Divisional Round GDT - Vikings at 49ers

[NcFinest9erFan]

 

[vikingsrule]

Hughes went on IR last week. Suddenly, MN has zero DB depth. Rhodes gets hurt every game too, something to keep in mind.

[NcFinest9erFan]

1 minute ago, vikingsrule said:

Hughes went on IR last week. Suddenly, MN has zero DB depth. Rhodes gets hurt every game too, something to keep in mind.

What is going on with Rhodes? He seemed like the next big thing a couple years back.

[Forge]

5 wr sets all game, tbh 

[vikingsrule]

7 minutes ago, NcFinest9erFan said:

What is going on with Rhodes? He seemed like the next big thing a couple years back.

Age, natural regression. Seems like he lost a step and hasn’t been able to evolve his game as a slower CB.

[NcFinest9erFan]

10 minutes ago, vikingsrule said:

Age, natural regression. Seems like he lost a step and hasn’t been able to evolve his game as a slower CB.

I didn't realize that he's already 29. 

[NcFinest9erFan]

Kwon was activated but sadly Street was sent to IR to make room.

[NcFinest9erFan]

 

[Forge]

3 minutes ago, NcFinest9erFan said:

Kwon was activated but sadly Street was sent to IR to make room.

That's okay. If Dee can't go, the depth will be non existent up front, but Street hasn't shown me anything whatsoever, even in the pre season. 

Last I heard from Lynch, Dee is a true game time decision. Hopefully he can go and be effective and not just suit up. 

[clarkfn2284]

1 hour ago, Forge said:

If it's the same stat I'm thinking of, its a very limited sample size. It's only 36 carries all season against 21 personnel. I'm not going to put a ton of emphasis on that as it could easily be skewed by two long runs. 

Defense has to come to play. We have been very beatable on defense lately, and this Minnesota offense is good. If we to play defensively like we have been, they should be able to move the ball well enough to win, especially given it could be a little bit more of a chore for our offense to move the ball. I'll be curious to see how Zimmer plays it - he schemed the Saints game around what Atlanta did to the Saints in their win...an Atlanta team that also gave us more fits on the back end of the season than any other team in terms of stopping the niner offense. I'll be curious if they run out more zone along with some exotic pass rushes on the interior of the line.

 

 

Not sure of sample size, but a 72% success rate and 6.9 ypc is large.

I think people are giving too much respect to the Vikings. They have playmakers and playmakers can destroy a game. Keep everything in front on defense and do not allow any large explosive plays and the defense will be fine. Offensively, lean on the best play caller in the NFL and the winner of a QB the Niners have and this game shouldn't be all that difficult to prevail.

[Forge]

15 minutes ago, clarkfn2284 said:

Not sure of sample size, but a 72% success rate and 6.9 ypc is large.

 

Yes, it's the same stat. It's 36 carries. Just not enough for me to draw any sort of definitive judgment on. There are too many variables that could have an atypically large sway in a figure like that without context. 

16 minutes ago, clarkfn2284 said:

I think people are giving too much respect to the Vikings.

They deserve it, they are good. I do think that there is a little flavor of the week going on because of what the defense did to Brees / Saints, not to mention Cousins finally winning a big game, that is pushing people over to that side in terms of mainstream media. Stopping the Saints is not the same as stopping the 49ers; and that's not to say that our offense is better than the Saints, just that it is structured differently and what stops one doesn't necessarily stop the other. 

The biggest thing though may be the Cousins  angle. The biggest problem with the Vikings all year was that they couldn't really break through against really good teams. They crushed the Eagles, but I wouldn't call them good, and then every time they had a challenging game, they lost for the most part. Their most impressive victories in terms of competition were the Cowboys / Eagles. They did dominate a lot of lesser competition in impressive fashion, but that's not the same as beating a high quality team, even if it's just by the skin of your teeth. They played the Chiefs (without Mahomes, I think), Packers twice, Eagles, Seattle, and Bills. They were 1-5 in those games. So I think people were really hesitant to think that they could make it through the playoffs given that they couldn't seem to get over that hump. Then they beat the Saints, and it's almost like the dam finally broke and people were willing to hop on board thinking that they have moved past it. I don't think the talent on the roster has ever been in question - it's one of the better rosters in the NFL for sure. 

23 minutes ago, clarkfn2284 said:

Keep everything in front on defense and do not allow any large explosive plays and the defense will be fine

This sounds good in theory, but truthfully, we have done this all year. We've been doing this during the down turn of the defense and we are still giving up the  points. The Seahawks averaged only 4.9 yards per play in week 17, and they should have won that game (to put it in perspective, 4.9 yards per play would be 4th best defensively in the nfl). Their longest play was 24 yards.  The rams averaged 5.6 (would be middle of the pack) and hung up 31 (they never had a play of 30 yards or more). The Falcons averaged 4.8 yards per play and won the game by putting up 23 points (no play over 28 yards). It was only the Saints game where we gave up a ton everywhere and just completely crapped the bed. The Cardinals averaged 4.3 yards per play in that second match up and put up 26 (no play larger than 23 yards). There's just been something off about the 49ers defense lately. On a micro level, they are actually still very tough...just lost the ability to make consistent timely stops. 

