Thread: OFFICIAL COLTS vs VIKINGS POSTGAME DISCUSSION

1. We are a too dependant on Percy Harvin, he is a great player, but if he is going to have to carry the load for the entire season, he is going to go down.. We saw it at the end of the game..

2. Our offensive playboook seems so limited.. We run Peterson, dash it to Harvin and a screen to Toby.. thats pretty much all we got..

3. Why is Jarius Wright inactive all the time?, we need a guy who can come in and make som plays outside of Harvin so why not give him a chance

4. Is the 25 million dollar man John Carlson going to show up at all?.. He has had 2 games and 0 catches.. I rarely see him on the field, what is going on???

5. Defense can't let up on the final drive.. That was hard to watch.. a rookie QB easily dropping off 2 20-yard passes and then a dump penalty to set up the game-winner..

6. Jared Allen, we need him to do something.. he was close to getting a sack today, but him getting 22 last year and not one in the first 2 games so far is not acceptable.. Today he was 1 on 1 with their LT lots of times and still nothing.

7. Penalties.. that killed us today.. The drive where they scored a field goal instead of punting.. That was the 3 points today that gave them the win..

8. Lots to improve and a hard game next week vs the 49ers.. Looks like 1-2 but in the NFL anything can happen.. Like the Cardinals beating the Patriots today..

IMHO the Vikings will win 3 games this year IF they get lucky!!
Poor defense, poor play calling, very poor clock management. Their secondary, once again is so weak it's unbelievable. My question is it the defense backs that are really bad, or is it the coaches that don't have a clue on how the handle the secondary? OH yeah, way too many really dumb penalties.

There was a general lack of aggression that has plagued this team for a long time. Too long.

On defense we sit back and let other teams pick us apart ad or score key TD's in the closing seconds of half's or games. On offense we get inside the red zone and then for some reason don't have the balls to take a shot at the end zone and instead rely on dink passes and runs and then settle for FG's if we can't drive it in methodically.

I wholly believe it is a continuation of the same philosophy left over from the Childress era that still hasn't been purged from the system.

We are a young team and like I said earlier, we are going to lose games but man, this was a worse team than us last year and we need to handle those games. They were younger at many positions than we were, they were without Freeney, lost their starting center,have a rookie QB and a completely new coaching staff so in this case we were the experienced team.

If this team was too much then next week is going to be a huge hurdle.

Originally Posted by NodakPaul

Ponder continues to improve. He looked decent this game - not great, but not bad. 25/35 (71.4%) for 245 and 2 TDs. But there was one INT that was dropped, and he was pretty lucky on the first TD (that was fun to watch though). He needs to continue to improve if we are going to be contenders next year.

Bottom line for me - Frazier's leash is getting very, very short. Our DL was shut down by a hodge podge OL, and our offense was sluggish despite having Rudolph, Ponder, Harvin, and Peterson all on the field. I see too much talent there for our offense to be going three and out against a poor defense. I put this loss on the coach.

The coaches definitely need to take some of the blame, especially with some of the play calls. Ponder completed 71% of his passes, but they weren't going very far down field with them. It seemed like most of the completed passes thru the first 3 quarters were either behind the LOS or about 5 yards beyond it. Thank God for YAC.

Not sure why they weren't taking more shots longer down the field, especially when we were down by 2 TD's. They still tried to win it by pounding the ball in the 4th, even though AD wasn't getting us a lot of yards. Also, as the announcers said, the Vikings showed a lack of urgency when they needed to speed it up. That has been a problem for several years now.

We need to play all 4 quarters like we do the last 5 minutes of the game.

Penalties were atrocious! We lost more yards due to penalties than we did rushing the ball with AD, Gerhart, Harvin & Ponder combined.

Originally Posted by skum

1. We are a too dependant on Percy Harvin, he is a great player, but if he is going to have to carry the load for the entire season, he is going to go down.. We saw it at the end of the game.

