Week 1: Packers (0-0) at VIKINGS (0-0)

[RpMc]

1 hour ago, swede700 said:

Football would be dull without having the homers.  

To each their own I guess, I could easily do without them; especially when it comes to people actually covering their teams for media outlets.

Edited September 14, 2020 by RpMc

[vegas492]

Packer fan observations here....concerning the Vikes.

I came away very surprised at how well your OL held up.  Couple mistakes here and there, but overall, this was a much better unit than we played last year.  Even with our big guy in there, Clark, I thought your o-line held up well.

Same thing for your DL.  Couple of no name guys inside and I thought they held their own.  Well enough to win ball games.  Don't count Gb's o-line short.  Great LT, great center, great LG who can play all 5 positions at a very high level.  And we have depth.  Runyan is flat out a football player and a mauler at guard.  Wagner is a pros pro at RT.  While I'm proud of our OL, your DL didn't lose the game.  And we tried to run a lot.

Still I'm amazing by Kendricks.  He's just a great player and one that I feel is underrated in the NFL.  He's actually a joy to watch.

Very much admire Thielen.  Doesn't have great wheels, but his smarts are off the charts.  He burned pretty much every GB d-back out there, even Alexander.  

Surprised there wasn't more Irv Smith.

Cook could have run for 200+ yards if the Vikes had any kind of lead.  He's special.  It's a "love/hate" thing with me and him.  Love that you payed him big bucks, hate that I have to play against him twice a year.

Was Anthony Barr even on the field?  It's not like he hasn't seen the jet sweep motion before, but it seemed to absolutely freeze him.  He's better than that, you paid him to be better than that.

Secondary was simply overmatched.  Thinking it is because Godgers showed up.  And he hasn't for a while.  He stayed more in the pocket and released the ball on rhythm while working the RB's in the flats and even going over the middle.  He hasn't done that in years.  He also manipulated those corners on man routes to get some big plays.  Course two of them were dropped, but still, Rodgers was flat out "on" and dropping dimes out there.  Poor young corners didn't stand a chance.

This is obviously not the real Vikings.  More of Vikings-lite.  No Hunter, Yannick was feeling things out.  I have no doubt that when Hunter comes back and Yannick has his feet under him, the defense is going to be considerably different.  And better.  Young corners should improve with reps, too.

Offensively, if your line keeps up that play, it's going to work nicely.  I think Irv Smith needs to be more involved as a second year player, because Jefferson honestly looked lost out there.  Body language wasn't good, seemed uncertain of things, which is to be expected.  Smith can take that load and Thielen looks as good/awesome as ever.

It was an entertaining game from start to finish.  We made a couple more defensive plays and our coach kept scoring TD's in the 4'th as opposed to kicking field goals, or this would have had a different ending.

See yah next time and may health be kind to your team!

[SemperFeist]

28 minutes ago, vegas492 said:

Surprised there wasn't more Irv Smith.

 

Or Rudolph. 

We didn’t utilize out TEs early last year, either. 

[cconocool]

How did the rookies fair? 

[Arthur Penske]

2 hours ago, SemperFeist said:

Good players just make plays. 

A little frustrating that he basically just got lucky. But even more frustrating is that if Alexander stays in coverage, Cousins has ALLLLL day to throw. 

How is making a heads up play “getting lucky”?

[swede700]

6 minutes ago, cconocool said:

How did the rookies fair? 

The ones that played certainly struggled, but I think they'll be fine over the long haul.  Dantzler was picked on, as should be expected, but based on PFF ratings, he actually came out the best of all the CBs.

[JDBrocks]

7 minutes ago, Arthur Penske said:

How is making a heads up play “getting lucky”?

He guessed on the play. If he had guessed wrong he wouldn't have made the play.

[SemperFeist]

23 minutes ago, Arthur Penske said:

How is making a heads up play “getting lucky”?

He guessed it was a run. Props to him for making a play, but he admittedly guessed, and guessed wrong. 

Had he gotten picked up, his responsibility was wide open. 

[SemperFeist]

I think the biggest disappointment from this game is that Zimmer didn’t make the Packers do something unexpected to beat them. 

Going into the game Rodgers’ only known weapon was DaVante Adams. How do you just let him run 1-on-1? How do you not focus on Adams, take him away, and force Rodgers to beat you with a bunch of unknown weapons? 

Rodgers could very well have beaten this team with Lazard and Valdez-Scantling, but he would have had to work for it. Nothing from the Vikings game plan made the Packers work for it. 

[SemperFeist]

With the PFF grades out today, I’m curious to see how Bradbury graded out against the Packers. If memory serves right, Bradbury’s two worst games last year were the two games against Green Bay. 

