Pondering Her Percy wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 11:57 am
J. Kapp 11 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 08, 2021 5:37 pm
Another set of holy sh!t stats.
The Minnesota Vikings have given up the 3rd fewest points in the first 28 minutes of first halves.
The Minnesota Vikings have given up the 7th fewest points in the 56 minutes outside of the final 2 minutes of each half.
If the Minnesota Vikings had scored the same number of points in the last 2 minutes of both halves as they’ve given up, they’d be 9-2-1 and the No. 1 seed in the NFC (because they would have beaten the Cardinals).
The ineptitude displayed at the end of FIRST halves has been historically bad. We’re giving up 6 points per game in the last 2 minutes — by far the worst in league history. How far is by far? The difference between the Vikings and the second-worst team in NFL history (the 2018 Bengals) is the same as the difference between the Bengals and the 40th worst team (2013 Cleveland Browns).
If Mike Zimmer isn’t embarrassed by this, then he’s numb to humanity.
Was actually just about to post this same stat. Goes to show how pathetic Zimmer's coaching has been. Like I've said before, he coaches petrified of making the wrong call. Coaches not to lose, he doesnt coach to win. Especially against weaker teams. This is exactly why we're in a barn burner every week. Because he's incapable of just stepping on a teams throat and being aggressive from the start. Instead he coaches so risk-adverse. But then when he goes and plays Aaron Rodgers and Justin Herbert, he comes out and says he threw everything he could at them and we win. But when we play Jared Goff twice and Cooper Rush, we dont blitz hardly at all, call a very vanilla defense and put zero pressure on them. Also known as being scared of losing to a bad team.
This is why I dont think Spielman should go. Because if Zimmer wasnt this teams head coach and holding this team back, we're at worst an 8-4 team right now with an offensive minded, ballsy head coach. Someone that maximizes his players talent and steps on the throats of the garbage teams and takes care of business against teams like Arizona, Cincy, Baltimore, etc.
It's pathetic to watch anymore. You know what's coming as you sit there and watch TV. Every time a game is close at the end, we all say to ourselves "when is the choke coming?". If you dont, you arent a Vikings fan. You just feel it in the air. And I can 100% tell you that this year, it's not the QB doing the choking. He's the only reason Mike Zimmer still has a job.
But mark my words, they will beat Pitt tonight because it's the classic bounce back game for the Vikings and per usual, it will keep Zim around just a little bit longer. It's time to move on from this clown. He's washed.
Solid post. Here's where I disagree slightly. I think Spielman has to go, too.
Rick Spielman is supposed to provide not only quality starters, but he's also supposed to find good depth players. The Vikings have NO QUALITY DEPTH, and that was proven beyond a doubt last week at Detroit. Now whether that's the fault of Zimmer and his nepotism minions or Spielman, I don't know. But if Rick Spielman is kowtowing to Mike Zimmer on personnel issues, then he's weak and needs to go anyway.
The other mark against Spielman, in my opinion, is the big spending he's done on Cousins and other veterans. It's not that Cousins isn't playing well. It's that the Vikings are hamstrung by his salary taking up 20% of the cap, and that figure grows to nearly 25% next year. Perhaps even more egregious, however, are the contracts for guys like Barr and Harry, which are really hurting the team. The Dalvin Cook deal is not working out either ... everybody knows I was not in favor of that, so I'll leave it alone. But again, Rick is responsible for all of those contracts. In the age of the salary cap, you can't give thank-you contracts to guys who have played well in the past. You give deals to guys you believe are going to play at a high level in the future. That's what makes Bill Belichick so successful. He never pays for past performance. Rick Spielman does, and it's what makes him unsuccessful, in my opinion.
As for Cousins, that's going to be up to the new regime. However, you and I both know that new GMs/coaches usually want to start with "their own guy" at quarterback. Whether that means picking up a bridge QB until they can draft a stud, or whether they try to find their guy sooner, there's a good chance their guy won't be Kirk Cousins. I could be wrong, but that would be my suspicion.
However, that's not to say Cousins is trash. Far from it. Check out the thread "The perfect Kirk Cousins solution." In the last couple of days, I've made a case for about 7 teams that might be in the market for a guy like Kirk Cousins. Why do I believe there are teams that would make a play for a guy with such a big contract? Because like you, I feel he has value as a starter in the NFL, probably as a Tier 1b kind of guy ... not on the level of Mahomes, Rodgers, etc., but a guy who can thrive in the right system. I just presented, for example, Cleveland as a place that could be the right system for Cousins ... strong running game, stud O-line, plus a head coach in Kevin Stefanski who has led Cousins to success and believes in what he can do.
My preference would be to clean house of GM and coach, then let them decide about Cousins. One thing I'm confident about ... the Vikings will not make a playoff run that saves their jobs. I think the Wilfs have already decided what they're going to do. We'll see what happens.