I don’t even know where to begin with this one… It really was no surprise to me that the Vikings managed to make it a nail biter in the tail end of the fourth quarter. I watched the game today with some friends and my wife and assured them all that it would come down to a field goal at the last second despite the fact we were currently down by 14 points. Why? Because it’s the Vikings, of course.
So here we are… 1-1 after a torturous 23-20 loss to Andrew Luck and the Colts. Here are some of my initial thoughts and questions:
Why is it that we completely abandoned the run? We didn’t have any huge gains on the ground but my guess is that Peterson was averaging four to five yards a carry. (Okay, after checking, it was actually 3.75 YPC…) We can’t make ourselves that one dimensional with the lack of threats we have in the passing game.
Seriously, defensive line? I don’t even know what to say here. Same goes for you secondary. This defense is worse than I thought.
I don’t know what it is with Ponder in the first half of games. He looked bad again in the first and second quarters. He didn’t do anything to really cost the team but he also wasn’t winning anything for us. It was amazing how many times I saw him drop back and literally stare down one receiver (Harvin) from the moment he had the ball. I was honestly surprised he got out of this one with no picks again.
I need to go back and watch the coach’s tape because either Ponder just refused to risk throwing the ball or the Colt’s secondary is full of all-pros.
Did anyone else notice that there were multiple times at the end of the game where a Vikings receiver was forced or ran out of bounds and the clock just kept on ticking? What gives?
I’ll be back later to talk about the game some more. I’m going to try to enjoy the late games and pray my fantasy teams can pull out a win. (I’m looking at you Skol12!) I just wanted to get another thread up to discuss the game since the other one was getting kind of long.
-Angry Brett
View Comments
Brett,
Very sickening game, Defense was bad, it just went down hill, Penalties, everything...
I didn't get to see the game once again (except for the random redzone plays), but wow...what I did see looked pretty vulgar.
Someone help me out, did they stunt or blitz at all?
No, IT WAS TOO OBVIOUS that we should put pressure on the rookie QB, so we tricked them and didn't. Sorry I bored you with the mundane comment about QB pressure, Tomb. I was clearly wrong.
I hads me a feelin' that was coming...haha.
Slays me though, one tried and true way to kill talent is to play predictable / vanilla. I wish we had some coaching a guy could get behind...
Now c'mon, be honest Tomb. You asked that question just to give me the opening. It was my duty as a self-respecting blogger to take the shot. Actually, Luck deserves some credit. We got close on several occasions and he threw quick or moved as needed. Not sure if we were completely vanilla, but I think we could have been a little more aggressive.
Me throwing softballs?
No sir, couldn't be.
Glad to hear from you Brett. Just a sloppy game. Dumb penalties. I thought our O-line would be better against this defense. Ponder still seems to hold the ball to long for my liking and takes unnecessary sacks outside of the tackle box. Just throw it out of bounds instead of taking a 2-3 yard loss and getting hit. Although he hasn't thrown a pick, which is great; unfortunately he's fumbled in both games. I was hoping our secondary was going to be better, but I have lost confidence in them. They're a good team, but just mental mistakes. This should have been a win. I'm not sure why they start so slow either. I thought the first drive was done well and should have ended in a touchdown, not a field goal. But I was feeling pretty good about the drive. Then the defense allows Indianapolis to go down the field and score a touchdown and basically set my emotional tone at "are you kidding me" for the rest of the game. I was a little surprised at Rudolph also. I guess, after his catch against Denver last year, I just expect that if the ball hits his hands it's caught. The tipped ball in the endzone wasn't easy, but the one between both hands into his body was. Just eliminating the mental mistakes may have been the difference in this game. It's a young team, those things will happen; although two of the biggest penalties were against Allen and Loadholt. I'm expecting a 6ish win season, so when we lose to a team I think we should beat, it's disappointing. If these same circumstances were to happen next week at the 49ers, or at Lambeau, I would have been encouraged. Against Indianapolis however this effort, to me, is discouraging.
Thanks 44! Love the input and I agree with you almost across the board.
Something that's making me feel a little better? The Cowboys getting their tails whipped right now at the hands of the Seahawks.
I'm not jumping off a ledge after today's game... Just expected better. I don't know what I think of Ponder at this point.
Ponder looked like Webb without the ability to run.....looked like a rookie in his first preseason game.....looked like the second or third rounder most thought he should be.....the penalties had me screaming at the tv.....they call that "effort"? I wont watch this ....turned it off at halftime and took grandson to the river....much better way to spend sundays then watching this fiasco the wilfs have put together...sorry guys and gals...but the whole samn league puts our franchise to shame.....didnt take long for this side of krug to come out, huh freds.....
Krugs! Good to hear from you.
I agree about Ponder, never in a hurry even when we NEED to be. Couldn't believe the slow play towards the end. Defense sucked big time and JA's bonehead hit out of bounds on Luck was just stupid.
If we play TWICE as good next week as we played today, the 49ers will probably still beat us by 21 points.
I am not looking forward to watching that game.
next week is gonna be tough! then we get simpson back and go to detroit. on dec. 16th we go to st. louis for our next shot at a win
hey, we'll have a high draft position, though, right? and did ya hear, we got a stadium deal done!??!!!
Yep, new stadium deal! Great, by the time we get the stadium built, we will have stock-piled quite a few high draft picks. Maybe if we're REAL lucky we'll have a couple #1 picks.
Man it may really suck to be Viking fan the next couple-three years.
