Vikings/Saints Post-Game

[mansquatch]

In the pre-game thread I said there were three big questions:

1.) Can the offense get back to what it was when Cook/Mattison were healthy: YES
2.) Can the defense finally play better, especially the secondary: YES
3.) 4Q playcalling issues on offense: Still a problem

#2 really deserves the most praise. Rhodes / Waynes played out of their minds. Easily their best game of the season and against the likes of Michael Thomas. Excellent performance.

Still not happy with two busted drives by the offense in the 4Q. That game never should have gone to OT. They need to fix whatever that issue is. I think they are getting way too conservative and not using their O to close games.

Great win!

Also the OPI crap is just that: crap. We dominated them for most of the 60 minutes. The Rudolph TD was on 3rd and goal. We could have taken another shot on 4th down or kicked a field goal and then seen how our defense could hold up. Everyone is acting like it was some play with 2 seconds left in the 4Q. It wasn't. The Saints were not the better team for the whole game on Sunday.

[Dames]

That was really enjoyable. What a great win!

Some things I loved:
1. I think the most important reason we won this game was a brilliant game plan on defense. Zimmer really made it happen, especially in the first 3 quarters. These are the things we wanted to see when he became our head coach. The Saints had almost no answer to moving Griffen and Hunter inside for most of the game. We created a mismatch that controlled what Brees wanted to do. It was awesome. Payton/Brees adjusted late in the game, as can be expected. As annoyed as we get with Payton and his antics, he is a really good HC. Zimmer out-dueled him yesterday though, for sure.

2. On offense, Cook was the life blood. We needed him to have a big game, and he did! It really set up the success for Cousins in OT. It also showed the difference between Boone and Cook. Cook makes yards out of nothing more often than Boone. Boone is not a bad RB, but Cook is in a class of his own. If we are going to continue to have success this year, he is very important to that success I think.

3. Cousins was clutch when it counted. He made 3 great throws in OT. The 3rd down throw to Diggs was a laser under immense pressure. Of course the bomb to Thielen was awesome. It's so nice to have Thielen back isn't it? He makes catches like that look easy. The throw was perfect, but it was not easy. The read on the TD to Rudy was great, and throw was right where it needed to be. His stats overall were not amazing, but he was effective for most of the game. I think he was a bit tight early in the game, and there were a few moments where I thought he looked rattled and started to get worried that were were going to see bad Kirk, but it never materialized. (I'm sure that's the pessimistic Vikings fan in me expecting the worst. It's hard to get rid of that guys sometimes.) Cousins played very well under harsh conditions.

Some things I didn't love:
1. Going too conservative in the 2nd half. Both the offense for much of the 2nd half, and the defense at the end of regulation. The offense struggled quite a bit in the run game in the 2nd half, and I was a little disappointed we keep doing the same thing repeatedly. Maybe our guys were just getting beat. I want to rewatch it again to see what was happening. I don't hate the idea of eating clock, but I wanted them to go for the jugular. It's not really Zimmer's M.O. though. That final drive by the defense was not enjoyable to watch. It was painfully obvious that they were playing back and giving up yardage, not wanting to get burned deep. I mean, it could have easily cost them the game had the coin-flip gone differently.

2. Taysom Hill. He almost single-handedly kept them in the game. Damn, that guy is fun to watch, but I hate playing against him. I got nervous every time he was on the field.

3. Continuing to kick to Deonte Harris. The guy is a pro bowl returner for a reason. The 50 yard return before halftime wasn't enough to show you that maybe you should avoid kicking to him? They played with fired all day doing that, especially in the punt game. Thankfully it didn't burn them.



I liked that it didn't take a miracle to win it either.

[mansquatch]

I'd like to add that this was also Thielen's best game of the season, he hadn't looked like the Thielen of the past all year until this game.

SF has a better DEF than NO, but that DEF is vulnerable to playaction, which is our bread and butter. This offense is a much tougher nut to crack when Thielen is playing like he did yesterday. Now you have to deal with Diggs, Thielen, and the running attack.

These playoffs are wide open if the offense and defense can keep playing like they did yesterday. Need to watch the news on Rhodes' collarbone, i'm worried about that one.

