All Things 2021 Minnesota Vikings In-Season Thread

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PhiloVance said:
No Cowboy fan but they deserved the win. Cooper Rush has his moment in the sun and it was against the Vikings.
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Die-hard Vikings fans who hated the Cowboys with every fiber of their being, are rolling in their graves, again.
 


Unregistered User said:
Cousins, in and of himself is not the problem. His contract, and not playing up to a top 10 level at QB, is part of the problem.

You flat out need better QB play for over $30MM/year, and that massive contract eats up space where it could be spent.

Another problem…when Max Williams went down for the year, AZ goes out and gets Ertz…when Irv Smith goes down for the year, Spielman shops at the scrap heap. This is his doing.

Burn it to the ground.
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Not a single thing "wrong" with your post, but you make it sound like Spielman could have chosen to go out and spend money to bring in a better TE. And I don't know what AZ's backup TE situation was like, but we did -- and still do -- have Conklin. I mean, he looked great on the first drive, as did the offense.

He didn't have such money, though. Which, as you point out, is his fault -- and Kirk's fault, as you also point out.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
And can they please just waive Breeland
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And put who in?? Alexander??

There's a reason we got rid of him in the first place.

Kris Boyd?


PP had been playing well. But he's old, and he got hurt.
 



stocker08 said:
Cousins is overpaid for what he is....but people need to calm down and ease up. He hasn't been the problem this year and has played like a top ten QB. 14 touchdowns to 2 interceptions. 12th in yards, top ten in yards per games, 5th in completion percentage, eighth in quarterback rating.

People say that he cannot beat good teams. Against the Cardinals in week two not only outplayed Kyler Murray.....but he also put together a two minute drive to get us into game winning FG range. Joseph missed the 37 yard field goal.

I think people also forget that he has been pretty clutch down the stretch in several other games this year. Week one against Cincy, Cousins had to run a two minute offense starting at our own five yard line to get us into FG range to send the game to OT. If Cook doesn't fumble (may have been a bad call)....we win that game most likely. Against the Lions.....Cousins drives down the field with 33 seconds, starting from the 18 to get us into FG range for the win. Against the Panthers, with 42 seconds, starting from the 28 yard line, Cousins puts together a drive give the Vikings a shot for a game winning 47 yard field goal. Joseph missed it. We still won in OT after Cousins takes us right down the field on the first possession.

I understand that win things are going well....the QB gets a lot of love and when things aren't going well....he takes a lot of the heat. But people are kidding themselves by blaming Cousins for the way this year has gone. The offensive line, the defensive backfield....and more than anything....the coaching staff have been the issues. The conservative playcalling is an antiquated system. Few teams run the clock out before half when they have a minute remaining or more....with timeouts. Zimmer and company do. On third and longs....younger coaches let their quarterbacks air the ball out. Not the Vikings. We lie down by running a draw.
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You're not completely wrong here, by any means. But you're not right, either.

Agree that he does good things, some times.


But it's a simple thing: for the amount of money he makes, he doesn't put the team on his back and make wins happen, nearly enough.

Otherwise (which is the case), it takes away too much money from too many other places.
 


The two last things to add, for me:

1) this was like an even worse version of the Cleveland game. The OL got bitchslapped, just like that game. Udoh is just not good. Even Darrisaw - hell we knew he wasn't going to keep it up at that high of a level, but now Randy Gregory just put on tape how you beat him quite easily, with the hand slapping technique. Needs to get that fixed pronto, because that's what he's getting the rest of the season.

2) before this game, I would have said "they should have won the Cincy and AZ games". Now I'm more thinking "they should have lost the Detroit and Carolina games". :(
 

stocker08 said:
You're going to pass judgement on one play? Let me give you a hint.....all NFL QB's have bad plays. Every single one.
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OK. So that play was the only bad play or bad decision that Cousins had in the game? Honest question. I actually do not know the answer.
 



MplsGopher said:
You're not completely wrong here, by any means. But you're not right, either.

Agree that he does good things, some times.


But it's a simple thing: for the amount of money he makes, he doesn't put the team on his back and make wins happen, nearly enough.

Otherwise (which is the case), it takes away too much money from too many other places.
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We are in complete agreement here. Cousins is massively overpaid. That's not really his fault though. That's on Zimmer and Spielman. They paid a human statue to sit behind the worst offensive line the NFL. Huge mistake. All I am pointing out is that Cousins isn't a bad quarterback by any means. He's just paid like a top five guy. And he's not that.
 

MplsGopher said:
OK. So that play was the only bad play or bad decision that Cousins had in the game? Honest question. I actually do not know the answer.
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He touches the ball nearly every offensive play. I have no doubt that he made some more errant throws. That specific play was a big whiff. The very top QBs in the league don't go through games playing perfectly....and sometimes they have off games. Can't be expected to be perfect. This was definitely one of Cousins worst games this year.....along with the Browns game.
 

stocker08 said:
He touches the ball nearly every offensive play. I have no doubt that he made some more errant throws. That specific play was a big whiff. The very top QBs in the league don't go through games playing perfectly....and sometimes they have off games. Can't be expected to be perfect. This was definitely one of Cousins worst games this year.....along with the Browns game.
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He can make a great throw ... to a guy short of the first down.

