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The Right Time to Peak
The Minnesota Vikings chose the right time to peak ... not
so much in it's team play ... but in this franchises ability to cope with a
complete tragically flawed system. Yup! Sounds like a bit of
insanity after such a tragic loss but ... Does it matter? Well yes, if you
believe in home field advantage in the playoffs which just last year brought the
Eagles their first Super Bowl Championship. On the other hand, the only
thing that matters in the playoffs isn't upon the carpet on which you stand, but
rather or not if your team is peaking at the right moment, because there isn't a
team on the planet that can beat this team when that happens. What's truly
odd is that every member of this team know it to be
true.
So did Everson Griffen's return factor into last night game? No, it did
not but again October 28th is not his time to peak ... is it? No, he's got
some rust to deal with that should factor-into the equations somewhere down the
line. To say that we are glad that he's apart of this thing once again is
an understatement, as the overall rotation is getting stronger by the day.
Did we miss Xavier Rhodes last night? Of course however measuring-in his
level of play was much harder to access especially knowing what Sean Payton had
in store for us in the form of Alvin Kamara & Mark Ingram. With
Anthony Barr out it allowed the Saints offense to focus on the Vikings weakness
... our 2nd level.
On the other hand, it took the Minnesota Vikings to defeat itself last night
& it had very little to do with Adam Thielen placing the blame upon himself
but very much to do with a tragically flawed teams electrical brain
functions. Self destruction depends upon something clearly identifiable
& all it takes to see it ... is a mirror. Let me count the ways.
After yesterday, the Vikings are now 4, 2, 1 & 1. The
newest or 4th NFL category being beating yourself.
By the
way, close those doors whenever Dan Bailey is made to kick cause that inadvertent
wind last night appears to be problematic. Are you kidding me?
In years past, we incorrectly called for coaches to get fired but today we
should be asking that both Flip & our head coach Mike Zimmer be
flogged. Firing just won't work because they'd either retire or they'd
find a new job in a moment. No, we need to get their attention.
On the Saints first 1st down, out comes the Vikings first challenge. Are
you kidding me? Is this a Halloween joke? How irresponsible can you
possibly be? You have just about an entire game to play & you decide
to put at risk this entire ball game for "A MYTH". The myth of
course is that you need to get up big on every opponent first rather than upon
responsibly managing the game. Timing-wise, what was seen on the national
network was the challenge coming-out before the first replay was shown ... the
very definition of a knee-jerk reaction. The Vikings where at home, giving
them an undeniable camera advantage over any visiting team. This was
a major blunder as the call made on the field was without question ... if they
had waited for the first replay. Let's not forget that this was downfield
well over 20 yards meaning there was time for the replay. What was put at
risk was a time out (not so bad), but if wrong, for the remainder of the game,
the teams remaining or 2nd challenge would be reduced to a grand total of 1,
regardless if that 2nd challenge was correct or not. That risk taken goes
up against the harshest rule in the NFL, the loss of a game-turning
challenge. In our arrogance, it is clear that we are willing to use a
challenge ... without a replay ... on how the ball is spotted. To
put this into perspective, in very short order, on Harrison Smith's pass
interference call, that was clearly not a catch, as the ball was trapped into
the ground. Now just for one moment consider that Harrison Smith call
didn't rise to the level of pass interference, which it wasn't, but it didn't
matter because of that first challenge blunder which in effect set the tone for
the entire game. Now compare Harrison Smith's call versus the muggings
that our receivers took last night.
The use of an NFL challenge, excluding booth challenges, means the the
officiating crew is one step closer to having complete & absolute control
over the game without oversight. Challenges in your pocket
keeps the officiating crew at their most efficient state or stated another way,
are leverage over the officiating crew. It is the very last item to be
squandered unless your absolutely sure you're going to get away with it's
use. In other words, the challenge must force every official on that field
to collectively state, "We missed the call". You don't guess
upon it's use as it can only make a bad situation worse.
