Literally bouncing our way.

Biggest storyline from the game is the Saints offensive line and defensive line kept them in the game.  They were able to run the ball and keep the score close and we couldn't run the ball and set us up for a lot of 3rd and longs which made us settle for way too many FGs. Defense and special teams gave us great field position but more often than not we failed to capitalize.  

With the money we're paying Hunter and Zadarius, we need more of a consistent pass rush.  I'm not 100% convinced our secondary is as bad as they look at times.

That said, gritty hard fought win.  Two character building games in consecutive weeks.  Be fun to see what this team looks like when the offense and defense are clicking all game long.

25 carries for 81 yards.    Nice last drive by Kirk... but settling for yet another FG left the Saints with a chance.

MVP of the game is Greg Joseph.

Honestly I’m just happy that the U.K. got a good game to watch. Stuff like this is what helps grow the game internationally.

When in doubt, if you need an impossibly stupid nail biter to drum up interest, send the Minnesotans.

— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) October 2, 2022

@"RS Express" said: 25 carries for 81 yards.    Nice last drive by Kirk... but settling for yet another FG left the Saints with a chance.

MVP of the game is Greg Joseph.

well honestly when you are in the defensive set we were you cannot give up a 40+ yard play to a guy in the middle of 4 defenders.

Offense did rverything they needed to and the saints never should have been in position to attempt a FG.

This defense doesn’t.

Honestly thought KOC called a poor game. We could not run up the middle but we kept going there. The edge was where to attack this defense and we ran two jet sweeps and I think one screen. One boot 
early and then nothing. Poor clock management. The conservatism after the Jefferson catch was puzzling. Kudos for the fake punt, but did not see much else to get me excited about the calls. 

Defense was ok, not great. Melted in the second half against a team of basically 2nd stringers so that’s not ideal. We continue to get zero pass rush. 

Missed XP aside the Special Teams were awesome. Outstanding and cool to see. A fake punt! That worked!!

Offense— nicest thing I can say is it was good enough to win. Jefferson is an absolute beast and played well today. Thielen and Dalvin chipped in too but our run game is broken right now. Needs a lot of work. My biggest complaint is we had phenomenal field position all day and in the best cases we got Field Goals, in others we had to punt. Kirk has never been great under duress but to my eyes this year it seems even worse. Routinely taking sacks on 3rd downs with only a 4 man pass rush. I know he is what he is but it’s hard not to yearn for more. That said, when given time he drops DIMES. That throw on the last drive to JJ was dropped in the freakin bucket. So sweet! I’ll root for Kirk for as long as he’s here but I’m firmly in the camp that a QB upgrade would take this franchise to the next level. It’d be really nice to have someone who can move a little. JMO. 

Good win. A relief to survive again. KO is the man!

@"Purpleblooded" said: Honestly thought KOC called a poor game. We could not run up the middle but we kept going there. The edge was where to attack this defense and we ran two jet sweeps and I think one screen. One boot  early and then nothing. Poor clock management. The conservatism after the Jefferson catch was puzzling. Kudos for the fake punt, but did not see much else to get me excited about the calls. 

This is what pissed me off, all those wasted downs running up the middle when it wasn't working. Why? 

It was not their prettiest game. They settled for field goals far too often and got gouged for too many big plays on defense. That being said, this is exactly the type of game they would have lost last season. I feel like O'Connell does a good job of not leaving the other team with too much time on the clock, which has really helped limit the points they give up at the end of halves. In general, he also does a better job of staying aggressive and going downfield at the end of games instead of just trying to run out the clock. I know they kicked a ton of FGs today and had awful red zone struggles, but they still went deep to Thielen on the PI and Jefferson to set up what would be the go ahead FG.

I do think the D is still a work in progress. The secondary is not great, but still quite a bit better than last year. Guys like Za'darius Smith and DJ Wonnum make just enough splash plays. The D has also done a better job of getting off the field on 4th downs and seems to come up with a turnover or two per game. The pass rush and run D are still not where I'd want them to be. They are not a dominant unit, but they perform well enough to give the offense a chance.

