Saints at Vikings

[VikingsVictorious]

Huge 3rd down conversion to Powell. Need to score on this drive. Saints have nothing to lose.

[nyvike1960]

cannot count on Joeseph that for sure

[VikingsVictorious]

We made it way too interesting after having a 24 point lead. But another win. Amazing.

[JJBreaksRecords]

Great 1st half, they almost screwed everything up in the 2nd half. Typical Vikings move though, they have done it so often we all
expect it

edit-spelling

[ERIK the PURPLE]

Almost like the Minnesota Miracle game. Big first half. 2nd half not so good.

[CharVike]

Good win. The Saints tried to make a push. When Peg missed the 53 yarder I thought here we go tied game coming up. The hold on O'neil on the TD run hurt. Dobbs played fine. We had no turnovers.

[JJBreaksRecords]

Good win. The Saints tried to make a push. When Peg missed the 53 yarder I thought here we go tied game coming up. The hold on O'neil on the TD run hurt. Dobbs played fine. We had no turnovers.

TOs have proved the key factor. Make few to none and we win ball games. We screw up with TO's, like the start of the season, and we will lose.

[VikingsVictorious]

Good win. The Saints tried to make a push. When Peg missed the 53 yarder I thought here we go tied game coming up. The hold on O'neil on the TD run hurt. Dobbs played fine. We had no turnovers.

He actually did. He was dynamic the first half. Not good the 2nd half, but all in all he gave us adequate starting NFL QB performance. Pretty amazing we got him after losing Cousins for the season and honestly me expecting nothing, but doom and gloom.

[CharVike]

Good win. The Saints tried to make a push. When Peg missed the 53 yarder I thought here we go tied game coming up. The hold on O'neil on the TD run hurt. Dobbs played fine. We had no turnovers.

He actually did. He was dynamic the first half. Not good the 2nd half, but all in all he gave us adequate starting NFL QB performance. Pretty amazing we got him after losing Cousins for the season and honestly me expecting nothing, but doom and gloom.

Teams make adjustments at half time and the people doing the game said it looked like the Saints were trying to keep him in the pocket and make him throw. He made some nice step up throws within the pocket. Looked like they tried to surround him. You can't have holes that he can take off through. He'll get yardage. But we are playing as a team. KOC end of game locker room talk usually is posted on youtube and last week when he handed out the game ball he said everybody get's one. But one guy get's the real ball and tossed it to Dobbs. The guys went nuts. We are playing as a team and Dobbs is the leader. He will have some down moments they all do. But the team won't get down. It's our coaching. The players treated Cousins the same. Probably the 1st time ever for him.

[J. Kapp 11]

Good win. The Saints tried to make a push. When Peg missed the 53 yarder I thought here we go tied game coming up. The hold on O'neil on the TD run hurt. Dobbs played fine. We had no turnovers.

He actually did. He was dynamic the first half. Not good the 2nd half, but all in all he gave us adequate starting NFL QB performance. Pretty amazing we got him after losing Cousins for the season and honestly me expecting nothing, but doom and gloom.

How he played in the first half was essentially how he played last week after his understandable rough start.

But hey, you only need stats to tell how a player plays, so what the hell do I know?

[halfgiz]

We lost our starting QB and our season was over.
2 wins later and KOC has us playing as a team,Dobbs is probably enjoying having a solid team around him. And he seems to fit right in with the team.

Just take it one game at a time and let’s see what we can achieve. Having a mobile QB has sure helped our offense and let us see one aspect of the game that we have been missing.
Not going to win them all, but we will take all the wins we can get!

[VikingLord]

Vikings - 27
Saints - 30

VL I very much appreciate you continuing to take one for the team every week.

If they keep winning I'm going to have to pick them eventually...

[psjordan]

We lost our starting QB and our season was over.

We have lost:
Our starting QB (playing at Top 10 level)
Our starting All-Pro WR (pretty much best in class)
Our #2 starting WR
Our starting “half-the-carries” RB

Filling in for those slots we have:
Journeyman QB on his 7th team who has been with us for about a week
Rookie WR who is very talented but very slight of build
Journeyman WR on his 6th team
Our other “starting” RB along with two role players just getting carries now

Dare I say it - if there is credit to be doled out for the five straight wins, you have to start with the coaching staff and the OL (including TE’s).

