Greetings from a Falcons Fan

[PrimeTime]

Just figured I would stop by and chat with you guys this week about our game on Sunday. I'm a regular at the Falconslife message board.

I am not going to sit here and pretend to know the vikings squad front to back. I do know the obvious in which is no AP, No Rudolph and touchdown Teddy will be the starting QB.

I watched the replay of the Saints/Vikings game and actually came away quiet surprised. Got off to a slow start but your defense in the 2nd and 3rd quarter looked very very good. Anytime you stop the Saints and only allow 20 points in that building is impressive, Trust me I Have seen that offense all too many steam roll my Falcons.

Not sure what the plan is at RB but Asiata (I think that's how you spell it?) didn't look too good aside from the screen play on Teddy's first drive that picked up some good yardage. Obviously I know Patterson is your primary weapon with AP out, How come you guys don't do more to try and get him the ball? Seems like after week 1 you guys just stopped trying. Defensively what do you think the Vikings will look to do this weekend?

In terms of the Falcons, We are what we are. We can pass for days but we struggle to run the ball, Our O-Line is inconsistent and our Defense is bottom 5 in the league. If their was a perfect game for Teddy's 1st Career start, The passrush less Falcons are the perfect team. I would not be surprised to see him go for 300 yards and 3 TDs. Obviously our WR core is very good with Julio, Roddy, Douglas and Hester. However I doubt Douglas plays this week due to an injury he had in the Bucs slaughter. If you want to beat us, You MUST pressure Matt Ryan. Take Notes from the Bengals game. They had pressure in his face all day and we could not do anything on offense. If you sit back waiting for Ryan to beat you, He will do just that. Saints and Bucs seemed to have that strategy and he lit them up for 734 yards and 6 TDs with no turnovers.

With this game being in your house and no one really knowing what to expect from Teddy (I'm expecting him to torch us) I see a 27-20 type of ball game with whoever has the least turnovers winning.

Good Luck and I will be around for this week and the day or two after win or lose.

[oldskoolvikingfan]

Greetings. I think that the game plan on defense will be what you mentioned which was to be basically copy what the Bengals did which was stop the run, and attack Matt Ryan and cause him to commit turnovers. Offensively we are going to have to get more out of Asiata or Mckinnion in terms of rushing yards and we are going to have to get Patterson the ball more often, i mean this guy should be getting the ball at least 20 times a game even if it means that he has to start fielding punt returns.

I see a very close game with a final score of 20-17 vikings. Walsh kicks a game winning FG as time expires.

BTW you will find that we vikings fans hate the saints very badly

[VikingLord]

I am not going to sit here and pretend to know the vikings squad front to back. I do know the obvious in which is no AP, No Rudolph and touchdown Teddy will be the starting QB.

Welcome PrimeTime.

As far as the above goes, it's really all you need to know about the Vikings offense. Well, that and that our left tackle drafted at #4 has taken up matador lessons.

Obviously I know Patterson is your primary weapon with AP out, How come you guys don't do more to try and get him the ball? Seems like after week 1 you guys just stopped trying.

Patterson plays a key role in the Vikings offensive scheme - that of the decoy. Defensive coordinators lose sleep over defending the Vikings decoy player, which would be great if there were anyone else on the team that could make them pay for it.

Defensively what do you think the Vikings will look to do this weekend?

They'll come after Ryan as they must neutralize the Falcons passing game to have any chance, and they'll probably get to him a fair amount, but given the Vikings refusal to score more than your average NHL team, it probably won't matter much in the end. Even if Ryan spends 90% of the game on his back, the 10% he doesn't should create the 14 or so points the Falcons need to win the game.

In terms of the Falcons, We are what we are. We can pass for days but we struggle to run the ball, Our O-Line is inconsistent and our Defense is bottom 5 in the league.

This Vikings offense will make the Falcons defense look a LOT better. I'd say they go from bottom 5 to at least bottom 10.

With this game being in your house and no one really knowing what to expect from Teddy (I'm expecting him to torch us) I see a 27-20 type of ball game with whoever has the least turnovers winning.

You really don't know the Vikings, do you? This team might score 20 total points by, say, the end of October the way things are going. Most NFL teams have to actually attempt passes into the endzone to score and the Vikings refuse to do that. If they do score it will have to come on short yardage plays that go for big yards due to either herculean individual efforts (see Patterson, Cordarelle), big special teams plays (see Patterson, Cordarelle), or big defensive plays (see Smith, Harrison). "Touchdown" Teddy will likely NOT be the main reason should the Vikings rack up 20 or 27 points this Sunday.