[J. Kapp 11]

Here's the BEST so far.



All I can say is ... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Poor baby. Grow a pair like your dad and take the loss like a man. Enjoy your golf.

BTW... Did all you guys hear Cam Jordan earlier in the week on the Rich Eisen show when Rich asked him about Cook playing, and Jordan turned it around to rip on Cousins. Basically saying most of the time Cousins sucks and was glad they were playing him. Well I wonder how he is feeling about that today. Bet he isn't enjoying the outcome of playing that sucky QB this morning. Lol. But of course the reason they lost is cuz of the refs.. not the fact that our D kept their Super Offenses in check for most of the game and didn't let them score at will like they expected.
Sorry Cam, but you already had that game won in your mind and was ready to get ready for the next game.
Well, you will be ready for your next game, cause its next season so you have plenty of time to get ready now.

I had totally forgotten about Jordan's dig on Cousins. OMG, this is the most perfect win.

And you know what? I remember that interview. The interviewer just laughed along with Jordan.

The talking-head world is waking up this morning licking their wounds. Beautiful!

[Mothman]

Instead of a celebration of victory it seems this thread is increasingly focused on resentment about the media and the Saints. The Vikings won the game. Who cares if the media didn't think they could do it? They were a 6th seeded team going on the road against a 13-3 team with an excellent home playoff record. Of course they were doubted. Of course they weren't expected to win. There were Vikings fans who didn't expect them to win!

They won anyway.

The 2009 Championship game was a decade ago and the Vikes lost it with their own sloppy performance. Maybe it's time to let that go?

... or hang onto it if you'd like. I look at it this way: the shoe could be on the other foot in a week or two. Another team's fans might be crowing and Vikes fans might be #### about a call or non-call that didn't go our way. Hopefully, things won't work out like that but once in a while it's okay to just stop and smell the (purple) roses.

The Vikings won! Let's focus on some of the really positive aspects of the game: a strong game plan, a huge performance by the d-line, Cousins making great, critical plays in OT, Thielen overcoming a rough start to make an impact, effective run blocking hard running by Cook and Mattison, the secondary stepping up big despite some injuries...

They won!

[Dames]

I think people are making too big of a deal about the Digg's sideline blow up. We have no idea what it was about. I'll admit it looked bad on camera, and I didn't like seeing it either. The announcers made the immediate leap that it was because he wasn't getting the ball, and we all bought into it. They have no idea what the real story is at that point, and neither did anyone else watching. Diggs is super emotional, and he obviously hates when things aren't going his way. But, we don't know WHAT wasn't going his way.

The explanation could be just as likely:

Listened to Diggs interview in the locker room. His frustration stemmed from the type of coverages he was getting. Nothing toward his teammates. That's what I thought. He is a team guy. I think he's happier when Thielen makes a play than when he does. I'm thinking he was also frustrated because he was getting mugged without a call on a few plays.

Or that could be a load of bunk too

[Dames]

Instead of a celebration of victory it seems this thread is increasingly focused on resentment about the media and the Saints. The Vikings won the game. Who cares if the media didn't think they could do it? They were a 6th seeded team going on the road against a 13-3 team with an excellent home playoff record. Of course they were doubted. Of course they weren't expected to win. There were Vikings fans who didn't expect them to win!

They won anyway.

The 2009 Championship game was a decade ago and the Vikes lost it with their own sloppy performance. Maybe it's time to let that go?

... or hang onto it if you'd like. I look at it this way: the shoe could be on the other foot in a week or two. Another team's fans might be crowing and Vikes fans might be #### about a call or non-call that didn't go our way. Hopefully, things won't work out like that but once in a while it's okay to just stop and smell the (purple) roses.

The Vikings won! Let's focus on some of the really positive aspects of the game: a strong game plan, a huge performance by the d-line, Cousins making great, critical plays in OT, Thielen overcoming a rough start to make an impact, effective run blocking hard running by Cook and Mattison, the secondary stepping up big despite some injuries...

They won!

