Vikings at Jaguars

[CharVike]

We are road favorites. The Jaguars have been a big disappointment so far this year. They were expected to challenge for a playoff spot but that has little hope now. They have problems at the LOS on both sides of the ball. They play a traditional 4-3 defense and both their DE's are 1st round picks and can rush the passer very well. Robinson and O'Neil will be in the spotlight. The 2 interior players aren't highly ranked which brings down the entire group. Overall it's not a very good group. Their secondary also is bad. I don't see how they can stop us from scoring in the 20's. On the other side the offense hasn't done much. Rookie WR Brian Thomas Jr. can fly. He lines up in the slot and will try to split our secondary. Bynum better be ready. We should win this game. The Bears hammered them and the Packers beat them. Darnold should have a good game. KOC has Darnold playing his best ball. IMO Darnold showed a lot by coming out the 2nd half and playing good ball. He'll make a few head scratching mistakes but he won't go to the bottom. I like the way he plays. I called him a bum game 1 but he has proven me wrong. He throws rockets and can drop it in a bucket like he did to Jones. KOC will allow him to take chances. Jefferson will shine here. Last week he put on a show. I hope we use him early. I think we win mainly because Jax is bad at the point on both sides and their secondary sucks. I see it 27-13 us.

[CharVike]

The Jacksonville Jaguars have encountered another bump in their difficult 2024 road.

Trevor Lawrence (left shoulder) is considered unlikely to play Sunday versus the Vikings, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported, per sources.

Trevor is looking for drama. One of my draft bust picks the pride of Alabama I guess and a winner of a championship Mac Jones is next on the list. That should swing the line a little because I don't think he has much.

We get a break.

[VikingLord]

All I know is this is a game the Vikings should win and need to win if they're going to keep realistic playoff hopes alive. The Jags are simply put not a good team. They have major question marks on both sides of the ball and seem very unlikely to be able to keep up scorewise if the Vikings don't shoot themselves in the foot. It's a road game so that is always a bit of an X factor, but as you pointed out it is unlikely Lawrence will play and I just don't see how they keep up otherwise.

I'd love to see the Vikings have another game like their first 3.5 games of this season. I'd like to see Darnold chuck it all over the field and hit on several deep routes. I'd like to see the Vikings offense sustain drives and punch the ball in a few times. I'd like to see the defense return to it's former level of disruption at the LOS and shut down the opposing running game like they did earlier in the year. And of course, I'd like to see a convincing win.

I think the Vikings take this one comfortably:

Vikings - 28
Jags - 10

[CharVike]

Inactives for game. Cleveland out. That should hurt the ground game. No Trevor
Vikings
Quarterback Brett Rypien (third quarterback)

Cornerback Fabian Moreau

Cornerback Dwight McGlothern

Defensive lineman Levi Drake Rodriguez

Offensive lineman Dan Feeney

Tackle Walter Rouse

Jaguars

Jacksonville announced the following players will be inactive:

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence

Defensive end Myles Cole

Offensive lineman Ezra Cleveland

Defensive tackle Esezi Otomewo

Defensive tackle Maason Smith

[CharVike]

Game balls Mac Jones and Romo. Too many TOs. But they get the win and that helps the playoff chances. Running the ball well then on 3 and 1 we take a sack. That was a 2 plays to make 1 yard situation or FG try. You can't have a sack in that spot. In the end getting a win is hard in the NFL and that was achieved. Better than letting a dog beat you.
KOC said they felt something would be open downfield on that 3 and 1. The block was missed on the outside. When the blocking breaks down it will cause problems. Jax has 2 good outside rushers. They won on that play. Then another reporter starting to ask if he was considering pulling.... and before he finished KOC said no. KOC knows what Mullens is. That is why Sam is here. QBs are off at times. He was off at times all year. Sam is only keeping the seat warm until next year. Of course if our young guy is bad then KOC and KAM are done.
Goff 5 ints. He makes how much? They all have bad games. Even the best,

[Cliff]

Darnold had the really bad INTs and he is the leader of the offense so it's hard to say the offense looked good if he had those issues, but they had 169 rushing yards and 400 yards total. They had some really nice drives. I can't take away the overall offensive performance because of the failure of one person, even if it was the QB. Jefferson is a great WR but he's not superman. You can't just throw it to him in *any* situation and expect him to be able to save you.

