Keys to the Season

1 that wont happen) Mike Tice being a good coach. Since that's out of reach...

1) Daunte Culpepper holding on to the football. It's not so bad when we have a receiver who can break off an 80 yard td on a dime, but fumbles for loss will be huge now.

2) Nate Burleson demanding double coverage. Not with pure speed, obviously, but making teams honor the double move, like Marvin Harrison does.

3) Start Mewelde Moore. He's a dynamic pass catcher, breaks tackles easily, is elusive, and has that home-run burst.

4) Defensive leadership, defensive playcalling. Someone has to make the on field audibles, someone has to get all the rookies in place, and that someone needs to be Sam Cowart. Don't worry about Teddy - he'll call a good game.

5) The play of Fred Smoot. Substitute this for the play of Brian Williams last year and you'll see why. Toine gave up just one touchdown - a league low. And in the latter half of the season, teams stopped throwing at him. They'll have to throw at Smoot.

6) Tight end play. Jim needs to catch enough balls that he must be honored as more than a blocker, like Jermaine. Two tight end sets need to spell impossible mismatches for our opponents.

7) Troy Williamson opening up the vertical game. I'm not sure how much faith I have in this yet - the kid drops balls like it's his job at the moment. But we'll see...

Hey do u have any video of Williamson in TC? i've tried to find some vids but couldn't. I agree w/ what u said for the most part tho, even tho i don't bash Tice as much

MM shouldnt start and wont.Theres no way he could carry the load and hes not a good blocker

1 that wont happen) Mike Tice being a good coach. Since that's out of reach...

Tice is a good coach. Glad he took some responsibility off of Cottrell in regards to the coverages.
1) Daunte Culpepper holding on to the football. It's not so bad when we have a receiver who can break off an 80 yard td on a dime, but fumbles for loss will be huge now.

He held on to the ball pretty good last year. He was under a serious ammount of pressure. Our line was shot. Having a wide reciever that can break an 80 yard td is nice, but I don't think it has much to do with his fumbles. He needs some injury free consistency on the line. Sasser will help too.

2) Nate Burleson demanding double coverage. Not with pure speed, obviously, but making teams honor the double move, like Marvin Harrison does.

I doubt anyone bothers to double Nate.

3) Start Mewelde Moore. He's a dynamic pass catcher, breaks tackles easily, is elusive, and has that home-run burst.

Agree, if he wins the job during preseason and practice. The other guys have great qualities as well. It's about heart and desire at this point I'd think.
4) Defensive leadership, defensive playcalling. Someone has to make the on field audibles, someone has to get all the rookies in place, and that someone needs to be Sam Cowart. Don't worry about Teddy - he'll call a good game.

I like Nap Harris taking this role. I think he will he said he loves to be a leader and I read he is allready a commanding presence. Cowart, other then the fact that he is the MLB I don't know if he will be up to it. I read the coaches are not at all sold on him. Plus EJ is going to give him a run for his money. Teddy sucks donkey he has some work to do.
5) The play of Fred Smoot. Substitute this for the play of Brian Williams last year and you'll see why. Toine gave up just one touchdown - a league low. And in the latter half of the season, teams stopped throwing at him. They'll have to throw at Smoot.

Brian Williams is a playmaker he causes 2 fumbles a season. But yeah Smoot is key. If he is more mouth then talent it will be very very bad.

6) Tight end play. Jim needs to catch enough balls that he must be honored as more than a blocker, like Jermaine. Two tight end sets need to spell impossible mismatches for our opponents.

I don't see the two tight end set becoming all that valuable to us. He is more valuable as a blocker and being forgotten on an occassional pass that breaks for a huge one. IMO, also I think wiggins was benifiting more from a Culpepper that was just really focused on his progression checks. I think he will be a major factor again. Unless Culpepper actually is alloted some time from our offensive line. Then our Wideouts will be getting a lot more passess.
7) Troy Williamson opening up the vertical game. I'm not sure how much faith I have in this yet - the kid drops balls like it's his job at the moment. But we'll see...

I guess time will tell. I know I was cussing at my TV many times these last few years when Randy dropped passess. It happens. Hopefully like you said he will be a quick learner and fit into a productive role.



My main key on offense better blocking and healthy line. That is all.

My main key on defense a sense of pride and better coaching.

Not discrediting anything you said. Just spouting my own opinion. It's all about the win column in the end.

My main key for the season is this: We look to have about half of our defensive starters be new to the team. It is imperative that those guys learn eachothers tendancies, and gel as a unit, in the minicaps and through training camp. We need that defense to be solid from day 1 of the regular season.

