Game Day Thread Official Post Game Thread- Vikings beat the Pats

[p8ryts]

Refs weren't great, but officiating is ballsack in this league all around so it is what it is.

That being said, so many dumb mistakes. Mismanaging the clock at the end of the half, dumb penalties, bad special teams. Very frustrating night all around.

There are a lot of excuses, but in the end result, you are correct. Why is JJ reaching for the head to tackle someone anyway? Did it twice. Why is a rookie the choice for an attempted punt block? Teams don't win in the NFL, teams lose, and we did.

 

[archstanton543]

There are a lot of excuses, but in the end result, you are correct. Why is JJ reaching for the head to tackle someone anyway? Did it twice. Why is a rookie the choice for an attempted punt block? Teams don't win in the NFL, teams lose, and we did.

There's a certain amount of leeway that the ST unit has. If they see something, they can check out of it and into something else. We learned this when Chung checked out of a punt and into a fake during the playoffs years ago.

You can see Strong clearly check out of a cover to block (and I'm sure the Vikes did too) and they played it accordingly.

 

[Kontradiction]

The people complaining about the refs have a right to. They were garbage last night. The people saying the game is fixed should just stop watching football and stop posting since they won’t be watching football anymore. Why watch a fixed contest?

In any event, this is just distracting from one of the very real problems on offense that healthy bodies on the OL won’t fix - the fact that the offense can still be played as if it is in the red zone all over the field with 0 consequences. Minnesota realized it later in the second half and we were dead in the water until they went into prevent on the last drive. None of our receivers put the fear of God into a defense, so we will see teams continue to just make every attempt to choke off everything underneath and dare the team to beat them deep… and we won’t be able to do it consistently enough. This has been a problem for years - going back to the final two years Brady was here. We got away with it one time then, but I don’t think we can get away with it with Mac guiding the offense now.

Hopefully, Thornton turns into that guy. He and Agholor on the field together (assuming Agholor doesn’t miss time) at flanker and split end stresses the defense in ways that Parker and Agholor just can’t. You can’t play Cover-1 unless you have a shutdown corner on the outside that doesn’t need a safety shaded his way. That said, Thornton is a rookie and, to date, he hasn’t been able to do that. It’s a need, and a big one.

 

[mgteich]

Made a few mistakes taking sacks but I’ll take it if he protects the football and doesn’t squeeze the ball into double covered WRs. That was the best game of Mac’s career.

please list the sacs and how Mac should have avoided them

 

[archstanton543]

please list the sacs and how Mac should have avoided them

The one where he slid behind the line he should have thrown it away.

 

[Trolltolls]

Is Thornton even any good? Besides the TD catch at the goal line and the schemed up running TD he really hasn't impressed at all...

 

[Triumph]

Kind of, he had some money throws that the receivers let him down on. The bomb to agholor should have been caught, he stopped the route. Also the throw on the move to Meyers hit him in the hands. But yeah, he did get a little panicky at the end.

When you have these good offensive teams on the ropes, the QB must finish them off.

In the 1st half, Jones played very comfortable because the Vikings did not get pressure on him. It was very reminiscent of the Steelers game where he had all day to throw, Last night In the 2nd half, the Vikes dialed it up. In 7 days you will see the Bills apply pressure from beginning to end.

 

[Triumph]

The one where he slid behind the line he should have thrown it away.

And called a timeout.

 

[Grogan14]

Thornton can not be a deep threat unless he occasionally catches deep balls. Opponents ignore him without consequence.

 

[Triumph]

Is Thornton even any good? Besides the TD catch at the goal line and the schemed up running TD he really hasn't impressed at all...

Justin Jefferson lit it up for 1400 yards his rookie year.

 

[Triumph]

Thornton can not be a deep threat unless he occasionally catches deep balls

Its the same old story.

Next year.

 

[JMC00]

LOL

Vikings have second highest single-game completion percentage against Bill Belichick's Patriots

Bill Belichick is in his 23rd year of coaching the Patriots.

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

wow congrats to the over achieving Vikings on 1 of the most useless stats ever that if it wasn't for a blatant hold not being called on a kick return, a overturned TD and a rookie RB being dumb they would have lost 33-19 and had less than 300 yards of offense.

Jefferson really lucky Pierre Strong was active last night or he would have been a big reason why they lost, his 2nd half would have been 3 targets, 2 receptions 8 yards and a penalty

 

[Jlaff]

Just watched the highlights. Absolutely sick of seeing Jefferson making grabs in traffic. The kid could catch the ball in a phone booth with players draped all over him. We need to get ourselves one of those cheatcode type players.

I watched the Vikings the last two weeks. I can't remember the last time I've been more impressed by a receiver. He seems to be a notch above even the best wideouts in the league.

 

[venecol]

Initial reaction

Bad special teams play

HORRIBLE one sided officiatingp

AND a bunch of near misses on both offense and defense.

