Week 11 Reaction Thread

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808vikingsfan
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by 808vikingsfan »

Random thoughts:

Keenum played another near perfect game. Quick and decisive with his decision making for the most part. Deadly against the blitz. Got hit a few times and kept balling. Guy is tough.
Murray with another good game. Really good. 2TDs. Almost 100 yds. Took pressure off the passing game.
Broken record. Adam MF Thielen. Gamer. Everything you want in a WR. Shows up every week. He did drop a couple of passes again. Should've had a PI call on him in the endzone.
OL. Aaron who? Played a heck of a game against a good DL. Zero sacks again? Unreal.
Unappreciated Rudolph. Great catches today. Broke up a INT. big plays today.
Gotta add Mckinnon too. Guy fights for every yard. Some impressive cuts today. Don't know how much yards he had today but definitely helped with the win.

Kendricks and Barr. Those hits on Goff affected him IMO, especially that first one from Barr. Kendricks with his closing speed was key today.
Secondary. Huge game. Everyone played well. Newman played big. Smith was all over the field. Harris with the turning point play of the game. Waynes and Alexander was solid too.
DL. Griffen stated that his ankle was still affecting him but should be 100% for DET. Solid performance by the line. Hunter, Johnson, Joseph.

ST. Forbath. Luckily his missed FGs didn't affect the outcome but he can't afford to miss any on Thursday. Otherwise solid performance by the ST with punt and KO coverage.

I didn't expect such a dominate performance all across the board against a really good and well coached team. Hopefully, this team is gaining some momentum every week. A win against the Lions is almost a must win game in terms of playoff seeding. Home games in the playoffs are key if you want to kiss the trophy.
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808vikingsfan
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by 808vikingsfan »

I like this write up from NFL.COM
1. This is Vikings coach Mike Zimmer's dream team. The Vikings are tougher than their opponents on a weekly basis on both sides of the ball, a fact that showed up dramatically in the second half Sunday. Minnesota's offensive line wore down the Rams front, opening up huge holes for their running backs on their way to 171 rushing yards, while Rams running back Todd Gurley was repeatedly stymied by the heavyweight Vikings defensive line.

Before a meaningless garbage time drive, the Vikings had out-gained the Rams 288-57 in the second half.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000 ... rom-sunday
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Pondering Her Percy
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by Pondering Her Percy »

Awesome game. This team is the real deal.

Case played great
Murray has looked like a solid workhorse the last few weeks
OL again was unbelievable. Rashod Hill is very good. Excellent find by Spielman
WRs and TE were flawless.

That DL is unreal and we dont even have a legit 3 tech.
If you get through the DL, you arent getting passed Kendricks and Barr. And they are dangerous on the blitz
DBs played awesome. Like what I saw out of Waynes and Alexander. Newman played amazing. Harris is a legit backup. Sendejo is a better tackler but I do like Harris

Kai struggled. I hope it doesnt kill his confidence. I cant hate on the guy though. He only missed 1 FG all year.
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by J. Kapp 11 »

Let's talk some more about the Vikings' defense.

Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth called the Vikings defense "the best they've faced all season." Keep in mind, they've faced both Jacksonville and Seattle.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Vikings have allowed only 3 players to break more than one tackle in a game this year. Yesterday, Todd Gurley had ZERO broken tackles.

The Vikings pressured Jared Goff 13 times yesterday, the second-most he's faced all year and second-highest in the league yesterday. In those situations, they held him to 5-of-13 for 40 yards and a passer rating of 47.0. For the day, Goff completed only one pass thrown more than 20 yards.

Harrison Smith graded out at 88.1, surrendering only one pass completion and breaking up two passes.

Anthony Harris was right behind Smith at 87.1. He allowed only 2 completions on 4 targets for 24 yards, and had one pass breakup. And of course, he had the incredible strip and recovery against Cooper Kupp.

Not being a subscriber to PFF, this is all I can find. Needless to say, this was one of the most dominating defensive performances of the entire season by any team in the NFL. Once again, our overall stats were hurt a bit by the meaningless drive at the end of the game, but there's no doubt that we throttled the so-called best offense in the NFL.
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by Pondering Her Percy »

J. Kapp 11 wrote:Let's talk some more about the Vikings' defense.

Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth called the Vikings defense "the best they've faced all season." Keep in mind, they've faced both Jacksonville and Seattle.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Vikings have allowed only 3 players to break more than one tackle in a game this year. Yesterday, Todd Gurley had ZERO broken tackles.

