The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly after 6 weeks

[YikesVikes]

We really are going to be tested soon. I think we are an average team and the next 6 weeks will expose us. I think we can be explosive but we haven't. Our defense is atrocious but opportunistic.

Good:
Punter is a HOFer. Send him to canton right now. Mr. Wright is winning us games. I know it sounds comical but it is true. He has stolen points from opposing teams by changing the field and eliminating returns. Best player for the Vikings right now.

JJ is JJ. Dude is a stud and while I am worried about how we could pay him, he is a foundational player and we are lucky to have him. As he goes, the team goes, which is not always good. Most consistent WR in the NFL in my eyes.

Injuries: We have been blessed by the health gods to have not lost one starter on offense or defense thru 7 games. Im not sure any other team can say the same. I hope it continues and we keep winning.

OL is.... good. I know Bradbury took a licking in the preseason as his play was exaggerated to be horrible. He is bad at times but on most plays he is average. He has returned and limited the bad plays. EI has changed my mind as I expected him to struggle in the run and excel in the pass. He has been solid in the run and good at times in the pass. Looks to be a solid piece that could be more as he matures. Darrisaw is a monster. I don't think people are watching just how good he is playing. Needs to stop crossing his legs when he kicks and slides but when he gets his feet right, there is no beating him. Best of all, our OL is all young and ascending.

Z. Smith: Thank God for him. He is everything I expected and more. I think we are just scratching the surface of what he can be for us as we need a bit better play on the DL. Man amoung boys but I am not sure how we keep him. Hunter has quietly had a good season. Sacks are down, hurries are down but he is making game ending plays. I believe he was singlehandedly responsible for 3 game ending plays out of our 6 games. He's not getting enough credit.

Defensive Points Against: 19 PPG is good no matter how you slice it. Defense is not but the results are.

NFC North: Packers are in free fall, Detroit continues to lose games they should win and the Bears are pretty Bare (get it) on their roster talent. The decision and the conference is ours for the taking. We simply have to play better on defense and offense. Eagles, Giants, and Cowboys are going to cost each other wins and we can sneakily slide in and win homefield thru the playoffs. Only thing in our way is having the balls to take it. Can we lock in and cut down on the lackluster play and put teams away early? I hope so.

Bad:
Kene: I never thought he was a great kick returner despite his 2 returns last season. He just doesn't seem to have the vision that KR have. He is fast but when I see him return, it seems pretty slow like he is thinking more than reacting.

Adam T: I don't know if it is injury, scheme, age, or a combo of all three but even the biggest AT fan can admit that something is off on how he is playing. Seems like guys are sticking to him a bit more which is weird because he was always a great route runner. Sadly his contested catches are way down. He used to have one of the highest rates when he was younger. Hopefully, this is related to his ankle injury and it turns around.

Offense as a whole has been inconsistent: We have too much talent to go through the droughts we are having offensively. 6 points in the 3rd quarter all season. We haven't had the ball to start the half much but even given that, that figure is paultre. I am too lazy to look but I think we are worse offensively this season than last season and that's with Klint Kubiak's braindead at time play calling. We need to iron out the offense because we are about to run into some teams that can score.

Ugly:
Defensive playcalling.The Vikings must have an insurance policy out on me because that is the reason they are driving my blood pressure up on a weekly basis. I have never seen more whole is a zone defense than what we are running. The middle of the field is wide open, the sidelines are wide open. It seems like we are running prevent on most plays. The cover 2 to cover 4 shell we are running has to go. We gave up almost 500 yards passing to Miami with two backup QBs. I am legit worried about the Cards.

Kicker is going to cost us: Looks Greg but he has to go. No 50 yarder is safe with him kicking and he needs to be replaced. How many times must we endure this story where we keep a shaky kicker and he misses key kicks that we need.

[Texas Vike]

Excellent mid-season, bye-week write up!

