The Negatives

[Demi]

Our offensive line looked terrible. I know it takes time. But Kalil just got owned. And the blitzes couldn't be stopped.

Rudolph had a ball bounce off his hands.

Gerhart is a scrub. Honestly, put a uniform on me. I'll stumble around on runs as well as him. Bumbling is right! Nice to see him stumble forward for a couple yards, but any big white guy falling forward could do that. Get the young guys in here.

Ponder's play action? Can coaches not work on this or what? He has the worst play action in the entire NFL! "hug the ball...pretend you handed it off" is not play action. The guy who they just moved to receiver has a better play action! Get the ball extended and pretend! 4 years at FSU and now on his third in the NFL and he still doesn't get it?

Short field punts wooow huge upgrade. Literally night and day with Kluwe. Longer field? Oh crap we're in trouble. Especially with this QB and offense. Those rugby punts are great when you're at midfield. But beyond that? oh crap, is Hester still returning punts for Chicago? My spleen just exploded.

Safeties other than Blanton? Boo! Get Blanton in there already. And if you're not drafting a guard draft a safety next year. Man this is ugly.

No depth at linebacker. Starters questionable? Check the backups. Terrible situation. You read about needing quick LBs in the cover 2. This team is a mess. Investing in other positions leaves a pretty big hole at linebacker. Takes time to build a team. And this is a position they're waiting on. It will show. Bishop was a hail mary to try and by time. He could but it's going to be ugly either way.

Need a new offensive coordinator. Musgrave? Pf. Call up Denny. This west coast is a joke. We've seen it since Chili. Through Bevell. And now Musgrave. He leans on a once in a decade way too much. Change it up. Probably will after this season. Frazier holds his own. Especially considering this personnel on defense. After this year going to be crazy with the youth we have across the board.

Average team with some huge talent as some positions, but overall need more than "just do your job average" to get it done. Especially on offense.

[Funkytown]

Gerhart is a scrub. Honestly, put a uniform on me. I'll stumble around on runs as well as him. Bumbling is right! Nice to see him stumble forward for a couple yards, but any big white guy falling forward could do that.

This is part of the sense of humor/sarcasm that others could use around here. Lighten up people. Yeesh!

Anyways, I figured the "negatives" portion was coming. All the complaints about the negativity and cynics--and no responses yet? Surprised it doesn't have at least 100 from just overnight.

Either way, we did look pretty darn awful the other night. It's inexcusable, however, I do have confidence we'll be able to turn it around by the time the season starts. I can't imagine anyone with the Vikings (aside from some fans) are even close to okay with how some of the things looked on Friday night. Everyone should be more than eager to fix it--and I hope they do as soon as the Niners game. I'm not even expecting to win--even though I'd like us to--I just want to see the offense in sync and the guys making some plays. The game against the Niners is the perfect test to see how much we have or haven't improved from the last couple of weeks.



Oh, wait, this wasn't completely negative. AM I IN TROUBLE?!?!

[Lash Man]

The only thing that really bothered me is the terrible O-line play , I dont care if they are back ups at this level they should know how to block and pick up a blitz . I think the coaching staff should be concerned and focus on blitzing assignments or you can be sure every team we play is going to do that and I know we have AD and he will break a few long ones we still have to complete passes and that means giving the QB more than 2 seconds before two guys are in his grill every passing down .

[Texas Vike]

The only thing that really bothered me is the terrible O-line play , I dont care if they are back ups at this level they should know how to block and pick up a blitz . I think the coaching staff should be concerned and focus on blitzing assignments or you can be sure every team we play is going to do that and I know we have AD and he will break a few long ones we still have to complete passes and that means giving the QB more than 2 seconds before two guys are in his grill every passing down .

The problem is that the starters on the O-line had a really bad game. Asiata did fail to pick up a D-lineman once or twice, but I'm more concerned about Kalil, Load and Sullivan having such a poor outing. Both Sully AND Joe Berger snapped the ball over the QB's head. WTH? Contagious?

Given the pressure, Ponder played well. He had some nice passes to Rudy (who dropped the first and caught the next 3, one of which showed really nice touch by Ponder). I understand all the moaning and groaning here, but the truth of the matter is no team is going to be teeing off on us like this when the threat of AD is omnipresent. Furthermore, the Bills' coach is a rookie and he seems to be really making an effort to win these preseason games at any cost. They floored the Colts in week 1. They aren't just using vanilla packages. The Bills had different motives from us: we wanted to evaluate our squad, they wanted to win. One good point: they committed tons of penalties, we did not. I'm not concerned; in fact, it will probably serve us well to get our pass protection up to snuff before real games start.

One last observation: Sherels should be cut. Let's get someone else returning punts.

[allday1991]

The blitz pick-up was by far the most horrible part of them game. At one point they even had Asiata cutting across the pill to block Dareus.... alone.
Due to the horrible line everything looked bad on the offence, qb scrambling to much, no rhythm.
Not seeing a "new" offence, looks the exact same as last year but with Greg Jennings running the screens harvin was running (and Ponder still missing a easy throw).
Hoping to see something a bit more promise in game 3.

[Laserman]

Negatives? In last Fridays game? Hmm Just about anywhere you wanted you look on any given play

[Eli]

The biggest, and as far as I'm concerned, only real negative on offense was the failure to get Ponder in sync with any of his wide receivers and get them some significant game-day practice. The blame goes all around... the offensive line play, poor blocking by the running backs, dropped passes.

