Stunning Revelation for Me Yesterday

by MilCardFan on Nov 2, 2009 10:17 PM CST Comment 32 comments

As I was watching the game yesterday, I started taking note of the construct of this team. I had looked it over and mulled it earlier this season, but yesterday it really hit me, especially after I had spent a good part of the early afternoon watching the Horror that was the Rams-Lions.

I am stunned, and excited, at how many draft picks are significant contributors on this football team, especially on offense. 80% of the offensive line are draft picks. Harvin, AP, and Rice--draft picks. Granted, this team isn't 7-1 without Favre and Jared Allen, but when you contrast the Vikings situation with the disaster that is the St Louis Rams, I am amazed at how many guys the Vikings drafted have been hits as opposed to misses. And we can't forget EJ Henderson, Chad Greenway, Cedric Griffin, and up and coming Ray Edwards over on defense.

I remember when Rick Spielman got hired, many Viking fans winced, and rightfully so, based on what he did, or didn't do, while he was in Miami. He gave up a second round draft pick for AJ Feely, and their drafts were pretty mediocre. Well, he's redeemed himself, and if the Vikings make it as far as we hope, I hope he gets his due credit.

This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.

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The Vikings have been better than almost anyone in the draft!

We may get 2 Offensive Rookies of the Year over these last 3 years. No doubt about its effect on the success of this team.
Peterson and Harvin… excellent “risks”

by solafide on Nov 2, 2009 11:09 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Repeating past mistakes

It’s looking alot like 2000. Remember 41-0? The character of this team — at least on offense — is far superior, it seems. And the defensive line is far superior as well (although Randle and Hovan were really good that year).

How is this defense going to stop Brees and the Saints? We keep winning shoot-outs with mediocre teams. I have seen this movie before. Favre makes it compelling drama, and Peterson is a once-in-a-lifetime phenom. But the plot line seems eerily similar.

TiggerSr

by TiggerSr on Nov 3, 2009 1:48 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

The Falcons almost stopped the Saints last night. It was closer than the final score indicates.

Brees can be rattled and throw INTs, and if Turner can have a great game, AD can have a better one.

If we do get to play the Saints, it’ll be a helluva game.

by JasonAve6413 on Nov 3, 2009 8:01 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

My bet is, the game won't happen...

There are still so many teams that could get hot and knock us or them out…

Philly
Dallas
NY
Arizona
Atlanta

Any of the above 5 could get really hot – you just never know…

by mjmrad on Nov 4, 2009 12:20 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Don’t LOL at Arizona. They may play around now, but I wouldn’t want to play them in the playoffs (just ask Atlanta, Carolina, Philadelphia, and probably Pittsburgh)…

by mjmrad on Nov 4, 2009 12:21 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Brees can be rattled and throw INTs

Yeah, but can the Vikings catch INTs?

Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
SKOL!

by DCPurple on Nov 4, 2009 11:22 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

ummmmm....

silly… it’s not an INT unless the defense catches it.

I BELIEVE...

by ArizonaVikingsFan on Nov 4, 2009 12:16 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Saints vs Vikings

Not looking forward to it, but at this rate the road to the Superbowl goes through New Orleans so we’d better just grin and bear it. Yikes!

by Jayrome007 on Nov 3, 2009 9:27 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I also remember this past season where the Titans, Giants and Panthers were all knocked off after the 1st round bye.

Anythings possible. The important thing is just take one game at a time and play to win. Get to the playoffs and take it one game at a time again.

We are the vikings.......resistance is futile.

by Hoss-Drone on Nov 3, 2009 9:44 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

That's right, one week at a time.

We’ll worry about playing the Saints in the playoffs if, and when we see the Saints in the playoffs.
Go Vikes!

by chaosg on Nov 3, 2009 7:05 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

To beat the Saints

Based on the Saints beating the Falcons on MNF, 35-27, here is how to beat the Saints.

