ugghh.. Losing Hughes would be a downer as he was improving game by game.
A few mistakes along the way but he has been improving I agree.
Yesterdays win was nice, but they let the Cardinals hang around a little too long. Lots to Love of course:
Yep the defense was playing some prevent for awhile there only bringing the heat on 3rd down. Let them hang around a bit because of that.
Defense did well, yes, it was the Cardinals, but missing some key players and still succeeding was nice to see.
Thielen - Nothing to say other then
Murray looked like what you expect a RB to look like.. Not sure if Zimmer got in the OC's ear and told him RUN MORE! .. or if the OC is learning you don't need to rely on Cousin's to carry the entire Offense, but it was nice to see them commit to the running game.
Yeah the defense seems to have fixed some things. Part of that is Barr has been playing well the last two games. Part of that is the Vikings playing 3 safeties more with Iloka and Kearse and not putting Barr is situations where his coverage can get exposed. I saw one play where Barr seemed to be calling for someone else to cover the slot receiver leaking out, perhaps a miscommunication. Rosen didn't see the guy though so no problems. Barr was indecisive, between covering the guy and following the flow of the play to the other side of the field.
Murray had some very nice holes to work with on a few of his runs. The offensive line doing a good job and he took advantage of that for some long runs.
but here are a couple of things that leave me :whoosh:
Continuing to have Cousins drop back in the pocket and wait for deep routes.. The OL is just not good enough to give him the 4+ seconds needing to find open receivers deep. He has proven he can roll-out and sling with the best of them. Lost on why they continue to, not only calls these deep passes from the pocket, but then provide ZERO help to the OL to block..
I think there were a couple of those that I would like to see Cousins step up in the pocket more. He already has his feet set, which is a good thing, but if he is going to hold the ball, then why not take a step forward (when he can) and set again since he knows he is waiting that tick before getting rid of the ball anyways.
I hear you though, some quicker developing play calls or just more of them could help.
Arizona was playing zone and because of that the shorter stuff is not as open. So I think that is part of it.
I wish Cousins wouldn't throw the ball right into jumping defenders as much as he did in the game. 6 passes were batted down. He got lucky none of them took a favorable bounce for the defense. Again part of the problem is Cousins is holding the ball a bit too long.
Not having a TE/RB back there to help block is going to cause the Vikings to rely on the Backup QB sooner rather then later with the hits Cousin's is taking.
The great thing about Cousins is that he hasn't had a major injury in his career yet. (knocks on a massive chunk of wood) That is part of the reason why the Vikings pursued him as their starter, because Cousins has played all 16 regular season games for the last 3 seasons.
Plus he is good, but the toughness and availability is important too.
I agree with you though that I would like to see more of Morgan, Ham ect being used in protection instead of releasing so many receivers into routes.
WAY to conservative coaching on Zimmer's part at times.. 15 seconds left in the half, 3rd down.. and you call out the kicking team???
I didn't see this, I stepped away a bit before half time.
Why not call a quick roll-out to give Cousin and the WR's time .. Instead leave time on the clock and waste an opportunity to take a shot at the end zone..
I get it, no Time-outs, get sacked and half is over... But if you can't trust your Starting QB to understand that and get rid of the ball before a sack, well.....
Back above .500, playing better and a chance to get back in 1st place if they can take care of the Jets next week and the Bears lose to NE.
It is good to see players improving and the Vikings playing together a bit better each game.
Mackenzie Alexander had a pretty good game. He made some plays against Fitzgerald. He made the mistake of the pass interference in the end zone because he didn't turn around, but it wasn't that bad. I believe it is legal to try to shield off the receiver like that as long as you don't make contact with them (the hard part of trying to defend it that way). If he turns around first knowing that Fitzgerald doesn't really have space left for another move, he would have been fine.
Barr has been playing better.
Joseph has been playing better.
I think Weatherly is improving also. A couple weeks back I was listening to Pete Bercich talk about if Weatherly learns an inside move, he will be dangerous, then pointing out on film that he was using an inside move to great effect.
Hunter has been getting a sack every game.
Part of why the Cardinals had a successful drive was when the Vikings were rotating back up defensive linemen in. They had both Johnsons on the field at the same time and Jaylyn Holmes had 15 snaps, he was playing some left end, I am not sure he played inside or not.
Iloka played on 74% of the snaps with Sendejo out. Anthony Harris made two big plays even though he only played 15 snaps. Kearse only played five.
They start the 3rd quarter up 16-10 or 20-10, instead of down 17-13, there is no way Zimmer goes for it on 4th and 1 from their own 45...
