Thoughts about the debacle

[mansquatch]

I felt there were three issues in the game that overshadowed everything else. OL, Run defense, and Penalties.

We said at the beginning of the season that our OL issues would haunt us. After 9 games, we finally paid the price. Between drive breaking penalties, poor protection, and poor blocking that unit more than anything else held the offense back. The blocking at the second level, which is critical against a 3-4 scheme, was horrendous yesterday. Our lack of athleticism at the interior positions really showed. We could not keep their LB away from AP or our TB.

Our Rush D was bad yesterday. Way too many 5-10 yard runs by Lacy. I'm not sure what happened there, but the Packer OL is not elite so that should not have happened. Not sure if it was bad calling, poor game plan, or just bad play, but allowing a 100yrd rusher is bad news.

Penalties on defense were the last issue. I agree with most that the calls were terrible, but that is the game and we need to play through it by being more disciplined. Also, the defense allowed way too many big plays between the 20s that allowed GB to consistently get into kicking range. One issue I had was the non-calls. I think I counted over a dozen facemasks by the GB Defense in the game that didn't get called. At one point I think AP got tackled by his facemask and they didn't call it. It was ridiculous.

The biggest disappointment of this game was that it was so easily winnable. GB was really bad on offense, Rogers has an under 50% completion rate. They were there to be had. This is not the best GB team we've seen under Rogers. Not even close. Sucks to lose like this.

[Mothman]

Agree....the trust just does exist. But, he did score 10 TDs last year (I know it's not an apples to apples kinda thing) and I think a lot of them were red zone catches. Imho we should do some short/intermediate crossing routes to get him the ball.....same with Patterson. Maybe some sweeps to either or both. When you have proven burners who have been proven at taking it to the house you have to find a way. We could sure use the scores.....

... and this gets back to coaching. Failing to better utilize the kind of talent Wallace and Patterson possess is inexcusable, in my opinion. There's not even a genuine effort to make use of Patterson's ability., even though the Vikes could clearly use more playmaking and scoring ability on offense.

[autobon7]

... and this gets back to coaching. Failing to better utilize the kind of talent Wallace and Patterson possess is inexcusable, in my opinion. There's not even a genuine effort to make use of Patterson's ability., even though the Vikes could clearly use more playmaking and scoring ability on offense.

Exactly......

[losperros]

... and this gets back to coaching. Failing to better utilize the kind of talent Wallace and Patterson possess is inexcusable, in my opinion. There's not even a genuine effort to make use of Patterson's ability., even though the Vikes could clearly use more playmaking and scoring ability on offense.

Agree with both of you. I'm seeing another play-not-to-lose style from the Vikings offense again. It's never worked in the past. It won't work now.

Play to win. Get the talent on the field and cut them loose. If the Vikings have guys that can outrun everyone on the opposing defense - and they do - then be creative and use these athletes.

[autobon7]

... and this gets back to coaching. Failing to better utilize the kind of talent Wallace and Patterson possess is inexcusable, in my opinion. There's not even a genuine effort to make use of Patterson's ability., even though the Vikes could clearly use more playmaking and scoring ability on offense.

Just the thought of this makes me angry......I mean come on. It's not like we are scoring SO many TDs that we just don't need anymore.

[losperros]

No, he didn't although they didn't run him much after the first quarter, which was foolish. Did they really think they were going to beat Green Bay with Peterson only carrying the ball 13 times? They can't expect to beat good teams with playcalling like they had yesterday. Their passing game isn't up to the task.

Peterson never got the chance to have a good day. If he's going to be the chief weapon, then the Vikings have to use him. And they have to figure out ways to punish teams with the big plays from the passing game whenever defenses sell out to stop AD. All this has been apparent since day one of this season.

[autobon7]

Peterson never got the chance to have a good day. If he's going to be the chief weapon, then the Vikings have to use him. And they have to figure out ways to punish teams with the big plays from the passing game whenever defenses sell out to stop AD. All this has been apparent since day one of this season.[/quote]


I know right.......they (Norv?) abandoned the run a bit early.

[VikeMike]

There were several pivotal moments and themes in this game:

— The Newman pass interference penalty was a huge mistake. They force a punt on that series, it may have been a different game.

— The defense still needs to shore up on run defense.

— After driving for a TD to close within six at 19-13, the defense allowed Rodgers to do what he does best, get out of the pocket and make plays. Result: 27-13.

— Peterson's twisting fumble came at an awful time. It wasn't the reason for the loss, but it sealed the deal on any miracle comeback.

There are more, but you get the idea. The largest problem came from an area we all recognized way before the season started: The offensive line is simply porous. They were a weakness before Sullivan and Loadholt were injured. Any time your quarterback is pressured on 41 percent of drop backs, you will struggle to consistently move the ball -- which is essential when you are playing an offense with Aaron Rodgers at QB (Yes, they came into the game not being in sync, but what reasonable person didn't expect Green Bay to play with more focus on a suck-it-up-or-our-season-is-bye-bye game?). The Packers were allowed to sellout to play the run first, daring the Vikings to beat them with the pass (when you are confident that you can rush the QB, it opens up a ton of possibilities). The way the Vikings offense is set up and running out of the I, defenses can attack the line on first down to penetrate the rushing lanes, or have almost immediate pressure on Bridgewater with him under center. If the OL can't execute on first down for a positive gain, the poor pass protection becomes a larger issue on long downs later.

