Week 3 GDT: Texans (-3) @ Vikings

[PAtexansFAN_99]

1 hour ago, Pastor Dillon said:

The refs have 0% of the blame in this one.

Let me put it like this..

Question #1: How many drives today were killed because of some type of illegal procedure penalty?

Question #2: If those penalties weren't called, would anyone have noticed? 

These penalties.. we're not talking about the Rams Saints playoff PI call from a few years ago. If these are no-calls, nobody would've even thought about it. Nobody. 

I'm not saying we would have won. They kicked our ***** in almost every respect. We couldn't generate pressure consistently, we were pretty obviously out-schemed, we couldn't really get any movement in the run game; HOWEVER, we did hit some nice passing plays down the field that were CONSISTENTLY ERASED. That's a good team, it's hard to get momentum going. They could have caught him during a commercial break and told him to move up.

Also, like, relative to these illegal formations where the tackle is too far off the line, doesn't that seem like something you should be able to check with the ref on every snap? Like, WRs frequently check with the sideline to see whether or not they're misaligned, and those officials are helpful in preventing those penalties when called upon in that way. I feel like the Tackles should be checking with the refs every single play to make sure they're aligned properly, barring a hurry up type of situation in which there's no time. 

[Longhorns90]

That was... ugly. Easily our worst game since the Jets one last year, and we don't have the weather or an injury to blame. The team wasn't ready and our feet might as well be Swiss cheese with how frequently we shot ourselves there.

The offensive line has a lot of work to do. Going from 3rd and 4 to 3rd and 19 (and the only thing keeping us from 3rd and 24 was that an incompletion meant it was better to decline it) is... unconscionable. That drive was our entire game in a nutshell, taking us out of scoring position purely by making mistake after mistake after mistake.

Then you've got things like Stover getting repeatedly blown up trying to stay in and defend... but also why is Cade Stover blocking Jonathan Greenard, seriously? Ugly game for him. The running game never got going, but we were in a hole so quickly that it didn't even matter.

The defense didn't even do terribly all told - they were just consistently in bad situations. Their scoring drives started from, in total:

HOU 21 (TD)
MIN 44 (TD)
MIN 23 (TD)
MIN 40 (FG)
MIN 47 (TD)
MIN 45 (FG)

That's only one over 60 yards. It's hard not to give up points when a single first down puts them in scoring position. And even that lone long drive was helped out by a... 28 yard pass interference call, once again pointing out the root cause of all our issues. It was the big problem with the Bears and an even bigger problem here. I love Meco but he HAS to get on the team because they've been seriously undisciplined. We got away with it last time, it drove us into the ground this time.

If we're gonna go anywhere this year, we have to clean ourselves up, first and foremost.
 

[Marco79]

Well, that sucked. Even though, they lost 34-7 it does feel like they had their chances, but the ball was just not bouncing their way at all. Darnold was really trying to give the ball away sometimes, but they just were a split second late every time.

I’m not very concerned about either side of the ball for now, it’s still early, but I’m more concerned about the offense than defense at this point. The offense left the defense out to dry early and they couldn’t recover from it, even though the defense really clamped down and was giving the offense chances to get back into it and they just couldn’t do anything with the ball.

My biggest concern is that the offense just stalls out way too frequently. This week the penalties were drive killers, but the same thing was happening last week too. They faced tough defenses the last two weeks, but still, with the weapons they have, it shouldn’t be this consistent of an issue. Slowik has got to find a way to get this offense clicking and I think a big part of that would be to get Dell more involved. You have Nico turning into one of the best WRs in the league, Diggs being a great safety valve, but Slowik hasn’t been able to scheme anything for Dell and, also while we’re at it, Schultz looks bad too. Before the season, Stroud called Nico, Diggs, Mixon, Dell, and Schultz their 5 headed monster, but right now they only have 2 or 3 (if you want to count Mixon).

Hopefully, next week at home, and with Mixon back, the offense can start to get back on track.

[SteelKing728]

So, I wasn't expecting that. At all. These games happen though and don't define either team. 