32 minutes ago, clarkfn2284 said:

Offensively, lean on the best play caller in the NFL and the winner of a QB the Niners have and this game shouldn't be all that difficult to prevail.

Zimmer will be a tough out, I have no doubt about that. He'll make Shanny work for it. Unless he does something that Shanny doesn't expect, I suspect that Shanny will get the better of this matchup as well. He's just so good at designing plays and figuring out the way defenses work. So long as the offensive line or Jimmy doesn't crap the bed, I think we will win. But I definitely think it'll be a hard fought battle. 

[N4L]

1 hour ago, Forge said:

5 wr sets all game, tbh 

Anything to get daunte Pettis on the field 

[clarkfn2284]

23 minutes ago, Forge said:

Yes, it's the same stat. It's 36 carries. Just not enough for me to draw any sort of definitive judgment on. There are too many variables that could have an atypically large sway in a figure like that without context. 

They deserve it, they are good. I do think that there is a little flavor of the week going on because of what the defense did to Brees / Saints, not to mention Cousins finally winning a big game, that is pushing people over to that side in terms of mainstream media. Stopping the Saints is not the same as stopping the 49ers; and that's not to say that our offense is better than the Saints, just that it is structured differently and what stops one doesn't necessarily stop the other. 

The biggest thing though may be the Cousins  angle. The biggest problem with the Vikings all year was that they couldn't really break through against really good teams. They crushed the Eagles, but I wouldn't call them good, and then every time they had a challenging game, they lost for the most part. Their most impressive victories in terms of competition were the Cowboys / Eagles. They did dominate a lot of lesser competition in impressive fashion, but that's not the same as beating a high quality team, even if it's just by the skin of your teeth. They played the Chiefs (without Mahomes, I think), Packers twice, Eagles, Seattle, and Bills. They were 1-5 in those games. So I think people were really hesitant to think that they could make it through the playoffs given that they couldn't seem to get over that hump. Then they beat the Saints, and it's almost like the dam finally broke and people were willing to hop on board thinking that they have moved past it. I don't think the talent on the roster has ever been in question - it's one of the better rosters in the NFL for sure. 

This sounds good in theory, but truthfully, we have done this all year. We've been doing this during the down turn of the defense and we are still giving up the  points. The Seahawks averaged only 4.9 yards per play in week 17, and they should have won that game (to put it in perspective, 4.9 yards per play would be 4th best defensively in the nfl). Their longest play was 24 yards.  The rams averaged 5.6 (would be middle of the pack) and hung up 31 (they never had a play of 30 yards or more). The Falcons averaged 4.8 yards per play and won the game by putting up 23 points (no play over 28 yards). It was only the Saints game where we gave up a ton everywhere and just completely crapped the bed. The Cardinals averaged 4.3 yards per play in that second match up and put up 26 (no play larger than 23 yards). There's just been something off about the 49ers defense lately. On a micro level, they are actually still very tough...just lost the ability to make consistent timely stops. 

Zimmer will be a tough out, I have no doubt about that. He'll make Shanny work for it. Unless he does something that Shanny doesn't expect, I suspect that Shanny will get the better of this matchup as well. He's just so good at designing plays and figuring out the way defenses work. So long as the offensive line or Jimmy doesn't crap the bed, I think we will win. But I definitely think it'll be a hard fought battle. 

Then let's run the ball 36 times out o 21 personnel. It will have a 72% success rate and a 6.9 ypc avg.........that's how this works right, lol.

I'm just not a believer of the Vikings. They are not really good at anything outside of running the ball and consistently have Diggs and Thielen disappear in games. If they get to the goal line its run twice with Cook and then look for Rudolph. They just are not that hard to diagnose and as good as Zimmer has been, he always sprinkles in a duck of a game plan on defense. 

[y2lamanaki]

1 hour ago, NcFinest9erFan said:

 

I have never been so happy in my life to be wrong about something. Welcome back Kwon. Let's get that team swagger back. 

[gopherwrestler]

24 minutes ago, clarkfn2284 said:

Then let's run the ball 36 times out o 21 personnel. It will have a 72% success rate and a 6.9 ypc avg.........that's how this works right, lol.

I'm just not a believer of the Vikings. They are not really good at anything outside of running the ball and consistently have Diggs and Thielen disappear in games. If they get to the goal line its run twice with Cook and then look for Rudolph. They just are not that hard to diagnose and as good as Zimmer has been, he always sprinkles in a duck of a game plan on defense. 

It’s hard to say disappear for those two. Thielens first game back from being healthy was just last week and outside of the fumble he had a pretty big game.  and Diggs certainly has himself disappear at times, but where we have looked it’s almost been schemed while Thielen was out and the reigns just went to Cook. 
 

Your redzone statement is about 100% true tho. It has been mostly the Cook show with a dash of Rudolph, but it has worked. If Thielen is healthy he always has played a big factor in the redzone in the past, but of course he is having his issue now. Most of the year the redzone work has been Cook, Rudolph, and Ham.