Interesting comment....

With their lines - they need no turnovers.  

What are the areas where we have an advantage over the Eagles? I like Case better than Foles, especially under pressure. I like our pass defense better than theirs. On the other hand, I think the Eagles' run defense is better than ours.
Zimmer says whoever runs it the best will win. Is that where we want this game decided? Against the Saints, Murray ran 19 times for 50 yards.  The Eagles' run D is better than the Saints'.
Maybe Zimmer is saying that we are going to force Foles to try to beat our defense because we are not going to let Blount and Ajayi beat us. I sure hope so.  I suspect that is the strategy Belichick will use against the Jaguars - force Bortles to beat them and not allow Fournette to run.  That would make sense.
And bring the heat on passing downs. Force Foles to make quick decisions under pressure. Our DBs are more than good enough to cover the Eagles' receivers for 3 seconds.

@"dadevike" said: What are the areas where we have an advantage over the Eagles? I like Case better than Foles, especially under pressure. I like our pass defense better than theirs. On the other hand, I think the Eagles' run defense is better than ours. Zimmer says whoever runs it the best will win. Is that where we want this game decided? Against the Saints, Murray ran 19 times for 50 yards.  The Eagles' run D is better than the Saints'. Maybe Zimmer is saying that we are going to force Foles to try to beat our defense because we are not going to let Blount and Ajayi beat us. I sure hope so.  I suspect that is the strategy Belichick will use against the Jaguars - force Bortles to beat them and not allow Fournette to run.  That would make sense. And bring the heat on passing downs. Force Foles to make quick decisions under pressure. Our DBs are more than good enough to cover the Eagles' receivers for 3 seconds.

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"dadevike" said: What are the areas where we have an advantage over the Eagles? I like Case better than Foles, especially under pressure. I like our pass defense better than theirs. On the other hand, I think the Eagles' run defense is better than ours. Zimmer says whoever runs it the best will win. Is that where we want this game decided? Against the Saints, Murray ran 19 times for 50 yards.  The Eagles' run D is better than the Saints'. Maybe Zimmer is saying that we are going to force Foles to try to beat our defense because we are not going to let Blount and Ajayi beat us. I sure hope so.  I suspect that is the strategy Belichick will use against the Jaguars - force Bortles to beat them and not allow Fournette to run.  That would make sense. And bring the heat on passing downs. Force Foles to make quick decisions under pressure. Our DBs are more than good enough to cover the Eagles' receivers for 3 seconds.

Murrays runs were often against a stacked box trying to chew the clock,  the odds were definitely against him. ( not to mention the patchwork oline experiment)  I am hoping that the Vikings offense plays to win this game instead of playing not to lose.  find what works and stay with it until the defense takes it away.  make their D play straight up the whole game and make them pay when they cheat to take something away.  We know Case is smart enough and has enough experience in the league to get out of poor situations.  We will have a hard time running against this D,  but if we can use the pass to set up the run then IMO we can get the D off balance and score against them.

We rarely lost yardage running the football against the Saints and the offensive line was doing a good job of moving the line of scrimmage.  The problem was that we didn't get any explosive runs (15+ yards) on Sunday...
The key against the Eagles will be popping a few 8+ yard runs to really help sell the play-action passing game.  That is when this offense is at its best.  The big boys up front need to have a good game.
I think Zimmer was 100% correct that the team that runs the ball best will win this game.

@"A1Janitor" said: With their lines - they need no turnovers.  

no turnovers, clean Vikings victory
one turnover, close game to the end
two turnovers, long shots to win

plain and simple, the INT and punt block don’t happen, our game is a 10 point victory.

IF we do not give Philly a short field, and stop the run, I do not know how they score over 13

@"Skodin" said:

@"A1Janitor" said: With their lines - they need no turnovers.  

Bingo. 

no turnovers, clean Vikings victory
one turnover, close game to the end
two turnovers, long shots to win

plain and simple, the INT and punt block don’t happen, our game is a 10 point victory.

IF we do not give Philly a short field, and stop the run, I do not know how they score over 13

We need to be unpredictable on 1st downs. The most important thing is we can't have negative plays on first and second down. Keenum will not have enough time to convert 3rd and longs with their front four. I think we will need to throw on first down to set-up the run later.  

The eagles are no doubt good, but how good? Besides for last week, I haven't seen them play anybody all year that really tested them. Their schedule was a joke, and inflated their stats. Again, I don't doubt that they are a good team, and actually they should be in better shape physically than us after their pansy schedule, but I'm not sold that their front 7 is better than ours. 