Harvin is a beast. He may be both the best receiver and best running back on the team. He also is not a very big guy and cannot take the punishment inflicted on him if no one else steps up.

2. Our offensive playboook seems so limited.. We run Peterson, dash it to Harvin and a screen to Toby.. that's pretty much all we got.

The Vikings run a similar offense that they ran under Childress. Flat passes, dumps, and some runs. They have switched to the screen on many 3rd and long plays rather than the draw.

Are downfield plays even called, or is Ponder just to slow going through his reads? I do not know.

3. Why is Jarius Wright inactive all the time?, we need a guy who can come in and make some plays outside of Harvin so why not give him a chance.

We do not know if Wright would be any better. He was not a gamebreaker in the preseason.

4. Is the 25 million dollar man John Carlson going to show up at all?.. He has had 2 games and 0 catches.. I rarely see him on the field, what is going on???

Carlson is still learning the offense. He was out for most of the preseason. He was not a superstar before coming here, so I do not expect him to take over a game.

5. Defense can't let up on the final drive.. That was hard to watch.. a rookie QB easily dropping off 2 20-yard passes and then a dump penalty to set up the game-winner.

I have no confidence in the Vikings pass protection. I do not like the scheme, and the Vikings play it even more loose with the clock running down. Prevent the win twice in two weeks. The Vikings just got lucky last week because they faced last season's worst starter in overtime.

6. Jared Allen, we need him to do something.. he was close to getting a sack today, but him getting 22 last year and not one in the first 2 games so far is not acceptable.. Today he was 1 on 1 with their LT lots of times and still nothing.

Jared Allen takes himself out of so many plays that he may as well be on the sideline. He has to change his technique from play to play and swim and cut more. Allen cannot just do the long outside rush play after play like he did today.

In my complaints above I forgot to say that we have one linebacker only!!!!!

Originally Posted by Minniman

Harvin is a beast. He may be both the best receiver and best running back on the team. He also is not a very big guy and cannot take the punishment inflicted on him if no one else steps up.


The Vikings run a similar offense that they ran under Childress. Flat passes, dumps, and some runs. They have switched to the screen on many 3rd and long plays rather than the draw.

Are downfield plays even called, or is Ponder just to slow going through his reads? I do not know.


We do not know if Wright would be any better. He was not a gamebreaker in the preseason.


Carlson is still learning the offense. He was out for most of the preseason. He was not a superstar before coming here, so I do not expect him to take over a game.


I have no confidence in the Vikings pass protection. I do not like the scheme, and the Vikings play it even more loose with the clock running down. Prevent the win twice in two weeks. The Vikings just got lucky last week because they faced last season's worst starter in overtime.


Jared Allen takes himself out of so many plays that he may as well be on the sideline. He has to change his technique from play to play and swim and cut more. Allen cannot just do the long outside rush play after play like he did today.

We stink....Refs stink... this season stinks.... that is all

I was disappointed too. I think the real problem is they won't take the cuffs off Ponder until to late in the game. The play calling for 90% of the game was ultra conservative. You can not win if you play scared from the outset of the game. If Ponder's the guy let him play and learn. I think we'd be better off. Percy is amazing. AD didn't get enough touches. Our D-Line is not getting enough pressure which exposes the weakness in our secondary. I hope the coaches WTFU!!

Bottom line, this loss has to hurt REALLY BADLY!!! This was, in my opinion, a very winnable game. However, the Vikings beat themselves with personal foul penalties at crucial junctures of the game, not forcing turnovers (again!), and not stetching the field with the passing game. Despite all these problems, it took an end-of-game 53-yard field goal for the Colts to win the game.

It's my hope that these mistakes are correctable for the next game. We will need to address these areas to have a ghost of a chance against a great 49ers team. SKOL VIKINGS!!!

For those of you who are not fans of the way the Vikings are coached, I watched the game today with my stepparents. My stepfather has been diagnosed with dementia. During the game, he stated that "the Vikings need a new coach or something". FYI for what it's worth...