Week 8 post game thoughts

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VikingPaul73
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Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by VikingPaul73 »

My observations

1. Looks like the Browns have found a new LT. Can’t remember his name (Drago? Durango?) but he contained Griffen pretty well for his 1st start. He looked impressive. Glad Griff got the late SACK!!!
2. I’ve been critical of Spielman but I have to give him credit for the OL this offseason. Last season, when someone was injured, the drop-off was dramatic. This year? Remmers out with concussion – Hill steps in with no drop-off. Easton out? Isidora steps in and no drop-off. If anything, an improvement
3. I know people were excited about Murray’s numbers last week….but I just don’t see it. Last week he had good numbers but mostly based on a few runs with holes you could drive a truck through. I still think he has no moves, runs upright, doesn’t break tackles, and goes down with the first tackler. The difference between Jet and Murray is so obvious to me, like night and day.
4. It worked out I guess, but I am baffled by the Vikings’ offensive game plan. To me it seemed like they thought they were playing a vastly superior team and they wanted to “shorten the game”. Run to Murray on 1st and 10 up the middle for 1 yard almost every 1st down. Baffling.
5. I want to see more Morgan and less Rudolph. Rudolph occasionally has the great play (like the TD catch today) but he just doesn’t come up with the big catches in traffic. I know the Browns D made a good play, but a big TE that can’t create separation needs to be able to use hands/strength to make catches. And Rudolph just doesn’t do that.
6. I’ve also been critical of Trae but he looked good again today. Hope he can keep it up.
7. Well a W is a W. but this could be one of the worst 6-2 teams I’ve seen. I think the 2nd half could be brutal but we will see. It’s nice to be 6-2 but imagine this team with Cook and Week 1 Bradford!
8. Did Griffen get injured on the last play?? Why was he still in?
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by PurpleMustReign »

I am not impressed with Murray's ability to break any tackle.
Keenum did just enough but he also missed a few very open receivers.
What was up with Quigley today? He averaged like 35 yards per punt.
We finally got some penalties called out way. That hasn't happened in a while.


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VikingPaul73
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by VikingPaul73 »

9. I'm in the Pacific Time zone- so I'm drunk before 10am. Like my friend said, "if you're watching London football, you're on London time"

:beerock: :beerock: :beerock: :beerock: :beerock: :beerock:
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Raptorman
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by Raptorman »

I'll say this about Murray and McKinnon. It seems that if one isn't getting the job done the other one is. And that is fine with me. Last week it was Murray, this week Jet did the work.
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by Texas Vike »

We made it to the bye with a really solid record, 6-2. Exhale. That feels great. :D

Now comes the more demanding part of our schedule which will test our mettle. I do not expect the collapse we saw last year. OL is much improved and that is the most important difference from last year. We also have good WR depth and the Jet / Murray combo is working. I do think we will need either Teddy or Sam to come back from injury for us to have any shot at a deep playoff run though. I predict a 4-4 finish after the bye. 10-6 overall, which should take the north.
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by Pondering Her Percy »

Raptorman wrote:I'll say this about Murray and McKinnon. It seems that if one isn't getting the job done the other one is. And that is fine with me. Last week it was Murray, this week Jet did the work.
Agreed. I said earlier that it's going to be a hot-hand approach. Both backs are good and both can get the job done. But I can guarantee that Murray is nowhere near comparable to Matt Asiata for whoever said that. That's just asinine. Whoever gets hot is who's going to get the ball. Simple as that
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by dead_poet »

Pondering Her Percy wrote: Agreed. I said earlier that it's going to be a hot-hand approach. Both backs are good and both can get the job done. But I can guarantee that Murray is nowhere near comparable to Matt Asiata for whoever said that. That's just asinine. Whoever gets hot is who's going to get the ball. Simple as that
Maybe not for their careers, but Murray's 2017 3.6 YPC is eerily similar to Asiata's career 3.5. He doesn't look as fast as his Raiders days.
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by Texas Vike »

Pondering Her Percy wrote: Agreed. I said earlier that it's going to be a hot-hand approach. Both backs are good and both can get the job done. But I can guarantee that Murray is nowhere near comparable to Matt Asiata for whoever said that. That's just asinine. Whoever gets hot is who's going to get the ball. Simple as that

Jet almost looked like he simply had better cleats on today and was able to deal with the longer turf better. :confused: Who knows?
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by halfgiz »

We're forgetting Murray has made a pro bowl .
I think between both backs we are doing ok. Jet has had a good season with Shurmur's play calling.
Some of Murray's carries today was 1st and up the middle. And we all know how they work. :whistle:
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by 808vikingsfan »

What was shocking was that Keenum's pass deep in the endzone was Adam's first TD catch of the season. Is this true? I'm to tired to look it up.
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by jackal »

Well I will admit they finally fixed some of the OL
problems and thank the lord Khalil finally got the
boot. I still think we need to improve our OL.