I just hope we have some left in the tank after the emotional drain of last weekend. Also worried about X. I think he's more beat up than we know, and he might be tested early to see if he can keep up. If he can't, we're in deep trouble. On offense, I want to see us use Morgan some more, and get Wright involved more. They have fresh legs, and are sure handed. That will start freeing up space for AT, and DIggs when it counts.

In my opinion McKinnon is going to be the X factor on offense. I believe that screen passes will mitigate their front 4. 

We are all thinking run game but I think we see some screens early. 

@"Mike Olson" said: In my opinion McKinnon is going to be the X factor on offense. I believe that screen passes will mitigate their front 4. 

We are all thinking run game but I think we see some screens early. 

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Mike Olson" said: In my opinion McKinnon is going to be the X factor on offense. I believe that screen passes will mitigate their front 4. 

We are all thinking run game but I think we see some screens early. 

the short passing game will work,  but their LBs are pretty athletic as well IIRC.   I wonder how the TE screens would do,  lure them in with the PA and then slip Rudy in behind some road graders to slow the pass rush,  even if they dont hit or dont hit for much,  we need to take a few attempts at runs, screens, etc to keep the pass rush a bit on its heels.

I'm not a fan of the screen. More often than not, they can blow it up for a loss, and with Keenum's stature, he has to put too much air under it, making it too slow in developing.  I'm much more inclined to get Murray and Jet leaking out of the backfield and having Rudy or Morgan clear out a LB for them 4 yds. down field and making someone miss. 

@"mgobluevikes" said: I'm not a fan of the screen. More often than not, they can blow it up for a loss, and with Keenum's stature, he has to put too much air under it, making it too slow in developing.  I'm much more inclined to get Murray and Jet leaking out of the backfield and having Rudy or Morgan clear out a LB for them 4 yds. down field and making someone miss. 

@"Wetlander" said: We rarely lost yardage running the football against the Saints and the offensive line was doing a good job of moving the line of scrimmage.  The problem was that we didn't get any explosive runs (15+ yards) on Sunday... The key against the Eagles will be popping a few 8+ yard runs to really help sell the play-action passing game.  That is when this offense is at its best.  The big boys up front need to have a good game. I think Zimmer was 100% correct that the team that runs the ball best will win this game.

Wouldn't be surprised to see much more passing.  Guru said the LBs play up, perhaps we use short passes over them rather than force the run.  Lots of play action that Case is so good at.

I don't see the Vikings use a lot of trick plays, but if there's an intense time in the game for Shurmer to pull one out of his back pocket and take advantage of an over-eager Eagles D, I'd like to see some mis-direction.  Third quarter, when fatigue is just starting to set in.

Roll Case Roll.  I think we see a lot of case out of the pocket, rolling right with many misdirection plays and a couple of well timed screens. 

Once the Eagles start playing up on the short stuff, its time for a double move and over the top. They are succeptable to it, especially Jalen Mills

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"mgobluevikes" said: I'm not a fan of the screen. More often than not, they can blow it up for a loss, and with Keenum's stature, he has to put too much air under it, making it too slow in developing.  I'm much more inclined to get Murray and Jet leaking out of the backfield and having Rudy or Morgan clear out a LB for them 4 yds. down field and making someone miss. 

thats what I was thinking and why I went with a Rudy screen,  his catch point is so much higher it would be easier for Case to get the ball to him quickly,  but yes,  it would be better to spread their LBs out and take advantage underneath and force them to chase.

I think they need to try to make them defend the short perimeter early on.  McKinnon and the WR /TE doing short stuff wide to tire the defense chasing in pursuit.  Of course you still have to have people pushing deep but if they can work laterally it may make it easier later in the middle and help with the double moves on their young aggressive DB's.

@"mgobluevikes" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"mgobluevikes" said: I'm not a fan of the screen. More often than not, they can blow it up for a loss, and with Keenum's stature, he has to put too much air under it, making it too slow in developing.  I'm much more inclined to get Murray and Jet leaking out of the backfield and having Rudy or Morgan clear out a LB for them 4 yds. down field and making someone miss. 

thats what I was thinking and why I went with a Rudy screen,  his catch point is so much higher it would be easier for Case to get the ball to him quickly,  but yes,  it would be better to spread their LBs out and take advantage underneath and force them to chase.

Problem with Rudolph is that his yards after contact are brutal. For as big as he is, more often than not he's looking for a place to lay down rather than make someone miss or run someone over. At least Morgan seems to run with more determination after the catch.