On defense, the Vikings are showing signs of having exactly the same problems as last year against the run. They're getting ripped up front, and without better linebacker play, that's going to eat them up.

We saw some positive things in the secondary (is that OK in this thread?), but it's too early to tell if they've actually improved. Josh Robinson has me worried, both in coverage at his new slot position and in his tackling ability.

[PurpleHalo]

Heres one thing I'm sorta miffed about that nobody is talking about:

Why is it that Ponder is hardly playing? Okay I get that he had only one series in the Houston game, they wanted to give Cassell more time to get familiar with this new offense. But vs the Bills he basically got 1 quarter! Peyton Manning played the whole half in the Broncos game (which is fairly common for starters in game 2), probably because he is working with a new WR. Brady threw 12 passes in the Patriots game, Ponder has thrown 11 total passes in 2 games. I guess he doesn't need the work, like those scrubs Manning and Brady! I wouldn't be shocked if this offense is out of synch in the opener in Detroit, unless they plan on starting Cassell, he's getting plenty of work.

[Texas Vike]

yes, I think we all know the negatives...they were glaringly on display. I was sorta hoping nobody would respond to this thread and it would just disappear...that woulda been funny.

Thought about that too, but, hell, why not have some intelligent discourse on the negative things we're seeing? Nothing wrong with that, as long as it is rational and measured.

[allday1991]

Heres one thing I'm sorta miffed about that nobody is talking about:

Why is it that Ponder is hardly playing? Okay I get that he had only one series in the Houston game, they wanted to give Cassell more time to get familiar with this new offense. But vs the Bills he basically got 1 quarter! Peyton Manning played the whole half in the Broncos game (which is fairly common for starters in game 2), probably because he is working with a new WR. Brady threw 12 passes in the Patriots game, Ponder has thrown 11 total passes in 2 games. I guess he doesn't need the work, like those scrubs Manning and Brady! I wouldn't be shocked if this offense is out of synch in the opener in Detroit, unless they plan on starting Cassell, he's getting plenty of work.

He threw 12 passes just against the bills, and two against the Texans.

[allday1991]

yes, I think we all know the negatives...they were glaringly on display. I was sorta hoping nobody would respond to this thread and it would just disappear...that woulda been funny.

We cant focus on the positives 24/7, especially when they're most negatives than positives. We can sit here and discuss the positives of the first two pre-season games but in reality we are ignoring a lot more negatives that should be alarming to any fan. I herd someone else say it, if the offence keeps looking this way, if A.p doesn't rush for 2000 yards we will struggle to win 5 games.

[Mothman]

Why is it that Ponder is hardly playing? Okay I get that he had only one series in the Houston game, they wanted to give Cassell more time to get familiar with this new offense. But vs the Bills he basically got 1 quarter! Peyton Manning played the whole half in the Broncos game (which is fairly common for starters in game 2)...

The philosophy on that varies from team to team but over the years, the most common approach in the second preseason game has been to play the starting QB in the first quarter and then a drive or two in the second quarter. Depending on how the second quarter flows, sometimes that means a QB plays the most of the first half and sometimes it means they're done early in the second quarter. The Vikes played Ponder for a quarter and one additional possession so that wasn't unusual. They probably want to get Cassel a decent number of reps per game too since he's new to the team and the offense.

Starting QBs usually play the first half and a drive or two in the third quarter of preseason game #3 and I'm betting that's just what we'll see happen next week against SF.

[PurpleHalo]

The philosophy on that varies from team to team but over the years, the most common approach in the second preseason game has been to play the starting QB in the first quarter and then a drive or two in the second quarter. Depending on how the second quarter flows, sometimes that means a QB plays the most of the first half and sometimes it means they're done early in the second quarter. The Vikes played Ponder for a quarter and one additional possession so that wasn't unusual. They probably want to get Cassel a decent number of reps per game too since he's new to the team and the offense.

Starting QBs usually play the first half and a drive or two in the third quarter of preseason game #3 and I'm betting that's just what we'll see happen next week against SF.

I just think he needed more time with Jennings, notice the Broncos gave Manning the entire first half, I assume that is because he has a new WR in Welker. And combine that with 2 passes vs Houston, I find that a bit light considering.

[Mothman]

I just think he needed more time with Jennings, notice the Broncos gave Manning the entire first half, I assume that is because he has a new WR in Welker. And combine that with 2 passes vs Houston, I find that a bit light considering.

I understand and it definitely looks like he and Jennings have work to do to get their chemistry down. I'm just not sure if it makes much difference if that work comes against a blitzing team that will have no qualms about taking Ponder's head off or against the Vikings defense in practice. Considering Jennings' injury history the last few years and the amount they invested in him, they probably aren't too crazy about exposing him to a lot of hits in the preseason either.

[J. Kapp 11]

I'd like to say that the new road uniforms look phenomenal. Really great balance of yellow against the purple. Modern AND throwback at the same time? Are you kidding me? Perfect!!!

And how about that Xavier Rhodes on the interception. Finally, a cornerback who can play press coverage and own his man!

Gosh, those were some excellent punts inside the 20 by Locke. I mean, great punting AND no weird psycho letters to congressmen? BONUS!

Oh wait ...

... was this the ...

... man, I always get it wrong.