One thing that is *extremely* unlikely is the Falcons will need Walsh to miss a late field goal to send the game into overtime...

Good Luck and I will be around for this week and the day or two after win or lose.

Good luck to the Falcons too.

[fiestavike]

Just figured I would stop by and chat with you guys this week about our game on Sunday. I'm a regular at the Falconslife message board.

I am not going to sit here and pretend to know the vikings squad front to back. I do know the obvious in which is no AP, No Rudolph and touchdown Teddy will be the starting QB.

I watched the replay of the Saints/Vikings game and actually came away quiet surprised. Got off to a slow start but your defense in the 2nd and 3rd quarter looked very very good. Anytime you stop the Saints and only allow 20 points in that building is impressive, Trust me I Have seen that offense all too many steam roll my Falcons.

Not sure what the plan is at RB but Asiata (I think that's how you spell it?) didn't look too good aside from the screen play on Teddy's first drive that picked up some good yardage. Obviously I know Patterson is your primary weapon with AP out, How come you guys don't do more to try and get him the ball? Seems like after week 1 you guys just stopped trying. Defensively what do you think the Vikings will look to do this weekend?

In terms of the Falcons, We are what we are. We can pass for days but we struggle to run the ball, Our O-Line is inconsistent and our Defense is bottom 5 in the league. If their was a perfect game for Teddy's 1st Career start, The passrush less Falcons are the perfect team. I would not be surprised to see him go for 300 yards and 3 TDs. Obviously our WR core is very good with Julio, Roddy, Douglas and Hester. However I doubt Douglas plays this week due to an injury he had in the Bucs slaughter. If you want to beat us, You MUST pressure Matt Ryan. Take Notes from the Bengals game. They had pressure in his face all day and we could not do anything on offense. If you sit back waiting for Ryan to beat you, He will do just that. Saints and Bucs seemed to have that strategy and he lit them up for 734 yards and 6 TDs with no turnovers.

With this game being in your house and no one really knowing what to expect from Teddy (I'm expecting him to torch us) I see a 27-20 type of ball game with whoever has the least turnovers winning.

Good Luck and I will be around for this week and the day or two after win or lose.

Thanks for the post.

Vikings fans are frustrated with our offense. Pass protection has been pretty bad all season. Cassel had a few drop backs where he actually had a decent pocket against the saints, but that has certainly been the exception more than the rule. As such, down the field passing has been minimal. Run blocking has also been pretty bad all season. A guy like Asiata is not going to make a lot out of a little. He needs an Emmitt Smith sized hole to be successful, and we haven't come close to providing anything like that for him. I think he is clearly not the guy for this moment in vikings history. Hopefully we will give one our younger, smaller, more agile HBs a chance against Atlanta. My own preference is that we run a lot of 3 and 4 wide this week to try to open up lanes in the running and scrambling game by spreading out the Falcons defense. Teddy is pretty elusive and composed and I think can make Atlanta pay if they bring pressure.

Defensively we've been a whole lot better than last year. We've also had the Patriots and Saints the last two weeks so I hope we'll be sharp. We use a lot of pressure and confusion on passing downs, putting 7,8,9 guys on the line and dropping some of them out. Anthony Barr has been really good dropping out and playing a "sweeper" role, cleaning up the quick dump off and outlet passes and breaking up screen passes in these instances. I think he had double digit tackles week1 and week2. I expected to see him rushing the QB more, but his size/speed and solid tackling are being utilized pretty effectively in this fashion. Got to do better against the run to bring up more passing downs. Both of the last two weeks there have been way too many 2nd and 5s, 3rd and 2s, and ultimately way too many 1st and 10s.

[J. Kapp 11]

The Vikings are sort of the opposite of what many of us thought they'd be.

Defensively, we are 9th in points allowed and 11th in yards allowed.
We're also 13th against the pass, and while that may not sound like much, in Vikingland it represents no less than a miraculous turnaround. We gave up only 142 passing yards to Tom Brady and held Drew Brees to under 300 yards at home for the first time since, like, the Carter administration or something. I don't think more than three Vikings fans on the planet thought this team would turn the defense around that quickly from last year's utter debacle (31st or last in just about everything). Our defensive line has, at times, been spectacular, and our DBs are playing excellent football. Even linebacker Chad Greenway has managed not to look overmatched. Anthony Barr is the real deal ... he's making plays all over the field, and he barely knows what he's doing.

