Couple of Kudos

you know who else belongs in this parade? This kid right here;

@"purplefaithful" said: you know who else belongs in this parade? This kid right here;

Friend asked me recently if I would take Zimmer as DC right now. I would. As DC only? Yeah, I think I would. Wouldn't happen in a million years. We wouldn't offer it and even if we did, he wouldn't accept it.

However, it made me think about Shelley. I think it's probably easier for an inexperienced corner to come in and play well in a Donatell defense. If this were a Zimmer defense, it would be a couple of years before we could expect that. 

Shelley and Jones definitely came up huge and were difference makers.  Shelley has been solid and ready to ball out every time he has unexpectedly been thrown into the mix.  If you look at the last play with the Bynum pick, Shelley was right there to knock it away.  Jones was everything Z and Hunter were not yesterday and really picked us up.  

Bynum continues to be a solid under the radar players.  He got things going with the tip that cause the interception and led to our first points and finished the game.  He also made the key pass break up at the end of the NE game last week and has consistently flashed in the big moments.  

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"purplefaithful" said: you know who else belongs in this parade? This kid right here;

Yeah, he's been solid considering he's spent most of his career on the practice squad. 

Friend asked me recently if I would take Zimmer as DC right now. I would. As DC only? Yeah, I think I would. Wouldn't happen in a million years. We wouldn't offer it and even if we did, he wouldn't accept it.

However, it made me think about Shelley. I think it's probably easier for an inexperienced corner to come in and play well in a Donatell defense. If this were a Zimmer defense, it would be a couple of years before we could expect that. 

Zimmer wouldn't talk to Shelley if he was here. The video of KOC telling Shelley that there is no one that fucking wants you out here more than I do during the New England game was awesome. There were things I appreciated about Zimmer but his time here has come and gone. I am concerned about the here and now and that includes Donatell.

@"mgobluevikes" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"purplefaithful" said: you know who else belongs in this parade? This kid right here;

Yeah, he's been solid considering he's spent most of his career on the practice squad. 

Friend asked me recently if I would take Zimmer as DC right now. I would. As DC only? Yeah, I think I would. Wouldn't happen in a million years. We wouldn't offer it and even if we did, he wouldn't accept it.

However, it made me think about Shelley. I think it's probably easier for an inexperienced corner to come in and play well in a Donatell defense. If this were a Zimmer defense, it would be a couple of years before we could expect that. 

The scheme Donatell is running is terrible, but at least he doesn't intimidate or have his players playing scared. He also doesn't play favorites. Zimmer on the other hand, sounds like he was about a step above Urban Meyer as far as how he treated the team.

Give me the Division title, KOC coach of the year, and a lot of young promising talent this year and i am going to very happy with this year.
Next year we keep building the offense and address the issues with the defense 

@"mgobluevikes" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"purplefaithful" said: you know who else belongs in this parade? This kid right here;

Yeah, he's been solid considering he's spent most of his career on the practice squad. 

Friend asked me recently if I would take Zimmer as DC right now. I would. As DC only? Yeah, I think I would. Wouldn't happen in a million years. We wouldn't offer it and even if we did, he wouldn't accept it.

However, it made me think about Shelley. I think it's probably easier for an inexperienced corner to come in and play well in a Donatell defense. If this were a Zimmer defense, it would be a couple of years before we could expect that. 

The scheme Donatell is running is terrible, but at least he doesn't intimidate or have his players playing scared. He also doesn't play favorites. Zimmer on the other hand, sounds like he was about a step above Urban Meyer as far as how he treated the team.

Lack of a pass rush this year is one of the big achilles heels on the team. Donatell is not blitzing much at all either. Hell, I rarely see 7 in the box these days.

I thought Hunter played the run well yesterday and I suspect thats been the case a lot of the time this season. I'm just used to him pressuring the qb more blatantly and getting a ton of sacks. He is not that impactful of a player since the injury. 

I don't know if he's long for the Vikings world in a 3/4 anymore tbh? Like one poster mused, he might be the trade bait to moving on up in next years draft. 

@"TBro" said:

@"mgobluevikes" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"purplefaithful" said: you know who else belongs in this parade? This kid right here;

Yeah, he's been solid considering he's spent most of his career on the practice squad. 

Friend asked me recently if I would take Zimmer as DC right now. I would. As DC only? Yeah, I think I would. Wouldn't happen in a million years. We wouldn't offer it and even if we did, he wouldn't accept it.

However, it made me think about Shelley. I think it's probably easier for an inexperienced corner to come in and play well in a Donatell defense. If this were a Zimmer defense, it would be a couple of years before we could expect that. 

The scheme Donatell is running is terrible, but at least he doesn't intimidate or have his players playing scared. He also doesn't play favorites. Zimmer on the other hand, sounds like he was about a step above Urban Meyer as far as how he treated the team.

The problem with Donatell's scheme is the lack of consistent pressure on the QB. To sit back in coverage, you need to get home quickly and we are too inconsistent with our DLine pressure. We also don't have the right personnel to run his scheme effectively. What's frustrating is that I haven't noticed any adjustments to his scheme to put the players we have in the right places to make plays based on their skill set. 