Hey, there were so many areas of concern on the roster going into 2014 that not everything would get fixed at once. They concentrated on defense, upgrading the LBs, drafting a DB high and restructuring the DL. They were able to bring in speed at WR and draft a promising QB. The Vikings are now in the playoff hunt and have a young roster. Fix the OL and I think we do have a shot at beating the Green Bays and Denvers of the world. I would love to see the progress Teddy can make with an actual NFL-caliber line in front of him.

This was a frustrating loss, but I still think we are headed in the right direction.

[Mothman]

Peterson never got the chance to have a good day. If he's going to be the chief weapon, then the Vikings have to use him. And they have to figure out ways to punish teams with the big plays from the passing game whenever defenses sell out to stop AD. All this has been apparent since day one of this season.

It's aggravating to say the least. If I'm not mistaken, their 3 losses this season are also the 3 games where Peterson had the fewest running opportunities. They've also been in high profile games: MNF at SF, a big game against the undefeated Broncos, a nationally-televised battle for first place against the Packers... I wonder what, if anything, that says about the coaching and game-planning.

[J. Kapp 11]

That fumble was definitely a killer.

In my opinion, Wallace has lost Teddy's trust. He's dropped way too many shorter routes for Teddy to trust him much, and even on that deep ball yesterday it looked to me that he wasn't running full speed until he realized the ball was coming to him (putting him a step short). When you make a lot of little mistakes like that, the QB doesn't feel very comfortable going your way.

Thanks you. I was saying earlier than Wallace coasted on that play until he knew the ball was coming, but I felt like I was the only one who noticed.

It was a perfect throw that would have been 6 points if Wallace would have done the ONE THING he does well, which is to run fast in a straight line. Maybe he was mailing it in because of all the other times Teddy hasn't gotten him the ball, but that's no excuse for a professional.

I think you're exactly right. Wallace has lost Teddy's trust.

[Mothman]

It looked to me like Wallace put in a good effort on that deep route and he was just overthrown.

[mansquatch]

Sorry guys, it is hard for me to harp on the passing game yesterday given how poor the protection was. At one point Teddy was 10/11 with 120 yards and a TD. It felt to me that the OL play was the major culprit on offense. Petersen's fumble sucked and we left some stuff out there, but how many of Teddy's incompletions were because he was doing the familiar run to the sidelines to throw the ball away due to his protection breaking down immediately? Did anyone also notice it seemed to always happen on the right side? Teddy wasn't perfect yesterday but my eye test tells me we didn't lose because of the play of our QB.

More on the coaching stuff. Is our playcalling bad or is it inconsistent play by the various levels of the offense? In order for a deep ball to get completed the protection needs to give the QB time, the QB needs to finds the guy, the QB needs to make the throw, and the WR needs to be open. Teddy isn't 100% innocent, but it seems to me that the bigger issue in that mix is the protection being good when the WR was open. they talked about it during the Raiders game where Wallace would be open but Teddy would get crushed or Teddy would have protection, but the deep throw wasn't there.

My guess is that going forward we are going to see more teams emulate what GB did to our OL. Do they have an answer? They need to add some athleticism at Guard, and they need it BAD. Frankly they probably need to grab a FA with some talent this offseason rather than continue to spend $$$ on big ticket FA WR that just are not giving us return on our investment. I think we can survive with Diggs/Johnson/Wright/Patterson plus Rudolph/Ellison. Of course Patterson is probably going to leave given his mileage here...

[SP1966]

Simple, they took the cheese.

[Mothman]

Sorry guys, it is hard for me to harp on the passing game yesterday given how poor the protection was. At one point Teddy was 10/11 with 120 yards and a TD. It felt to me that the OL play was the major culprit on offense.

In my view, pass protection is part of the passing game so when I'm critical of the passing game as a whole, I'm including protection in that criticism.

More on the coaching stuff. Is our playcalling bad or is it inconsistent play by the various levels of the offense? In order for a deep ball to get completed the protection needs to give the QB time, the QB needs to finds the guy, the QB needs to make the throw, and the WR needs to be open. Teddy isn't 100% innocent, but it seems to me that the bigger issue in that mix is the protection being good when the WR was open. they talked about it during the Raiders game where Wallace would be open but Teddy would get crushed or Teddy would have protection, but the deep throw wasn't there.

It's a combination of things. I think Bridgewater's limitations, and those of the OL, limit the downfield passing game (ie: deep and intermediate passing game) but there are issues with drops, issues with accuracy, issues with protection, use of personnel, blitz recognition and pick up, playcalling, finding the open receiver... it's a dysfunctional passing game.

[losperros]

It was a perfect throw that would have been 6 points if Wallace would have done the ONE THING he does well, which is to run fast in a straight line. Maybe he was mailing it in because of all the other times Teddy hasn't gotten him the ball, but that's no excuse for a professional.

On another note, is Wallace really the only Viking WR that can run blazing fast in a straight line? Why not try Johnson and/or Patterson in the same way?