Thread: Not Culpeppers Fault

For some reason also Culpepper refused to scramble. I don't know but the man was simply slow in his decision making. He looked rusty and unconfident. In at least two plays you could see the sack coming from two seconds away, I expected Pep to take off, but he just stood looking for a receiver, until he got hit. His sense of awareness just was not working.

Obviously the o-line was horrible. Penalties were committed at the worst possible times. Tice lost so much of my respect by using a two-headed Bennett/Mow Williams running attack. I'm hoping that Michael was not 100 and neither was Mewelde, so Mow was used to spell Bennett frequently.

Our whole offense had their heads in their asses. It reminds me of the Bears games the past two seasons.

"V-Unit" wrote:

For some reason also Culpepper refused to scramble. I don't know but the man was simply slow in his decision making. He looked rusty and unconfident. In at least two plays you could see the sack coming from two seconds away, I expected Pep to take off, but he just stood looking for a receiver, until he got hit. His sense of awareness just was not working.

Obviously the o-line was horrible. Penalties were committed at the worst possible times. Tice lost so much of my respect by using a two-headed Bennett/Mow Williams running attack. I'm hoping that Michael was not 100 and neither was Mewelde, so Mow was used to spell Bennett frequently.

Our whole offense had their heads in their asses. It reminds me of the Bears games the past two seasons.

He looked slow to me, reluctant as well.

Snow, that's a good point about the Wideouts and Turnovers.

DC got the blame because everyone was talking about his team and he is an MVP candidate. For every action there is a reaction, that is physics. When you are praised that much, much is expected of you. When you have the game DC had much is expected of you, if you know what I mean. He didn't make any special plays and made a few bad ones. I don't know his passer rating but it had to be below 80. You are going to get bad press if you are an MVP candidate and you play that bad.

Like Del, I felt that Daunte was too tentative. Almost like he now has too many options...or none at all. I noticed this last year as well, Daunte likes to sit and let plays develop. IMO, this isn't a positive trait. His decision making needs to be quicker.

The reason the media (and many fans) are pointing fingers at Daunte is two fold.

1: He's the QB and therefore the most visible person in the Offense.
2: The pre-season hype about it being "Daunte's team".

That's a lot of pressure. Factor in a weakened O-Line and you have the increased likelyhood of a bad day happeneing.

Well, it happened.

3 of Daunte's 5 turnovers were simply dumb luck. The first Int (missed Burleson, hit Williams...oops), the fumble off the sack (got clobbered from behind and stripped), and the final INT (Moe tipped it, they caught it). Those things are going to happen...hopefully just not all in one game again.

The other two fall on Daunte's shoulders (Poor ball control for the other fumble).

Obviously, Daunte wasn't in his best form. He'll improve. I hope we lock in Koren Robinson...I think a little more "Oooomph" in the receiver corps would be a good thing right now.

As for the running game...I said it in pre-season..."What running game"? The closest thing we have to a feature back is Moe Williams. Bennett is fast, but not powerful (Not good up the gut), and Memo is appearing to be every bit as fragile as Bennett (Another sprained ankle). We NEED a power back. Someone who can punish the D-Line play after play...we don't have that.

That allows Defenses to rush 4...that and our struggling O-Line.

I disagree, however, that 7 in coverage doubles our receivers. They can double 2, but that leaves 1 receiver, the TE, and the Back in single coverage - usually with the TE and the Back drawing a Linebacker. That means that people SHOULD be getting open - as we saw Wiggins doing.

A solution for our O-line would be double tight end sets. With Wiggins and Kleinsasser blocking and releasing, Culpepper gets a few extra seconds to find one of our Receivers.

Anyway, that's my opinion.

Caine

Wow. I can't believe people are blaming this game on Culpepper.

The first INT Burleson didn't make the right cut. The First fumble was because he had to pull the ball back because Burleson wasn't where he needed to be again. the second fumble we tried to block Simeon Rice with a friggin' TE! He hit Daunte on his blind side, you can't blame Daunte for that. Thats a bad job by Loney and the line. The second INT hit Moe in the hands. What more can you ask for?

He wasn't slow with his decision making at all. Our WRs couldn't get open. And Culpepper had to run for his life on most plays. He didn't run too much because that his last resort, he moved around, and gave his WRs time to get open and they didn't.

Also, how do you expect a QB to effective when we post 26 rushing yards? I mean c'mon. We need to run of first down more often. I don't remember us running on first down more than 2 times all game. If we are going to be effective with the run we have to run on first down more often. Running on second after an incomplete pass just puts us in third and long situations. Also, the Bucs blitzed a lot, where were the draw plays to offset them?