@"PurpleCrush" said:

@"TBro" said:

@"mgobluevikes" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"purplefaithful" said: you know who else belongs in this parade? This kid right here;

Yeah, he's been solid considering he's spent most of his career on the practice squad. 

Friend asked me recently if I would take Zimmer as DC right now. I would. As DC only? Yeah, I think I would. Wouldn't happen in a million years. We wouldn't offer it and even if we did, he wouldn't accept it.

However, it made me think about Shelley. I think it's probably easier for an inexperienced corner to come in and play well in a Donatell defense. If this were a Zimmer defense, it would be a couple of years before we could expect that. 

The scheme Donatell is running is terrible, but at least he doesn't intimidate or have his players playing scared. He also doesn't play favorites. Zimmer on the other hand, sounds like he was about a step above Urban Meyer as far as how he treated the team.

The problem with Donatell's scheme is the lack of consistent pressure on the QB. To sit back in coverage, you need to get home quickly and we are too inconsistent with our DLine pressure. We also don't have the right personnel to run his scheme effectively. What's frustrating is that I haven't noticed any adjustments to his scheme to put the players we have in the right places to make plays based on their skill set. 

I wonder if the reason for the vanilla scheme is due to this being the first year transition to a 3-4. I'm sure it takes some time for players to adapt for such a big change and a coach would want to get the fundamentals down before digging into their bag of tricks. 

With that being said, there's absolutely no reason for him not to incorporate basic scheme adjustments such as blitzing, coverage mixups, etc. to help your defense out.

With SD losing yesterday, I could see them move on from Staley as coach. If so, KOC should be on the phone with him ASAP. They have a pretty good friendship from what I've read, and Staley comes from the Fangio coaching tree so it should be a smooth transition.

Need to add one Kudos.  LB Hicks for that deflection on 4th down in the endzone.  He hasn't been great in coverage at times, but he laid out to get his hand in there and dislodge the ball.

Also, some great blocking for the rushing TDs.  Ingram on Dalvins was deep in the endzone driving his guy.  On Mattison's most of the kudos goes to TJ and a huge block by Theilen.   He stuck in their really hard and kept the defender occupied to allow Mattison to score untouched.

TJ and Cleveland had great blocks on Dalvin's 21 yard gain in the first as well.  That was a great design as well.  Bradbury and Ingram sealed the hole and Cleveland pulled through ahead of Dalvin on the draw.

@"TBro" said:

@"PurpleCrush" said:

@"TBro" said:

@"mgobluevikes" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"purplefaithful" said: you know who else belongs in this parade? This kid right here;

Yeah, he's been solid considering he's spent most of his career on the practice squad. 

Friend asked me recently if I would take Zimmer as DC right now. I would. As DC only? Yeah, I think I would. Wouldn't happen in a million years. We wouldn't offer it and even if we did, he wouldn't accept it.

However, it made me think about Shelley. I think it's probably easier for an inexperienced corner to come in and play well in a Donatell defense. If this were a Zimmer defense, it would be a couple of years before we could expect that. 

The scheme Donatell is running is terrible, but at least he doesn't intimidate or have his players playing scared. He also doesn't play favorites. Zimmer on the other hand, sounds like he was about a step above Urban Meyer as far as how he treated the team.

The problem with Donatell's scheme is the lack of consistent pressure on the QB. To sit back in coverage, you need to get home quickly and we are too inconsistent with our DLine pressure. We also don't have the right personnel to run his scheme effectively. What's frustrating is that I haven't noticed any adjustments to his scheme to put the players we have in the right places to make plays based on their skill set. 

I wonder if the reason for the vanilla scheme is due to this being the first year transition to a 3-4. I'm sure it takes some time for players to adapt for such a big change and a coach would want to get the fundamentals down before digging into their bag of tricks. 

With that being said, there's absolutely no reason for him not to incorporate basic scheme adjustments such as blitzing, coverage mixups, etc. to help your defense out.

With SD losing yesterday, I could see them move on from Staley as coach. If so, KOC should be on the phone with him ASAP. They have a pretty good friendship from what I've read, and Staley comes from the Fangio coaching tree so it should be a smooth transition.

At this point in the season, the transition to the new scheme should be complete. To your point, he should be adding layers to it to build on the base 3-4 scheme he started with back in Training Camp. However, we just don't have the right personnel in a lot of positions to execute what he wants to do. The elite Defenses we played during this stretch all have something we don't, elite speed and coverage skills at the Linebacker position, and elite Defensive Fronts that generate pressure without having to blitz very often. I think that is what Donatell want's the Vikings to ultimately be, but we just don't have the horses to do it. You fix those two issues with our Defense and the Corners and Safeties will look and perform a lot better. 
One compliment I will give is the Offensive Line and the adjustments they made in their running attack. They got away from the Stretch Zone and had more of a power blocking scheme creating nice holes between the guard and tackle.  

#Vikings DC Ed Donatell on second-year edge Patrick Jones:

“He has tremendous upside as an outside linebacker in this scheme.”

— Sean Borman (@SeanBormanNFL) December 8, 2022

@"MaroonBells" said: https://twitter.com/SeanBormanNFL/status/1600888283298697217?s=20&t=ImYjWc1siTD39DtyzQhCmQ