Packer Post Game Postings

[VikingLord]

I just think that the overall philosophy of extreme risk aversion leans way too conservative. I place this loss on the coaching staff, and Zimmer leads that staff. That kind of offensive ineptitude, at home, against a defense that has not been as good as we made them look, falls squarely at the feet of the coaching staff. Yes, the pressure got the best of Cousins. And what did we do to offset that pressure? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No draws. No screens. Very few rollouts. Just drop back and let him get killed. Extremely poor game plan, and zero adjustments.

What can the coaches do when the opponent's defensive line is beating the offensive line at will? What kind of gameplan is there to compensate for total physical domination across the entire front?

[Texas Vike]

Well said.

Zimmer and Spielman have shown Vikes fans (and ownership) again and again what they have to offer and it's this better-than-average-but-going-nowhere brand of football. As you said, Vikes fans deserve better. I realize it's still theoretically possible the Vikings will go on a hot streak and storm through the playoffs to win their first Super Bowl but anybody who's watched this team under Zimmer knows how utterly flimsy that possibility is in reality.

Last night made it really clear that there is no way we're going anywhere in the playoffs. We will lose our first game, almost certainly, and if we happen to pull one out, we'll lose the next. We've not shown any ability to win against a good team on the road. Last night, we couldn't even do it at home, in one of the loudest stadiums in the league.

As Kapp said, last night was a gut punch. For me, it was a sucker punch--didn't see it coming, so I didn't flex the abs! haha. It's a miracle that we keep coming back to this team. We're suckers. Daily Norseman Stock Report article (linked upthread) puts it in Charlie Brown terms, Lucy keeps pulling the football away and we end up on our backs, thunderstruck. And, yet, we get up and try it again, thinking, "this time it's going to be different!" We're a ship of fools.

Edit to add this tid bit from twitter:

Ben Goessling
@GoesslingStrib
Per
@PFF
, Kirk Cousins was pressured on 17 of his 36 dropbacks last night.

Watching the game back this morning, the Packers brought standard pressure on all five of their sacks. On three of those five, they only sent a three-man rush after Cousins.

[VikingLord]

Yes, and that undermines the idea that the defense played "great" or even all that well. Green Bay moved the ball on them all night, primarily with Adams and Jones, so the Vikings knew who was getting the ball and they still couldn't stop them. The deserve huge kudos for the turnovers they forced in the first half but the offense couldn't capitalize, the defense couldn't sufficiently stifle GB and consequently, the Packers were able to wear them down.

I agree the defense didn't play great per se, but I attribute a lot of that to the fact that they got no respite from the offense. When one unit is on the field all game it is going to wear down and that is what happened last night. I can't fault the defense for the loss.

The offensive line, OTOH, was a horror show.

It was just a typical late-season Vikings melt down performance.

[VikingPaul73]

Vikings will likely go 0-5 against bears and packers this year.

Ouch.

[TSonn]

LOL I just remembered when Zimmer said our loss to Seattle wasn't the end of the world. Well, if that game wasn't the end of world, then presumably this game was the big one and it was big dud. I shouldn't have thought about it more today because it makes me feel like he's just a big dud as a head coach. He took us from losing to all teams to beating the bad teams - now we need a coach who will get us to beating the good teams some/most of the time.

Maybe he's got some magic set aside for wild card weekend? Track record says he doesn't and maybe he just says stuff to keep his job.

[Cliff]

That is what the offense looks like without Cook. Those screens and dump offs haven't been play calling wizardry, its cook making guys miss and making something out of nothing.

Regardless of what some say I think you need a good run game for play action to be effective and Kirk isnt particularly good without it.

The defense ran out of steam but they were the only reason the game was close. Imagine the score without those turnovers

[TSonn]

That is what the offense looks like without Cook. Those screens and dump offs haven't been play calling wizardry, its cook making guys miss and making something out of nothing.

Regardless of what some say I think you need a good run game for play action to be effective and Kirk isnt particularly good without it.

The defense ran out of steam but they were the only reason the game was close. Imagine the score without those turnovers

I feel the same way, but the stats don't seem to support it: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat- ... on-passing

[Bowhunting Viking]

Another night of being so excited for a Monday night statement game only to be kicked straight in the balls with Tom Dempsey's old kicking cleat.
All I could think last night was that even.. and I have 0 faith in it happening.. if we did go on some magic run, is there really any chance of beating any of the top AFC teams???
Last night confirmed I can add another season on my 50+ yr sentence of being a Viking fan to the " Well there is always next year" cell block. Parole denied again.

[VikingLord]

That is what the offense looks like without Cook. Those screens and dump offs haven't been play calling wizardry, its cook making guys miss and making something out of nothing.

Cook wouldn't have made any difference yesterday with the way the offensive line was manhandled. The Vikings could have had Bo Jackson in his prime at RB yesterday and he wouldn't have gotten squat because the Packers defensive linemen did what they wanted to who they wanted when they wanted. Cook, Mattison, Superman... It wouldn't have mattered.

The only chance the Vikings might have had to alter that calculus was if Cousins was throwing lasers and being decisive and he wasn't.

The Vikings offensive line just wasn't prepared to play. I don't know if they thought they had a playoff spot locked up or what, but they came out soft and got embarrassed, and Cousins wasn't (and probably isn't) good enough to compensate.

After they lose to the Bears they'll get their chance to visit the comfy confines of Lambeau for another beating and then they can make their vacation plans while the Wilfs decide if they want to keep paying top dollar for subprime performing players and coaches.

[CharVike]

Not really sure who is to blame (I'm sure there's enough to go around) but it seems pretty clear that we had no alternate playbook for not having Cook. Stefanski thought he could plug and play Boone into Cook's spot and get 80% of the production and when that didn't work, we literally had nothing. So yes, the line the terrible, Kirk was really bad, the playcalling was horrendous, but I think the coaching staff just didn't have a plan for no Cook.

