NoDakViking Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 If Bisi Johnson can make more catches like his TD, he will find a spot. I really liked what I saw from Holmes, Mata'afa, and Conklin tonight. I also thought Abdullah looked great on his long run but he fumbled later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klomp Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 30 minutes ago, marshpit23 said: Sloter looked good out there tonight. He seems to fit the offense better than Mannion, IMO. Yeah, Mannion is my least favorite of the QBs 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoDakViking Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 I missed the start, how did Bradbury look? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 37 minutes ago, marshpit23 said: Sloter looked good out there tonight. He seems to fit the offense better than Mannion, IMO. I was surprised Mannion was that productive but yeah I agree Sloter fits it way better. Athletically he is perfect for this system and he has a stronger arm than Mannion and a higher upside. 52 minutes ago, SemperFeist said: Not really concerned with who the WR3 is going to be. I’m actually pretty pumped to see what Irv Smith and Conklin can do from the TE spot. Both TEs look more explosive, and more of a mismatch problem than any of the receivers. I agree, both TEs looked good. Must say Irv Smith needs to tuck that freaking jersey in man! Dude does look a little thin out there to be honest also, not very thick or bulky but explosive, Conklin had that nice run after the catch also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelKing728 Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 Was Mattinson doing alright? I never cared for him when we drafted him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marshpit23 Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 38 minutes ago, SteelKing728 said: Was Mattinson doing alright? I never cared for him when we drafted him. Mattison may very well be the most impactful rookie this year. He looked great tonight and will fit the zone-blocking system perfectly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krauser Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 (edited) Interesting game. The offensive scheme changes were as expected. Very little 3 WR, mostly 2-3 TE and/or a FB. QBs were mostly under center. Run heavy play calling. Run scheme was solid — I don’t remember a single play that lost yardage (penalties aside), and they had several explosive runs on the way to averaging nearly 8 yards per carry. Pass game featured a lot of play action targeting TEs including a sweet middle screen to Conklin for a big gain. Only a handful of WR targets. Cousins was good especially on his boot action. The backups were fine, Sloter the best of them. Most of the OL was pretty good. Hill (starting at RT in place of O’Neill) took a couple of penalties, one of which I thought was a cheap call. For the second string, Isidora was better than Dozier, and Jones was solid. Third string, Udoh was excellent. Samia was pretty bad. Mattison was steady as a runner and scored a TD on a short pass. Finished a few runs by pushing back on a tackler for an extra yard or three. Abdullah had a great run on a draw play but also fumbled untouched. Boone was excellent as a runner and won a pass blocking rep too. Henderson was OK. Ham had a bad game, missed a lead block and a pass block (on the 3rd down Cousins scrambled). Blasingame was excellent, very smooth as a receiver (twice caught passes running backwards and was able to turn upfield) and effective as a blocker, including matching Boone’s speed to the end zone on his TD. Irv saw several targets but didn’t make much of them, plus took a holding penalty (another cheap call IMO) on a run play. Rudolph, Conklin and Hikutini all made nice contributions as receivers. Beebe was the WR3, in for just a couple of snaps. Bisi Johnson looked good as an outside WR, played with the twos (along with Treadwell and Zylstra). Taylor was with the 3rd string, surprisingly. Treadwell took a dumb penalty for an illegal block and Zylstra lined up wrong on the same play. The depth QBs mostly handed off a lot or threw to TEs so the 3rd string WRs didn’t get many looks. ... The Saints starting OL had their way run blocking Johnson/Holmes at DT (starting with Linval and Shamar out), though Jaleel did make one nice play eventually. Griffen and Hunter were quiet, and so was Weatherly when he got in. Holmes and Mata’afa both had nice moments rushing the passer from the inside. They both had sacks, and Holmes had a second wiped by penalty. Odenigbo didn’t do much but had a nice sack also wiped by penalty. 