losperros wrote:Last year when the D would collapse late in games it would put me in a homicidal rage. I'm not kidding, Jim, you're lucky to still be alive!
Hmm... why do all of my friends keep telling me that?
Seriously, if you recall my posts last year, it was grating my nerves to see the Vikings D repeatedly blow games that way. I don't want to see it again and agree with your sentiments here. Last year was even worse at times because the offense would score enough points to win a game but the D would screw up in the 4th quarter. This time I wish the offense would have scored more often, which would have been a big help for the D. That's why I see the offense as being a big contributor to the loss.
Oh, absolutely, It's just maddening the way the Vikings always seem to be a lopsided team. When they can score points, they can't stop teams from scoring. when they can stop teams, they can't freakin' score! It'a amazing that any of us who have followed them for a long time remain sane. The offense has failed to put 20 points on the board in 5 of 7 games this year 9and in 4 of them, they scored 10 or less). That's just completely unacceptable.
I'm presently as tired of seeing porous OL pass blocking as I am of late collapses by the D. For example, watching the coaches tape, I saw what I felt were two examples of Cordarrelle Patterson being open but not getting the ball because of a QB sack and hurry. On the sack the defender covering Patterson fell down, leaving him wide open. But Bridgewater was swarmed and sacked. Had Teddy some protection and gotten the ball to an open Patterson, we're probably talking about seven more points added to the Vikings score. That would have helped the D protect the lead a lot.
Indeed. They keep finding ways to break down on offense and all it takes is one or two blown assignments to ruin a play or worse yet, a potential scoring opportunity.
The offense couldn't ask for a better matchup to "get right" than the one they'll have this week. The Bucs players have shown some confusion about how to handle certain coverages in Lovie Smith's version of the Tampa 2 and TB has given up a lot of points this season. Norv needs to design a few plays to encourage more of that confusion and the Vikes need to exploit it.