You say it's playcalling ... but on most passing plays, the QB has to make a decision about which guy to throw to.
 

MplsGopher said:
He can make a great throw ... to a guy short of the first down.

You say it's playcalling ... but on most passing plays, the QB has to make a decision about which guy to throw to.
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That's 100% a knock on Cousins. Completely warranted too. Not sure how much that is Cousins or Zimmer's conservative mentality though. Makes you wonder why we have so many underneath routes like that on third down plays. But I think another part of the equation is that the line does a poor job of giving Cousins enough time for longer routes to develop. But yeah....that can be irritating.
 




stocker08 said:
That's 100% a knock on Cousins. Completely warranted too. Not sure how much that is Cousins or Zimmer's conservative mentality though. Makes you wonder why we have so many underneath routes like that on third down plays. But I think another part of the equation is that the line does a poor job of giving Cousins enough time for longer routes to develop. But yeah....that can be irritating.
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The line was really bad. It absolutely does affect Cousins too, plain as day.
 


I thought the vikes had it in the bag when ceedee dropped that easy one.
 


Yeah, feel bad for Thielen. Has given his career to this franchise.
 

All this lamenting of Cousins and the offense is justified. However, when it was reported that Danielle Hunter was out for the game, I felt like their chances of a victory were strongly diminished.

If he's out for the year (which it sounds like is the case), then go ahead and put a fork into this season as far any playoff push or run. I would have thought that even if they had won last night.
 

MplsGopher said:
Yeah, feel bad for Thielen. Has given his career to this franchise.
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Interesting take. IMO, him being a hometown kid was probably the one thing that afforded him an opportunity here. I doubt there are any undrafted free agent receivers in the league making what he does.
 

howeda7 said:
Coaching wishlist:

Mike Tomlin

Doug Pederson

Byron Leftwich
Kellen Moore
Eric Bienemy.
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Tomlin ain't leaving Pittsburgh. No chance. He'd be at the top of the list for every team in the league looking for a coach so the competition would be stiff.

Pederson? I could maybe think about that, not 100% sold though?

Leftwich - I'm not sure. I'm a huge fan, loved him when he was in AZ with BA, but have never been sure who's more in charge of running the offense, him or Arians, which brings me to...

Bienemy - Again, he's clearly not running the offense, and from what I can gather, the main reason he hasn't gotten a sniff is his previous transgressions are just too much for most organizations to want to take on

Moore - I'd like to see more of a body of work, and the Cowboys are underachievers mostly, but who knows.

I still doubt Zim gets fired but time will tell. They really needed to win this game, or at least a good portion of these next 4 or so.
 

stocker08 said:
Interesting take. IMO, him being a hometown kid was probably the one thing that afforded him an opportunity here. I doubt there are any undrafted free agent receivers in the league making what he does.
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Well I'm wondering, based on that Tweet, if Thielen's agent is going to go to Wilfs and say "get rid of Zimmer, or we're out"
 

1-13 on third down ain’t gonna do it. Would love to know how many passes were completed on third down that didn’t result in a first down. I bet they completed 5 passes on third down and they didn’t result in a first down.
 

Wally said:
Blow this team up. Trade any older players you can get something for, trade Cook also.

Build around Hunter, Darrisaw, O'Neil and JJ.
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The NFL doesn't work that way. There will be few if any trades. But yes, build around the young guys. The Barr and Harrison Smith extensions were huge mistakes by Spielman. He should be fired too.
 

Fire Zim. Let Patterson take the shackles of Kubiak. I seriously doubt Kubiak wants to run this conservative slop all game.
 

Stephen Weatherly would be pretty nice now that Hunter is hurt. But what the hell we saved a million and got a 7th round pick. Maybe Denver would agree to redo the trade if we give them another 7th round pick.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
1-13 on third down ain’t gonna do it. Would love to know how many passes were completed on third down that didn’t result in a first down. I bet they completed 5 passes on third down and they didn’t result in a first down.
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3rd and 2 - Conklin for 31 yards - and that's another Vikings.........FIRST DOWN!
3rd and 2 - incomplete to JJ - DPI - and that's another Vikings.........FIRST DOWN!
3rd and 7 - incomplete to Conklin
3rd and 5 - incomplete to Osborn
3rd and 5 - incomplete to Thielen
3rd and 1 - Ham run left - no gain
3rd and 12 - incomplete to Cook
3rd and 5 - sack fumble
3rd and 12 - Conklin for 7
3rd and 6 - incomplete to Cook
3rd and 8 - Osborn for 4
3rd and 23 - Mattison run for 4
3rd and 9 - Conklin for 3

Most of the descriptions of the incompletes (according to the ESPN p-b-p) were described as "short right" or "short left", so, hard to tell if they were past the LOS - but I doubt many were.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
Stephen Weatherly would be pretty nice now that Hunter is hurt. But what the hell we saved a million and got a 7th round pick. Maybe Denver would agree to redo the trade if we give them another 7th round pick.
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Denver's LB corp is a mash unit. Trade them Barr for Weatherly and one of their CB's.
 

My guess is Zim is out by tomorrow and Patterson is the interim with a shot at the permanent if the team rallies. I'm not sure what they'll do with Spielman. If they bring in a new guy, he'll want to name his own coach.
 

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