Viking make playoffs next season

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cmoss84
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Re: Viking make playoffs next season

Post by cmoss84 »

Agree with a lot of what you guys are saying. With Wallace/AP/Rudolph this is going to be a very different offense than last year. Defenses are going to have to pick their poison, and we are going to have some fun homerun threat abilities. I get the OL questions, but we are going to score pts any way you slice it. If our D can give up around 20 a game, there's no reason to think we can't make the playoffs. It feels good having our optimism being realistic, rather than being a homer saying, "this will finally be our year!"
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Re: Viking make playoffs next season

Post by fiestavike »

cmoss84 wrote:Agree with a lot of what you guys are saying. With Wallace/AP/Rudolph this is going to be a very different offense than last year. Defenses are going to have to pick their poison, and we are going to have some fun homerun threat abilities. I get the OL questions, but we are going to score pts any way you slice it. If our D can give up around 20 a game, there's no reason to think we can't make the playoffs. It feels good having our optimism being realistic, rather than being a homer saying, "this will finally be our year!"
The million dollar question is the O-line. If Kalil (or someone else) can improve play at LT and somebody steps up at the LG position, They'll have the chance to be very good.
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Re: Viking make playoffs next season

Post by Raptorman »

cmoss84 wrote:Agree with a lot of what you guys are saying. With Wallace/AP/Rudolph this is going to be a very different offense than last year. Defenses are going to have to pick their poison, and we are going to have some fun homerun threat abilities. I get the OL questions, but we are going to score pts any way you slice it. If our D can give up around 20 a game, there's no reason to think we can't make the playoffs. It feels good having our optimism being realistic, rather than being a homer saying, "this will finally be our year!"
The defense/team gave up 21.4 per game last year. It they can knock that down to about 18 ppg that would be the best. With Peterson coming back the Vikings offense should be scoring more points. How many points? Not sure. But I do know this. When Peterson plays and runs for 20+ times a game, the Vikings scored and average of 26.4 ppg. When Peterson runs 19 times or less, or does not play, the Vikings scored an average of 20.4 ppg. So it appears that Peterson running 20 times a game is worth about 6 ppg. Now, in Bridgewater"s first 6 starts the Vikings averaged 20 ppg. In Bridgewater's last 6 starts, they averaged 24 ppg.

So..............if they can average 24 ppg with BW and no AP, then 30 ppg with the two of them playing should be about right! Ok, you can stop laughing now. Seriously, stop laughing! (This is fun. I should post this on some Packer forums, that would get their gander up.) :D

My prediction, the Defense moves up to top 5 on ppg given up in the 18 ppg average. The offense moves up to about 27 ppg with Bridgewater and having AP Back. With that point per game differential, it should put them in the playoffs.
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J. Kapp 11
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Re: Viking make playoffs next season

Post by J. Kapp 11 »

mosscarter wrote:you guys are making a ton of assumptions here. how can you take a 2012 peterson and compare him to a 2015 peterson? you don't believe age has any factor in this comparison because it does. father time catches up with all of us. i still think peterson can run for 1,300 yds and maybe 8 or 10 td's, but not much more than that. our offensive line, at this point still sucks. i live near pittsburgh and have watched mike wallace for most of his career. he is faster than anyone on the field, but he has horrible hands along with a horrible attitude. his attitude is worse than randy moss' ever was and he isn't half the receiver. for those who think trading for wallace solved our receiving problems you are in for a rude awakening. as noted, his attitude is as bad as it gets and he's barely 6 ft tall. in walllace's mind he actually believes he DESERVES 10-12 million a year and that is a joke. he might be worth 5 mil a year; and that is only after we actually see what he will do.
It's a small sample size, but let's look at the one game Adrian Peterson played last year.

He had a bad game rushing for only 75 yards. Matt Cassel was the quarterback. It was the first game in Norv's system. Yet the Vikings put up 34 against a stout Rams defense on the road, and Cordarrelle Patterson went nuts. Just the threat of AP makes everybody better.

As for Mike Wallace, I think we have to adjust our thinking here. It's not about stats. It's about the threat of him taking the top off the defense. That has great potential to open things up for both AP and CP, as well as guys like Charles Johnson, Jarius Wright and Kyle Rudolph. And our offensive line will be better this year. Mark it down. Kalil played hurt in 2014, Fusco missed most of the season, and Loadholt missed significant time. Returning those three at full strength will make us better. The line may not be not elite, but it don't suck, especially with TB under center, who doesn't panic and run for cover at the slightest sign of pressure.

