2023 Vikings

fishthumper wrote:

Even if they manage to back their way into the playoffs they are not going anywhere.

I agree. Let’s take a closer look how this might end.

6-6 with a bye coming up and JJ returning to the lineup. Remaining games: at Vegas, at Cincy, vs Detroit, vs Green Bay, at Detroit.

Vegas and Cincy are not good, but they are road games. That makes them tougher. Detroit is a good team, but they have not played well recently. Green Bay looks improved at the moment.

Say they go 3-2 over the final 5 games, that puts them at 9-8. Probably good enough for the 6 or 7 wild card seed. If they go 4-1, that puts them at 10-7, definitely good enough for the 6 seed. They aren’t going to catch Dallas for the 5 seed and after last night’s loss they aren’t catching Detroit for the division.

The current 7 seed, Seattle, is toast. They play at Dallas, at San Fran, and vs the Eagles their next three. They are sinking ship even if they win their last 2 after that.

Competition for the 6 or 7 seed is going to come from two of these three teams: New Orleans, Atlanta, and Green Bay, depending on who doesn’t win the NFC South. Right now the Vikings have the tie breaker over both the Saints, Falcons, and Packers. So they are still in the drivers seat for that 6 seed. The 6 seed plays at the 3 seed. Right now that looks like either Detroit or San Fran. Its quite possible they could play the Lions 3 out of 4 weeks to finish the season.

The Vikings came down the last couple days that they had to reinstate JJ as active otherwise they would’ve been forced to have him back on IR for the rest of the season.

I’m just as disgusted today as I was last night and as I was after the Denver game.
The same unforced errors from those that make the decisions that ultimately play into winning or losing.
Being a Vikings fan is a lot of déjà vu head scratching.

I’ve said it from the second Cousins got hurt. Let Hall play the rest of the season and see what he can do. You’ll probably lose many of those games and improve your pick. There’s no reason to even screw around with trying to make the playoffs.

You can see exactly what Dobbs is after a few games. He can make plays happen with his legs, but the problem is he wouldn’t have to do that if he would stop missing his first or second read. He has missed so many open receivers its ridiculous. Also, 5-8 yard out route that this offense kind of depends on, Dobbs doesn’t have a strong enough arm for AND it comes out a second or two late every time allowing for break ups or interceptions. We are seeing exactly what we miss with Kirk out. There is no anticipation with Dobbs and he is brutal with any kind of timing route.

Jerry K wrote:

Being a Vikings fan is

So many different ways you can end that statement. I’ll go with painful and frustrating

This team now has home losses to the Bucs by 1, Chargers by 2, and the Bears by 2. None of these opponents are playoff teams. They are a combined -9 in the turnover margin in those three games.

Just think, if they had beaten those three cup cakes at home this season, their record would currently be 9-3, tied with Detroit for the division lead.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I’ve said it from the second Cousins got hurt. Let Hall play the rest of the season and see what he can do. You’ll probably lose many of those games and improve your pick. There’s no reason to even screw around with trying to make the playoffs.

You can see exactly what Dobbs is after a few games. He can make plays happen with his legs, but the problem is he wouldn’t have to do that if he would stop missing his first or second read. He has missed so many open receivers its ridiculous. Also, 5-8 yard out route that this offense kind of depends on, Dobbs doesn’t have a strong enough arm for AND it comes out a second or two late every time allowing for break ups or interceptions. We are seeing exactly what we miss with Kirk out. There is no anticipation with Dobbs and he is brutal with any kind of timing route.

Don’t disagree, but either way they had to get a QB from somewhere just fill out the roster. When Hall got concussed didn’t really leave them with a choice.

Jerry K wrote:

The Vikings came down the last couple days that they had to reinstate JJ as active otherwise they would’ve been forced to have him back on IR for the rest of the season.

I’m just as disgusted today as I was last night and as I was after the Denver game.
The same unforced errors from those that make the decisions that ultimately play into winning or losing.
Being a Vikings fan is a lot of déjà vu head scratching.

Yeah last night had nothing to do with throwing four picks and missing guys wide open down the field.

As ugly as Dobbs played, Minnesota still had a chance to salvage this game just like they did last week against Denver.

At least it wasn’t a situation in the playoffs, fourth down and 8 yards and throw a 3 yard pass.
With a few hundred millions off the salary cap wasted for one post season win. A few dollars I suppose could’ve been used to beef up that o-line and even give a rookie QB some time.

