Viking game/NFL observations

[StickierBuns]

That was a rough game to watch and take in. Minnesota seems discombobulated out there. Gashed early with the run game, Bijan was eating. They saw something on film and exploited it (for awhile). 218 yards given up on the ground. JJ's inconsistencies/decisions and the O-line not protecting him: 9 of his first 14 pass attempts were either rushed or he was sacked. Injuries to key players keep mounting. Skule is absolutely brutal. Sigh. Lots to work on. Disappointed. The crowd was SO pumped to start the game and they got a shitburger to eat.

• Uncle Sammy started out rough but finished up nice, good game for him. Not sure where Pittsburgh's D went but lots of guys left wide open. Rodgers looked old, will the media break ankles getting off his bandwagon? Kaleb Johnson.....yikes.
  
• How did Jacksonville lose that game? Is enough enough now with Trevor Lawrence? 
  
• Detroit opened up a can against Chicago, safe to say they've rebounded and this is a two-horse race for the NFCN title.
  
• TreVeyon Henderson looks very pedestrian so far....not horrible but certainly not a playmaker at this current time. Surprising.
  
• Danny Dimes? Looking pretty good.
  
• I just don't see it again this week with Bryce Young....or Kyler Murray. Same stuff from both of them. 
  
• Patrick Mahomes is missing a lot of weapons, most injured/suspended. I think KC will catch fire a bit when his WRers return. But they aren't world-beaters anymore. 
  
• God D-mn, Russ....still gas in that tank in New York. 
  

[comet52]

I had the strongest feeling the last few days that we were going to lose.  I didn't even feel emotional about it as I watched, just more like yep, this is what I thought was gonna happen. 

I'll see if I get any feelings about Cincinnati.

[Vikergirl]

I expect growing pains and a roller coaster so I guess that helped going in. We'll see what happens. Some of the injuries could be a concern

[StickierBuns]

I expect growing pains and a roller coaster so I guess that helped going in. We'll see what happens. Some of the injuries could be a concern

At the end of the night, it was just a downer as a fan. U.S. Bank was jacked up for the big stage. And every aspect of the team sucked ass....and partly because of injuries. KOC needs to look in the mirror and put his foot in some asses this week. Set the tone. The team is 1-1 with a divisional win, so lets move forward and put this hot mess of a game in the rearview. I knew growing pains were going to happen, but seeing them is always sobering.

[MaroonBells]

Meanwhile...

[StickierBuns]

Meanwhile...

No doubt part of the reason Minnesota wanted to hold onto him this year. They have only played the Dolphins and basically were gifted a win against Denver, but he's ballin'. Looks smooth. But the biggest difference is Jones has played in what, 60 games in his career? JJ has played in 2. For the fans that don't understand (and I'm not saying you) that patience is Job 1 this year with McCarthy, they are forgetting how QBs become better. Reps. KOC knew this would happen, but you can't put off McCarthy's development a whole additional year and expect him to improve. He knew this also. And the problems so far aren't just on JJM's back. Guys like Nix and Penix are also 3 years older than JJ.

The idea is this team will grow together. Let's see if that happens.

[pattersaur]

I had the strongest feeling the last few days that we were going to lose.  I didn't even feel emotional about it as I watched, just more like yep, this is what I thought was gonna happen. 

I'll see if I get any feelings about Cincinnati.

This was oddly where I wound up too. Hated the spread, hated the spot, and had a healthy respect for Atlanta that they'd be a much more competent team than Chicago. And they were. Smart coaching. Few mistakes. Play well enough to have a shot.

We on the other hand, had negative plays all over the place. Turnovers, flags, gaffes, you name it. Bad performance and it really brought me back to the primetime stinker streak we had going there for a few years.

Watched it mostly apathetically since there wasn't a ton to cheer about.

We have big injury issues and the offensive line stunk out the joint. McCarthy looked like a kid making his second start. Some bad decisions. Some special throws.

It's Game 2 and we have to wait to see if/when JJM starts to feel comfortable in this offense. Last night there was no rhythm and more than a little of that falls on the coaches. How long the wait will be until things start jiving is to be determined but it's definitely not there yet. Hopefully by mid-season.

As patient as we need to be, the fact is this team made a lot of aggressive moves in an attempt to win football games THIS year. So they will not be getting a pass from me if we don't see corresponding results.