On offense, the red zone offense is a work in progress. There is some more creative play calling and they do some good things to engineer open guys in the red zone, but somehow last year's run heavy red zone offense was more effective. Hopefully that will get better as the season wears on. They also have a bad tendency to run up the middle on 2nd and 10. Sometimes Cook or more likely Mattison will get 5-6 yards in that situation, but in general it just leads to a lot of 3rd and longs. The OL tends to get beat by 4-man rushes in 3rd and long. Not sure what is going wrong with those situations. I also feel that for as much attention as Jefferson draws, that other guys should be taking a bigger advantage of those matchups. Thielen was doing a better job of that today and Osborn made the most of that at the end of the Detroit game, but I'd like to see more consistent production out of Thielen, Osborn, and Irv Smith. I was hoping that Smith was going to have his breakout year, but so far that hasn't happened. He's just been ok, but has had too many drops.

All things considered, I am happy to be at 3-1 at this point in the season. The team still has a lot of growth to do, but I feel like O'Connell is doing enough to address the fatal flaws that were killing the team under Zimmer the past couple seasons.

My big takeaway is the Viking's D is going to have trouble stopping the run all year. Holes are there. The team could have used Suh in the middle. I get why they aren't signing him yet he'd help. 

Just read a bunch of twitter posts complaining about running on the last drive, just before the field goal to take the lead. I have my problems with the performance and the play calling, but not there. 

After the long throw to JJ to the 29, Vikings ran three straight times, for little gain. BUT this forced the Saints to burn all three time outs. Joseph kicks the FG and we go up by 3, giving the Saints the ball with 24 seconds left and ZERO timeouts. (Of course they took no time at all getting into a very long FG attempt, but that's another topic....)

I know it wasn't pretty and I know everyone wants to get the TD there, but one sack or one incompletion and the Saints probably win that game. 

@"MaroonBells" said:

After the long throw to JJ to the 29, Vikings ran three straight times, for little gain. BUT this forced the Saints to burn all three time outs. Joseph kicks the FG and we go up by 3, giving the Saints the ball with 24 seconds left and ZERO timeouts. (Of course they took no time at all getting into a very long FG attempt, but that's another topic....)

I know it wasn't pretty and I know everyone wants to get the TD there, but one sack or one incompletion and the Saints probably win that game. 

This went exactly how KOC wanted it to go: worst case scenario, they get the ball with no timeouts and 24 seconds. Upside is maybe one of those runs go for the 1st down and you kneel your way to victory. Should have easily been ballgame. Complete cluster on D to allow that long throw, somebody fucked up in the secondary. Right in the middle of the field. 

@"StickyBun" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

After the long throw to JJ to the 29, Vikings ran three straight times, for little gain. BUT this forced the Saints to burn all three time outs. Joseph kicks the FG and we go up by 3, giving the Saints the ball with 24 seconds left and ZERO timeouts. (Of course they took no time at all getting into a very long FG attempt, but that's another topic....)

I know it wasn't pretty and I know everyone wants to get the TD there, but one sack or one incompletion and the Saints probably win that game. 

This went exactly how KOC wanted it to go: worst case scenario, they get the ball with no timeouts and 24 seconds. Upside is maybe one of those runs go for the 1st down and you kneel your way to victory. Should have easily been ballgame. Complete cluster on D to allow that long throw, somebody fucked up in the secondary. Right in the middle of the field. 

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

After the long throw to JJ to the 29, Vikings ran three straight times, for little gain. BUT this forced the Saints to burn all three time outs. Joseph kicks the FG and we go up by 3, giving the Saints the ball with 24 seconds left and ZERO timeouts. (Of course they took no time at all getting into a very long FG attempt, but that's another topic....)

I know it wasn't pretty and I know everyone wants to get the TD there, but one sack or one incompletion and the Saints probably win that game. 

This went exactly how KOC wanted it to go: worst case scenario, they get the ball with no timeouts and 24 seconds. Upside is maybe one of those runs go for the 1st down and you kneel your way to victory. Should have easily been ballgame. Complete cluster on D to allow that long throw, somebody fucked up in the secondary. Right in the middle of the field. 

