Greetings from a Falcons Fan

[Leafman]

Wow, Brady, Brees, and now Matty. Half of our team hurt. Zimmer must be wondering wtf he did to deserve this.

Followed by Rodgers and Stafford....

Rough start to say the least.

LEAFMAN THE PURPLE FAN

[PurpleKoolaid]

Followed by Rodgers and Stafford....

Rough start to say the least.

LEAFMAN THE PURPLE FAN

Yep. Hardest in the NFL imo. But we wearnt even mentioned in the top 10, of the hardest schedules.

[Raptorman]

While the offense has been stuck in mud, I think the threat of Bridgewater running will open it up a little. If the Falcons only rush 4, then running lanes will open and if Teddy does not have someone to throw to he will run. He will be patient but I would not be surprised if Bridgewater was the Vikings leading rusher at the end of this game.

[Just Me]

While the offense has been stuck in mud, I think the threat of Bridgewater running will open it up a little. If the Falcons only rush 4, then running lanes will open and if Teddy does not have someone to throw to he will run. He will be patient but I would not be surprised if Bridgewater was the Vikings leading rusher at the end of this game.

The way our rushing attack has been I wouldn't be surprised if Cassel would have been the leading rusher.

[MikethePurple]

I never suggested otherwise. I was simply pointing out that allowing over 250 yards rushing over the past two weeks, and the opposition being in front for the vast majority of time in those two games, likely contributed to lower-than-usual passing totals for Brady and Brees. As I see it, the Vikings offense is as culpable for that as the defense and the offense is definitely a far more problematic unit at this point in the season. That doesn't mean the defense is above any criticism, does it?[/quote]

Not to mention after the turnovers the field position has been pretty good for the opposition. It hasn't allowed these quarterbacks to put up the big stats when you only have to drive a minimum amount of yards to reach the end zone, put up a big lead and then just run the clock out against a pretty hapless offense. The increased rush numbers that you mention reflect that.

[Mothman]

Not to mention after the turnovers the field position has been pretty good for the opposition. It hasn't allowed these quarterbacks to put up the big stats when you only have to drive a minimum amount of yards to reach the end zone, put up a big lead and then just run the clock out against a pretty hapless offense. The increased rush numbers that you mention reflect that.

Exactly. Thanks, Mike.

I'm actually quite impressed with the defense so far. they're not dominant but it's clear that the personnel, scheme and coaching changes are paying early dividends. It's just a shame that the offense has been so ineffective the last two weeks.

[720pete]

Falcons 24 Vikings 10.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

[MikethePurple]

Exactly. Thanks, Mike.

I'm actually quite impressed with the defense so far. they're not dominant but it's clear that the personnel, scheme and coaching changes are paying early dividends. It's just a shame that the offense has been so ineffective the last two weeks.

Me too. It has been refreshing to watch the defense play rather than the sense of impending doom that you felt last season. What was interesting was hearing Zimmer's remark that he was trying to give the Saints a curveball those first couple series and they outmatched him. Once he settled down on the scheme, the defense played extremely well, save for the other scoring drive. Whether that's just a hindsight comment on his part to let players off the hook, who knows but the remaining performance was still encouraging. Especially against that offense in their dome.

Even though injuries and Adrian's situation are really taking the wind out of the sails early in the season I can't help but see some positivity on the direction the team is moving rather than the despair of last year. It seemed with each loss there was less and less silver linings to provide any sort of consolation. With the defense improving and hopefully Teddy's progression, I am cautiously optimistic we could be seeing some brighter days in the future.

[Mothman]

Me too. It has been refreshing to watch the defense play rather than the sense of impending doom that you felt last season.

... and in way too many other seasons!

What was interesting was hearing Zimmer's remark that he was trying to give the Saints a curveball those first couple series and they outmatched him. Once he settled down on the scheme, the defense played extremely well, save for the other scoring drive. Whether that's just a hindsight comment on his part to let players off the hook, who knows but the remaining performance was still encouraging. Especially against that offense in their dome.

I missed that remark from Zimmer but's interesting. It must be really frustrating for a coaching staff when they think they've worked up something to throw an opponent off early and instead find the tables turned on them.

Even though injuries and Adrian's situation are really taking the wind out of the sails early in the season I can't help but see some positivity on the direction the team is moving rather than the despair of last year. It seemed with each loss there was less and less silver linings to provide any sort of consolation. With the defense improving and hopefully Teddy's progression, I am cautiously optimistic we could be seeing some brighter days in the future.

I feel the same way. We all knew getting through this part of the schedule might be like weathering a storm. What we didn't know was that Peterson wouldn't be with the team and that injuries would hit hard early. The team is hanging in there and if they can get healthy again and solve a few of the issues that are plaguing them, maybe they can finish strong. Heck, they even finished a lot stronger than they started last year and if that Vikings team could do it after the start they had, there's no reason this one can't.

