Post-game thoughts vs Chargers

[supafreak84]

Hard not overreacting after a loss, but this was a beat down and this team is a complete mess right now. 

- We are not well coached and continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties and big momentum killing penalties. We get a nice kickoff return to start the game....nope, penalty. We are one of the most penalized teams in the league and it's inexcusable. 

- The offense has been off all year long. Injuries certainly play a part, but damn, it's been ugly outside of a mopup game against the Bengals at home. I don't understand the playcalling at all. 

- I thought it was a mistake not hiring Jim Harbaugh when given the opportunity and nothing I saw last night moved that opinion. My opinion on KOC is waaay down right now and I don't see this offensive "guru" the media continually hypes him up to be. 

- Every team in the league is dealing with injuries, but good coaches and good front offices overcome them. Look at Tampa, San Francisco, and the Chargers. The Vikings are struggling because our depth is paper thin due to poor drafting and investing in older free agents that haven't panned out. 

- This defense was designed to play with a lead and we haven't led much this year. We are small along the front seven and they got the absolute shit knocked out of them last night by a physical Chargers running game. Flores wanted to be small, quick, slashing and attacking to the ball, but that style is only really affective when playing with a lead. We aren't physical or hold up at the point of attack. I expect Gibbs, Montgomery and company to dog walk this defense all day next week. I don't know how you fix this issue moving forward. We have to get bigger and younger along our front seven next offseason. I think the design is just flawed and they were expecting more out of Hargrave and Allen. They didn't help matters by trading away our best run defending lineman, Harrison Phillips, before the season. 

-  McCarthy was not good when he played and the worst thing that can happen for us heading into the offseason is to be "undetermined" still at the quarterback position. He has to play this second half of the season and play well. I hate to say it, but is he just going to be a guy who is going to be injury prone? It's certainly possible at this point. 

- If the Wilfs were smart (and they are not) and we end up picking top 5, top 10 (absolutely possible)....you send Kwesi/Grigson packing. I don't care about the extension. This is year 4 of the experiment, and if we end up spending millions upon millions in free agency and our draft picks suck...you cut your losses and move on. Bring in someone with actual scouting and personnel experience to run this ship and hire based on merit and not who Roger Goodell pushes you to hire based on race. I'm over this rosters shortcomings because of misevaluations in the draft and free agency.

[Montana Tom]

I think your reactions are far too harsh.
Some comments are well deserved, certainly, but your solutions are throwing the baby out the with bathwater.
And I take offense to you saying that the Wilf's are not smart.

[supafreak84]

I think your reactions are far too harsh.
Some comments are well deserved, certainly, but your solutions are throwing the baby out the with bathwater.
And I take offense to you saying that the Wilf's are not smart.

Well, it's year 4 under the new regime. No playoff wins, and the meter is not pointing in a positive direction almost halfway through the season. We spent something like 260 million in free agency on older veterans that haven't produced. Drafts have been mostly abysmal. Soo, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater not in the conversation? If not, how much longer do you wait should this season play out at its current trajectory? At some point you just cut dead weight and the sooner the better 

Sorry you are offended. My comment was as it relates to football. They are certainly astute businessmen in other realms, but when it comes to football and making football decisions, I don't consider them to be smart.

[comet52]

Well, it's year 4 under the new regime. No playoff wins, and the meter is not pointing in a positive direction almost halfway through the season. We spent something like 260 million in free agency on older veterans that haven't produced. Drafts have been mostly abysmal. Soo, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater not in the conversation? If not, how much longer do you wait should this season play out at its current trajectory? At some point you just cut dead weight and the sooner the better 

Sorry you are offended. My comment was as it relates to football. They are certainly astute businessmen in other realms, but when it comes to football and making football decisions, I don't consider them to be smart.

Spot on.  People want to defend the Wilfs, KOC, whatever.  The results on the field aren't good, they aren't defensible at this point if you ask me.   IMO the two big win totals in 2022 and 2024 were mostly mirages, courtesy of a lot of turnover luck, soft scheduling, and injury luck as well.   I think ownership is poor and I've said that going all the way back to Chili.  I know most fans don't agree because they value what the Wilfs have done - build buildings and pump p.r.  But every team does that now, every team builds a new stadium at some point or another.  The whole thing of selling us "culture" is just like daytime t.v. stuff for lonely hearts.  It has nothing to do with winning a title, it's just soap if you know what I mean.

I think the poor drafting, lack of strategic ability from the HC and other issues are getting exposed.  Maybe JJM will be some sort of hero who lifts this thing up out of the mud but that's looking like a longshot and it's pretty clear that in year 4, KAM/KOC are not the dynamic duo that some people think they are.  This thing is not trending upwards.  You look at where the Lions were when Campbell took over.  It's not hard to say they are a top NFC team now and in real contention every year.  We are floundering compared to them.  

And I know there are always excuses.  That's the culture we live in now.  Bad night running the ball?  Oh the oline is so banged up how could we run it, how could we do anything?  Maybe we should just forfeit since it's so tough.  

Last night was one of the most embarrassing games I've ever seen from this team and I've seen pretty much all of them since 1970.   So I don't really care about somebody "preaching patience".  Wilf's been preaching patience at me for 20 years while they fiddlefuck around trying to figure out how to win.  Call me not impressed.