The Vikings pressured Jared Goff 13 times yesterday, the second-most he's faced all year and second-highest in the league yesterday. In those situations, they held him to 5-of-13 for 40 yards and a passer rating of 47.0. For the day, Goff completed only one pass thrown more than 20 yards.

Harrison Smith graded out at 88.1, surrendering only one pass completion and breaking up two passes.

Anthony Harris was right behind Smith at 87.1. He allowed only 2 completions on 4 targets for 24 yards, and had one pass breakup. And of course, he had the incredible strip and recovery against Cooper Kupp.

Not being a subscriber to PFF, this is all I can find. Needless to say, this was one of the most dominating defensive performances of the entire season by any team in the NFL. Once again, our overall stats were hurt a bit by the meaningless drive at the end of the game, but there's no doubt that we throttled the so-called best offense in the NFL.
And it was just last week where fans were saying this defense isnt elite. I was one that said it was great but maybe not elite. Yesterday's game might have put them at the elite level.
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by mansquatch »

Awesome Win and a statement game... that still wasn't heard by hte media elites. Last night on SNF they were naming the top 4 teams in the NFL and at the end one of them said "Oh yeah, the Vikings."

Romo knows better though. He highlighted JAX and MIN as the two teams nobody wants to see in the playoffs because of their defense.

Philly is likely going to be the #1 seed. They've played an extremely soft schedule so far and are lucky that the NFC East is a disaster this season. They have one decent win against CAR at Charlotte during a Thursday night game. That is a tough road win for sure. Their one loss came against KC when KC was rolling early on. Since then they've been feasting on the trash teams in their conference and the NFC West.

For what it is worth, DAL on offense yesterday lacked Tyrone Smith and Ezekiel Elliot, two key pieces to their offense. So I'd say Dallas being bad was part of that performance. The DAL defense is an embarrassment, especially the secondary.

I'm not sure if that team is for real or not. They've played an easier schedule than the RAMs IMO. Some will say they played Denver, but as we've seen the past few weeks, Denver's defense is not what it once was and Philly played them during the slide.

The games to watch will be in 2 weeks when PHI plays @ SEA and then @ LAR. Seattle's defense will be missing Sherman and Earl Thomas so it won't be at a 100%, but it will still be the toughest D they will see all season, they'll test Wentz. The week after that they play a Rams team on the road that has put up big offensive numbers against lesser defenses. Watch to see how the Rams offense plays vs. the Philly D. That will tell us if that D is legit. They also have a game at home vs. OAK in week 16, but OAK is a shadow of it's '16 self on offense. (Bill Musgrave is asking "How do you like me now?") Still, OAK has a strong passing game, so it will test the Eagles D.

The Eagles are having tremendous luck with their schedule. Outside of KC, they've hit every tough game when that team was on a skid. It's possible they will not see a single opponent who is on a roll and playing with confidence. So, at least to me, there is likely a question of if they are for real or not going into the post season. They might be the real deal and they might run into a buzzsaw in the playoffs when a better defense comes to town.

Very likely they'll be 14-2 or 13-3 when it wraps up. We'll need to run the table for a shot at the #1 seed IMO and our schedule is tougher with upcoming road games vs. DET, ATL, and CAR. My guess is we'll finish 13-3 or 12-4 and the #2 seed since we now have tie breaker advantage over LAR.

Likely playoffs teams will be something like this:
PHI
MIN
NO
LAR

Wildcards will be some mix DET, SEA, CAR, ATL.
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by VikingLord »

Pondering Her Percy wrote: And it was just last week where fans were saying this defense isnt elite. I was one that said it was great but maybe not elite. Yesterday's game might have put them at the elite level.
What impressed me was how they adjusted after the first Rams drive. The Rams pretty much marched down the field at will on that first drive, and I was wondering how the defense would respond to that. Would they panic and start pressing, or would they figure it out, settle things down, and start shutting down what is one of the better offenses in the NFL this year?

The fact they did the latter, and did it so convincingly, is fantastic and a great omen for the remainder of this season. After the game, Griffen basically said the Rams couldn't do deep drops with Goff, which in turn prevented them from attempting many deep passes because those routes simply didn't have time to develop. The other thing the Vikings did well was take away Gurley both as a runner and a receiver. So basically, the two things the Rams have thrived on all year offensively were removed as viable options, and the Rams had no ability to answer that. The mark of a great defense is being able to take away what the opponent does well and wants/needs to do to be successful. They were left to hope their defense could match the Vikings offense and while the Rams have a decent defense they could not stop Murray, sack Keenum (close, but no cigar), or shut down the Vikings receivers.