With both AP and Wallace on the field, along with a maturing TB and an adequate O-line, Norv Turner finally has the weapons to do some of the things he wants to do. We keep talking about the improvements on defense ... the offense should be tons better with AP, and with TB in his second year.
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Re: Viking make playoffs next season

Post by dead_poet »

J. Kapp 11 wrote:And our offensive line will be better this year. Mark it down. Kalil played hurt in 2014
I know I'm not the only one that's been frustrated by Kalil, and it sounds like he's been playing hurt for the better part two seasons now even though he and the Vikings have downplayed his injuries quite a bit (and the surgeries). I sincerely hope that's the main reason for his struggles and that's behind him, but I'm more than a little nervous about his knees holding up 16 (or more) games. If not, this will probably be his last year in Purple. The good news is he was only credited with one sack after Week 11, according to Pro Football Focus, and gave up just two hurries during that time. That's more like it. Can he build on a strong finish? Color me skeptical. I think Zimmer puts it best:
"He might play great 70 plays, and eight plays he's not very good at all," Zimmer said. "We have to make him more consistent. We have to get him to finish better. I'm encouraged with some of the things he talked to me about the other day."
http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-vikin ... th-outlook

I know we were hoping for a strong answer at LG to perhaps help Kalil. Now it looks like that's not going to happen and, honestly, from an experience standpoint I don't know if they wouldn't be better off with Berger there, as painful as that is for me to admit. Starting a green rookie (or essentially one in Yankey) next to Kalil doesn't inspire a lot of confidence on that side of the line, even if they're somehow able to land Collins, who I think probably wants to go somewhere where he can be a tackle like Miami or Buffalo due to the financial incentives tied to the position.
Fusco missed most of the season, and Loadholt missed significant time. Returning those three at full strength will make us better. The line may not be not elite, but it don't suck, especially with TB under center, who doesn't panic and run for cover at the slightest sign of pressure.
Indeed. His cool demeanor and ability to work under duress is one of my favorite qualities of Teddy. His accuracy under pressure was 75.2%, best in the league and highest single season score since 08 (per @PFF). I can't tell you how amazing it would feel to see Teddy continue to make defenses pay for blitzing, ending up like a Rodgers/Manning where defensive coordinators simply don't try and bring extra pressure because he can defeat it so consistently. That only makes things easier for the offensive line (and Teddy) as a whole. It would be very refreshing after watching coordinators blitz Ponder like mad because it usually worked.
With both AP and Wallace on the field, along with a maturing TB and an adequate O-line, Norv Turner finally has the weapons to do some of the things he wants to do. We keep talking about the improvements on defense ... the offense should be tons better with AP, and with TB in his second year.
Agree. Though "should" is a key word. Hopefully they avoid the injury bug a bit more this year.
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Re: Viking make playoffs next season

Post by mmvikes »

J. Kapp 11 wrote: It's a small sample size, but let's look at the one game Adrian Peterson played last year.

He had a bad game rushing for only 75 yards. Matt Cassel was the quarterback. It was the first game in Norv's system. Yet the Vikings put up 34 against a stout Rams defense on the road, and Cordarrelle Patterson went nuts. Just the threat of AP makes everybody better.

As for Mike Wallace, I think we have to adjust our thinking here. It's not about stats. It's about the threat of him taking the top off the defense. That has great potential to open things up for both AP and CP, as well as guys like Charles Johnson, Jarius Wright and Kyle Rudolph. And our offensive line will be better this year. Mark it down. Kalil played hurt in 2014, Fusco missed most of the season, and Loadholt missed significant time. Returning those three at full strength will make us better. The line may not be not elite, but it don't suck, especially with TB under center, who doesn't panic and run for cover at the slightest sign of pressure.

With both AP and Wallace on the field, along with a maturing TB and an adequate O-line, Norv Turner finally has the weapons to do some of the things he wants to do. We keep talking about the improvements on defense ... the offense should be tons better with AP, and with TB in his second year.

As to the O line. Our entire O line played better late in the season. Part of that can be attributed to Teddys rapid development and seemingly innate ability to find and float in the moving pocket while keeping his focus downfield but, I believe, also they became more comfortable with the blocking assignments in the new scheme. Early in the year, even our starters appeared to be playing at a subpar level and many of us, myself included were calling for Davidsons head. As the season progressed, even with the backups in, the protection was much improved. We have been drafting for and teaching run heavy blocking for years and although Norv does like a strong run game we are no longer progressing from short quick routes out, but deep and mid routes in. If both Fusco and Load return to previous form after their injuries I think the line as a whole will be much better as they are now more familiar with their roles in the new scheme. With the re-signing of our backups and adding a few new O limemen in the draft it will be interesting whick linemen remain on the roster after the final cuts. I feel bad for CJ but just cutting him and replacing him with Berger, Harris or whoever wins the LG spot will help us also. The O line will be the key to our success or failure this year.
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Re: Viking make playoffs next season

Post by jackal »

When we had Ponder teams would have 9-10 in the box at times

Do that with Teddy and he destroy them ....
Last edited by jackal on Wed Jun 10, 2015 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Viking make playoffs next season

Post by jackal »

I have been thinking about this a lot of late.. Our window for winning a Super bowl is running right now ..(three years)

Peterson has maybe a few years left..

We have some solid young group that will peak in the next few years...

Free Agency takes a bigger hit against good teams..

Seattle is going to have pay Wilson and will lose many good players in next two-three years

Arizona is now a year or two into that window..
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