It was not their prettiest game. They settled for field goals far too often and got gouged for too many big plays on defense. That being said, this is exactly the type of game they would have lost last season. I feel like O'Connell does a good job of not leaving the other team with too much time on the clock, which has really helped limit the points they give up at the end of halves. In general, he also does a better job of staying aggressive and going downfield at the end of games instead of just trying to run out the clock. I know they kicked a ton of FGs today and had awful red zone struggles, but they still went deep to Thielen on the PI and Jefferson to set up what would be the go ahead FG.
I do think the D is still a work in progress. The secondary is not great, but still quite a bit better than last year. Guys like Za'darius Smith and DJ Wonnum make just enough splash plays. The D has also done a better job of getting off the field on 4th downs and seems to come up with a turnover or two per game. The pass rush and run D are still not where I'd want them to be. They are not a dominant unit, but they perform well enough to give the offense a chance.
On offense, the red zone offense is a work in progress. There is some more creative play calling and they do some good things to engineer open guys in the red zone, but somehow last year's run heavy red zone offense was more effective. Hopefully that will get better as the season wears on. They also have a bad tendency to run up the middle on 2nd and 10. Sometimes Cook or more likely Mattison will get 5-6 yards in that situation, but in general it just leads to a lot of 3rd and longs. The OL tends to get beat by 4-man rushes in 3rd and long. Not sure what is going wrong with those situations. I also feel that for as much attention as Jefferson draws, that other guys should be taking a bigger advantage of those matchups. Thielen was doing a better job of that today and Osborn made the most of that at the end of the Detroit game, but I'd like to see more consistent production out of Thielen, Osborn, and Irv Smith. I was hoping that Smith was going to have his breakout year, but so far that hasn't happened. He's just been ok, but has had too many drops.
All things considered, I am happy to be at 3-1 at this point in the season. The team still has a lot of growth to do, but I feel like O'Connell is doing enough to address the fatal flaws that were killing the team under Zimmer the past couple seasons.
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