3rd string DL didn’t do much but Schult had a couple of flashes. The LBs weren’t great. Kendricks whiffed on Kamara and then didn’t cover Murray on a checkdown. Cam Smith missed a couple of tackles and lost a receiver playing zone on play action that led to a big gain. Wilson got pushed around in the run game. Cliett and Downs made a few plays. The DBs didn’t do much either. Waynes made a nice play but also took a penalty and got burned on a simple crossing route. Benewikere missed a tackle or two and took a DPi call. Duke Thomas took a penalty on defense, and one on special teams. Epps missed a tackle on the TD and looked small. Coverage in general was bad, not just the depth guys but the starters. It took Zimmer until mid October to figure out the coverage scheme last year, hope it comes together sooner this season. The kicking game was fine (4/4 XPs, no FG tries) but kick coverage was poor and returns were mediocre. Edited August 10, 2019 by Krauser 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HitStickAllDay Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 Blasingame really jumped out to me. The run by Boone and him being side by side was great. Thought he looked like another weapon. Any chance he straight up beats Ham? I’ve thought Ham has been underutilized/schemed, but Blasingame looked like a different athlete altogether. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 5 hours ago, Krauser said: Interesting game. The offensive scheme changes were as expected. Very little 3 WR, mostly 2-3 TE and/or a FB. QBs were mostly under center. Run heavy play calling. Run scheme was solid — I don’t remember a single play that lost yardage (penalties aside), and they had several explosive runs on the way to averaging nearly 8 yards per carry. Pass game featured a lot of play action targeting TEs including a sweet middle screen to Conklin for a big gain. Only a handful of WR targets. The kicking game was fine (4/4 XPs, no FG tries) but kick coverage was poor and returns were mediocre. Cousins was good especially on his boot action. The backups were fine, Sloter the best of them. Most of the OL was pretty good. Hill (starting at RT in place of O’Neill) took a couple of penalties, one of which I thought was a cheap call. For the second string, Isidora was better than Dozier, and Jones was solid. Third string, Udoh was excellent. Samia was pretty bad. Mattison was steady as a runner and scored a TD on a short pass. Finished a few runs by pushing back on a tackler for an extra yard or three. Abdullah had a great run on a draw play but also fumbled untouched. Boone was excellent as a runner and won a pass blocking rep too. Henderson was OK. Ham had a bad game, missed a lead block and a pass block (on the 3rd down Cousins scrambled). Blasingame was excellent, very smooth as a receiver (twice caught passes running backwards and was able to turn upfield) and effective as a blocker, including matching Boone’s speed to the end zone on his TD. Irv saw several targets but didn’t make much of them, plus took a holding penalty (another cheap call IMO) on a run play. Rudolph, Conklin and Hikutini all made nice contributions as receivers. Beebe was the WR3, in for just a couple of snaps. Bisi Johnson looked good as an outside WR, played with the twos (along with Treadwell and Zylstra). Taylor was with the 3rd string, surprisingly. Treadwell took a dumb penalty for an illegal block and Zylstra lined up wrong on the same play. The depth QBs mostly handed off a lot or threw to TEs so the 3rd string WRs didn’t get many looks. ... The Saints starting OL had their way run blocking Johnson/Holmes at DT (starting with Linval and Shamar out), though Jaleel did make one nice play eventually. Griffen and Hunter were quiet, and so was Weatherly when he got in. Holmes and Mata’afa both had nice moments rushing the passer from the inside. They both had sacks, and Holmes had a second wiped by penalty. Odenigbo didn’t do much but had a nice sack also wiped by penalty. 3rd string DL didn’t do much but Schult had a couple of flashes. The LBs weren’t great. Kendricks whiffed on Kamara and then didn’t cover Murray on a checkdown. Cam Smith missed a couple of tackles and lost a receiver playing zone on play action that led to a big gain. Wilson got pushed around in the run game. Cliett and Downs made a few plays. The DBs didn’t do much either. Waynes made a nice play but also took a penalty and got burned on a simple crossing route. Benewikere missed a tackle or two and took a DPi call. Duke Thomas took a penalty on defense, and one on special teams. Epps missed a tackle on the TD and looked small. Coverage in general was bad, not just the depth guys but the starters. It took Zimmer until mid October to figure out the coverage scheme last year, hope it comes together sooner this season. The kicking game was fine (4/4 XPs, no FG tries) but kick coverage was poor and returns were mediocre. Yeah Cam Smith looked bad at times in terms of tackling, he missed many of them but it was his first time in the live NFL environment. Then again did lead the team in tackles but could have easily had 3-5 more but he missed some one on one