Nnivolcm Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 14 minutes ago, Karnage84 said: If we get into the playoffs and lose in the 1st round, would you consider this a successful season? My pre season predication was 9-7 and missing the playoffs. Considering our roster I'd view it as overachieving. Obviously not an ideal outcome, but not enough to want to start over with a new regime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TL-TwoWinsAway Posted December 18, 2017 Author Share Posted December 18, 2017 11 minutes ago, Karnage84 said: If we get into the playoffs and lose in the 1st round, would you consider this a successful season? Absolutely. Is it an ideal outcome? Of course not. But this wasn't an elite roster, and losing Decker for the first half of the year, and Ngata for the second half, were big blows. Finding a way to get back to the playoffs would be nice. (It would be a lot better than missing them.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karnage84 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 29 minutes ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said: Absolutely. Is it an ideal outcome? Of course not. But this wasn't an elite roster, and losing Decker for the first half of the year, and Ngata for the second half, were big blows. Finding a way to get back to the playoffs would be nice. (It would be a lot better than missing them.) Making it to the playoffs is a positive. However, with all of the losses the Vikings suffered, the weakness of the Bears and Packers losing Rodgers - the division was really there for the taking. I would argue that Minnesota suffered larger losses than we did and were able to overcome them to win the Division. Some of that would fall on Caldwell but it would fall more onto Quinn IMO. The roster lacks the parts to overcome adversity and remain competitive. We're not good at the two most important parts of football - running the ball and stopping the run. We've relied way too much on Stafford. He's a top 10 QB that needs a stronger supporting cast. Going into the 1st round and losing out would feel more like a missed opportunity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TL-TwoWinsAway Posted December 18, 2017 Author Share Posted December 18, 2017 Although true, how much of it is luck? The Vikings lost their starting QB and put a player on the field that blew Bradford away. That's the difference, and no one really saw that coming. I agree with the supporting cast though. We need a running game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karnage84 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 17 minutes ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said: Although true, how much of it is luck? The Vikings lost their starting QB and put a player on the field that blew Bradford away. That's the difference, and no one really saw that coming. I agree with the supporting cast though. We need a running game. There's absolutely a level of luck in there. If Keenum played like Case Keenum has throughout his career, that is a team dependent on Murray/McKinnon and their defense to win games. Not a team that has two of the top WR's in the league. It just felt like we went into the season without a gameplan or it was just a continuation from last year. We had no running game last year either. You could argue that the improvements to the line should have helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nnivolcm Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 1 hour ago, Karnage84 said: There's absolutely a level of luck in there. If Keenum played like Case Keenum has throughout his career, that is a team dependent on Murray/McKinnon and their defense to win games. Not a team that has two of the top WR's in the league. It just felt like we went into the season without a gameplan or it was just a continuation from last year. We had no running game last year either. You could argue that the improvements to the line should have helped. I think there was definitely a game plan going into the year concerning the running game. It just never materialized on the field. Abdullah looked good in 2016 before he was injured. He was being counted on returned to that form with a supposedly improved offensive line. Neither he nor the offensive line ended up meeting expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karnage84 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 1 minute ago, Nnivolcm said: I think there was definitely a game plan going into the year concerning the running game. It just never materialized on the field. Abdullah looked good in 2016 before he was injured. He was being counted on returned to that form with a supposedly improved offensive line. Neither he nor the offensive line ended up meeting expectations. It's fair but I don't think it was a secret that we needed help either. A lot of folks had a guy like Blount pegged to join us to round things out. He chose Philly. So it does seem like people outside of the organization recognized the gap. The team did make somewhat of an attempt to do something about it. We can't survive on having a rushing attack that hasn't had a 100 yard rusher in years and is forced to come back in the 4th week after week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehardlionfan Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 While the season has had its ups and downs 8-6 with two games remaining isn’t really a disappointment to me. I was expecting 8-8 or 9-7 for the season. My biggest disappointment has been Ansah and the injuries to Decker and Ngata. Losing Ngata really hilited his importance in the running game. Ansah is simply lacking production and his constant nagging injuries have destroyed his development progression. Ebron started slow but has really come into his own the last 4 or 5 games. With each season the team improves. There have been setbacks but overall the Lions are getting