Look for the Vikings to put lots of pressure on Matt Ryan and hawk the ball in the defensive backfield. Much of your success may hinge on whether the refs will allow Xavier Rhodes to breathe without flagging him. We haven't generated a turnover since Week 1, which is worrisome to many of us. But overall, Mike Zimmer seems to be sort of a miracle worker on the defensive side of the ball.

Offensively, we've been ... offensive.
With the weapons we have (wait ... had) pretty much everybody on the board thought Norv Turner's troops would be crankin' out the yards and points, while the defense would struggle to get stops. So far, it just ain't so. Yes, we scored 34 against the Rams. However, one of our TDs came on a very short drive following a Josh Robinson interception, and another came on a pick-six by Harrison Smith. Other than a phenomenal 67-yard run by Flash Patterson and a nice opening drive against the Pats, we've done next to nothing. For some reason, we seem reluctant to get the ball to Patterson. Without AP, our running game is a complete shambles (where is Toby Gerhart when you need him?). Matt Cassel, after looking reasonably confident against the Rams, reverted to his deer-in-the-headlights ways before the Saints turned his foot into kindling.

Now we've lost Kyle Rudolph, and we're starting a rookie at QB (a very talented rookie, but a rookie nonetheless). In the 115 minutes of play since our opening drive against the Patriots, we've managed three field goals. Yeah, it's that bad.

So that's the Vikings in a nutshell. Chances are, if you put up 20, you'll win comfortably. I hope I'm wrong, but unless Teddy Bridgewater suddenly becomes Joe Montana, we're probably not scoring much.

[Mothman]

Welcome, Prime Time.

Zimmer and Edwards are doing a fine job turning the defense in the right direction but what's getting a little lost in the enthusiasm over the passing numbers for Brady and Brees is that, if I recall correctly, the Vikings have allowed 258 yards rushing over the past two weeks. When they haven't been put in a compromising field position by turnovers, the defense has done a nice job of limiting scoring, which is obviously the #1 job of a defense. However, and I'm not trying to be a downer, when an opponent holds the lead for the whole game and can afford to run the ball 30+ times, that helps keep passing numbers down. Add in the inability of the Vikings offense to even score in double digits the last 2 weeks, and that takes even more pressure off opposing passing games. I'd be a lot more excited about holding Brady under 150 yards passing and Brees under 300 if the Vikes had won either game but over the last two weeks, the formula for beating the Vikes has looked pretty simple and the Falcons would be wise to follow it: get out to an early lead, show commitment to the running game and don't turn the ball over.

[dead_poet]

The Vikings must pressure Ryan early and often while also limiting the run, something they've had a hard time doing lately, though Atlanta doesn't present quite the ground threat as a few of the other teams we've faced. Our secondary is banged up, though. Giving Ryan time to find his receivers is going to be fatal. We don't have anyone on the roster capable of hanging with Julio one-on-one. Dude is a beast. Hopefully Roddy doesn't play again so extra attention can be put on Julio, but we can't count on that and it sounded like White was close to playing last Thursday. The one thing we have going for us is that the Falcons (like the Vikings as of late) don't seem to travel well. Ryan's stats on the road are pretty significantly less impressive than at home.

He're's the thing about Bridgewater, he already seems to have ice in his veins in regards to the pass rush. Even though it was a small sample size last week, Bridgewater was pressured on 48% of his dropbacks, on which he had a 75% Accuracy Rate and +1.0 pass grade (per coach Zimmer and VMB's Mothman's favorite website Pro Football Focus). This is not a new trend and it's something that Bridgewater has done consistently well dating back to his college days. Atlanta's defense doesn't present much of a threat of a pass rush, which will only help Teddy (and also help our struggling left tackle & guard). I saw a stat that despite Bridgewater checking down a good bit in week 3, his YPA was in the 7+ yard range, which is more than a yard more than Cassel. I think Teddy is going to move the ball on Sunday, despite losing Rudolph (hopefully that means more touches for Patterson). Surprisingly, I'm less concerned about the pass offense and more concerned with our lackluster running game. We're certainly missing Toby Gerhart right now with the whole AD debacle. Right now our running game poses absolutely no threat. The coaching staff still has faith in reliable plodder Asiata, but I think they're going to have to get other running backs involved, even though it's a risk because of their inexperience.