[JR44]

• Flores doesn't seem to have the defense prepared for what to expect and it takes time for them to eventually adjust.  Not having Van Ginkel hurt, there are no other dynamic playmakers on this defense, it all seems stale, but they pulled it together and gave us many opportunities to win the game.
  
• Everything seems hard for JJ, too many plays taking too long to develop and getting to the line late is not helping, 3 huge plays that could have turned the game completely around, he bobbled the snap on the 4th and 1 which caused him to have to go down, he fumbled the snap at the goal line on a play that looked like it was designed to go to Nailor who was wide open and the huge one was missing a wide open Nailor which would have been an easy touchdown. 
  
• It has been reported for some time that they have been trying to get JJ to get more loft on some of his throws and not have everything be a dart and he seems to not be getting that, as Collinsworth said the long one to Nailor had to have some lift on it with the WR that wide open so he could get to the ball regardless of where it was thrown, can't waste an opportunity like that.
  
• Their DL was having their way with us, but we did nothing to offset it, no quick hitters, no rollouts, never tried to speed it up with a no huddle, just continued to put JJ straight back in the pocket, sticking with a game plan that was not working. 
  
• With all the trouble the OL was having would have thought Oliver would have played a lot of snaps and we would have gone a lot of two TE sets to help Skule out, I didn't see any of that, we were running a lot of 3 WR sets with TJ who is really more of a slot WR than a TE and just not physical enough to be a TE, big disappointment.  
  
• Turner looks small and just not physical enough to play the edge, the sack should have been Hargraves who is the one who busted up the play and forced the QB to run into Turner, outside of that he just doesn't look like he has it, considering all the picks we gave up and all the holes on this team, that was just a terrible move.  Imagine Quinton Mitchell or having all those picks instead.  
  
• As bad as we played, the Falcons are not that great and they gave us plenty of opportunities to win this game and we just continued to beat ourselves the entire game, we do not look like a team ready to play, snaps in joint practices and snaps in a stadium in front of a loud crowd are not the same.
  

[Chuckf]

I had the strongest feeling the last few days that we were going to lose.  I didn't even feel emotional about it as I watched, just more like yep, this is what I thought was gonna happen. 

I'll see if I get any feelings about Cincinnati.

Amazingly I felt the same way comet.   For some reason I see a rebound vs Bengals.

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Dallas Turner looks lost out there and beginning to think when Cashman comes back they need to put number 0 on the bench. He is always out of control and cannot finish the tackle.

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• Flores doesn't seem to have the defense prepared for what to expect and it takes time for them to eventually adjust.  Not having Van Ginkel hurt, there are no other dynamic playmakers on this defense, it all seems stale, but they pulled it together and gave us many opportunities to win the game.
  
• Everything seems hard for JJ, too many plays taking too long to develop and getting to the line late is not helping, 3 huge plays that could have turned the game completely around, he bobbled the snap on the 4th and 1 which caused him to have to go down, he fumbled the snap at the goal line on a play that looked like it was designed to go to Nailor who was wide open and the huge one was missing a wide open Nailor which would have been an easy touchdown. 
  
• It has been reported for some time that they have been trying to get JJ to get more loft on some of his throws and not have everything be a dart and he seems to not be getting that, as Collinsworth said the long one to Nailor had to have some lift on it with the WR that wide open so he could get to the ball regardless of where it was thrown, can't waste an opportunity like that.
  
• Their DL was having their way with us, but we did nothing to offset it, no quick hitters, no rollouts, never tried to speed it up with a no huddle, just continued to put JJ straight back in the pocket, sticking with a game plan that was not working. 
  
• With all the trouble the OL was having would have thought Oliver would have played a lot of snaps and we would have gone a lot of two TE sets to help Skule out, I didn't see any of that, we were running a lot of 3 WR sets with TJ who is really more of a slot WR than a TE and just not physical enough to be a TE, big disappointment.  
  
• Turner looks small and just not physical enough to play the edge, the sack should have been Hargraves who is the one who busted up the play and forced the QB to run into Turner, outside of that he just doesn't look like he has it, considering all the picks we gave up and all the holes on this team, that was just a terrible move.  Imagine Quinton Mitchell or having all those picks instead.  
  
• As bad as we played, the Falcons are not that great and they gave us plenty of opportunities to win this game and we just continued to beat ourselves the entire game, we do not look like a team ready to play, snaps in joint practices and snaps in a stadium in front of a loud crowd are not the same.
  

Boom!  You pretty much summed it up.