Will the KO Offense be a Knock Out?

[SteelKing728]

 

[vike daddy]

 Others echoed the sentiment when discussing Kevin O'Connell's influence, coming from the Rams. The team is instituting "a lot more 11 personnel," featuring one running back and one tight end, veteran receiver K.J. Osborn told CBS Sports, but the biggest change might revolve around how often the Vikings rotate personnel groupings: "There's 12 personnel, there's 21. He's so creative, with moving us around, with shifts and motions." O'Connell, as expected, was heavily involved with the offense at practice, matching new coordinator Wes Phillips in visible input.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/vikings-2022-training-camp-observations-kevin-oconnells-effect-kellen-mond-at-no-2-qb-and-more/?fbclid=IwAR1K8tutAGEp5EB9VnC0KcON9XWkcqtdBG0mgSNKKqw8LOUv_k3VisZFlhI

[Robb_K]

All the great potential accomplishments of KOC's new offensive scheme may be cut down significantly by Garrett Bradbury's continuing lack of ability to anchor his body decently, when bull-rushed by large interior defensive linemen, despite his reportedly adding strength and bulk over the past offseason.  This was proven by Harrison Phillips shoving him backwards with no effective resistance, every time Phillips lined up directly across from him.  EVERY opposing team will line up their best rusher against him on key plays, and he will be mauled and ineffective on such plays just as he was last season.  And because there has been so much conversation on the media over this problem during the past season and this offseason, more teams will use that strategy than did last season, and they will do it more often.  There is little time and number of real gamelike reps for him to be taught proper anchoring technique, and getting used to doing that, until it becomes instinctive.  It would be a very big gamble that the team's O-Line coach could get that done, and have him ready to be average at that skill by Game One (which is a crucial game against the chief competitor for winning their division, and crucial for playoff seeding.  

If I were KOC, I'd be giving reps at Centre to Chris Reed and Wyatt Davis, just in case Bradbury doesn't improve at all.  I wouldn't feel comfortable starting Shlottman, as he's not nearly as good as Bradbury at downfield blocking.  And recognizing how the play is developing for calling the OL signals is important, as well.  Bradbury does that well, too.  But, really, The Vikings need a centre that can do all three jobs adequately, rather than 2 of the 3 above average, and the third horribly inadequately.  

So, I would also give an offer to J.C. Tretter, to see if he is interested in signing to play, so his knees can be checked out; as despite his sore knees flaring up, frequently last season, he didn't miss a game, and his PFF and other grades were well above average, to even border on upper levels.  

Bradbury's weakness would be easier to cover up if either guard surrounding him were of all-star calibre, and could help him out at times.  But Ezra Cleveland is still in a relatively new position, just trying to solidify an average level of play for his position, while also trying to learn a new position.  And the right guard will either be a not-so-good journeyman, who had his own problems with weak play last season, or a rookie, or a roughly average player, all three of whom are learning a new system.  So, we're potentially looking at periodical shoving of our centre back towards Kirk, making him throw too early to complete passes for positive yards, or shoved into him for sacks with lots of yards lost, or  resulting in sack-fumbles with loss of possession, just like last season, only likely moreso, given all our opponents studying last season's film.  

The O-Line coach should have been working on his anchoring technique before yesterday.  This doesn't look good to me, at all.  I think KOC should be proactive, and prepare for the worst, so there is an alternative to starting the season with a big, glaring weakness that can be exploited by most of our opponents, and cut into Kirk's potential effectiveness, which needs to be as high as possible to get the benefit of having such high-quality skilled players for passing targets.  This is the major issue left to tackle, for this team to have a decent chance for an acceptable season.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Robb_K

[vike daddy]

Bud Grant: "He's a good guy. When he wins a few games, he'll be a better guy."

 

Classic Bud. You have to earn your place with him.

[viking]

KOC undefeated!

 

Have a former QB, QB coach, offensive minded guy really is the way to go.

[SteelKing728]

Knockout route running!

