Sam Cook "Change Gonna Come"

[Skodin]

wow, very nice performance by the boys in Purple.  showed up big on a big stage.  pretty good balanced performance and with continued health (particularly on the OL) we can expect more.  

you can see the flashes of brilliance with Cook, the various threats in the passing game (wait until Floyd comes back to give a deep look in a 3 WR set).

With one game we can move past, a terrible last 11 games, a pathetic preseason, the ghost of AP, the ghost of Brett (a pocket passer), and the lack of a playmaking WR since the Freak.

we will be underdogs vs Pitt, going to be interesting to see the wrinkles of this week's D plus the double A gap look versus Pitt.  Give us a good performance Vikes in Pitt, no one is expecting a win so historically this is a game we steal.

A win next week, and we are where we belong, in the top rung of the NFC

[Guest]

The Steelers looked very beatable on Sunday. We may not be favorites, but I would expect a win. The line should continue to get better. Cook will continue to improve. The Saints may not be a top shelf D, but in the past, we would have made them look like one. If we cant be excited about our team at this time of year, we may as well be Browns fans.

[Guest]

I think Pete and Tom made a very good point.  I believe it was Pete who said that last year the Eagles finally figured out how to stop the Viking freight train and it is a must to put pressure on Bradford and not let him pick you apart with his accuracy.
Teams will now start to come at this new offensive line with mass blitzing and any thing they can do to put pressure on Sam.  Kind of like when teams focused on AP. 
At this point I haven't seen enough from Cook that we could put the offense on his back and he could carry the team.  Besides, you have to get him out in space or he will just get caught in wash trying to run like Peterson did for the last couple of years.
I hope the coaching staff schemes for this in a big way.  May a full diet of screens, quick passing, pocket movement, and getting Cook out in space.

[Guest]

@ThunderGod said:
I think Pete and Tom made a very good point.  I believe it was Pete who said that last year the Eagles finally figured out how to stop the Viking freight train and it is a must to put pressure on Bradford and not let him pick you apart with his accuracy.
Teams will now start to come at this new offensive line with mass blitzing and any thing they can do to put pressure on Sam.  Kind of like when teams focused on AP. 
At this point I haven't seen enough from Cook that we could put the offense on his back and he could carry the team.  Besides, you have to get him out in space or he will just get caught in wash trying to run like Peterson did for the last couple of years.
I hope the coaching staff schemes for this in a big way.  May a full diet of screens, quick passing, pocket movement, and getting Cook out in space.

Well you sort of hit the nail on the head. When we see the exotic blitzing schemes we are going to have to see Dalvin on some screens. That is the only way we are going to make them pay and we have the right kid to do it with. Heck we have two guys to do it with in Cook and McKinnon. What we also have is an offensive coordinator that had all offseason to implement a working strategy with those guys as his chess pieces. Remember that last year we had norv and his slow developing offensive plays for the first part of the season. Hopefully we see the the right plays against defenses with the right tools for a dynamic answer when we see those blitzes.