I'm not sure what really makes a defense elite, but I will say the defensive players and the coordinator get it. They understand what it takes and what they need to do individually and collectively to be successful and consistent, and those characteristics are what will get it done come the playoffs.
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by Texas Vike »

I wasn't able to see the game, just the highlights. From what I've read, it seems like the fumble on our 1 that Harris caused turned the momentum of the game. Did the Rams have a long effective drive before that fumble?
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by DK Sweets »

Texas Vike wrote:I wasn't able to see the game, just the highlights. From what I've read, it seems like the fumble on our 1 that Harris caused turned the momentum of the game. Did the Rams have a long effective drive before that fumble?
They did, and at that point in that point in the game they were still moving the ball really well. That fumble had a huge impact on the game.

As a matter of fact, we really dodged a bullet with Woods getting hurt. He was playing well.

The playesr who worried me coming into the game, though, were Gurley and Austin, and both of them were silent. It was a great performance by our defense.
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

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Texas Vike wrote:I wasn't able to see the game, just the highlights. From what I've read, it seems like the fumble on our 1 that Harris caused turned the momentum of the game. Did the Rams have a long effective drive before that fumble?
Man, I hope you get to see a replay. That was the game we've all been waiting for, 60 minutes of dominating football in every phase (except field goal kicking ... ugh!). The offense wasn't dominating in the first half, but they were solid, and they absolutely took over in the second. And our defense. Wow! Watching the Rams punt over and over ... just a thing of beauty.
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by FrantikRam »

Good game guys. We can't seem to beat the Vikings....been 11 years now.

I was kind of expecting a loss here because the Vikings are a great team. And through 3 quarters we played pretty decently...

That 4th quarter the defense ran out of gas, and we ended up with our 5th CB guarding Thielen. Pretty much knew the game was over when our 4th CB was ruled out before the game, and then our 2nd and 3rd went out with injuries. The Vikings are pretty much the last team you want to play with no CBs.

The Rams played very uncharacteristically in some aspects, and I'm hoping that this was just one of those games. Kupp's fumble was obviously a game changer (although it offsets with the two missed FGs), but the real killer was his drop on 3rd and 10 in the 4th quarter when we were down 14-7. Beautiful pass by Goff, went right through his hands and would have put us in scoring range. After that we punted, Donald roughs Keenum (plays like that make it hard for me to want to pay a DT 20+ million) and then Thielen breaks the game open, taking advantage of an undrafted rookie.

In hindsight considering how much we were dominated on the LOS on both sides of the ball, that it was competitive for as long as it was is probably a good sign.

That we couldn't come within 10 feet of Keenum made me think our front 7 was exhausted. Vikes OL is really good, but we put a lot more pressure on Dak, with Tyron Smith playing, than we did Case. A LOT more.

Trying not to panic with the schedule being so difficult now, but as a Rams fan.....well, we've been bad for 13 years, so just been waiting for the other shoe to drop. If we lose to the Saints Sunday, I'll be in full on panic mode.

Good luck the rest of the year - you guys are going to be tough to beat.
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by DK Sweets »

FrantikRam wrote:Good game guys. We can't seem to beat the Vikings....been 11 years now.

I was kind of expecting a loss here because the Vikings are a great team. And through 3 quarters we played pretty decently...

That 4th quarter the defense ran out of gas, and we ended up with our 5th CB guarding Thielen. Pretty much knew the game was over when our 4th CB was ruled out before the game, and then our 2nd and 3rd went out with injuries. The Vikings are pretty much the last team you want to play with no CBs.

The Rams played very uncharacteristically in some aspects, and I'm hoping that this was just one of those games. Kupp's fumble was obviously a game changer (although it offsets with the two missed FGs), but the real killer was his drop on 3rd and 10 in the 4th quarter when we were down 14-7. Beautiful pass by Goff, went right through his hands and would have put us in scoring range. After that we punted, Donald roughs Keenum (plays like that make it hard for me to want to pay a DT 20+ million) and then Thielen breaks the game open, taking advantage of an undrafted rookie.

