Sincerely hoping they learned from this. While their tactics may be sound, we do not have the personnel to employ them. You have to play to the strengths of your team. On D, we are set up to attack, and are not good at prevent.
On O, we do not have the OL to just squash the clock with a run game. We are a team that has to keep playing to the buzzer. They tried to coast in on fumes, and it’s fucking demoralizing to the players.
Sounds like Ansah, even when healthy
No question in my mind — he’s going to become a star
I’d give Stafford an A- for that game. 1 bonehead throw at the end that could have changed it from a tie to a loss. The first fumble was also partially on him for holding the ball way too long, but overall he was a huge positive in the game.
Hock - A Was more than expected in his very first game.
Kerryon - D+ pretty disappointing. Make a play, bro. Break a tackle once. Played soft in my opinion.
Amendola - B. Could have been an A, but went full idiot-mode at the end.
Kenny G - B-. Went invisible for long stretches of the game.
Snacks - D-. Forgot he was on the team for most of the game.
Flowers - E. Looks like he sat on his ass the entire offseason. Was completely missing for the entire game.
Agnew - F. I would be fine if he was cut this morning. You have a small role and you completely sucked at every aspect of it.
TJ is clearly the real deal. I’m really looking forward to him making the Vikings pay for all of those exotic blitzes they’ve been killing us with the last few years.
Our coaching staff is such trash we will probably use Hock as a decoy and trying to run the ball right into the teeth of the defense.
I’ll say this… Stafford and Hockenson were the 2 best players on the field yesterday. It’s laughable how people are bending over backwards to find criticism. Marvin Jones made a few clutch passes, too. Amendola could have been a bright spot, too, but that maneuver at the end of the 4th was brain-dead.
I think Hock could help to neutralize some of Mack’s nastiness too. I suspect those two will be running into each other quite literally often. While he may not put up massive #s vs Chicago, he may help to neutralize Mack, if Mack has to pay a lot of attention to him.
Going to be interesting.
and, in one game we have a rookie TE who has 4 catches of 20+ yards…
how many did Matt have himself last yr?
People that suggested he was “not the starter” should take notice.
Stafford was pressured more than any other QB, yet played a very good game with no run blocking, pass protection, receivers that could actually beat coverage or an OC that schemed great mismatches. The best mismatch we had was the idiotic timeout that would have ended the game!
Sad stat I heard on the radio today. Hockenson in one game had half the receiving yards Ebron had his whole rookie year.
Also It took 8 games last year to get the amount of yards Hock had Sunday from all of the TEs on the roster last year.
Yea hes gonna do big things for us, and huge part of our offense going forward!
I was frustrated too, but he isnt known for fumbling punts is he?
Hock is actually pretty fast in game time. He needs to becareful though. The defenders are aiming for his legs.
He’s got some speed AND he understands the art of changing speeds while running. Subtle speed and angle changes can get you separation from the defender, and then once he gets separation it appears that he has the top line speed to keep or increase the gap vs linebackers. I’m not sure about safeties yet.
Yup, noticed that too… As he’s wedged near the sideline anywhere past the first down markers he can jump out of bounds to avoid impact unless the defender is coming high and he can deliver a mean stiffarm or run him over… Hopefully he learns fast that it can prolong his career or at least be healthier when he does hang it up…
Don’t take any unnecessary abuse. Obviously game situation can dictate what he does.
I love that he is wired for contact. Dude likes to hit. I saw him get one crappy block (that was still good effective enough for that particular play), but this dude loves football, loves contact, feels like he has to earn it, and is grateful for where he is). He’s going to be a great one in every phase of the game for a long time. I’m with you on stepping out of bounds. Love knowing that he isn’t afraid of contact. I promise you that serves us well, and wears off on the rest of the team. He not only makes us a more physical team by how he shows up, but other players get inspired by that stuff.
To be fair I think Bevell did a good job with the offense for the most part. He was creative and mixed it up well. I don’t think JB Cooter ever had Stafford run a naked bootleg. I’ve wanted that to happen for years. I wouldn’t make that a regular habit but once in a while it’s a good thing. He was a Shortstop in baseball and is a good athlete.
I think the run game will take a while to improve. Bevell is accustomed to having a great rushing attack at his disposal, so this is something he has to adjust to. I mean he has to find another way to make the offense work until the run game improves.
What I wasn’t happy about was how the offense got conservative in the 4th quarter. I know coaches LOVE to live in the ideal world of football where you milk down the clock running the ball to keep the lead secure. Unfortunately it’s not there yet for the Lions. Yes, there were some good signs with Kerryon and Anderson late but it stalled at critical junctures. Hopefully we’ll see the run game routinely come through on short yardage situations in the future.
I’m actually pretty stoked about the future of this offense under Bevell. I hated the dink and dunk offense under Caldwell and JBC.
Agree with post but was he not a catcher? Reverse cap…etc.
He was primarily a SS. I think he did catch Kershaw. Interesting that “Most top NFL QBs played shortstop growing up”'
"An overwhelming majority of top NFL passers over the past five decades played competitive baseball as well as football through at least high school. And most of them, including nearly all elite 21st century passers, played shortstop, Postmedia has found.
Today’s top ‘shortstop-QBs’ comprise most of the active elite: Mahomes, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, New Orleans’ Drew Brees, Seattle’s Russell Wilson, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger, Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, Detroit’s Matthew Stafford, Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton, Los Angeles Rams’ Jared Goff and this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick, Arizona’s Kyler Murray."