1. Have a very good pass rush

2. Have defensive linemen get their hands in the air and knock the ball down

3. Use delay blitzes.

4. Defend the run

5. Have good pass coverage

6. Don’t turn the ball over

7. Capitalize with points on turnovers you get

8. Play fundamentally sound football

by medicineball on Nov 3, 2009 9:44 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

9. Get Winfield healthy!

by Anthony Carter on Nov 3, 2009 10:04 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

10. Win the time of possession battle

by medicineball on Nov 3, 2009 10:23 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

As easy as...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…

by LoveHate on Nov 3, 2009 12:24 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Time of possession

This is an area that Chilly has a hard time managing late in the game for some reason. He seems to commit to trying to run the ball at all cost to eat up the clock, which I unsterstand. But everyone is looking for this, plus the other teams have been working all week long on how to stop our running game, bad combo. He might be better served trying to eek out first downs and creep up the field. Dink and dunk!

Invariably, we three and out 3 times in the fouth quarter, punt it deep and put the other teams back against the wall. This sounds great with the defense we have, except it plays into our weekness. The other team gets pressed and starts throwing the med to deep ball, and bam, the veil is lifted, we have crappy safteys.

With all due respect to Mr Childress, it looks like he is embarased to run 50 pts on a team, unspoken rules of the game you know. But we can’t afford to be defending a lead with the safteys that we have. This might be the only shot we get at a SB before I die, please Chilly, run it up on them.

I know an offense can tired and we need defensive balance, but we would be a lot less tired running it up on a team than trying to bang out a two minute drive to win a game. I’m not going to hold it against you Chilly if you need to knock out 62 pts against Detroit to practice my theoary, run it up dude.

by BigShoes on Nov 3, 2009 1:17 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

1. Check

2. Check. I don’t know if they keep stats on that sort of thing, but it seems the Vikes have knocked down a lot of passes so far this year.

3. Eh, I think that depends on what base defense you play and how the Saints attack that scheme. Not saying it wouldn’t work, but it might not be the best option. I just don’t know.

4. Check.

5. Well, uh…hey, let’s go back to our ferocious pass rush. Seriously, if Winfield gets healthy, it won’t be horriffic. I hope.

6. Check. +5 in turnover margin this season.

7. Check.

8. If they can do it for a full 60 minutes, I think they are the most complete team in football. But can they do it for 60 minutes? I mean, if they have one of those Baltimore or Green Bay lapses against the Saints, they might get run out of the stadium.

"We're used to Favre-a-palooza now. We're engulfed in Favre-a-palooza. It's not even Favre-a-palooza anymore. He's family now."

--Vikings TE Visanthe Shiancoe, on Brett Favre

by MilCardFan on Nov 3, 2009 4:47 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

what are those lapses?

opposing team adjustments??
mental/physical tiredness??
bad luck?

personally, I think it’s a bit of all of it. Any other ideas?

I BELIEVE...

by ArizonaVikingsFan on Nov 3, 2009 5:04 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, combination of it.

Think about what you do at your job, whatever it is. Say you get ahead at work, all your deadlines are met, whatever, and you kind of go on cruise control. I think the Vikings do that. They get a comfortable lead, let their guard down a little and relax, which leads to a lapse here and there, and pretty soon the Ravens/Packers make some big plays, you press a little more, another couple of big plays, and now you’re in a dogfight. Luckily, they’ve been able to focus and get their ‘A’ game back, but they’ve got to figure out how to avoid those lapses.

"We're used to Favre-a-palooza now. We're engulfed in Favre-a-palooza. It's not even Favre-a-palooza anymore. He's family now."

--Vikings TE Visanthe Shiancoe, on Brett Favre

by MilCardFan on Nov 3, 2009 5:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think our D gets gassed as well

especially our D line the first half we get a lot of pressure running in with just the front four. This allows us to push line backers back into pass coverage. However, we don’t switch out our D Line very often and in the end that four man pass rush just doesn’t put enoug pressure on the QB to be effective. this also
lets them pass much better and we don’t really switch up with LB blitzes when this happens. Look at the games in the 4th you see a lot of 4 man blitzes which are tough as a defensive lineman to do on every down.

by Grime on Nov 5, 2009 8:51 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Vikings vs Saints

I think that by the time we potentially play the Saints, Favre will be BUTTER with the receivers, and our offense will be capable of matching them TD for TD.

However, I don’t see our defense giving up a TD on every series (I know every other team has, but our defense will have at least 2-3 good series; they always do).

The final will probably be like 41-38 or maybe 41-35.

by mjmrad on Nov 4, 2009 12:24 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Best to lose against the Saints

To have the crappiest game of the year, against NO. Total blow-out.

Let them watch that film over and over and over again, licking their chops when we meet them again in the playoffs.

by DCPurple on Nov 4, 2009 11:23 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The Vikes don't play the Saints in the reg-season.