There is no doubt Dobbs made errors, our o-line made errors the receivers had balls hit them in the hands they failed to catch the running game for the most part is nonexistent, The D was gassed and the scheme changed again and played into the hands of losing, Hicks not being there is obvious, but with all of that said that game like last weeks game was within reach in the last couple minutes, the coaches had hindsight of what transpired in the prior 57 minutes, as well as many other times including last week.
It was an all-around sloppy game but I still tip my hat to what the defense was able to do, but then again this was Chicago’s offense.

I’m not sure KOC trusted Dobbs enough to be aggressive at the end. Nordo brought up a play from Dobbs second week, the big scramble around then TD pass to Oliver. He said that KOC was pointing and shouting during the play and was scratching his head after the play basically wondering what the hell Dobbs was doing, because he has Mattison wide open if he had read the read correctly at the beginning of the play.

I went and found the video of the play and sure enough, Mattison was wide open, obviously the first read and he ignores it, and starts running around. He comes off the field, KOC looks at him and says, “I’m proud of you, but we can’t keep doing that.”

Sums it all up.

You get one on the 2024 Vikings roster:

Hunter or Jefferson ?

With Kirk, JJ, without Kirk, Hunter.

If JJ changes his name to Dieciocho – we know he is going Diggsy on the Vikings.

Great kid, but it has to be hard (if not nearly impossible) for a young top-tier talented WR not to fall into that WR me-first mentality ?

Kinda the way it goes too often at that position in the NFL. Sure hope not.

The NFL has shown that parity goals via scheduling, salary cap, etc… is working. Add in injuries and nearly every game is a toss-up.

Said a few pages above or in the general NFL thread. No team purposely tanks in the NFL. It drives some fans and know-it-all all pundits crazy … but they are not actually on a team (management, coach, player) … are they ?

Nobody purposefully tanks. Like all out tanks. But you can do it easily in other ways and the Vikings have the ability to do that in a year that is lost. I don’t understand why so many people want to see this team lose another first round playoff game instead of try and improve their roster.

But then again a successful season for a MN sports team is making the playoffs so I can’t say I’m surprised.

I said it 10 pages ago, enjoy it while you can.

For those who do not know, the Vikings ALWAYS play at the level of their opponent (minus 1998) to lose to shitty teams is the mantra.. and they will win some they shouldn’t. This is the norm. That is all.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Nobody purposefully tanks. Like all out tanks. But you can do it easily in other ways and the Vikings have the ability to do that in a year that is lost. I don’t understand why so many people want to see this team lose another first round playoff game instead of try and improve their roster.

But then again a successful season for a MN sports team is making the playoffs so I can’t say I’m surprised.

I think I’ve said this before, but I 100% agree with you Mahto. If anyone thinks Dobbs and/or Hall (who we don’t really know yet) are going to propel us into being contenders at this point they’re crazy. Ride out the season with Hall, and then going into the draft we should have a pretty darn good idea what we have, and can use that to make a decision on our strategy (i.e. draft a Rd 1 QB or not) moving forward. Getting dumped in the first round of the playoffs (when you’re VERY clearly not a contender) only hurts the franchise.

If you think not making the playoffs is better for a team, I don’t even know where to start with that logic. Teams always make more money when they reach the playoffs… for decades their playoff appearances will be touted… nobody remembers how they got there, they did what they had to to get there. Just think, there are teams who NEVER make the playoffs.. and guess what they all would love to do !!! MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, once there anything can happen. Wild Cards have won the SB.. just look to the east..

mahtofire14 wrote:

I don’t understand why so many people want to see this team lose another first round playoff game instead of try and improve their roster.

Because those things (making the playoffs and trying to improve their roster) are not mutually exclusive. And NFL and Vikings history is full of backup QB’s coming in and going on fun playoff runs, some even ending in SB championships. Foles, Keenum, Cunningham, Hostetler, Dilfer, Brady’s 1st SB are some modern NFL examples. The only way you will for sure not make a run, is to not make the tournament.

big_g wrote:

If you think not making the playoffs is better for a team, I don’t even know where to start with that logic. Teams always make more money when they reach the playoffs… for decades their playoff appearances will be touted… nobody remembers how they got there, they did what they had to to get there. Just think, there are teams who NEVER make the playoffs.. and guess what they all would love to do !!! MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, once there anything can happen. Wild Cards have won the SB.. just look to the east..

