Dolphins post game thread

[Texas Vike]

41 points. Wow. 418 yards. 220 rushing, 198 passing.

Defense: 9 sacks, 10 points given up.

Apart from that pick six that nearly sent the game day chat into a civil war, that was a great showing for this team and especially for Stefanski.

Cook ran better than I can remember. Even our miserable OL looked halfway decent today. I'll be interested to see if we can keep this up against better defenses.

[PurpleMustReign]

Finally we beat a team and didn't let up (other than the 75 yard run). That was the defense that I wanted to see this season.
Cousins looked good. One bad play, but that's it. His throw to Robinson was a ting of beauty.
Cook and Murray were studs today.

Penalties hurt some drives. Someone mentioned that it isn't the qtys of them but the timing, and that is so accurate.

It was nice to see Sherels get some returns. Damn, he's good at that.

[Maelstrom88]

It waa nice but I expected a win. Tannehill sucks and they give up 140 yards on the ground on average this year. They should have won and they did.

[Cliff]

We beat a team with a winning record (well ... they used to ...). Great to see. Didn't like the near come back in the 3rd. LOVED seeing them stick it out after losing momentum. Cousins looked good in the 1st half. That second half basically sums him up. Half and half.

They stuck to the running game and it worked. Will it against better run defenses? We shall see!

[J. Kapp 11]

For what it's worth, Zimmer took the blame for the 75-yard run. He said he called an overload blitz to the other side, and they ran the perfect play. He was trying to be more aggressive on defense today, and that was the one play where it didn't pay off.

[Texas Vike]

For what it's worth, Zimmer took the blame for the 75-yard run. He said he called an overload blitz to the other side, and they ran the perfect play. He was trying to be more aggressive on defense today, and that was the one play where it didn't pay off.

Interesting. They did seem more aggressive today; I noticed a few blitzes on 3rd and long, especially with Barr, who capitalized with sacks.

Just watched Kirk's presser. The media seemed to BEG him to say something about the obvious improvement in play calling and scheme--but he attributed their success today to execution. Cousins is a class act and he knows how to say the right things. I'd love to hear whether he really thinks that, or if there were some changes that he thinks worked.

[S197]

All 3 aspects showed up today. Sherels was great, Run game was phenomenal and defense was aggressive which led to tons of pressure.

Prime example of why you need a run game, I mean I don't expect that much yards every week but you simply can't abandon it. It made play action better, gave Cousins more time to look downfield, and wore the defense down. I feel like this was the first game where Cook looked like his rookie season, his vision and patience were next level.

Glad for Stefanski but we'll see if this holds up. A "honeymoon" stage is not all that uncommon when big changes are made mid season. I hope they can carry the momentum through the last 2 games.

Did we have any major injuries?

[VikingLord]

The Vikings showed up with some nice fire out of the gate today in all facets of the game. They needed that, and needed to show they had it in them after some pretty lackluster starts in recent games. They showed they want to be in the post season conversation, and that alone is worth a lot after their recent struggles. They'll have to keep up that level of intensity in both of their remaining games. The Bears might not need a win in that final game, and the Lions are out of the playoff hunt, but those are both divisional games and I don't expect either team to roll over. The path to the post season is clear, though. Win their next 2 and they are in.

The offense really did a good job of taking advantage of the Dolphins defensive weaknesses, especially early. The Dolphins have struggled defending the run and with defensive breakdowns all year and the Vikings pounced all over those, which in turn prevented the Dolphins from ever getting into pure pass rush mode and wreaking havoc with their defensive ends. Obviously, Cousins made a huge mistake with that ill-timed screen pass, but otherwise I thought he played a solid game overall, including two nice QB sneaks to pick up 3rd-and-short situations. I thought the offensive line also played a pretty complete game today, keeping Cousins largely clean in the pocket and opening up some nice running lanes. And, of course, Cook and Murray were on point today. Both had really good games. If the Vikings can maintain offensive balance, they should be able to put points up with how much talent they have on offense at the skill positions.

Defensively, I thought overall they played very well. Bigtime lapse on the long TD run, but they sent Smith on the blitz and he came up empty. Overall though, I thought they did a fantastic job of consistently rushing and staying home, preventing Tannehill from getting comfortable or really having many options to escape the pressure. Had they played that way the entire game against the Bears and Trubisky earlier in the season, I really think the outcome of that game would have been much different. The defense overall is showing the kind of discipline and focus that should enable this team to make a deep playoff run. How deep depends on the offense and special teams, but I like what I'm seeing from them the last 2 games now, and even for a long stretch against the Pats.

Overall, this was the game I wanted to see from the Vikings and needed to see to believe they are capable of doing anything in the playoffs this year. Miami isn't a great team, but they were good enough to beat the Patriots and had a winning record coming into the game today. We've seen the Vikings lay eggs to much worse teams than Miami, and they made Miami look like they didn't belong on the same field for most of the day. Now Zimmer has to keep this going. The team needs to do this 2 more times and get rolling so they can head into the playoffs with confidence, especially since there is a good chance they may end up having to play the Bears again in the 1st round if they make it.

[YikesVikes]

I rather enjoyed today. No more pick 6's and I hope Cousin shut Skip up.

[PurpleKoolaid]

I rather enjoyed today. No more pick 6's and I hope Cousin shut Skip up.

Not sure I understand your post, but Cousins did hate another pick-6 today.

[halfgiz]

@christomasson
8m
The #Vikings rolled up their most points today since a 49-17 win over the New York Giants on Dec. 27, 2015.

I didn't realize it had been that long.

[Texas Vike]

@christomasson
8m
The #Vikings rolled up their most points today since a 49-17 win over the New York Giants on Dec. 27, 2015.

I didn't realize it had been that long.

No wonder it felt so good!

[Tavern_Wino]

Sucks that the Bears clinched but a Vikings win eliminated Green Bay. Bittersweet...

As for the game, wasn't sure what to expect when the Dolphins got the lead down to 7. Today's team looked like they were in the game mentally and they weren't going to collapse. Maybe they feel the pressure and know they need to step it up and win these last three games to make a run. Great home win.

[Pondering Her Percy]

I’ve said this for a while now but nobody can sit there and tell me this team cant run the ball. Flip never committed to it. That was the problem and it showed. No less stefanski did a great job of using both backs and keeping guys rested. We don’t have Matt Asiata out there. No reason we should be the lowest running team in the nfl. Flip refused to adjust and panicked every time a run didn’t work. Not every run is going to work but you still have to commit to it.

Firing flip paid off for sure so far. I can’t imagine stefanski being worse no matter what happens this year. Great call by Zim

[Cousins4MVP]

I think this game shows just how important coaching and proper game planning is in the NFL, this is the same team and players from the past few weeks that didn't show up on offense that came and played lights out tonight. I think Flip was trying to complicate and overdo things and that's what ultimately lead to his firing. This offense is built to be balanced and spread the field. I think if stefanski can just shake things up a bit while also leaning heavily on the run like he did tonight the Vikings will be fine these last two games.