If we play the Saints this year, it will be for a playoff game only. I think we better win that one, lol :)
Go Vikes!

by chaosg on Nov 4, 2009 5:43 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

You're Right!

Wow, my mistake, I don’t know why I was thinking we had to play the Saints in regular season, but we don’t have them on our schedule at all! Whoohooo, I feel MUCH better about only having to play them once.

by DCPurple on Nov 5, 2009 8:33 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Rick Speilman still has something to prove

The knock on Spielman was his terrible attempts to find a replacement at QB for Marino. He never did get it right. Then he drafted T-Jax for the Vikes. Mayby he’s learned not to reach but to he still must prove it . I do in fact give him props for what he’s done. You are correct that he built this team the right way.

by lifelongvike on Nov 3, 2009 11:17 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Sorry to be a jerk, but...

I thought our great players were all as a result of Childress and him doing the right thing all the time?

I’m so confused…

Fire Childress!

by dwarg on Nov 3, 2009 11:31 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Spielman

Childress coaches the team and has some input into player selection. But Rick Spielman is the director of player personnel and is the owners man for negotiating contracts and running the scouting department. He used to be in Miami before coming to the Vikes. Most teams refer to this position as the GM but I’m not sure how the Vikes structure their organization.

by lifelongvike on Nov 3, 2009 12:00 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Interesting...

I also read about this guy named Studwell. Apparently he may have something to do with it as well.

It’s a tangled web my friend.

Fire Childress!

by dwarg on Nov 3, 2009 12:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

LOL, fair point

Yeah, I guess I could’ve been better at either further dilineating my point, or maybe just making one fanpost giving credit to Chilly and the front office.

My point is that you can’t evaluate talent on your own, and Chilly makes the final call, apparently, but Spielman (and Studwell as the director of college scouting) but Spielman really had a bad rap when he came to Minnesota, and not unfairly. Yeah, maybe I should’ve just thrown them all in together, but you can’t deny the difference in talent that’s arrived through the draft since 2006 compared to what happened, for the most part, during the Tice era. Tice had some hits, like Kevin Williams and EJ Henderson, but that 2005 draft, in retrospect, was awful.

And I still like the commercial. Sorry, I just do.

"We're used to Favre-a-palooza now. We're engulfed in Favre-a-palooza. It's not even Favre-a-palooza anymore. He's family now."

--Vikings TE Visanthe Shiancoe, on Brett Favre

by MilCardFan on Nov 3, 2009 4:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Amen

Vikings team management and ownership have put together a great team and they all deserve a lot of credit for doing so.

Let’s not forget Zygi for increasing the coaching and scouting budgets so we could find better players too. We’re a long way from being run by a cheapskate used car salesman from Texas. Those were rough times and I don’t think people give Tice enough credit for winning as many games as he did when ownership wasn’t doing anything to make the team better and Studwell was reduced to scouting from his couch on Saturdays.

Fire Childress!

by dwarg on Nov 3, 2009 7:18 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Speilman, Scoli, Thompson, Studwell, ect. Doesn't matter who it is.

If the draft is such a crapshoot as they claim it is (and, in my opinion, it is), then it doesn’t really matter that much who is calling the shots. The “good” guys will miss just as often as the “bad” guys will hit and vise versa. Saying one talent evaluator is head and shoulders above another is like saying one person is better at rolling dice than another. Even failures like Matt Millen miss on picks that were considered good players. I love the NFL draft and have been closing monitering it for years. Every year it seems 25% of the picks are better than expected, 50% of the picks are worse (the draft is all about hype), and 25% end up performing how they were predicted to.

by Jayrome007 on Nov 3, 2009 11:33 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I'm Not Sure

I also follow the draft closely but I think that some teams consistently have good drafts and others consistently have poor drafts. Same teams have good teams and same bad teams. I haven’t researched this but there is probably something to a good draft pick going to a bad team and never being able to look like a good pick.

I always remember Bill Walsh taking over the lowly San Francisco 49rs. He was also the GM. He started by coaching excellence out of what he had. Drafted talented players he scouted and picked up a couple of key free agent defensive players. Valla, a dynasty.

I think thats how you build a team. Great Management, talented players, and hard work.

by lifelongvike on Nov 4, 2009 1:48 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs