It is finally here. Week 1 of the regular season. Games that actually count!
The Vikings travel to Detroit to take on the Motor City Kitties – one of four tough games to open up the season.
The Vikings come into the game relatively healthy despite the fact that Kevin Williams will sit this one out. (Rookie Shariff Floyd will start in his place.)
Make sure to join the live chat during the game to chat it up with some of the best Vikings fans around.
My prediction for the game? I got the Vikings 27-24.
Enjoy Vikings fans!
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First Christian Ponder is trash.
Second we need to bring back Antoine, nobody other than Smith can tackle in our secondary.
Ponder and Musgrave both get solid F's for today's performances. I continue to be amazed that Musgrave does not use spread formations to open things up for Peterson. When your formations continue to bring the defense right to the ball carrier it's going to create problems if the defenders stay disciplined. On the first play from scrimmage the Lions weren't disciplined, over-ran the box and Peterson exploded. For the rest of the game our stacked formations just killed us. The Lions brought the heat on nearly every play and Adrian never had a chance (neither did the O-line). As for Ponder, even when he's completing passes his terrible accuracy is a killer. Jerome Simpson's ridiculous acrobatic catch on that deep ball should have been a walk in TD if the ball was placed correctly. I saw a lot of what I expected today but it is very frustrating to see.
It's finally came. The moment when I have 100% given up on ponder. It's so frustrating. As for the defense yes they played bad, but they were on the field so much I can't blame them. We had something like 19 plays in the first half, and ponder was constantly going 3 and out or throwing a pick. It can be easy for an nfl defense to have to stop a team like the lions on so many drives starting so close the the end zone. It's over for ponder, and the worst part is we don't have a plan b, and were probably still to good to get a top ten pick and a franchise qb in the draft.
"We're probably still too good to get a top ten pick," I can agree with...but cannot get a franchise QB? Andy Dalton and Kaepernick went in round 2 of that very same draft.
Yes, we CHOSE Ponder over Dalton and Kaepernick.
Let that sink in for a moment.
One other thing I don't understand about the offensive game plan is why Patterson wasn't on the field. I think his first appearance was late in that third quarter with a screen pass he almost broke for a TD. I can't argue with having Simpson on the field with his production today (I would take the slant route off of his list of approved routes), and Jennings needs to be out there due to the contract he signed, but Patterson should be the third guy on the field over Wright and they need to use three wide sets a hell of a lot more often than they did today. Get Patterson in there and start faking some reverses to him to hold the DE's and LB's from crashing on AD and you might see some of those three yard loses becoming 5 yard gains. I'm actually more depressed about Musgrave than I am Ponder right now. I'm not expecting Ponder to magically become an accurate decision-sound passer. Musgrave came up with a stinker of a game-plan in the GB playoff game last year and again showed today that he couldn't adjust until the team was down ten points late in the third quarter and when your QB is average to bad like Ponder is, that isn't going to lead to a lot of wins.
Kalil concerns me. Got lucky on that off-sides call. Ponder never makes pre-snap adjustments. It's like the play HAS to work out exactly as it's drawn up, or he's lost. LBs are scary. Good to see the DEF create turnovers, but fundamental break downs cancelled those out. I wish we had them on the ropes in the first half that they kept the heat on the other team. They seem to coast when we are on top.
Well, that was worse than I thought it was going to be. About as ugly as a game can get.
I have no idea what Musgrave/Frazier were thinking with those bunched up formations. And where the hell was Patterson? He's a first round draft choice and he sees one snap?
Ponder is done. There can be no question about it. Third season and still inaccurate, scared, can't go thru progressions and just simply said; No football sense. I really wonder if all those roll outs to his left were designed or just Ponder being scared and getting out of the pocket. Not ONE audible did I see.
I really can't blame our defense for the poor showing. They were on the field for most of the game. Harrison Smith is a Stud!
This team is easily fixed with 3 moves;
-New Head Coach
-New Offensive Coordinator
-New Quarterback
In other words, we're screwed for the next 2-3 years.
