20 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

I'd be interested to see Steen at LT and move Mailata to RT sometime down the road. Jurgens needs to be at center, he's not a RG. They can find a RG next year. 

If Steen was a LT in the NFL he would have been a top 10 pick coming out of Bama. 

2 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

Interesting that Cox played so many snaps. And the Ellis played so few.

Why the F isn't Nolan Smith playing more?  

7 minutes ago, BDawk_ASamuel said:

It might take the first month or so of the season for it to click with the new coordinators and what the identity on each side of the hall can be. If they can stumble their way to 4-0 throughout that stretch, all the better. 

This is so frustrating though because they could have been using preseason games to figure some of these things out. There's always going to be rust the first few weeks but if you have to use the 1st quarter of the season to find your identity, your process is flawed. I don't want to hear "players might get hurt in preseason"...guess what, half the defense is injured, 2 ST aces are out for the year and their "starting RB" lasted 1 game. Aaron Rodgers lasted all of 4 plays. Injuries are going to happen. 

I griped about it all offseason with the lack of OTA's, mandatory camps and TC but when you have 2 brand new coordinators (one who's never called plays), new starters down the middle of the defense, one who lines up the defense and the other who lines up the DB, being on the field together is imperative. Their approach reeks of arrogance. For all we know, 2022 was a flash in the pan. 

1 hour ago, EaglePhan1986 said:

I could be wrong and certainly am no expert… but does Lane look about a quarter of a step slower… 

Looks like he has one foot out the door to retirement. 

7 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

Why the F isn't Nolan Smith playing more?  

Reddick doesn’t seem right - had a hard time getting through Hockenson.

6 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

Why the F isn't Nolan Smith playing more?  

I'd like to see more of him too. Reddick might not be 100% healthy yet and Smith could help ease him back. Reddick has been nearly invisible so far.

 

9 minutes ago, bbabraham said:

Interesting that Cox played so many snaps. And the Ellis played so few.

Ellis plays with his hair on fire but can't finish. He attacks and flies to the ball but he either overshoots or misses tackles. The hype on him was way overblown. 

6 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

This is so frustrating though because they could have been using preseason games to figure some of these things out. There's always going to be rust the first few weeks but if you have to use the 1st quarter of the season to find your identity, your process is flawed. I don't want to hear "players might get hurt in preseason"...guess what, half the defense is injured, 2 ST aces are out for the year and their "starting RB" lasted 1 game. Aaron Rodgers lasted all of 4 plays. Injuries are going to happen. 

I griped about it all offseason with the lack of OTA's, mandatory camps and TC but when you have 2 brand new coordinators (one who's never called plays), new starters down the middle of the defense, one who lines up the defense and the other who lines up the DB, being on the field together is imperative. Their approach reeks of arrogance. For all we know, 2022 was a flash in the pan. 

They've not found the balance between protecting players vs appreciating how much schematically has changed since last season.  The short bye now will be helpful for teaching and reviewing the last 2 games.

17 minutes ago, EaglePhan1986 said:

If Steen was a LT in the NFL he would have been a top 10 pick coming out of Bama. 

Steen will be our future RG

5 minutes ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Reddick doesn’t seem right - had a hard time getting through Hockenson.

I think he gets right next Monday

15 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

Why the F isn't Nolan Smith playing more?  

Great question

18 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

This is so frustrating though because they could have been using preseason games to figure some of these things out. There's always going to be rust the first few weeks but if you have to use the 1st quarter of the season to find your identity, your process is flawed. I don't want to hear "players might get hurt in preseason"...guess what, half the defense is injured, 2 ST aces are out for the year and their "starting RB" lasted 1 game. Aaron Rodgers lasted all of 4 plays. Injuries are going to happen. 

I griped about it all offseason with the lack of OTA's, mandatory camps and TC but when you have 2 brand new coordinators (one who's never called plays), new starters down the middle of the defense, one who lines up the defense and the other who lines up the DB, being on the field together is imperative. Their approach reeks of arrogance. For all we know, 2022 was a flash in the pan. 

Pre-season snaps wouldn't have help prepare them much for the new wrinkles DCs are throwing at them.

And your complaining about the defenders being on the field together during pre-season was moot last night, as four of the starting back seven didn't finish the game.

3 minutes ago, Godfather said:

I think he gets right next Monday

Game 1 wet field, Game 2 thumb, 3rd time is the charm.

Hope a bunch of things get cleaned up during the mini bye…

Solak said the Vikings either dropped 8 or brought 6 over 80% of the time last night.  They definitely didn't want us to beat them throwing the ball, and Hurts was flustered.  Don't think the playcalls helped him early either.

Vikings should trade Cousins to the Jets and tank for Caleb Williams.  

Lock up Jefferson long term, let Flores pick his guys on D and use the draft capital they get from that trade to bolster their OL. 

Best way for them to become a contender imo. Let's hope they don't do it. 

The Vikes started the game following the Pats Defensive blueprint from game 1 - Heavy Blitz and play a ton of soft zone. 

In fact the very first series- The Vikes blitzed the Eagles on every play. They really didn't back off of this until Smith burned them for a TD and only backed off a bit, they still blitzed but just not as constant.

They will likely see this until they prove they can consistently beat the blitz and soft zone coverages. Switching to heavy run was a great adjustment, you take what the defense was giving you. I thought later in the game the play calling and reads by Hurts were improving, as a direct result of having the run game be successful, and taking all the pressure off the passing game. . 

 

1 minute ago, mikemack8 said:

Solak said the Vikings either dropped 8 or brought 6 over 80% of the time last night.  They definitely didn't want us to beat them throwing the ball, and Hurts was flustered.  Don't think the playcalls helped him early either.

Yup. Johnson needs to recognize that and adjust a lot quicker. They were selling out to avoid the deep ball. At least he figured it out eventually. 

The Running game affected their defense. Harrison Smith did not drop deep into coverage because of the run threat. That left Smith in single coverage on the outside and helped get the ball over the top. That's the effect of running the ball. 

The Pats and Vikings play the same defensive scheme. Hurts and the O Coordinator struggle and have no solutions to help the passing game. Except run the ball.

Hurts is 19-1 in his last 20 regular season starts.

59 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

I've got no issue with it.  You don't get a bonus for taking the timeout with you.  Better to make sure you know what you are doing and have the right guys out there... and that they know what to do to defend the Hail Mary and the crazy pitch play.

Yea but I wanted to go to bed 

4 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

Hurts is 19-1 in his last 20 regular season starts.

But what about preseason wins?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the playcalling/situational awareness. First drive we went super conservative in the red zone and ran screen, run, run inside the 10 yard line to kick a FG.

Then on the drive in the second half of the game where the holding call negated the TD and then the missed DPI put them in fringe FG range we ran two passes back to back. I wasn't a fan of Hurts decisions in that moment but he shouldn't have been put in that situation to begin with. Hitting a FG secures the game much better at 30-14.

Howie saved our life with getting us rb1 swift 

2 minutes ago, bitbased said:

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the playcalling/situational awareness. First drive we went super conservative in the red zone and ran screen, run, run inside the 10 yard line to kick a FG.

Then on the drive in the second half of the game where the holding call negated the TD and then the missed DPI put them in fringe FG range we ran two passes back to back. I wasn't a fan of Hurts decisions in that moment but he shouldn't have been put in that situation to begin with. Hitting a FG secures the game much better at 30-14.

Agreed- I was super critical of the play calling at that moment on THAT drive- mainly because it was right after AJ was growling on the sideline about not being involved, and they tried to playcate AJ by forcing the ball to him, instead of winning the game. 

Siri will fix that AJ Brown crap I believe