Thread: NFL "Prediction System" preview: Minnesota Vikings

[size=13pt]NFL "Prediction System" preview: Minnesota Vikings[/size]

by MrNFL | 13 hrs ago
faniq.com

....Today's team?
The Minnesota Vikings.

LAST SEASON: The Vikings had troubles last year, finishing 6-10.
The offense was inconsistent,
and while the run defense was great, the pass D was below average...

"singersp" wrote:

[size=13pt]NFL "Prediction System" preview: Minnesota Vikings[/size]

by MrNFL | 13 hrs ago
faniq.com

....Today's team?
The Minnesota Vikings.

LAST SEASON: The Vikings had troubles last year, finishing 6-10.
The offense was inconsistent,
and while the run defense was great, the pass D was below average...

Fairly generic analysis.
It's clear this guy doesn't read anything beyond what he can pick up in the national press.
For example:

One of the reasons the Vikings had such a great run D last year was the beef inside, and they have a fantastic 1-2 punch at DT with Kevin and Pat Williams. However, the ends are a bit more of a concern.
Udeze is a good run stopping end, but didn't have a sack all of last year.
They hope James, hurt most of last year, can bring that pass rushing force, that they lack on this group.
They should be great against the run again, but rushing the passer still looks to be a problem, bumping this group down just a bit.

As usual, interpretation on Udeze starts and stops with "no sacks".
And the other "answer" is always "What about James?"

Well - what about Ray Edwards?
Jayme Mitchell?
Both had, IMHO, pretty darn good rookie campaigns.
And he doesn't even list Darrion Scott in his rundown (but does list Khreem Smith???)

Preview score (my review of the preview):
6/10

=Z=

Our run defense was a bit overrated because of the ability to pass easily on us.
Not enough pressure up front doesn't help the passing game.

I think if our Coaching / play calling improves . . . the rest will fall into place.

"sleepagent" wrote:

Our run defense was a bit overrated because of the ability to pass easily on us.
Not enough pressure up front doesn't help the passing game.

I think if our Coaching / play calling improves . . . the rest will fall into place.

I tend to disagree with that. Our run defense was solid all year & it wasn't until week 7 that our pass defense was exposed by the Pats.

I would agree though, that following that game, teams tended to pass more often than run against us, but had they stuck to a run attack, there's no doubt in my mind we would have shut them down.

The exception to that was giving up 142 yards to Jackson in a meaningless Rams game.

"singersp" wrote:

"sleepagent" wrote:

Our run defense was a bit overrated because of the ability to pass easily on us.
Not enough pressure up front doesn't help the passing game.

I think if our Coaching / play calling improves . . . the rest will fall into place.

I tend to disagree with that. Our run defense was solid all year & it wasn't until week 7 that our pass defense was exposed by the Pats.

I would agree though, that following that game, teams tended to pass more often than run against us, but had they stuck to a run attack, there's no doubt in my mind we would have shut them down.

The exception to that was giving up 142 yards to Jackson in a meaningless Rams game.

Solid yes, but still a BIT overrated by the standard of the full season.
Now if we can get our Passing "D" to improve . . . watchout.


I'm curious on how the new DC
will affect how the defense operates.
I don't think you can under value good coaching, especially in the highly competitive NFL.

I really like how Childress pulled the team together during the preseason, but I lost a certain degree of respect for him as it "appeared" he became somewhat frantic signing "B" level players just before the start of the season . . . and undermining all his team building work.

"sleepagent" wrote:

Our run defense was a bit overrated because of the ability to pass easily on us.
Not enough pressure up front doesn't help the passing game.
I think if our Coaching / play calling improves . . . the rest will fall into place.

I agree with this to a point.
The Pats, as mentioned, really exposed this and brought other teams to the light on how to beat the Vikes.

The Pats did a lot to bring our run D to the front, as they did no running on us....lol

Give the Pats coaches some credit, they saw a weakness, and exposed it.

"NDVikingFan66" wrote:

"sleepagent" wrote:

Our run defense was a bit overrated because of the ability to pass easily on us.
Not enough pressure up front doesn't help the passing game.
I think if our Coaching / play calling improves . . . the rest will fall into place.

I agree with this to a point.
The Pats, as mentioned, really exposed this and brought other teams to the light on how to beat the Vikes.

The Pats did a lot to bring our run D to the front, as they did no running on us....lol

Give the Pats coaches some credit, they saw a weakness, and exposed it.

And it's not like Brady was standing back in the pocket all day all the time. He was hitting receivers in the slot just about as soon as he got the ball. Kind of hard to get sufficient pressure on him when he was releasing the ball that fast.

Udeze had just as many tackles in that game as Kevin Williams & Mitchell & had more than Phat Pat & Scott.

DEFENSE

T-A SCK INT FF
E. Henderson 8-0 1.0 0 0
D. Sharper 7-0 0.0 1 0
D. Smith 6-0 0.0 0 0
F. Smoot 6-0 0.0 0 2
J. Mitchell 2-0 2.0 0 1
K. Udeze 2-0 0.0 0 0
K. Williams 2-0 0.0 0 0
A. Winfield 2-0 0.0 0 0
C. Griffin 1-0 0.0 0 0
N. Harris 1-0 0.0 0 0
S. Johnson 1-0 0.0 0 0
B. Leber 1-0 0.0 0 0
D. Scott 1-0 0.0 0 0
R. Whitaker 1-0 0.0 0 0
P. Williams 1-1 0.0 0 0

Yet Udeze takes the blame for an inept pass defense.

Again, sacks are nice, but over rated IMO. it's containment that's important &
Udeze led the team with 13 tackles for a loss.

A sack of a running back or receiver is just as important IMO.

i am in agreement with singer in that the sacs arn't the end all to judge KU

he had several stops in the backfield, which for me is just as nice as slammin the qb for the sac. that doesn't mean i don't want him to load up the sac count *which i believe he will do with EJames back in there.

if we can work out better plays that fit Tjack's abilities.. i'm sure we'll see an improved team on the field this year on both sides of the ball.

DiGiTaL

i am in agreement with singer in that the sacs arn't the end all to judge KU

he had several stops in the backfield, which for me is just as nice as slammin the qb for the sac. that doesn't mean i don't want him to load up the sac count *which i believe he will do with EJames back in there.

if we can work out better plays that fit Tjack's abilities.. i'm sure we'll see an improved team on the field this year on both sides of the ball.

DiGiTaL

"NDVikingFan66" wrote:

"sleepagent" wrote:

Our run defense was a bit overrated because of the ability to pass easily on us.
Not enough pressure up front doesn't help the passing game.
I think if our Coaching / play calling improves . . . the rest will fall into place.

I agree with this to a point.
The Pats, as mentioned, really exposed this and brought other teams to the light on how to beat the Vikes.

The Pats did a lot to bring our run D to the front, as they did no running on us....lol

Give the Pats coaches some credit, they saw a weakness, and exposed it.

If our run defense was overrated because teams simply didn't run against as because our pass defense sucked, then the YPG would be low but the YPC would be average or high.
However, this isn't the case.
Our YPG was 61.8 yards - the best in the NFL by a full 14 yards per game.
Our YPC was 2.8 - also the best in the NFL by a full half yard per carry.

Our run defense was in no way overrated.
It was amazing.