Divisional Round Game Thread: Vikes-Saints

[TSonn]

Regarding Marcus Williams: I've watched that last play some more and it looks like he arrived early and, realizing a hit at that point would have been pass interference, he veered off. Tough situation...

... but a great result for us Vikings fans!

Yep! Only way for him to avoid that is to not be as aggressive, wait for Diggs to catch it, and tackle him in bounds. But I'm sure that goes against everything that got him to the NFL.

[PurpleKoolaid]

Regarding Marcus Williams: I've watched that last play some more and it looks like he arrived early and, realizing a hit at that point would have been pass interference, he veered off. Tough situation...

... but a great result for us Vikings fans!

Thats exactly what happened. It would have been a PI penalty at the 35, clock would have stopped, giving Forbath a chance to win it. I dont think my heart could have stood that. Luckily Case threw a perfect pass and Diggs made not only a great catch, but knew enough to stay on his feet and run it in. Williams should have never made his move to Diggs that soon, we would all be feeling like crap if he had waited a second more to move up to tackle Diggs.

[PurpleMustReign]

Btw that throw was perfect. Only Diggs could catch it, and even had the Saints played it correctly, Diggs probably gets out of bounds. It was an incredible throw.

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[Mothman]

Yep! Only way for him to avoid that is to not be as aggressive, wait for Diggs to catch it, and tackle him in bounds. But I'm sure that goes against everything that got him to the NFL.

Yes, and fighting those instincts in that situation would be difficult. After all, you don't want to arrive too late either!

[TSonn]

Yes, and fighting those instincts in that situation would be difficult. After all, you don't want to arrive too late either!

This morning Cris Carter also mentioned that because they were in a prevent defense of sorts (keep MN in bounds), Williams was lined up on the numbers instead of inside the numbers where he usually is, which caused him to get to Diggs early. If he lines up in a normal formation, he gets there at the right time to make a fairly mundane tackle.

Just wow.

[Mothman]

This morning Cris Carter also mentioned that because they were in a prevent defense of sorts (keep MN in bounds), Williams was lined up on the numbers instead of inside the numbers where he usually is, which caused him to get to Diggs early. If he lines up in a normal formation, he gets there at the right time to make a fairly mundane tackle.

Just wow.

I saw that. CC had a good take on the whole thing.

The stars practically aligned for the Vikings to win that game yesterday. I'm still riding a post-game high about it!

[Maelstrom88]

I loved when CC put on the Bring it home cap.

[TSonn]

Side note - on the play before the Minneapolis Miracle, did anyone see that Wright was completely open (albeit in the middle of the field) when they showed the replay? Really excited to see the all-22 to see if we had a shot to win it on that play too. Looked like he could have caught it about 30 yards downfield and had a chance to outrun everyone to the endzone.

[dead_poet]

Side note - on the play before the Minneapolis Miracle, did anyone see that Wright was completely open (albeit in the middle of the field) when they showed the replay? Really excited to see the all-22 to see if we had a shot to win it on that play too. Looked like he could have caught it about 30 yards downfield and had a chance to outrun everyone to the endzone.

Yeah. Middle of the field.

[TSonn]

Still don't understand why they picked up the flag after this hit. Thomas clearly sees Sendejo in front of him and lays him out on purpose. Notice his arm go up to add an extra punch at the point of contact.



Also - it wasn't a coincidence that NO scored all of their points after Sendejo went out and Rhodes was also hobbled on a hit to the head. Brees picked on Harris and Mac Alexander nearly every pass after that and also found Michael Thomas open with a clearly injured Rhodes covering him.

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Sean Payton told his offense to go out and injure some of our defensive guys down 17-0 at half because it would have been way too obvious if they came out and tried to injure our offensive players again. Probably not true but Sean Payton deserves that kind of skepticism.

[Mothman]

Still don't understand why they picked up the flag after this hit. Thomas clearly sees Sendejo in front of him and lays him out on purpose. Notice his arm go up to add an extra punch at the point of contact.



Also - it wasn't a coincidence that NO scored all of their points after Sendejo went out and Rhodes was also hobbled on a hit to the head. Brees picked on Harris and Mac Alexander nearly every pass after that and also found Michael Thomas open with a clearly injured Rhodes covering him.

