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***OFFICIAL*** Minnesota Vikings 2016 Season Thread (2 Viewers)

sports_fan said:
Week 1: Vikings vs Titans Condensed Game
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After watching this a second time I noticed number 99 Casey causing a lot of problems for Kalil. Throwing Kalil aside on one play. Very strong player but likely not the best Kalil will face this season. He needs help.

Kyle Rudolph failed several blocks as well. Just giving up on some of them and Peterson having no where to go because of that. There were collective failures in run blocking. I thought Kalil and Rudolph failed the most, followed closely by Boone and also Morgan lost at least two his assignments. Zach Line did not win any of his blocks that I saw. Fusco failed too but he did have some good blocks in the run at times. Berger was not getting much push. None of them were really with all of them being covered by a defender for the most part.

Peterson should not have strung out that one run to the outside which lost yardage, he was clearly frustrated by the lack of anything to work with running inside.

The bright side is that they did a pretty good job overall with protecting Shaun Hill. Kalil looked the worst to me there but Boone as well. I don't know why they don't shift protections to the left side more often. Those guys need more help.

 
Gameday.. A few hours before kickoff, but 99.9% sure Bradford will start and can play "Game Manager" with a couple big plays to help the Defense control Rodgers and company to take the Vikings to 2-0 with a 23-17 victory! :popcorn:

 
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This is shaping up to be a hell of an event and experience. Lots of cool things planned and more that are undisclosed. I'm betting that the on-field 3D video like they do at hockey and basketball games will be unreal. The Vikings hired the closing ceremonies guy from the Sochi Olympics to put together the program. 

New chant. Orchestra. Game of Thrones ties. Can't wait!

http://www.startribune.com/vikings-going-big-for-home-debut-at-u-s-bank-stadium/393489451/ 

 
Great way to begin a tradition in the new stadium. I can get used to this winning ugly but it is keeping me on the edge of my seat. The defense played great all game. Waynes was struggling in man coverage but was able to erase those mistakes with the interception.

The offensive line is still terrible but Bradford showed toughness and made some great throws under pressure.

Stefon Diggs!  :excited:

 
Great start to the Bradford era. Loved tonight's game. In the past we would have choked this type of game away. But this organization and staff has made a real culture shift in Minnesota. Love the future. 

 
My score prediction was off, but not what mattered most, THE WIN!! :excited:

Loved Bradford's poise in the pocket.. he was getting mauled on almost every passing down, yet stood in there and took the hits and delivered some very nice deep passes.
As this game showed, the more Bradford can hit the deeper passing routes, the more the defense's will need to back off the 7, 8 man fronts thus opening up the running game.

News this morning has some hope that ADP's injury isn't as major as it looked last night, but more then likely he will miss the Carolina game so McKinnon and Asiata will need to step up.
Two weeks in a row Rudolph has been slow to get his head around on quick outs. He needs to fix that asap before it costs the Vikings a interception.

Diggs, Diggs, Diggs!!! Thanks to his first two games teams are going to have to start double teaming him, which should open up routes for others.

Will be glad when we get Rhodes back..
Having the 2nd oldest defensive player in the league out there at times covering one on one was a little unsettling. But, other then the first quarter huge mistakes gifting the Packers their first TD, he did a pretty good job.
Same with Waynes .. He had some great moments and some very bad moments.. Needs to learn on how to look and find the ball.. Not an easy task, but is needed if he is going to make the next step.. Made a great play to seal the deal on that Interception.

The Defensive front is just as good, if not better then last year. They had Rodgers completely confused throughout.. after all of these years I still can't believe how easy that TD run was for him, there wasn't anyone left to spy.. good play by the Packers on route running, but still that shouldn't be that easy.

Up next Carolina and Cam :popcorn:

 
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Congrats on the win guys! I'm an Eagles fan but got a bit of a soft spot for the Vikes (and I pretty much hate every other team in the NFC North--especially Chicago). Anyway, hope Bradford keeps working out for you even though it's in our interest for you guys to lose LOL. Sounds like the new place is an amazing experience.

 
Newman had two bad PI's too so it's not like Waynes is on an island in that regard.

And with the state of the line they might be better McKinnon out of the shotgun. AP is almost strictly a between the tackles runner now. Flaring out JM should relieve some pressure.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
Newman had two bad PI's too so it's not like Waynes is on an island in that regard.

