quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: David F.

The Vikes averaged 4.5 yards per carry. Pulling out the five best carries might help an argument and that's about it. As has been posted by others a few times since the game the Vikes could have run play-action pass to great success any time they wanted but they chose not to - because they didn't need to. I also posted this morning that I really REALLY hope we stuck to the run because we finally got smart and didn't just get lucky and stumble across a winner by chance.

4.5 yards per carry against a defense that knows we're running is complete domination. The Vikes won that game from start to finish with a sound strategy and therefore I don't give two flipety doos. In fact, now I don't even give one.

It's not about winning an argument. It's about objectively assessing the running game over the course of the entire game. 68% of our offensive plays averaged 2.12 yards. You can argue that they didn't wind up needing to mix in a couple of passes to keep the defense honest, but that doesn't make it a good strategy. When your offense is that inefficient, you put a tremendous burden on the defense to make the strategy work. Keep giving the ball back to the other team and you invite them to get back in the game. You can call it brilliant game planning if you want. I think it's also a case of the Vikings away with it.

FWIW, the Viking coaches have also alluded to the fact that weren't entirely happy with the running game.

quote:

ORIGINAL: thebigo

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: David F.

The Vikes averaged 4.5 yards per carry. Pulling out the five best carries might help an argument and that's about it. As has been posted by others a few times since the game the Vikes could have run play-action pass to great success any time they wanted but they chose not to - because they didn't need to. I also posted this morning that I really REALLY hope we stuck to the run because we finally got smart and didn't just get lucky and stumble across a winner by chance.

4.5 yards per carry against a defense that knows we're running is complete domination. The Vikes won that game from start to finish with a sound strategy and therefore I don't give two flipety doos. In fact, now I don't even give one.

It's not about winning an argument. It's about objectively assessing the running game over the course of the entire game. 68% of our offensive plays averaged 2.12 yards. You can argue that they didn't wind up needing to mix in a couple of passes to keep the defense honest, but that doesn't make it a good strategy. When your offense is that inefficient, you put a tremendous burden on the defense to make the strategy work. Keep giving the ball back to the other team and you invite them to get back in the game. You can call it brilliant game planning if you want. I think it's also a case of the Vikings away with it.

FWIW, the Viking coaches have also alluded to the fact that weren't entirely happy with the running game.

Up 28-0? [sm=scratch.gif]

Now we go into Greem Bay not having shown quite as much of our playbook.

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: thebigo

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: David F.

The Vikes averaged 4.5 yards per carry. Pulling out the five best carries might help an argument and that's about it. As has been posted by others a few times since the game the Vikes could have run play-action pass to great success any time they wanted but they chose not to - because they didn't need to. I also posted this morning that I really REALLY hope we stuck to the run because we finally got smart and didn't just get lucky and stumble across a winner by chance.

4.5 yards per carry against a defense that knows we're running is complete domination. The Vikes won that game from start to finish with a sound strategy and therefore I don't give two flipety doos. In fact, now I don't even give one.

It's not about winning an argument. It's about objectively assessing the running game over the course of the entire game. 68% of our offensive plays averaged 2.12 yards. You can argue that they didn't wind up needing to mix in a couple of passes to keep the defense honest, but that doesn't make it a good strategy. When your offense is that inefficient, you put a tremendous burden on the defense to make the strategy work. Keep giving the ball back to the other team and you invite them to get back in the game. You can call it brilliant game planning if you want. I think it's also a case of the Vikings away with it.

FWIW, the Viking coaches have also alluded to the fact that weren't entirely happy with the running game.

Up 28-0? [sm=scratch.gif]

Now we go into Greem Bay not having shown quite as much of our playbook.

Yeah, it's not like the Packers already know our personnel and that we run first ... you know the kind of things they would know if they had played us twice a year, every year of our existence .... oh, wait ... I'm sure the Puker coaches are going to lose sleep all week over it.

quote:

ORIGINAL: thebigo

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: thebigo

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: David F.

The Vikes averaged 4.5 yards per carry. Pulling out the five best carries might help an argument and that's about it. As has been posted by others a few times since the game the Vikes could have run play-action pass to great success any time they wanted but they chose not to - because they didn't need to. I also posted this morning that I really REALLY hope we stuck to the run because we finally got smart and didn't just get lucky and stumble across a winner by chance.

4.5 yards per carry against a defense that knows we're running is complete domination. The Vikes won that game from start to finish with a sound strategy and therefore I don't give two flipety doos. In fact, now I don't even give one.