[vegas492]

24 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

With the PFF grades out today, I’m curious to see how Bradbury graded out against the Packers. If memory serves right, Bradbury’s two worst games last year were the two games against Green Bay. 

My eyeball test tells me that he was light years better in this game.  But, Clark didn't play for a lot of the game.  And he will flat out wreck most centers.

But, I think there is a reason to be optimistic about Bradbury as compared to last year.

[HeydudemanG]

2 hours ago, vegas492 said:

Packer fan observations here....concerning the Vikes.

I came away very surprised at how well your OL held up.  Couple mistakes here and there, but overall, this was a much better unit than we played last year.  Even with our big guy in there, Clark, I thought your o-line held up well.

Same thing for your DL.  Couple of no name guys inside and I thought they held their own.  Well enough to win ball games.  Don't count Gb's o-line short.  Great LT, great center, great LG who can play all 5 positions at a very high level.  And we have depth.  Runyan is flat out a football player and a mauler at guard.  Wagner is a pros pro at RT.  While I'm proud of our OL, your DL didn't lose the game.  And we tried to run a lot.

Still I'm amazing by Kendricks.  He's just a great player and one that I feel is underrated in the NFL.  He's actually a joy to watch.

Very much admire Thielen.  Doesn't have great wheels, but his smarts are off the charts.  He burned pretty much every GB d-back out there, even Alexander.  

Surprised there wasn't more Irv Smith.

Cook could have run for 200+ yards if the Vikes had any kind of lead.  He's special.  It's a "love/hate" thing with me and him.  Love that you payed him big bucks, hate that I have to play against him twice a year.

Was Anthony Barr even on the field?  It's not like he hasn't seen the jet sweep motion before, but it seemed to absolutely freeze him.  He's better than that, you paid him to be better than that.

Secondary was simply overmatched.  Thinking it is because Godgers showed up.  And he hasn't for a while.  He stayed more in the pocket and released the ball on rhythm while working the RB's in the flats and even going over the middle.  He hasn't done that in years.  He also manipulated those corners on man routes to get some big plays.  Course two of them were dropped, but still, Rodgers was flat out "on" and dropping dimes out there.  Poor young corners didn't stand a chance.

This is obviously not the real Vikings.  More of Vikings-lite.  No Hunter, Yannick was feeling things out.  I have no doubt that when Hunter comes back and Yannick has his feet under him, the defense is going to be considerably different.  And better.  Young corners should improve with reps, too.

Offensively, if your line keeps up that play, it's going to work nicely.  I think Irv Smith needs to be more involved as a second year player, because Jefferson honestly looked lost out there.  Body language wasn't good, seemed uncertain of things, which is to be expected.  Smith can take that load and Thielen looks as good/awesome as ever.

It was an entertaining game from start to finish.  We made a couple more defensive plays and our coach kept scoring TD's in the 4'th as opposed to kicking field goals, or this would have had a different ending.

See yah next time and may health be kind to your team!

Thanks for the write up I really appreciate it, its good to see your perspective.

 

At least we didn't get slapped like last year i saw a lot of hope for our young team and the packers were looking pretty great too. May be you guys didn't need receivers as much as you guys thought. Your guys even though they had some tough mistakes to watch, but overall played well. And hopefully you see more AJ Dillon he looked great in the small reps he got, probably a total steal. Kendricks played like a champ our D-line has some secret depth and we are still not happy with our O-line but it was a slight upgrade from last year. What i wouldn't do for the packers O-line. Kirk was way more mobile so theres a lot to be hopeful for. Hopefully we both are in the playoffs again but I don't want to play you guys if we do that's for darn sure.

[vikesfan89]

1 hour ago, swede700 said:

The ones that played certainly struggled, but I think they'll be fine over the long haul.  Dantzler was picked on, as should be expected, but based on PFF ratings, he actually came out the best of all the CBs.

Didn't he also play the most of the cornerbacks? That's not an easy assignment without any preseason games

[RpMc]

Dantzler was mostly tight in coverage, but like any rookie has some technique to clean up to help with those tight window throws.

[vikesfan89]

44 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

I think the biggest disappointment from this game is that Zimmer didn’t make the Packers do something unexpected to beat them. 

Going into the game Rodgers’ only known weapon was DaVante Adams. How do you just let him run 1-on-1? How do you not focus on Adams, take him away, and force Rodgers to beat you with a bunch of unknown weapons? 

Rodgers could very well have beaten this team with Lazard and Valdez-Scantling, but he would have had to work for it. Nothing from the Vikings game plan made the Packers work for it. 

I agree.  It's one thing to leave prime Rhodes 1 on 1 with Adam's but I don't know how they didn't make an adjustment to get hill some help