And with the state of the line they might be better McKinnon out of the shotgun. AP is almost strictly a between the tackles runner now. Flaring out JM should relieve some pressure.
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yea, that's why I typed this about Newman:

Having the 2nd oldest defensive player in the league out there at times covering one on one was a little unsettling. But, other then the first quarter huge mistakes gifting the Packers their first TD, he did a pretty good job.
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;)

 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
My initial reaction is that the Vikes just pulled another Mike Lynn.  They seem, in my mind, to have misperceived their window and current skill and seem to have sold the future for a questionable here and now.  Maybe I am wrong, it certainly would not be unprecedented.
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Just stopping bye to acknowledge that after one game it looks like I may have been wrong.

 
snogger said:
My score prediction was off, but not what mattered most, THE WIN!! :excited:

Loved Bradford's poise in the pocket.. he was getting mauled on almost every passing down, yet stood in there and took the hits and delivered some very nice deep passes.
As this game showed, the more Bradford can hit the deeper passing routes, the more the defense's will need to back off the 7, 8 man fronts thus opening up the running game.

News this morning has some hope that ADP's injury isn't as major as it looked last night, but more then likely he will miss the Carolina game so McKinnon and Asiata will need to step up.
Two weeks in a row Rudolph has been slow to get his head around on quick outs. He needs to fix that asap before it costs the Vikings a interception.

Diggs, Diggs, Diggs!!! Thanks to his first two games teams are going to have to start double teaming him, which should open up routes for others.

Will be glad when we get Rhodes back..
Having the 2nd oldest defensive player in the league out there at times covering one on one was a little unsettling. But, other then the first quarter huge mistakes gifting the Packers their first TD, he did a pretty good job.
Same with Waynes .. He had some great moments and some very bad moments.. Needs to learn on how to look and find the ball.. Not an easy task, but is needed if he is going to make the next step.. Made a great play to seal the deal on that Interception.

The Defensive front is just as good, if not better then last year. They had Rodgers completely confused throughout.. after all of these years I still can't believe how easy that TD run was for him, there wasn't anyone left to spy.. good play by the Packers on route running, but still that shouldn't be that easy.

Up next Carolina and Cam :popcorn:
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Maybe without AP for a bit and a strong armed QB, maybe the whole offensive gameplan shifts from a not-so-exotic-smash-mouth to more wide open. If that's the case, and considering Diggs seems likely to start drawing more defensive attention, maybe finally Treadwell starts to become a factor in at least 4 WR sets. Thielen looks pretty OK, Johnson doesn't look anything special and Wright hasn't seen the field.

Two rushes for two yards and a catch for -1 for the heir apparent McKinnon in a close game after Peterson went out is kind of alarming. Asiata looked to be his usual serviceable self.

May be just me, but I've seen Wayne's interception replay several times, only from the 3 angles and only the one from the front, but I'd swear, right as he gets to the point of the catch that his eyes are closed. Like a WR that's about to take a hit.

Any chance of trading next year's 4th rounder and the following year's first for a couple of OTs?

Patterson looks great on kickoff returns. Why doesn't he do punts also? Was it Michaels that pointed out that every time he's on the field for Offense they give him the ball? If the announcers notice it, think maybe the Defensive Coordinators do also?

Rogers is starting to look more and more like Eli to me. Really good sometimes, others not so much.

The new stadium looks awesome. Love the Viking ship out front

 
I really hope Rhodes can play next week.  I'm already having nightmares of what Kelvin Benjamin could do with Waynes / Newman covering him.

I would also like to see the offense go spread more often next week with either 4 WR or have McKinnon split out.  Get some quick throws going to minimize the number of hits on Bradford.

 
Early on in the game they actually ran a screen to Peterson. Haven't seen that too much before. He did a good job in pass protection at least 3 times that I noticed as well.

He finally got some blocks after the passing game opened things up a bit and had a couple decent runs right before the injury.

I thought the pass rush design was good for the most part. Yes Rodgers got a couple good runs when we had no spy on him, but for the most part they kept him in the pocket pretty well and forced him to throw the ball away a few times with no one open and out of time. They did get him outside a few times which helped their protection earlier on in the game. I thought their offensive line did a pretty good job despite giving up 5 sacks. There was no more of Rodgers just rolling right at will which has been a big problem in the past.

To be honest I was nervous Bradford might lay an egg. He played great. Better than I expected.

The offensive line is still a serious problem. Across the board really. Fusco was getting pushed back into the backfield a lot early on in the game and Kalil failed a lot of blocks. 

I think Letroy Guion fits their defense better than it did ours. Things seemed to get a bit better after he was out with an injury. That is how bad the offensive line is, that Guion is causing problems.

 
simsarge said:
Maybe without AP for a bit and a strong armed QB, maybe the whole offensive gameplan shifts from a not-so-exotic-smash-mouth to more wide open. If that's the case, and considering Diggs seems likely to start drawing more defensive attention, maybe finally Treadwell starts to become a factor in at least 4 WR sets. Thielen looks pretty OK, Johnson doesn't look anything special and Wright hasn't seen the field.

