1/4 Season Report Card

[PacificNorseWest]

Going into this season, I was optimistic of another 13-3, 12-4 type record; however, with a new Q and OC, the death of Sparano, I convinced myself that hopefully they win the division, but really, so long as they get in as a WC, they'll be fine.

As it stands, I see that happening and I'm fine with it. The Vikings may be looking at a 9-6-1 season. Whether that's good enough to win the division or not, we'll see, but I feel very confident with how this offense looks early, that if they got in as a WC, they could do some serious damage. I see this as a team that finds its way down the stretch and starts playing lights out when it matters.

[HardcoreVikesFan]

I give them a D- nearly an F.

This season has been a gut punch so far. It has been a tough reminder: You just can't count on the Vikings to not disappoint you.

If the offense had been struggling consistently I would understand: A new QB, OC, and sub-par offensive line is not a good recipe for immediate success. To see us get man-handled on defense consistently and have horrible special teams? Sickening. To lose to Buffalo in that fashion last week? Inexcusable. To get embarrassed on national television? Laughable - we'll be trolled all season.

There is a lot of season left. But this doesn't look like a Super Bowl team to me. I hope I am wrong.

[Dmizzle0]

I'm sorry, but i think that his is just a low key thread made to berate the Vikings even more. We already observed the o-line sucks and the pass d has gone missing in other post. I'm still optimistic here. The Vikings have to use these extra days to get everyone on check.

[Laserman]

I'm just trying to stay positive. It isn't easy to do and the Vikes are not giving me many reasons to stay positive. Cousins look very good no doubt about it. The defense will straiten outs its problems which is not a lack of talent but of actually giving a #&#. Very little defensive effort put out. Somebody is pissed off about something behind the scenes and I think its Barr. We need another WR, A RB and a Dominant Tight end. Treadwell is a bust, Cook is OK at best and our Tight ends are marginal. The Oline is a work in progress which at times has done well, Why the inconsistent play Oline Guys? Effort, more than ability is the problem these days. Something is smoldering behind the scenes, I can just smell it the way down here in NW Florida

[allday1991]

Look at those bears go, its funny last season a buddy who is a bears fan told me the biggest mistake last season by his defence was broken assignment, i laughed and told him thats one of the vikings strengths. Fast foward to this year and your argueably looking at the best defence in the league and the worst, do we ever have anything nice? This team was supposed to be a superbowl contender and after 4 weeks i want my money back for the dazn and couldn't careless about the rest of the season like most people here already. This frachise has to be cursed or have some deep seeded problem.

[Purple Domination]

I would give the start to this season a D+. The positives are Cousins, Diggs, and Theilen looking even better than my high expectations. The negatives are our O Line, defensive, and clock management.

BUT let’s not forget about our schedule. When it came out this offseason, most of this board, and everyone I talked to agreed that the beginning of this season would be abnormally tough. That has proven to be true. Losing hurts. Even if you are aware it might happen, it is a whole different feeling once it actually happens. But we need to keep things in perspective. At this point last season we were 2-2 against lesser opponents.

The Eagles look vulnerable and after them we have the Cardinals, Jets, Saints, and Lions. I think there is a good shot we win 4 of the next 5. If we do that, we’re back in the hunt and building momentum with a loaded roster. If we don’t, then we can panic. I am anxious to see what this team is capable of. There is a chance we’re in for a mediocre year, but I am not giving up hope yet.

[mansquatch]

I think this is worth starting to those who are perhaps less seasoned observers:

September is ALWAYS a strange month in the NFL. Teams are not in game shape yet, they are not crisp, and they are not sharp. Teams that might end up playing late in January can look like crap and teams that are posers can look magnificent.

The main point here is that teams are TRANSITIVE. Just because we sucked this past month (yes we did!) doesn't mean we will suck in November. Likewise teams that look amazing right now will fall off.

Case in point is the Bears. Yes they look great right now, but watch Trubisky play. He is not an elite or even good QB. Not yet. That team might be gaining defensive confidence, but when they play more balanced clubs they'll fall off. Teams like that almost always do.

To me the main thrusts of this thread, and why I made it, was to look at the current trends in the Vikings. Offensively, things are looking positive, especially in the passing game. Rushing and Run blocking are issues on offense. Defensively, things are currently a dumpster fire. However, as i've said repeatedly: This team is full of guys who "did it" last year. Why would we think that they are just done and cannot regain that competitive form? To me that seems unlikely. Will they be as great as they were last season? Maybe not. But will they be a lot better than last Thursday? I think that is almost inevitable . The question is, how much better?

[StumpHunter]

I think after seeing last nights game, this team no longer needs to always rely on its defense. This offense is legit. This isnt the days of Teddy/Bradford/Case. Cousins can carry an offense with what is around him. It's a different way of looking at it thats all. Yeah we did rely on our D last year. But at the same time, Case wasnt lighting the world on fire. He was doing what he needed to to win. If the D plays even average against Philly and the offense looked the way they did last night, the game is in the bag. Yeah we want a good defense and I think Zim will get it fixed anyways but this team can very much rely on its offense right now.

