Thread: Vikings@Titans - Preseason Week 1 - Post Game

Originally Posted by "VikesFan787" #1104321

Did not like Asher Allen and cringed when Cook blew his coverage. I was hoping he would step up.

Does anyone else notice that Peterson and Gerhart just simply run into the O-Line and just get stuffed by our own players? I seen that a lot last year also.

Like I've said before, AD gets a lot of yards, primarily because he busts some, but people fail to see or acknowledge just how many times he gets stuffed for no gain or a loss. That is why it's so important to have a good passing game to compliment the run. Your passing game has to pull people out of the box.

Originally Posted by "skum" #1104310

Post your positives and negatives here

Positives:

I know Ponder played against scrubs & with scrubs, but I thought he made some quick heads up plays & decisions to make a positive play out of a play gone awry. He threw some nice passes.

Although it's just preseason, I still enjoy seeing the Packers get beat.

Negatives:

Berrian is still Berrian. All the speed in the world doesn't win ball games if you can't catch the ball.

Aromashodu: See Berrian

We let Rice go.

Other:

Locker looked cool as a cucumber out there & in control.

Positives:..

McNabb - sure footed, made good decisions.
Booker - tons of upside, elusive, fast and a great 3rd down back.
DeMarcus Love - I like this kid a lot, very good footwork, strong, exciting prospect.

Negatives:..

Chris Cook - he was horrible, poor tackling and a schoolboy error got him burned for the TD.
Webb - for me, showed he hasn't really learnt a lot from last year, still not getting his head up and taking off too quickly, not a standout no'2 qb.

It's pre-season so i wont be losing too much sleep on this performance.

OK, I quit charting after the 3rd quarter. Just to damn many numbers/names I don’t have a clue on…….

Observations:

a. The change in KOffs isn’t going to hurt returners that go against the Vikings. Fricken Shortwell didn’t even get his first one in the endzone for cripes sake.
b. We don’t need to worry about a KOff returner. Everything is to deep to return. (except Shortwells of course)
c. If the trend continues, teams are going to run right (LDE Robison) a lot. I charted 4 against Rob and 2 against Awasom were the LB’r or CB got hung because they couldn’t seal. Awasom did have one heck of a nice read/react/pressure on the QB though.
d. Can’t figure out why they had Everson at RDE. Would have made more sense to flip flop them but I guess the coaches wanted to see Rob early at LDE. Everson got caught rushing atleast twice on runs to the outside.
e. 12 2-1 sets, 7 2-2 sets, 4 1-1 sets. Could be off on a couple of those cause I didn’t realize that Sauce was lining up at FB a couple of times.
f. A lot of runs went inside the tackles with most in the A and B gaps.
g. Sully didn’t look to bad on the runs up the middle.
h. A lot of “Zone Press”. I charted 10 (Cloud/Cover 3) and I think I missed the Sat the line at least 3 more times but wasn’t sure in the third. Other than the mess up by Cook biting up on the fumble, allowing a TD, the DB’s didn’t do to bad in the Zone Press look.
i. Hard to tell but I charted most offensive blocking schemes as “hat on hat”. Can be attributed to vanilla initial outing.

Good
a. Toby looks good.
b. Dnabb looked good even though most was short/quick throws.
c. Webb can scramble. More on him in the bad.
d. Ponder didn’t look as lost as the papers contend.
e. 3rd and short, early and Hutch got stuffed. (Edit - That should be in the bad)......
f. Kluwe seems to have figured it out. High, long punts equal less return.
g. Frampton, D’imperio can cover kicks.
h. JJ might have sealed it up for returner. Nice to have him, Booker and Sherrels able to do it if injuries limit roster assignments.
i. Erin will be OK. He made up for a lot of mistakes early by LDE’s.
j. Atleast for the starters and some of the second rounders, the OL only had a few blatant gaffs.


