Patriots @ Vikings Game Day Discussion Thread -- Week 2

[PurpleKoolaid]

Norv had a bad game plan as well. I guess its hard to change it after the star player is gone. Kyles drops were just horrible. So much bad play on our part. The refs, being the refs. Just too many negatives on our part. Cassel wasn't getting protection, but man, some of those passes were just horrid. Im going to start on the Johnny Walker earlier then I though today.

[Just Me]

Norv had a bad game plan as well. I guess its hard to change it after the star player is gone. Kyles drops were just horrible. So much bad play on our part. The refs, being the refs. Just too many negatives on our part. Cassel wasn't getting protection, but man, some of those passes were just horrid. Im going to start on the Johnny Walker earlier then I though today.

That would be hard enough. but how much advance time did he have to change the plan? A day?

[Purple Reign]

Wow. Just saw the final stats on NFL.com.

Total yards:

New England 292
Vikings 217

Are you kidding me? Less than 300 yards surrendered, but 30 points?

And the offense ... 217 yards? After 80 yards on the opening drive, that's 137 for the rest of the game. Downright offensive.

Not sure why you are so surprised by 30 points / less than 300 yards. NE didn't have to really have any long drives to score because of all the turnovers and the blocked fg return for a td.

[Superfreak84]

Do you guys realize we are headed to the 0-2 Saints next week! This is gonna be bad!!

[tnvikesfan]

The game plan doesn't change the bad play by so many. Poor execution, across the board, was the theme for this game. I don't care who is in, they are all professionals - or supposed to be. Why did Norv get away from the run (which worked) to go straight to the air (which didn't work) and keep going airborne (which STILL didn't work)??? Reminiscent of last year, on all fronts.

If our team has such little mental discipline to play this badly with the loss of one player, we're in for a really long season again.

If next week is as poor of a showing as this year, I'll start regretting my Sunday Ticket purchase. I expected a LOT more out of the Vikes.

[yezzir]

Our favorite new sideline reporter caught up to Cassel following the game:

[Purple Reign]

Did the NFL change the tv policy? I thought that they didn't allow a 2nd game on the same channel when the Vikings played the first game at home but they are showing the GB/NYJ game. Or does it matter that it was against an AFC team?

[allday1991]

Typical result after losing your best player. A.D is more important to this team than any player, he makes the defense seem transparent and wears them out over the course of a game, he provides leadership and keeps the other teams offense off the field. It sucks to think his days as a viking are over and will impact our team greatly. What we are left with is a below average offense, Jennings is far past his prime drops to many passes and cant handle a teams number on CB anymore. CP is a good player but developing and is still very raw at catching. Rudolph apparently our best catcher and one of our main threats on offense is really starting to stand out to me as an average TE at best, he drops far to many balls and has horrible catch in traffic. Wright... no comment needed. Offense line, WTF happened to Kalil, this guy was a third overall pick, extremely annoying could turn out to be biggest bust yet. Rebuilding process is still at beginning stages at best.

[yezzir]

Did the NFL change the tv policy? I thought that they didn't allow a 2nd game on the same channel when the Vikings played the first game at home but they are showing the GB/NYJ game. Or does it matter that it was against an AFC team?

Can't help ya there, but it's nice seeing the Packers down 0-7.

[mondry]

I think the defense played okay, not great obviously but not really bad either. This is still Tom Brady we're talking about and you can't give him 4 interceptions, a blocked kick, and all those short fields to work with.

Cassel was bad Cassel today, no other way to really describe it. Maybe not completely fair but I'd put 70% of the loss squarely on his shoulders. Against Tom Brady (or really any elite QB) you have take care of the football and at minimum swap for good field position but probably even need to score at least 3 points per drive. Instead he throws 4 INT's, can't keep the chains moving, throwing behind receivers, taking sacks, etc. I'm normally a Cassel supporter but there is no excuse for that kind of play. I don't think you bench him after one bad game but a few more like that, particularly in a row and it'll be hard not to give Teddy a look.

[yezzir]

I don't want Teddy playing with Kalil protecting him.

[Just Me]

I don't want Teddy playing with Kalil protecting him...

Or not! (as the case may be)

[tmscr]

This game could have been even worse. The patriots had over 100 yards in penalties and still won by 23 points. Many of them prolonged drives for us.

Total meltdown in every sense of the word. I'm most disappointed that zimmer didn't have the team mentally prepared IMO. Obviously losing the stud player affects everything, but that was a defeated team well before the game got out of hand. It was like the first INT and the subsequent 3 and out was a death sentence.

Oof, that was embarrassing.

[Mothman]

I'd be happy to see Bridgewater starting next week IF (and only if) the coaches feel he can handle it.

There's a small rant ahead. Read it at your own risk:

I'm sorry, but watching that game, it was hard not to "hear" post after post about how the Vikings lost last year because Cassel didn't start, because they needed more emotion from the head coach (not much of that today), because the systems were bad, because the playcalling was bad, because they didn't know how to coach defense, played the wrong guys, etc. However, now they have a "stable" QB situation with Cassel and "real" coaches so it's a different team. It didn't look much different today.

I like some of the moves the Vikes made this offseason, I like the new coaching staff and I don't want to discount the impact the Peterson situation may have had on the team this week but the Vikes still have a lot of work to do in no small part because they still have talent/personnel issues and they still have far too many execution issues. Hopefully, this game will help dispel some of the illusions people maintain about these things and make that clear. The games are won and lost on the field and no system works if the execution isn't there. The talent to get the job done needs to be present too. I still believe the Vikes are on the right track but they need to clean this stuff up or the Zimmer era will end up looking a lot like the Frazier era.

Zimmer needs to keep working to instill more discipline into this team and they need to get Bridgewater ready to go as soon as they can because Cassel doesn't stabilize anything and we know Ponder's not likely to do it either.

[allday1991]

I'd be happy to see Bridgewater starting next week IF (and only if) the coaches feel he can handle it.

There's a small rant ahead. read it at your own risk:

I'm sorry, but watching that game, it was hard not to hear" post after post about how the Vikings lost last year because Cassel didn't start, because they needed more emotion from the head coach (not much of that today), because the systems were bad, because the playcalling was bad, because they didn't know to to coach defense, played the wrong guys, etc. However, now they have a "stable" QB situation with Cassel and "real" coaches so it's a different team. It didn't look much different today.

I like some of the moves the Vikes made this offseason, I like the new coaching staff and I don't want to discount the impact the Peterson situation may have had on the team this week but the Vikes still have a lot of work to do in no small part because they still have talent/personnel issues and they still have far too many execution issues. Hopefully, this game will help dispel some of the illusions people maintain about these things and make that clear. The games are won and lost on the field and no system works if the execution isn't there. The talent to get the job done needs to be present too. I still believe the Vikes are on the right track but they need to clean this stuff up or the Zimmer era will end up looking a lot like the Frazier era.

Zimmer needs to keep working to instill more discipline into this team and they need to get Bridgewater ready to go as soon as they can because Cassel doesn't stabilize anything and we know Ponder's not likely to do it either.

That about sums it up, did anyone else think Rudolph has dropped to many easy/open passes the last two games?