Minnesota Sports Forum

Well that team we saw yesterday beat the Lions looked a lot better than last week. A couple thoughts on where we are with this team.

Teddy is much more elusive than people gave him credit for going into the draft and this year he has been pretty impressive in that regard getting out of trouble and yesterday picking up some yards.

Other than Kalil having 1 penalty I didn't notice anything else so it seemed he had another at least solid game.

Stafford was getting beat up yesterday props to him for playing thru all that. Nice to see pressure from the defense.

Captain took on the challenge of playing Tate and seemed to win a lot of battles clearly frustrating Tate who is a pretty good player. It's nice to have that level of player as the nickle guy playing the slot. Overall it felt like the DBs did a pretty good job today.

It was fun to see a really good game from Robison yesterday.

Who knows, monster, but I'm inclined to think it was the team we saw Sunday. The opener in SF was a bad spot for them, and they ran into a team that really wanted to win for their new coach in their new stadium...and they got outplayed in almost every aspect of the game, even though I think they have a more talented roster than SF.

I was at the game yesterday and brought my binoculars, so I was able to focus on some individual players. You're right...Kalil had a terrific game. I'm not even too unhappy with his penalty. He has a little mean streak in him that sometimes results in a little overexuberance. But I'm ok with that if he can dominate his man so thoroughly like he did Sunday.

Teddy has two great strengths...he is a remarkably accurate (if not powerful) passer, and he seems to have eyes in the back of his head. It's uncanny how he seems to avoid sacks when he senses the pocket collapsing behind him. And for a guy who wasn't considered to be a very good running QB coming out of college, I'm satisfied with what he adds to the running game.

I thought our defense was superb most of the game, and it was guys you don't normally count on who were making a lot of the big plays. Who would have thought Munnerlyn would be on the field for twice as many plays as Greenway, but the Vikings defense wasn't worried about the run and only played 2 linebackers most of the game. You're right about Robison, monster...he was all over the field and made several tackles. Griffin and Barr are more fun to watch because they are so athletic, but I don't remember either of them making a tackle...seems like Captain, Robison, Kendricks and Smith were getting them all.

Overall the offensive line played much better than I would have expected. My main worry is no longer the OL...now it's Walsh. His head is in a bad place, and even though he made his two field goals, he missed an extra point and didn't look very steady on kickoffs. I know they just signed him to an extension, but I don't know that it's a guaranteed contract. I hope they have him on a short leash. Once a kicker loses confidence, it's tough to get it back.

I'm a little worried about San Diego next week. Rivers is a terrific quarterback, and we're not especially strong at two spots in our defensive backfield. I think he will pick us apart with a lot of short passes, but I think the Vikes win a close one with Peterson having a huge day.

Thanks for sharing your observations LST

I think we saw the real team yesterday also.

Remember Zimmer likes guys to fly around but he also likes them to do their jobs. Griffin and Barr obviously did their jobs in this game. I am guessing Hunter was a guy that was not being sound as he was not active and Justin T. made a big play and he is a nice story making the roster.

Walsh is doing his job well on kickoffs. That one he did that was short I would say with a lot of certainty was a planned kick. Priefer likes to do those types of things.

Also I know I am a homer even though I am far from a die hard Husker fan but I like what I have seen out of Ameer. I didn't know if his talent would be as terrific at this level but to me I see flashes of not just a change of pace guy but at least a really good change of pace guy. The Lions have some nice versatile RBs but no clear guy. With Stafford getting pounded that may not be a good thing.