That's bad and Zimmer knows it.
Zimmer's job is on the line, and this offseason finding a way to pressure the QB will be one of his top priorities. I don't think he gives a rat's eye hole right now about the about finding the QB of the future. Just saying!
Quote: @Carl Knowles said:
Put yourself in Zimmer's shoes. The way he wanted to win that game was to put Dalton on his butt and hold onto that 4th quarter lead. Nobody is talking about the INT Boyd dropped to win it.
The Vikings only sacked Dalton once and only pressured him 4 times the entire game. That's bad and Zimmer knows it.
Zimmer's job is on the line, and this offseason finding a way to pressure the QB will be one of his top priorities. I don't think he gives a rat's eye hole right now about the about finding the QB of the future. Just saying!
I think this is spot on. And as a long-time fan, you don't have to twist my arm regarding the need for a pass-rush.
But Zimmer is who he is - unashamedly. It's one of the reasons I respect the guy. That said, I think the offense is as good as it is in spite of Zimmer, not because of Zimmer.
Best move he's made recently was Kubiak, but that aint the direction the NFL is going either.
This philosophy of his (and the teams lack of post-season wins) are the reasons I want to move on from this period of Viking football.
And sooner than later...
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