Outlook on the Vikings Offense

I think he was hesitant to show much in preseason, and the reason it looked as poor as it did was primarily a by product of them working on things that they knew were parts of the system/game that needed work.

I am not expecting miracles or high power,  but I am expecting to see an offense that is better at finishing drives and takes a few more chances as Bradford becomes more comfortable with what has to be a better OL in terms of pass protection.  He will still get hit, all QBs do,  but he needs to find enough comfort to get back to being able to use all the field on a more consistent basis.... his next contract depends on it.

@"JimmyinSD" said: I think he was hesitant to show much in preseason, and the reason it looked as poor as it did was primarily a by product of them working on things that they knew were parts of the system/game that needed work.

I am not expecting miracles or high power,  but I am expecting to see an offense that is better at finishing drives and takes a few more chances as Bradford becomes more comfortable with what has to be a better OL in terms of pass protection.  He will still get hit, all QBs do,  but he needs to find enough comfort to get back to being able to use all the field on a more consistent basis.... his next contract depends on it.

Agree 100% with this. And I think the Pre Season was really all about finding out what we had with the O line and who was best with the zone blocking scheme now in place. I think that was a big reason why we saw nothing but vanilla for those four games, as well as an injury to our starting LT (and then Boone). But It became apparent that Boone had to go as well as going with some youth, and we now have our starting O Line  - which I think will take about 5 games to really see how they can come together since all 5 did not get a lot of time together through training camp etc. in their current starting positions. I like to see our starting 5 working together much earlier in preseason/TC than what happened, but we had to experiment and see what was going to be the best to start the season with. And as the O line goes, so will the offense.

Agreed NoCal.  Did we have more than a few series where the same guys where together up front? 

In the 3rd game they pulled Boone and Reiff after a series or 2 and went with youth.  Reiff's injury hurt, but it allowed us a good look at Hill whom many of us were high on from last year.

So, hopefully they come out working as a unit, but as said, it may take a few games to become a solid unity.

@"greediron" said: Agreed NoCal.  Did we have more than a few series where the same guys where together up front? 

In the 3rd game they pulled Boone and Reiff after a series or 2 and went with youth.  Reiff's injury hurt, but it allowed us a good look at Hill whom many of us were high on from last year.

So, hopefully they come out working as a unit, but as said, it may take a few games to become a solid unity.

I have to wonder what the plan is with Hill,  he certainly played good enough to deserve a shot at starting at either of the tackle spots,  however if they are holding him back and not moving him is a result of their not wanting to make the same mistake they made with TJ... then I am good with it.

@"JimmyinSD" said:

I have to wonder what the plan is with Hill,  he certainly played good enough to deserve a shot at starting at either of the tackle spots,  however if they are holding him back and not moving him is a result of their not wanting to make the same mistake they made with TJ... then I am good with it.

Yeah, he is still young and could use some seasoning.  No problem with developing youth.

I think Shurmur has to create some scheme driven confusion for opposing defenses. Bradford will have to spread the touches around to keep defenses guessing and our formations can't give tells on what play we will be running like we did when the offense revolved around Peterson. I'm hoping that all of the underneath stuff we saw last year and again in the preseason isn't our core strategy and that he actually has a balanced passing attack with short, medium, and long passes to test the defense so they can just camp out and sit on the short routes. I hope Shurmur is up for the challenge and can make a believer out of me.  

I don’t know what our goal for the preseason was, but it
sure looked to me like everything was super vanilla both on offense and defense.

I’m struggling to imagine a scenario where we aren’t
improved over last year on offense.  I
think we would have to be very unlucky and have as many injuries as we did last
year.  I see us having a line that should
be solid at run-blocking (on paper) and better than last year at pass-blocking.  I also think we have a very deep receiving
group that should be able to put a lot of pressure on defenses that aren’t deep.  So I see us being able to run to set up the
pass or pass to setup the run, depending on what we need to gain an advantage
against the defense.

Week one is the one opportunity every team has to completely surprise their opponents. Given that our offense was so frighteningly ineffective in the preseason, I'm holding out hope that we have a few new wrinkles to hang our hat on.

I don't think our preseason play was a mirage...  It looked just like last year's offense.  This team needs to get back to running the football.  Bradford is an accurate QB and should be able to manage the game and extend drives with his accuracy without throwing 35+ times per game.

I'd rather see him attempt less passes this season and lean on what looks like a strong run blocking line with two good RBs.  That was our recipe for success in 2015 and we really got away from that as the season went on in 2016.  Wear down the pass rush with a strong run game and let Bradford pick his spots to beat teams deep.

I'm dubious if that will actually happen though...  

I have a hard time believing they will be as ineffective as a year-ago.

But with so many new pieces, I don't know what the ceiling is, when they'll reach it or how. 

Let the games begin...Cant wait to attend the MNF opener. 

I saw a screen game and zone blocking scheme being worked on in a very vanilla way.  When our starters were in there I saw a better pocket for Sam then I have all of last year and the year before with Teddy.  Sure their were the miscue's, mostly by Remmers and the TE, but overall I liked what I saw of the protection and screen game.

Boone's strength was not in pulling and moving in a zone blocking game so I hope Easton/Berger are better at that but Elflein looked good getting to the second level and pass protection.

The 3rd game, Digg's 2 drops of 12+ yards killed two drives.  The game before with the starters on our first drive and a 5 yard loss on a swing pass to Cook, Sam faked a handoff and Cook knocked the ball out of his hands.  Also Cook gave up one sack when he failed to block and ran out in a pattern instead....rookie mistakes that happen but better to happen when the games don't count.  Digg's 2 drops are a preseason thing - he had 3 all last season.

The Offense will find a groove after the OL gels and some rookies get up to speed - both Cook and Elflein.  But mistakes will happen and it is going to take awhile for a new starting 5 unit to get in sync.

I think our offense will increase our points per game into the 20-15 range which I think would be about 23 pts per game.  We scored 20.9 per last year.  

I see some real difference from Shurmur already in just preseason glimpses.  

The OL has changed somewhat, but I will state right here that I think Berger is going to be a weak link as the season goes on.  I don't think his body can keep up anymore.

My only concern on the oline is Remmers.  He didn't show well at all so far.  I think the offense will be better.  How many pts per game better?  I am hoping for a 3-4 pts per game improvement on average.