The 4 losses have been ugly

[Guest]

It is always painful to watch the Vike's fail, but as others have said this year was going to be a roller coaster ride.

Wait till the end, get another ticket, and hope for a better ride next time.

[Guest]

We all knew the Vikings were bad on defense and were nowhere near as good as their record. That said, I think the hope was always that we would turn a corner somewhere. I mean we've been saying this since August: this team will likely be better in December than it was in September. And while you could see glimpses of improvement here and there, it never fully materialized. 

As much as I hate Tony fucking Romo, what he said yesterday is exactly right. If you can't run or stop the run, you can't win in the playoffs. 

[Guest]

Yup, Romo is spot on @ MB. 

In an era of rules that favor passing? RPO's, Jet Sweeps, WR's like JJ, Chase and more studs than I could list? It still comes down to balance and running the ball. 

Honestly? The Packers are a more balanced team than the Vikings and better on D too. 

Vikings have lots of areas to improve - including IOL and that entire D. 

Yesterday was not stellar for the game plan or coaches execution either. Plenty of blame to go around. 

[Guest]

You always expect a game or two that everything goes against you and it is just not your day, but we have now had 3 of those and also don't forget the disastrous first half of the Colts game. The defense is awful, but the offense is too good to have games like this.   I think a lot of it falls on KOC, he has not been a great game manager and his play calling is beyond predictable.  We had a huge break with the ball at the one after the block and we run it up the middle with a back up center, that tells me the coach is just not in the game.  There was no excuse to allow JJ to get abused all game, we kept going to other WRs, but you needed to make adjustments to free up your best player.  Maybe part of this is growing pains with KOC.  

The biggest concern is something is missing when things fall apart.  In the Colts game it was KJ who would not give up and seemed to really picked the team up.  Everyone just seemed to roll over yesterday.  I think Cousins is the biggest reason we have 12 wins, he has been consistent and amazingly clutch this year, you just want to see him be more fiery on the field, yesterday when things were falling apart, I just wanted to see him rally the team and get guys fired up and believing in themselves, but you just didn't see that from him or anyone.  For a team that has shown so much resiliency in close games it just doesn't make sense how they allow the game to get away from them like this. 

[Guest]

Losses are part of the game...disastrous, destructive and humiliating blowouts are ugly...

[Guest]

The Vikes are 12-4 right now, and have won the NFC North.  All that
is great, but I hate that I feel like they're the third best team in
the NFC North right now.  If you go by their record, the Vikes are on
top and are the best.  If you go by head to head meetings, I think both
the Lions and Packers are playing better. 
It sucks, but whatever; I'm a fan and will continue to see how this crazy season ends for our beloved Purple.

[Guest]

@pattersaur said:

When we lose we friggin LOSE. It's sad. We've had some awesome wins this year that have been tons of fun but yeah the losses have totally stunk. I'm still not writing off this team because we've shown we can beat anyone, but it's definitely possible and maybe even likely that we lay an egg in the playoffs.
Hock making brutal mistakes early yesterday. Not scoring from the one yard line. Missing FGs. Giving up KRs. Tipped balls leading to picks and then Kirk doing dumb things. It was a mess up and down in every which way. Felt very similar to the NFCCG versus Philly from a few years back. Never stopped the bleeding even though we had plenty of chances to do so. Not a lot of fun to watch yesterday. Hoping for better the rest of the way.

We were snakebit, as Burnsie used to say. It was a lot like the 1st half of the Colts game. A lot of unearned points. Tipped pick sixes, KO returns, dropped balls, 3rd string center screwups. I mean how many sustained TD drives did Green Bay have? Two maybe? 

[Guest]

The fact that we won one game all season by more than 1 possession and lost 3 of 4 by  blowout should be all the evidence you need for how crazy our record is. 2022 has really come down to about a dozen heroic/fluke plays most of which were on Kirk and JJ. 

The defense has been schematically horrible. Almost no pass rush (with 2 rush specialists), and can't stop the run. The offense has become too reliant on the pass, seem to have 3 running plays that are all designed to go between the tackles and forgot that it's legal to use RBs as receivers beyond the LOS. KOC has to get some help in keeping him out of blind spots.

Defense is our biggest miss with Donatell. He's gotta go, and we have a lot of pieces to replace on both sides of the ball. With our limited resources in terms of cap and draft picks. (doesn't help that we'll be picking in the 20's). I just don't see where our record matches this year, or where we are significantly better next year without some wheeling/dealing and more luck.  

[Guest]

If anything i would say as the season has gone on,  the D has shown a little growth,   but the O seems to have regressed imo.

[Guest]

I figure Max Winter made a deal with the NFL that he gets a franchise back in the day, but they never get to win a real championship!
The NFL has upheld their end, we just haven’t been told that those 4 Super Bowl losses were as good as it’s going to get.
 I know ‘69 was officially a NFL Championship, but not really.