Okay, It's Later, But I Still Don't Understand

I think that they went in to both of these games at the half saying well everything we’ve done so far has worked so keep it up and we got a win … Right cause the other team is just saying hey it didn’t work in the first half but it will in the second if we just keep doing the same thing. Uh maybe in a game of madden but this is the NFL if you force a team to have to make BIG 2nd half changes that means its probably a good idea if you adapt and adjust accordingly as well

Whatever Frazier say’s at half-time, do the opposite!

what I’m seeing is a failure with halftime adjustments on both sides of the ball. Granted, when things are going well (like being 17-0), you don’t want to adjust a lot- don’t fix what’s broken. However, we’re not preparing defensively for them to make adjustments.

Furthermore, while the results of both games are the same, I’m seeing the sources as different, with the whole thing essentially a coincidence. Against San Diego, one of the biggest reasons we were winning early on was Percy Harvin’s return TD. You can’t count on things like that- they should be gravy. He’s simply NOT going to do that every time. So when it of course didn’t happen to open to second half, things started different right away.

With Tampa, Josh Freeman is simply a 4th quarter guru, and we were ill-prepared: which is absolutely ridiculous considering he’s well known for that. (Nearly did it against Detroit.) And the on-side kick caught us way too off guard. Ever since Sean Peytons’ stroke of genius in the Super Bowl, teams are going to start doing that at odd times. With such a momentum change, we didn’t adapt like we should have.

There is one consistent thing I’m seeing: Adrian Peterson. He is kicking his usual arse in the first half and becoming quieter in the second. We’re simply working him too hard right out of the gate. If anything, we need to reserve him, use Gerhart (who is looking quite good) to beat down the defenses more in the first, and unleash AP after the half. Yes, he looks good in the second half, but not like in the first- because while he’s worn down defenses, defenses have in turn worn him down as well. He’s a well-conditioned athletic freak, but football’s simply too rough and tumble a game to expect him to play every single down like his first, especially when he’s carrying the team on his back 60% of the time.

We won’t be winning at half that way… but maybe we’ll be winning at the end of the game, which as it turns out, is actually what matters.

Last week 527 yds passing
This week 423 and counting. Unbelievable how much time this guy has to throw.

It is the food they eat at half-time.
It’s simple…..kill the cook.

seem to have great gameplan in place, but when the other team makes adjustments, we don’t(or they’re ineffective)

I realized something, if your only a first half team, you will not win in the NFL or any other type of organized American Football. You can be a second half team in win,but not a first half. We so far are looking like a 1st half team and if we keep this up, we’ll be lucky to win 5 games,and that’s being kind of generous.

and frazier let the clock run down and bucs end up scoring the go ahead TD. I just don’t get it, even if Vikings hold them to a FG, we still could’ve had enough time to get into FG range.

If we’re going to get outplayed and out-coached then we might as well be learning and growing for the future. Face it, we aren’t going to win now.

Oh and could someone please explain to me how/why/in what universe Tyrell Johnson has performed well enough to see playing time?! If that stone-handed pinball had his hands amputated maybe he’d have a better chance of actually catching a gift-wrapped INT.

…is that the Vikings are capable of beating any team in the NFL and of losing to any team in the NFL. This is going to be a quirky and frustrating season. So far we’ve been losing these games.

The team played lights out in the first half of this game. And then, somehow, I’m still not sure how, they let it all go in the second half.

Definitely disappointed in the continued faith the coaches have in Berrian and Tyrell Johnson. Johnson dropped another INT today. Berrian had 1 catch. That’s a total of 1 catch in two games! Come on, Frazier. At least get the easy personnel calls right.

There really is no simple answer as to what is happening and many of the posts above touched on all the reasons why this is occurring. It is a combination of all.

I would say first that the offensive line belongs at the top of the list. AP is so good that he is making people look at his stats and then proclaim that the line must be OK. But the fact is he is making jump cuts to get to the hole and then making guys miss and carrying guys too.

He is truly a beast of a running back.

Second I would say that the WRs are not going to scare anybody. Harvin is the only threat. They made some plays today but once Tampa adjusted it was all over. Same as last week. The WRs are OK but not game changers.

Third I would say that KWill is missed on the defensive line because he is a major force in the middle. No two ways about that. Blount scored right up the middle. Most teams choose to double KWill which Detroit will surely consider this week. This should allow some other guys to possibly flash more going forward.

Fourth I would say that the linebackers are a major weakness in pass coverage. IN this Tampa 2 defense they just drop deep and teams are willing to throw short passes in front of them and make them tackle. As the game goes on the LBs get more tired and sometimes miss these tackles. Thus Preston Parker becomes a star.

