Vikings at Broncos

[Cliff]

Honestly I think this is the first game they really missed Cousins. I’ve said all along to fellow buddies that Dobbs makes me nervous in the pocket. He seems to hold onto the ball forever and doesn’t do anything until someone is right on top of him. Dobbs can’t make anything close to the throws that cousins can make. However we knew that coming in. Granted Dobbs can make up for some with his legs but overall, that accuracy and understanding of the offense is what we missed in this game offensively. That’s a game cousins wins IMO. I don’t want to fault Dobbs but something about this game made me clench every time he threw the ball. He just didn’t look comfortable at all and clearly doesn’t have trust in his receivers down field whereas cousins did. Now yes, that’s understandable. Cousins has been here for 2 years under KOC and Dobbs has been here 3 weeks. But in the end, we needed the accuracy, we needed the understanding of the offense, we needed the trust in the WRs and we didn’t have that at all in this game.

Cousins does have better accuracy and timing with passing but like you said, he's been in the offense for 2 years and not 3 weeks. I think Jefferson's ability would make up for that though. I think if Jefferson was out there making up for that fact this wouldn't have been a conversation. I think the offensive game plans are way more interesting with a mobile QB back there too.

As for mattison, I’m not sure how any RB gets this many chances. It’s week 11 and the guy has yet to score a rushing TD and has started the entire year. His first step is deathly slow. His hands are questionable. I’m not sure what KOCs ties to him are, but they need to start chandler from here on out.

I think a lot of it had to do with injury. Chandler started the year injured didn't he?

As for KOC, great coaching in the first half. Second half what bothered me is Denver clearly adjusted its run defense and it showed. However, KOC didn’t adjust his offense. I don’t expect Dobbs to run a 1 minute drill at the end to win us a game when he’s been here 3 weeks. However when we were up 17-15 and had the ball at like the 5 yard line, we run two up the gut and then get sacked (if I remember correctly). That was our chance to step on their throat. 7 points would’ve put us up by 9 and game would’ve been out of reach. Instead, he pulled a page out of the Mike zimmer playbook, played it conservative and put the game in the hands of his defense. Just poor, poor play calling there. I mean the fake punt was great, you played that down like you wanted to step on their throat. Yet you get down to the 5 and tried pushing a run game that was no longer working.

I love KOC don’t get me wrong, but he played scared right there. That was our chance and he tried to play the clock game and take the points. Let’s hope he doesn’t do that again.

They had a chance to win 9 in a row with burrow being out now. But in the end, this is the nfl, that’s near impossible for any team to do. Especially one missing its pro bowl QB and best overall player in Jefferson. However, I think we can get going again with these next 3 of Chicago, Vegas and cincy.

I've got no qualms with the coaching or play calling. The team was -3 in the turnover differential and only lost by 1 point. The Vikings should have lost by about 14 or 20 points.

Having Jefferson back is going to give Dobbs a huge boost, I think.

[J. Kapp 11]

I’ve been watching Matthew Coller’s excellent podcast “Vikings Insider” this morning. His guest, Brian Murphy from the Pioneer Press, made some great points. I’ll do my best to summarize.

— The Vikings are a good team. Of that, there’s no doubt. But they’re not an elite team. So for them to go on the road and beat a quality opponent, they have to be at their best. They can’t win if they have self-inflicted wounds. They played well Monday, but they didn’t do that.

— Josh Dobbs has done wonderful things, but he’s a work in progress. There will be ups and downs as he grows into KOC’s system. We as fans need to realize and accept that. (On a personal note, I probably jumped on the Dobbs bandwagon a little too quickly, given that Kirk Cousins was playing at an MVP level, and Dobbs led us to two very exciting victories after Kirk went down.)

— The angst we’re all feeling now is the direct result of their sloppy play at the beginning of the season putting us in an 0-3 hole. But there’s still a path to 10 wins and a playoff birth.

I love wisdom like that. We all can get emotional about our team. It helps to be a bit circumspect.

[VikeFanInEagleLand]

Honestly I think this is the first game they really missed Cousins. I’ve said all along to fellow buddies that Dobbs makes me nervous in the pocket. He seems to hold onto the ball forever and doesn’t do anything until someone is right on top of him. Dobbs can’t make anything close to the throws that cousins can make. However we knew that coming in. Granted Dobbs can make up for some with his legs but overall, that accuracy and understanding of the offense is what we missed in this game offensively. That’s a game cousins wins IMO. I don’t want to fault Dobbs but something about this game made me clench every time he threw the ball. He just didn’t look comfortable at all and clearly doesn’t have trust in his receivers down field whereas cousins did. Now yes, that’s understandable. Cousins has been here for 2 years under KOC and Dobbs has been here 3 weeks. But in the end, we needed the accuracy, we needed the understanding of the offense, we needed the trust in the WRs and we didn’t have that at all in this game.

As for mattison, I’m not sure how any RB gets this many chances. It’s week 11 and the guy has yet to score a rushing TD and has started the entire year. His first step is deathly slow. His hands are questionable. I’m not sure what KOCs ties to him are, but they need to start chandler from here on out.

As for KOC, great coaching in the first half. Second half what bothered me is denver clearly adjusted its run defense and it showed. However, KOC didn’t adjust his offense. I don’t expect Dobbs to run a 1 minute drill at the end to win us a game when he’s been here 3 weeks. However when we were up 17-15 and had the ball at like the 5 yard line, we run two up the gut and then get sacked (if I remember correctly). That was our chance to step on their throat. 7 points would’ve put us up by 9 and game would’ve been out of reach. Instead, he pulled a page out of the Mike zimmer playbook, played it conservative and put the game in the hands of his defense. Just poor, poor play calling there. I mean the fake punt was great, you played that down like you wanted to step on their throat. Yet you get down to the 5 and tried pushing a run game that was no longer working.

I love KOC don’t get me wrong, but he played scared right there. That was our chance and he tried to play the clock game and take the points. Let’s hope he doesn’t do that again.

They had a chance to win 9 in a row with burrow being out now. But in the end, this is the nfl, that’s near impossible for any team to do. Especially one missing its pro bowl QB and best overall player in Jefferson. However, I think we can get going again with these next 3 of Chicago, Vegas and cincy.

Congratulations. I have been reading forums, and news columns, been listening to podcasts, etc, and you are the first person to say what I have saying about Dobbs in the pocket. There is such a thing as standing in the pocket too long, and he does it. Everything I have seen from him so far leads me to believe he is going to be a turnover machine. On Sunday, two snaps hit the ground that the Vikings recovered. He turned the ball over twice with another fumble and interception. He threw at least three passes that SHOUD have been picked off, and threw several while standing in the pocket with defender clawing at his arms. This can't go on. He WILL turn the ball over again and again if that doesn't stop.

I also agree that the workload between Mattison and Chandler needs to be swapped. Chandler needs to get the majority of the runs and let Mattison be mainly a third down back.

Also, and it's important, there must be passed thrown down field. Doesn't matter if there is coverage. The threat needs to be there.