Vikes/Colts post-game thoughts

[The Breeze]

I got to see this whole game and what I came a way with is similar to what others are seeing.

While it may have looked like Ponder held the ball too long at times and looked to run too early....I can't say how much of that is due to no one being open and the O-line getting out worked today.

I also see the lack of use of AP and others in the passing game as a mistake...but that has been a factor his whole career.

The offense really hurt itself on the first drive with penalties and as a whole the team suffered from stupid mistakes throughout. The roughing the kicker call was total BS...but good acting by the kicker. That's the NFL.

Regardless...I can't pin this loss on the offense or playcalling...even though I was furious with some of the calls and the complete lack of imagination when it comes to using the weapons we have. Point is this defense gave up two huge scores at the end of the first half and the end of the game. total crap....

They do lack playmakers on D. The ones we have are long in the tooth. Allen, Williams, Winfield...I don't consider them playmakers any more. Allen will have his sacks and standout games....but other than that, the defense is either completely raw or very average, player by player. I don't know enough about schemes and stuff to point at any of that as an issue....but they are completely uninspiring at this point. I expected Smith to be part of the new play making unit but he is really green and I have my doubts about the coaching of this unit. They look a step late in nearly every way.

Still, this is a very young team and I'm encouraged by what I've seen in the first two weeks. I'm glad they lost in this fashion if they had to lose at all. It will hopefully inspire them to be more urgent going forward....

They gave up a TD with :07 left in the half and the game winning field goal with :31 left. On neither of those drives was the defense even close to stopping the Colts. That was the biggest difference in the game IMO. The offense did enough and Ponder looked and played well. Yeah, he wasn't perfect...but he's still showing progress.

It is what it is...this team is young and it shows.

[Lash Man]

I got to see this whole game and what I came a way with is similar to what others are seeing.

While it may have looked like Ponder held the ball too long at times and looked to run too early....I can't say how much of that is due to no one being open and the O-line getting out worked today.

I also see the lack of use of AP and others in the passing game as a mistake...but that has been a factor his whole career.

The offense really hurt itself on the first drive with penalties and as a whole the team suffered from stupid mistakes throughout. The roughing the kicker call was total BS...but good acting by the kicker. That's the NFL.

Regardless...I can't pin this loss on the offense or playcalling...even though I was furious with some of the calls and the complete lack of imagination when it comes to using the weapons we have. Point is this defense gave up two huge scores at the end of the first half and the end of the game. total crap....

They do lack playmakers on D. The ones we have are long in the tooth. Allen, Williams, Winfield...I don't consider them playmakers any more. Allen will have his sacks and standout games....but other than that, the defense is either completely raw or very average, player by player. I don't know enough about schemes and stuff to point at any of that as an issue....but they are completely uninspiring at this point. I expected Smith to be part of the new play making unit but he is really green and I have my doubts about the coaching of this unit. They look a step late in nearly every way.

Still, this is a very young team and I'm encouraged by what I've seen in the first two weeks. I'm glad they lost in this fashion if they had to lose at all. It will hopefully inspire them to be more urgent going forward....

They gave up a TD with :07 left in the half and the game winning field goal with :31 left. On neither of those drives was the defense even close to stopping the Colts. That was the biggest difference in the game IMO. The offense did enough and Ponder looked and played well. Yeah, he wasn't perfect...but he's still showing progress.

It is what it is...this team is young and it shows.

I agree with the majority of your post , very well put and realistic !

[J. Kapp 11]

They gave up a TD with :07 left in the half and the game winning field goal with :31 left. On neither of those drives was the defense even close to stopping the Colts. That was the biggest difference in the game IMO.

This is a great point. In three of the four halves of football -- including both fourth quarters -- the defense has given up plays it just couldn't afford to give up. It almost cost us the game last week, and it DID cost us the game today.

The offense did enough and Ponder looked and played well. Yeah, he wasn't perfect...but he's still showing progress.

Some progress. But we aren't getting anything close to explosive plays unless Percy Harvin touches the ball. We're also incredibly inconsistent. We disappeared for nearly a half in week one, and disappeared for the second and third quarters today. We just can't have that much ineptitude on offense. Our defense isn't good enough to constantly be put back on the field after three-and-outs.

It is what it is...this team is young and it shows.

Ain't that the truth.

[mondry]

It is somewhat ironic but that simply speaks volums to the original question:

Game 1: gave up a touchdown to the Jags and they take the lead in the last minute of regulation
Game 2: gave up a touchdown in the last minute of the 1st half
Game 2: gave up the winning field goal in the last minute of regulation

The question is : is it the scheme the coaches are putting the players in or are the players simply incompetent

I think it's safe to say it's both. This far into the cover 2 "era" it's obviously not a great system anymore, on top of that our defensive secondary is clearly not very talented either. Don't get me wrong many variations of the cover 2 / adaptations are still plenty viable but running the basic cover 2 shell all day is going to get you killed.

The other issue with this defense imo is the years of acquiring players based on their ability to tackle and play the run. NONE of our LB's can cover or handle todays tight ends, none of our safeties can cover or make a play on the ball, and our CB's routinely give up big plays despite being in a cover 2.

In other words our entire hopes of success pretty much weigh on the D-line and when they can't make the big plays we have no other options.

[The Breeze]

Some progress. But we aren't getting anything close to explosive plays unless Percy Harvin touches the ball. We're also incredibly inconsistent. We disappeared for nearly a half in week one, and disappeared for the second and third quarters today. We just can't have that much ineptitude on offense. Our defense isn't good enough to constantly be put back on the field after three-and-outs.

They clearly lack a cohesive identity on offense. It comes and goes....and yes, Harvin is the only one who has been a step above with the ball in his hands.

