half-way point 5-3

[Badsmerf]

I'll go on record to predict a 7-9 season, and that is optimistic. The Vikings will leave Ponder in the rest of the year, but at this point I'm sick of watching him. He doesn't recognize blitzes, holds the ball too long, wont identify open guys and get the ball to them, and makes terrible mistakes. This guy is not an NFL QB. Don't give me the more skills guys excuse, a good or even solid QB can make plays be successful with what he is given. When Favre was here he barely had anything to work with at first too (Rice was a no-name and had a career year, Berrian had nothing left, Percy was new to the league, AP was still developing, Shenco has barely been visible since). Is it Musgrave that can't put plays together? He certainly has given Percy an opportunity to shine and seems to get people involved. He can't make the plays for Ponder.

 

This defense is playing well. The line-backers need to be better against the run, as well as the safeties. The defensive backs have played the pass pretty well and Jefferson looks like he can be a starter in the future, was pretty impressed with his play coming in for Cook. The defensive unit has a whole is missing a shut-down LB and run stopping lineman. Its tough to keep points off the board when the offense is giving the other team great field position.

[DaveW]

The sky is falling!

[Musk21]

The sky is falling!

 

No, but they are who we thought they were. Let's face it.....Other than then the SF win, the Vikings victories have come against some very mediocre teams. They'll be in the middle of the pack this year, like 8-8 or 7-9, and will pick about 14th, 15th in the draft. Certainly an improvement on last year.

[DaveW]

The sky is falling!

 

No, but they are who we thought they were. Let's face it.....Other than then the SF win, the Vikings victories have come against some very mediocre teams. They'll be in the middle of the pack this year, like 8-8 or 7-9, and will pick about 14th, 15th in the draft. Certainly an improvement on last year.

 

The Seattle game will be very telling IMO. If they can somehow pull that win out, they should go into the bye at 7-3

[Willihammer]

I don't blame Ponder, he is what he is. The two things that stood out to me were a. the Tampa kicker forced us to start on our own 20 every possession, and b. lack of lucky breaks, ie. no 40 yard PI calls on offense or pick 6s or forced fumbles by the defense. The actual bedrock of the offense (Ponder) never was very good but the breaks were there. Now it feels like they're regressing to the mean a little bit. Next thing you know, Blair Walsh will run off a string of 5/9 field goals and someone on our team will be the one getting called for the 40 yard PIs (my money's on no. 24).

[TheLeviathan]

The sky is falling!

 

No, but they are who we thought they were. Let's face it.....Other than then the SF win, the Vikings victories have come against some very mediocre teams. They'll be in the middle of the pack this year, like 8-8 or 7-9, and will pick about 14th, 15th in the draft. Certainly an improvement on last year.

 

Exactly, looking purely at wins and losses is foolish. The fact is, the Vikes were lucky to beat the Jags, the Cards let them win a game they didn't deserve, and the Detroit special teams handed us another. They could easily be 2-6 without some significant luck. We're not looking at an improved team, we're looking at an equally ****ty team as last year with luck swung the other direction. Which means now our ****ty team will draft in the middle of each round rather than the top it needs.

 

Ponder is terrible and anyone wanting to argue it's a lack of skill players around him needs to be punched repeatedly in the face. They have the best pair of skill players in the league. It's a dropoff after that, but he's got talent, enough with that excuse please.

[Badsmerf]

I don't blame Ponder either, I blame the Vikings on a blown pick. Ponder wasn't supposed to go that high because he was never that good as a college player. We've seen the difference a competent QB can make on a team.

 

Anyway, the book is out on this team. Try to contain AP and Percy as much as possible and disguise coverages on defense, and run the ball and when the defense has to bring guys up open the passing game up. Luckily, the secondary isn't giving up big plays every game this season so that is a plus. At least they are competitive and give reason to watch games.