Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Texas Vike »

akvikingsfan wrote: Sun Sep 23, 2018 6:15 pm I’m not thrilled about this loss, but I hope that it’s a reality check for this team. They have the talent, they just need to put in the effort. Over the years I’ve come to expect the team to put up 2-4 terrible games a year. This just happened to be one of them. To help me feel better about this loss I’ll think about the following:

2003 - Vikings start 6-0, lose to all 4 teams that finish 4-12, miss the playoffs with a 9-7 record.

2016 - Vikings start 5-0, finish 8-8 and miss the plays

1998, 2000, 2009, 2017 - do I need to go into details?

This one game won’t define the season, since 2000 teams coming off a bye are 3-13. Let’s hope for a rebound game against the Rams.

Side note: I feel a little bad that I’m going to force my soon to be born son to be a Vikings fan. It’ll build character, I guess?

Skol! On to the Rams.
Or he may just not give a rip, like my son! You never know what they'll get into and what will bore them, so don't sweat it. I get the sentiment though. Today was one of those days where I questioned why in Hades I follow this damned team.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by J. Kapp 11 »

How do you tag someone on this board?

Here's my best attempt.

I want to officially apologize to YikesVikes, who has steadfastly ripped this organization for its lack of attention to the offensive line, and whom I have steadfastly ripped in response. While I honestly get tired of hearing how bad our O-line situation is, this game proves the point.

That was THE WORST offensive line performance I have ever seen in 50 years of Minnesota fandom. It was worse than any bad game they had in 2016. It was heinous. Kirk Cousins was taking 3-step drops and getting hammered.

It's easy to look at 27 first-half points given up and automatically blame the defense. And let's not put lipstick on a pig ... they were pretty bad. But the offensive line completely butchered this game. We gained 14 yards rushing. Our quarterback was getting destroyed within a second and a half of every snap. It was hor-ri-ble.

They'd better get their crap together in a big fat hurry, or the Rams are going to make mincemeat out of us.

We just lost by 21 at home to the worst team in the NFL. Color me completely embarrassed to be a Vikings fan today.

And YikesVikes ... I hope you accept my apology.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by StpViking »

This game would not be so deflating if not for the fact that THIS IS EXACTLY THE VIKING THING TO DO. This team is suppose to break the curse and finally win the big one. So far, there is nothing surprising about this team.

At least the Pats are losing too. Upset Sunday I guess.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Maelstrom88 »

The playcalling was bad. You have to try to be more balanced or at least run draws and screens even when you fall behind early. The offensive line, especially Reiff, was struggling and didn't receive enough help from Defilippo in the form of backs and TEs helping. Cousins missed some throws by a mile after getting rattled and was slow to recognize his hot reads on blitzes. The defense is not elite until or even good until further notice although they had some BS penalties called on them particularly on the first drive.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Laserman »

they just got rattled and caught off guard losing two fumbles deep in our territory and falling behind so early. They just never recovered from these early setbacks, too much too early in the game. It's football, it happens sometimes. Seems to Happen to us usually in Big games
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by YikesVikes »

J. Kapp 11 wrote: Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:10 pm How do you tag someone on this board?

Here's my best attempt.

I want to officially apologize to YikesVikes, who has steadfastly ripped this organization for its lack of attention to the offensive line, and whom I have steadfastly ripped in response. While I honestly get tired of hearing how bad our O-line situation is, this game proves the point.

That was THE WORST offensive line performance I have ever seen in 50 years of Minnesota fandom. It was worse than any bad game they had in 2016. It was heinous. Kirk Cousins was taking 3-step drops and getting hammered.

It's easy to look at 27 first-half points given up and automatically blame the defense. And let's not put lipstick on a pig ... they were pretty bad. But the offensive line completely butchered this game. We gained 14 yards rushing. Our quarterback was getting destroyed within a second and a half of every snap. It was hor-ri-ble.

They'd better get their crap together in a big fat hurry, or the Rams are going to make mincemeat out of us.

We just lost by 21 at home to the worst team in the NFL. Color me completely embarrassed to be a Vikings fan today.