Outside of one game, where doing well on offense was as easy as identifying who Shields was covering and throwing to that guy, the offense has been bad. Really bad.

25th in scoring bad (this includes the Rams game) and worse than the three seasons that Teddy/Bradford/Case QB'd for us.

Defense is bad, but the offense is arguably worse.

[Pondering Her Percy]

Outside of one game, where doing well on offense was as easy as identifying who Shields was covering and throwing to that guy, the offense has been bad. Really bad.

25th in scoring bad (this includes the Rams game) and worse than the three seasons that Teddy/Bradford/Case QB'd for us.

Defense is bad, but the offense is arguably worse.

Outside of the running game that we dont attempt enough to say so, it's not "bad" at all. We are 20th in PPG right now. Not 25th. And we're tenths of a point away from being even higher. Obviously the Buffalo game killed that stat.

However, outside of the Buffalo game, we've put up 24, 29 and 31 points. How is that "bad"? If we averaged just those 3 games and left Buffalo out, that gives us 28 points per game. That would currently put us at 7th in scoring. So that's how much 1 game effected that stat. We are also currently 5th in passing offense.

So like I said, offensively outside of the run game, we've been good to very good. Just Cousins alone makes our offense better than the Teddy/Bradford/Case years. It's just the run game is lacking right now.

[StumpHunter]

Outside of the running game that we dont attempt enough to say so, it's not "bad" at all. We are 20th in PPG right now. Not 25th. And we're tenths of a point away from being even higher. Obviously the Buffalo game killed that stat.

However, outside of the Buffalo game, we've put up 24, 29 and 31 points. How is that "bad"? If we averaged just those 3 games and left Buffalo out, that gives us 28 points per game. That would currently put us at 7th in scoring. So that's how much 1 game effected that stat. We are also currently 5th in passing offense.

So like I said, offensively outside of the run game, we've been good to very good. Just Cousins alone makes our offense better than the Teddy/Bradford/Case years. It's just the run game is lacking right now.

6,17, 29 and 31 from the offense.

Factoring in defensive and special team scores as well as number of opportunities each offense has had they are 25th in scoring.

There are a lot of teams without a run game that are better than 8th worst in scoring.

[Pondering Her Percy]

6,17, 29 and 31 from the offense.

Factoring in defensive and special team scores as well as number of opportunities each offense has had they are 25th in scoring.

There are a lot of teams without a run game that are better than 8th worst in scoring.

Oh yes I forgot Hughes pick 6 but outside of that, every score has been from the offense. I'm not sure how you're factoring in the "number of opportunities" into this. Either way, OUTSIDE of the Buffalo game, we're still at 9th in the league in scoring. It's a skewed stat because there has only been 4 games and one of them resulted in us scoring 6 points. Outside of that game, our offense has been fairly high scoring.

[StumpHunter]

Oh yes I forgot Hughes pick 6 but outside of that, every score has been from the offense. I'm not sure how you're factoring in the "number of opportunities" into this. Either way, OUTSIDE of the Buffalo game, we're still at 9th in the league in scoring. It's a skewed stat because there has only been 4 games and one of them resulted in us scoring 6 points. Outside of that game, our offense has been fairly high scoring.

Half of our games the offense has scored under 20 pts, that isn't what a good offense does.

I think it will get better, but I can also see us struggle to score this week. I hope I am wrong.

Number of opportunities = offensive drives.

[S197]

@PFF_Sam (Sam Monson):

Minnesota's O-line has now surrendered 81 total pressures through 4 games.

The average OL gives up 160 over a season. Minnesota is on pace to give up 324.

That would be the most we've seen in a decade by around 70.

Who could have seen this coming?

[808vikingsfan]

Who could have seen this coming?

Vikings are #1 in passing attempts so far. Dead last in rushing attempts.
If a team is behind, naturally you'll have more pass pressures. If I'm not mistaken, the Vikings have held the lead in only one game so far. Get the lead, this stat will take care of itself.

[S197]

Vikings are #1 in passing attempts so far. Dead last in rushing attempts.
If a team is behind, naturally you'll have more pass pressures. If I'm not mistaken, the Vikings have held the lead in only one game so far. Get the lead, this stat will take care of itself.

That's true and the tweet is extrapolating a lot but with 189 throws, that's still pressure on 43% of drop backs. According to this NFL article the Steelers and Chiefs were the most balanced offenses last year. Alex Smith threw 505 passes, so if the average line gives up 160 pressures, and the average offense throws around 505 times, that's pressure on 32% of drop backs. That's a really quick and dirty analysis but adds a little context and still doesn't paint our OL in a very good light.

And pass protection may be the better aspect of this line. There's little to suggest they're average or better in run blocking.