I was impressed with how well the Colts line protected Luck and how the WR routes were designed to keep their o-line in a grove. Lots of quick slants. Any time Luck was going down field...he rolled out of the pocket to give just a bit more time for the WR to come open.

I thought our O-line was porous today...especially compared to last week. It's hard to be consistent on offense when you have a decent pocket one week and it collapses quickly the next. Might have something to do with being on the road.

The pass that Ponder threw to Jenkins in the endzone was a beaut. I know the defender got a hand in there...but I got to believe that Simpson comes down with that 9/10 times just due to his size and leaping ability. He will be a welcome addition for sure.

just saying there are signs that this group can put points up in a hurry....they just need to get comfortable with the whole thing up front.

I think the Colts played a good game for where they are.

[Laserman]

hmmm,

Kinda Glad I didn't see this game after reading all this.

[A.D_blazing]

I'm open to that possibility if someone can do 2 things: identify those players and tell me how the scheme hurts them?

Jim

There's no impact players on D...that player used to be Kevin Williams and he's only serviceable now. I love winfield bud he's old and was never a good cover cb,hopefully he retires after this season.

Some consider J. Allen one of the best in the game,he's definitely good (the best Vikings DE) but he's far from an impact player!

[Lash Man]

There's no impact players on D...that player used to be Kevin Williams and he's only serviceable now. I love winfield bud he's old and was never a good cover cb,hopefully he retires after this season.

Some consider J. Allen one of the best in the game,he's definitely good (the best Vikings DE) but he's far from an impact player!

Sadly I agree on Allen he gets most of his sacks early in games and on first or second downs and rarely makes a play in the fourth with the game on the line and spends too much time whining to the refs , I never recall Eller or Page spending time crying to the refs all the time .

[Vikefan68]

Lots of good replies in this thread, but my biggest post game thought was why did I drink the "PA we are going to be 2-0 kool-aid"?!?! ughhhh

1. I want see more of Everson Griffen on the field in place of Robison. Kid seems like a game changer to me
2. Having a formation with Harvin, Gerhart and Peterson all on the field or all in the backfield seems like a "gimme". Why hasn't this been done?
3. I love seeing Harvin get the ball in anyway possible...he is just exciting to watch.
4. Luck is much more polished than Ponder and is going to help turn Indy around quick
5. Thought Henderson was all over the field, but he isn't the answer to the MLB position


The football gods evened out our strange win from last week and no now we can get butts whooped by the niners.

[PurpleKoolaid]

We need to sub in alot more people on D. Since our O kinda sucks, the D is on the field too long. JA, Rob, Kwill, Winfield etc all need to have longer breaks. And make the subs smoothly. People like Cook are always a half second away.

[mefford76]

Things that have potential for this team

Ponder may still be the guy
We won't know because Musgrave won't call a pass more then 5 yards till the 4th quarter. Ponder makes the majority of the passes asked of him by his coordinator. Ponder makes the throws to his first and second read at a good rate. He doesn't look to get too rattled. That being said he may not be the guy as well, but we just can't tell yet because he's actually executing what he's being told.

Rudolph
Looks to have a ton of potential. Drops happen. If he actually gets his number called more, he could dominate. Unfortunate to not see his number more. He was a mismatch all day long.

O-line
Looks way better then last year. I think this is overlooked. Congrats to these guys. I hope we take advantage of them more. Deeper passes and more runs for AD. And most of the guys responsible are people we should have around for a long time. Nice work. Definitely the highlight for me. Room for improvement? Sure, but night and day from last year.

AD
Looked good today. If he was called on more I think we could have won this game. Shocked that they didn't call his number more often as he was running at something close to 5 yards a clip.

Harvin
Doing great things with screen passes. When he's given the ball ten yards down the field he's doing awesome things with YAC there as well. Wouldn't it be amazing if we did that more often?

Things that don't have potential

Musgrave
With all that said the offensive woes to me can be put squarely on Musgrave. He's failing this team miserably. It's not creativity to me that he lacks, he just seems to not understand game flow.

Defense...
I'm starting to think it's the system, but it's just too hard to tell because it's just so bad. It's ugly. Real ugly. It's the coach's job to make the talent they have look good. Frazier is failing to do that. Penalties are also on Frazier. That's lack of discipline. Couldn't we at least put our players in position to get some turnovers? Winfield should have had help over the top on the first touchdown. And the yards they were allowing Luck to get on the final drive were insane, that was all the systems fault. You can't play THAT soft when all you need is a field goal.

[Lash Man]

We need to sub in alot more people on D. Since our O kinda sucks, the D is on the field too long. JA, Rob, Kwill, Winfield etc all need to have longer breaks. And make the subs smoothly. People like Cook are always a half second away.

Well if they need longer breaks they need to make a play or two on third down and get off the field for a change .

[FailedtoOpen]

I'm watching the Niners right now and relating their style of play to the Vikings. One thing I've noticed is their defense plays at such a high tempo. Its the same thing you see with the Steelers, Ravens and packers (to a degree). They're always rushing to the ball, swaming the ball, and making hits.

The Vikings on the other hand have a somewhat smash mouth offense with Gerhart, AD, and Harvin, but their defense is just kind of there. As Moth alludes to the Vikings need a playmaker, a leader who isn't on the defensive line.

[VikingPaul73]

C'mon, guys, let's not hit the panic button just yet. It looks like the Lions will lose tonight, and if they do, the Vikings will still be in 1st place in the Norris......poised for a playoff run!!

[A.D_blazing]

On the Reggie Wayne TD,the LB looked lost. I don't think Brinkley or Henderson are nfl starting calibre.