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2017-2018 Vikings Regular Season

snepp

By snepp
in Minnesota Vikings Talk

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Mr. Brooks Cedar Rapids Kernels

Mr. Brooks

Provisional Member
Posted
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no pocket and no time to look, is my guess

He was the hot route, in a situation where pressure is coming 100% of the time, with 3/5th of the O-line out. The play might as well have been designed to go to him.

Regardless, he shouldn't even be on the field there. Not the time to be experimenting.

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Mr. Brooks Cedar Rapids Kernels

Mr. Brooks

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The Vikings showed fight, but Carolina dominated as the game wore on.

 

I'd be really wary meeting Carolina in the playoffs, even at home coming off the bye (which is no lock anymore).

Carolina got blown out by the Bears. I don't think they're good at all.

The Vikings were awful in all 3 phases today, and still had a chance to win. Vikings win this game by 3 TD's if they play even mediocre.

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Badsmerf Cedar Rapids Kernels

Badsmerf

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This is a good loss. They need to refocus and buckle down for last few months of the season. If they come out flat again this weekend, I'll be a little more concerned. They'll still get the 2 seed, and with Wentz out, Philly isn't guaranteed anything.

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Vanimal46 MVP

Vanimal46

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Seems Spielman deserves more credit than many were giving six months ago....

For sure. He saved his job by finally spending money on OL talent, and hitting the jackpot on Keenum. He's not completely out of trouble IMO. He has some huge decisions to make in the offseason... What to do at QB, and how do you replace Pat Shurmur?

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TheLeviathan All-Star

TheLeviathan

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He's spent money on the OL before, but he was getting skewered for not spending high picks. 

 

Thing is - most high pick OL are busts now because the position isn't being prepared for the NFL game at the college level.  It's a major reason why, IMO, that quality of play is down all over the league.  Almost everyone has a crappy line.  Even the Cowboys, who lost only one starter, went from all-world to average with one retirement and some shuffling.  You're better off to draft some guy and work with him for 2-3 years and develop him into a player.  Or take an athlete like Elflein and plug him into a good spot.

 

He was right, and it's being vindicated, on spending his high pick on high-end defensive athletes and patching the OL together in FA and later rounds.  The defense is elite and deep on talent, the OL is playing exceptionally well, and the coaching staff is also deep and talented.

 

Late round OL are far more likely to contribute than late round CBs.  Or late round LBs.  Or late round DL.  Spend your late picks on WR, OL, and RB.  Spend early on CB, S, DL, LB, and QB.

 

We might have a SB run in us precisely because of the way this team spends it's picks.

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Mike Sixel Cooperstown

Mike Sixel

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He's spent money on the OL before, but he was getting skewered for not spending high picks. 

 

Thing is - most high pick OL are busts now because the position isn't being prepared for the NFL game at the college level.  It's a major reason why, IMO, that quality of play is down all over the league.  Almost everyone has a crappy line.  Even the Cowboys, who lost only one starter, went from all-world to average with one retirement and some shuffling.  You're better off to draft some guy and work with him for 2-3 years and develop him into a player.  Or take an athlete like Elflein and plug him into a good spot.

 

He was right, and it's being vindicated, on spending his high pick on high-end defensive athletes and patching the OL together in FA and later rounds.  The defense is elite and deep on talent, the OL is playing exceptionally well, and the coaching staff is also deep and talented.

 

Late round OL are far more likely to contribute than late round CBs.  Or late round LBs.  Or late round DL.  Spend your late picks on WR, OL, and RB.  Spend early on CB, S, DL, LB, and QB.

 

We might have a SB run in us precisely because of the way this team spends it's picks.

 

How right was he in previous years, exactly? They were decimated by lack of OL last year. He finally used real money and a higher pick on the OL, and it worked. just like some of us have been saying.....

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Mr. Brooks Cedar Rapids Kernels

Mr. Brooks

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How right was he in previous years, exactly? They were decimated by lack of OL last year. He finally used real money and a higher pick on the OL, and it worked. just like some of us have been saying.....

Yeah, the guys anchoring this line are the 2 expensive FA's, and the high draft pick. The other 2 guys have been fine, but not outstanding. This shows the opposite of what Levi seems to be arguing.

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TheLeviathan All-Star

TheLeviathan

Old-Timey Member
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Yeah, the guys anchoring this line are the 2 expensive FA's, and the high draft pick. The other 2 guys have been fine, but not outstanding. This shows the opposite of what Levi seems to be arguing.

 

Since when is a third round pick a "high draft pick"?  I'm all for spending 3rd rounders on OL.  

 

Reiff was actually a moderate buy in FA, not exactly a bank busting move.  What Mike has been calling for is investing nearly every first round draft pick in offensive linemen.

 

That was, and remains, flawed thinking.

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TheLeviathan All-Star

TheLeviathan

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How right was he in previous years, exactly? They were decimated by lack of OL last year. He finally used real money and a higher pick on the OL, and it worked. just like some of us have been saying.....

 

The problem was your insistence on ignoring the injuries.  You crowned the Cowboys the gods of NFL roster construction for using 1sts on linemen.  Have you seen the way they played when their LT went down?  Those first round centers and guards didn't matter one bit as Dak Prescott was getting slaughtered.  And all that took was the Cowboys losing two tackles.  We were down 4 at one point!  Your criticisms lacked context and fairness.

 

This team is no different.  Take out 3-6 linemen like we had last year and this line would be terrible too.  Look no further than the end of that Carolina game when Elflein, Remmers, and Reiff were all out.  Keenum was getting slaughtered.

 

Your criticisms never took into consideration just how bad offensive line play is across the league.  I'd venture to guess 3/4 of the team have poor lines.  When there is that little talent, depth is basically impossible to have.  The key to this line hasn't been some magical number of right moves (though Reiff has outplayed expectations by a long shot) - the key has been health.  

 

Health really comes down to luck unfortunately.  But it was unfair to pin on Spielman a bad line when the situation the Vikings faced would have made ANY line in the NFL a sieve.  You incorrectly faulted drafting 3rd and 4th round OL ( and, as far as money goes, they were spending plenty on Kalil, Smith, Mike Harris, and Phil Loadhoalt that year) as the problem, when it was just bad luck.  The kind of bad luck no NFL roster survives.

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