Amen brother! I mean, it feels good to prove the doubters wrong, and it's always nice to beat Dem Saints, but the 6 seed is always the underdog, and while it seems the media went overboard with the Saints, it's very true that most people (including a ton of Vikings fan), didn't give the Vikings a chance to win. I had my doubts too. The Vikings were underdogs, and they should have been. That was a great team we just beat! I knew we had the talent to win, but I wasn't sure we could put it together. It feels REALLY good.

[J. Kapp 11]

Instead of a celebration of victory it seems this thread is increasingly focused on resentment about the media and the Saints. The Vikings won the game. Who cares if the media didn't think they could do it? They were a 6th seeded team going on the road against a 13-3 team with an excellent home playoff record. Of course they were doubted. Of course they weren't expected to win. There were Vikings fans who didn't expect them to win!

They won anyway.

The 2009 Championship game was a decade ago and the Vikes lost it with their own sloppy performance. Maybe it's time to let that go?

... or hang onto it if you'd like. I look at it this way: the shoe could be on the other foot in a week or two. Another team's fans might be crowing and Vikes fans might be #### about a call or non-call that didn't go our way. Hopefully, things won't work out like that but once in a while it's okay to just stop and smell the (purple) roses.

The Vikings won! Let's focus on some of the really positive aspects of the game: a strong game plan, a huge performance by the d-line, Cousins making great, critical plays in OT, Thielen overcoming a rough start to make an impact, effective run blocking hard running by Cook and Mattison, the secondary stepping up big despite some injuries...

They won!

I hope I wasn't one you were talking about, but I could see if you took it that way.

Here's my thoughts ...

The media are there. They are what we see and hear. It DOES get old being disrespected.

But ...

As you said, we WON. And not by fluke or some squirrely call. We beat a 13-3 team in the Superdome.

As far as I'm concerned, part of celebrating that win is laughing at the media who said we had no chance. That's a beautiful thing!

Will they respect us? No. Not a chance unless we win the whole thing. So yeah, we probably shouldn't gripe too much about the disrespect.

But you gotta admit ... amid all the disrespect, it feels pretty good to watch the experts falling all over themselves trying to explain their colossal lack of judgment. I'm enjoying the heck out of it!

SIDE NOTE: Part of what I do at my job is video and communications. Today I just moved into a studio they built for me. It's a separate room at the far end of the building, built to my specifications. It's a joy. But it's also a problem. I used to be in a common space, where everybody's computer was visible to everybody. Now I'm in a room by myself with a locked door. With everything going on both here and in the media about our Vikings, today is probably not the day for me to have unfettered access to the Internet. I don't think they pay me to post here!

[Dames]

I know this won't likely be popular on this board, but objectively I thought the refs could have called Rudolph for a push off on that play. When I consider whether a foul occurred I always ask myself what I would think if the situation were reversed and it was the Saints TE catching that ball and the Vikings defending it. I don't think it was blatant, and I agree with the non-call, mostly because the defender never attempted to look for the ball AND because I thought the Saints were getting away with a lot of defensive PI and holding throughout the game and the refs were letting that go. It would have been inconsistent for them to call the Vikings for offensive PI on that play when they were not calling the Saints for defensive PI all game and I think they knew it.

I agree, Rudy could have easily been called for OPI there. In a vacuum, he honestly probably should have been. But, in this game, the ways the refs were calling it, there is no way that should have been called. They were letting them fight all game, so this was right in line with that. In another game, with a different crew, I'll bet that gets called, but there likely would have been several more calls earlier in the game too. I definitely thought the non-call was right in this case, but I would not have been surprised if it had gone against us either. Bottom line, it certainly didn't cost the Saints the win, and it didn't taint the Vikings win either. It's just spotlighted because of the history against the Saints. This will be the talk for a day or 2, but it doesn't have the drama like last year's mess. There won't be any rules changes based of it, I'm guessing

[VikingLord]

Instead of a celebration of victory it seems this thread is increasingly focused on resentment about the media and the Saints. The Vikings won the game. Who cares if the media didn't think they could do it? They were a 6th seeded team going on the road against a 13-3 team with an excellent home playoff record. Of course they were doubted. Of course they weren't expected to win. There were Vikings fans who didn't expect them to win!