And YikesVikes ... I hope you accept my apology.
Can't accept it because where I put the blame, actually wasn't that bad today. The guards held up. We got killed on the edges and I didn't see that coming. Also, this was a total team meltdown. The defense looked lost. Barr should not be resigned and that money should go to the oline. Richardson can go. Even though he is an impact player, this draft is loaded with 3 techs.

To be honest, I hope this team proves everyone wrong. I hope the combo we discuss gels ( Reiff, Jones, Pat, Remmers, Oniel). You have been correct about Oneil and he has looked good. The great thing about this team is that almost everyone is locked up. We can and should invest heavily in the draft next season. I really think Oneil needs to move to LT. Cut Remmers and move Reiff to RT. Draft some interior guys and we will have ourselves a team.

I'm just as confused as you are on what do we do now. I pray the Rams aren't who people think they are.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by VikingLord »

I think this game can be summed up quite simply by this is what happens when an offensive team can't protect the passer and a defensive team continues to do the same stupid things over and over and over. All day long Cousins simply didn't have time to throw, and even further, he was simply immobile and unable to avoid the pressure. The Bills simply (and fairly easily) neutralized the Vikings offense by neutralizing the offensive line. The Vikings couldn't run it and they couldn't pass it either, and further, they couldn't even protect it. Add a ton of penalties and a complete inability to execute even simple plays, and well, you have the result we saw today.

The defense, OTOH, pretty much played like they have all year. Guys who should be covered are running wide open for easy downfield completions/scores, inconsistent pass rush, lax intensity and pressure on receivers, missed tackles, and really bad penalties. Further, no fire. Nobody seems to care enough to even get angry. I swear, if the Bills had not let up a little on offense in starting in the 3rd, the score could have been much worse.

On the bright side, the special teams didn't biff any plays this week! There is always a bright spot, and this week, no blocked punts or missed field goals. Of course, there were no field goal attempts to miss, but I'd rather not think about that. Right now, Carlson's failures last week pale in comparison to the overall failure that was this week. If an entire team could be let go right now, this Vikings team would qualify for that fate.

But since that can't happen, well, the fix for this next week, and for the rest of this season, has to be to find a group of offensive players who can block. They don't even have to be offensive linemen per se - just guys who can engage and hold a block for more than a second would be a start. The recipe for beating this Vikings team is becoming quite obvious. Get pressure on Cousins. Blitz if you have to, but pressure him early and often. He doesn't handle it well. Against the Vikings defense, simply run TEs and RBs on deep routes. The Vikings won't cover them all the time and will apparently rely on the opposing QB to be so terrified of their sporadic 4-man pass rush to panic and not survey the field. But if I'm an opposing OC, I start running a TE or a RB on a deep route every down because there is a really good chance the Vikings simply will release him deep while the guy who could have covered him sits in his apparently assigned space on the field while looking back at the QB.

I usually save such sarcasm for later in the season when the expectations are higher and they completely blow it, but this loss deserves special treatment due to the fact that no matter what anybody says right now or what this loss indicates, the Bills are a really bad team and there is no getting around that. Maybe not 1-15 bad, but probably 3-13 bad. And somehow, the Vikings made that really bad team look very good while they themselves looked like the 1-win team today. That just isn't acceptable, but given the glaring holes in the 2018 version of the Vikings, I think there is a very good chance this result could repeat itself several times before this season is over. The blueprint to beat them (and not just beat them, but smoke them) is out there now, and I expect every opponent from here on out to use it until Zimmer and his crew can show they can deal with it.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by halfgiz »

Murray had 2 carries and Boone had 2 carries the whole game. Not sure I would say we couldn't run it, more like we didn't run it. Which I don't understand at all. Where was the balance?
Zimmer still hasn't figured out how to stop TE's.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Dmizzle0 »

Hats of to the Bills for playing the way they did after a bad week. I'm really hoping this game was a fluke but its going to be hard to tell since we have a short week. The OL was like a cheap paper towel. They got demolished which pretty much gave a huge moral to their offense. We abandoned the run too early. Cousins missed some targets which shows that the pressure really affected him. Even though the blocking is bad, I think he should learn to be more mobile as there were times it seemed like he could've escaped the sack. I felt like our defensive play-calling is too stubborn meaning that they wont make any adjustments until its too late.

