Post game thread

[NodakPaul]

Great game & a great win! A nail biter at the end like I thought it might be as we have seen so many times in the past.

Ponder played very well, better than expected & connected on two 20+ yard passes that were very nicely thrown & vital in the win as was the pass hitting Jenkins on the sideline. If he could throw farther than the typical 5 yards like that & be more consistently accurate, more often, fans wouldn’t be talking about bringing in QB’s like Romo, Vick or Sanchez.

My only knocks on him in that game were some floaters that were thrown & that there were open receivers on the field that he did not see or chose not to throw to.

Many people knock on Musgrave, but as I said before, I think he’s calling plays he feels Ponder can execute with confidence & he’s limiting his longer throws until he can prove he can make them more consistently. I think he held his leash the right amount.

AD continues to be a beast this year.

Disappointments:

They wasted way too much time dilly-dallying around on that last drive & seemed complacent once they got just inside of Walsh’s range. Visions of Gary Anderson came to mind & felt they could have easily run a few more plays to AD to try & get more in range with better time management or stopping the clock. Fortunately, AD broke the last run & put us into a much better kicking situation.

I wish that last run by AD would have made it to the endzone. What a fitting end to a remarkable season it would have been to beat Dickerson’s record, score the winning TD, beat the NFCN Champs & propel your team into the playoffs all in one play in front of your home crowd.

Loadholt. Still racking up stupid penalties & false starts to add to his collection.

Agree 100% with everything you said. Especially regarding Musgrave.

[Suick]

+1...he's starting to look more confident...and, btw, I didn't see lobs today. He let it rip, or, placed it nicely, like the fortunate TD to Jenkins.

+2

To quote myself after the 1st GB game: "Vikings have NO chance at the playoffs with Ponder at QB"


Welllllllllll

[digital420]

dad and i laughed, cheered, yelled, cheered, laughed sooo much during that game.

our depth @ cb really came into play today.. for both good and bad.. the S.. man o man i hope smith is good 2 go on saturday!

AP.. respect always.. there are other flashy backs.. one time wonders.. and the occasional steady workhorse rb.. then.. well then there's AP.. GB tried everything in their gameplan to slow down/ stop AP. they tried 8 or 9 in the box. the tried leaving guys back.. the gang tackled.. they watched AP so intently that the play action was.. omg successful!!!! ohh yeah.. and when AP didn't have the ball in his arms.. it seems he is no longer thought of.. i mean.. how open in the endzone can you get? 199 yrds later..240 yrds in the air.. the Vikings are in the playoffs.. IN THE PLAYOFFS! i feel the urge to copy + paste that all over this post to stress the fact that the Minnesota Vikings are IN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!

Walsh.. clutch as always put us IN THE PLAYOFFS!

Ponder.. 234 yrds, 3 td's.. now that was a game when we neeeded it!

crow pie will be served to all anal-ytests from most every major sports media center.. i saw only 1 or 2 experts pick MN to win this game.. rodgers is 2 hot, he's in rythem, GB gets mathews back, (btw there was a run where felton square hits mathews and knocks him back like 3-4 feet.. yeah baby!!)

1 n done, or SB winners.. the Vikes have risen to a very steep challenge, played some great football against some of the better teams in league, and the rebuilding is looking very sturdy for a championship team!

DiGiTaL

[smegmavike]

Lets remember one thing when talking about Peterson not getting the record. Dickerson got the record in a 14 game season. We now play 16. Is it really a record when the parameters are not the same? Yes Adrain had a wonderful season but even getting that record you still have to remember the time in which Dickerson got the record in 14 games.

Dickerson had 2105 yds. on 379 carries. Peterson had 2097 yds. on 348 carries; Peterson had 31 less carries.
Are you suggesting Dickerson is a better running back than Peterson ?
What's your point?
Vikings made the playoffs against every expectation. A little positve vibe may be warranted !

[smegmavike]

Yes Griffen played very well but do not forget that Robison took the ball out of Rodgers hand at a very critical point.

The more defensive lineman making plays the better.

