Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

[URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091200074.html"]Boswell seems to think so[/URL], but I would say no. I understand Saunders wasn't showing his A-game in the preseason, but we could barely get a first down in the preseason. Our offense wasn't beautiful on Monday night, but it gave us a shot to win if our defense had locked them down at least a little bit.

What does concern me, if Boswell is accurately portraying the locker room, is if the team doesn't see that they have a [U]lot[/U] of work to do. The Portis quote was troublesome ("The only thing we messed up tonight was our perfect season," Clinton Portis said after rushing for 39 yards.).

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

Absoulutely not. The inclusion of Antwaan Randle El and the amount of plays he made and is capable of making was the difference. No turnovers and no fumbles from the QB was refreshing. The ability to move the ball into the redzone is more a success than even last year around this time. I feel we have more upside than we have seen in four seasons. I can't wait to see Brandon Lloyd included into the scheme of things. We know all of the inconsistencies so there's no need to continue to mention them in this thread.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

Not even close.

We were a play or two away from putting up 20+ points.

If one of those redzone trips could have been turned into 6 instead of 3 it would have been a completely different game.

I don't think we have major problems right now, just some fine tuning that needs to be done.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

I agree - despite the bad play on defense and the letdown on offense at the end of the game, we had a chance to win this thing. Also, I didn't mean to imply that we needed an overhaul - just that the execution needs to be much better next week, and that's going to take some work during practice.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

It was better -- but we NEED to score some TDs. Our defense, unfortunately, may struggle, especially in pass coverage this year. Archeletta isn't good in coverage, and Rogers is young and still figuring thing out. But really, Troy Williamson dropped some BIG balls for the Vikings that were very catchable.

Our defense probably cost us the game, but the amount of times the defense kept us in a game or won games for us the last couple years, I can give them a let down from time to time. I heard an interview with Chester Taylor on NFL radio, he said the most shocking thing from the skins was lack of blitzing. Said he saw them blitz every other play in the preseason and then they only brought it on 3rd down pretty much. Maybe we need to get back to that crazy attack defense GW normally runs.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

No Springs = not much blitzing.

GW doesn't want to leave guys like Wright and Rumph exposed in coverage.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

[quote=Mattyk72;214778]No Springs = not much blitzing.

GW doesn't want to leave guys like Wright and Rumph exposed in coverage.[/quote]

good point...we need him back asap.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

Shit, if Springs doesn't play this week and I were Dallas I would line TO up and throw that 8 yd slant all day long. No way Rogers covers that more than 20% of the time on TO. I sure hope he can play or we are in for a long day.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

It was a hell of a lot worse because it counted!

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

Why not put Kenny Wright on T.O., Carlos on Glenn and Mike Rumph at the Nickel. Sean Taylor can back Rodgers up as he did last year and we know what Glenn did after getting hit with the wood. Archuleta has to play better than what I have seen. And where in the hell is Andre Carter with the pass rush? Just think we could have picked up John Abraham.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

[QUOTE=Mattyk72;214752]Not even close.

We were a play or two away from putting up 20+ points.

If one of those redzone trips could have been turned into 6 instead of 3 it would have been a completely different game.

I don't think we have major problems right now, just some fine tuning that needs to be done.[/QUOTE]
Moss had that ball in the back of the endzone. nice hit knocked it loose, but if that is week 4 or 5, Santana holds onto that ball and we win.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

[quote=dblanch66;214809]Moss had that ball in the back of the endzone. nice hit knocked it loose, but if that is week 4 or 5, Santana holds onto that ball and we win.[/quote]

Sharper (it was Sharper, wasn't it?) should get a Pro Bowl nod for that TD saving hit. Perfect timing and decision making to blast him with a good hit.

Did anybody notice a particular red zone run in which #45, #46 and #47 were all out as lead blockers for Portis ? That, my friends, is sure to yield many TD's in the future. Just wait, guys, we're not in sync yet but we will be in a few games.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

[QUOTE=Mattyk72;214778]No Springs = not much blitzing.

GW doesn't want to leave guys like Wright and Rumph exposed in coverage.[/QUOTE]

We saw how well that worked in the Vikings game. It's a catch 22. If we can't get a rush with our front 4 I say bring the house and hope that Wright and Rump can hold coverage for a couple of seconds. Give Bledsoe something to think about.

Was it me or did it seem that Evans had the best game of all the DLINE?

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

On offense, No
On defense, worse than preseason. Remember how the D came out to start the first preseason game in Cinci? If they had played like that on Monday I have no doubt that we would have won. But, like some others said before, not having Springs in there meant that the D couldn't really blitz as much, and their o-line is a lot better than the Vikings'.
There're still 15 games to kick some ass.

Re: Was the Vikings game as bad as the preseason?
 

At least half our games will come down to one or two plays. That hit on Moss in the endzone was a key play in the game. Our inability to shut down the Vikes on 3rd down, esp late in the game, really hurt as well.
Springs is a key player for us, but we have to be able to win without him-- he's a talented player with a history of injuries.
Rogers will get better in a hurry, and I think Arch will be OK. Only time will tell how the other corners do.
It seems that 20 points is the magic number in a lot of our games-- if we score 20, we have a good chance to win.
Still, would be nice to have Mark Mosely or Chip L back to kick some game winners...