They played like a team that just went into the game knowing that they were favorites.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Texas Vike »

One of my biggest disappointments so far this season is John DeFelipo. I expected him to call a better game, to make in-game adjustments better, and to have a better scheme, over all. I hadn't anticipated how green he would be and that it might well take him a season or two to find his legs. There were rumors that he'd be a head coach candidate after one season with the Vikings. Seems quaint now, doesn't it?
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Cliff »

There have been a lot of people in the thread to already sum of most of my thoughts.

Though our offensive line was terrible I thought Cousins was equally bad. He missed a couple of wide open receivers on plays that should have been big or even touchdowns. He was responsible for at *least* one of those sacks. He hung on to the ball *way* too long with the offensive line he has in front of him.

The defense wasn't prepared in many ways but the most glaring was that they weren't prepared for Allen to run on them. Just when it seemed the defense was putting together a stop Allen would grab a first down (or score). They somehow weren't prepared for him to jump the goal line.

I have to say watching their QB run like that made me wonder what would have happened if he had gotten laid out like a running back might in those situations. What if Barr had actually got a good hit on him when he hurdled and sent him flying like Sage Roflcopter? Defenders are afraid to hit the quarter back this year and I wonder if we'll see them being more bold with the run as a result? Then again, it could have just been Allen - that kid is pretty fast. He might not be able to grow a complete beard yet but he can whoop the Vikings ####.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Cliff »

Texas Vike wrote: Mon Sep 24, 2018 6:41 am One of my biggest disappointments so far this season is John DeFelipo. I expected him to call a better game, to make in-game adjustments better, and to have a better scheme, over all. I hadn't anticipated how green he would be and that it might well take him a season or two to find his legs. There were rumors that he'd be a head coach candidate after one season with the Vikings. Seems quaint now, doesn't it?
I think he called a couple of good plays that Cousins missed (2 wide open receivers downfield one that would have been a TD). Cousins also mishandled the end of the first half. He was also responsible for at least one of his sacks (maybe the second one too but I don't recall at the moment). I know I was yelling "GET RID OF IT!" at the TV right before the sack. I know that's the definition of the "eye test" but it sure seemed like forever (at least for our Oline). It was tough to watch Cousins yesterday. I don't know if we can even blame DeFelipo for anything considering how bad the players were. Didn't both Diggs and Thielen also drop passes on important situations too?
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Pondering Her Percy »

YikesVikes wrote: Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:33 pm Can't accept it because where I put the blame, actually wasn't that bad today. The guards held up. We got killed on the edges and I didn't see that coming. Also, this was a total team meltdown. The defense looked lost. Barr should not be resigned and that money should go to the oline. Richardson can go. Even though he is an impact player, this draft is loaded with 3 techs.

To be honest, I hope this team proves everyone wrong. I hope the combo we discuss gels ( Reiff, Jones, Pat, Remmers, Oniel). You have been correct about Oneil and he has looked good. The great thing about this team is that almost everyone is locked up. We can and should invest heavily in the draft next season. I really think Oneil needs to move to LT. Cut Remmers and move Reiff to RT. Draft some interior guys and we will have ourselves a team.

I'm just as confused as you are on what do we do now. I pray the Rams aren't who people think they are.
Agreed on some of this. You're right it was the outside. However, just Reiff. I don't know if Oneill even gave up a pressure. Interior was fine. Elflein looked solid when he was in there.

As for the defense, I can't blame them. At all. I mean Linval's penalty was bigger than many would think. We force a 3 and out and get a big sack on third down and Linval goes helmet to helmet. A play like that changes the game. Because we wouldve allowed 0 points on the first drive, completely flipped field position, and could've drew first blood. Instead, we draw 2 big penalties and walk them down the field. Just like we did with GB a few times.