In hindsight considering how much we were dominated on the LOS on both sides of the ball, that it was competitive for as long as it was is probably a good sign.

That we couldn't come within 10 feet of Keenum made me think our front 7 was exhausted. Vikes OL is really good, but we put a lot more pressure on Dak, with Tyron Smith playing, than we did Case. A LOT more.

Trying not to panic with the schedule being so difficult now, but as a Rams fan.....well, we've been bad for 13 years, so just been waiting for the other shoe to drop. If we lose to the Saints Sunday, I'll be in full on panic mode.

Good luck the rest of the year - you guys are going to be tough to beat.
You were a really positive and insightful member of this board this week. We appreciate your contributions, and good luck against the Saints!
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by J. Kapp 11 »

FrantikRam wrote:Good game guys. We can't seem to beat the Vikings....been 11 years now.

I was kind of expecting a loss here because the Vikings are a great team. And through 3 quarters we played pretty decently...

That 4th quarter the defense ran out of gas, and we ended up with our 5th CB guarding Thielen. Pretty much knew the game was over when our 4th CB was ruled out before the game, and then our 2nd and 3rd went out with injuries. The Vikings are pretty much the last team you want to play with no CBs.

The Rams played very uncharacteristically in some aspects, and I'm hoping that this was just one of those games. Kupp's fumble was obviously a game changer (although it offsets with the two missed FGs), but the real killer was his drop on 3rd and 10 in the 4th quarter when we were down 14-7. Beautiful pass by Goff, went right through his hands and would have put us in scoring range. After that we punted, Donald roughs Keenum (plays like that make it hard for me to want to pay a DT 20+ million) and then Thielen breaks the game open, taking advantage of an undrafted rookie.

In hindsight considering how much we were dominated on the LOS on both sides of the ball, that it was competitive for as long as it was is probably a good sign.

That we couldn't come within 10 feet of Keenum made me think our front 7 was exhausted. Vikes OL is really good, but we put a lot more pressure on Dak, with Tyron Smith playing, than we did Case. A LOT more.

Trying not to panic with the schedule being so difficult now, but as a Rams fan.....well, we've been bad for 13 years, so just been waiting for the other shoe to drop. If we lose to the Saints Sunday, I'll be in full on panic mode.

Good luck the rest of the year - you guys are going to be tough to beat.
Thanks man. You're a good egg. Best of luck to you guys, too. I've never really had a bone to pick with the Rams, even when their Greatest Show on Turf handed us our butts in '99.

Have to ask ... are you a little more impressed with Case Keenum now than you were before the game? He didn't throw any bombs or anything, but the guy made the right play at the right time, over and over. Even the TD to Thielen was a lot of Keenum. He recognized the blitz and got the ball out quickly to the right player, who you rightly pointed out was being "covered" by an overmatched rookie. Gotta give Case a little love, don't you?
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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by indianation65 »

Scrolling up and reading comments...

Best in the NFC ?
Better or second only to Eagles ?
Super Bowl ???
Super Bowl at home advantage?

As a Vikes fan since around '71, while still riding a Big Wheel and playing with my Big Jim, I, like many of you, have suffered over and over with this team, especially during the Super Bowl losses, '98, 09 and the recent "missed field goal."

The "curse" still lingers, crouching in wait like a mountain lion at a watering hold watching does and fawns sip innocently.

A current record of 8-2 is great, but I'll wait until the Vikings first actual Super Bowl win before I get to happy or feel too confident, and certainly before I boast about any Vikings win streak.

I'm pulling for my team, but I won't get too giddy, especially living down here in Cowboys land. It's a rough pasture down here when it comes to "boasting," and I do not want to be an innocent doe or fawn sipping innocently while the m-lion licks its chops!

For now, I'm pullin' for 9-2!

Go Vikes!

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Re: Week 11 Reaction Thread

Post by J. Kapp 11 »

Once again, no respect from the media.

The collection of 17 of the finest football minds at Sports Illustrated has us ranked 5th -- two spots BELOW the New Orleans Saints, whom we beat by 10.

I guess that was eons ago.

And they've won 8 straight to our 6.

And came back to beat Washington in OT after trailing by 15 with 3 minutes to play at home.

(Never mind that we beat the same Redskins team by 8 at their place.)

(And never mind that we destroyed a division leader, which the Saints have yet to do.)

(Never mind any of that ... they're obviously better.)
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