If this game turns into a shootout, the Vikings probably don't have a chance. They have to play solid defense and get after Ryan, though the team in general is pretty banged up. I don't have a lot of faith in Zimmer getting his first home win on Sunday unless the Vikings can win the turnover battle and turn them into touchdowns instead of field goals. Third down and red zone efficiency (prior to Bridgewater) has been very poor.

[Just Me]

Welcome!

Like the others, I don't have much faith in the offense to score 20-27 points. Now if Ryan 'gifts us' some pick-6s we might make that threshold, but I really don't see that happening. Teddy is good, but if you guys take Patterson out of consideration, there really aren't a lot of weapons on offense for him to work with. I think the defense IS good, but I'm just not confident they are good enough to give our offense a legitimate chance to win the game.

One thing's for sure - Make sure we tell our guys who run the fireworks for the Vikings scores: Do NOT aim them at Ryan before the game! (We don't want to look like Tamp Bay)

[J. Kapp 11]

Welcome, Prime Time.

Zimmer and Edwards are doing a fine job turning the defense in the right direction but what's getting a little lost in the enthusiasm over the passing numbers for Brady and Brees is that, if I recall correctly, the Vikings have allowed 258 yards rushing over the past two weeks. When they haven't been put in a compromising field position by turnovers, the defense has done a nice job of limiting scoring, which is obviously the #1 job of a defense. However, and I'm not trying to be a downer, when an opponent holds the lead for the whole game and can afford to run the ball 30+ times, that helps keep passing numbers down. Add in the inability of the Vikings offense to even score in double digits the last 2 weeks, and that takes even more pressure off opposing passing games. I'd be a lot more excited about holding Brady under 150 yards passing and Brees under 300 if the Vikes had won either game but over the last two weeks, the formula for beating the Vikes has looked pretty simple and the Falcons would be wise to follow it: get out to an early lead, show commitment to the running game and don't turn the ball over.

Seriously? You're blaming the defense?

After we got the early lead against New England, our defense then held them to 3-and-out on their first possession. That's when Matt Cassel decided it was better to throw the ball to the white shirts, giving up the pick with the return to the Vikings' 1. On New England's next possession, they drove but we stiffened and held them to a field goal. For the entire game, the defense gave up one sustained drive that resulted in a touchdown. One.

Against New Orleans, the defense started slowly but then held Brees and company in check the rest of the game. Yes, I said the rest of the game -- the roughing the passer penalty on Munnerlyn led directly to the Saints' final touchdown. Our defense was off the field until that flag. Let's be real here ... if you hold the New Orleans Saints to 20 points in their house, your defense has done its job.

And while the run defense hasn't been spectacular, it's still in the top half of the league.

Then there's the offense, which is pretty much an offense to football. Against New England, we held the ball for as many as four minutes on a drive exactly ONCE, and that was for the opening TD. After that, it was INT, Punt, INT, Punt, Blocked FG (kick-six), end of half, INT, Punt, Punt, Punt, INT, downs. Against the Saints, we nearly equaled them in time of possession but got NO TOUCHDOWNS and a grand total of 247 yards. Over the past two games, we've had 464 TOTAL YARDS of offense -- an absolutely pathetic 232 yards per game.

The offense is the achilles heel of this team, Jim, and it isn't even close.

[PrimeTime]

Thanks for the kind words and warm welcome everyone!

Sounds like your defense is no slouch, How do you guys think you stack up defensively compared to the Bengals? I think the main thing that made them so successful vs us is just how physical they were. They punched us in the mouth from minute 1 of the game to minute 60. One thing to note is we were missing our star LT Jake Matthews who has been outstanding in our 2 wins vs the Saints and Bucs. I still wonder had he played would the Bengals have got as much pressure from Carlos Dunlap?

Our Defense looked ... different... vs the Bucs as we also got back DT Corey Peters. I know you are all thinking "WHO?" but he has been a consistently good player for us for years. Probably our best D-Lineman over the course of the last 2-3 years not named John Abraham. He added some interior pressure that really affect the Bucs passing game. I believe he also had 4 TFL. Now obviously this is against the Bucs so you have to wonder how much it was him, and how much it was just the Bucs completely sucking lol.

How is you guys Special Teams? As I am sure you are aware we have your fellow Division Rival Devin Hester these days. He had a great game vs the Bucs and has been used in our offense the way the Bears should have used him all along.

[Leafman]

The offense is the achilles heel of this team, Jim, and it isn't even close.