The only time my head stopped bobbing in agreement was with AT. I get what you are saying, but I think he's valiantly playing through an injury and he's been absolutely CLUTCH at times when we've needed him. The WR I'm down on is KJ. I expected him to have a bigger role and I can't figure out if it's KJ's fault, the new scheme's, or Kirk's .... or a combination of the three. Is he not getting separation? Is Kirk not throwing it to him because he wants an unrealistically large window? or is this scheme overly reliant on JJ (to both the team's and even, at times, JJ's detriment)?

I agree with you that we are about to face some better competition and the balls may not bounce our way. AZ scares me. Even the lowly Bears looked solid last night. In fact, given the coaching and GM situations in the NFCN, I think the Bears will be our main rival over the next 5 years (unless the Lions luck into the right QB in the draft).

[StumpHunter]

EI has changed my mind as I expected him to struggle in the run and excel in the pass. He has been solid in the run and good at times in the pass.

He has been the worst guard in football at pass blocking, leading the league among guards in pressures and sacks given up going into week 7 and he had a lower pass blocking grade than Udoh did last season. Statistically, he is the worst full time guard the Vikings have had since PFF has begun tracking pressures given up.

Offense as a whole has been inconsistent: We have too much talent to go through the droughts we are having offensively. 6 points in the 3rd quarter all season. We haven't had the ball to start the half much but even given that, that figure is paultre. I am too lazy to look but I think we are worse offensively this season than last season and that's with Klint Kubiak's braindead at time play calling. We need to iron out the offense because we are about to run into some teams that can score.

The offense is worse in some ways (Cousins is playing significantly worse statistically, the run game seems to be inconsistent and there are still way too many 3 and outs for an offense featuring Dalvin Cook and JJ). They are scoring more on average than last year's team, but they have only faced 1 good defense all year and the rest have been below average to bad.

They have some tougher matchups coming up in Dallas, Buffalo, Indy and before last night NE, but outside of those 4 it is smooth sailing for the rest of the season. With this defensive schedule and talent I think you are correct that the offense should be better.

Kicker is going to cost us: Looks Greg but he has to go. No 50 yarder is safe with him kicking and he needs to be replaced. How many times must we endure this story where we keep a shaky kicker and he misses key kicks that we need.

Impossible. Zimmer isn't being mean to him anymore so how could our kicker be struggling? In all seriousness, his kickoffs are great and are creating good field position for the defense and being consistent inside 50 isn't the worst thing. Those missed XPs are a concern though and being 35th in total FG % is a huge concern.

[Pondering Her Percy]

He has been the worst guard in football at pass blocking, leading the league among guards in pressures and sacks given up going into week 7 and he had a lower pass blocking grade than Udoh did last season. Statistically, he is the worst full time guard the Vikings have had since PFF has begun tracking pressures given up.

If he was the best guard in football would you commend him for it? You've already expressed multiple times you have a deep hate for him because of what he "did" outside of football. Ed Ingram is the last guy you'll ever pump the tires for regardless of how he's playing.

And as for the worst guard the Vikings have had, Dru Samia at one point had an overall grade of 33.2 and was ranked 763rd out of 763 total offensive players in the NFL. Literally the worst offensive player in the entire league. A 33.2 was the lowest overall grade PFF has ever given out in it's history. This is compared to Ingram's 61.2 overall grade. Nobody was as bad as Samia or even comparable and I could care less what your nitpicked statistics say. Especially when you're already have a strong hate for the guy.

[StumpHunter]

He has been the worst guard in football at pass blocking, leading the league among guards in pressures and sacks given up going into week 7 and he had a lower pass blocking grade than Udoh did last season. Statistically, he is the worst full time guard the Vikings have had since PFF has begun tracking pressures given up.

If he was the best guard in football would you commend him for it? You've already expressed multiple times you have a deep hate for him because of what he "did" outside of football. Ed Ingram is the last guy you'll ever pump the tires for regardless of how he's playing.

It is true I do have a strong disdain for people who do what he was indicted for doing regardless of what team they play on, but Ingram being the worst at pass blocking than any other full time guard the Vikings have started is also true.