Bad
a. Saw two nice pulls by Degeare but he missed the bock. Atleast he got there. Some more reps this year might iron that out.
b. Webb needs to wait a bit longer before he takes off running. Mayock pointed out one instance, but I saw two others were the receiver was open just as he broke and ran.
c. I have I mentioned Shortwell?
d. Not a lot of pressure up the middle by the DT’s. Need to see more of Ballard


Long story short, about what I expected with a few suprises.

Defense worked on leaving CB's alone with little or no S help. Can't wait to see what the starters do in that role. Again for the most part the second stringers did OK.

Offense was focused on short stuff. Anticipate seeing some intermediate stuff next week. Timing between Dnabb (QB's) and all recievers should help were we saw some dropped balls this weekend.


In the end, I can’t wait for next weekend against the Seachickens. From what I watched of them this weekend, their defense was OK against the run, and sucked against the pass. Should be a good game for our OL to continue to work on things.

On a side note, anyone else take notice of Webb's jump pass......:P

I immediately thought of you when I saw the jump pass when the pocket broke down on him Marty.

What I saw was a team with a young coaching staff that has a lot of holes to fill and has had a limited time to sort through all of the issues that confront them.

Anyone who thinks this team can get turned around and finish above .500(Let alone 11-5) is going to be in for a big letdown.

Ponder looked pretty good and has some quickness. I thought McNabb looked pretty solid and didn't make any really stupid mistakes. He looked pretty comfortable for the most part and probably due to the fact that it was a no pressure game.

O-line looks like they are getting manhandled too much but preseason is just that.

The biggest positive by far is not seeing that balled headed dunce bent over on the sideline like he's reliving the days in prison.

Originally Posted by "Purple Floyd" #1104346

I immediately thought of you when I saw the jump pass when the pocket broke down on him Marty.

What I saw was a team with a young coaching staff that has a lot of holes to fill and has had a limited time to sort through all of the issues that confront them.

Anyone who thinks this team can get turned around and finish above .500(Let alone 11-5) is going to be in for a big letdown.

I still say we can get into double digits with a good chance at 11-5. Next week, however, I would anticipate some movement on a couple of fronts...

a. We should see some intermediate routes. Everything this weekend was basic stuff implemented early in camp. Runs off the A and B gaps and short dumpoffs/checkdowns with a few slants.

b. Saw alot of S's at the line early. As I mentioned above with the offense, the defense we saw is the basics so S's at the line this early t equates to S's at the line alot. Want to see the starting CB's in this scheme. Gonna be fun to see if they can be "Cover" corners instead of Cover 2 corners. I know a few were disappointed in them but I thought they did OK for the most part.

The Cook gaff is something that happens in the first pre-season game but won't happen when its real.

Originally Posted by "battleaxe4cheese" #1104349

Ponder looked pretty good and has some quickness. I thought McNabb looked pretty solid and didn't make any really stupid mistakes. He looked pretty comfortable for the most part and probably due to the fact that it was a no pressure game.

O-line looks like they are getting manhandled too much but preseason is just that.

The biggest positive by far is not seeing that balled headed dunce bent over on the sideline like he's reliving the days in prison.

Saw some good stuff on the interior of the OL, but as you said, nothing special at this point, which is to be expected.

For the most part, wholes were there for the backs in the A and B gaps with Toby only getting stuffed one time and Dnabb had time for what throws he was working. So did Webb and Ponder for the most part if they would have been a bit more patient.

The OL is going to be the Achilles of the offense. The old QB cannot play with pressure on him and the Center is going to get msnhandled like a fresh inmate on a weekly basis. The LT has a lot to adjust to before he is serviceable and that is going to lead to lots of sacks, runs for no gain and more hurried passes.

My guess is the only thing that will prevent certain posters from calling for brett to come out of retirement is pride.

Hard to tell on first game. Did not feel the Vikes were in this one emotionally. Lot of confusion. Thought Ponder looked like a lost rookie but will give him the benefit of the doubt because he was playing with the #2's & 3's. I will say "Ryan Mallet" looked the best of the rookie QB's. This guy is gonna be a superstar in the NFL!!!! We should of took him with our 2nd pick & grabbed a DL or OL with our first pick.