better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashtagFTW Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 18 hours ago, Karnage84 said: Making it to the playoffs is a positive. However, with all of the losses the Vikings suffered, the weakness of the Bears and Packers losing Rodgers - the division was really there for the taking. I would argue that Minnesota suffered larger losses than we did and were able to overcome them to win the Division. Some of that would fall on Caldwell but it would fall more onto Quinn IMO. The roster lacks the parts to overcome adversity and remain competitive. We're not good at the two most important parts of football - running the ball and stopping the run. We've relied way too much on Stafford. He's a top 10 QB that needs a stronger supporting cast. Going into the 1st round and losing out would feel more like a missed opportunity. Regardless of who the Vikings lost, they are 11-3 and likely to finish 13-3. That hardly make our division there for the taking. Even if we would have swept Minny, that still makes them 12-4. Explain how the Lions should have easily won the division given these facts? We should have gone 14-2 because Minny lost their first and second string quarterbacks? How does that even matter outside of the two games that we’ve played against them? It’s not like the Vikings dangled a carrot in the form of the division crown and we let it slip away. It was never in our grasp to begin with, with how good they played this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karnage84 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 2 hours ago, LionsFTW said: Regardless of who the Vikings lost, they are 11-3 and likely to finish 13-3. That hardly make our division there for the taking. Even if we would have swept Minny, that still makes them 12-4. Explain how the Lions should have easily won the division given these facts? We should have gone 14-2 because Minny lost their first and second string quarterbacks? How does that even matter outside of the two games that we’ve played against them? It’s not like the Vikings dangled a carrot in the form of the division crown and we let it slip away. It was never in our grasp to begin with, with how good they played this year. When Dalvin Cook went down, it was absolutely a hit to the Vikings. When Bradford went down, that should have been a huge impact on the team. Case Keenum is playing 100x better than expected. Most teams don't wind up in this kind of position with their back up QB. The only team I can think of was the Matt Cassel-led Patriots. At the time, the Lions were in the drivers seat and had a great opportunity to win the division. The Vikings have played extremely well while we have faltered. We can't run the ball, we can't stop the run, we consistently start slow. Stafford was not getting the protection needed. The only reason we even have a shot at the post-season is because of Staffords arm and Praters leg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashtagFTW Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 25 minutes ago, Karnage84 said: When Dalvin Cook went down, it was absolutely a hit to the Vikings. When Bradford went down, that should have been a huge impact on the team. Case Keenum is playing 100x better than expected. Most teams don't wind up in this kind of position with their back up QB. The only team I can think of was the Matt Cassel-led Patriots. At the time, the Lions were in the drivers seat and had a great opportunity to win the division. The Vikings have played extremely well while we have faltered. We can't run the ball, we can't stop the run, we consistently start slow. Stafford was not getting the protection needed. The only reason we even have a shot at the post-season is because of Staffords arm and Praters leg. That doesn’t change the fact that the Vikings are headed towards a 13-3 season. What seemed to be the case ten weeks ago didn’t end up being the case. Detroit would have needed a magical season to win the division with how good the Viking are and have been. The fact that everyone was saying Detroit is in the drivers seat ten weeks ago was perception. Reality ended up being totally different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karnage84 Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 1 hour ago, LionsFTW said: That doesn’t change the fact that the Vikings are headed towards a 13-3 season. What seemed to be the case ten weeks ago didn’t end up being the case. Detroit would have needed a magical season to win the division with how good the Viking are and have been. The fact that everyone was saying Detroit is in the drivers seat ten weeks ago was perception. Reality ended up being totally different. I can't argue against that. It's also an anomaly. Very few teams have a back up QB come in and lead a team like the Vikings have. The Lions could also just as easily be 12-4 (should have beaten Atlanta, tight loss to Pit) to finish off the season. Our formula just doesn't breed long-term success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehardlionfan Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 16 minutes ago, Karnage84 said: I can't argue against that. It's also an anomaly. Very few teams have a back up QB come in and lead a team like the Vikings have. The Lions could also just as easily be 12-4 (should have beaten Atlanta, tight loss to Pit) to finish off the season. Our formula just doesn't breed long-term success. Our formula? What’s our formula? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimbaWho Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 Hang around till the 4th quarter and see if Stafford can win? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehardlionfan Posted December 19, 2017 Share Posted December 19, 2017 1 minute ago, SimbaWho said: Hang around till the 4th quarter and see if Stafford can win? Love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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