Fifth I would say that McNabb is not going to win many games on his own for us. He is decent but just not very accurate. He is a 59% career passer and it shows. I think that he is doing the job that they expected but I do not see him getting too much help from the WRs. They need to win some one on one battles.

Sixth I think the conditioning is still not there. I think the team appears to be wearing down. I could be wrong but that is what I think.

Seventh I think that Fraizer is still learning game management. As was mentioned above I did not know why he was not using his timeouts once it got under two minutes and Tampa was inside the twenty. They should have had more time left.

It is going to be interesting the rest of the way and I think that they have shown that they can compete with good teams. Detroit will be another barometer. If they can win vs Detroit then they will be officially helter skelter in my mind or they could be coming around. I just will not know.

It is fun though! Football is back and even though they are losing I am enjoying watching the games again.

I think it is all on the players to turn it around though. I think the coaches are doing a pretty good job. It is the will of the players that is now being questioned and their ability to compete for 60 minutes.

Tough losses for sure. But it is not over. Chicago lost. If the Vikings beat Detroit then they could be tied with Chicago.

The corners will definitely be tested this week on the outside.

Just got CRUSHED!!!!

I know in years passed that the wins against the lions kind of felt hollow (like a gimme) Will next week feel the same or is Detroit getting good enough where that doesn’t feel like such a cheap win.

-Hired
-Brings in some good assistants in Musgrave and Singletary (still upset we missed Josh McDaniels)
-REACHES for Christian Ponder, goes TE in the second round. Both questionable moves.
-Cuts our franchise LT, who goes to Baltimore and has success
-Keeps Berrian and lets go of a faster, younger, cheaper Jaymar Johnson
-San Diego fallout
-Tampa Bay let down
-Awkward post game comments “We didnt think they would kick to Percy anymore.”

I think we were all a little too high on Lez. Great intentions and if we would have let him walk it might have turned into Tony Dungy or Mike Tomlin. Still some incredibly questionable moves. He has a veteran team and coaching shouldnt be the issue, but it is. Sad, I dont think his tenure is much longer than Chilly’s….

fking nads and put these teams away, rather than playing like they are mystified that they even have a LEAD. LEADS ARE FOR CLOSERS!!!!!!!! These are mental issues, nothing more. Winners have it between the ears. Why do you think Favre carried them on his back for all of 09? Attitude, plain and simple. They believed. That intangible has disappeared, IMHO.

In 120 minutes of football this season, the Vikings have been ahead or tied for 114 of those minutes.

Ugh.

I just don’t want to invest so much emotional capital on this team. Forty years is a loooong time to wait, and the past two have been the worst yet. I am not jumping ship by any stretch, but, I cannot pay attention to every occurence. The way I see it? If they aren’t willing to give it their ALL, why should I?

McNabb has thrown for 250 yards and zero TD’s, Adrian is obviously a beast and CP can hand off as well as Donovan. We sit at 0-2 in a division where we will probably be 6 to 9 point dogs to the Lions at home next week, and they’re probably going to tear us up.

We aren’t going anywhere this season, this team is not going to suddenly run off 6 or 8 wins a row. I’m not giving up on them per se, but changing to a more realistic outlook on where they sit talent-wise in a very, very tough NFC North.

Let the kid take his lumps this year, let the guys learn to rally behind the rookie, and let’s get set up for a run beginning next season and beyond. Adrian only has about 3, maybe 4 years left in his prime…how long are we going to squander his beastly talents on old-ass washed up QB’s….

First of all our drafting has been pretty bad the last couple of years, we are seriously lacking in the talent department.

Finally, in this day and age its a passing game. We have no passing game whatso ever. Our WR cannot get seperation and our O-line cant block.

Most of our passes were because of play action due to who else Adrian Peterson. When Bucs D started to crowd the line of scrimmage, our run game/play action game was lost. Thats Why AD was quiet in the second half. We have no WR that can go downfield or seperation since RIce. Percy is a slot reciever like wes welker. When Moss was here last year, Percy dominated. Its gonna be a long year. I

 think our defense was alright we got plenty of stops, same like last year, on the field for too long. We got int, sacks, fumbles etc. we should be alright.

Thats just my observations! We need to draft wr, ol, cb, and lb,

shit,,fuck,,,,, piss,,c

Just piping in and giving my preliminary “hello” to next Sunday’s opponent, I’m sure we’ll all have a lot of fun talking within the next week. Expect an “Ask a Lions Fan” post in the next couple of days.

How’s your team looking?

Itys not so much our lack of adjustment…Honestly what do you adjust to? The WR’s on this team are not going to create enough threat its plain as day, they are not Numer one material. So once a team adjusts for what we do it shuts us down, so if they adjust and mount a come back and we dont keep up offensively its not going to happen. Unless we play lights out defense throughout. We just dont have a real down field threat that can score. So again adjust to what we do, stop that and its over.