The defense was great again. Holding Jacksonville to 7 points even with those turnovers was just terrific. Then to close out the game like that? Just awesome.

Romo didn't need to kick from very far away but he hit all his attempts, what more can you ask for?

Onto the Titans.

[VikingLord]

Then another reporter starting to ask if he was considering pulling.... and before he finished KOC said no. KOC knows what Mullens is. That is why Sam is here. QBs are off at times. He was off at times all year. Sam is only keeping the seat warm until next year. Of course if our young guy is bad then KOC and KAM are done.
Goff 5 ints. He makes how much? They all have bad games. Even the best,

You don't think KOC knows what he has in Darnold at this point? Is Mullens really that bad in comparison? I'd wager most QBs could throw 3 bad picks (really 4) in a single game if they put some effort into it.

Using Goff as a comparison is a little misleading. Goff has played at a much higher and more consistent level than Darnold over his career, so a 5 INT game for him can credibly be called an aberration. Not so for Darnold who has made a career thus far out of throwing terrible picks right to defenders, especially when he has open receivers elsewhere.

I just don't like the equivocation between Darnold and Goff. Yes, every QB can have a bad game, but Sam Darnold is going to have a lot more of them this year is my guess, while Goff will return to form and continue to lead his team to more convincing wins.

[psjordan]

OK I was at the game, right behind the Vikes bench. No idea what the broadcast announcers may or may not have covered. I may come back and post some detailed comments, but here's a light first pass at things:

The weather was NOT conducive to good QB play. It was humid as he##, and rained for 3-4 minutes at a time about 10 times during the game. No idea if the broadcast could pick it up, but it was a light fine rain that I am sure wreaked havoc with balls and grip. No excuses for Darnold, I'll get to that.

I know KOC felt we were screwed by the refs on the late "illegal formation" penalty. During the subsequent TV timeout he called the crew over and told them in no uncertain terms that even our booth said it was a really iffy call. In general - again don't know if the broadcast picked it up - the refs were really confused throughout the game.

The general feeling watching the game from ALL fans around us was holy cow it's tough to be a fan of either team today.

The difference in the game? Defensive leadership on our part in that we continued to play hard/well on D even though our O was struggling. And after about mid-3rd quarter it was apparent we'd need a miracle for an offensive TD, but our D just kept plugging along. Looked like the Jags D - except for Travon Walker - pretty much resigned themselves to not rescuing their offense in this one. Lawrence might have made a difference, but who knows.

Travon Walker stood out as the best player on the field. WOW. Great discipline, great athleticism, great motor. What an athlete for a big guy.

Our offense has no imagination at all. We run a bunch of the same plays but disguise them pre-snap. I'm not talking about sprinking in reverses or crazy stuff - just run some freaking misdirection plays for goodness sake. Run a shovel pass. It seemed the JAX D either went exactly where our play was designed or had the discipline to stay put.

Ingram continues to underwhelm. Good lord after the first 1-2 seconds of every play, he's completely lost.

Darnold was WAY off on his worst throws. His angle, speed and loft were all WAY off on his (4) interceptions. They were just brutal throws to watch in person. The only one who had worse body language than me in reaction to those throws was Jefferson. Man was he frustrated.

After he made the first two FG's and put his kickoffs where he wanted, Romo was the happiest guy in the stadium. I had the feeling if it came down to a game winner at the end, he was just going to whistle his way through it without a care in the world. Looked like he knew he was making money one way or another out there.

Getting a win under all those conditions says something decent about this team, however I don't think this formula wins many games going forward.

EDIT: Let me add that Turner got snaps but really underwhelmed as well. No real discipline, and man does he look small out there.

[CharVike]

Then another reporter starting to ask if he was considering pulling.... and before he finished KOC said no. KOC knows what Mullens is. That is why Sam is here. QBs are off at times. He was off at times all year. Sam is only keeping the seat warm until next year. Of course if our young guy is bad then KOC and KAM are done.
Goff 5 ints. He makes how much? They all have bad games. Even the best,

You don't think KOC knows what he has in Darnold at this point? Is Mullens really that bad in comparison? I'd wager most QBs could throw 3 bad picks (really 4) in a single game if they put some effort into it.

Using Goff as a comparison is a little misleading. Goff has played at a much higher and more consistent level than Darnold over his career, so a 5 INT game for him can credibly be called an aberration. Not so for Darnold who has made a career thus far out of throwing terrible picks right to defenders, especially when he has open receivers elsewhere.

I just don't like the equivocation between Darnold and Goff. Yes, every QB can have a bad game, but Sam Darnold is going to have a lot more of them this year is my guess, while Goff will return to form and continue to lead his team to more convincing wins.

That's fair. Goff is a far superior QB. I pointed that out only to show they all have bad outings and I was surprised myself. Darnold looked lost. We could no longer attempt a pass when close latter in the game. KOC couldn't take that risk. He wants to win the game. If Darnold looks the same next week then he's done. They will have no choice but to switch. You can't win without scoring a TD very often. Darnold didn't even show much life in this game. Looks like he has lost all confidence. Mullens could provide a spark and if he goes in it will be ok with me. This not moving the ball in the red zone is very bad. A miss is ok but when it occurs through out the entire game something is wrong. I don't know what the problem is. That's for the coaches to figure out and make the adjustments.

[CharVike]

OK I was at the game, right behind the Vikes bench. No idea what the broadcast announcers may or may not have covered. I may come back and post some detailed comments, but here's a light first pass at things:

The weather was NOT conducive to good QB play. It was humid as he##, and rained for 3-4 minutes at a time about 10 times during the game. No idea if the broadcast could pick it up, but it was a light fine rain that I am sure wreaked havoc with balls and grip. No excuses for Darnold, I'll get to that.

I know KOC felt we were screwed by the refs on the late "illegal formation" penalty. During the subsequent TV timeout he called the crew over and told them in no uncertain terms that even our booth said it was a really iffy call. In general - again don't know if the broadcast picked it up - the refs were really confused throughout the game.

The general feeling watching the game from ALL fans around us was holy cow it's tough to be a fan of either team today.

The difference in the game? Defensive leadership on our part in that we continued to play hard/well on D even though our O was struggling. And after about mid-3rd quarter it was apparent we'd need a miracle for an offensive TD, but our D just kept plugging along. Looked like the Jags D - except for Travon Walker - pretty much resigned themselves to not rescuing their offense in this one. Lawrence might have made a difference, but who knows.

Travon Walker stood out as the best player on the field. WOW. Great discipline, great athleticism, great motor. What an athlete for a big guy.

Our offense has no imagination at all. We run a bunch of the same plays but disguise them pre-snap. I'm not talking about sprinking in reverses or crazy stuff - just run some freaking misdirection plays for goodness sake. Run a shovel pass. It seemed the JAX D either went exactly where our play was designed or had the discipline to stay put.

Ingram continues to underwhelm. Good lord after the first 1-2 seconds of every play, he's completely lost.

Darnold was WAY off on his worst throws. His angle, speed and loft were all WAY off on his (4) interceptions. They were just brutal throws to watch in person. The only one who had worse body language than me in reaction to those throws was Jefferson. Man was he frustrated.

After he made the first two FG's and put his kickoffs where he wanted, Romo was the happiest guy in the stadium. I had the feeling if it came down to a game winner at the end, he was just going to whistle his way through it without a care in the world. Looked like he knew he was making money one way or another out there.

Getting a win under all those conditions says something decent about this team, however I don't think this formula wins many games going forward.

EDIT: Let me add that Turner got snaps but really underwhelmed as well. No real discipline, and man does he look small out there.

Thanks for the write up. Being there you can give a different perspective. You see the body language. Ingram has been useless since day 1. I expect one more year which isn't good. The Jax D knowing the play sounds like they did some great coaching,