2023 Vikings

Nobody thinks the Vikings should ship Cousins to the Jets except the writers in NY paid to stir the pot.

The NFC is so wide open (minus the 49ers) that it doesn’t make much sense to panic yet. The North is bad. The Cowboys just lost to the Cardinals, and the Eagles have looked more human than last year. The entire NFC South is also bad.

I’d run any move involving QB by JJ if they intend to keep him. I believe the players should play and not “play” GM, but he’s a guy they have to keep happy in my opinion.

0-3 Vikings will be clashing with the 0-3 Panthers next week. Only thing worth watching in that game will be QB Bryce Young the #1 pick this year from Alabama.

And mayhaps the first Vikings victory!!

It’s time to choke for caleb

Yeah cuz that will make them better.

Vikings offense rolled up 475 yards so you can look elsewhere for the blame on the loss. How about looking at Flore’s defense which gave up 475 yards.

Dutchboy wrote:

Vikings offense rolled up 475 yards so you can look elsewhere for the blame on the loss. How about looking at Flore’s defense which gave up 475 yards.

The argument to trade cousins isn’t a blame game or because of his abilities. It is because people believe the season is a lost cause at this point.

Doesn’t matter. You can’t get anything worth having for him. Look around the league, if you don’t have a quarterback you are done. Cousins is the only thing keeping them from being the Bears.

Dutchboy wrote:

Doesn’t matter. You can’t get anything worth having for him. Look around the league, if you don’t have a quarterback you are done. Cousins is the only thing keeping them from being the Bears.

Tanking might be the intent?
And you might be able to get something out of him from a team needing a QB.

Dutchboy wrote:

0-3 Vikings will be clashing with the 0-3 Panthers next week. Only thing worth watching in that game will be QB Bryce Young the #1 pick this year from Alabama.

I think he’s hurt. Backup veteran QB threw Andy Dalton threw for 361 yards and 2 TDs today in Seattle. He’ll likely carve up the Vikings secondary with ease.

Young could have played today, he will start vs the Vikings.

Greenhorn wrote:

Tanking might be the intent?
And you might be able to get something out of him from a team needing a QB.

The season is 3 games old and they lost all three by 6 points or less. I can assure you they aren’t going to “tank” the remaining 14 games. At least not now they aren’t. Anyone calling for a team to tank the rest of the way isn’t living in reality.

Dutchboy wrote:

Vikings offense rolled up 475 yards so you can look elsewhere for the blame on the loss. How about looking at Flore’s defense which gave up 475 yards.

I don’t mind Flores. I think he’s been given a pretty weak hand of talent to win with on that side of the ball. There are quite a few guys starting for the Vikings that’d be special team players only on other rosters.

If he can get a couple drafts/free agency cycles in with input before they call for his head, I’d imagine it gets better

gim wrote:

Probably should have spiked it before the last play instead of hurrying to the line.

Spiking the ball was a no brainer. They wasted close to 20 seconds and would have given the coaches more time to decide on the next play.

Dutchboy wrote:

Vikings offense rolled up 475 yards so you can look elsewhere for the blame on the loss. How about looking at Flore’s defense which gave up 475 yards.

Those 475 yards were against one of if not the poorest defenses in the league. Nothing to be impressed about. That O-line is still horrible.

I can’t even…

That was some of the poorest coaching I’ve seen. If you ask me both coaches should have been fired before they walked off the field. Going for it on 4th down on your own 30 with a 4 point lead with the other team having no timeouts and only 1:30 remaining is crazy. The only reason he’s still the coach is because the Vikings are so bad they could not take advantage of the total error. The Vikings play calling in the red zone is terrible at best. I’m not sure who to put the blame on for not clocking the ball at the end of the game. To me cousins should have just made the decision to just clock it. No matter what he was hearing from the coach. They looked like they had no idea of the time or that they were out of timeouts and seemed to be really rushed

For the record. In the last 25 years, only 1 team that started the season 0-3 has made the playoffs. That # goes to zero at 0-4. So I would say last game was an almost must win. The next one is a must win for sure. My what a difference a year makes. The are 0-3 in one score games. Those are the games they were winning last season. I don’t think this team is any worse than last years. I think last years team just played over their heads and had some extra luck on their side.

fishthumper wrote:

I don’t think this team is any worse than last years. I think last years team just played over their heads and had some extra luck on their side.