[supafreak84]

Spot on.  People want to defend the Wilfs, KOC, whatever.  The results on the field aren't good, they aren't defensible at this point if you ask me.   IMO the two big win totals in 2022 and 2024 were mostly mirages, courtesy of a lot of turnover luck, soft scheduling, and injury luck as well.   I think ownership is poor and I've said that going all the way back to Chili.  I know most fans don't agree because they value what the Wilfs have done - build buildings and pump p.r.  But every team does that now, every team builds a new stadium at some point or another.  The whole thing of selling us "culture" is just like daytime t.v. stuff for lonely hearts.  It has nothing to do with winning a title, it's just soap if you know what I mean.

Childress was where it started with me too. The inexperienced Wilfs hired the first "hot name" the media was pumping out that year without examining things a little closer and evaluating things like, oh...did he actually call plays or have anything to do with an Andy Reid led offense in Philly. It didnt take much investigating for that answer to be a resounding "no" to everyone but the Wilfs. Childress was a disaster on the field and in the locker room until Brett Favre comes along and guides this team single handedly to the NFC Championship game. The Wilfs almost trip over themselves rushing to give Childress a contract extension only to fire his ass when the team implodes the following season and leaves them looking like complete idiots. They haven't learned or improved their process much in the 15 years since then. You can be good business people but not know shit about the game of football or how to effectively run an organization. The Wilfs are up there with the Woody Johnsons in that regard.

[DeepFreeze05]

[StickierBuns]

I think your reactions are far too harsh.
Some comments are well deserved, certainly, but your solutions are throwing the baby out the with bathwater.
And I take offense to you saying that the Wilf's are not smart.

Yeah I agree.....over the top reaction. But we're a frustrated lot, unfortunately, so we have a wellspring of old resentments to layer on top of our current resentments and this is what you get. I also think some old agendas come out, like I know Supa thinks the Wilfs are too progressive as do some other fans. What that has anything to do with how the teams succeeds or doesn't is beyond me. JMO. 

We are in 'pile on' mode here so anything goes. I don't blame any fans really for blowing off the steam, we can't have nice things.

[comet52]

Yeah I agree.....over the top reaction. But we're a frustrated lot, unfortunately, so we have a wellspring of old resentments to layer on top of our current resentments and this is what you get. I also think some old agendas come out, like I know Supa thinks the Wilfs are too progressive as do some other fans. What that has anything to do with how the teams succeeds or doesn't is beyond me. JMO. 

We are in 'pile on' mode here so anything goes. I don't blame any fans really for blowing off the steam, we can't have nice things.

I don't have an issue with the Wilfs wanting to be socially progressive.  I don't really care about that stuff.  I think it's to some extent just p.r. which they are very invested in - they love to sell their alleged goodness.

But I have a long-standing issue with their poor hirings and general approach to football team building.  I've been underwhelmed and could cite a lot of reasons why but I'm tired of it all right now.  

And yeah venting frustration is a real thing that people really need to do sometimes, including me.  I honestly started to see stuff in camp back in August that made me pause and I posted that I was off the bandwagon and back to feeling like under 8 wins. 

Unless JJM is some kinda star that we haven't really seen outside of one quarter, and he can actually stay on the field with a patchy oline and a HC who frankly really comes up short strategically imo, and is going to make him stand behind that line waiting for long developing routes while he takes mucho sacks...it's just hard to see.

Then you look at the schedule and where are the wins?  Maybe home versus Chicago or Washington.  The rest looks very hard.

So yeah, I'm venting, here and elsewhere.  It's either laugh, cry or die with this team, cuz it sure ain't making runs at a title. 

[StickierBuns]

I don't have an issue with the Wilfs wanting to be socially progressive.  I don't really care about that stuff.  I think it's to some extent just p.r. which they are very invested in - they love to sell their alleged goodness.

But I have a long-standing issue with their poor hirings and general approach to football team building.  I've been underwhelmed and could cite a lot of reasons why but I'm tired of it all right now.  

And yeah venting frustration is a real thing that people really need to do sometimes, including me.  I honestly started to see stuff in camp back in August that made me pause and I posted that I was off the bandwagon and back to feeling like under 8 wins. 

Unless JJM is some kinda star that we haven't really seen outside of one quarter, and he can actually stay on the field with a patchy oline and a HC who frankly really comes up short strategically imo, and is going to make him stand behind that line waiting for long developing routes while he takes mucho sacks...it's just hard to see.

Then you look at the schedule and where are the wins?  Maybe home versus Chicago or Washington.  The rest looks very hard.

So yeah, I'm venting, here and elsewhere.  It's either laugh, cry or die with this team, cuz it sure ain't making runs at a title. 

I totally get it, man...and I agree. Listen, everyone knows I love JJ but he's got a ton to prove. And he's going to have to overcome team shortcomings to succeed cuz this team ain't what was advertised.

[supafreak84]

Yeah I agree.....over the top reaction. But we're a frustrated lot, unfortunately, so we have a wellspring of old resentments to layer on top of our current resentments and this is what you get. I also think some old agendas come out, like I know Supa thinks the Wilfs are too progressive as do some other fans. What that has anything to do with how the teams succeeds or doesn't is beyond me. JMO. 

We are in 'pile on' mode here so anything goes. I don't blame any fans really for blowing off the steam, we can't have nice things.

Over the top? What specifically did you find "over the top?" If you are referring to cutting bait on an "out of the box" GM hire that four years in looks absolutely awful, thenI'd love to hear your rebuttal on the matter. The Wilfs are not smart football people. Prove me wrong and point to anything in their tenure that's worked out or been a smart football decision. Looking forward to hearing it