Hughes On IR, Mac Out

[JustinTime18™]

MIKE HUGHESDB, MINNESOTA VIKINGS
Vikings placed CB Mike Hughes (neck) on injured reserve.The Vikings are all kinds of banged up at CB at the moment, as Mackensie Alexander (knee) has been ruled out for their Wild Card matchup against the Saints. This Vikings secondary was already rotating corners in recent weeks praying for an answer to emerge out of thin air. None of their CBs rank inside of PFF's top-50 corners in yards allowed per coverage snap.
SOURCE: Tom Pelissero on Twitter

[Guest]

And Odenigbo is Questionable for Sunday.

[Guest]

Major, major, major setbacks here. Hill needs the game of his life. Who's on deck after him? Boyd?

[Guest]

Yup, Boyd would be next up.

Let's just pen in a CB for the first round.

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That royally sucks, oh well its that time of year for injuries to mount up.   Put Waynes on Thomas and play alot more cover 2.  it'll be on our run stopping to win or lose this game.  

[Guest]

lol, sigh. Oh well. 

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@Bullazin said:
That royally sucks, oh well its that time of year for injuries to mount up.   Put Waynes on Thomas and play alot more cover 2.  it'll be on our run stopping to win or lose this game.  

I don't think we can play Thomas 1-on-1.  I think we should double him... and man up everyone else.  Let Rhodes press Thomas... and Harris can play over the top.  Then let Waynes and Mac (or Hill) cover the others 1-on-1.  Oh... and blitz the heck out of Brees.

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Kendricks isn't 100%.

No Hughes and No Mac @ New Orleans versus their offense, thats asking a lot from  the Viking  defense.

[Guest]

@pumpf said:

@Bullazin said:
That royally sucks, oh well its that time of year for injuries to mount up.   Put Waynes on Thomas and play alot more cover 2.  it'll be on our run stopping to win or lose this game.  

I don't think we can play Thomas 1-on-1.  I think we should double him... and man up everyone else.  Let Rhodes press Thomas... and Harris can play over the top.  Then let Waynes and Mac (or Hill) cover the others 1-on-1.  Oh... and blitz the heck out of Brees.

Brees is one of the all time greats against the blitz. You don't get home he will carve you up. And whom besides Kendricks and Smith actually look like they know what they're doing when blitzing? Barr just runs into the scrum.

Kendricks is needed to keep an eye on Kamara. Smith will likely have to deal with Cook. You bring either of them and the Defender left to cover their man is a huge downgrade. Barr would get slaughtered by Kamara. Harris has to help double Thomas as you rightly pointed out. So it falls to Hill or Boyd or Wilson on Cook. 

I guess I can live with taking your chances with Hill on Cook. Not sure about the other two.

What Zimmer has done well against Brees is give him a lot to think about pre-snap in terms of potential pressure and then backing out. Buys his D-Line a little extra time to get home by making Brees hesitate fractionally. 

As much as it galls me to say this, I truly believe this is a classic Bend but don't Break game plan. New Orleans is near the bottom of the League throwing the deep ball. They excel at short and intermediate passing. Stuff the run and make Drew dink and dunk his way 75 yards to score. 

If they start hot then I think you start dialing up a lot of blitzes. With Mac and Hughes out Hill and Boyd will be on the field a lot. While I expect Payton to go after them some his bread and butter is getting the ball to Thomas and Kamara. So maybe you bring one of them a few times.

If this turns into a blitz early and often game Minnesota will have to win in a shootout. 

[Guest]

ugh, this need makes me not want to watch. i fully expect we will be in the market for a new coach if this is a blow out.