Maybe they'll upset Atlanta this week.

[MikethePurple]

After the 20-9 loss, Zimmer admitted Payton’s plan trumped his during the deciding opening quarter. “They changed a lot of things in what they did with some of their reads, so it is probably my fault,” Zimmer said. “I was going to trick them a little bit in the beginning of the game, but they ended up changing things. It caught us a little off-balance.”

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... 58531.html

[mondry]

Me too. It has been refreshing to watch the defense play rather than the sense of impending doom that you felt last season. What was interesting was hearing Zimmer's remark that he was trying to give the Saints a curveball those first couple series and they outmatched him. Once he settled down on the scheme, the defense played extremely well, save for the other scoring drive. Whether that's just a hindsight comment on his part to let players off the hook, who knows but the remaining performance was still encouraging. Especially against that offense in their dome.

Even though injuries and Adrian's situation are really taking the wind out of the sails early in the season I can't help but see some positivity on the direction the team is moving rather than the despair of last year. It seemed with each loss there was less and less silver linings to provide any sort of consolation. With the defense improving and hopefully Teddy's progression, I am cautiously optimistic we could be seeing some brighter days in the future.

Well said and I do think this football team can win some games still. I don't think we're getting to the 10-6 I predicted before the start of the season but I do think Zimmer has it right when he says "the guys who make the fewest mistakes and play the best as a team will win the games". We simply won't have the talent to be a powerhouse but I could see us playing some fundamentally sound football in the future where we grind out some wins and are the better TEAM. How many really comes down to how good Teddy will be, if he's amazing he could carry us pretty far, if he's worse than Cassel they'll be few and far between.

As for this upcoming game against the Falcons, I think it's a toss up. If we can get pressure like we did in week 1 against the Rams I think we can control the Falcons offense and the course of the game. We looked absolutely beast against STL's offense and the Falcons looked fairly bad against what is basically Mike Zimmer's defense (although with more experience and probably talent at this point)

Teddy should be able to move the ball but since it's his first NFL start it could go either way. Not groundbreaking logic or anything there but bleh, got a lot on my mind lately! haha.

[Leafman]

My math says Falcons win a squeaker, 27-26, turnover neutral.

Vegas is expecting a little more play on the Falcons, putting them at -3, compared to last week when my math matched the Vegas math nearly perfectly for the Vikings-Saints matchup ... they are also expecting a lower scoring game than I am (Vegas is Falcons 24-21). This is probably because Vegas expects the home team's style of play to dictate the scoring as it did when Atlanta went to Cincy a couple weeks ago ... I'll probably take the over instead, as Norv Turner gets a full week of prep with Teddy against one of the league's worst defenses.

I only found 3 scoring factors in the equation this week, which is highly unusual (normally there are 5-8 factors that alter the relative scoring profile):

1) Home field advantage (more like Away field disadvantage)
2) Atlanta's top-ranked passing offense against Vikings 9th-13th ranked defense
3) Atlanta's slight special teams advantage on punting/punt coverage and punt return game

The weak Viking offense and the weak Atlanta defense cancel out, as does the above average Viking Pass Rush versus the above average Falcon pass protection. All other factors also neutral ... running games/defenses, kicking games including kickoffs and returns, coaching, penalties.

Turnover margin should determine the outcome of this one.

LEAFMAN THE PURPLE FAN

[PurpleKoolaid]

At least we get to see what Teddy can do. His weapons are limited, but I bet he finds a way to get the ball down the field. If they stick to using Asiata 90% of the time again, our rushing game will be none existent. Again. But I do like the screen passes to him.

Matt Ryan has always been one of my favorite QB's, a lot like Philip Rivers. Wont be as painful if we lose to them as it was the Saints. There was that one game against the Falcons that I wont forget, no matter how hard I try.

[jackal]

you guys just destroyed Tampa so its not looking really good ..

I had some hope for a wildcard before everything went south on us...

I agree I think our defense is pretty solid, we pretty much stopped on of the best
offenses in football for the majority of the game .. I am guessing if we had Peterson
we would have a winning record right now... but we don't and were looking at a very very
long season. I like Zimmer a lot and hope they don't hold this against him. In one off season
he turned a terrible offense into a pretty darn good one IMO.

[Mothman]

After the 20-9 loss, Zimmer admitted Payton’s plan trumped his during the deciding opening quarter. “They changed a lot of things in what they did with some of their reads, so it is probably my fault,” Zimmer said. “I was going to trick them a little bit in the beginning of the game, but they ended up changing things. It caught us a little off-balance.”

http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... 58531.html

Thanks for the link!