Completely agree, and more specifically, this has been because of 3 players ... Kalil, Cassel and Rudolph. Honorable mention to Loadholt. Kalil (and really the Tackle play in general) has been lousy. How much that has contributed to Cassel's lousiness is moot, but his 4 picks against the Pats really hurt the offense's numbers. Rudolph has had several drops, including 2 key drops on 3rd downs that would have sustained drives.

The rushing offense has also been terrible, and AP has little to do with it ... he only had 3.1 ypc in the opening tilt against the Rams. Falling back to 2.4 ypc over the last two games without AP is just plain ol crap turning in to raw sewage.

The defense has had a couple breakdowns, but otherwise has looked solid with some big plays and making adjustments and has done exactly what the gameplan called for ... hold the elite QBs in Brady and Brees in check and force them to the ground game to keep the scoring down, offering the struggling Viking offense a chance to keep them in the game.

LEAFMAN THE PURPLE FAN

[PurpleHalo]

Thanks for the kind words and warm welcome everyone!

Sounds like your defense is no slouch, How do you guys think you stack up defensively compared to the Bengals? I think the main thing that made them so successful vs us is just how physical they were. They punched us in the throat from minute 1 of the game to minute 60. One thing to note is we were missing our star LT Jake Matthews who has been outstanding in our 2 wins vs the Saints and Bucs. I still wonder had he played would the Bengals have got as much pressure from Carlos Dunlap?

Our Defense looked ... different... vs the Bucs as we also got back DT Corey Peters. I know you are all thinking "WHO?" but he has been a consistently good player for us for years. Probably our best D-Lineman over the course of the last 2-3 years not named John Abraham. He added some interior pressure that really affect the Bucs passing game. I believe he also had 4 TFL. Now obviously this is against the Bucs so you have to wonder how much it was him, and how much it was just the Bucs completely sucking lol.

How is you guys Special Teams? As I am sure you are aware we have your fellow Division Rival Devin Hester these days. He had a great game vs the Bucs and has been used in our offense the way the Bears should have used him all along.

Our special teams has been solid not spectacular. Haven't given up the big plays, and we are still waiting for our star CP84 to house one, I'm sure you are fairly familiar with him if you watch the SEC.

Defensively we are not the Bengals, but without knowing for sure I am guessing they are still running Zimmers system there. Our defense has improved a lot over last years defense, you played our old coordinator last Thursday night.

I don't know how I see this game, but I do trust Zimmer to get them focused for it and play smart / tough football.

[Leafman]

Thanks for the kind words and warm welcome everyone!

Sounds like your defense is no slouch, How do you guys think you stack up defensively compared to the Bengals?

<deleted stuff>

How is you guys Special Teams? As I am sure you are aware we have your fellow Division Rival Devin Hester these days. He had a great game vs the Bucs and has been used in our offense the way the Bears should have used him all along.

Yes, welcome and looking very forward to the matchup with your Falcons this week.

The Bengals D is a more experienced defense working in an established system with which most of their players are familiar. Our D is younger and learning a new system, so I don't think we'll put up the same level of resistance as you faced against Cincy ... but watch out for our playmakers in Griffen, Barr and Smith. They can change momentum on a dime with big plays.

Hester and Patterson are basically a wash, although we don't use Patterson on punt returns. Otherwise I'd say our punt coverage unit is average, our kick coverage unit and punt return units are a bit above average, and our kick return unit among the best if they get kicks to return. Also, we seem to have trouble with basic blocking on Field Goals .

LEAFMAN THE PURPLE FAN

[Mothman]

Seriously? You're blaming the defense?

Blaming them for what? I think you seriously mis-read my post. I certainly wasn't blaming the defense for the team's two losses.

After we got the early lead against New England, our defense then held them to 3-and-out on their first possession. That's when Matt Cassel decided it was better to throw the ball to the white shirts, giving up the pick with the return to the Vikings' 1. On New England's next possession, they drove but we stiffened and held them to a field goal. For the entire game, the defense gave up one sustained drive that resulted in a touchdown. One.

Which is why I wrote "When they haven't been put in compromising field position by turnovers, the defense has done a nice job of limiting scoring." In the NE game, they were repeatedly compromised by turnovers.

Our defense was off the field until that flag. Let's be real here ... if you hold the New Orleans Saints to 20 points in their house, your defense has done its job.

I didn't suggest otherwise. In fact, all I can do is point back to the comment I've already repeated above: "... the defense has done a nice job of limiting scoring. "

The offense is the achilles heel of this team, Jim, and it isn't even close.

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?

[PurpleKoolaid]

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