You know it's bad when your West Coast offense gets sent to the east coast.
Quote: @MarkSP18 said:
If you want to believe that then I cannot stop you. But I seriously doubt that the Vikings would not have beat the Dolphins and Lions with JDF running the offense. He had run the ball more vs the Seahawks even though it was not working.
If Zimmer's defense could have stopped the Bears the first game when they had two weeks to prepare and then in the last game and vs the Bills they might not even have needed to win that last game.
If you want to keep believing that JDF is some great OC and we made a mistake firing him... then I cannot stop you. The fact of the matter is, our offense under his watch was EXTREMELY unbalanced. Through the first 12 weeks of the season, we were near the bottom of the league in designed run play percentage. We finished the season 4th highest in pass percentage... the 3 other teams that passed more than we did were Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta... none of them made the playoffs.
You need a balanced offense to win consistently in the NFL and we were extremely one dimensional under JDF's watch. Look at some of the top teams in the NFL... Saints 53% (pass play pct), Rams 55%, Patriots 55%... meanwhile, other playoff teams like Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore, and the Chargers all passed 58% of the time or less... even the high octane Chiefs offense passed on 60.9% of their plays.
Quote: @Purplewhizz said:
He sure quickly landed on his feet.
Right???
Somewhere in-between utterly failing here and getting hired much sooner than I anticipated is the truth around JDF.
Quote: @Wetlander said:
@ MarkSP18 said:
If you want to believe that then I cannot stop you. But I seriously doubt that the Vikings would not have beat the Dolphins and Lions with JDF running the offense. He had run the ball more vs the Seahawks even though it was not working.
If Zimmer's defense could have stopped the Bears the first game when they had two weeks to prepare and then in the last game and vs the Bills they might not even have needed to win that last game.
If you want to keep believing that JDF is some great OC and we made a mistake firing him... then I cannot stop you. The fact of the matter is, our offense under his watch was EXTREMELY unbalanced. Through the first 12 weeks of the season, we were near the bottom of the league in designed run play percentage. We finished the season 4th highest in pass percentage... the 3 other teams that passed more than we did were Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta... none of them made the playoffs.
You need a balanced offense to win consistently in the NFL and we were extremely one dimensional under JDF's watch. Look at some of the top teams in the NFL... Saints 53% (pass play pct), Rams 55%, Patriots 55%... meanwhile, other playoff teams like Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore, and the Chargers all passed 58% of the time or less... even the high octane Chiefs offense passed on 60.9% of their plays.
Patriots game. If we run, I believe we would have won. Gashing them on the run, but we never really committed. Can you imagine that boost for the team? Beating the pats right ahead of travelling to Seattle?
And I think JDF would have been fired a game or 2 sooner except for the difficulty it would have placed on Stef. Taking over the offense before travelling to NE or Seattle? Dolphins were soft and an easy landing spot for a new OC.
Quote: @Wetlander said:
@ MarkSP18 said:
If you want to believe that then I cannot stop you. But I seriously doubt that the Vikings would not have beat the Dolphins and Lions with JDF running the offense. He had run the ball more vs the Seahawks even though it was not working.
If Zimmer's defense could have stopped the Bears the first game when they had two weeks to prepare and then in the last game and vs the Bills they might not even have needed to win that last game.
If you want to keep believing that JDF is some great OC and we made a mistake firing him... then I cannot stop you. The fact of the matter is, our offense under his watch was EXTREMELY unbalanced. Through the first 12 weeks of the season, we were near the bottom of the league in designed run play percentage. We finished the season 4th highest in pass percentage... the 3 other teams that passed more than we did were Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta... none of them made the playoffs.
You need a balanced offense to win consistently in the NFL and we were extremely one dimensional under JDF's watch. Look at some of the top teams in the NFL... Saints 53% (pass play pct), Rams 55%, Patriots 55%... meanwhile, other playoff teams like Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore, and the Chargers all passed 58% of the time or less... even the high octane Chiefs offense passed on 60.9% of their plays.
I never said JDF was a great OC. I do think he should have been allowed to finish out the last 3 games.
Cook missed 6 of the first 8 weeks of the season. They ran Murray some but did not want to run him too much and clearly did not trust Boone or Thomas enough to play them more.
So JDF substituted a run game with short passes which the Vikings were one of the leaders in the league.
If I recall correctly, Thielen was on a record setting pace during this time as well and most fans were very happy. I do not recall too many complaining about the "designed run play percentage" (whatever that means).
They went 4-3-1 thanks to the kicker and Zimmer's defense making Allen look like John Elway and Cousins getting hit from behind twice and fumbling. Really should have been 5-3.
Here were the runs vs passes those first 8 weeks (with Cook out for 6 weeks) ...
49ers win - 36 passes 32 runs - def rush rank 12
Packers tie - 48 passes 18 runs - def rush rank 25
Bills loss - 55 passes 6 runs - def rush rank 9
Rams loss - 50 passes 17 runs - def rush rank 28
Eagles win - 37 passes 23 runs - def rush rank 14
Cardinals win - 34 passes 32 runs - def rush rank 24
Jets win - 40 passes 24 runs - def rush rank 20
Saints loss - 41 passes 22 runs - def rush rank 3
When Cook returned in week 9 they ran more and beat the lowly Lions.
They went on a bye and then could not do anything vs the Bears. 14 carries for 22 yards.You want him to call more runs when they are being that successful?
They came back and beat the Packers with a decent run pass ratio.
Against the Patriots, as mentioned above, is the one game where I could see the argument that he should have run a bit more. They still managed to tie the game at 10-10 towards the end of the 3rd quarter. Then, the vaunted defense, lets the Patriots go 75 yards in 4 plays to get a TD, the offense goes 3 and out, and the defense lets the Patriots go 50 yards in 6 plays making it 24-10.
They really could not run against the Seahawks even thought they tried. Cook had two runs for 26 yards and the other 11 he got 29 yards. They were losing or gaining very little yards more often than not and finished with 21 carries for 77 yards.
Here is the run vs passes those last 6 weeks ...
Lions win - 22 passes 23 runs - def rush rank 17
Bears loss - 46 passes 14 runs - def rush rank 1
Packers win - 38 passes 29 runs - def rush rank 25
Patriots loss - 44 passes 13 runs - def rush rank 21
Seahawks loss - 33 passes 21 runs - def rush rank 16
IDK, I thought he was doing OK. I knew the line was pretty bad at pretty much everything and the interior was the worst part. Makes it even harder to try and run and be successful.
Since the Vikings (including Zimmer) hired this young hot prospect to be OC last year, I thought the very least thing they could have done if let the man finish one season.
I expected more mentoring from Zimmer even if JDF was being stubborn.
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