Outside of the penalties I thought the D played fairly well. I don't care if you're the Browns, Bills or the '79 Bucs, you can't turn the ball over inside your own 20 in back to back drives, no less you were already down 7-0. You're going to get scored on, no matter who it is against. That is not on the defense. After two strip sacks, we gave up a TD and a FG. Pretty normal if you're starting at the 20 in back to back drives. Even if we stop them (which we did once) you're still giving up 3 points. Unless you turn them over, you're getting scored on one way or the other.

Yes Barr played disgustingly bad yesterday and I'm done with him. I will say we have done the right thing (so far) signing the right guys back. I think Barr is done. This game definitely didnt help his cause. How many times are you going to tackle high and continue to get penalties? My goodness.

I'm 100% against getting rid of Richardson. You have to think about what you're saying here. You want to get rid of Barr, Richardson, cut Remmers and be in need of both a RG and LG. That is now 4 spots we need filled. It's not that easy. I don't care how loaded the 3 tech class is, keep Richardson, draft either a LB or OG in the first and the other in the 2nd. Find a good flier in FA to fill the other guard spot. But you can't just say lets open up 4 positions and just fill them in the draft. A lot more difficult than that.

Mark my words, we either win both or one of the 2 next games. Someone said it earlier and I believe it. It's a classic Vikings thing to do. We have a bad loss EVERY year. Let's hope this game was our NFC championship game and we got that bad game out of us this year. I truly think this will be a reality check for these guys. But I just have a weird feeling we beat the Rams and beat Philly. Side note: Kirk Cousins is 4-2 vs Philly in his career. And the first two losses came last year. Last year at Philly he was 30-40, for 303, 3:1 TD:INT. Of course they still lost because Washingtons D was gross. Oh and he also beat the Rams last year in LA. Just some food for thought

I'm not worried about this team but I am worried about Reiff which I thought I would never say. We need ONeill there but I have a bad feeling Zim won't make that move.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Texas Vike »

Cliff wrote: Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:00 am I think he called a couple of good plays that Cousins missed (2 wide open receivers downfield one that would have been a TD). Cousins also mishandled the end of the first half. He was also responsible for at least one of his sacks (maybe the second one too but I don't recall at the moment). I know I was yelling "GET RID OF IT!" at the TV right before the sack. I know that's the definition of the "eye test" but it sure seemed like forever (at least for our Oline). It was tough to watch Cousins yesterday. I don't know if we can even blame DeFelipo for anything considering how bad the players were. Didn't both Diggs and Thielen also drop passes on important situations too?
To be clear, I'm speaking not only of this game, but all games this season.

Also: I agree that Cousins stunk yesterday and our OL (especially Reiff, of all people) really underperformed. Even so, what I would hope for is an OC who has the awareness of what our weaknesses are and how to scheme around them. Shurmer seemed stronger on this.
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Re: Bills vs. Vikings Postgame Thread

Post by Pondering Her Percy »

Texas Vike wrote: Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:07 am To be clear, I'm speaking not only of this game, but all games this season.

Also: I agree that Cousins stunk yesterday and our OL (especially Reiff, of all people) really underperformed. Even so, what I would hope for is an OC who has the awareness of what our weaknesses are and how to scheme around them. Shurmer seemed stronger on this.
No doubt there was a couple he held onto too long but there were others where he was getting hit before he got to the back of his drop. And that occurred more often than him holding it too long. I think Cousins is a stud. And will continue to be. Not much you can do when Jerry Hughes is hitting you on just about every pass play

Via PFF:
Jerry Hughes wreaked havoc all day long against the Vikings’ offensive front. He was in the backfield causing pressure on what felt like nearly every play, and Minnesota just didn’t have an answer to stop him. The Buffalo defense, in general, were disruptive across the board with their pass-rush (Lorenzo Alexander had himself a fine day rushing the quarterback, as well), but Hughes was the star.
The Vikings’ offensive line really struggled to keep pressure off their quarterback today, especially on the left side of the line where Hughes seemingly had his way with Riley Reiff all afternoon. Buffalo got consistent pressure all throughout the game and was able to do so primarily with their four-man rush.
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