Come on, Jim. You have to allow the average longtime Vikings fan some resentment at the shoddy treatment of the team in the media and the utter disrespect they received from some of the Saints prior to the game...

[Dames]

SIDE NOTE: Part of what I do at my job is video and communications. Today I just moved into a studio they built for me. It's a separate room at the far end of the building, built to my specifications. It's a joy. But it's also a problem. I used to be in a common space, where everybody's computer was visible to everybody. Now I'm in a room by myself with a locked door. With everything going on both here and in the media about our Vikings, today is probably not the day for me to have unfettered access to the Internet. I don't think they pay me to post here!

LMAO! I'm drafting up an anonymous email to the head of the company right now. I'm working from home today, so I imagine there will be some wasted minutes for me too.

[Raptorman]

Instead of a celebration of victory it seems this thread is increasingly focused on resentment about the media and the Saints. The Vikings won the game. Who cares if the media didn't think they could do it? They were a 6th seeded team going on the road against a 13-3 team with an excellent home playoff record. Of course they were doubted. Of course they weren't expected to win. There were Vikings fans who didn't expect them to win!

Come on, Jim. You have to allow the average longtime Vikings fan some resentment at the shoddy treatment of the team in the media and the utter disrespect they received from some of the Saints prior to the game...

As longtime Vikings fans know. The media hasn't really respected the Vikings since they lost to the Raiders in their last Super Bowl appearance. After a while, you just get numb to it because it's the norm.

[J. Kapp 11]

SIDE NOTE: Part of what I do at my job is video and communications. Today I just moved into a studio they built for me. It's a separate room at the far end of the building, built to my specifications. It's a joy. But it's also a problem. I used to be in a common space, where everybody's computer was visible to everybody. Now I'm in a room by myself with a locked door. With everything going on both here and in the media about our Vikings, today is probably not the day for me to have unfettered access to the Internet. I don't think they pay me to post here!

LMAO! I'm drafting up an anonymous email to the head of the company right now. I'm working from home today, so I imagine there will be some wasted minutes for me too.

Dang! Shoulda kept my mouth shut!

The other thing is that my computer in here could run the space shuttle. It's built for video, so it's a screamer ... 12-core i9-7920X processor, 128 GB of RAM, RTX 2080 Ti video card and four SSDs. Built it myself. I can watch anything I want in here with ease. Dish Anywhere, here I come!

[Bowhunting Viking]

Instead of a celebration of victory it seems this thread is increasingly focused on resentment about the media and the Saints. The Vikings won the game. Who cares if the media didn't think they could do it? They were a 6th seeded team going on the road against a 13-3 team with an excellent home playoff record. Of course they were doubted. Of course they weren't expected to win. There were Vikings fans who didn't expect them to win!

Come on, Jim. You have to allow the average longtime Vikings fan some resentment at the shoddy treatment of the team in the media and the utter disrespect they received from some of the Saints prior to the game...

I get what your saying Jim, but gotta agree with VikingLord here. I think alot if my posts about it are because of the fact that I have been on sick leave, so I have REALLY been able to see and hear so much of it. Normally I would be at work and not have been exposed to the amount of it that I have been. So I think it just got under my skin a little more than normal.
But Jim, I am STILL FLYING HIGH over that win, so don't you think for a second that I'm not happy about that!!
It was a blast watching it unfold, a little hairy at the end, but so enjoyable.
Now we need to do the same thing out West!

[quiznut1]

2 years ago when we beat the Saints with the Minneapolis Miracle, I remember hearing of guys watching replays for quite a while into the ensuing day (maybe a couple days after). In retrospect I think it could have affected them mentally going into Philadelphia.

While the emotional high is not (in my opinion) as much as the Minneapolis Miracle, My hope is Zimmer will put the clamps down and not let the guys look at any replays after yesterday evening.

As I stated before, the road is not going to get easier. They are going to need as much mental/emotional preparedness for the next game as physically, in order to be ready to play.

I hope they continue to embrace the role of "underdog" - I do think it takes some pressure off in playing more loose (whereas we were slight favorites going to Philadelphia 2 years ago).