Vikings vs. Jaguars Preview

[Rhodes Closed]

I never made any prediction, only that I felt we had a good chance at beating them. But you do you, and I will call you out on it.

You did make an prediction which you said "I get the feeling we'll stomp all over them though next week" which did not happen, nice try though! I am not going to reply anymore, I hope you have a good day, later!

That isn't a prediction, nice try though. A prediction is a declarative statement. What I said, is something known as an opinion, a feeling, something that isn't stated with full declaration. Perhaps these things are foreign to you.

[RandyMoss84]

You did make an prediction which you said "I get the feeling we'll stomp all over them though next week" which did not happen, nice try though! I am not going to reply anymore, I hope you have a good day, later!

That isn't a prediction, nice try though. A prediction is a declarative statement. What I said, is something known as an opinion, a feeling, something that isn't stated with full declaration. Perhaps these things are foreign to you.

Keep telling yourself that since it helps you sleep better at night, I am out of the thread, later!

[Rhodes Closed]

That isn't a prediction, nice try though. A prediction is a declarative statement. What I said, is something known as an opinion, a feeling, something that isn't stated with full declaration. Perhaps these things are foreign to you.

Keep telling yourself that since it helps you sleep better at night, I am out of the thread, later!

Didn't you say you weren't going to respond in your last post?

[Frozen Rope]

The Jags have put in some competitive performances against some decent teams, losing by 3 at Tennessee early in the year and by 4 to the Packers more recently. They've had some bad losses as well, but I wouldn't call them a bad team. I'd call them a flawed team that has been on the wrong side of the majority of breaks.

The Vikings should not look past the Jags and I don't think they will. I think this will be a close game until the 4th quarter, more so because I think that while the Vikings are playing better overall, they still have some real weak spots on special teams and miscues (both turnovers and untimely penalties) that tend to negate a lot of what they're doing well. But I think the Vikes will pull away in the 4th.

Hopefully the Vikings get Cleveland and Thielen back for this one. Brett Jones has filled in admirably for Cleveland, but I think Cleveland just moves really well at that guard spot and that makes a difference when the Vikings want to run. Having an effective run game coupled with the dual threat posed by Thielen and Jefferson makes the Vikings offense pretty hard to stop.

Defensively, the formula is simple - limit the run on the early downs and get the Jags into 3rd-and-longs. I think the Vikings have done a good job of mixing coverages in the secondary and confusing opposing QBs and I expect that to continue against the Jags, but I'm hoping to see more out of the pass rush and early down run defense along the lines of what the Vikings defense showed in the 2nd half against the Panthers. That was winning defense, and if they can start to play like that more consistently, this team is going to start winning by much more comfortable margins against better competition.

As for the final result, if the Vikings start to iron out the kinks on both sides and avoid critical mistakes, I could see them winning comfortably. If they can't perform at that higher level consistently, it will be a much closer win or even a loss if they make enough mistakes. I don't think the Jags can come in and win comfortably, but like Dallas they can win if they execute well and get some help from the Vikings. I'll predict a final score of Vikings 35, Jags 17.

VL, you are a good prognosticator! Reading your post after the game and you were dead on.

[VikingLord]

The Jags have put in some competitive performances against some decent teams, losing by 3 at Tennessee early in the year and by 4 to the Packers more recently. They've had some bad losses as well, but I wouldn't call them a bad team. I'd call them a flawed team that has been on the wrong side of the majority of breaks.

The Vikings should not look past the Jags and I don't think they will. I think this will be a close game until the 4th quarter, more so because I think that while the Vikings are playing better overall, they still have some real weak spots on special teams and miscues (both turnovers and untimely penalties) that tend to negate a lot of what they're doing well. But I think the Vikes will pull away in the 4th.

Hopefully the Vikings get Cleveland and Thielen back for this one. Brett Jones has filled in admirably for Cleveland, but I think Cleveland just moves really well at that guard spot and that makes a difference when the Vikings want to run. Having an effective run game coupled with the dual threat posed by Thielen and Jefferson makes the Vikings offense pretty hard to stop.

Defensively, the formula is simple - limit the run on the early downs and get the Jags into 3rd-and-longs. I think the Vikings have done a good job of mixing coverages in the secondary and confusing opposing QBs and I expect that to continue against the Jags, but I'm hoping to see more out of the pass rush and early down run defense along the lines of what the Vikings defense showed in the 2nd half against the Panthers. That was winning defense, and if they can start to play like that more consistently, this team is going to start winning by much more comfortable margins against better competition.

As for the final result, if the Vikings start to iron out the kinks on both sides and avoid critical mistakes, I could see them winning comfortably. If they can't perform at that higher level consistently, it will be a much closer win or even a loss if they make enough mistakes. I don't think the Jags can come in and win comfortably, but like Dallas they can win if they execute well and get some help from the Vikings. I'll predict a final score of Vikings 35, Jags 17.

VL, you are a good prognosticator! Reading your post after the game and you were dead on.

Thanks Frozen.

There have been a lot of years where I couldn't read the team. I thought they were pretty good or would be pretty good only to watch them fail for one reason or another (in retrospect it usually was a lack of fortitude or character). Other years I thought they would struggle and they ended up being pretty good.

But this year's team I think I understand pretty well. I think this year's team is loaded with character and guts. They have a lot of challenges to overcome, but when they do (not if - when), they're going to be really good. I think it could happen yet this year. They've made light year leaps from where they began the year, especially on defense and the interior OL.

Even if you look at the recent string of games which included the close loss against the Cowboys and two squeaker wins against the Panthers and Jags, you see a team that would have won all three games by comfortable margins if they didn't commit critical errors. I mean, they handed the Panthers 2 defensive TDs and the Jags one. They had a lot of critical penalties against the Cowboys that hurt them in that game (legit or not), and special teams is still really shaky.

But the core of this team is quite good and the ceiling is high, especially for a lot of the younger players. If they can just take those final steps and get into the playoffs, I think anything could happen with this group.

There is a lot more reason for optimism with this year's team than pessimism.