Glad Wilf didn't extend Frazier’s contract. . .
As bad as Squander consistanly ruining all momentum, and not being able to create any is Frazier sticking with him, and NEVER calling him out. Dennis Green would never coddle such an untalented drive killer like Squander. People said Webbs passing was bad? Squander is all over the place and is going to get someone killed. Yes, fire the coach, OC and Squander. He is NOT an NFL QB and never will be.
this game easily could've ended in a worse score for us than it was. detroit was not good
Detroit was not good?? I guess you're right. . .except for their QB, their RB and their defensive line and their ability to score 34 points. Other than that, their pretty bad. :)
Detroit played terrible, they should have won by 30. Take away the penalties and AD's big run and it would have been a blowout. 7 is awful and 16 is no better, I think MBT or..... Drumroll please.... 5 aka TIM TEBOW would be our best options this year(picture Tebow/AD/Webb/Patterson running the read option).
Getting Reggie Bush was an outstanding move for Detroit and is really going to open up their offense much like it did today. That's a good football team we got beat by today, but with the amount of mistakes they made in the first half we should have been able to build a much bigger lead which likely changes the outcome. Keeping it close enabled them to keep the run available which negated some of our pass rush. I have no problem with Frazier as a head coach, but he needs to make the tough call and get rid of the offensive coordinator. His loyalty ultimately may cost him his job if our offense continues to be so predictable and easy to stop, and I say that more regarding Musgrave than Ponder because Spielman is just as invested in CP7. Ponder turning the ball over 4 times today is unacceptable (and yes, that fumble was 100% on him, you don't try to hand off when your falling down and drive the ball into your RB's thigh). The three picks all involved deflections and hits but they were all poor throws and decisions as well.
Fran,
Your right, That was a tough game to watch.
Ponder looked like he was in his 1st game. He is in the make or break 3rd year, I wish I could say I was surprised
Not so much.
He's so obviously a bust but we've dug the hole, so what can we do except give him a few more games, if he doesn't provide a miracle, I'd say finish the season with MBT and hope we can pick up a QB in the draft next year. Vince Young isn't doing anything either. At least he has an arm. . .
I'm on board with that Fran.
Fran (a.k.a. number six commentor), seriously? One game and we're talking Vince Young? Way too soon for that kind of madness.
With warmest regards,
Number FIVE commentor.
I'm coming for you Tomb.
I'm serious
You're probably about now; "Me"?
Yes, you.
Ok, that did it. (Mr #6) HA!
Musgrave is pathetic, in my opinion he wasn't even a good coordinator in Atlanta, the offense has gotten much better since he left. As for Ponder, well that was painful to watch, he lacks any urgency in the huddle and at the line, he failed to make any adjustments and his accuracy was generally poor. The defense was disappointing, but given how poor the offense played I don't think you can make a fair assessment. It's not a lack of weapons, it's just poor game design. If Lions hadn't played so poorly and had a few things go there way, they would have racked up a 50 burger on us. They need some big improvement before next week.
I understand everything being said here guys, not much to disagree with except how we seem to be giving our defense a free pass. The defense can get themselves off the field by making stops. Yes offensive ball control is nice, but when that's not happening, they still have a job to do. In spite of how the offense looked, 24 could have been enough. In spite of it all, the defensive performance was every bit as concerning as was that of our offense. When a team lights you up for 34 points and 460 yards, you haven't been much of any help to your offense either.
Im with you coach, Harrison Smith played his rear end off but that was it. Allen looked solid, Robison had a few flashes and we shut down Megatron but that was it. Our defense got smoked due to terrible tackling by everyone(Samford missed a lot of tackles) but our secondary not named smith was especially bad at tackling.
Our concerns this offseason were validated; our LBs suck! Greenway is a great tackling LB(not great coverage LB) but Henderson and Mitchell were awful all around. The one INT Henderson had was gift wrapped so he doesn't get credit for that and without that play the only highlights our LB's were in was chasing Reggie Bush.