kwheats -> RE: General Vikes Talk (12/31/2019 9:36:06 PM)
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Zimmer can't beat playoff teams in the regular season when they score 20 or more points without Cousins By Big Stupid Face on Dec 30, 2019, 10:20pm CST 13 TWEET SHARE PIN Zimmer currently sits at 11-25 record against playoff teams in the regular season. Zimmer was at 9-15, and those numbers plummeted with the arrival of Kirk Cousins. Cousins is 2-10 against future playoff teams in the regular season. Is this all on Cousins or a continuation of a long standing trend in the Zimmer era? Scroll to the bottom of this article if you want to see all 36 games with scores. Below is a quick summary of the quarterbacks and their records against playoff teams in the regular season under Zimmer. Cassel 0-1. Ponder 0-1 Keenum 2-2 Bradford 4-4 Teddy 3-7 Cousins 2-10 Why is Cousins not winning? An interesting pattern emerges when filtering out the wins: Cousins is the only QB in the Zimmer era to beat a playoff bound team when they score 20 or more points (Table 2 below). Keenum’s opponents only scored 7 and 9 points in his 2 wins. Bridgewater’s wins all came against opponents that scored 14 points or less. Bradford’s opponents scored 13, 14, and 19 points. The average opponents score before Cousins arrived in these games is 12. All of Cousins games have come against opponents that have score 20 or more points. Keenum, Bridgewater, and Bradford never beat a playoff bound team when they scored more than 20 points. Cousins has done it twice. Table 2: All Vikings victories against playoff bound teams in regular season. Year Team Vikings points Opp. points QB 2017 Rams 24 7 Keenum 2017 Falcons 14 9 Keenum 2015 Chiefs 16 10 Teddy 2016 Giants 24 10 Bradford 2014 Panthers 31 13 Teddy 2015 Packers 20 13 Teddy 2016 Texans 31 13 Bradford 2016 Packers 17 14 Bradford 2017 Saints 29 19 Bradford 2019 Eagles 38 20 Cousins 2018 Eagles 23 21 Cousins Number of games playoff bound opponents were held to under 20 points went from 55% to zero once Cousins arrived. See Table 3 below and let that sink in. Quarterbacks not named Cousins had the opponents scoring less than 20 points over half the time (55%). Those same quarterbacks won 9 of 13 games. None of the games since Cousins arrived are on this list. Why can't the defense hold playoff bound teams to under 20 points since Cousins arrived? Going from over half to zero is a HUGE change! It's worth noting that Cook had a fumble-6 in Chicago (2018) and Cousins had a fumble-6 in Seattle (2018) that would have put the scores under 20 in those games. So this is not all on the defense. But this can only account for 2 of the 12 games Cousins played, and Cousins should have had 6-7 games if teams were held to pre-Cousins levels of scoring. Table 3: Teams held to under 20 points. None since Cousins arrived Year Team Vikings points Opp. points W/L QB 2014 Panthers 31 13 W Teddy 2014 Lions 14 16 L Teddy 2014 Lions 3 17 L Teddy 2015 Chiefs 16 10 W Teddy 2015 Packers 20 13 W Teddy 2016 Giants 24 10 W Bradford 2016 Texans 31 13 W Bradford 2016 Packers 17 14 W Bradford 2016 Lions 13 16 L Bradford 2016 Cowboys 15 17 L Bradford 2017 Rams 24 7 W Keenum 2017 Falcons 14 9 W Keenum 2017 Saints 29 19 W Bradford What happened to the Defense since Cousins arrived? Filtering out wins and losses in the years prior to Cousins an interesting trend appears: The Vikings defense has allowed more 3rd down conversions and this directly correlates to their record against playoff bound teams. From 2015-2018, the defense held their opponents average 3rd down conversion rate during wins to under 25%. The losses of those years vary, but as the average rate creeps up the record drops. It is interesting that in 2016 (Bradford's year) and 2017 ( 1 game Bradford, rest Keenum) even the losses had an average opponent's 3rd down conversion rate under 30%. It is also interesting that in 2014 and 2018 as the average crept up to about 40% the win record dropped to 1-5 and 1-6. Table 4: Opponents 3rd down conversion rate Year W L average Record 2014 43.8 39.5 40.0 1-5 2015 19 44 35.6 2-4 2016 17.5 37.5 28.6 3-4 2017 24.4 28 25.8 3-2 2018 22 41.8 41.8 1-6 2019 33 36 35.4 1-4 Vikings won 3 of 21 games when their opponent’s 3rd down conversion rate is over 30%. For some reason 30% 3rd down conversation rate is the kiss of death for the Vikings. Pre-Cousins the Vikings won 2 of 12 (16%) of games where their opponent’s 3rd down conversion rate is above 30%. 9 of Cousins 12 games are in this range where all other quarterback's in the Zimmer era won 16% of the time. It is interesting to note that the 3 games above 30% that they have won were some of the highest scoring games they had against playoff bound opponents. Did the Vikings score so much that it overcame the 30% kiss of death? The 2014 Carolina game had 2 blocked punts for TDs. I have not investigated the other games further. Table 5: Games over 30% 3rd down conversion rate and W/L record. Year Team Vikings points Opp. points W/L QB Opp. 3rd Conversion % 2019 Chiefs 23 26 L Cousins 30 2019 Packers 16 21 L Cousins 33 2017 Panthers 24 31 L Keenum 33 2019 Packers 10 23 L Cousins 35 2014 Packers 10 42 L Ponder 36 2015 Packers 13 30 L Teddy 38 2016 Lions 13 16 L Bradford 43 2016 Packers 25 38 L Bradford 46 2019 Seattle 30 37 L Cousins 46 2015 Cardinals 20 23 L Teddy 46 2016 Lions 16 22 L Bradford 50 2018 Patriots 10 24 L Cousins 50 2018 Saints 20 30 L Cousins 50 Summary The above evidence shows that Cousins is currently not getting the support quarterbacks have typically gotten from Zimmer era defenses. Everyone has seen Cousins play. It is undeniable that he is responsible for some of the losses, but clearly there are some really obvious trends that are difficult to ignore. Questions I would love answered: 1. Is the correlation of opponent's 3rd down conversion rate a cause or a symptom of a different issue? 2. Why are playoff bound teams scoring above 20 points in all 12 games Cousins has played, when it used to be less than half? 3. Is Cousins somehow pushing the defense into zones where the Vikings historically fail? 4. Is this a product of Zimmer's style of play without an elite defense? Let me know what you think! Table 6: All Zimmer era games against playoff bound teams. Year Team Vikes points Other points W/L QB 2014 Panthers 31 13 W Teddy 2014 Patriots 7 30 L Cassel 2014 Packers 10 42 L Ponder 2014 Lions 3 17 L Teddy 2014 Packers 21 24 L Teddy 2014 Lions 14 16 L Teddy 2015 Chiefs 16 10 W Teddy 2015 Packers 20 13 W Teddy 2015 Broncos 20 23 L Teddy 2015 Seahawk 7 38 L Teddy 2015 Packers 13 30 L Teddy 2015 Cardinals 20 23 L Teddy 2016 Packers 17 14 W Bradford 2016 Giants 24 10 W Bradford 2016 Texans 31 13 W Bradford 2016 Lions 16 22 L Bradford 2016 Lions 13 16 L Bradford 2016 Cowboys 15 17 L Bradford 2016 Packers 25 38 L Bradford 2017 Saints 29 19 W Bradford 2017 Rams 24 7 W Keenum 2017 Falcons 14 9 W Keenum 2017 Panthers 24 31 L Keenum 2017 Steelers 9 26 L Keenum 2018 Eagles 23 21 W Cousins 2018 Seattle 7 21 L Cousins 2018 Patriots 10 24 L Cousins 2018 Saints 20 30 L Cousins 2018 Rams 31 38 L Cousins 2018 Bears 20 25 L Cousins 2018 Bears 10 24 L Cousins 2019 Eagles 38 20 W Cousins 2019 Seattle 30 37 L Cousins 2019 Chiefs 23 26 L Cousins 2019 Packers 10 23 L Cousins 2019 Packers 16 21 L Cousins
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