Two rushes for two yards and a catch for -1 for the heir apparent McKinnon in a close game after Peterson went out is kind of alarming. Asiata looked to be his usual serviceable self.

May be just me, but I've seen Wayne's interception replay several times, only from the 3 angles and only the one from the front, but I'd swear, right as he gets to the point of the catch that his eyes are closed. Like a WR that's about to take a hit.

Any chance of trading next year's 4th rounder and the following year's first for a couple of OTs?

Patterson looks great on kickoff returns. Why doesn't he do punts also? Was it Michaels that pointed out that every time he's on the field for Offense they give him the ball? If the announcers notice it, think maybe the Defensive Coordinators do also?

Rogers is starting to look more and more like Eli to me. Really good sometimes, others not so much.

The new stadium looks awesome. Love the Viking ship out front
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That is an interesting observation about Waynes. At least he caught it. I would imagine that is more difficult to do with your eyes closed than when open. He shouldn't be expecting a hit or any reason to flinch either. Huh.

I agree that with Bradford and without Peterson the Vikings may throw the ball a bit more and that Treadwell miight start getting worked into the offense if they do.

Have to hope McKinnon is healthy and ready to contribute. This is his chance to shine and convince the Vikings that he can be a starter for them, or not.

I don't know of any teams with extra good offensive tackles they would be looking to trade. More likely to find guys on other teams practice squads I would think. I completely agree that the Vikings need to upgrade at both of the tackle positions, I just don't see a trade being able to accomplish that. Teams won't trade players they are starting right now. That would need to be an offseason move if we were going to go that route. So I think it is a good idea but little chance of something like that happening this season.

That is a good question about Patterson as a punt returner. Sherels has that job on lock and the Vikings trust him with that job. If they didn't have Sherels, I am not sure who would be the next ranked punt returner on the team. I think Patterson could do it. The key for punt returns is really safe hands to catch the ball and not fumble after you do. I think Diggs and Wright are other options of guys who could do that job. Not sure if Patterson would get that job if Sherels were unavailable at some point, or if the assignment would go to someone else.

I am loving reading Packers fans complain about their team and their QB. I dunno about Eli, but he hasn't played as well the last couple seasons. I think it is more their receivers not being as good as they used to be than Rodgers not playing well. He is still a good player. Impressed with how the defense has been handling him lately. The pass rush design and execution really kept him from rolling outside and extending the play, which is how he gets big plays, like those double moves with Nelson? Helps if Rodgers is buying time by rolling out for that. Our defense has been pretty well with rushing in such a way that he cannot escape to the sides, only by climbing the pocket and going forward. I think teams that can do this (not many) make Rodgers look more ordinary as a pocket passer.

 
My fellow Vkings homers, your thoughts on what we saw from Bradford and trying to reconcile that against his reputation? 

It's clear that fans of his previous stops are saying, "He sucks, just wait......". But what should we be thinking? Souhan's article today is interesting but it made me wonder if this is the first time the NFL is seeing the "real" Bradford or will the carriage turn back into a pumpkin?

 
I think Bradford can be fine. The far bigger question is can he remain in the lineup with the protection of this OL?

 
I thought this article covers a lot of Bradford's career so far and how he has functioned with teams in the past.

Some interesting points about this is that QBs tend to get better as they get older. Having better performance for the most part at age 28-32 than they did for their 1st five years in the league. Bradford is in that prime area of his career right now.

Bradfords first four years with the Rams, he was on a very bad team that earned the 1st overall pick they used on him. He had a promising rookie season, that made his following 3 seasons with the Rams even more disappointing. His reputation is greatly colored by this, not meeting the high hopes of his rookie season by further improving on that.

Another thing that hurts Bradfords reputation is that he was drafted 1st overall in the last draft before the new collective bargaining agreement. This meant his salary was very high for an unproven player, and his contract became too high for the Rams to keep him, which is mainly what motivated the trade of Bradford to the Eagles for Nick Foles. Not that they were similarly valued players, the Rams were trying to get out of Bradfords contract, which was more than they (or any team) was willing to pay him.

His second and third seasons especially were disappointing having less than 60% completion rate. You can kind of see this demonstrated in the graphs here by Chase Stewart.

With the Eagles last season he had a slow start but played very well once he got more comfortable with the offense. His completion percentage was 65% which is significant improvement from when he was with the Rams. So what he did last Sunday is not that surprising and shows some continuance of his improvement since leaving the Rams.