And as for the worst guard the Vikings have had, Dru Samia at one point had an overall grade of 33.2 and was ranked 763rd out of 763 total offensive players in the NFL. Literally the worst offensive player in the entire league. A 33.2 was the lowest overall grade PFF has ever given out in it's history. This is compared to Ingram's 61.2 overall grade. Nobody was as bad as Samia or even comparable and I could care less what your nitpicked statistics say. Especially when you're already have a strong hate for the guy.

Samia was a full time guard or a backup who was benched as soon anyone else was available? I am sure there are some other backup scrubs Ingram has blocked better than, not many but some, but isn't it sad that Samia, a guy who can't even make a roster is the only guard Ingram is currently pass blocking better than? Even Cleveland playing right guard for the first time in his rookie season faired better his first six games.

[CharVike]

The good
Being in 1st place with tie breakers, finding a way to win games, second in total penalties, breaks going our way for a change. Beating teams we should beat.
The bad
Our D is bad when compared to the better teams. I hate this soft play and the bend but don't break approach. I hate a 3-4 scheme for our current roster. We need a NT that's a monster and LBers with speed for it to have a chance. Square peg into a round hole. Not much speed basically a reincarnation of the over the hill gang. We can never count on them to carry us to a win as some teams can with theirs.
The ugly
Our OL still isn't that good. As shown when they get destroyed nothing happens. This is the piece that can do us in. Our D does nothing for me. This DC we have blows and I was hoping he would be fired. Looks like rookies have little to no chance of playing much. Slow grind down the line with this group.

[Pondering Her Percy]

If he was the best guard in football would you commend him for it? You've already expressed multiple times you have a deep hate for him because of what he "did" outside of football. Ed Ingram is the last guy you'll ever pump the tires for regardless of how he's playing.

It is true I do have a strong disdain for people who do what he was indicted for doing regardless of what team they play on, but Ingram being the worst at pass blocking than any other full time guard the Vikings have started is also true.

And as for the worst guard the Vikings have had, Dru Samia at one point had an overall grade of 33.2 and was ranked 763rd out of 763 total offensive players in the NFL. Literally the worst offensive player in the entire league. A 33.2 was the lowest overall grade PFF has ever given out in it's history. This is compared to Ingram's 61.2 overall grade. Nobody was as bad as Samia or even comparable and I could care less what your nitpicked statistics say. Especially when you're already have a strong hate for the guy.

Samia was a full time guard or a backup who was benched as soon anyone else was available? I am sure there are some other backup scrubs Ingram has blocked better than, not many but some, but isn't it sad that Samia, a guy who can't even make a roster is the only guard Ingram is currently pass blocking better than? Even Cleveland playing right guard for the first time in his rookie season faired better his first six games.

Given that you're nitpicking and focusing on what fits your narrative (strictly talking about pass blocking), lets look at OVERALL PFF grades for guards since, lets say, 2017.

Ed Ingram- 61.2
Ezra Cleveland- 70.6
Oli Udoh- 64.4
Dakota Dozier- 44.6
Dru Samia- 33.1
Josh Kline- 61.5
Mike Remmers- 61.1
Tom Compton- 62.4
Nick Easton- 57.5
Joe Berger- 75.1

Ingram has been far from the worst and again, he's only 6 games into his rookie season whereas these guys above were all veterans. Nobody is sitting here saying he's some world-beater guard that's playing great. But I'm also not going to sit here and write him off due to how he's played after 6 games his rookie season. Or in your case, what he "did" outside of football years ago.

Point is, you're focusing strictly on pass blocking and trying to paint a bad light on him off of one metric. Yeah, he's not good in pass blocking right now. But again, it's 6 games into his rookie season. There's this thing called "development". Let's see if he actually develops over the next few years.