It's not about winning an argument. It's about objectively assessing the running game over the course of the entire game. 68% of our offensive plays averaged 2.12 yards. You can argue that they didn't wind up needing to mix in a couple of passes to keep the defense honest, but that doesn't make it a good strategy. When your offense is that inefficient, you put a tremendous burden on the defense to make the strategy work. Keep giving the ball back to the other team and you invite them to get back in the game. You can call it brilliant game planning if you want. I think it's also a case of the Vikings away with it.

FWIW, the Viking coaches have also alluded to the fact that weren't entirely happy with the running game.

Up 28-0? [sm=scratch.gif]

Now we go into Greem Bay not having shown quite as much of our playbook.

Yeah, it's not like the Packers already know our personnel and that we run first ... you know the kind of things they would know if they had played us twice a year, every year of our existence .... oh, wait ... I'm sure the Puker coaches are going to lose sleep all week over it.

And I suppose the Vikings can expect the Packers defense to be the same old crappy defense they've been over the last few seasons... you know the kind of things they would know if we had played them twice a year, every year of our existence .... oh, wait ...

quote:

ORIGINAL: ratoppenheimer

.
.
looks like dillon is headed to the practice squad....


Chris Tomasson@christomasson
#Vikings make signing of Brett Jones official and waive TE Brandon Dillon.

Eric Thompson@eric_j_thompson
BRETT'S BACK! The #Vikings have re-signed Brett Jones, waived Brandon Dillon, and released K Chase McLaughlin from the Practice Squad.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jbusse

quote:

ORIGINAL: ratoppenheimer

.
.
looks like dillon is headed to the practice squad....


Chris Tomasson@christomasson
#Vikings make signing of Brett Jones official and waive TE Brandon Dillon.

Eric Thompson@eric_j_thompson
BRETT'S BACK! The #Vikings have re-signed Brett Jones, waived Brandon Dillon, and released K Chase McLaughlin from the Practice Squad.

Was the timing (release before the 1st game, bring back after the 1st game) just to avoid guaranteeing the contract? Vested veteran shenanigans? Got to play those games when you're tight against the salary cap.

quote:

ORIGINAL: marty

One convincing regular season home victory, and the talk turns to where the SB parade should be located; Lol.

But the analysis here is really cool, it usually is, provided it doesn't get caught up in personal disputes.

Shelf the Elf, lol. But he is one of Santefanski's little helpers. [8D]

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bruce Johnson

I take all of these cuts personally. I don't know why. I'm glad that Dillon is still a Viking. Personally I would rather keep him than Rudolph. That's me. Rudolph had a holding penalty last Sunday. He's a lousy blocker so he has to cheat. I'm thrilled about the blocking of Irv Smith, though. Maybe that made Dillon less necessary.

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: thebigo

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: thebigo

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: David F.

The Vikes averaged 4.5 yards per carry. Pulling out the five best carries might help an argument and that's about it. As has been posted by others a few times since the game the Vikes could have run play-action pass to great success any time they wanted but they chose not to - because they didn't need to. I also posted this morning that I really REALLY hope we stuck to the run because we finally got smart and didn't just get lucky and stumble across a winner by chance.

4.5 yards per carry against a defense that knows we're running is complete domination. The Vikes won that game from start to finish with a sound strategy and therefore I don't give two flipety doos. In fact, now I don't even give one.

It's not about winning an argument. It's about objectively assessing the running game over the course of the entire game. 68% of our offensive plays averaged 2.12 yards. You can argue that they didn't wind up needing to mix in a couple of passes to keep the defense honest, but that doesn't make it a good strategy. When your offense is that inefficient, you put a tremendous burden on the defense to make the strategy work. Keep giving the ball back to the other team and you invite them to get back in the game. You can call it brilliant game planning if you want. I think it's also a case of the Vikings away with it.

FWIW, the Viking coaches have also alluded to the fact that weren't entirely happy with the running game.

Up 28-0? [sm=scratch.gif]

Now we go into Greem Bay not having shown quite as much of our playbook.

Yeah, it's not like the Packers already know our personnel and that we run first ... you know the kind of things they would know if they had played us twice a year, every year of our existence .... oh, wait ... I'm sure the Puker coaches are going to lose sleep all week over it.

And I suppose the Vikings can expect the Packers defense to be the same old crappy defense they've been over the last few seasons... you know the kind of things they would know if we had played them twice a year, every year of our existence .... oh, wait ...

