Week 3 Vs. Bengals

[CharVike]

I have no idea how this one will go. For us Wentz gets the start after being here a few weeks. Outside of one quarter our offense has been a horror show. I don't even know who will play on the OL. If Darrisaw is still out we will be down to a 3rd string LT who will need to block one of the better DEs. If it is Rouse they better not leave him alone like they did with Skule or we will have some bad things happen. Even for Darrisaw it might be hard for his 1st time out. Jackson has a wrist injury also and was limited in practice. I expect Wentz to look for Jefferson and to throw it open or not. I don't know what's up with Hock. I wouldn't be shocked if we put up 9 points or 30 points. Nailor should get some deep chances which seems his best skill. Our run defense will look much improve but the Bengals don't have a ground game and don't care about it. Plus the OL they have is real bad. They were forced to sign Risner and place him in the lineup. He was beaten on the Burrow injury and is one of the worst Gs in the game right now. Pace has been a bad player so far. Looks like each year he gets worse. Jake Browning is a dink and dunk QB who will get the ball out fast. He's not a very good long ball thrower but has been in the system for a few years which should help. He won't play hero ball but will turn it over just based on talent level. I think the Bengals have the advantage at backup QB because Browning has a few years in the system while Wentz is being thrown into the fire after a few weeks. Maybe that's ok it worked for Dobbs. The Bengal secondary is banged up and wasn't that good to start with. I think we sneak this one out 13-10. Yawnfest.

[Cliff]

I have no idea how this one will go. For us Wentz gets the start after being here a few weeks. Outside of one quarter our offense has been a horror show. I don't even know who will play on the OL. If Darrisaw is still out we will be down to a 3rd string LT who will need to block one of the better DEs. If it is Rouse they better not leave him alone like they did with Skule or we will have some bad things happen. Even for Darrisaw it might be hard for his 1st time out. Jackson has a wrist injury also and was limited in practice. I expect Wentz to look for Jefferson and to throw it open or not. I don't know what's up with Hock. I wouldn't be shocked if we put up 9 points or 30 points. Nailor should get some deep chances which seems his best skill. Our run defense will look much improve but the Bengals don't have a ground game and don't care about it. Plus the OL they have is real bad. They were forced to sign Risner and place him in the lineup. He was beaten on the Burrow injury and is one of the worst Gs in the game right now. Pace has been a bad player so far. Looks like each year he gets worse. Jake Browning is a dink and dunk QB who will get the ball out fast. He's not a very good long ball thrower but has been in the system for a few years which should help. He won't play hero ball but will turn it over just based on talent level. I think the Bengals have the advantage at backup QB because Browning has a few years in the system while Wentz is being thrown into the fire after a few weeks. Maybe that's ok it worked for Dobbs. The Bengal secondary is banged up and wasn't that good to start with. I think we sneak this one out 13-10. Yawnfest.

I'm in the same boat. It's definitely hard telling what is going to happen.

A lot is going to come down to the offensive line. We still don't know what we have in JJM and that is largely due to him not having protection. I seriously doubt Wentz is going to look much better if he doesn't get help from the offensive line. Ryan Kelly is probably out too. Donovan Jackson is on the injury report with a wrist issue. Of course Darrisaw is still up in the air. Speaking of which, If Darrisaw also misses this game I'm not sure why he wasn't placed on IR. You would think he'll either be back this game or next. "Insider sources" say he is trending towards playing. Definitely don't want to rush him if it ends up making things worse, but they need him badly. If not, what was the point of using up the roster spot? Josh Oliver, who would be in line to help out the offensive line, is dealing with an ankle injury. Of course C.J. Ham is still out and the run game/offensive line misses him.

On the defense Harrison Smith is still on the injury report but "inside sources" also report he'll probably play this week. Don't know about Gink but it's looking like a no there. Cashman on IR, Theo Jackson questionable, Jeff Okudah questionable.

Are the starters ever actually going to be on the field at the same time for this team?