I agree with josdin. Although we've picked up a lot of defensive talent, it takes time for those guys to jell and communicate with each other on the field. To be honest, I'd be pleased if this happened by midseason...just in time for a strong playoff run!

"mark" wrote:

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MM shouldnt start and wont.Theres no way he could carry the load and hes not a good blocker

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I agree...I never thought Mewelde was proven enough to be deserving of a starting position. He had 3 or 4 really good games, but didn't do much after that because he was in the dog house. I'd want to see how much he actually does over a longer period of time before I make him the starter.

i agree with Del Rio, it's all about how our o-line holds up. The key to the defense is our LB's, the D-line and secondary are definately improved which will magnify the play of our LB crew.

1(a). I too don't think Tice is a good coach, if he learns how to manage the game and prepare his players a little better, then I think we're fine. He just needs to learn from his mistakes.

1(b). Daunte fumbling is no longer a problem. We run a verticle offense which requires a lot of time to throw the ball which in turn means that the Quarterback is going to take some hits, and when the Quarterback gets hit he fumbles. Daunte Culpepper is the best Quarterback in the league, we just need to make sure we proect him.

2. I don't know many people who want their WRs to be double covered. Thats pretty dumb in my opinion. What you want is for them to put extra guys in the box to stop your running game and then open up your passing game from there. I want other teams to put 8 guys in teh box for a couple reasons: 1. It puts the ball in the hands of Culpepper to beat them with his passing more often, which I think is still going to be our bread and butter as far as offense goes. 2. With Jimmy K and Rosenthal back I think we'll be able to run on them whether they put 8 guys in the box or not.

3. I still don't understand how anyone can want Mewelde Moore to start. I'd really like someone to explain that to me. The kid can't block, can't deal with injuries, and can't compete against good defenses. He isn't ready yet, period. Starting Mewelde Moore would be a step backwards on offense. I like Mewelde and think he going to be an excellent back for us, just not next year.

4. Defensive Leadership is key to our winning. We need Sam Cowart to get our guys in position and we need him to get our defense in the right plays and positions to stop the opposing defenders. The reason we need him to do this so much is because Ted Cottrel blows as a defensive coordinator, He is the worst DC we've had as long as I can remember. It will be Cowart because he is the veteran and he knows how to get production out of Cottrel's crappy system. Nap is too young and too new to be this player, but he needs to watch carefully because we'll be counting on him when Cowart leaves.

5. Of course Fred Smoot has to live up to that contract. But he isn't a key. Brian Williams is talented and is a playmaker, Ted Cottrel system didn't allow him to be the agressive CB that he is and thats why he struggled. Smoot is a cover corner and isn't so agressive, he should do well. Much more important is our defensive line getting to the quarterback which didn't happen that much last year, even though we didn't finish very bad in sacks.

6. The 2 TE set isn't my favorite. However, we need to have both Wiggins and Kleinsauser on the field. Jim will continue to be a decent Screen threat and a dump-off option as well as a monster blocker, and Wiggins can stretch the field a little and get in the middle of those Zone defenses especially on third down. Having two TEs also helps our running game more, which will be the key to keeping 8 men in box and opening up our passing game without Moss.

7. I'm not worried at all about the verticle passing game. Drop passes. lol. I don't think he drops that many passes 8404. He was an excelent pick up who will stretch the field and can catch the ball very well. I'm a little unclear of what Williamson's role will be, if he is going to jump in and start at #2 right away, or if we are going to use him in the slot this season like we did with Moss his first season and let Travis Taylor have his shot with an awesome Quarterback in a good offense.

We've got the talent. It's just that:
1. Coaching: Loney needs to be better than Linehan (not hard to do). Cottrel needs to somehow become a half-way decent coordinator, or the talent we have on defense needs to overpower his incompetence. And Tice needs to make sure we are prepared and manage time better.

2. At WILL: DT needs to improve on his performance last year that left a lot of us wanting to vomit. The middle of the firld and the slant patterns need to be taken away by our Linebackers, and we need to stuff the run. Our weakest link as a team is at WILL as long as DT starts there and that weakness could cost us a lot.

3. Someone besides Red McCombs needs to be the owner in order to complete our team image and chemistry transformation that will also be key in 2005.

One thing not said is to get our kicking game settled.How many games are decided by a kick!And I was under the impression that MM didn,t have that 2nd gear.It,s why he fell in the draft.