Dolphins post game thread

[Texas Vike]

Couple of notes regarding differences I noticed in Stefanski's first few drives:

1) uptempo; lots of no huddle and always a good tempo.

2) Little to no straight back drops for Cousins. Much more play action passes and a good number of roll outs.

3) On 2nd or 3rd and short, we QB sneaked, numerous times.

4) Running was primary and it was used to set up the pass, not vice versa. Lots of runs between the tackles, nothing fancy or tricky.

5) On Cooks first TD, he gave the ball to Elflein to spike. Cool. Zimmer gave the game ball to the OL too. The OL seemed to respond to the JDF firing with some spunk. Nice to see.

6) They ran a lot of run plays with a WR or TE motioning to the edge of the line to help block the edge. They didn't always run when they did this. They also used Ham as a lead blocker, especially with Murray.

7) Cousins had time to pass; he was only pressured once on the first three drives.

8. Zimmer used smelling salts to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

Just to extend these notes-- We stunk during the 2nd and 3rd quarters, letting a 21-0 lead go to 24-17. Our running game suddenly looked ordinary after gashing them in the 1st qtr.

Twice, we had idiotic play from OL (Remmers and Elflein) on 3rd down. The latter negated a huge completion to Diggs that had us in FG range; instead, we were forced to punt. We also had a big 3rd down pick up from Cook come back due to a flag for holding on Compton that was a terrible call.

As Kapp noted in the chat: we seem to have a knack for doing this on huge plays. They impact the game in a major way. Why do we have this tendency? Is it just because we're the Vikings and that's what we've always done (as long as I can remember?)

[VikingLord]

Just to extend these notes-- We stunk during the 2nd and 3rd quarters, letting a 21-0 lead go to 24-17. Our running game suddenly looked ordinary after gashing them in the 1st qtr.

I don't know if I'd characterize it quite that way. Of those 17 points, 14 came on splash plays that weren't indicative of the overall game flow. 7 came on a bad read by Cousins on that screen that was intercepted and returned for a score (speaking of which, I can't remember the last time I saw a simple screen get picked like that - Cousins has to be better than that going forward and see when he can't throw it), and 7 on a simple inside run that turned into a long score, mostly because Harrison Smith came in on a blitz and just didn't make it home before the RB was able to get through the line. Up to that point the Vikings had more or less dominated the game on both sides of the ball, and after the run, continued to dominate, although they did struggle a bit on offense in the 3rd quarter.

Points matter, but it's hard to look at that change in the score without some context. The team overall stayed focused and I thought recovered nicely from those setbacks. They could have easily started to get down after that and press, but just settled back in and kept their foot on the gas on both sides of the ball.

[mansquatch]

I am really hoping we can play the Cowboys in the playoffs, not sure if first or second round. A friend was saying its a good possibility we do play them. But hes a Bulls/Bears fan (and a bit of a Bears fan) so im not sure I 100% trust him.

I think for that to happen Dallas would have to win the east and the Vikes would have to be the 5th seed. Both are still possible. It's unlikely DAL will finish with a better record than CHI so that's probably the only scenario in which the Vikes would play the Cowboys unless both teams advance to the NFC Championship.

SEA lost today and they play KC this week. It is possible that we'll pass them up in the Win Loss column if we can win out and they keep losing.

I do think that Dallas is a better draw for us than CHI, although I'm not sure how far apart they are. I like our defenses' chances of shutting down the Bears offense better than I like it's chances vs. Dallas. Both defensive fronts present challenges, although I think Chicago's is the harder draw. Still, we'll have seen them two times already this season. We haven't played the Cowboys since 2016. Not sure if that is a positive or negative? Of course knocking Jerry Jones out the playoffs in his own house does have a certain appeal...

The Rams are looking more and more like a paper tiger. You could give them something of a pass for the loss against CHI, but that game last night vs. PHI was embarrassing for Goff. Their Defense can't figure out the formula of double teams vs. Donald either. If we got to the DIV round, I definitely would like to draw them vs. the Saints. I'm not sure they are going to win a playoff game.

[PacificNorseWest]

The scripted 15 plays sure seemed lights out. Next step is for Stefanski to continue that hot playcalling beyond just the initial script and adjust to the in-game flow. My biggest concern was how hard the offense fell off after the 1st quarter, so hopefully Stefanski has a good handle on why that happened.

[UK Phil]

REALLY enjoyed the game yesterday.

There is so much talent on this roster; the most for a long time in my opinion.

When the defense comes to play they are scary. Front 4 are ridiculous and now we have got Barr going I think they are just hitting their stride at the right time. Also a word for the secondary. On the occasions when Tannehill did have time, everyone was covered. Trae Waynes has really started playing good ball. It's seriously exciting.

