NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

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Mothman
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by Mothman »

Texas Vike wrote:One specific area that illustrated the difference between the Eagles' preparation and ours: the trenches.

I thought for sure that one key advantage the Vikings would have would be Everson vs. Vaitai (an undrafted rookie from TCU who was with the Vikings in camp and preseason and then got cut). How in the world was Vaitai going to keep Griffen from totally ruining Foles' day? They gave him help, and it worked.

On the other side of the coin, I think of the key play when we were in FG range on 3rd down and our coaches thought it was a good protection scheme to have David Morgan try to come across the backfield and pick up a rusher of the edge on Case's blind side. That's mind blowing, and it illustrates how much better the Eagles' blocking schemes were, despite very questionable talent level in Vaitai.
That was mind-blowing and it should give anyone who has an excess of confidence in Mike Zimmer and his staff pause. It's not the first time we've seen that kind of choice backfire under Zimmer.

It should concern all of us that Zimmer was hired for his defensive expertise, given the time and opportunity to build the defense he wanted, and that unit was destroyed by the Eagles yesterday. He was out-coached and his defense, the emphasis of the Vikings plan to win a Super Bowl, was embarrassed.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by PurpleMustReign »

Mothman wrote:
Texas Vike wrote:One specific area that illustrated the difference between the Eagles' preparation and ours: the trenches.

I thought for sure that one key advantage the Vikings would have would be Everson vs. Vaitai (an undrafted rookie from TCU who was with the Vikings in camp and preseason and then got cut). How in the world was Vaitai going to keep Griffen from totally ruining Foles' day? They gave him help, and it worked.

On the other side of the coin, I think of the key play when we were in FG range on 3rd down and our coaches thought it was a good protection scheme to have David Morgan try to come across the backfield and pick up a rusher of the edge on Case's blind side. That's mind blowing, and it illustrates how much better the Eagles' blocking schemes were, despite very questionable talent level in Vaitai.
That was mind-blowing and it should give anyone who has an excess of confidence in Mike Zimmer and his staff pause. It's not the first time we've seen that kind of choice backfire under Zimmer.

It should concern all of us that Zimmer was hired for his defensive expertise, given the time and opportunity to build the defense he wanted, and that unit was destroyed by the Eagles yesterday. He was out-coached and his defense, the emphasis of the Vikings plan to win a Super Bowl, was embarrassed.
Correct, Jim. I lost a lot of faith in Zimmer last week against New Orleans, but hey, they were playing Drew Brees. Now, nick Foles made us look like half of Leslie Frasier's teams were playing. It was pathetic and embarrassing.
I am not satisfied with a 13-3 season that doesn't end in a super bowl appearance. Thats like a baseball player going 5 for his first 5 and then striking out with the bases loaded and two outs in the 9th down by one.

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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by germannorseman »

Mothman wrote:
Texas Vike wrote:One specific area that illustrated the difference between the Eagles' preparation and ours: the trenches.

I thought for sure that one key advantage the Vikings would have would be Everson vs. Vaitai (an undrafted rookie from TCU who was with the Vikings in camp and preseason and then got cut). How in the world was Vaitai going to keep Griffen from totally ruining Foles' day? They gave him help, and it worked.

On the other side of the coin, I think of the key play when we were in FG range on 3rd down and our coaches thought it was a good protection scheme to have David Morgan try to come across the backfield and pick up a rusher of the edge on Case's blind side. That's mind blowing, and it illustrates how much better the Eagles' blocking schemes were, despite very questionable talent level in Vaitai.
That was mind-blowing and it should give anyone who has an excess of confidence in Mike Zimmer and his staff pause. It's not the first time we've seen that kind of choice backfire under Zimmer.

It should concern all of us that Zimmer was hired for his defensive expertise, given the time and opportunity to build the defense he wanted, and that unit was destroyed by the Eagles yesterday. He was out-coached and his defense, the emphasis of the Vikings plan to win a Super Bowl, was embarrassed.
I totally agree. As good a coach as Simmer has been, he seems to not be able to make adjustments. I don't know if it's stubbornness or what, but to have no answer for the slants that killed us is inexcusable for a defensive mind.

The defense looked lost and watching Wayne's stand flat footed against the eagles receiver who went in to score was just typical of the whole night. Sickening.

I hope he learned something.