QBs are finding it incredibly easy to find open spots in our zone. 

But it begs the question: why did Aaron Rodgers struggle with it so much? You could argue that it was their banged up line, but so many of the pressures and sacks were coverage sacks...he couldn't find anyone open. 

It seems to me that once we put our defense on film week 1, it was super easy to figure out how to beat it. Changes need to be made. Curious to hear the pressers this week. 

That's whatcha call  the  "Double Doink"

@"StickyBun" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

After the long throw to JJ to the 29, Vikings ran three straight times, for little gain. BUT this forced the Saints to burn all three time outs. Joseph kicks the FG and we go up by 3, giving the Saints the ball with 24 seconds left and ZERO timeouts. (Of course they took no time at all getting into a very long FG attempt, but that's another topic....)

I know it wasn't pretty and I know everyone wants to get the TD there, but one sack or one incompletion and the Saints probably win that game. 

This went exactly how KOC wanted it to go: worst case scenario, they get the ball with no timeouts and 24 seconds. Upside is maybe one of those runs go for the 1st down and you kneel your way to victory. Should have easily been ballgame. Complete cluster on D to allow that long throw, somebody fucked up in the secondary. Right in the middle of the field. 

QBs are finding it incredibly easy to find open spots in our zone. 

But it begs the question: why did Aaron Rodgers struggle with it so much? You could argue that it was their banged up line, but so many of the pressures and sacks were coverage sacks...he couldn't find anyone open. 

It seems to me that once we put our defense on film week 1, it was super easy to figure out how to beat it. Changes need to be made. Curious to hear the pressers this week. 

I think teams are just preparing for Donnatel's defense. Plenty of film out there on that over the years. He needs to tweak. And honestly, he probably doesn't have the total desired roster for a 3-4. 

does anybody see the title of this thread and think of Albuddah?

What's the only difference for the Vikings between last year and this year? ResultsThe 2021 Vikings, through four games, were outscoring opponents by a slim 94-92 margin. They had allowed 389 yards per game on defense, and they had played two games that came down to a last-minute score.
The 2022 Vikings, through four games, are outscoring opponents by a slim 86-80 margin. They have allowed 394.5 yards per game on defense, and they have played two games that came down to a last-minute score.
It is an oversimplification, but not a stretch, to say this: The only fundamental difference so far between the 2021 Mike Zimmer-coached Vikings and the 2022 Kevin O'Connell-coached Vikings is the final result.
Last year's team was 1-3 through four games, earning the consolation prize as perhaps the best NFL team with a losing record at that point in the season. In those two down-to-the-wire games, the Vikings lost in overtime to the Bengals after a Dalvin Cook fumble and lost to the Cardinals after Greg Joseph missed a chip shot field goal.
This year's team is 3-1 through four games, earning the right to feel more fortunate than good to be in that position. In those two down-to-the-wire games, Kirk Cousins rallied the Vikings with a last-minute TD against the Lions while Joseph's late 47-yard field goal Sunday in London provided the final margin against the Saints.
In the ultra-close NFL, where the majority of games seem to go down to the final minutes, is there already a detectible benefit to O'Connell's approach that is helping the Vikings perform better when it matters most?

Or is the sample size too small, giving rise to the idea that these results will eventually even out and pull the Vikings back toward .500 just as they were lifted up toward that mark as things went their way later in the 2021 season?
And should we be concerned that the statistics and in-game approach from O'Connell have produced at least 59 minutes of uneven, clock management-challenged, pull-your-hair-out football almost every week that look very similar to the Zimmer-ball that got the coach fired?
Or should fans (and the Vikings themselves) be heartened to know that they are already 3-1 despite playing one great game, one lousy game and two mediocre (at best) games — with the prospect of better days ahead as players settle into new roles and systems?
These questions will get answers as the season goes on. For now, we're left with the classic mantra of Zimmer's mentor, Bill Parcells: "You are what your record says you are."
https://www.startribune.com/vikings-difference-kevin-oconnell-mike-zimmer-results-randball/600212535/

Clock management challenged?  I actually think we've been pretty good in that regard.

it’s about time…!  ;) :p