While I don't expect him to complete over 70% of his passes all year, I do think he should be able to keep this pretty high, or at least higher than it was with the Rams.

Perhaps we are still in a honeymoon period and some of Bradfords flaws will become more apparent in games ahead. But I don't really have this feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don't see why he cannot continue playing well for the rest of the season.

As Jim points out the main challenge is the same as it would have been with Teddy, the pass protection. Bradford isn't as good as Teddy escaping pressure either imo. I have questioned and still question his pocket presence at times although I thought he played very well in his first game with the Vikings, but maybe I will be seeing Bradford blindsided at some other point later on in the year on a play that Bridgewater would be able to avoid. The Vikings have to find ways to protect him if they want Bradford to stay healthy all season. He showed toughness and grit to stand in there and take some big shots from defenders to deliver the ball on time. I just don't know if he can do that for 14 games. The offensive line still has a lot of room for improvement, that I am not sure will happen. There is some hope I guess in that as the line improves its communication, and gets used to how Bradford drops and his timing, then the protection could improve because of that.  

 
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mozzy84 said:
Have we seen the last of AP in purple? Kinda looking that way :(
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Seems likely. I would rather see Peterson go out on a high note than like this, but there is no way they will pay Peterson what they owe him for next season.

The Vikings played without Peterson almost all of 2014 though and the offense was more in sync during this time than it was with Peterson in 2015 where things didn't really fit together well or compliment each other. I think the Vikings will be fine without him.

If Peterson would have stayed healthy and still not performing, more of a time share with McKinnon was going to develop anyways. 

 
Has another 2-0 team ever had to change over this many starters this soon?

ETA: Bridgewater

         Rhodes

         Peterson

         Floyd

         Kalil

         ?

 
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Floyd has been often out with injury anyways, so I don't really consider him to be a key starter.

Kalil has played pretty badly, so I am hoping Clemmings wont be worse than him.

We have Jerrick McKinnon and Trey Waynes to take over for Rhodes and Peterson. I am hoping Rhodes may be healthy enough to contribute, maybe Floyd can at some point also.

 
I like to be as positive as the next guy but I am just hoping they survive the Panther game without major injuries. The Panther front 7 vs. our o-line feels like one of the larger mis-matches I can recall.

 
Rogi said:
I'm picturing K.Benjamin destroying Waynes but I hope I'm wrong.
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Why is that?

From what I saw of Waynes against the Packers, he was playing more man coverage early on and that is where some of the PI calls happened. Waynes was benched briefly for Alexander who did fine on the couple plays he was in. When Waynes came back in it looked like they were having him play zone which fits his play style better. They ended the game with Waynes interception.

Waynes did have an interception of Russell WIlson in the playoff game against Seattle as well.

I do think Rhodes matches up very well against the larger WR. So it would be great if he is healthy enough to play against Carolina. They may even have him play man on KB a lot, as they have done in the past having Rhodes follow Calvin around.

I think Waynes is much faster than Benjamin and may do well against him, but he isn't as experienced as Rhodes playing tight man coverage. 

 
Biabreakable said:
Why is that?

From what I saw of Waynes against the Packers, he was playing more man coverage early on and that is where some of the PI calls happened. Waynes was benched briefly for Alexander who did fine on the couple plays he was in. When Waynes came back in it looked like they were having him play zone which fits his play style better. They ended the game with Waynes interception.

Waynes did have an interception of Russell WIlson in the playoff game against Seattle as well.

I do think Rhodes matches up very well against the larger WR. So it would be great if he is healthy enough to play against Carolina. They may even have him play man on KB a lot, as they have done in the past having Rhodes follow Calvin around.

I think Waynes is much faster than Benjamin and may do well against him, but he isn't as experienced as Rhodes playing tight man coverage. 
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I hope you're right.  

 
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Rhodes has practiced 2 days in a row. So if he practices today as well he may be able to start, which would put Waynes back in a support role again. Maybe Rhodes snaps will be limited and they split time.

The thing I am happiest about is the depth the Vikings have at the cornerback position. I have been a fan of the Vikings since 1986 and I don't think they have had a group this good ever before.

 
VERY tough week to call ..

Can the Defense contain Newton, Olsen & Benjamin?

Can Bradford, Diggs and Rudolph move the ball consistently vs. Panthers D?

Can Asiata/McKinnion do enough in the Running game to keep the Panther Defense "Honest"?

Think the Vikings D will keep it close, but have to give this one to the Panthers at home.. 20-13...  :mellow:  

 
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