We honestly got lucky we picked up a decent QB
for nothing in NFL money.

We ran up the middle a little too much imo,
which is the strength of the Browns. I would
have liked to see us try some pitches or
something similar than run into their DT four
or five times.
no one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by 808vikingsfan »

PFF Refocused: Minnesota Vikings 33, Cleveland Browns 16

PERFORMANCES OF NOTE:
QB CASE KEENUM, 80.5 OVERALL GRADE
Keenum was unfortunate early on as he saw one of his passes get tipped and then intercepted. However, this did not have an impact on his performance the rest of the game as he patiently picked apart Cleveland’s defense. Minnesota’s quarterback kept his cool under pressure as he had a passer rating of 133.3 when the Browns put him under duress. Furthermore, Keenum did a solid job of taking advantage of Cleveland’s busted coverages downfield as he completed 9 of his 13 passes that traveled at least 10 yards in the air.

RB JERICK MCKINNON, 89.1 OVERALL GRADE
Even though McKinnon averaged just 3.6 yards on the ground, he had a decent day as he needed to fight for every extra yard as 46 of his 50 rushing yards came after contact. In addition, he forced five of the six missed tackles that the Vikings forced as a team on run plays. Finally, McKinnon was a threat in the passing game as well since he caught all six of his targets and averaged 11.7 yards after the catch on the day.

CB XAVIER RHODES, 80.8 OVERALL GRADE
It was an up and down game for Rhodes, with the long completion allowed in the first half to Ricardo Louis down the left sideline, and a penalty commited. Outside of that though, he allowed just one other completion for three yards, and broke up one of the passes thrown his way.


CB TRAE WAYNES, 80.0 OVERALL GRADE
While Waynes wasn’t perfect, missing a tackle early in the game, his physical presense in coverage was key for the Vikings secondary. Targeted seven times in coverage, he allowed just two receptions for 22 yards, breaking one pass up, and forcing another incompletion with heavy contact.
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808vikingsfan
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by 808vikingsfan »

Quick thoughts.

Thielen.big game again. 99yds 1TD.
Diggs looked 100%. Good sign. Gonna need him in Q3 of the season.
Keenum. Struggled with ball placement but the guy makes plays. Love the way he scrambles and extend plays.
Xavier. Seemed like he struggled today.
Waynes. In good position, broke up a bunch of passes.
Mckinnon. good game overall against a pretty good defense
Forbath. 4/4 FGs .
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Hunter Morrow
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by Hunter Morrow »

Kyle Rudolph had one drop on a really well defended pass and jumped approximately 19 feet in the air to catch the TD in the end zone.

Adam Thielen is our best receiver, not Diggs. Diggs is for the marks, Thielen is for the smarks.

Griffen made me sweat out the sack streak big time.

We had some weaknesses that we always had (poor running on first down, third down difficulties, Keenum letting it sail from him) that led us to trailing the Browns at half time. Its a bad thing to even trail these guys, much less trail them for like 30 minutes the way we did.

How does Forbath make 5/5 50+ yard field goals in 15 games but in that same time span have 7 XPs as misses or blocks? Our special teams coverage also allowed an over 70 yard return and wasn't really returning it that well, either, it seemed. Pretty crummy special teams game, honestly.

Its nice to have RBs with good hands. JET with 120+ all purpose, a TD and a 2 point conversion is where its at. Our rushing attack was down big time however but the Browns were quietly averaging only I think 64 rushing yards a game.

Rhodes let a bomb completion and had a bad penalty but he has gone 310 snaps without allowing a touchdown. Trae Wayans also had a nice game. We didn't really miss Andrew "King Missile" Sendejo that much maybe? Harris was fine in his role.

finally, I was worried about some of our OL backups like Isiadora but they did pretty well. Isiadora even kind of looked like an upgrade to Easton?
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Re: Week 8 post game thoughts

Post by Hunter Morrow »

I also want to point out for years a bugbear for this team, and certainly something that pissed me off a lot, was losing the time of possession battle. We had 38 minutes to their 22 today. EXCELLENT STUFF.
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