There is no way you can blame Culpepper for this loss at all. He completed 66% of his passes and faced with mistakes by his Oline, his WRs, and was given TWENTY SIX (26!!!!) yards of rushing to keep defenses honest against our WRs.

Culpepper is still the best Quarterback in the league in my opinion. Even though this was a trainreck for our offense, we just need to work out a few kinks, like Daunte and Nate being on the same page, and running on first down. And we're fine. Kudos to our defense for playing an A game and keeping us in the game despite having to play 20 minutes in the first half.

All these points are valid and correct. The thing that bothers me is that overall, our whole team, right from the coaches to each player looked UNCONFIDENT. 1st regular season in the post-Moss era?...maybe it something to do with it. Culpepper looked good until the first pick, then he got rattled and got rattled big time. No one can deny that. That's always been his problem. That might of led to the rest of the O getting less confident throughout the game.

I give him credit though for holding it together through to the end of the game...but all those fumbles on our potential winning drive? C'mon!...more lack of confidence.

Yes, I know there was a lot to do with the O line and all that, but frankly, I expect more a Pro Bowl QB like Culpepper...he's been in the league long enough to perform better in the season opener...he should know when it's time for him to scramble, REGARDLESS of what a QB coach may be telling him. He has great skills...but, he still doesn't how and when to use them all the time.

"Caine" wrote:

Like Del, I felt that Daunte was too tentative. Almost like he now has too many options...or none at all. I noticed this last year as well, Daunte likes to sit and let plays develop. IMO, this isn't a positive trait. His decision making needs to be quicker.

The reason the media (and many fans) are pointing fingers at Daunte is two fold.

1: He's the QB and therefore the most visible person in the Offense.
2: The pre-season hype about it being "Daunte's team".

That's a lot of pressure. Factor in a weakened O-Line and you have the increased likelyhood of a bad day happeneing.

Well, it happened.

3 of Daunte's 5 turnovers were simply dumb luck. The first Int (missed Burleson, hit Williams...oops), the fumble off the sack (got clobbered from behind and stripped), and the final INT (Moe tipped it, they caught it). Those things are going to happen...hopefully just not all in one game again.

The other two fall on Daunte's shoulders (Poor ball control for the other fumble).

Obviously, Daunte wasn't in his best form. He'll improve. I hope we lock in Koren Robinson...I think a little more "Oooomph" in the receiver corps would be a good thing right now.

As for the running game...I said it in pre-season..."What running game"? The closest thing we have to a feature back is Moe Williams. Bennett is fast, but not powerful (Not good up the gut), and Memo is appearing to be every bit as fragile as Bennett (Another sprained ankle). We NEED a power back. Someone who can punish the D-Line play after play...we don't have that.

That allows Defenses to rush 4...that and our struggling O-Line.

I disagree, however, that 7 in coverage doubles our receivers. They can double 2, but that leaves 1 receiver, the TE, and the Back in single coverage - usually with the TE and the Back drawing a Linebacker. That means that people SHOULD be getting open - as we saw Wiggins doing.

A solution for our O-line would be double tight end sets. With Wiggins and Kleinsasser blocking and releasing, Culpepper gets a few extra seconds to find one of our Receivers.

Anyway, that's my opinion.

Caine

The emphasis put on this being "Daunte's Team" may be the biggest single reason that he and the Oline struggled. Besides the Rookie Olineman not being ready to play.
He looked much as he did in the season that we went 5-11. LOST!
Let's hope that was an anomaly yesterday.
I like the idea of the two tight-end sets. That will at least take some pressure off in the beginning.
Let us not forget that Tampa has a pretty good pass rush.
That had a lot to do with the outcome of the game.

I seem to remeber a little season, where the vikings lost to the bucs...and only the bucs. flashes of 98?

"Del Rio" wrote:

It was his fault IMO.Two of those turnovers he had plenty of time. One of his passes was deflected by a shadowing LB that very well should have intercepted it.

He was slow to make decisions.

Saying it was all his fault is wrong. I'm not doing that, but blaming the line for his poor play is living in la,la land. He had a very bad game.

I agree. I know it's really hard to blame a guy that has FIVE turnovers, but I'm thinking this might have been his fault. I'm not off the cpep bandwangon and I never will be, but he played downright HORRIBLE yesterday. The good thing is that we actually had a chance to win the game (I don't know how) so that is what we have to look forward to! Beat those Bungles!!

and also another quick note. I hate how the media completely rips us and says...THIS IS A TEAM THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ON THIER WAY TO THE SUPERBOWL. well we never said..hey look at us, we're gonna represent the superbowl! the media puts that lable on us. I'm not sayin we mind it, but hell if we loose one game, all the sudden its over and we're trash? Dont even talk about us next year, just let us do our thing.