Vikings vs Philly game thread

One of the best games I’ve seen Kirk play in MIN. Dimes everywhere. Sucks we fumbled it away.

Mattison and KJ have been mostly awful through 2 weeks. JJ has been outstanding and Addison looks very promising. 

@"pattersaur" said: One of the best games I’ve seen Kirk play in MIN. Dimes everywhere. Sucks we fumbled it away.

Mattison and KJ have been mostly awful through 2 weeks. JJ has been outstanding and Addison looks very promising. 

I've got more respect for Kirk Cousins after seeing everything he goes through to prepare himself to play throughout the season. Is he supremely talented, no, but the guy is a damn good quarterback who stands in and delivers. I thought he was exceptional tonight. You can say a lot of things about Kirk, but something you can't say is he isn't one tough son of a bitch. 

Also, I think Flores's defense is what was sold to us this offseason, but we just don't have the talent and horses up front..

@"supafreak84" said: Also, I think Flores's defense is what was sold to us this offseason, but we just don't have the talent and horses up front..

That was my fear all along.

@"supafreak84" said: Also, I think Flores's defense is what was sold to us this offseason, but we just don't have the talent and horses up front..

You can tell that Flores is a good coach and I really like his scheme and how me he'll show zero blitzes and then drop back into any number of pressures or coverages. It's like his version of Zimmer's double A gap blitz. I also really like how he'll show the zero blitz and the drop back into max coverage. That being said, I agree that the DL is a problem. I won't entirely blame them for being gouged on the ground but they were definitely struggling to generate push up the middle. I will say it was nice to see the D actually contain a running QB, though that was offset by letting a Lions castoff run all over them.

As for the offense, the OL is a major problem. Injuries to Darrisaw, Bradburry, and now Udoh certainly are not helping things, but Ingram and Schlottmann have been turnstiles. It's easy for me to get frustrated with Cousins, especially for the turnovers, but the number of free runners and collapses pockets he's dealing with would hold any QB back. Mattison has not been off to a great start. The OL play and playing from behind hasn't worked in his favor and the play he fumbled on, they telegraphed the run so hard that it felt like a disaster waiting to happen.

Jefferson has continued to be strong, though the fumble at the end of the first half was a heart breaker. Osborn had some uncharacteristic drops today, but Addison is continuing to take advantage of the mismatches and is showing himself to be a deep threat and Hockenson continues to be a stud.

So far they blew one game I expected them to win and lost a game, I expected to be a blowout. They can get back on track with a win next week, but they are looking a .500 to wildcard team right now. I think Flores can take the D in the right direction, but they are missing some pieces right now, and the OL is a huge problem. Hopefully players getting healthy will help, but I'm not sure how long they can continue trotting Ingram out there.

Very frustrating start to the season, but the season is far from over.

My guess is Minnesota will win just enough games to keep them from drafting the top 2 or 3 QBs. This team has a few huge needs outside that however: DT, DE, iOL.

• Outside of key injuries and repeatedly shooting ourselves in the foot, the biggest problem was the D-line, which is no surprise. But when your linebackers and safeties are making all the tackles in the run game 6-10 yards downfield you have a big problem.

• Clearly Flores game plan was focused on stopping the downfield passing game and they were marginally successful doing that, but when the Eagles shifted to the running game, Flores should’ve adjusted with it. 

• The touchback rule is the stupidest rule in football and should be eliminated. How do you prevent players from intentionally fumbling it forward? Let the refs make a judgement call  like they do with intentional grounding. You lose your grip on a ball reaching for the end zone and the other team gets the ball at the 25? In what bizarro world does that make sense? 

• I figured this would be a close game. I did not, however, expect Cousins to throw for 364, 4 TDs and 0 INTs in primetime, on the road, against THAT defense, under THAT much pressure, overcoming 4 turnovers, multiple dropped balls and a 2 to 1 possession disadvantage.

• Anyone who still thinks Cousins isn’t one of the very best QBs in the NFL is a fucking moron

We all knew the offensive and defensive lines were going to be the "Achilles Heel" of this team...KAM and KOC's theory was to slow the other team's offense down by bringing in Flores and score more points with Jefferson, Hock and Addison.
Neither have worked as of yet...

@"MaroonBells" said:

• Outside of key injuries and repeatedly shooting ourselves in the foot, the biggest problem was the D-line, which is no surprise. But when your linebackers and safeties are making all the tackles in the run game 6-10 yards downfield you have a big problem.

• Clearly Flores game plan was focused on stopping the downfield passing game and they were marginally successful doing that, but when the Eagles shifted to the running game, Flores should’ve adjusted with it. 

• The touchback rule is the stupidest rule in football and should be eliminated. How do you prevent players from intentionally fumbling it forward? Let the refs make a judgement call  like they do with intentional grounding. You lose your grip on a ball reaching for the end zone and the other team gets the ball at the 25? In what bizarro world does that make sense? 

• I figured this would be a close game. I did not, however, expect Cousins to throw for 364, 4 TDs and 0 INTs in primetime, on the road, against THAT defense, under THAT much pressure, overcoming 4 turnovers, multiple dropped balls and a 2 to 1 possession disadvantage.

• Anyone who still thinks Cousins isn’t one of the very best QBs in the NFL is a fucking moron

you bring the ball back to the point where control was lost so they cant gain by a forward fumble.  no judgement call required,  and as long as we are making rules about the endzone,  you should have to maintain possession until the whistle,  no more breaking the plane ending the play bull shit.  if you stick it out there and it gets knocked out prior to being down,  its a fumble IMO.

@"kmillard" said:

@"supafreak84" said: Also, I think Flores's defense is what was sold to us this offseason, but we just don't have the talent and horses up front..

That was my fear all along.

The goalline fumble rule stinks. The fumbling team should get the ball back at the 25 IMO, not the defending team. That’s still a strong punishment for fumbling, but not a game-changing one. Alternatively, the defending team should get the ball at the 1 where the fumble occurred. That’s even more punishing but at least your own defense has a chance to pin them back. The way it’s written now is just overly punitive.

I think the defensive game plan was solid. The Eagles have the best run blocking offensive line in football, but even at that you make them go down the entire field and play situational football. We took away Hurts and the downfield passing game that killed us last year. Outside of the blown coverage on the Smith TD we held up in pass defense and you take away the field position given up on turnovers and we win that game. It's pick your poison with the Eagles and I think we made the right choice, unfortunately the turnovers on offense were once again the story of the game. 

Thursday night’s #Vikings-#Eagles game averaged 16.6 million viewers across all platforms.

That’s the most-streamed NFL game in history, and most-watched TNF stream ever on Amazon Prime Video. pic.twitter.com/grmXERC8z9

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 15, 2023