Now consider the never
ending ball security issues of Kirk Cousins. He's running for the
sidelines having a nasty defensive lineman bear down on him. Does he just
simply toss the ball out of bounds being 2 yards from the line of
scrimmage. No he get stripped sacked where the initial call was that Kirk
Cousins fumbled. Since the replay indicated that Kirk Cousins was in fact
down by contact, we needed to use our last challenge. It's a good thing
that we were nearing the end of the game when that happened ... OOOPPPS ...
well, not so much. Now this franchise is as exposed as could be as it held
no additional challenges.
How is it that we've forgotten that the sum of Kirk Cousins experience with the
members of this franchise is less than 2 months (September & October of
2018). Now contrast that with Drew Bree's experience of being in his 13
year with the Saints (2006 season). Sure we're impatient ... Sure
we're hungry for superiority ... but when exactly did we get a trip to Jupiter
... cause we just get stupider. He's shown clear issues with ball security
but we have him run a quarterback sneak as if he were some other player.
You don't risk that play on the goal line without first proving his absolute
reliability. We assume that Kirk Cousins is a polished veteran when he
clearly has not yet been polished. Playing in Washington is not equivalent
to playing for Belichick. Now contrast that with the late
Dennis Green when confronted with Robert Smith's ball security issues.
Smith's hind quarters found the pine quicker than you could say the word
security but we just stand in awe of Kirk Cousins ... as if there was never a
problem. Who's responsible for changing this lackadaisical approach in
regard to ball security? Who? Don't coaches get fired over stuff
like this? Get a lasso around it & tie that mother off, because it
clearly hasn't been fixed yet.
Do you want to get even more stupid. You have maybe the best blocking full
back in the league in C. J. Ham & most certainly the best blocking tight end
in the league in David Morgan to seal off the end or to help open a whole.
Both are designed to patch & seal off any offensive line failure that might
occur. Shoot the gap & your fillings are going to think your being fed
a ham & mustard sandwich. Sure, the possibility of running the fake to
Latavius might be an option, followed by a CJ Ham quick hitter but that's only
an option if Latavius was in the same backfield. He wasn't. So
instead, what do we do. We run it blind with CJ for no gain.
I'd like to think this play was diagramed & passed by Mike Zimmer before it
was experimented with on the field where someone had the peanuts to say ...
"Do you think our mental reasoning might be retarding (thereby slowing
down) somewhat?" Watching the oblong ball since way back since 1966
... never have there ever been such a thought. Sure the idea of a lead
full back on the 1 yard line is boring but it put points on the board.
What would Lombardi say about this folly? How about Tom Landry? How
many numb nuts are snickering about this bit of insanity over this morning
coffee? How about oppossing coaches that are thinking, "Not to worry
... Flips going to give us at least 1 of these downs", when we're in the
red.
Should Adam Thielen be beating himself up this morning? Well the answer to
that question is only apparent if he were considering himself to be perfect
& to be direct, in every interview that I've ever seen he's never once given
us that indication. No Adam, you're not perfect, but it doesn't even begin
to address the mindset of this team & how it gets itself into these
situations. What am I talking about? The big question ... Am I my
brothers keeper. If you play for the Vikings, the answer is unequivocally
no. Mike Zimmer finally brought us the concept of looking for work, which
works great to extend a run but the clear breakdown on this team comes in
respect to being "The Guardian". To be direct, no one should run
alone. On the other hand, being up 20 to 10 would have been nice but ...
Mike Zimmer would be first in line to teach the principles of gang tackling but
for the offense, once the play is not in my hands ... I get to selfishly shut
down. After all, I'm out of the play. Right? Now consider for just
one moment that Adam Thielen provided us absolute proof that he wasn't in fact
perfect by putting the ball on the carpet. Well, we know that he's going
to be surrounded by Saints if that happened, where now my role changes into
being his "Guardian". Now imagine last nights contest if that
fumble was only returned 10 yards from where Adam was exposed. It's a
completely different outcome right? Who was Adam's guardian last night ...