chances. That block of Treadwell everyone would have loved a few years ago, classic crack back block and people who have oohed and aahed over it. So at least he is getting involved without catching a ball and his body language for decent did not look so defeated as he has before. Mata'afa and Holmes were the standout performances of the game I feel. Very interesting production from the DT spot and both look like they could be key for the Vikings with a some what weak DT group. Sure they will not beat out Joseph but depending on how Stephen and Johnson play they could get more time at that other DT spot. See if they can keep it up. Offensively it was great seeing them under center running the ball more. A ton of bootlegs which I expected but was great to see and it is simple offense that does not allow edge rushers to just tee off and go after the QB because of all the slanting and line movement left or right. Do wish Kirk did his fakes a little better, put more effort into it like Peyton Manning also did, little ball handling but it was still effective because the line faked the defenders out more than the QB really. I might underrate his mobility though, is maybe a better runner and passer on the move than I give him credit for. And overall Kirk's body language was improved, did not seem to be so posturing and trying to prove something to his teammates like last year, was more calm and collected but also had not real adversity either. Blasingame looked great I agree, ran down on that block and run by Boone was right by him and gave great effort. Awesome to use in the passing game too that is such a rare thing to have but easy to get yards. Larry Centers just killed guys as a pass catching FB, even Charles Clay as a HB type with a FB build was very productive for awhile in that spot and usually teams ignore them. Is different against starters though but still. Mattison will be key for the team no doubt, especially since Cook gets injured constantly he is a great insurance policy for that happening. And nice to see Ameer have that good run but did have that awful fumble later on, he could be great in this system though on stretch run plays with bootleg action off the back side, same with Cook. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y*so*blu Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 I wanted a victory and something to feel optimistic about, and the Vikings gave us both. Can't complain about that. I can complain about the penalties but there'll be time to iron out those mistakes. Good to see Teddy again. Sloter looked as good as I anticipated. Hopefully we're not going to see him much in the regular season but if we have to go to a backup, we could do a lot worse. More impressive to me than Nate Meadors' pick-six (practically a gift) was his tackle of Cyril Grayson Jr. late in the third where he refused to be shaken. Boone had that great 64-yard run that iced it for us. Looking forward to continued improvement on special teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingsrule Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 10 hours ago, NoDakViking said: If Bisi Johnson can make more catches like his TD, he will find a spot. I really liked what I saw from Holmes, Mata'afa, and Conklin tonight. I also thought Abdullah looked great on his long run but he fumbled later Agreed. The backup WR spots are wide open, would be nice to see Johnson earn the #3 job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingsrule Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 Boone vs Abdullah will be an interesting competition for the last RB spot. Boone looks like a better natural runner in this system but Abdullah can play special teams. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc_vikingfan Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 (edited) Starting to think Sloter is a player who just does better in-game than practice format. Good to hear the 1st unit OLine looked solid with just the holding call and the miscommunication where Cousins scrambled. They need to continue to build chemistry and work out the kinks. Also, agree Vikings fans need to stop focusing so much on the WR3 battle. This team will be a 2WR 2TE base team where WR3 won't be that big of a factor. Excited about Mata'afa Edited August 10, 2019 by dc_vikingfan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SemperFeist Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 Rewatching the game. I see you #72! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc_vikingfan Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 7 minutes ago, vikingsrule said: Boone vs Abdullah will be an interesting competition for the last RB spot. Boone looks like a better natural runner in this system but Abdullah can play special teams. I agree. Boone needs Bebe to win the returner job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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