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I can see why Diggs would want out of here. He runs perfect routes and is open a lot and Cousins just doesn't get the ball to him. It would frustrate me too. I bet it frustrates Adam too, but it hinders things when they are really good friends.
I just wrote about this in a different thread I believe this is Cousins biggest weakness and explains why he has good stats but a lack of overall success. And since he checks down when not under pressure, when a receiver is open down the field, I question whether a better O-line will help much.
Quote: @greediron said:
First one, cousins was sacked so it doesn't matter how open Diggs was.
On the square out, look at his mechanics, brings his right leg up. He felt the pressure all day and wasn't on. Which really sucks.
Saw another article yesterday about how good the SF LBs were in coverage. There was a reason our offense struggled. They got worked by the Rams a few weeks before and knew they had to deal with the play action. Selah had a good scheme to counter our strength. That was my biggest complaint of Stef, when the scheme wasn't working, he had nothing else to offer. I think much of the struggles were on Stef not having the answers to teams taking away the run. He couldn't find a way (although tempo/2 minute drill often worked) to get cousins on track.
In defense of Stefanski... what else was he supposed to do? The running game wasn't working... we tried to screen SF and got minimal yardage on those... then we tried to back them off the LOS with some deeper route concepts and had a QB that flat out missed the throws or wouldn't make the throws when they were there. We were waiting for a spark on offense and outside of the one long TD to Diggs early in the game, we didn't get anymore. The opportunities were there, we just had a QB that refused to throw them as the game went along...
Quote: @Wetlander said:
@ greediron said:
First one, cousins was sacked so it doesn't matter how open Diggs was.
On the square out, look at his mechanics, brings his right leg up. He felt the pressure all day and wasn't on. Which really sucks.
Saw another article yesterday about how good the SF LBs were in coverage. There was a reason our offense struggled. They got worked by the Rams a few weeks before and knew they had to deal with the play action. Selah had a good scheme to counter our strength. That was my biggest complaint of Stef, when the scheme wasn't working, he had nothing else to offer. I think much of the struggles were on Stef not having the answers to teams taking away the run. He couldn't find a way (although tempo/2 minute drill often worked) to get cousins on track.
In defense of Stefanski... w hat else was he supposed to do? The running game wasn't working... we tried to screen SF and got minimal yardage on those... then we tried to back them off the LOS with some deeper route concepts and had a QB that flat out missed the throws or wouldn't make the throws when they were there. We were waiting for a spark on offense and outside of the one long TD to Diggs early in the game, we didn't get anymore. The opportunities were there, we just had a QB that refused to throw them as the game went along...
I don't know, that is why he is paid to be the OC in the NFL. He has to find a way with the players he has. Wish we could have gotten Shurmur back. He knew how to make it work with who he had.
Yes our QB missed some throws, but as the OC, he has to get him in rhythm. Not laying the entire blame on Stef, but it was a reoccuring theme this year. When the run game wasn't there, our offense rarely had the answer. But maybe in games like Denver, we went tempo and Cousins thrived. So I think there were answers there, but I am just a fanatic on a keyboard, not a professional with highly paid analysts to tell me these things.
Quote: @jargomcfargo said:
I just wrote about this in a different thread I believe this is Cousins biggest weakness and explains why he has good stats but a lack of overall success. And since he checks down when not under pressure, when a receiver is open down the field, I question whether a better O-line will help much.
It will. Because what causes QBs to check down when not under pressure is the pressure on the other plays. It makes QBs see ghosts when there's nothing there. Cousins certainly isn't alone in that. But do we have a right to expect better, given what he's paid? Probably so.
During the game I was talking with some fellow Vikes fans and we all said, "Can't wait to see all the Twitter videos of all the throws Cousins didn't make today". It just felt like one of those games.
It's easy to nitpick Kirk and I do think he's solid but man. 7 first downs hurts.
Maybe upgrading our OL from a 6 to an 8 (out of 10) fixes all of our problems, but I'm dubious.
Quote: @pattersaur said:
During the game I was talking with some fellow Vikes fans and we all said, "Can't wait to see all the Twitter videos of all the throws Cousins didn't make today". It just felt like one of those games.
It's easy to nitpick Kirk and I do think he's solid but man. 7 first downs hurts.
Maybe upgrading our OL from a 6 to an 8 (out of 10) fixes all of our problems, but I'm dubious.
I am too, but there isn't (imo) a clear cut alternative that would make the Vikings choose another QB for 2020. For many reasons, including CAP.
I still believe he's our best signal caller since Favre, warts and all. But is that enough? May not be.
Quote: @greediron said:
@ MaroonBells said:
Missed opportunities both because of pressure and because he just didn't let it fly when he had to....
First one, cousins was sacked so it doesn't matter how open Diggs was.
It does matter. There are people who think we should trade Diggs because of his "lack of production" in the two playoff games. Now, I don't care if you blame Cousins for that play or the line--you can't blame Diggs. That's a helluva route, and a TD with another second of time...assuming the QB throws it. Look, I have no agenda here, no narrative I'm trying to support. I'm not even certain we shouldn't extend Cousins. But we shouldn't be afraid of the truth.
I agree that much of the problem in SF was due to Stefanski not having a response to what the 49ers were doing. They did exactly what Green Bay did. It's frustrating that we didn't know that's what they would do.
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