There is no sense in getting all red in the face over the Vikings' loss to the Colts. No reason to become angry or stressed or miserable. Do that now and you'll wind up in a padded room and miss the opening of the new stadium in four years.
In Game Two of Year One of the grand Four-Year Rebuilding Program, the Vikings played the way everyone should have expected them to play on the road: erratically. There are no givens at this stage, even when playing other teams that are enmeshed in long-term rebuilding programs.
One week after a miracle victory against a frail Jacksonville team, the Vikings struggled mightily against a fragile Indianapolis team. This is going to be a very bumpy ride and the purple faithful need to come to grips with that. Transcendental meditation may help. There's also yoga. Alcohol is not a long-term answer.
yeah, it was nice to think this team could maybe play way beyond expectations but this is a good dose of reality. Helps to feel better about it if you do think of it as early on in a rebuild.
In Game Two of Year One of the grand Four-Year Rebuilding Program
This is going to be a very bumpy ride and the purple faithful need to come to grips with that.
Rebuild? Fine. Bumpy? Yep. The problem is the wrong people are in place with the wrong schemes for this rebuild. We're going to be drafting more west coast personnel, more tampa 2 defenders. And whatever coaches we bring in are going to have to adjust *again* because of it.
You don't "rebuild" and keep the same front office. Same coaching philosophies. And keep trying what's already failed...but that's exactly what our owner has decided to do. Let's hope this season opens his eyes a bit and he realizes a serious change is needed, starting with a single person running this organization that knows football and is trusted with all of the decisions...
Demi wrote:
Rebuild? Fine. Bumpy? Yep. The problem is the wrong people are in place with the wrong schemes for this rebuild. We're going to be drafting more west coast personnel, more tampa 2 defenders. And whatever coaches we bring in are going to have to adjust *again* because of it.
You don't "rebuild" and keep the same front office. Same coaching philosophies. And keep trying what's already failed...but that's exactly what our owner has decided to do. Let's hope this season opens his eyes a bit and he realizes a serious change is needed, starting with a single person running this organization that knows football and is trusted with all of the decisions...
Don't worry about it; Zygi will soon have a new stadium to sell tickets for, and the Spielman/Frazier regime (who are only the in-house status-quo bunch Zygi went with when he still wasn't sure if he'd be owning the team or in which city and wasn't about to make a big move) will only avoid an entire season of local TV blackouts because the Vikings opted for the lower sellout threshold. Zygi will have little choice but to dump his temporary, place-holding GM and head coach and go find a real, competent, NFL-caliber duo in order to fill the new building.
Powers is right; we all have to look very long-term because there is no now. MN's failure to replace the staduim in a timely fashion led the franchise to functionally grind to a halt, and now it has to be built back up from scratch, from the very foundations. And, like the new stadium, it's going to take years to construct...plural.
the vikings were anything but erratic today. they were consistent at playing poorly outside of their regular playmakers. they could not convert on third down as an offense and not shutting down indy on third downs. erratic play would be something to look forward to.
The Vikings went on the road and played a very close game against an improved Colts team. I don't know what more anyone needs just two games into a total roster rebuilding effort. A win would have been nice, but it doesn't make or break this season.
This whole season will be about developing and evaluating players, and deciding where the biggest needs are going into the offseason and the draft. It's a sixteen game exhibition season as far as the Vikings are concerned.
Eli wrote:The Vikings went on the road and played a very close game against an improved Colts team. I don't know what more anyone needs just two games into a total roster rebuilding effort. A win would have been nice, but it doesn't make or break this season.
This whole season will be about developing and evaluating players, and deciding where the biggest needs are going into the offseason and the draft. It's a sixteen game exhibition season as far as the Vikings are concerned.
Well said, obviously the players and coaches will want to win but for us fans it's best if we keep the expectations low, kick back, and try to enjoy football and see how the new guys develop!
Eli wrote:
This whole season will be about developing and evaluating players, and deciding where the biggest needs are going into the offseason and the draft. It's a sixteen game exhibition season as far as the Vikings are concerned.
If that is true, why be so conservative on both sides of the ball?
I think the author makes a fundamental assumption that was one made in another thread - that merely the passage of time is what is required for a team to return to competitiveness, and that the Vikings are one of those teams that is back on track. I disagree with that. To get back on track, first the team needs to set itself up to get back on track, and I'm not sure that is the case with this organization.
VikingLord wrote:
If that is true, why be so conservative on both sides of the ball?
I'm not saying they're not trying to win. I'm saying that it's unimportant. They'll do what they feel gives them the best chance of winning.
Teams are (what you call) "conservative" when they're lacking in playmakers. If you don't have linebackers who can cover receivers, you play a two-deep coverage. If you don't have cornerbacks capable of man to man coverage, you play zone. If your secondary can't cover, you have to be very careful blitzing, because there will be open receivers. If you don't have receivers who go deep, you throw short and intermediate routes. If you don't have more than one or two receivers capable of consistently getting open, you run the ball more.
When you don't have playmakers, you don't make the problem worse by calling low-percentage plays. I don't think this should come as a surprise to anyone.
If the Vikings played and coached consistently with any of the urgency they have had in the last three minutes of these first two games, I would be impressed. As it stands, I am amazed at the quality of play of a few players, and appalled at the level of play of many more. But then, that was expected. No surprises there. Not thrilled with the OL today at all, as they allowed a suspect Indy defense to become marauding invaders in the backfield. Ponder was actually fine in this game, considering his OL was giving him so little time.
Luck made some really incredible throws into decent coverage, so I cannot fault the secondary too much. Surprised that so little pressure came up the middle to rattle Luck. He seemed even more dangerous outside the pocket.
Jared Allen looked better today after a slow start. Robison always seems just half a step away from becoming a sack machine. The LBs? Um... not great today.
Saw some decent things, saw some horrendous things, saw a couple head scratching moments. But, like Powers, I did not see any reason for panic. No giant steps backward... but nothing to really incite confidence in the near future. And that may cost Frazier and Company.
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer." - Frank Zappa
Hmmm. I'm all for rebuilding and all that. The Kalil pick was nice; hopefully Harrison Smith and Josh Robinson turn out okay too, because God knows we need defensive backs who can, oh I don't know, play defense. I also believe in Kyle Rudolph; I think he's going to be an above average to great tight end for us for a loooong time. The problem, for me, is that I think there are a lot of bad pieces to this puzzle. Greg Childs (God bless him) will be lucky to play football again from what I'm hearing. Chris Cook clearly isn't an answer. And I have my doubts about Christian Ponder.
Look, I'm no scout; I could be wrong about everything I'm saying, but it seems to me that in order to rebuild, you need to draft smart and draft good talent, and until 2012, I'm not sure we've done that. I know Ponder was an '11 pick, but the organization wants him to be the franchise guy. So he's part of this, and he needs to make it work. We'll see I guess.
We need to stop making excuses, it doesn't take four years to build up a franchise in the NFL anymore, Jim Harbaugh did it in two, with a QB thought to be worse than ours!
Captain wrote:We need to stop making excuses, it doesn't take four years to build up a franchise in the NFL anymore, Jim Harbaugh did it in two, with a QB thought to be worse than ours!
Jim Harbaugh didn't build that team, he inherited it and honed it in the right direction