I’m on board with this. Making the playoffs is always better than not making it. There’s plenty of teams on the outside of that bubble that would gladly love to be playing after week 18.

Could be worse. A lot worse.

Heck look at how terrible Detroit has been for what nearly 20 years? You would think they should be stacked with talent with all this high draft picking they have been doing if you follow the logic of some people but no, they are finally having a good season, but only beat one team over 500.

big_g wrote:

If you think not making the playoffs is better for a team, I don’t even know where to start with that logic. Teams always make more money when they reach the playoffs… for decades their playoff appearances will be touted… nobody remembers how they got there, they did what they had to to get there. Just think, there are teams who NEVER make the playoffs.. and guess what they all would love to do !!! MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, once there anything can happen. Wild Cards have won the SB.. just look to the east..

I think another factor with this is that a lot of coaches and GM’s are like politicians running for re-election. They need to win/get re-elected now or they won’t be around. Real long-term stuff may not be a priority because if they don’t have success now they won’t be around for it. From what I’ve heard KOC and Kwesi were given 5-year contracts. Good year last year, sure, but that was last year. I doubt KOC would be fine with a mentality that it’s OK to miss the playoffs this year because they MIGHT make the playoffs next year with a slightly better team or a decent draft pick. Plus, you make it to the playoffs, who knows, upsets happen, you may accidentally win a game and create some momentum.

Don’t look now but among MN sports teams the Pohlads currently own the team that’s advanced the farthest in years…..

Don’t look now but among MN sports teams the Pohlads currently own the team that’s advanced the farthest in years…..

Ever is you don’t count the Lynx.

Ever ???

I can say I was alive the last time the Gophers won a title. Not many here can tho.

All you have to do is look at the Vikings and Wild franchises. Year after year they are playoff contenders. Yet never go anywhere in the playoffs. Why? Not enough top end talent to push them over the top. When you are in contention all the time you rarely get the opportunity to grab one of those type players. The Vikes were given a perfect excuse to go after it and people think they should keep pushing all their chips in with a backup qb trying to make the playoffs. Ridiculous.

Especially with where they are with cap money. It’s not like they’re going to bring in a difference maker over the off season from free agency.

Could be worse. They could be the Twins where they finally win a playoff series and then decide to cut payroll.

Don’t see how they are pushing all there chips in. Can you elaborate.
Is it because they paid nothing to bring in a QB that was healthy enough to play?

Dutchboy wrote:

Don’t look now but among MN sports teams the Pohlads currently own the team that’s advanced the farthest in years…..

Ever is you don’t count the Lynx.

Oh brother, what an embarrassing comment. The Conference Championship Game isn’t chopped liver. It is the big show before one of the biggest shows in all of professional sports. The Vikes got there in 2009,2017. The last time the Twins made the Championship Series was 2002.

Making it to the Super Bowl even with an Elite QB is a crap shoot. Look at the Packers with Rodgers. All it takes is one hit and the QB has to sit. That is why you never tank. If you have a tenacious D that hits, you need not fear any team. All it takes is a couple of good hits and the most promising QB’s career is over, Andrew Luck anyone. Nothing is guaranteed, take the wins when you can get them.

You’re trying to hard to defend the Vikings. The comment was……

“Don’t look now but among MN sports teams the Pohlads currently own the team that’s advanced the farthest in years”

Twins had those little championships in ’87 & ’91. Long time ago yes, but none the less they won them. Now if you want to include championship games then yes the Vikings have a boat load because then you can count the 4 Super Bowl losses. BTW, it was Dan that made the championship team comment, I just copied it in my response.

Carry on.

Dan wrote:

Don’t look now but among MN sports teams the Pohlads currently own the team that’s advanced the farthest in years…..

Holy hell, bad joke, bad wording, whatever it was, that got overblown. We’ve all been talking about the Vikings and playoff history and a possible playoff run this year. And we all know the Wild are mostly in and out of the playoffs, and their ownership group seems to certainly try harder than the Twins to be successful. So I though it was funny that in RECENT years (like 3-4) the Pohlads have the team that has advanced the farthest. Arguably one of the worst ownership groups in professional sports has had a team advance farther than other teams that actually try. RECENTLY. A few years.

See? Get it? It’s funny. Have a great day everyone.