Post-game vs Falcons

[supafreak84]

Wow, steaming pile of shit all the way around. Have gotten off to terrible starts in both games so far and we just weren't able to recover tonight. A few thoughts;

- Everything about the offense looks off from the plays getting in on time, to the line play, to growing pains with McCarthy. Hockenson has been a complete non factor. We've been in rythem one quarter out of eight and KOC not playing the starters more in the preseason looks like a mistake at this point. KOC is going to have his hands full getting this offense on track and it's likely going to be one of those things they are just going to have to work their way out of. The turd the Bears defense laid against Detroit today makes me a little less impressed with the comeback win last week.

- I thought the defense played well mostly but we gave up a lot of gash runs that kept Atlanta drives alive. We don't have a lot of girth in the front seven and that was a concern to me going in to the season. I thought there were a few times when they ran right at Dallas Turner and he couldn't make the play. Our linebackers are all undersized and it's a girth for speed tradeoff that's not always going to work in our favor like we saw tonight. 

- The good news; we have a Burrow-less Bengals team coming to Minnesota next week and we are close to getting back Harrison Smith, Darrisaw, and Addison. We need to see major improvements on offense and we should against a very mid Bengals defense

[Mattyman]

Where is KOCs expectations for his offense coming from?

It's only week 2 and he sat starters in preseason. They're missing starters.....

he did the same thing versus bears, he went for 2 points conversions when he could've taken the points.

it bugs me when KOC goes full Dan Campbell brain,

Vikings defense didn't rally to the ball and Robinson, especially. He torched them.

[StickierBuns]

Bijan ate up the D, start there and add a total of allowing 218 yards rushing by Atlanta and that's the game...not sure how anyone thinks the D played well. 6 sacks allowed and so many pressures of McCarthy who can keep count? JJ is still learning, still needs reps and he's making some mistakes but injuries on the team and around him are mounting and obviously impactful the way the D played. Starting center is out and that hurts. Just a giant shit sandwich all the way around. Skule is killing offensive momentum. The offensive line is still trying to gel, need Darrisaw back big time.

[supafreak84]

Bijan ate up the D, start there and add a total of allowing 218 yards rushing by Atlanta and that's the game...not sure how anyone thinks the D played well. 6 sacks allowed and so many pressures of McCarthy who can keep count? JJ is still learning, still needs reps and he's making some mistakes but injuries on the team and around him are mounting and obviously impactful the way the D played. Starting center is out and that hurts. Just a giant shit sandwich all the way around. Skule is killing offensive momentum. The offensive line is still trying to gel, need Darrisaw back big time.

D kept us in the game mostly. You can't overcome constant three and outs by the offense and significantly losing the time of possession battle. Even then they mostly held them to field goals while our offense never got on track all night long

[StickierBuns]

D kept us in the game mostly. You can't overcome constant three and outs by the offense and significantly losing the time of possession battle. Even then they mostly held them to field goals while our offense never got on track all night long

JJ didn't help the cause, zero doubt about it. But rushing for 218 yards also tends to jack up your time of possession numbers, which Atlanta did. Penix also had time to throw, JJ was sacked 6 times....could have been more. Ryan Kelly went out early, that exacerbated things for a young QB. Skule is brutal. Plenty of blame to go around.

[supafreak84]

JJ didn't help the cause, zero doubt about it. But rushing for 218 yards also tends to jack up your time of possession numbers, which Atlanta did. Penix also had time to throw, JJ was sacked 6 times....could have been more. Ryan Kelly went out early, that exacerbated things for a young QB. Skule is brutal. Plenty of blame to go around.

Atlanta is one of the better running teams in the league, so what they were going to try and do wasn't a surprise. Was more of a case of could we hold up defensively long term being an undersized, speed unit....and we couldn't. 

To me, KOC's game planning was weird and I've seen this from him in the past, but when the offensive line isn't holding up, why do we not try to establish the run? Neither of our backs reached double digit carries and in a game that was mostly within one score all night long, I just don't understand it or what he is trying to do to get the offense in any kind of rythem. We got back into the game last week in Chicago when we ran the football.

[MAD GAINZ]

Now that we're two weeks into the season, things are looking a little clearer...

We haven't started off with a lead in either game, but our pass rush has shown up in critical times. Imagine if we can be up 7 or 10+ points and let those guys tee off on a team trying to play catch up?

We're missing Darrisaw big time. Too much quick pressure on JJ McCarthy where he doesn't even have a chance to do anything. Losing Ryan Kelly early last night didn't help the protection either.

JJ McCarthy had a tough night. The fumbled play fake on first and goal was a killer. Can't do that when your offense is struggling. He missed Nailor on a TD when he overthrew him by a couple yards. He missed low a couple times as well on some out breaking routes. Some things I liked... he never gives up and makes some highlight worthy plays. The throw to Jefferson before half time was huge. 20 seconds left deep in our own territory and once pass and we can get a FG chance on one play. HUGE.

With all the money and draft capital invested in the OL this off-season, I would have thought we'd be better at run blocking. Short yardage is better than it has been, but still not elite.

I think KOC had a rough game play calling. He likes the long developing pass plays, but our protection the last two weeks and the coverages the other team's are running are taking those away and forcing underneath throws. I'd like to see more of a commitment to the run and throwing some play action underneath to suck up those safeties and then burn up deep. Also surprised we haven't used more of the middle of the field. JJ McCarthy thrived there at Michigan, but a lot of his throws seem to be outside the numbers.

Jefferson and McCarthy are still building chemistry after he sat out basically all of training camp. Hopefully they get on the same page soon. Addison being out isn't helping either, him and JJ had great chemistry all training camp so that is leading to some struggles on offense.

I still believe we have the pieces to be a playoff team, but it is going to take some time for things to gel. If we're still seeing the same issues by Week 9 we can go into panic mode. I'm not there yet at all.

[comet52]

Bijan ate up the D, start there and add a total of allowing 218 yards rushing by Atlanta and that's the game...not sure how anyone thinks the D played well. 6 sacks allowed and so many pressures of McCarthy who can keep count? JJ is still learning, still needs reps and he's making some mistakes but injuries on the team and around him are mounting and obviously impactful the way the D played. Starting center is out and that hurts. Just a giant shit sandwich all the way around. Skule is killing offensive momentum. The offensive line is still trying to gel, need Darrisaw back big time.

Dropping Harrison Phillips didn't help the run D.  JJM against a really high pressure rate while he holds holds holds the ball... doesn't work.  KOC still doesn't call a great game, probably never will after 3+ years trying.  Front office can't draft so it buys aged talent which, no surprise, starts sitting with injuries galore.

I'm not gonna judge JJM too harshly cuz he's green as a shoot at this NFL game, but overall this season could go off the rails fast the way it looks now.   Fortunately they get the Bengals without Joe Burrow next week, just the immortal Viking-killer Jake Browning,.

[supafreak84]

Dropping Harrison Phillips didn't help the run D.  JJM against a really high pressure rate while he holds holds holds the ball... doesn't work.  KOC still doesn't call a great game, probably never will after 3+ years trying.  Front office can't draft so it buys aged talent which, no surprise, starts sitting with injuries galore.

Good points

[purplefaithful]

I agree with Comet and Wet, KOC playcalling doesnt compute with what he's got in a green QB AND no CD.

I wish I could say (by game 2) I was surprised reading fans complaining about sticking with the run....