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Sean Payton told his offense to go out and injure some of our defensive guys down 17-0 at half because it would have been way too obvious if they came out and tried to injure our offensive players again. Probably not true but Sean Payton deserves that kind of skepticism.

It's obviously open to interpretation but I don't see intent to injure. It looks to me like Thomas was running his route and Sendejo ventured right into it. I think the upraised arm was probably just a last second reflex. Thomas is looking back at Brees for most of the play, not eyeballing a target. There's a second, slow motion view of it available here.

[Texas Vike]

Still don't understand why they picked up the flag after this hit. Thomas clearly sees Sendejo in front of him and lays him out on purpose. Notice his arm go up to add an extra punch at the point of contact.



Also - it wasn't a coincidence that NO scored all of their points after Sendejo went out and Rhodes was also hobbled on a hit to the head. Brees picked on Harris and Mac Alexander nearly every pass after that and also found Michael Thomas open with a clearly injured Rhodes covering him.

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Sean Payton told his offense to go out and injure some of our defensive guys down 17-0 at half because it would have been way too obvious if they came out and tried to injure our offensive players again. Probably not true but Sean Payton deserves that kind of skepticism.

This was the momentum shifting moment IMO. At the game live (not sure if they showed it on TV, I'm just watching it now) Rhodes was going absolutely BONKERS about this hit on Sendejo. He felt very passionately that it was cheap. His teammates had to repeatedly pull him back. Then Thomas burned Rhodes on the next play. Xavier seemed to lose his cool and didn't play the way he normally would.

[Mothman]

This was the momentum shifting moment IMO. At the game live (not sure if they showed it on TV, I'm just watching it now) Rhodes was going absolutely BONKERS about this hit on Sendejo. He felt very passionately that it was cheap. His teammates had to repeatedly pull him back. Then Thomas burned Rhodes on the next play. Xavier seemed to lose his cool and didn't play the way he normally would.

They covered Rhodes' reaction on the broadcast. He was clearly very fired up and I agree, this was a pivotal moment in the game.

[Texas Vike]

They covered Rhodes' reaction on the broadcast. He was clearly very fired up and I agree, this was a pivotal moment in the game.

Just got to this play on the broadcast. During the entire commercial break Rhodes had to be physically held back from going after Thomas. Griffen was almost wrestling with him to keep him from getting a penalty. They didn't show any of this on the broadcast; Joe Buck just mentioned it in passing.

Actually tensions between Rhodes and Thomas had been growing during that entire drive. He managed to get under Rhodes skin and get him off of his game, mentally. Thomas is a beast of a WR and, like Xavier, he welcomes physical contact.

Edit: Ha! As soon as I post, the broadcast does a little segment on exactly what I mentioned above.

[TSonn]

It's obviously open to interpretation but I don't see intent to injure. It looks to me like Thomas was running his route and Sendejo ventured right into it. I think the upraised arm was probably just a last second reflex. Thomas is looking back at Brees for most of the play, not eyeballing a target. There's a second, slow motion view of it available here.

Yeah, I guess the second video makes me think he targeted Sendejo even more. Sure, his helmet is somewhere between Brees and Sendejo, but we can't see eyes. Plus, he runs through Sendejo. If it was accidental, I think Thomas would have been knocked backwards - not forward.

Seeing how fired up Rhodes got after the play makes me believe even more that it was dirty - he was there watching the whole thing. With as much trash talking that was going on between Thomas and Rhodes all game, maybe Thomas mentioned something about taking out a player?

Wasn't it also on the next play where Kamara slammed his helmet into Rhodes and stood over him as he saw Rhodes was injured? Those plays back-to-back, or at least somewhat close in timing, makes me think none of it was accidental. Rhodes wasn't the same after that hit and got burned a few times since he was clearly hobbled.

I don't know - probably just the skeptic in me but the Saints clearly got rolling after Sendejo was knocked out and Rhodes was hobbled. Was it Brees taking advantage of some accidental injuries on the field? Definitely could have been. But I don't trust Sean Payton one once to play an honest game and his team was getting destroyed the first 24 minutes with absolutely no hope for them.