Excellent overall post.VikingLord wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:07 amThe problem goes way beyond Cousins. This is Zimmer, this is the team leadership, this is the Minnesota Vikings of the late 2010's. Good enough to be right there, but when it matters, when they have to step up, they'll fold. They're like the team version of Leroy Hoard - if you need 2 yards they'll get you 3, if you need 5 yards they'll get you 3. Hoard could produce some exciting runs and was an effective running back, but he wasn't a game changer. These Vikings of Mike Zimmer are the team version of Leroy Hoard.
Blame Cousins till the cows come home, but you put almost any other QB behind center on this team and you'll get the same result. The QB doesn't play defense. He doesn't play special teams. He doesn't drop passes, and he doesn't control the blind monkey review refs in New York. He doesn't prepare the team for games and doesn't control the overall offensive strategy or determine what adjustments get made and when they get made. That's not being an apologist for Cousins, either. He stunk on his own today, and it's pretty clear if the Vikings need to rely on him to win games they're going to lose a lot more than they win. It's just at this point, with this much experience and continuity on the team, it shouldn't come down to Cousins. The fact that it still is, is a damning indictment on the rest of the team, from the coaches on down in every phase of the game.
You're right: this team looks much like last year's team and that's hardly surprising. 5+ years into the Zimmer/Spielman era, we've likely seen what we're going to get. Zimmer's approach appears to have a ceiling. Spielman's approach to team-building has one too. Both seem likely to fall well short of the Super Bowl aspirations the Vikings have and the longer the team sticks with this leadership, the longer we'll probably be frustrated by competitive (sometimes winning) teams perpetually in search of the right quarterback, unprepared for several big games a year, good enough to generate excitement but not good enough to go the distance.