Or maybe they just didn't care too much about this game and think the 6 seed is all we need especially if it means a healthy Cook come playoff time. The options were probably - play Cook tonight, win, still end up 5 seed (we had less than 5% chance of getting anything other than 5 or 6 seed), potentially lose Cook for the playoffs OR sit Cook, lose this game, have healthy Cook for playoffs at the 6 seed.

I don't think our coaches are smart enough to think that many moves into the future, but potentially that's what happened. If not, it was just a terribly coached and terribly prepared game. It's like we can only game plan one side of the ball before each game - never both offense and defense - can only be one apparently.

IMO if this was the Super Bowl Cook and Matti would have played. Some have posted don't throw in the towel but we basically did when those guys sat. I would sit all our best guys against the Bears. Why take a chance on Cousins being beat to crap or Cook or Diggs ect... We need to be as strong and healthy as possible. I thought our coaching was great. I was looking for our D to create TOs and they did a great job of that. They held Rodgers to 23. That's not the best ever but still a great effort. Even on O we did some good things but couldn't take advantage of what our D gave us. That pass Diggs missed to Kirk was a terrible play by Diggs. Great O call and play but our players F'ed it up. That was easy to see. What else was F'ed up that's not easy to see. I don't see much difference in the 5th or 6th seed. Either way we need to hit the road and win.

[VikingLord]

Either way we need to hit the road and win.

Do you really believe that this team can hit the road and beat a team with a winning record? After everything they've shown this year? You think this group of coaches and players has what it takes to do that?

[TSonn]

Not really sure who is to blame (I'm sure there's enough to go around) but it seems pretty clear that we had no alternate playbook for not having Cook. Stefanski thought he could plug and play Boone into Cook's spot and get 80% of the production and when that didn't work, we literally had nothing. So yes, the line the terrible, Kirk was really bad, the playcalling was horrendous, but I think the coaching staff just didn't have a plan for no Cook.

Or maybe they just didn't care too much about this game and think the 6 seed is all we need especially if it means a healthy Cook come playoff time. The options were probably - play Cook tonight, win, still end up 5 seed (we had less than 5% chance of getting anything other than 5 or 6 seed), potentially lose Cook for the playoffs OR sit Cook, lose this game, have healthy Cook for playoffs at the 6 seed.

I don't think our coaches are smart enough to think that many moves into the future, but potentially that's what happened. If not, it was just a terribly coached and terribly prepared game. It's like we can only game plan one side of the ball before each game - never both offense and defense - can only be one apparently.

IMO if this was the Super Bowl Cook and Matti would have played. Some have posted don't throw in the towel but we basically did when those guys sat. I would sit all our best guys against the Bears. Why take a chance on Cousins being beat to crap or Cook or Diggs ect... We need to be as strong and healthy as possible. I thought our coaching was great. I was looking for our D to create TOs and they did a great job of that. They held Rodgers to 23. That's not the best ever but still a great effort. Even on O we did some good things but couldn't take advantage of what our D gave us. That pass Diggs missed to Kirk was a terrible play by Diggs. Great O call and play but our players F'ed it up. That was easy to see. What else was F'ed up that's not easy to see. I don't see much difference in the 5th or 6th seed. Either way we need to hit the road and win.

If that was the game plan, I gotta hand it to them - takes some guts to basically throw in the towel against our biggest rival at home before the game even started. They've just never shown us this type of thinking before so I think it was more stupidity than long-term planning but hopefully they turn it up in the playoffs!

[StumpHunter]

I just think that the overall philosophy of extreme risk aversion leans way too conservative. I place this loss on the coaching staff, and Zimmer leads that staff. That kind of offensive ineptitude, at home, against a defense that has not been as good as we made them look, falls squarely at the feet of the coaching staff. Yes, the pressure got the best of Cousins. And what did we do to offset that pressure? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No draws. No screens. Very few rollouts. Just drop back and let him get killed. Extremely poor game plan, and zero adjustments.

What can the coaches do when the opponent's defensive line is beating the offensive line at will? What kind of gameplan is there to compensate for total physical domination across the entire front?

It wasn't like that the entire game. The last couple drives for sure it was like that, but that was only after the Vikings made themselves one dimensional and GB started to pin their ears back and go after the QB.

As for what you would do once GB started to really get after Kirk, I don't think there is anything you can do with our current QB. Brady and Brees would have made quick throws to avoid the rush, Rodgers and Wilson would have scrambled and moved the pocket. We have a slow QB who holds the ball too long. You give him all day to throw it and there aren't many better than him at passing, but it is unrealistic to ask that of an offensive line.

[Bowhunting Viking]

Either way we need to hit the road and win.

Do you really believe that this team can hit the road and beat a team with a winning record? After everything they've shown this year? You think this group of coaches and players has what it takes to do that?

Unfortunately I have reached the point that I can totally agree with this. I have really lost belief in this team going any further than the 1st round. And it's a lousy feeling. My wife said this morning that she has never seen me totally lose faith in them as I have after last night. Sorry but I can't muster the faith to see how we can turn this around and beat a really good team, on the road when the pressure is ratcheted up.
As optimistic as I try to be I sure don't see it happening.

[VikingPaul73]

Vikings will likely go 0-5 against bears and packers this year.

Ouch.

Actually I am wrong as GB currently has the 2 seed over NO based on conference record (9-2 vs 8-3).

So that means we will likely be traveling to NO in WC round (assuming SF and GB win next week)

Possibly traveling to SF if they lose to the Seahawks. That would make GB 1 and NO 2. Ugh, that would be horrible. rooting for SF next week I guess