[Pondering Her Percy]

The good
Being in 1st place with tie breakers, finding a way to win games, second in total penalties, breaks going our way for a change. Beating teams we should beat.
The bad
Our D is bad when compared to the better teams. I hate this soft play and the bend but don't break approach. I hate a 3-4 scheme for our current roster. We need a NT that's a monster and LBers with speed for it to have a chance. Square peg into a round hole. Not much speed basically a reincarnation of the over the hill gang. We can never count on them to carry us to a win as some teams can with theirs.
The ugly
Our OL still isn't that good. As shown when they get destroyed nothing happens. This is the piece that can do us in. Our D does nothing for me. This DC we have blows and I was hoping he would be fired. Looks like rookies have little to no chance of playing much. Slow grind down the line with this group.

I would also add in under the good, the Vikings are currently the highest scoring team in the NFL in the final 4 minutes of halves. I'm not sure where the D ranks in that exact category but I feel like they've also been good during that time span. This is something the Vikings (especially the defense) was really bad at last year.

[CharVike]

The good
Being in 1st place with tie breakers, finding a way to win games, second in total penalties, breaks going our way for a change. Beating teams we should beat.
The bad
Our D is bad when compared to the better teams. I hate this soft play and the bend but don't break approach. I hate a 3-4 scheme for our current roster. We need a NT that's a monster and LBers with speed for it to have a chance. Square peg into a round hole. Not much speed basically a reincarnation of the over the hill gang. We can never count on them to carry us to a win as some teams can with theirs.
The ugly
Our OL still isn't that good. As shown when they get destroyed nothing happens. This is the piece that can do us in. Our D does nothing for me. This DC we have blows and I was hoping he would be fired. Looks like rookies have little to no chance of playing much. Slow grind down the line with this group.

I would also add in under the good, the Vikings are currently the highest scoring team in the NFL in the final 4 minutes of halves. I'm not sure where the D ranks in that exact category but I feel like they've also been good during that time span. This is something the Vikings (especially the defense) was really bad at last year.

Being productive during those time frames is finding a way to win. Even our D got the turnover late from ISM to save a win. Dantzler did a great job on that play. I also liked the coaching job with our OL during the last game against the Phines. They weren't playing good early but turned it around and gave our play makers a chance. Cook needed space to make that long run. He was bottled up all day until then.

[StumpHunter]

The good
Being in 1st place with tie breakers, finding a way to win games, second in total penalties, breaks going our way for a change. Beating teams we should beat.
The bad
Our D is bad when compared to the better teams. I hate this soft play and the bend but don't break approach. I hate a 3-4 scheme for our current roster. We need a NT that's a monster and LBers with speed for it to have a chance. Square peg into a round hole. Not much speed basically a reincarnation of the over the hill gang. We can never count on them to carry us to a win as some teams can with theirs.
The ugly
Our OL still isn't that good. As shown when they get destroyed nothing happens. This is the piece that can do us in. Our D does nothing for me. This DC we have blows and I was hoping he would be fired. Looks like rookies have little to no chance of playing much. Slow grind down the line with this group.

I would also add in under the good, the Vikings are currently the highest scoring team in the NFL in the final 4 minutes of halves. I'm not sure where the D ranks in that exact category but I feel like they've also been good during that time span. This is something the Vikings (especially the defense) was really bad at last year.

2021 yards given up per play in the final 4 minutes of halves: 4.9
2022 yards given up per play in the final 4 minutes of halves: 5.4

The biggest difference is turnovers. The Vikings had 1 in all of 2021 and 6 already in that spot in 2022.

Offensively it might just be a luck thing. They are not really doing anything better in the final 4 minutes than they are in the rest of the game, averaging about the same number of yards per play in both situations. Here again turnovers are making a difference with 3 in 2021 and 0 in 2022 so far. Which is weird, because the Vikings are turning it over a lot more overall in 2022 than they were in 2021.

[VikingLord]

If I had to summarize what I've seen from this team over the first weeks of the season so far, I'd say that offensively they're not yet in sync, while defensively they're soft in pass defense, but opportunistic and tend to step up in key moments and make plays.

For the offensive side of the ball, something needs to click a little better. There are moments when it does, but it's like an old car that sputters to life and then dies. Still needs to be tuned up, but once it is tuned up one has to assume they will click more often and more consistently, and that is a good to great thing. There is plenty of talent and experience on the offensive side of the ball.