[CharVike]

I have no idea how this one will go. For us Wentz gets the start after being here a few weeks. Outside of one quarter our offense has been a horror show. I don't even know who will play on the OL. If Darrisaw is still out we will be down to a 3rd string LT who will need to block one of the better DEs. If it is Rouse they better not leave him alone like they did with Skule or we will have some bad things happen. Even for Darrisaw it might be hard for his 1st time out. Jackson has a wrist injury also and was limited in practice. I expect Wentz to look for Jefferson and to throw it open or not. I don't know what's up with Hock. I wouldn't be shocked if we put up 9 points or 30 points. Nailor should get some deep chances which seems his best skill. Our run defense will look much improve but the Bengals don't have a ground game and don't care about it. Plus the OL they have is real bad. They were forced to sign Risner and place him in the lineup. He was beaten on the Burrow injury and is one of the worst Gs in the game right now. Pace has been a bad player so far. Looks like each year he gets worse. Jake Browning is a dink and dunk QB who will get the ball out fast. He's not a very good long ball thrower but has been in the system for a few years which should help. He won't play hero ball but will turn it over just based on talent level. I think the Bengals have the advantage at backup QB because Browning has a few years in the system while Wentz is being thrown into the fire after a few weeks. Maybe that's ok it worked for Dobbs. The Bengal secondary is banged up and wasn't that good to start with. I think we sneak this one out 13-10. Yawnfest.

I'm in the same boat. It's definitely hard telling what is going to happen.

A lot is going to come down to the offensive line. We still don't know what we have in JJM and that is largely due to him not having protection. I seriously doubt Wentz is going to look much better if he doesn't get help from the offensive line. Ryan Kelly is probably out too. Donovan Jackson is on the injury report with a wrist issue. Of course Darrisaw is still up in the air. Speaking of which, If Darrisaw also misses this game I'm not sure why he wasn't placed on IR. You would think he'll either be back this game or next. "Insider sources" say he is trending towards playing. Definitely don't want to rush him if it ends up making things worse, but they need him badly. If not, what was the point of using up the roster spot? Josh Oliver, who would be in line to help out the offensive line, is dealing with an ankle injury. Of course C.J. Ham is still out and the run game/offensive line misses him.

On the defense Harrison Smith is still on the injury report but "inside sources" also report he'll probably play this week. Don't know about Gink but it's looking like a no there. Cashman on IR, Theo Jackson questionable, Jeff Okudah questionable.

Are the starters ever actually going to be on the field at the same time for this team?

The thing that also stands out with Darrisaw he was getting the practice reps during the week. How about the guy who is starting don't he need the reps? We all knew that JJM would go through some struggles and I do feel they did their best to fix the interior of the OL. But I don't think any of us expected that fall back we had last week. Even the announcers were shocked about our ineptness. It looked like we had no idea. Getting beat is hard to take but playing the way we did is much harder. We are lucky the competition hasn't been great. It's not that great this week either. We are a banged up team, with conflicting reports, but others are going through that also and they didn't crumble to being humiliated. The Bengals are a perfect example. I think Gink will play but again who knows.
Also bringing in Wentz is ok but why wait until it was so late. They traded for a backup and it took that long to realize he isn't good enough? That seems strange.

[VikingLord]

Also bringing in Wentz is ok but why wait until it was so late. They traded for a backup and it took that long to realize he isn't good enough? That seems strange.

Maybe they don't know what they're doing as much as we all hope they know what they're doing?

I mean, they let Darnold and Jones walk, then traded for Sam Howell. The 3rd string QB is an undrafted free agent. They also traded up for McCarthy who can't stay on the field and when he's on the field he's really struggled.

Yeah, KOC should know how to evaluate QBs since he played the position. McCown should know QBs since he also played it. And KAM should be doing what KOC wants at the position. When a team puts all their chips in on a guy like McCarthy and has the professional pedigree at head coach that the Vikings have, they should be right. So far, it looks like they missed on several fronts.

But, maybe Wentz and the offense will continue to struggle. If so, maybe the offensive struggles aren't McCarthy's fault. But something tells me that isn't the case. I think the offense will finally start to move the ball. Who knows if they'll be able to score but I suspect they'll at least string a few first downs together and at least make the Bengals work a bit on defense.

Our defense, on the other hand, is going up against one of the worst rushing offenses in the league, so one of two things will happen. Either our defense will finally settle down a bit and start to play fundamentally better against the run, or the Bengals are about to get a stats boost by taking advantage of one of the worst run defenses in the league.

This is what I call a clarifying game for the Vikings. Have they taken a major step back on both sides of the ball despite all of their offseason largess, or have they just had the wrong QB under center and a defense that needed to settle in a bit? We'll find out more tomorrow.

[CharVike]

Also bringing in Wentz is ok but why wait until it was so late. They traded for a backup and it took that long to realize he isn't good enough? That seems strange.

Maybe they don't know what they're doing as much as we all hope they know what they're doing?

I mean, they let Darnold and Jones walk, then traded for Sam Howell. The 3rd string QB is an undrafted free agent. They also traded up for McCarthy who can't stay on the field and when he's on the field he's really struggled.

