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Terry Stoneberg -> RE: General Vikes Talk (12/17/2018 12:13:33 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Todd M
If we still had pennies in Canada I'd toss you 3 for that, Terry.
Thanks Todd, Let's put 'em in a piggy bank and save for the day we share a Vikings superbowl win at a sports bar somewhere.
quote:
ORIGINAL: The Happy Norseman
Pretty much what the Seahawks said after the game. They knew what plays were coming.
Terry, win or lose on Sunday (I expect a win) please share your thoughts on the play calling after the game...I'll be curious to hear if you're able to guess the play calls in advance with Stefanski running the show.
I very rarely have time to post these days. It is enough to just read everyone else's comments when I can. But I'll take a shot at this one.
1. I couldn't guess any plays the first quarter. Stef was on fire and our guy's play was up to it.
2. Very little motion, but Cousins was on the move on nearly every play. Rollouts, bootlegs, play action...the defense didn't have a clue to where he would set his launch point. Later in the game the defense made adjustments to stop that and it took us awhile to respond.
3. Our skill players love SPACE. Cook and even Murray are nightmares in space. Maybe it was Miami's "wide 9" DL allignment but we even managed to carve out some space on inside runs, and our RBs made them pay. There appeared to be multiple plays specifically designed to get Cook the ball in space. Those were a breath of fresh air.
4. There appeared to be an adjustment in OL design. Our guys were firing out at the snap on running plays like I've not seen before. Perhaps the previous design involved some timing blocks that involved a count of hesitation at the line.
5. We appear to still be fragile emotionally. The pick 6 was a horrible read by Cousins. I'm not going to blame that one on the OC. You can't always guess right as to what the defense was going to do, so Cousins has to know to shut that play down, either by reading at the line or throwing the ball away. But it was worse that a turnover, worse than giving up 7, it was a change of momentum that affected both Defense and Offense much longer than it should have.
That's actually not surprising when you are a team that is as talented as we are, had as high expectations at the beginning as we did, and have been as unsuccessful as we have. You could feel it come over the fans and the team, here we go again. Even this board reflects that kind of loser mentality at times. Thankfully it took the team only one and a half quarters for the defense and two and a half quarters for the offense to gain their confidence back. If Stefanski is as good as the first quarter shows he may be, I expect us to develop the strength so that a disaster like a pick 6 will only knock us back for a series or two, not half the game.
Bottom line: It's way to early to anoint Stefanski, but he couldn't have done better coming out of the gate. One of the questions that is left is how will he respond when opposing DCs get a chance to analyze the tape and design a defense against him. I think a little of what we saw yesterday was a microcosm of that very thing. The Dolphins DC reacted to the first quarter and then Stefansky reacted to that. I expect a little more of his touch each week added to the gameplan. Presuming we defeat the Lions, I, for one, want to see the Bears test us at their very best. I want to know if we've struck Offensive gold, or only the fool's version.
FWIW, I'm very excited about the future. For those who say I'm setting myself up for a letdown, I say, I'm a Vikings fan, that's what we do. If we don't, then the one time when we could set ourselves up for the letdown that doesn't come, we will have missed the superbowl party because we were too busy crying in our own beer avoiding disappointment. But...to each his own.
Oh, one last thought before I go underground. Stefanski is pretty much limited to Flips plays, it's too late for our guys to learn a new batch. I can't help but wonder if we'd gone with Stef as our OC to begin with, what would our plays have looked like. I get giddy at the thought.
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