For the defensive side of the ball, I think they need to play more tight man coverage and generally tighten things up. I've accepted the run defense isn't going to be stellar. They're not built to be a shut down the run defense, and I'm OK with that as long as they can shut it down when they need stops in run situations. But if they're not a shut down the run defense, they need to be a better pass defense for sure. Way too many receivers left uncovered or loosely covered. Not sure if they're just playing for coverage sacks, but for a team that doesn't blitz often, the coverage has to be better. Here too, though, I get the sense this is more about getting comfortable with the defensive schemes and calls.

Should this team be 5-1 based on the stats and relative rankings so far? I don't think it should. With that said, I thought last year's team deserved a better record based on the same than it had, so it's pretty clear that the football gods taketh and giveth as they please. But the main difference between this year's team and last year's team at this point is, this year's team seems to not have played near to it's potential yet, while I felt last year's team was playing about as good as it could play early in the season. So to be 5-1 and not playing to potential is a real blessing. Granted, the Vikings have some difficult upcoming games where they'll need to start playing more consistently on both sides of the ball to have a chance, but I don't see a game they can't win or are clearly over matched. I still think this could be a very special season.

[J. Kapp 11]

EI has changed my mind as I expected him to struggle in the run and excel in the pass. He has been solid in the run and good at times in the pass.

He has been the worst guard in football at pass blocking, leading the league among guards in pressures and sacks given up going into week 7 and he had a lower pass blocking grade than Udoh did last season. Statistically, he is the worst full time guard the Vikings have had since PFF has begun tracking pressures given up.

Offense as a whole has been inconsistent: We have too much talent to go through the droughts we are having offensively. 6 points in the 3rd quarter all season. We haven't had the ball to start the half much but even given that, that figure is paultre. I am too lazy to look but I think we are worse offensively this season than last season and that's with Klint Kubiak's braindead at time play calling. We need to iron out the offense because we are about to run into some teams that can score.

The offense is worse in some ways (Cousins is playing significantly worse statistically, the run game seems to be inconsistent and there are still way too many 3 and outs for an offense featuring Dalvin Cook and JJ). They are scoring more on average than last year's team, but they have only faced 1 good defense all year and the rest have been below average to bad.

They have some tougher matchups coming up in Dallas, Buffalo, Indy and before last night NE, but outside of those 4 it is smooth sailing for the rest of the season. With this defensive schedule and talent I think you are correct that the offense should be better.

Kicker is going to cost us: Looks Greg but he has to go. No 50 yarder is safe with him kicking and he needs to be replaced. How many times must we endure this story where we keep a shaky kicker and he misses key kicks that we need.

Impossible. Zimmer isn't being mean to him anymore so how could our kicker be struggling? In all seriousness, his kickoffs are great and are creating good field position for the defense and being consistent inside 50 isn't the worst thing. Those missed XPs are a concern though and being 35th in total FG % is a huge concern.

So wait. You have no “good” or even “bad”? Just ugly?

Imagine if we were 6-0. You’d want the whole team replaced.

[J. Kapp 11]

Good
This Rocky Patel vintage ‘92 cigar I’m enjoying on my deck with an expertly made old fashioned.

I’ll add a couple that VL didn’t mention.

Patrick Peterson. It’s been nothing short of a renaissance for this guy. His completion percentage when targeted, passer rating against, etc. have been stellar. Say what you want about Ed Donatello’s system — PP is thriving in it.

I second the vote for the O-line. Christian Darrisaw is an all-pro right now. Just 8 pressures in 6 games. No sacks. No penalties. Zero. And he still has room to improve his technique. Ezra Cleveland has been very solid. O’Neill has surrendered a few pressures, but he’s still been really good. And Garrett Bradbury … a lot of the pressure up the middle this year has been Ingram’s fault, not Bradbury, who continues to be ranked by PFF inside the top 10. Ingram has been good in the running game and suspect in the passing game. Not surprising for a rookie. But he doesn’t get enough credit in the running game. Watch the all-22 on Dalvin’s big TD against the Dolphins — Ingram made the key block, holding off the backside tackle with one arm. This is a good O-line.

