Minnesota Sports Forum

I watched parts of the game, but not the full thing. The team is just solid. Kirk dropped dimes. Hughes got an INT. Just an all-around team effort.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I watched parts of the game, but not the full thing. The team is just sold. Kirk dropped dimes. Hughes got an INT. Just an all-around team effort.

I watched the whole thing. Your description is pretty spot on. Zimmer made a comment about how he was glad to have Hughes out there as his 1st round pick. This game showed why it's nice to have plenty of depth at that position. The Oline wasn't great but they seemed to hold up alright. Cousins looked pretty mobile to me. Getting the 49ers to jump offsides was clutch.

Also does anyone else think David Morgan looks a little more slimmed down? That was a nice catch he had and FWIW PFF has him as one of their offensive secret stars from last season. They actually compared him to early career Delanie Walker.

Also I think you can see based on this game why they kept Boone and Thomas. They looked to the RBs plenty in this game. CJ Ham was disappointing out of the backfield which just seemed weird as he has done well on plays like that before.

Also interesting that the had Kearse on the field at times as the slot corner. They were thin at CB but it's a little surprising that Iloka wasn't out there. Richardson was a beast.

Richardson was a beast. I didn't see that but am surprised Iloka was not in before him.

The OL did what it needed to do. It was not a strength but not a train wreck either. This team is just so solid and deep. I wonder if Elfein plays this week and how much better the OL gets. I think Jones will be a huge get for us. Not that he is a stud, but that he keeps Compton in the backup role.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Richardson was a beast. I didn't see that but am surprised Iloka was not in before him.

The OL did what it needed to do. It was not a strength but not a train wreck either. This team is just so solid and deep. I wonder if Elfein plays this week and how much better the OL gets. I think Jones will be a huge get for us. Not that he is a stud, but that he keeps Compton in the backup role.

Kearse played a third of the defensive snaps. Holton Hill even got 4 on defense. Iloka only played on ST. I'd guess it would be more difficult for him to have gone in and played in the nickle and my guess is Kearse had taken reps as a CB with the guys that were likely being out. I think this might say more about Kearse improving (they could have put Sherels in there) than anything else.

I agree with your take on the Oline. There has been some speculation they could add another vet after week 1 since their contract would not be fully guaranteed. Supposedly now the Vikings don't have a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to the cap.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I watched parts of the game, but not the full thing. The team is just solid. Kirk dropped dimes. Hughes got an INT. Just an all-around team effort.

I admittedly only saw highlights. I hope we don't keep the "grab the lead then hold on for dear life and hope our defense gets multiple stops" philosophy going into this season. We need to bury teams like the 49ers and crank up our offense to another level if we want to get to a Superbowl. It seems like we have the weapons...not sure if its in our coach's nature though to take risks and innovate though.

Q12543 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:I watched parts of the game, but not the full thing. The team is just solid. Kirk dropped dimes. Hughes got an INT. Just an all-around team effort.

I admittedly only saw highlights. I hope we don't keep the "grab the lead then hold on for dear life and hope our defense gets multiple stops" philosophy going into this season. We need to bury teams like the 49ers and crank up our offense to another level if we want to get to a Superbowl. It seems like we have the weapons...not sure if its in our coach's nature though to take risks and innovate though.

I get what you are saying Q. Its worth saying though that it's week 1 nobody is firing on all cylinders. Any win you get the first 2-3 weeks you gotta just take it. D'Filippo seems unlikely to just sit around and do boring stuff. I don't have a ton of examples from this game but they did line up Ham as a slot receiver at one point and I am pretty sure he actually ran a pass pattern it wasn't just for blocking a run play.

If I had to pick a unit to nitpick on it would be the LBs. I thought Kendricks really struggled in converage and seemed to be the guy two steps behind on all the big plays. As a whole they just didn't seem to stand out with any big plays.

PorkChop wrote:If I had to pick a unit to nitpick on it would be the LBs. I thought Kendricks really struggled in converage and seemed to be the guy two steps behind on all the big plays. As a whole they just didn't seem to stand out with any big plays.

Good observation, pork. I was at the game and had my binoculars trained on the LBs much of the game. It wasn't just Kendrick...they all seemed out of synch on pass coverage. Fortunately the other 8 guys were very good, and our D looked terrific overall. Yes, Zimmer can get a little conservative with a lead. But the few times he blitzed resulted in great outcomes.

I think SF has a pretty good club. They lack the quality of our skill positions at WR and RB, but they are solid overall. I see this as a very good opening game win.

monsterpile wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Richardson was a beast. I didn't see that but am surprised Iloka was not in before him.

The OL did what it needed to do. It was not a strength but not a train wreck either. This team is just so solid and deep. I wonder if Elfein plays this week and how much better the OL gets. I think Jones will be a huge get for us. Not that he is a stud, but that he keeps Compton in the backup role.

Kearse played a third of the defensive snaps. Holton Hill even got 4 on defense. Iloka only played on ST. I'd guess it would be more difficult for him to have gone in and played in the nickle and my guess is Kearse had taken reps as a CB with the guys that were likely being out. I think this might say more about Kearse improving (they could have put Sherels in there) than anything else.

I agree with your take on the Oline. There has been some speculation they could add another vet after week 1 since their contract would not be fully guaranteed. Supposedly now the Vikings don't have a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to the cap.

They 49ers we're playing so many 2 TE sets and Kittle was killing them so simmer brought a bigger safety to cover kittle. It was quite a brilliant coaching decision. Kearse must be the best man to man coverage back up safety. I thought our linebackers played a horrendous game, they fell for play action way to easy.

jester1534 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Richardson was a beast. I didn't see that but am surprised Iloka was not in before him.

The OL did what it needed to do. It was not a strength but not a train wreck either. This team is just so solid and deep. I wonder if Elfein plays this week and how much better the OL gets. I think Jones will be a huge get for us. Not that he is a stud, but that he keeps Compton in the backup role.

Kearse played a third of the defensive snaps. Holton Hill even got 4 on defense. Iloka only played on ST. I'd guess it would be more difficult for him to have gone in and played in the nickle and my guess is Kearse had taken reps as a CB with the guys that were likely being out. I think this might say more about Kearse improving (they could have put Sherels in there) than anything else.

I agree with your take on the Oline. There has been some speculation they could add another vet after week 1 since their contract would not be fully guaranteed. Supposedly now the Vikings don't have a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to the cap.

They 49ers we're playing so many 2 TE sets and Kittle was killing them so simmer brought a bigger safety to cover kittle. It was quite a brilliant coaching decision. Kearse must be the best man to man coverage back up safety. I thought our linebackers played a horrendous game, they fell for play action way to easy.

Good observation on the LBs everybody. Maybe to add to what others saw there PFF gave Kendricks a poor grade for the game which is disappointing but I expect that group to bounce back.