Yeah, KOC should know how to evaluate QBs since he played the position. McCown should know QBs since he also played it. And KAM should be doing what KOC wants at the position. When a team puts all their chips in on a guy like McCarthy and has the professional pedigree at head coach that the Vikings have, they should be right. So far, it looks like they missed on several fronts.

But, maybe Wentz and the offense will continue to struggle. If so, maybe the offensive struggles aren't McCarthy's fault. But something tells me that isn't the case. I think the offense will finally start to move the ball. Who knows if they'll be able to score but I suspect they'll at least string a few first downs together and at least make the Bengals work a bit on defense.

Our defense, on the other hand, is going up against one of the worst rushing offenses in the league, so one of two things will happen. Either our defense will finally settle down a bit and start to play fundamentally better against the run, or the Bengals are about to get a stats boost by taking advantage of one of the worst run defenses in the league.

This is what I call a clarifying game for the Vikings. Have they taken a major step back on both sides of the ball despite all of their offseason largess, or have they just had the wrong QB under center and a defense that needed to settle in a bit? We'll find out more tomorrow.

I agree with your points especially what I highlighted. I don't know what to make of McCarthy at this point. It's too early. But he certainly has struggled and our OL has done him no favors. That TD throw to Jetts down the middle into the end zone game 1 was a beauty. The miss last week to Nailor for a TD was garbage. That throw needs to be made because he had several steps and we get the momentum. I liked watching Sammy play because that's the style of football I like. That's over and obviously our team felt it was better to move on. As for Wentz I've never seen a game he played in. I watched highlights and low lights but who knows. It seems to me he is much like Darnold. Big, tall with a cannon arm looking to go deep.
This Bengal team has no running game and I don't think they focus on it. Our D should be able to contain that and will put them in great position to go after Browning and try to jump routes. Higgins is 6'4" which makes him tough to cover and Chase can take it all the way. IMO when healthy us or them have the best duo of WRs.
All games are hard to predict but this one takes the cake. There could be limited scoring or they could both put up 28ish points. But we have been a terrible team so far and we are 1-1 because of who we played. Fortunately for us the Bengals can't rush the passer outside of one guy who we need to focus on with dual blocking even if Darrisaw plays and he said it's 50/50. That tells me no.

[Cliff]

Darrisaw, Harrison Smith, and Gink are all active.

[soflavike]

Please, don't let Jake Browner beat us again.

The O-line has to play better, Wentz has to be smart and the defense needs to carry us, I think. Hopefully, Jordan Mason can have a big day.

[VikingsVictorious]

Go vikings.

[CharVike]

That's how you start a game.

[VikingsVictorious]

Nice TD followed by a Bengals 3 and out.

[VikingsVictorious]

Nice start, but we've gone stagnant on offense. Defense might have to win it for us.

[CharVike]

Defense gets the credit so far. It's good they took Darisaw out. If it stays like this maybe give Bosmer a few series and Rouse also. Tony Romo calls it good.

[CharVike]

Can't complain about that blow out. On to the next one. Bengals looked bad and turned it over too much. Rodgers 2 defensive TDs which I don't recall ever happening for a defensive player off the top of my head. Falcons get shutout after lighting us up by a bad team. I guess Penix crashed to earth. Wentz had some plays were he held it a long time and some were sacks. Not sure what caused that. Good to see Hock getting down field. I guessed a 23 point total score. Not even close. Darisaw played good. I think Turner also look good. Rookie Keys looks fast. Off to Europe I think the next 2 weeks.

[jvessey]

So the question I have is how much of that was having Darrisaw back, and how much was it having a veteran qb in today?
Probably a bit of both. Wentz did seem to have more than a second to make a play, but he also seemed more poised, or calmer back there. What do you all think, do we have the start of a qb controversy, or are we seeing what the team looks like with some of its better players back?

[CharVike]

So the question I have is how much of that was having Darrisaw back, and how much was it having a veteran qb in today?
Probably a bit of both. Wentz did seem to have more than a second to make a play, but he also seemed more poised, or calmer back there. What do you all think, do we have the start of a qb controversy, or are we seeing what the team looks like with some of its better players back?

No controversy. Wentz had the good opening drive and played good enough. Many times he held the ball forever and took the sack. I think Darrisaw made the difference. Romo said it allowed Hoch to run some down field routes. I was beginning to think Hoch was washed up. Our OL was real good today and got the running game going. Fries made a stupid push in the back that took away a nice gain. Brandle made a stupid penalty also. This game was easy almost too easy and I doubt we are that good.