The Vikings’ medical/sports science staff. It’s not only luck that the Vikings are the healthiest team in the NFL. Don’t believe me? Read this.

Kirk Cousins. No, it’s not his best year statistically. Who cares? He’s doing the one thing we all have wanted since he arrived — played his butt off when it mattered most. The Vikings are the highest scoring team in the NFL at the end of halves. That doesn’t happen without good QB play. Three game-winning drives. Nuff said.

Dalvin Cook. What? Yeah, Cook. Has he been the statistical monster he’s been in the past? Nope. But he’s had four very solid games, he’s finding the end zone, he’s averaging close to 5 YPC, and he’s actually been very good in pass pro. They aren’t using him as much. That’s a good thing.

Dalvin Tomlinson. This guy has been everything we hoped he would be last year. He’s eating up blockers, he’s been surprisingly good in pass rush, and he’s made some big stops in the running game.

Special teams. Other than Joseph missing 50-yarders and one sketchy game against the Bears, this unit has been really solid.

Bad
Lulls. In every game, we’ve had periods where we do nothing. The Packers game was a blowout, but could’ve been even moreso. The Bears and Saints games should’ve been blowouts. We started very slowly against Miami. What can KOC to to minimize these down periods?

Cam Bynum. Sorry guys, but he’s been pretty bad. Had the big fumble recovery against Miami, but the ball bounced right to him. He’s our lowest ranked defender.

Ugly
Call me a Pollyanna, but I’m not going there. Being 5-1 after the last two years of hell is good by me.

[vikeinmontana]

Bad
Lulls. In every game, we’ve had periods where we do nothing. The Packers game was a blowout, but could’ve been even moreso. The Bears and Saints games should’ve been blowouts. We started very slowly against Miami. What can KOC to to minimize these down periods?

What kind of bourbon in your old fashioned? I’m a liquor store owner so always curious. Ironically more of a wine guy but my bourbon portfolio is pretty awesome!

Anyway, I just wanted to comment. Obviously lulls in every game are bad. But it’s kinda what I was trying to get across in that other thread. What can we do to minimize these lulls? Play high school teams.

You give me any team in the league. Bills, Eagles, Chiefs etc. I’ll be able to find you these same lulls on offense and defense easy. We’ll continue seeing these lulls in every game as long as the competition is great. I for one think that is why the NFL is so special.

Kapp you know I see eye to eye with you on nearly every post. And you’re not even wrong here. Lulls are bad. If I had my choice I want our offense to score touchdowns every possession and our defense to get three and outs if they don’t get a turnover first. Zero lulls. But I have yet to see that.

My opinion? We’ll always have these lulls, on both sides of the ball, because there are incredible athletes on the other team making enough money to set up their grandkids grandkids to see that we have a lull or two every game.

[Cliff]

Good: The team as a whole. People might not like aspects of the offense and the defense gets a lot of hate, but I think the two schemes are working well together.

People complain about the defense but it's actually doing what it's supposed to be doing for the most part. In the most important metric for a defense they're 12th - Opponent Points Per Game. I know that's not top 10, but it's close. They were 24th last season and 29th the year before. The defense is a huge improvement where it counts this season.

The offense is 13th in points scored per game and I won't delve into the players and groups there because it has been done already and I agree with most of it.

Together, the team is +3.5 in average scoring margin which is good for 6th in the NFL.

Special teams has been great, especially the punter.

Bad: On offense, Stalls leading to quick turnaround which leads to being more one-dimensional and a lop-sided TOP.

The defense "breaks" a little too much on their "bend don't break" scheme but is so improved from the last couple seasons I'll take it.

A couple of missed FGs is the worst thing on special teams.

Ugly: They've had ugly moments but overall nothing is super ugly in my opinion.