Thread: Official Vikings vs. Bears postgame discussion

Why did they even decide to go for it on the 4th and 2 at the start of the 4th quarter? It was a 3 score game at the time...

Also, 2nd LT Yokely, The better team won today. I offer congratulations on your teams victory.
With humble regard and full knowledge of your genius and venerable smartitude.

Sincerely,
SGT Jereamiah Brooks Pemberton.
3/21 IN REGT "GIMLETS."

Originally Posted by NodakPaul

Negatives:
* 9 drops this game. Jesus.
* Bears have a top 10 passing D, but have been giving up a lot on the ground, especially in the last four weeks. We have the top rusher in the NFL and one of the worst passing attacks. So of course we run the ball right? No. We pass 43 times and run 20.
* They were 10/14 on third downs before heading in to garbage time.
* Our DL got ZERo sacks and only 2 pressures against a patchwork OL
* Refs manage to screw us on the PI call in the endzone, and then review a play TWICE to take a TD away from us.

I'd certainly add the 3 turnovers as negatives. Nothing positive about those. 2 by AD & 1 by Ponder that led to 14 points Bears, although they'll charge one of those fumbles to Ponder because it happened on the exchange.

Of the 9 drops (not sure if there were quite 9 catchable drops), how many were made by veterans & how many by 1st & 2nd year players? I don't believe Wright could have come down in bounds with the one in the back corner of the endzone.

The real notable ones were made by Simpson. Carlson has already proven to be a wasted pickup by Spielman. Simpson is fast becoming one too, if not already there. Was it 4 drops for him, 1 for Carlson?

3rd down & long & we are still mostly throwing passes way short of the first down marker.

21 games under his belt & it looks like we have a bonafide bubble & 5 yard passing franchise QB. Beyond 10 yards, far too many are off target. There's a reason he ranks last in explosive passes from a QB & it's not solely because of lack of a WR or playcalling. Heck, every starting QB has him beat including this years starting rookie QB's & last years starting QB class. Today his average gain per passing play was 3.7 yards with YAC included.

Frazier drops the challenge flag on that Mistral Raymond TD & we eat a 15 yard penalty. We get 7 points because the play becomes un-reviewable & the Bears never get to kick the FG.

Kluwe is dropping way down the list from being one of the leagues best punters.

6 for 16 on 3rd down conversions. Unsatisfactory!

Positives:
* Wright is looking like he has potential.
* ... uh .... um ... shit

Wright earned a starting role. Simpson should be sitting. As I said before, 1 great catch & a somersault into the endzone doesn't mean he's a great WR. He had a great catch earlier in the season, but has had far too many drops.

We succeeded in temporarily knocking GB out of the top spot with our play today, if only for a few hours.

AD still had 108 yards rushing on 18 carries despite the 2 fumbles.

Smith is still having an impressive year for a rookie.

We are another game closer to having some new coaches next year.

43 Pass attempts!

I am pretty sure that was not part of the game plan.

Turnovers then playing from behind changed the game plan.

With that said, the Viking's defense couldn't stop Cutler and Marshall. They took what we gave them, the underneath passes. I wonder how many 3rd down conversions Marshall was responsible for.

The Bears beat us in almost every facet of the game.

Did we seriously get called for a penalty on challenging a td? THIS WAS JUST THE MAJOR HEADLINE OF THE WHOLE DAMN WEEK!

Sadly, I predicted a 24-9 loss. Not much good out of that one.

9 dropped passes, seriously?... Simpson, 0 for 3...all perfectly thrown passes dropped. Burton, 0 for 1...a perfectly thrown ball dropped. I forget the other one, I think it was Wright or Jenkins. Three of the aforementioned will, or better, be gone soon. Wright shows some promise.

I had low expectations for that game, but, the Vikes managed to under deliver against them. I'm growing weary watching wide receivers everywhere making plays.

Oh yeah, can't Kluhe kick anymore? WTF?

Originally Posted by 12purplepride28

Did we seriously get called for a penalty on challenging a td? THIS WAS JUST THE MAJOR HEADLINE OF THE WHOLE DAMN WEEK!

No, singer was just saying that we could have kept them from reviewing the play in the booth.

Not sure that would have worked but it would have been worth a try.

From the camera angles, it was difficult to see enough evidence to over turn the call. You had to assume that the ball came out after his knees were down. I think he was down, but I had to assume that.

Originally Posted by 12purplepride28

For christ's sake mars, TJ's best game that 3 td game against ARI, in his WHOLE CAREER. I can't believe how impatient people are with Ponder. He has a little over a year and is playing with an absolutely garbage WR corp.

You do realize, in Mars' defense, that Ponder has started more games for the Vikings than TJ has. How many great games has Ponder had again where he's taken the team on his back & led us to victory on his arm? Ponder has only had one 3 TD game also & we lost the game.

I don't think Ponder is terrible, but I don't believe he's the answer at this point either. There are games, much like today, where we are down 3 scores & need to score quickly. Some people aren't happy that we didn't pound the ball more, but when time is of the essence, clock eating, long drawn out rushing attacks are not going to leave us with enough time to catch up & go ahead. With Ponder, we just can't move the ball thru the air consistently enough & when we need too to make up points.

I understand there were 8 or 9 drops today, but there were also worm shakers & other way off passes by Ponder too. You can't attribute your entire poor passing game solely on the drops. They happen on every team. How many drops did Cutler experience today from his receivers? Why isn't that posted?

With that said though, when you can single out 1 player who consistently drops passes *cough* Simpson, it's time to let him ride the pine. Troy Williamson dropped several passes, but many of those were deep passes & bombs from the QB. Simpson has been dropping some routine short passes.

Originally Posted by singersp

Frazier drops the challenge flag on that Mistral Raymond TD & we eat a 15 yard penalty. We get 7 points because the play becomes un-reviewable & the Bears never get to kick the FG.

Interesting thought.

I heard in the last few days that the NFL is thinking about that rule and will possibly change it. Maybe just for this reason.

I don't know why the ref can't just hand the flag back and say you can't challenge. To penalize someone for throwing the flag seems punitive. Punitive rule don't promote justice and go against the spirit of the replay in the first place.

Another disappointing game for sure. I do wonder why we always seem unprepared to play these critical games. Our coaches seem to lack the ability to get our guys up for this type of game. We made some key mistakes again. I can't blame it on Ponder I still think he deserves more time. Our receivers need to catch the ball. If we win a couple more games we still will have done better than any of us thought we would. Ups and downs of a young team ... kind of expected.