I don't want to play down our chances, but I just don't think this OL will hold up properly vs better defensive fronts (i.e. the Bears). BUT, for me, that makes next off-season the biggest one in decades. There is one glaring weakness on this roster and that is the OL. If they can improve it, next season with a protected Cousins and Dalvin running behind a line that gives him even slight holes, we are a serious serious contender.

[Texas Vike]

Just to extend these notes-- We stunk during the 2nd and 3rd quarters, letting a 21-0 lead go to 24-17. Our running game suddenly looked ordinary after gashing them in the 1st qtr.

I don't know if I'd characterize it quite that way. Of those 17 points, 14 came on splash plays that weren't indicative of the overall game flow. 7 came on a bad read by Cousins on that screen that was intercepted and returned for a score (speaking of which, I can't remember the last time I saw a simple screen get picked like that - Cousins has to be better than that going forward and see when he can't throw it), and 7 on a simple inside run that turned into a long score, mostly because Harrison Smith came in on a blitz and just didn't make it home before the RB was able to get through the line. Up to that point the Vikings had more or less dominated the game on both sides of the ball, and after the run, continued to dominate, although they did struggle a bit on offense in the 3rd quarter.

Points matter, but it's hard to look at that change in the score without some context. The team overall stayed focused and I thought recovered nicely from those setbacks. They could have easily started to get down after that and press, but just settled back in and kept their foot on the gas on both sides of the ball.

These notes come from watching the game a second time today. Trust me, we stunk in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Go back and watch it. You admit that our O struggled in the 3rd. Yes. We scored 3 of 41 points in the 2nd and 3rd; our O also gave up 7 in those quarters, so we were actually -4 points in those two quarters on offense. It was night and day from the 1st quarter and again from the 4th.

[VikingLord]

These notes come from watching the game a second time today. Trust me, we stunk in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Go back and watch it.

I don't really need to go back and watch it, although I do trust your recollection of it.

But, I think maybe with the points outbursts in the 1st and 4th quarters, the 2nd and 3rd looked a little worse than they were when considered in total.

In the 2nd quarter, the Vikings offense had the ball 3 times. The first drive was going along nicely (10 plays, 33 yards, 5:01 TOP) when Cousins threw that pick 6 on a 3rd-and-15.

The next drive was a 3-and-out, and the last "drive" was when they ran one play to end the half. So the pick 6 sucked, I think we can all agree on that, but that drive was moving along fairly well before that happened.

I think we both agree the offense was sloppy to start the 3rd. The first 3 offensive drives of the 3rd quarter were short and ended in punts. So that was not good. But on their last drive of the 3rd quarter, they picked it up with a 9 play, 57 yard drive that consumed 4:35 and ended in a field goal. After that, it was all gravy.

Maybe this is somewhat subjective, and like I said, I consider the pick 6 to be "stinking", but the offense maybe had about one quarter's worth of stink in it yesterday, while for the remaining 3 I thought they moved it consistently and stayed aggressive.

[PacificNorseWest]

The Vikings were awful on offense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. In fact, as I mentioned here or elsewhere, they did most of their damage within the first 15 offensive plays, which is typically your "scripted" plays. It was concerning that beyond the first 15-20 plays, the offense looked out of sync again. Kirk didn't help with the dumb decision to throw that ball right to the defender, gifting Miami 7 points, but to me, there was definitely a distinct difference in results between the first 15 and the rest of the game. The nail in the coffin TD pass in the 4th quarter was a good sign, but it was also on a short field.

[PurpleMustReign]

The Vikings were awful on offense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. In fact, as I mentioned here or elsewhere, they did most of their damage within the first 15 offensive plays, which is typically your "scripted" plays. It was concerning that beyond the first 15-20 plays, the offense looked out of sync again. Kirk didn't help with the dumb decision to throw that ball right to the defender, gifting Miami 7 points, but to me, there was definitely a distinct difference in results between the first 15 and the rest of the game. The nail in the coffin TD pass in the 4th quarter was a good sign, but it was also on a short field.

Why do offenses only script 15 plays? I never understood thst. I'm not saying they need to script 60 plays, but why is 15 the magic number?

[PacificNorseWest]

The Vikings were awful on offense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. In fact, as I mentioned here or elsewhere, they did most of their damage within the first 15 offensive plays, which is typically your "scripted" plays. It was concerning that beyond the first 15-20 plays, the offense looked out of sync again. Kirk didn't help with the dumb decision to throw that ball right to the defender, gifting Miami 7 points, but to me, there was definitely a distinct difference in results between the first 15 and the rest of the game. The nail in the coffin TD pass in the 4th quarter was a good sign, but it was also on a short field.

Why do offenses only script 15 plays? I never understood thst. I'm not saying they need to script 60 plays, but why is 15 the magic number?

