Vikings VS Rams Postgame Thread

[NodakPaul]

Ponder is getting almost intolerable to watch and the playcalling is predictable and unimaginative.

???

Did you watch the same game I did? Ponder was not "intolerable" by any stretch of the imagination, and the playcalling did not seem predictable or unimaginative.

Ponder was not great, but not horrible either. He was neither good nor bad. The playcalling was conservative and run heavy - exactly what I would hope for considering the team right now. But there was a fair amount of play action, and several runs where the blocking scheme went one way but AD and a lone blocker went the other. I thought the playcalling was right on today.

[smegmavike]

???

Did you watch the same game I did? Ponder was not "intolerable" by any stretch of the imagination, and the playcalling did not seem predictable or unimaginative.

Ponder was not great, but not horrible either. He was neither good nor bad. The playcalling was conservative and run heavy - exactly what I would hope for considering the team right now. But there was a fair amount of play action, and several runs where the blocking scheme went one way but AD and a lone blocker went the other. I thought the playcalling was right on today.

Team win today. Walsh scores 15 and they win by 14. Defense was a little sporadic but overall played well.
Ponder played better and seemed relaxed for a change.; not great but certainly better.
Playcalling on both sides of the ball was pretty good.
I'm pleased, but realize it was the Rams. Should they win next week, it will give them some positive traction into next year whether they make the playoffs or not.

[purplejokr]

I couldn't be more surprised that the Vikings are in the playoff hunt in week 14. Great win. Peterson is simply the best RB in the game today.

Regarding the MVP race, I will defer to Deion Sanders from the NFL Network:

Stop this mess & give this man the MVP & stop playing. If you don't give him the MVP don't call it MVP. Call it MVQB.

[snowinapril]

???

Did you watch the same game I did? Ponder was not "intolerable" by any stretch of the imagination, and the playcalling did not seem predictable or unimaginative.

Ponder was not great, but not horrible either. He was neither good nor bad. The playcalling was conservative and run heavy - exactly what I would hope for considering the team right now. But there was a fair amount of play action, and several runs where the blocking scheme went one way but AD and a lone blocker went the other. I thought the playcalling was right on today.

Team win today. Walsh scores 15 and they win by 14. Defense was a little sporadic but overall played well.
Ponder played better and seemed relaxed for a change.; not great but certainly better.
Playcalling on both sides of the ball was pretty good.
I'm pleased, but realize it was the Rams. Should they win next week, it will give them some positive traction into next year whether they make the playoffs or not.

A lot of Ponders bad crap happens when he is rushed. His foot work is awful when he is pressure. A lot of his inconsistency comes from inconsistent foot work, not stepping into the throws and backing up to avoid getting hit. I am not sure how, when or if he will correct it.

I do agree he did better today. I think that they (coaches and Ponder) must have concentrated on having play for receivers other than receivers with the first name Kyle. Burton, Carlson, Simpson and Wright were all involved today.

BTW, the Rams have played the 49ers tough, to a tie. Fischer is an amazing coach. His teams will always come to play. I think we have to give ourselves credit for the win no matter what their record is. Our defense was making Bradford look silly most of the day.

Bring on the Texans.

[digital420]

off the bat, massive congrats to both AD/Walsh.. together they kept this game out of reach.

mostly this was a game of 2 halfs.
first half - ont he first drive ponder actually made the plays needed to get us a TD. AP was pretty much held in check, ad it was still 7 points!

8/8 was the stat call as i was fining up bathtime for my daughter listening to my pc stream the game. i thought. well.. it's about time for something AP.. I heard the announcer yell his name, so i bolted into the office to see AP all on his own around their 30 yrd line. ?? wtf? how is he all alone i thought. then i saw the replay.. coaches have said it, players, anal-ysests you cannot stop him, you try to contain him..

WR/TE's made catches and blocks, man it's good to see them contribute!

D was solid, kept them fairly well bottled, and won the turnover ratio. btw EG.. yeah baby!!

2nd half

i'm not sure, but i mentioned this to dad, i think they'll sit in prevent, and just run, run, run to eat up the clock now for the rest of the game. we'll see 20 points but games over. sure enouf we went into passive mode. we had some great blitzes schemed in the 1st half, and seemed to have so much more preasure and ability to hold them down. but in the second we seemed to let off the gass, and just hold the emergency break.

thanks to walsh though we can do that!!


DiGiTaL

[Jarlvik]

I was concerned when Longwell was released but no longer.
Time to get the kid a nickname. Try to do better than "the Blair Walsh Project" that was mentioned during the game.
Thoughts?

[NordicNed]

It was a nice win & great to see us take a huge lead. Ponder actually started with a nice series even though it was a 45 yard drive, but couldn't do it the whole game. Thank God for Walsh's leg & AD's running ability. After that 1st offensive series I thought he'd be getting contained a lot more than he did.

Simpson had 4 catches & Carlson 3. Who would have guessed that? I wasn't happy that we had great field position on 3 other drives other than the 1st drive & only came away with 6 points. Converting only 2 of 11 3rd downs isn't that great either.

Loadholt: Can the guy go a game without drawing a penalty?

I recorded the game and went back and watched this play to see if I really noticed what I did the first time. Loadholt was really pissed about the call, and he had every right to be so. If one noticed, he was actually pushed in the back himself, and the momentum from that push, pushed him into the Rams players. He really didn't push the rams player, it was more like he was trying to catch his own fall/balance, after being pushed himself. Refs caught what looked like a push/block by Load, but they totaly missed what caused it......Bad Call!

[singersp]

So you think there is no chance that is the extent of Musgraves play card?

I don't think it is. If we had another QB & receiving corp in there that could do more, I believe there would be a bigger play card.

[singersp]

They had mentioned that Johnson was moved down from the booth to be on the sidelines this game during the broadcast and that he had been upstairs for the other games this season.

But it looks like Craig was moved down to field level mid November

LINK

He was moved down over a month ago, so that wasn't the first time he was there, only the first time we saw it.

You would think they would use someone else for that extra set of eyes & have the QB coach on the sidelines coaching his young QB. Especially when there isn't an experienced vet on the sideline to draw from & Ponder is only in his 2nd year.

Has it been beneficial? It seemed like it was for the Lions game, but since then it's questionable.

We were 5-4 before the move.
Ponder in that time completed 63% of his passes, averaged 201 yds/game, 1.1 TD's/game, 0.9 INT's/game & had a 78.3 QBR.

We are 3-2 after the move.
Ponder in that time completed 62% of his passes, averaged 144 yds/game, 0.8 TD's/game, 0.8 INT's/game & had a 70.4 QBR.

[Jarlvik]

WR's can only catch "catchable" balls. Musgrave's playcallling is limited by talent & performance. I can't put the blame on him. Sure, the WR's ( and TE's) have dropped balls, but QB play has been horrible as of late. Overall, I'm very pleased with 8-6 this year.