Week 11: VIKINGS (5-3-1) at Bears (6-3)

[SotanKing]

Can't really blame defense tonight.....Conceded 17 points, that's pretty decent. I think one thing where our defense slightly struggled was picking Mitch's runs but not sure if you can blame them for that, Mitch is one of the best QBs in league in that aspect. 

[SotanKing]

My biggest disappointment today was our playcalling...oh man,we have got to be one of the most predictable offenses in the league. Bears offense playcalling on the other hand was creative...our defense did a really good job in adjusting. We had a bye week and then we come out and play so predictably. .first drive of the game, 3 and inches...why not a QB sneak there? Cousins is good at it and it works almost every time...instead we run it, Bears stop the run easily and punt. Such predictable playcalling through out the game. 

Cousins shouldn't have missed that throw to Diggs in first quarter man....that was crucial. I know he had a really tough night with the OLine getting easily overpowered by Bears defense through out the game but that miss was costly. Passing is always risky whenever the ball is near end zone in our own territory...especially when OL isn't able to stop anything...this is where our lack of run game is hurting the team mostly. Get the freaking run game going man. That fumble in the first quarter also ended up costly along with that pick6 from Cousins

[HitStickAllDay]

Been thinking it for several weeks that this team has a small margin of error. Today was yet another example unfortunately. Cool can’t fumble, Kirk can’t throw those two bad picks. 

Thought the defense played well enough for us to win. My impression was that Chicago game planned well andcame out with a plan that neutralized the rush we generated in the Lions game. Then, Zimmer adjusted and the defense tightened up. 

The offense didn’t adjust until the game was out of hand. I don’t understand how we can’t figure out a way to scheme against pressure. No screens to Mack’s side? No rollouts? No quick slants? No hurry up? One thing I liked about Shurmur was his ability to adapt to the players’ skill sets and more importantly around the deficiencies. Haven’t seen that from JDF yet. I don’t think this is a case where he is just going to be terrible forever, just might need a few more years to figure it out. That may be too late for the Vikings’ current window. 

[SotanKing]

I expect there to be a lot of hot takes this week, especially on Cousins but I still believe Cousins is the right guy...we just need to fix the OL and improve our playcalling...atleast just have an average OL...look at OL of all the decent QBs....almost every one except Watson, Cousins has a top15 or top20 OL...we have a bottom 5 OL and you just cannot win SB with such a bad OL. You put any QB infront of our OL...they will make some stupid mistakes against good defenses like Bears today where you face pressure on almost majority of the dropbacks, especially with our run game being a mess....it just makes things lot more worse.

It's not like we are getting blown out or anything...most of the losses against good teams so far this season have been <=10 point margin losses and in almost every loss of them, we had some stupid turnovers(the Saints one hurts the most where we gave away entire momentum with a fumble). Fix the OL, atleast make it atleast average.

[Vikes_Bolts1228]

Just now, upriser7 said:

I still believe Cousins is the right guy...we just need to fix the OL and improve our playcalling...atleast just have an average OL...look at OL of all the decent QBs....almost every one except Watson, Cousins has a top15 or top20 OL...we have a bottom 5 OL and you just cannot win SB with such a bad OL.

I agree.

Outside of the elite of the elite of the elite, I don't think 27 of 32 starting quarterbacks at any given time can truly succeed with a line like this. You see it even when he does have time: He often plays like he's expecting to get hit at any moment and it leads to rushed/bad throws.

And by succeed, I mean being able to over come the glaring problem with very few mistakes.  

[SotanKing]

16 minutes ago, Vikes_Bolts1228 said:

I agree.

Outside of the elite of the elite of the elite, I don't think 27 of 32 starting quarterbacks at any given time can truly succeed with a line like this. You see it even when he does have time: He often plays like he's expecting to get hit at any moment and it leads to rushed/bad throws.

And by succeed, I mean being able to over come the glaring problem with very few mistakes.  

yep...considering our expectations for this season was SB, pretty sure we not winning it with this OL. So, I feel like Cousins will eventually end up as scapegoat for this season as most of the casual fans typically tend to blame QB for everything when the team doesn't reach expectations. Whenever Cousins throws an INT or whenever we lose a game, I already keep seeing some stupid hottakes on twitter about Case or Teddy being better.

 

[wcblack34]

28 million. At some point he needs to start winning these high pressure games. 