Precisely my point. Not digging into our playbook isn't going to make a whole hell of a lot difference.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jbusse

quote:

ORIGINAL: kgdabom

quote:

ORIGINAL: Pager

quote:

ORIGINAL: kevinemmer

quote:

ORIGINAL: SoMnFan

quote:

ORIGINAL: kurt bilben

You have to love on successive plays Cousins throws a pass to Dalvin in the flat who gets tackled for no gain.Falcons LBer Deon Jones

stands over Cook celebrating as the broadcast team lauds about how Jones is the best LBer in the league nobody knows about.

Next play Dalvin absolutely trucks over that same Jones about 25 yards down the field. Dalvin changes the scoreboard two plays later from 19 yards out.

Special player w/ better blocking bodes well.

Favorite play of the game, Dalvin trucking a guy who had him lined up
Dudes a real football player
Still think he hits the hole faster than any back we've had
I'm sure that will get shot down, but it just appears that way to me.
Love how he bursts thru small openings.
That can make a shitty O line look ok. An ok O line look good, and an above-average O Line look fantastic.
Hope we keep growing what we saw, and I hope we realize the scouting that will be done on us from this point on.
Creativity in play-calling is going to start to get more important every week. Starting now.

Cook is so fun to watch.

Very smooth and explosive.
(seems like a contradictory statement, but he is smooth and fast! )

I told my buddy here to draft Cook in FF; that he'd be monster this year. First time in 17 years I don't have a FF team, kinda nice to turn off the games after the Vikes played.

Cook reminds me a bit of Robert Smith. He could hit the hole and be through it with the best of them (pls Cook & AP among the top Vikes I've seen speed through the hole). Smith was also deceptively fast, so smooth, you didn't realize the chunks of yards he was eating up. Loved the debate on who would be faster Smith or Moss.

Cook is fast, but not Moss/Smith fast. However, Cook runs with more power and is harder to tackle. Robert Smith so fast and seldom gets recognition for it. As I said before I have seen Randy Moss get caught from behind. Have never seen Robert Smith get caught from behind. Not saying I'm just saying.

I think you're mistaken about Smith not getting recognition for being fast. My recollection was that it was often mentioned that he ran the 100M in college, and I would imagine that OSU is reasonably competitive nationally.

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: David F.

quote:

ORIGINAL: drviking

quote:

ORIGINAL: TJSweens

quote:

ORIGINAL: Pager

Couple of thoughts on the other posts.

We did what Bilichick does. Finally. They couldn't stop the run, we f****** ran it down their throats. Would 1-2 play-actions have helped extend a drive or two late in the game. Sure. But the game was over by mid way through the 3rd Quarter. Atlanta was warming up their back-up. It's a good thing we are pseudo-debating this (instead of "real issues"). Didn't think twice during or after the game about offensive play calling.

Elf has to be on a short leash. Garrett is tough. So is Hicks, Daniels, Clark, Cox, etc, etc, etc. Yes they were attacking him, and so will every other defensive coordinator worth a grain of salt. You can argue 2nd string all day, but Jones best year in the NFL dwarfs Elf's best year. I'm not saying pull him today, but Elf completely whiffed on too many plays not to be worried. Almost got Cousins killed on that fumble. OR you better have a scheme that protects him, which is tough with a rookie Center.

I would say we ran effectively enough. I wouldn't say we ran it down their f****** throats. The Vikings piled up 102 rushing yards on 5 explosive plays, which is quite impressive. We didn't really control the ball that well on the ground outside of that. The remaining 33 runs averaged 2.12 ypc. Even if you take out Cousins's sneak totals of 4 yards on 6 carries, you have 27 carries at an average of 2.47.

The defense and special teams combined to give the offense some short fields and the offense took advantage nicely and turned them into touch downs. When it came to the grind it out, control the ball eat the clock phase of the game, they were not all that effective running the ball.

pretty much anytime we wanted, we could have played action and killed them, they were selling out on the run, but we didnt need to


like i said previously, i would have preferred a few more reps to practice are pass protection, but understand why we didnt

The goal is to win the game. I don't give two flipety doos about how many yards we gained in any facet of the game. This reminds me of how enthralled many are/were of AD's rushing titles. THEY ARE MEANINGLESS.

One come a day there's going to be a parade down Washington Avenue and won't be for anything other than winning enough to get to the Super Bowl and then winning that.

