Week 4: VIKINGS (2-1) at Bears (2-1)

[Klomp]

1 hour ago, byuvike88 said:

There is absolutely no reason the Vikings should score only 6 points in a game when they have Thielen, Diggs, Rudolph, Cook, Smith, and Mattison. The Redskins moved the ball better on that defense. 

Hardly.

It was 28-0 when Chicago lightened up in the last minute of the first half. By that point Washington had run 23 plays for 39 yards through 5 first half drives.

[SemperFeist]

I’m not ready to throw in the towel, yet. 

Playing at Chicago is an enigma for this team. 4-16 at Chicago this century, and we haven’t had a convincing win since 2000. 

 

[Guest]

The Chicago defense is pretty nasty...even with a couple of key members not playing!  Most offenses will have trouble moving the ball and scoring against them.  That being said, I didn't think the Vikings offense would look as anemic as it did yesterday.  It was a pretty pitiful display. 

1. The OL was atrocious...both run blocking and pass protection.  I can't blame this loss totally on Cousins. BUT

2. Kirk's pocket awareness leaves a lot to be desired!  His game is greatly affected when he get's punched in the mouth and knocked to the ground.  Timidity just seemed to ooze from him..  Not a good look for a professional quarterback.

3. Play calling needs to improve.

4. Clock management needs to improve

The Vikings will not win against good teams this season unless these four points are somehow addressed.  This game was ugly.

[SemperFeist]

1 minute ago, Virginia Viking said:

Timidity just seemed to ooze from him.

I saw this from the whole offense. From snap one it just didn’t look liked the offense had a plan for what they were going to do. 

From play calling to quarterback, and everything in between, this team looked intimidated by the Bears defense from the get go. 

[SteelKing728]

I like that Bisi Johnson got involved in this game. He's already done more than Treadwell did his rookie year.

[SemperFeist]

This is a fun thread to read through, knowing how the season turned out. 

Lots of similar comments after the team lost at home and fell to 2-2 through 4 games. 

[SemperFeist]

 

[Howler]

I'm starting to think Kirk has David Carr syndrome in that he feels pressure that's not necessarily there due to all the repeated beatings up front. 

[swede700]

15 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

@swede700 you were saying?

 

What was I saying?  It's been a few days now.  

[vikingsrule]

36 minutes ago, Howler said:

I'm starting to think Kirk has David Carr syndrome in that he feels pressure that's not necessarily there due to all the repeated beatings up front. 

He’s a bad QB at this point. He peaked with the Redskins. I’d like to remain optimistic that he can be good enough, but I don’t think that is the case. MN will problably finish with 8-10 wins, but I’d guess 6-7 of those wins will be at home and they will pick off a couple of bad teams on the road. Cousins can’t play with adversity and I don’t think Zimmer and Stefanski are good enough to coach through it.

[HitStickAllDay]

34 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

 

With the short-area quickness of Diggs/Thielen it’s unconscionable that we didn’t come out doing this. I’ve been maintaining that we can’t just use the same game plan for every team. The under center zone running concept is great. But when you’re facing good defenses, you need to try something different. Analyze what has worked against similar defensive schemes and come out and mash. 

 

I know now it was garbage time and Chicago was keeping things in front of them, but Cousins looked far more comfortable in the shotgun running no huddle and just firing on open reads. Why on earth can’t we just do that from the start? I just don’t get it. Cook, Thielen, Diggs are nightmares in space. I suspect Smith Jr is as well. What concerns me is we appeared to learn nothing from last year against Chicago. 

However, I just re-watched the game. Hear me out. Cousins looked shook. That’s been established. He has to make that deep pass to Thielen early. Has to. But there were numerous other issues that Cousins really has nothing to do with. Diggs’ fumble is inexcusable. Zimmer calling the timeout before the half is inexcusable. Rieff getting turnstyled by Mack isn’t Cousins fault. I actually put that not all on Rieff, but on the scheme. Cousins needs to be able to see the pressure from Mack and the play call was first read right and Cousins had no chance. There should always be help with Mack either through RB or TE chips. Always. Not in order, but the roughing call on Stephen was hot garbage. Again, more momentum.

Then we get that 4th down conversion and immediately get a hold. Penalties are killing drives. 

After I freaked out for awhile I find myself being slightly less insane after a repeat viewing. Chicago had to play a perfect game to win by 10. Minnesota can’t make mistakes when the other team plays perfect. We made too many mistakes. Had a poor game plan for the Bears’ obvious strengths. We need to come out and spread it out in shotgun with quick hitters against better pass rushing teams.

Take a sober look at things. Adjust. Learn from the mistakes. 

The problem is obviously we don’t appear to be learning, as this Bears team is what they were last year. That’s concerning and unfortunately I think a great deal of it comes from a poor offensive scheme. Great coaches figure out how to compensate for weaknesses. We’ve yet to prove we can do that on offense. 

For goodness sakes, possible. Now, try something different. 

[Torchezim]

Just now, vikingsrule said:

He’s a bad QB at this point. He peaked with the Redskins. I’d like to remain optimistic that he can be good enough, but I don’t think that is the case. MN will problably finish with 8-10 wins, but I’d guess 6-7 of those wins will be at home and they will pick off a couple of bad teams on the road. Cousins can’t play with adversity and I don’t think Zimmer and Stefanski are good enough to coach through it.

I agree with all of this and most unfortunately the 8 or so wins we will inevitably garner for no other reason than to make it harder for us to locate a QB in the draft.  

 

[SteelKing728]

31 minutes ago, swede700 said:

What was I saying?  It's been a few days now.  

Kirk never lost a fumble against Chicago haha

[swede700]

Just now, SteelKing728 said:

Kirk never lost a fumble against Chicago haha

OK...well, that's certainly not true anymore...LOL!  

I'd like to blame Kirk completely for this game, but I can't.  He did hold onto the ball for far too long (which caused the fumbles), but the offensive line didn't do him any favors either.  He should call Sam Bradford to ask him how to get the ball out quick behind a bad offensive line.  

[SteelKing728]

Adam isn't happy.