Does anyone else wonder if we'll still have Fraizer with us when the stadium is built?
Fran.....I don't think Frazier and Spielman make it through the next two years.....the tough part for the wilfs will be finding big name GMs and coaches who will come aboard just in time to play at gopher stadium.....only reason Frazier and Spielman got the job was the wilfs didn't want to spend big dollars, and then have to sell the team if the stadium hadn't been approved.....now, with the approval in hand, they better build a real team or there won't be many fans left to support it.....and they won't build a winner with frazier and spielman, IMHO
Hey let's not jump off the bridge here, folks. This is the NFL, and winning on the road is hard for everyone. Yup, one got away today. Same thing can be said for the Patriots, Cowboys, Redskins... and boy, do the Saints have defensive issues. Its week two, and these first two games will be a distant memory as the fall progresses.
1. Jared Allen and Chris Kluwe need to shut up and concentrate on their own performances.
2. I would rather Ponder hold onto the ball than make some of the throws that killed us last year.
3. Our wide-outs are just not good enough for us to be a consistent offense. Simpson may help.
4. Adrian Peterson is not completely back yet.
5. Along with the Jared Allen penalty, the worst sequence for the Vikes today was the last two minutes of the first half. Should have gone in no worse than down 10-6.
Finally, I'm gonna say it right now. We don't match up all that bad with the 49ers. That's going to be a better game than the popular opinion will profess.
Yep, Jared and Kluwe need to STFU.
I, OTOH, would much prefer to see Ponder slinging it down field, from the start of the game, rather than see us always trying to establish the run. Musgrave doesn't appear to have much imagination and is holding Ponder back with his lame plat calling.
The worst sequence I saw was the last 6 minutes of the game.
What was THAT? Down 2 scores and you'd have thought we were up by 10, the way they were wasting time. No urgency at all.
The Niner's are going to steam-roll us. (Unless of course, we open it up from the start and get them back on their heels. Fat chance.)
I agree.. Tom pelissero even said that the reason Ponder isn't looking downfield or to any other reseiver besides Harvin is because they weren't open.
I think way to many people come down hard on ponder after this game, but he didn't have much to work with.. it was only harvin that made anything go last night.
what I was most dissapointed with was Jared Allen.. He had a chance for atleast one sack, but that penalty, there is no way I can defend that.. Not even if he was a rookie.. it's simply to stupid. we had 2 VERy costly penalties on that drive, and instead of forcing them to punt we gave them more oppotunities to score, and gave them a free field goal.. ended up being the difference in the game
I can understand Jared's frustration, seems he's always getting double teamed or chipped but that hit out of bounds cost us big time and is inexcusable. Hopefully it's puts the fire in him for the Niners. . .
I was the positive one at the start of the season, calling for a 9-7 season but I don't see that at all now that I've seen a couple of games. Lousy team, lousy coaching staff, especially Musgrave.
Maybe 4 wins this year, 6 if we get some breaks
This was especially crappy for me as I was in the Cities today and had the game recording to the DVR at home to watch as soon as I walked through the door. Of course, after making it to about 4:00 without hearing anything about the final score some loadmouth on the shuttle bus I'm taking back to my vehicle says the Vikes lost to the Colts 23-20....thanks asshole, real glad you feel the need to let the world know what's going on in the sporting world. So surprise is gone but I still want to watch the game to see how the team is progressing. Get back home and find out the power strip my DVR is plugged into was somehow turned off so the game didn't get recorded. End up purchasing NFL rewind and just finished the game a few minutes ago. Pretty crappy performance all around. I can't believe how undisciplined this team is as far as the stupid penalties go. I saw nothing good from a coaching standpoint to speak of and was especially frustrated with the lack of urgency by the offense at the end of the game. The defense is terrible on third down and just can't make any impact plays. Creating turnovers is such an important part of playing defense and these guys just flat out don't know how to take the ball away. Offensively they still seem to be trying to figure things out which was understandable a year ago but inexcusable now. I think the lack of running in the second half had more to do with the 8 minutes the Colts ran off the clock on their opening drive than anything else. The toughest thing to swallow is that we barely beat a terrible Jacksonville team at home and then got beat by a terrible Colts team that didn't have Dwight Freeney. I thought they would get 6 wins this year but after seeing this start I'm really worried they might not hit the 3 they got last season. Hopefully they'll show progress but this was not an encouraging day.
Many many error, come on, -105 yards of Penalties! Okay it's team is young, but WTF!
A.A.A. Wanted Jared Allen of 2011
And Musgrave has the fantasy of a sloth!
i want to believe in the 2-1 vs 49ers!!!
Funny, I was just saying the other day that Musgrave has the fantasy of a sloth. If he doesn't ratchet up the fantasy, this'll be a long season.
YES YES YES...2-1!
Let's face it. This is no better than a 3-4 win team. The defense is absolutely terrible!!!!!!! We will be picking in the top 3 next year in the draft.
The run vs. throw balance for this team is delicate, and I think it will be easy to second-guess these coaches on that one all year long. Frankly, I thought we could have mixed in the run even a little more on our final drives, but the bottom line is we got it tied up (with a great break on the first TD). Let's keep in mind our current personnel. The bulk of the touches must go to Adrian and Percy. That means we should, most likely, have more running plays than passing plays in a typical game, at least until Simpson joins the team. We can't be guilty of claiming "we should have run" when a passing play fails or "we should have passed" when a running play fails. Give the ball to the playmakers and then execute. It is WAAAY too early to give up on this team and the coaches.