You should and it's nothing at all like being enthralled with AD's rushing titles. I am talking about TEAM performance, not individual. The fact is that Atlanta was 29th in the NFL against the run. Our strategy once we got ahead was to run and chew the clock. The strategy worked because of the effectiveness of the defense. Not because of the effectiveness of the running game.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bruce Johnson

Expect #Vikings CB Mackensie Alexander to miss about 4 weeks with dislocated elbow. Big blow to the Vikings secondary with Hughes and Hill both out.

(Vikeologist on Twitter)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bruce Johnson

Top Graded #Vikings on offense yesterday via @PFF

- Adam Thielen 85.0
- CJ Ham 78.4
- Chad Beebe 73.2

Lowest Graded #Vikings on offense yesterday
- Garrett Bradbury 35.1
- Ameer Abdullah 48.5
- Pat Elflein 58.1

(Matt Anderson on Twitter)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ragnarök

PFT Power Ranking


7. Saints (1-0; No. 8): It’s been a long time since they’ve been 1-0.

8. Vikings (1-0; No. 11): The Vikings finally figured out how to best use Kirk Cousins... As little as possible.

9. Packers (1-0; No. 16): The “audible thing” provided good cover for the fact that the defense appears to be significantly improved.

quote:

ORIGINAL: geoffrey greitzer

Anyone believing PFF should stop now.
Elf rated higher than Garrett...r u flipping kidding me.
Whomever came up with ELF ON THE SHELF, needs a gold star!!!

quote:

ORIGINAL: kgdabom

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ragnarök

PFT Power Ranking


7. Saints (1-0; No. 8): It’s been a long time since they’ve been 1-0.

8. Vikings (1-0; No. 11): The Vikings finally figured out how to best use Kirk Cousins... As little as possible.

9. Packers (1-0; No. 16): The “audible thing” provided good cover for the fact that the defense appears to be significantly improved.

10 pass plays Cousins completed 8 with a TD. I'd say he did very well in the chances he had.

quote:

ORIGINAL: kgdabom

quote:

ORIGINAL: jbusse

quote:

ORIGINAL: kgdabom

quote:

ORIGINAL: Pager

quote:

ORIGINAL: kevinemmer

quote:

ORIGINAL: SoMnFan

quote:

ORIGINAL: kurt bilben

You have to love on successive plays Cousins throws a pass to Dalvin in the flat who gets tackled for no gain.Falcons LBer Deon Jones

stands over Cook celebrating as the broadcast team lauds about how Jones is the best LBer in the league nobody knows about.

Next play Dalvin absolutely trucks over that same Jones about 25 yards down the field. Dalvin changes the scoreboard two plays later from 19 yards out.

Special player w/ better blocking bodes well.

Favorite play of the game, Dalvin trucking a guy who had him lined up
Dudes a real football player
Still think he hits the hole faster than any back we've had
I'm sure that will get shot down, but it just appears that way to me.
Love how he bursts thru small openings.
That can make a shitty O line look ok. An ok O line look good, and an above-average O Line look fantastic.
Hope we keep growing what we saw, and I hope we realize the scouting that will be done on us from this point on.
Creativity in play-calling is going to start to get more important every week. Starting now.

Cook is so fun to watch.

Very smooth and explosive.
(seems like a contradictory statement, but he is smooth and fast! )

I told my buddy here to draft Cook in FF; that he'd be monster this year. First time in 17 years I don't have a FF team, kinda nice to turn off the games after the Vikes played.

Cook reminds me a bit of Robert Smith. He could hit the hole and be through it with the best of them (pls Cook & AP among the top Vikes I've seen speed through the hole). Smith was also deceptively fast, so smooth, you didn't realize the chunks of yards he was eating up. Loved the debate on who would be faster Smith or Moss.

Cook is fast, but not Moss/Smith fast. However, Cook runs with more power and is harder to tackle. Robert Smith so fast and seldom gets recognition for it. As I said before I have seen Randy Moss get caught from behind. Have never seen Robert Smith get caught from behind. Not saying I'm just saying.

I think you're mistaken about Smith not getting recognition for being fast. My recollection was that it was often mentioned that he ran the 100M in college, and I would imagine that OSU is reasonably competitive nationally.

No question he was recognized as fast. Just not recognized as fast as he actually is. One of the fastest ever in the NFL. I'm not saying he was faster than Moss, but I'm not saying Moss was faster than him either.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bruce Johnson

This was interesting to watch.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1171549874443059200

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ricky J

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bruce Johnson

This was interesting to watch.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1171549874443059200

What is it?