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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by VikingLord »

Texas Vike wrote: On the other side of the coin, I think of the key play when we were in FG range on 3rd down and our coaches thought it was a good protection scheme to have David Morgan try to come across the backfield and pick up a rusher of the edge on Case's blind side. That's mind blowing, and it illustrates how much better the Eagles' blocking schemes were, despite very questionable talent level in Vaitai.
That had to be the worst play design in the history of play designs. I assume they ran that in practice and it worked, but super dumb design IMHO. Heck, even if the TE sets on the side of that DE it's still asking for trouble.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by fiestavike »

Mothman wrote:
Texas Vike wrote:One specific area that illustrated the difference between the Eagles' preparation and ours: the trenches.

I thought for sure that one key advantage the Vikings would have would be Everson vs. Vaitai (an undrafted rookie from TCU who was with the Vikings in camp and preseason and then got cut). How in the world was Vaitai going to keep Griffen from totally ruining Foles' day? They gave him help, and it worked.

On the other side of the coin, I think of the key play when we were in FG range on 3rd down and our coaches thought it was a good protection scheme to have David Morgan try to come across the backfield and pick up a rusher of the edge on Case's blind side. That's mind blowing, and it illustrates how much better the Eagles' blocking schemes were, despite very questionable talent level in Vaitai.
That was mind-blowing and it should give anyone who has an excess of confidence in Mike Zimmer and his staff pause. It's not the first time we've seen that kind of choice backfire under Zimmer.

It should concern all of us that Zimmer was hired for his defensive expertise, given the time and opportunity to build the defense he wanted, and that unit was destroyed by the Eagles yesterday. He was out-coached and his defense, the emphasis of the Vikings plan to win a Super Bowl, was embarrassed.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by VikingLord »

germannorseman wrote:I totally agree. As good a coach as Simmer has been, he seems to not be able to make adjustments. I don't know if it's stubbornness or what, but to have no answer for the slants that killed us is inexcusable for a defensive mind.

The defense looked lost and watching Wayne's stand flat footed against the eagles receiver who went in to score was just typical of the whole night. Sickening.

I hope he learned something.

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That was stunning to me too. The Eagles literally ran the same plays over and over and over on the same drive and the Vikings defensively did nothing to alter how they defensed them. Those slants were one example, but there was another drive that had several screens in a row too.

Some here have talked about being out-coached, but I don't think the Eagles and Foles really did all that much genius-level stuff in this game. It was pretty vanilla, but it was effective against a rigid scheme.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by VikingLord »

One other thing I have to say - Foles was EXCELLENT last night. I mean, he wasn't just good - he was incredible. If he can repeat that performance against the Patriots, the Eagles have a very good chance to win the Superbowl. His accuracy, often under duress, was amazing. He kept plays alive, made incredibly good decisions (the one where he pulled the ball down to avoid a possible batdown and then fired it cleanly was unreal), and protected the ball (how he held on when Griffen hit his arm on that one play that resulted in the long TD to Alshon is beyond me).

Foles played the QB position last night as well as it can be played. And I mean that historically among all great NFL QBs. The Vikings defense looked inept trying to stop him, but he was a big reason why they looked inept. I personally doubt he'll come anywhere close to that level of play again, perhaps in his career, but the Eagles will be Superbowl champs in 2 weeks if he does.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by halfgiz »

No pressure and missed tackles can do wonders for an offense. Foles had a 141 QB rating which is pretty telling.
I also think the Eagles was running the type of offensive plays we should have been running,
considering the shape our offensive line was in.
Not sure I'm a big fan of all the switching on the offensive line the last 2 games.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by Texas Vike »

Mothman wrote:
Texas Vike wrote:One specific area that illustrated the difference between the Eagles' preparation and ours: the trenches.

I thought for sure that one key advantage the Vikings would have would be Everson vs. Vaitai (an undrafted rookie from TCU who was with the Vikings in camp and preseason and then got cut). How in the world was Vaitai going to keep Griffen from totally ruining Foles' day? They gave him help, and it worked.

On the other side of the coin, I think of the key play when we were in FG range on 3rd down and our coaches thought it was a good protection scheme to have David Morgan try to come across the backfield and pick up a rusher of the edge on Case's blind side. That's mind blowing, and it illustrates how much better the Eagles' blocking schemes were, despite very questionable talent level in Vaitai.
That was mind-blowing and it should give anyone who has an excess of confidence in Mike Zimmer and his staff pause. It's not the first time we've seen that kind of choice backfire under Zimmer.