And we STILL could have won that game

My biggest question for this game was are passive pass rush all game. It looked like it was designed to stop Jackson rather than Cousins.
All the great twists we used last week were never dialed up tonight. Great run D, and the Pass D wasn't horrible either, just the timeliness wasn't there. But getting back to the point. On a night were we needed push up the middle against Cousins we didn't seem to try and generate it. to

380 yds passing, 2 TD and could have been 3. I can't wait to see how the morons try blame Mac this week

You said if we cut sacks down in half (6 to 3 check), reduced # of penalties (8 to 6 check) and won TO battle (+1 check) we would win this game. That & the dozen of posters that assured me Cousins couldn't perform in Primetime & that we had a Top #5 elite defense, gave me enough comfort to bet big on the Pats.

I feel duped.

Offense:
1. Mac played better against the #31st ranked Pass D w/ a decimated secondary. Though, Rham being #1 in targets 3 weeks in a row & #1 in receptions (again), no bueno.
2. OL played much better than expected (incl. Ferentz).
3. 3-10 on 3rd downs, 0-1 on 4th downs, 0-3 in RZ, more of the same inefficiency.

Defense:
1. My concerns with our much vaunted D once they faced better QB/skill player teams, are confirmed: >50% 3rd down conversions allowed, >300 passing yds, 3-5 RZ TDs allowed. This theme keeps happening since 2019. Are they frauds? We shall see.

ST:
1. Live by ST play one week, die by ST play the next.

Rookie Coaches:
1. Bill is 0-3 against rookie coaches this season (0-2 in Primetime). Is he slipping?
2. O'Connell did an excellent job of preparing his team on a short week after the drubbing by the Cowboys. Seems to be a good coach (9-2, wow).

We're on to the Bills.

 

[Kontradiction]

Justin Jefferson lit it up for 1400 yards his rookie year.

If Thornton is not that guy, then the Patriots need to make a very concerted effort to get that guy in the offseason. Mac is in year two of his rookie deal and, sooner or later, the Patriots are going to either have to pay him, pay someone else, or start from scratch at the position.

 

[Pats2000]

When you have these good offensive teams on the ropes, the QB must finish them off.

In the 1st half, Jones played very comfortable because the Vikings did not get pressure on him. It was very reminiscent of the Steelers game where he had all day to throw, Last night In the 2nd half, the Vikes dialed it up. In 7 days you will see the Bills apply pressure from beginning to end.

Yeah, he does not recognize where pressure is coming from well. Which is something that's been an issue from day 1.

 

[Real fan 02]

Agholor should have kept on running out of the stadium and taken the first flight to somewhere thousands of miles from Foxborough. Good for a few plays but a JAG at heart. We need so much better.

And making what he's making!

Next week will tell us if we're playing football in January IMO. I chalked last night's game as a L before the season. Next week's game I penciled in a W. Hopefully that happens.

7-5 (with 6-2 in the AFC and 3-1 in the division) would put us in decent shape for a wild card spot.

Yes, that's a realistic opportunity to be in position. On Thursday night games mental mistakes always seem to happen, the players aren't recovered enough!This is a NFL as a whole.

Yes it's alot to ask any defense to shut down the Vikings, look at the issues they gave the bills, the positives out if this is the offense should have alot of confidence instilled in them. This is a huge game, if the players on D have any pride starting with McCourty. Going back to last season not making them punt just no resistance to what Buffalo was doing on offense. They would do something about it. Buffalo isn't unbeatable!

Mac should be able to move the ball efficiently against the bills, Stevenson is a huge matchup problem against thier LBs. No von Miller is huge..



However I feel like BB is going to have to double Diggs we just have no one that can handle him singularly

 

[Jlaff]

The NYFL and the officiating seems like it's being run by former New Jersey Jets. Oh wait, it is.

What I don't understand is how was the Henry play considered a pass? He was running with it and had control enough to stick the ball into the end zone for a TD before he was tackled. Henry wasn't finishing a catch. He had already done that. He should have been treated as a runner, in which case that would have been ruled a TD because he crossed the plane in control of the ball.

I'm quickly coming back to this line of thinking.

Reaching the ball out across the goal line = "football move". Not sure how a player can perform a football move with the ball before they have possession of the ball.

 

[Real fan 02]

That’s for Week 12. During odd numbered weeks that’s a catch - on Sunday. But maybe not on Thursday.

Unfortunately, players must maintain possession all the way to complete the act! It's a bummer Offense finally came to life, myles Bryant did myles Bryant things as usual, this knocks us out of the playoff picture, the bills soley because of allen will be the most difficult 2 games left.. therefore I have them loosing both!

Toss up against Miami as well. Patriots need to be rooting for any team that plays the jets..

 

[Jlaff]

Mac was great last night. Just like the poor play of the offense let down the defense in a game like against the Dolphins in the opener, the defense and special teams let down a great performance by the offense and Jones last night.

If Zappe had a game like Jones had last night, the Zappe crowd would be talking Brady 2.0. Hell, they were talking Brady 2.0 after the Browns game.

Easy now, I know you're basking in Mac's first great game of the year but Zappe already had at least 11 quarters of football at that level this year.

It's great to see Mac finally play great.