the answer might surprise you ... it was Stephon Diggs, but he had no chance on
helping Adam from where he was. Where exactly were you and what exactly
were you thinking at that moment? Well, what it tells me is that you've
played too much football & not enough basketball where your coach would
scream the same message over and over again ... "MOVE YOUR
FEET!" Adam didn't let me down last night ... you
did. Yes, they didn't score on that play & we did give our defense an
opportunity of stopping that home run ... that is until someone lost his cool
... and tossed his helmet. Your emotions don't matter gentlemen ... all
that matters is that we don't make a bad situation even worse. How is it
that we forget that? Why do we need to think that apart of our job is to
become William Shakespeare's performance of MacBeth. Maybe instead of a
swear jar there should be an "Acting Jar" where you pay into the jar
$100 for each positive performance & $1,000 for each negative
performance. Maybe that might explain why "Sweetness" just
flipped the ball to the official after his many visits to "The Pay Dirt".
#7 Taysom Hill is a punk. There, I've said it. Sure he hit that pass
last night ... or did he? Bring that ball to me again ... Punk!
Why is this happening? Why can't we kick the ball on
either an extra point or field goal attempt (either inside or outside)?
Why is it that the Ram's have their "All World MVP-Candidate Gurley"
week after week? Why is it we get to face the two headed monster of Alvin
Kamara & Mark Ingram without Anthony Barr (not the greatest timing O'Lord
... I'm just saying). Why is it that our world class offensive threat
(Cook) gets to blend into 2 seasons of obscurity? Why is it that our All
Pro Defensive End Everson Griffen has to face one of the NFC's best bookends
after having to brush off weeks of non-playing rust? Why must you de-claw
me by playing Achilles with Xavier Rhodes against one of the NFL's greatest
throwers ... not to mention Michael Thomas? What have you done with our
best offensive lineman in left tackle Riley Reiff? What is the test that
we must face O'Lord? Have we become complacent in your eyes? Could
it be just small annoyances when compared to facing the heavy road-like odds in
a playoff format? Are we being tested into accelerating the
development of unrealized cohesive bonds? Are we being forced to refine
every aspect our undisciplined approach to just about everything? Are we
being forced to look at the odds of every movement? Are we being forced to
view our ugly complacent attitudes. Are we being forced to face our
arrogance instead of yielding & prostration amongst your plan? Have
our hands been opened into developing unrealized talent? Are we being
forced into peaking at a proper moment? Are we being religiously forced
into the role of underdog. What is the purpose of punishing the attitude
of taking risk or is it just the issue of adding more spit & polish to make
it so?Now consider
Kirk Cousins pick 6 throw ... something for which we have all been wishing in
that the vice grip clamps have been taken off of this offense.
Historically, to protect the receiver they have been taught to sit in their
zones so as not to put the receiver at risk to that blind-sided hit. Kirk
Cousins saw what must have been an incredible opportunity of gashing the Saints
defense by leading Stephon Diggs perfectly on a soft pass running at full steam
only to have his risk taking thought demolished before his eyes. A perfect
example of Bree's experience of 13 season with the Saints versus 2 months
experience of running this Viking offense. Diggs sits down in the zone ...
resulting in that pick 6. Now Stephon & Kirk sit stewing as if they
did something wrong as compared to trusting an instinct which was the correct
move. That pick 6 was exactly what we've all been wishing for ... a risk
oriented offense that's on the move. It was nothing more than a growing
pain.
Maybe you missed it but Roc Thomas was on the move catching that ball over the
middle. Sure he's a rookie running on unsteady legs but that one play
alone brought he Saints defense to its knees. Between Flip & Zimmer
the gloves of absolute security came off opening a door long ago
abandoned. In other words, it's no longer being missed. Now we must
overcome our fears & allow Kirk Cousins the responsibility of being the good
Sheppard of our health.
Do you want to know what is the most comical part of all of it. This team
is in fact peaking but although the body is alive the brains are not yet
connected to the body. Happy Halloween.
The Viking Ghost Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: October 29, 2018
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