You guys still have an amazing core of young players mixed with highly talented veterans. The Houston Vikings and Minnesota Texans will be fine! (Seriously, we got Greenard, Grugier Hill, Griffin, Quessenberry and Moreau while you guys have Hunter, Diggs, Akers, Keenum and Boyd).

I think your defense was fine but wasn't up to taking Jefferson on 1 vs 1 and let the run game knife through a few times. You won't get that every week but teams will attack it now. This unit appears to be your strength. 

I think your offense still hasn't gelled yet. Getting Diggs the ball quickly was good to help keep it downs and manageable...until the penalties hit. That looks like it's been a problem this year for you guys? Still, I think getting the ball to Collins more will help and maybe try to manufacture touches for Dell, who is an elite #3/slot WR and would be a very good #2 on the vast majority of teams.

Also, Cade Stover should just burn the tape of this one. That was horrendous. 

All in all, I still expect big things from Houston this year and I expect a quick rebound. Like I said before the game though, with this loss, you have my permission to beat the living hell out of Detroit and Green Bay now haha!

Good luck going forward. If the Vikings can't win it all this season, I'm rooting for you guys to do it!

[Texansfan713]

My thoughts
 

I dont care that Kevin O'Connell has "transformed" Sam Darnold 3 games into his first year with the Vikings.  If you want to me taken seriously you have to win these games against a career journyman.  Unacceptable

Our OL has too much talent to be this bad.  The false starts are annoying.  It's even more annoying when your best offensive lineman is doing it the most.  Something has to give.  

Not sure why the hell Burke kept calling zone defense plays when Justin Jefferson was shredding us.  I would have played man defense the whole entire game.  

Our offense is still not in sync.  TBH I think it's because Slowik hasnt been creative with his playcalling.  Stroud was due for an INT or two, so I wasnt shocked he threw some, but Slowik has to find a way to get Tank Dell and Dalton Schultz involved more. I know both of them had 6 and 5 targets respectively, but it still felt as if they aren't involved more as they should be.

Overall it's far too early to panic.  I strike this as a reality check loss, and they have a good chance of bouncing back next Sunday at home vs the Jaguars. 

 

I'll make the GDT tomorrow.

 

 

[vike daddy]

10 hours ago, Pastor Dillon said:

Stroud hasn’t been great all year. I’m afraid our offensive line has him broken. 

After blitzing C.J. Stroud on over half of his dropbacks in the first half (54.4%), the Vikings dialed back the aggression and sent five-plus pass rushers on just 27.3% of Stroud's dropbacks in the second half. Stroud struggled against the blitz, completing 9 of 15 for 103 yards, a touchdown, and an interception (-15.6% CPOE).

https://www.nfl.com/news/2024-nfl-season-week-3-what-we-learned-from-sunday-s-games

 

even all week long as teams prepare themselves for the Vikings, they still get beat by the very things they knew they'd have to deal with.

our coaching has been superb.

go get 'em next week, guys!

[UKTexans]

Same old Texans.

The minute we raise our hopes they dash them.

[Drained]

If I’m honest, this game isn’t on Slowik, Stroud, or the receivers. Yes there were some nasty overthrows / drops (primarily thinking about Schultz) but the real blame here should be placed on our o-line. There is too much invested, draft pick and money wise for the line to be making basic penalties such as illegal formation (lol). It was clear the refs were laser focused on Tunsil, and LT kept making those mistakes.

We still would have lost cause poor defense but without those penalties, it probably would have been a one possession game. We literally went from a 3rd and 3 to a 3rd and 28 in three minutes lol

[lumberjackchris]

Flush it and move on.

[Pastor Dillon]

Well the good news is that we have 5 games left against the colts, titans and Jags who look like they could all be picking top 10. 
 

the bad news is that we need to find 2-3 more wins and idk who that’s gonna be against at this point. 
 

the way we played Sunday, maybe we can beat New England 

8-9 is a real possibility 

but that still wins the division