I agree. Cousins is playing out of his mind. He’s leading the league in pass attempts and yards. But the Vikings are very one dimensional on offense so he has to.

Last year was an anomaly. Winning 11 one-score games with an overall minus point differential have both never happened before in the NFL and its not going to happen again. That being said, they could easily be 3-0 instead of 0-3. It could be worse. You could be the Bears.

They won a couple of close games last year, so with the expectation for the same this year but that isn’t happening. I don’t think Cousins is the problem, and one of the few players on the team worth keeping. The O Line is terrible, otherwise Cousin doesn’t get sacked or knocked down on almost every play. The running game sucks too because of the O Line, and can’t forget about the terrible defense either. This team will be lucky to win 9 games this year, but doubt they will be in the running for a top draft pick unless they give up the farm to move up. My guess is they will be picking between 10-15 in next years draft, so a move up to 1-3 would take a lot of draft capital. What would a top QB pick do on this team that Cousins couldn’t do, and they would still have a lot of holes to fill without the draft picks to do so. The last couple of drafts need to start stepping up or it’s gonna be ugly for awhile.

If they can go 2-2 over their next 4 games (Panthers, Chiefs, Bears, 49ers)…then the schedule opens up a bit. They’d be sitting at 2-5.

Then comes a run of the Packers, Falcons, Saints, Broncos, Bears, Raiders. that they could realistically go 4-2 or even 5-1 with.

I still think this team will be close to .500 or just above when all is said and done. They aren’t going to be picking in the top 5 in the draft.

Given where this team is and where we need to go, a .500 season is honestly about one of the worst outcomes. Yes, this is a very deep draft class so no doubt with some wheeling and dealing we could find ourselves in the running for anyone not named Williams or Maye, but this team has been in limbo ever since the 2017 season. Not good enough to realistically be a contender, but too good to get any meaningful picks in the 1st round. Sometimes it takes a bottoming out for a few years to restock the cupboards and turn over the team.

Which was the biggest brain twist?

1. Chargers not punting?

2. Not clocking the ball with 35 seconds left?

3. Not going for 2 after the 5 yard penalty?

Can anyone give one good reason why you wouldn’t attempt a 2 point conversion there (especially after the penalty). Is being down 4 better than being down 5?

3Rivers wrote:

3. Not going for 2 after the 5 yard penalty?

Can anyone give one good reason why you wouldn’t attempt a 2 point conversion there (especially after the penalty). Is being down 4 better than being down 5?

The way the ref made the call it didnt sound like they had the choice. They said the 5 yards would be assessed on the kickoff.

gim wrote:

That being said, they could easily be 3-0 instead of 0-3. It could be worse. You could be the Bears.

The Broncos have entered the chat.

CaptainMusky wrote:

The Broncos have entered the chat.

Lol they sure have.

I thought this was one of KOC’s worst games yet. They ran the ball down the field on their opening drive, and then he decides to start throwing the ball and the drive stops. Besides the scoreboard impact, that was an opportunity to make a statement and he chose to get cute. Then the end of the game was junior high level execution, or lack thereof. They didn’t discuss or at least tell Kirk what to do when they get a 1st down?!?!?!

Another great example of how thin the margin is in the NFL though, Hock gets the ball ripped away for an INT on a scoring drive, and the Chargers take it down for 7. Then Evans deflects a pick into the WR’s arms for another TD. Either one of those 2 plays go the other way or just neutral and we are probably talking about a W today.

Ingram is heading to the bench for Risner (or better be!), so hopefully that will bring some dependability to the OL. As easy as it is for Fans to say throw the season away for a better pick, that will not happen. And sets a bad precedent of losing, the Bears have done that like 3-4 times in the last decade, and here they are arguably the worst franchise in the league now still.

gim wrote:

Lol they sure have.

The sweetest thing about it is Payton saying Hickett did a terrible coaching job, gets the HC job and then has this trash team and allows 70pts!? LOL Couldnt happen to a bigger douche.

Leber has a great postgame commentary on Instagram every week, and he nails it this week. I’ll post the link in a minute. But the biggest takeaway was we blitzed 82% of Herbert’s drop backs, and got home 1 time.