I noticed on Allen's sack that he was lined up on the left side of the line, anyone else catch that or was I seeing crap?

Robison's play was huge, but it was the only time he had much pressure in the game. His arm was hanging at his side and he was clearly inneffective at times due to his injury.
I would rather they start Griffen at end as pressure on Rodgers is the key to beating the Packers.

[Tad7]

If seeing a drunk Viking fan argue with a tough guy Packer fan interests you, I stumbled across this on youtube. Some of you might have had your fill of it yesterday though lol

Starts about 40 seconds in

[Traveling_Vike]

I am quite pleased with this victory. Although it was mildly disappointing to see Adrian come so close but fall just nine yards short, I am sure that we are all much happier to have the win. Now, looking forward, we' be traveling to Green Bay to face our hated rivals once again in a matchup that promises to be, uh, uh...

Excuse me for just a second, please.




WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!!




Ahem. Thanks, just had to get that out of my system.

Anyway, moving on. Some serious step-up play and do-or-die attitude this week. All credit to the coaching staff. This is the kind of game that, in the past, would have seen a monumental fourth quarter collapse. It even looked like we were headed that way in the third, when the string of penalties started happening. For a change, though, our guys regrouped, calmed themselves down, and battled through it. We've developed a "can do" attitude this year, and IMO, that comes from Coach Frazier on down. It's what I've always ranted about: discipline. We've had a few lapses, sure, but overall, this team has improved in that aspect by leaps and bounds.

Ponder, well, granted he's no Manning or Brady, but the kid is a fighter. I love that about him. He's grown so much in his quiet leadership skills over the course of the year. Still needs a ot of work, but it actually looks like he could make it now. Oh, and by the way, it seems like he can throw a nice deep ball every once in a while, if the time is (W)right.

Griffen was impressive. We'll need to see more of that. We'll also need a healthy Winfield and Smith. Although the secondary is improved, we still lack the quality depth that we need to hang with strong passing offenses like GB's.

Can we beat the Pack at Lambeau? Sure we can, but it will take the same kind of sustained effort that we've just seen, plus more. The national fans don't seem to give us much chance, having the Packers down as being in the least danger of the four division winners playing next weekend. That's just how we like it, though. We always play better as underdogs than as favorites, especially in big games.

If we can somehow pull it off, that spells a trip to Atlanta and a chance to avenge ourselves for that 1998 NFCC debacle against the Falcons. Wouldn't that be sweet?

But that's getting ahead of ourselves. I'm just gonna relax a bit here and savor the win.

SKOL VIKINGS! You've made me love you even more than before, if that was possible.

[AngloVike]

Aikman was a great QB. He is not a great announcer. Don't judge your opinion on what Aikman says.

very true, did laugh in the first half when the Vikes were 4th and 1. Aikman said it was foolish for the Vikes to go for it, when the ball was handed to AP and he got six yards I could hear a whistling sound as the wind was taken out of Aikman's sails

[AngloVike]

I have to say I've been on both Ponder's and Musgraves case this season but last night was a good game. Ponder had one of his better games that I've seen and generally I liked the plays that Musgrave sent it to be run. AD was a beast and even though the Packers knew he was coming they still couldn't stop him - will be looking forward to see how that battle pans out next week.

Things I didn't like - protection on Ponders left side wasn't as good as I'd like, something to reviewed during the week and a solution put in place.
Loadholt - stupid, dumb penalties again and cost us momentum at times. He is beginning to turn into a RT version of McKinnie. However our season finishes I think we should look at RT come draft weekend.

All in all though a good game and the team has done far better than anyone could have expected - especially with some of the teams we have beaten in recent weeks. The team is developing and maturing and will be interesting to see how they react in the playoffs now.

[marshallvike]

I don't know if we can beat both the Packers AND the officiating crew IN Green Bay. I was so p ssed off when they took it upon themselves to change a rule in the middle of the game to benefit the Pukes. (I bet Schwartz wasn't too happy to see that either) Then to top it off it seemed like they called four or five penalties on us the ensuing drive. And this was in our house.