In Washington he had a competent line but everyone said it was a lack of weapons. 

Here he has all the weapons and an inferior line. 

When you pay your QB 12% of your salary cap, the chances that you’re able to put weapons and a line in front of him, while keeping a competent defense, are quite slim. It’s on Cousins to elevate himself and the team. He’s not doing it. 28 million. He had better start. 

[SotanKing]

4 minutes ago, wcblack34 said:

28 million. At some point he needs to start winning these high pressure games. 

In Washington he had a competent line but everyone said it was a lack of weapons. 

Here he has all the weapons and an inferior line. 

When you pay your QB 12% of your salary cap, the chances that you’re able to put weapons and a line in front of him, while keeping a competent defense, are quite slim. It’s on Cousins to elevate himself and the team. He’s not doing it. 28 million. He had better start. 

not many said that he lacked weapons at Redskins...Redskins had a top10 offense under Cousins in 2015,2016...2017 was when they had ton of injuries...major problem during Cousins years especially in 2015 and 2016 at Redskins was their defense...it was bottom 10 defense. They looked like they were turning corner last season but they suffered ton of injuries in defense and OL last season. 

When you are spending $84M on QB, no one is expecting all defense, OL, WRs to be top class....but you atleast need to ensure that you have an average OL...our OL cannot stop any decent pass rush. 

[marshpit23]

2 hours ago, HitStickAllDay said:

Been thinking it for several weeks that this team has a small margin of error. Today was yet another example unfortunately. Cool can’t fumble, Kirk can’t throw those two bad picks. 

Thought the defense played well enough for us to win. My impression was that Chicago game planned well andcame out with a plan that neutralized the rush we generated in the Lions game. Then, Zimmer adjusted and the defense tightened up. 

The offense didn’t adjust until the game was out of hand. I don’t understand how we can’t figure out a way to scheme against pressure. No screens to Mack’s side? No rollouts? No quick slants? No hurry up? One thing I liked about Shurmur was his ability to adapt to the players’ skill sets and more importantly around the deficiencies. Haven’t seen that from JDF yet. I don’t think this is a case where he is just going to be terrible forever, just might need a few more years to figure it out. That may be too late for the Vikings’ current window. 

I agree. I came away very unimpressed with the play calling and lack creativity.

[wcblack34]

31 minutes ago, upriser7 said:

not many said that he lacked weapons at Redskins...Redskins had a top10 offense under Cousins in 2015,2016...2017 was when they had ton of injuries...major problem during Cousins years especially in 2015 and 2016 at Redskins was their defense...it was bottom 10 defense. They looked like they were turning corner last season but they suffered ton of injuries in defense and OL last season. 

When you are spending $84M on QB, no one is expecting all defense, OL, WRs to be top class....but you atleast need to ensure that you have an average OL...our OL cannot stop any decent pass rush. 

You kinda just made my point for me. 

 

[Illadelegend215]

I’m going with cousins, still a very good qb and obviously made adjustments in the fourth quarter. That missed td to diggs really screwed us up tbh, but we will be much better down the line. Our oline was mishandled terribly, but in all honesty Khalil Mack has literally done this to every team the bears have played. If we want to take the w week 17, Vikings need to fix that for him.

[Heimdallr]

I’m not feeling terrible that I missed this game 

[gopherwrestler]

Seems like a constant battle this year, we just aren’t playing to what we should. 

We “should’ve” won this game. Fumble in the Redzone, and a pick 6.

 

every game we lost was caused because of turnovers, 

 

I truely believe Cousins is not the problem, this offensive play calling is truely horrid 

[milanb]

I'm sorry, but you can't blame "the play calling" for Cousins' Pick 6 in the 4th Quarter.

Cousins has turned the ball over 13 times in 10 games. Which should surprise no one, given that he turned it over 18 times in 16 games last year.

 

[SemperFeist]

It still comes down to coaching, in my opinion. It’s a coach’s job to know his players’ strengths, as well as their weaknesses, and put them in a position to succeed. I can’t say that DeFilippo does that. 

Last year we saw Shurmur scheme around the weaknesses of this team. While this year, DeFilippo seems to be rolling with the “sink or swim” mantra. 

Players certainly aren’t absolved from their mistakes, but it seems that when a player makes a mistake it’s compounded by the way the game is being called. 

This offense is lacking energy, and it’s lacking imagination.