15-20 is generally the number, but it's basically the plays you feel most confident in based on the game plan and what you gleaned from watching film. Areas where you feel like you have an advantage. 15 plays about 2 drives worth of plays and it gives a good mix of pass/run variance to where you can get a good feel of what works well and what doesn't. Any fewer and you may miss out on something you can exploit...Anything more and the defense has probably figured out what you're doing by then. It's the sweet spot that I guess coaches have settled on after years and years of doing this, so I trust that formula.

You don't script the whole game because you typically need to constantly revise or throw in wrinkles that are based on game flow and situational football. The defense will adjust to what you did if you did well early on, so you need to counter. You might give the look of a similar play of one that was in the original script, but later in the game you have an alternative read that is setup from the original play (think of a lot of your WR motions where they sweep across the field. You might motion Diggs all game to give them that "look" of a WR sweep, but all you do early is hand it off to Cook or Murray. Later in the game when you feel they aren't biting on Diggs motioning any more, you hit with that play or you use it as a PA when so far it had been 100% run in that look. You can catch the defense sleeping and hit them long or for a big play. That's why you can't script it all, because you need to see how the defense reacts to the looks you give them and figure out where a weakness is. Then, ideally, you adjust and hit them with that play that where you exposed a weakness...They adjust again and so on and so forth. That's why you always hear the phrase of OC vs DC or HC vs OC/DC as a constant chess match.

[PacificNorseWest]

I found it interesting that in a lot of previous games on 3rd and 1's that the commentators would call for a QB sneak. Vikings ultimately get stopped. On Sunday, they ran the QB sneak, what...2 times? Both on 2nd and one though and not 3rd down and they picked it up easily. I really liked that nuance. Get the 1st instead of putting your team in 3rd and short, which has been a bugaboo of late. They'll need to mix that up going forward though so it's not so much a tendency on every 2nd and 1.

[808vikingsfan]

The Vikings were awful on offense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. In fact, as I mentioned here or elsewhere, they did most of their damage within the first 15 offensive plays, which is typically your "scripted" plays. It was concerning that beyond the first 15-20 plays, the offense looked out of sync again. Kirk didn't help with the dumb decision to throw that ball right to the defender, gifting Miami 7 points, but to me, there was definitely a distinct difference in results between the first 15 and the rest of the game. The nail in the coffin TD pass in the 4th quarter was a good sign, but it was also on a short field.

Agree. This game was a lot closer than the score IMO. While the D did dominate, the Vikings were up only one score until 9 minutes left in the game. The Dolphins had zero tape on what the Vikings were going to do because of the change at OC. Should be a little different in the weeks ahead. I'm still very concerned about the offense.

[808vikingsfan]

Minnesota Vikings@Vikings

After giving up a 75-yard TD run to start the 2nd half, the #Vikings allowed just 10 yards on 26 plays the rest of the game.

[VikingLord]

The Vikings were awful on offense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. In fact, as I mentioned here or elsewhere, they did most of their damage within the first 15 offensive plays, which is typically your "scripted" plays. It was concerning that beyond the first 15-20 plays, the offense looked out of sync again. Kirk didn't help with the dumb decision to throw that ball right to the defender, gifting Miami 7 points, but to me, there was definitely a distinct difference in results between the first 15 and the rest of the game. The nail in the coffin TD pass in the 4th quarter was a good sign, but it was also on a short field.

Agree. This game was a lot closer than the score IMO. While the D did dominate, the Vikings were up only one score until 9 minutes left in the game. The Dolphins had zero tape on what the Vikings were going to do because of the change at OC. Should be a little different in the weeks ahead. I'm still very concerned about the offense.

How was the game closer than the score?

I mean, if the consensus is the Vikings offense stunk in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, well, I won't argue that further. But that one score differential was produced by a single pick 6 (on a screen pass!!! ), and a single 75 yard splash run play. 14 of the 17 points came on 2 one-off plays. Those count all the same on the scoreboard, but to suggest that the Dolphins were somehow keeping the game close or even materially changing momentum in the 2nd and 3rd quarters is a stretch, at least for me.

The thing I found most impressive in this last game was that the Vikings never let up. Once they got up by 21 early, I thought they might relax a bit on both sides of the ball, but they didn't, and I don't think either of the Dolphins scores were the result of them letting up. They were blitzing Tannehill late into the 4th and Cousins was going for the endzone on a 3rd-and-9 in Miami territory late. Got to love that.

[fiestavike]

Loved the heavy sets! Loved seeing Morgan back healthy! He's so underrated. Truly sick of seeing Rudolph out there as the lone tight end outside of redzone situations. It was great to see so much 2TE sets, and to see the FB getting a lot of snaps.