Vikings at Bengals

[JJBreaksRecords]

This team never fails to fall apart and suck. Ever

[halfgiz]

Who would have thought after failure the first two times....He would try it the 3rd
Not a good offensive coordinator at all.

[Tark]

Typical Vikings choke job. Doesn't matter who the players or coaches are, it's in our DNA. I'm used to it.

[Purple Reign]

Who would have thought after failure the first two times....He would try it the 3rd
Not a good offensive coordinator at all.

That wasn't the offensive coordinator's fault - KOC is the one calling the plays.

[Vikings CrucifiXS]

[Cliff]

For what it's worth Mullens bobbled the snap. A run was likely to fail too.

[CharVike]

That was a tough one. The Bengal team played good. Once they got rolling on O it switched the game. The missed tackle by Pace on 4th and goal hurt big time. There was other bad ones but some good also. That TD throw that Mullens threw into the end zone off a roll was a risky one. I thought he was going to heave it out of the end zone. His 2 picks took away scoring opportunities. The sack setup the 2nd pick. Bad decision to throw while falling down. We just couldn't put them away. Chandler looked good. I give Browning credit. He didn't give up. The 3rd and 21 throw was huge. We seemed to lose our pass rush. We just couldn't make a play on D to end it.

[halfgiz]

Who would have thought after failure the first two times....He would try it the 3rd
Not a good offensive coordinator at all.

That wasn't the offensive coordinator's fault - KOC is the one calling the plays.

I consider KOC the Offensive Coordinator. How many plays do you think Wes is calling?

[JJBreaksRecords]

That wasn't the offensive coordinator's fault - KOC is the one calling the plays.

I consider KOC the Offensive Coordinator. How many plays do you think Wes is calling?

The OC is Wes. KO is the HC, and he also calls the plays. He shouldnt, but hes a stubborn narcissist.

[CharVike]

For what it's worth Mullens bobbled the snap. A run was likely to fail too.

The worst part was having a 180 pound player trying to push the pile. I think Bradberry getting pushed backwards caused the bobble.

[JJBreaksRecords]

The worst part was Flores failing with his prevent D, and having NO idea how to adjust to that, and them scoring 3 plays in the 4th quarter. A complete meltdown of the Defense.

Can someone tell me why they like KO? And why does it matter that you like him. What does he do that a good HC does. Being hard headed is NOT a good thing for an HC to be.

[CharVike]

The worst part was Flores failing with his prevent D, and having NO idea how to adjust to that, and them scoring 3 plays in the 4th quarter. A complete meltdown of the Defense.

Can someone tell me why they like KO? And why does it matter that you like him. What does he do that a good HC does. Being hard headed is NOT a good thing for an HC to be.

Did you think Flores was going to shut them out? The Bengals have players also. Higgins won the battle on that TD grab. He's not some stiff. Our guy was right there and got beat. Pace couldn't make a tackle but was right there on that 4th down TD. You call that Flores fault? KOC has the players playing together as a team. They bust their a$$ for him. I like his offensive scheme. It's a downfield passing attack. In today's world your a stupid team if your not attacking down the field. Any good team attacks down the field. It's better than Zims pound the rock BS. What is hard headed. Please he tried to help Dobbs but he sucks. Teams forced him to stay and pass. He can't do that. This isn't college and some veer option BS. We don't have the players for that.

[Cliff]

I thought the game was called great on offense and on defense for about half the game. Without those INTs (proper execution) its likely the team would have put up 30+.

The defense gave up a significant lead. There's not a lot more to it really. The Bengals really had the defenses number after the half.

I think the QB sneaks was KOC depending too much on percentages and not enough on whats right in a game situation. I'd bet a QB sneak with inches to go works about 90% of the time so I'm not super mad it didn't work out but I wasn't a fan of it.

I'm interested to see how things go with the Lions.

[VikingLord]

Disappointing loss, but one that was well-earned by the Vikings IMHO.

- First, Nick Mullens is not the answer at QB. He's no better than Dobbs IMHO. He might be a slightly more accurate passer, but he's a first-read QB who still struggles with timing and ball placement and who lacks any ability to escape pressure. There were several times where Mullens couldn't hit his first read and simply panicked. Reminded me of the Christian Ponder days. The second "interception" where he was going to the ground and still chose to try throwing the ball away literally into the facemask of the defender dragging him down was simply stunning. You can't tell me Jaren Hall could possibly be worse than that. I know KOC wants to make the playoffs, but I don't think Mullens gives him any better chance of doing that than Dobbs gave him. He should give Hall a chance. Hall might actually be better (not saying he will be, but we don't know until we see him get more chances), and at the very least KOC and KAM will know what they have in Hall heading into this offseason where they will have some decisions to make about how to proceed at the QB position.

- Second, the defense, specifically, the defensive secondary. I give the Bengals credit for playing some amazing chuck-and-duck with Higgins going up to take the candy (ball) away from the babies in the Vikings secondary, but come on... I mean, what was Blackmon(?) doing on that last Bengals TD to Higgins? Standing there watching as the guy came down with it and then extended it out to get the TD. Unreal. If he wants to watch he should buy a seat in the stands. Play to the whistle. Your job is to go plow any opposition player with the ball in his hands until you hear a whistle. Granted, that ball shouldn't have been caught in the first place, but these are the Vikings DBs we're talking about. Apparently they all have to "get their weight up". Higgins flat-out embarrassed them.

- Third, the offense can't convert on 3rd-and-inches AND 4th-and-inches? I mean, really, if you can't get 2 inches on two consecutive plays you really should just concede the game. We can debate the particular play calls there or the play design (I agreed with the announcers that it was puzzling to have Brandon Powell as the pusher on those plays), but you HAVE to get those two inches. Mullens has to find a way to get those inches. KOC has to find a way. Someone has to take responsibility and find a way. You get up and go quick or you do something that throws the defense off but you get them. For that failure alone, they deserved to lose that game and the rest of them this year as well. Pathetic in every respect.

This season has been such a typical Vikings season. I know a lot of you support and like KOC but tell me how he's materially different in terms of on-field results than any other Vikings head coach in the last 20 or so years. I just don't see it. Last year was an aberration of good fortune that ended quickly to a very subpar team in the playoffs. It wasn't the sign of a master strategist who engineered innovative gameplans to exploit the weaknesses of his opponents. And this year has been more of the typical Vikings "almost" seasonal slog that has characterized most of this team's existence. Just good enough, but not good enough, average team that plows through the season without a clear identity or a defined plan for the future. And everything is setting up for next year to be the same. Hey, but at least everyone supports everyone else, right? We can all be happy about that as the team heads into yet another offseason in the same spot in the draft and with more huge question marks at a lot of key positions while leadership insists on remaining "competitive", whatever that means.

[cmoss84]

If we win out, and Lions lose in Dallas, do we win the division?