Mothman wrote:There's a small rant ahead. Read it at your own risk:
I'm sorry, but watching that game, it was hard not to "hear" post after post about how the Vikings lost last year because Cassel didn't start, because they needed more emotion from the head coach (not much of that today), because the systems were bad, because the playcalling was bad, because they didn't know how to coach defense, played the wrong guys, etc. However, now they have a "stable" QB situation with Cassel and "real" coaches so it's a different team. It didn't look much different today.
I like some of the moves the Vikes made this offseason, I like the new coaching staff and I don't want to discount the impact the Peterson situation may have had on the team this week but the Vikes still have a lot of work to do in no small part because they still have talent/personnel issues and they still have far too many execution issues. Hopefully, this game will help dispel some of the illusions people maintain about these things and make that clear. The games are won and lost on the field and no system works if the execution isn't there. The talent to get the job done needs to be present too. I still believe the Vikes are on the right track but they need to clean this stuff up or the Zimmer era will end up looking a lot like the Frazier era.
Zimmer needs to keep working to instill more discipline into this team and they need to get Bridgewater ready to go as soon as they can because Cassel doesn't stabilize anything and we know Ponder's not likely to do it either.
I agree with 95% of what you posted. I underlined that point that I wanted to disagree with. To me, the defense looked different (in a good way), and perhaps it should have given we only have 3 of of the same starters from last year on the team. I thought they played well overall. Rhodes has some more growing to do, but he is going to be good. Mark my words. He's not quite there yet, but he will be. Robinson, (in admittedly only 2 games of observation) appears to be back to his 'Rookie form' (of showing promise again, instead of just awful). Much of that may admittedly being switching him back to where he is better suited to play, but still...
Offensively, (to plagiarize Kapp) we were offensive. Defensively, I didn't see a team that was likely to lose 25% of their games in the final two minutes. I saw an effort that never quit, and sans their contributions, the drubbing we took at the hands of offensive and special teams miscues would have been much worse. They were not perfect, and they contributed to the loss, but I see them growing and improving.
I did not have the 'fear' when the Pats were on offense that I had when other teams were on offense last year. It's not that we cam't be scored on (clearly) but I feel we will improve to the top 10-15 in defense this year. Coming from #32, that is huge. Offensively, Cassel is a 'minor upgrade' over Ponder. I've always maintained that opinion. He is too inconsistent (as we all know) to be anything other than a stopgap.
I saw a team that still looks much different today than one year ago. And it's for the better. It's not perfect, and with aggressive defenses come big plays (both positively and negatively) so we are likely to get 'burned' on some plays in upcoming games. My confidence in this squad to protect a lead in the 4th quarter (assuming we can get one, that is) is much higher than last year. If we squeak out one more win of the next 3, and finish our first 5 games at 2-3, we'll be sitting pretty good in my estimation.
As far as execution issues: Of course we have issues. We have a very young team and we are getting better every game. Granted, the team ultimately put forth a losing effort, but "not much different today" - I gotta disagree.