Most have seemingly forgotten, but do you know how OUTLANDISH that statement would have been anywhere from 2 to 15 years ago?

I feel like the team foundation is here for a Good Thing moving forward, even if that future does not include guys like Dobbs or Powell. The fact that we have those guys and can (successfully) plug them in is a credit to the front office.

[VikingLord]

Couple of quick observations:

- Dobbs played well overall, especially in the first half. In the 2nd half either the Vikings got more conservative on offense and/or the Saints made some adjustments that made things more challenging for Dobbs as he wasn't as effective. The Saints pass rush in the 2nd half definitely seemed more disciplined and that made it harder for Dobbs to use his feet.

- Vikings running game sans Dobbs continues to underwhelm. They are basically good for 1-2 yards on most first downs when they run, which isn't going to get the job done come playoff time. Not sure if that is a runner issue or a blocker issue.

- Last comment on the offense is where are the deep attempts? Maybe KOC's scheme doesn't go deep often, but the Vikings rarely seem to test the deep area of the field. Maybe they throttled back on that due to the receiver injuries? The intermediate attempts are there and the ball gets spread around effectively, but it would be nice to see them try for the big play at least a few times a game.

- Defense played well overall. Both of the 2nd half Saints TDs were contested and probably shouldn't have been thrown. They were great plays by the receiver to come down with both balls. The 2nd TD where Winston threw across the field was a particularly unlikely result and probably deserved to go the other way for 6, much less become 6 points for the Saints.

- Winston made me appreciate how fortunate the Vikings are to have Dobbs as a backup at QB. He threw some nice passes but was way off on others.

- Nice to see the defense finally keep Hill from being a factor. I remember so many games against the Saints were Hill had a big play impact. Not this time. Finally.

- The Vikings defense is surprisingly tough in certain situations. As noted earlier, 2 Saints TDs were well covered and probably shouldn't have ended up being 6 points. The secondary makes some really nice plays now. Yes, that zone still leaves receivers too wide open, but they are making up for it with good coverage and fundamentals. The front seven is playing well. They're getting pressure on the QB and being disruptive. It's not a great defense (yet), but it's a heck of an improvement over what we saw last year and a big reason why the Vikings have won 5 in a row.

Schedule gets easier from here on out. The Vikings have a real chance to make a push for the playoffs, especially getting JJ back soon. This is shaping up to be a very fun season.

[Cliff]

The 1st quarter was especially fun to watch. Dobb's ability to run really seems to open up the playbook for KOC and allows for much more interesting play design. He might love Cousins but I think he's going to have a hard time giving that up. The coaching has been really good and so many backup players stepping in and playing well. The team going on a 5 game winning streak despite Jefferson being out.

I don't know if Dobbs can sustain this level of play or not. I don't know if he just needed better players around him and with that he can be an excellent QB or if he's doomed to "level out" and have a few down games now. I definitely keep waiting for the other shoe to drop with him but while it's still in the air I'll enjoy watching.

I'm not as down on Mattison as many others. I would need to go back to check the tape, but it feels like they're running Mattison on the more "obvious" running downs right into a brick wall and the other RBs are getting the ball on less obvious rushing downs with seemingly large holes to run through. I think if you put any of the other RBs on the roster in Mattison's shoes they look very similar.

The defense has definitely been awesome over this winning streak. To begin the year the aggressiveness wasn't paying off. The chaos of moving players around and rushing more than 4 wasn't leading to better results. Specifically in the way of turnovers. That has all changed now. The defensive backs have seemingly come to life and are more actively going after the ball. More players are getting more pressure on the QB. Players are obviously more comfortable in the scheme and it shows. Now it's not only more fun to watch than the 2022 version, but it's much more effective.

How about Hockenson stepping up while Jefferson has been out? Any of his detractors can't have much to say now. Second most receptions in the league. Yards-wise he's up there with Mike Evans, Amari Cooper, and Michael Pittman. One of the big reasons the offense hasn't fallen apart without several of it's best players.

Joseph is one of the worst kickers in the league. He needs to be replaced in the off season. With 75% he's bottom 4 in the league in FG%. He's 50% from 40-49 as well as 50-59. The team should be able to do better.