 

Edited September 12, 2022 by SteelKing728

[swede700]

KOC is the 4th Vikings coach in a row to win his first game (Childress, Frazier, Zimmer and now KOC), but Denny was the only one to get his first victory against the Packers (as Denny and NVB were the only other coaches to win their first game).  If he can manage to be as successful as Denny, I think we'd be happy...although I'm sure we'd be elated if he could be more successful.

[vikingsrule]

19 minutes ago, swede700 said:

KOC is the 4th Vikings coach in a row to win his first game (Childress, Frazier, Zimmer and now KOC), but Denny was the only one to get his first victory against the Packers (as Denny and NVB were the only other coaches to win their first game).  If he can manage to be as successful as Denny, I think we'd be happy...although I'm sure we'd be elated if he could be more successful.

How does Denny’s success compare to Zimmer’s? They seem fairly similar in terms of success, obviously they are very different too. Both made it to a NFC title game and we’re somewhat regulars in the playoffs. 

[swede700]

19 minutes ago, vikingsrule said:

How does Denny’s success compare to Zimmer’s? They seem fairly similar in terms of success, obviously they are very different too. Both made it to a NFC title game and we’re somewhat regulars in the playoffs. 

Ultimately, Denny ended up being better than Zimmer...Zimmer had his chances to be better, but stagnated and missed the playoffs 3 out of the last 4 years, which doomed him.

Denny - 97-62, .610...4-8 in the playoffs

Zim - 72-56-1, .562...2-3 in the playoffs

 

Edited September 13, 2022 by swede700

[SteelKing728]

I didn't watch the Vikings until about 2004-2005, but it seems like we moved on from Green too soon.

Was the 2001 season really that bad?

[swede700]

11 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

I didn't watch the Vikings until about 2004-2005, but it seems like we moved on from Green too soon.

Was the 2001 season really that bad?

The bottom fell out that season.  While the team was still pretty decent the season before, it just felt like it was time to move on.  While it didn't fall out as much as it did in Childress' last season, it had a similar feel. 

While not directly related, Denny had tremendous issues with the local media for years and would never speak to them period, because he blamed them for the leak of his various personal issues especially related to some sexual harassment with some female Vikings personnel as well as his power struggle with the "Gang of Ten" (the owners of the Vikings prior to Red McCombs).  So, the only way fans of the team would ever get any information on the team was from the national media, whom Denny was buddy-buddy with...therefore, when the bottom fell out in 2001, fans were quick to turn on him.  He had worn out his welcome.  While he's still the 2nd best head coach we've ever had, I'm not sure there was ever anywhere near the love for him that there was for Bud or even Jerry.  His personality left a lot to be desired.    

[vike daddy]

O'Connell: "We talked a lot to our team the night before the game about getting off to a fast start, which we were able to do, obviously with that significant drive to start the game. I think obviously we're still only four weeks, four opportunities, four games into it for this year's version of our team, but we're going to coach these guys hard."

"I think they're confident we can win games that have been close and really down to the wire these last two weeks, but now it's a matter of continuing to grow within our schemes and trying to be more consistent and maybe not needing to have it be as stressful toward the ends of these games."

https://www.vikings.com/news/offense-to-capitalize-more-red-zone

[vikingsrule]

Sounds like we need to start scoring more TDs. 

[vikesfan89]

3 hours ago, vikingsrule said:

Sounds like we need to start scoring more TDs. 

And have less stressful endings

[vike daddy]

While every team will sit back and assess their first four games of the 17-game schedule, only five teams are doing so with rookie head coaches (not including coaches who have been interim or previous head coaches with another NFL team). Among that small list is Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell, who has guided Minnesota to a 3-1 record.

David Kenyon of Bleacher Report recently graded every rookie head coach through the first quarter of the season. Kenyon gave O'Connell a B+. He wrote:

"Consistency on offense has continually been an issue for the Vikings lately, and they effectively hired O'Connell to solve that problem. Four games is too small a sample to make a determination there, but the results have been promising in the meantime."

https://www.vikings.com/news/kvin-oconnell-rookie-head-coach-graded-through-first-4-games?fbclid=IwAR3x4vcJlpQRqDgTJvZpagvxBmd2uqR9VFCePEM5VpxE-pPv8_C-fvvFzec