It should concern all of us that Zimmer was hired for his defensive expertise, given the time and opportunity to build the defense he wanted, and that unit was destroyed by the Eagles yesterday. He was out-coached and his defense, the emphasis of the Vikings plan to win a Super Bowl, was embarrassed.
I'm conflicted. I think Zimmer and his staff deserve criticism for yesterday's massive failure, but I think he (and they) deserve major praise for what they accomplished this season. He got out-coached yesterday. He'd be the first to admit that. I still see reason to hope that he can learn from this game and be better prepared if there is ever a next time.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by Mothman »

Texas Vike wrote:I'm conflicted. I think Zimmer and his staff deserve criticism for yesterday's massive failure, but I think he (and they) deserve major praise for what they accomplished this season. He got out-coached yesterday. He'd be the first to admit that. I still see reason to hope that he can learn from this game and be better prepared if there is ever a next time.
There is reason to hope for that outcome. That's how I'm looking at it too. Hopefully, he'll learn from this experience, adapt and grow into a better head coach.

For me, concern over what we just saw and hope that it yields improvement aren't conflicting feelings. :)
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by S197 »

germannorseman wrote:
Mothman wrote:
Texas Vike wrote:One specific area that illustrated the difference between the Eagles' preparation and ours: the trenches.

I thought for sure that one key advantage the Vikings would have would be Everson vs. Vaitai (an undrafted rookie from TCU who was with the Vikings in camp and preseason and then got cut). How in the world was Vaitai going to keep Griffen from totally ruining Foles' day? They gave him help, and it worked.

On the other side of the coin, I think of the key play when we were in FG range on 3rd down and our coaches thought it was a good protection scheme to have David Morgan try to come across the backfield and pick up a rusher of the edge on Case's blind side. That's mind blowing, and it illustrates how much better the Eagles' blocking schemes were, despite very questionable talent level in Vaitai.
That was mind-blowing and it should give anyone who has an excess of confidence in Mike Zimmer and his staff pause. It's not the first time we've seen that kind of choice backfire under Zimmer.

It should concern all of us that Zimmer was hired for his defensive expertise, given the time and opportunity to build the defense he wanted, and that unit was destroyed by the Eagles yesterday. He was out-coached and his defense, the emphasis of the Vikings plan to win a Super Bowl, was embarrassed.
I totally agree. As good a coach as Simmer has been, he seems to not be able to make adjustments. I don't know if it's stubbornness or what, but to have no answer for the slants that killed us is inexcusable for a defensive mind.

The defense looked lost and watching Wayne's stand flat footed against the eagles receiver who went in to score was just typical of the whole night. Sickening.

I hope he learned something.

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I don't know that that is entirely fair. I think this team has been quite good at halftime adjustments. There was a time when we would lead at halftime and lose the game due to adjustments and it happened over and over. Clearly the Saints made better halftime adjustments and the Eagles, well, the Eagles just beat our ####.

But looking over the season, I'd say adjustments at the half were probably a strength for this team.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by Goat »

Just joined this forum last night..

I'm laughing at all the people sticking up for our team. Lets break this down shall we..

1. Where was the motivation for this game? I saw none!

2. Where were the adjustments?

3. Diggs, Elfein,Sendejo,Rhodes were out. That really hurt. I honestly think Sendejo and Rhodes being out really hurt.

4. We were playing an NFC Championship game, they played like it was preseason. No fire , None. In fact when they showed the players faces on the field after the pick 6, they looked scared and didn't want to be there.

5. We would have been the 1st team in history to play a superbowl at home! WTF! That should have motivated the hell out of them right there. Why would the coaches even need to speak?

#5 is absolutely absurd on 100 levels! Were some of these players families threatened? Were they threatened? Blackmail? I can't possibly for the life of me understand how this team just laid down like that...

They didn't even try after they scored.. The pick 6 and it was over.. Someone please explain this BS to me.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

Post by mosscarter »

Its the way they lost it was like there was only one team playing on the field from the second quarter on. You can't lose by 31 points like that and just say it was a bad game. That team showed yesterday and didn't want to play from what I saw. That is an internal issue to have an entire team that unprepared.
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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

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Re: NFC Championship Game Thread: Vikings-Eagles

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