Our offensive line is on fire

They might have themselves a real OG in Cleveland.

Only able to watch on red zone but they do seem to be running behind Cleveland a lot. 

Offensive line is doing really good...giving Cook 6.5 yard average a pop so far...

Cleveland and O'Neill: the Vikings' "strategy" of drafting college LTs and moving them to other positions is finally paying off.
Among all the debate of whether O'Neill should stay at RT or move to LT, I wonder if they have considered Oli Udoh at LT? I know, he played RT in college and doesn't have the TE-level athleticism of O'Neill or Cleveland. But Udoh is actually very athletic, especially for his size, and guys with +35" arms like him tend to be excellent pass protectors.

This lineup is finally getting push and looks  very good these last two games.

@"Jor-El" said:

Cleveland and O'Neill: the Vikings' "strategy" of drafting college LTs and moving them to other positions is finally paying off. Among all the debate of whether O'Neill should stay at RT or move to LT, I wonder if they have considered Oli Udoh at LT? I know, he played RT in college and doesn't have the TE-level athleticism of O'Neill or Cleveland. But Udoh is actually very athletic, especially for his size, and guys with +35" arms like him tend to be excellent pass protectors.

Udoh has been inactive almost every week. I don't think the kid is close to playing. 

@"Jor-El" said:

Cleveland and O'Neill: the Vikings' "strategy" of drafting college LTs and moving them to other positions is finally paying off. Among all the debate of whether O'Neill should stay at RT or move to LT, I wonder if they have considered Oli Udoh at LT? I know, he played RT in college and doesn't have the TE-level athleticism of O'Neill or Cleveland. But Udoh is actually very athletic, especially for his size, and guys with +35" arms like him tend to be excellent pass protectors.

Udoh has been inactive almost every week. I don't think the kid is close to playing. 

@"StickyBun" said: They might have themselves a real OG in Cleveland.

He graded out as the 10th best OG in just his 2nd NFL start vs the Pack last week...

@"Jor-El" said:

Cleveland and O'Neill: the Vikings' "strategy" of drafting college LTs and moving them to other positions is finally paying off.

It's not just the Vikings, or even a "strategy" for that matter.  I haven't looked this up in a while, but I have in the past. If I remember right, between a third and a half of the starting right tackles and left guards in the NFL were left tackles in college. Dakota Dozier was a left tackle. Phil Loadholt was a left tackle. Matt Birk was a left tackle. 

I had a baseball scout once tell me that, outside of pitchers, he only watched shortstops at the high school level. There's a reason they're playing SS. Shortstops are typically the best player on the team. They can play anywhere. Maybe a similar sort of thing. 

Still, I tend to believe that Cleveland's long term future is at LT. 

Look, when the Vikings can run the ball like they have the last 2 games? Great things happen. 

I'm tempted to say Cook is making that line look so good, but you know what? In the last 2 games, he aint getting touched till he's 4-7 yards downfield. 

BUT, when this team has to pass?  I suspect we'll be reminded why the OL (interior especially) is still a big need - almost as much as 3t. And why another QB on the roster is so important too. 

That said, there is some promising talent within that group - at least more than the previous seasons. 

cool--- our oline has been a dumpster fire for long enough

@"purplefaithful" said: Look, when the Vikings can run the ball like they have the last 2 games? Great things happen. 

I'm tempted to say Cook is making that line look so good, but you know what? In the last 2 games, he aint getting touched till he's 4-7 yards downfield. 

BUT, when this team has to pass?  I suspect we'll be reminded why the OL (interior especially) is still a big need - almost as much as 3t. And why another QB on the roster is so important too. 

That said, there is some promising talent within that group - at least more than the previous seasons. 

The OL has legitimately done a great job run blocking the past two games. They are athletic, they aspire getting downfield, and are creating big rushing lanes. Cleveland has been particularly impressive and has faired much better than Samia. The pass protection has looked better, but hasn’t really been tested the past two games. I am interested to see what happens when they need to pass more and if Cousins and the OL can hold up.

I had thought there was a chance that the team would get stronger as the season wore on. I think with all the roster turnover the lack of a normal off-season really hurt them, but the progress makes me feel better about their on the fly rebuild

As anyone else notice the coaching staff might want to take a look at our special teams this week during practice...

It's the Lions... not jumping on the hype train after a couple decent showings.  The line has been an open sore for years so will wait and see if this is an aberration or a new normal.   Might be a different story against a good D forcing Kirk and the gang to try and pass their way to a victory.

@"ArizonaViking" said: As anyone else notice the coaching staff might want to take a look at our special teams this week during practice...

The special teams were atrocious. They allowed two blocked punts, had a low snap that lead to a missed extra point, and had some ill-advised decisions to return kicks. It's probably not something they'll change in season, but I'd really like to see Colquitt replaced this off-season. I know they talk about him being a good holder and helping the kickers, but he has not been an impressive punter. To be fair to him, the blocks were more protection failures, but he has not punted well this season.

I am curious how many of those miss fires on ST was related to players being out there that normally wouldnt due to lineup changes?

also I think our moonlighting long snapper has been plenty erratic himself this year.

A couple of things popped up thinking about the overall Oline performance. first Kubes seems to have altered his protection scheme to double inside rushers and let his tackles go 1 on 1. A pretty brilliant scheme considering his personnel. 

A second observation is not as rosy, that is, the interior dlineman we have faced the last 2 weeks are not top level outside of Kenny Clark. It remains to be seen how we will fare against teams with good to excellent personnel in that area. 

@"Bullazin" said: A couple of things popped up thinking about the overall Oline performance. first Kubes seems to have altered his protection scheme to double inside rushers and let his tackles go 1 on 1. A pretty brilliant scheme considering his personnel. 

A second observation is not as rosy, that is, the interior dlineman we have faced the last 2 weeks are not top level outside of Kenny Clark. It remains to be seen how we will fare against teams with good to excellent personnel in that area. 

i dont know how healthy the bears are, but their DL has give us fits for a few years now so next weeks game should be a pretty good litmus as to how far the scheme/players have come.