So bad, where to even start? (6-5)

What a crap game.

We got owned!

I'm still pissed off and disappointed but I wanted to post a few thoughts while they were fresh.

Top five WTF! thoughts today

1. How can Jared Allen (et all) be so ineffective vs back ups?
2. How can we be so flat after a long break? (first Seattle now the Bears)
3. Carlson gets paid more then Percy Harvin and has 5 catches. Prolly as many drops
4. AP doe HIS job yet we still can't throw because...
5. Will our WRs ever be able to get open in single man coverage? How many drops today?

OK, so how do we fix this?  I don't think we can.  We need to make personnel moves for sure though and I am basing this off the last season and this one.  We have no legit WRs.  Week in and week out I see guys I have never heard make plays against us but we can't seem to make the simplest of plays. We had maybe one drive today that had a balanced attack and some slants, hitches etc.

In our FOUR losses vs TB, SEATTLE, CHI and WASH we gave up 132 points. (not counting close game in INDY) That isn't Ponder's fault. Or anyone else on offense. That's an avg of over 30 points. we simply DO NOT have the firepower to score that many on offense.  We never score on defense and returns don't happen that often.

I don't like FRAZIER and I never did but I wanted to give him a chance.  His assistants have proven to be too inexperienced and he himself reminds me of a substitute teacher. The guy has a real knack for spouting cliches and we all love his smile but he looks more bewildered the more down we are in a game.  His press conferences are that of someone in denial.  He is TOO NICE.

Frazier's infamous deer in head lights look. I prefer Chilly w/the clipboard

What the hell is up with our defense?

Look at these sad sad stats.

Time of possession CHI 38' MN 22'

First downs CHI 23, 13 from passing

3rd/4th down conversions CHI 12-20

We didn't give ONE play up over 20 yards but got nickled and dimed to death! 
Tampa, Wash, Seattle all did it to us too! More then a week to prep, 4 days to prep, night game, day, home, away doesn't matter!

HESTER didn't play

FORTE got hurt

THEIR LINEMAN got hurt

We STILL sucked.  This game was never even close in the 2nd half.

Really? A punter had more points then AP? SMH

They threw to Marshall at will the guy had 12 catches. He barely averaged more yards per catch then AP did running. (8 vs 6)

Why not just run the ball very play? In those horribly boring drives the bears would run or pass every down for like 3.5 yards then get a first on 3rd and 3. 

How can we be so good at giving AP holes and yet suck at giving Ponder time and or creating any kind of play action? I think our coaches are awful.  I really do.

We have lost three games by the same exact poison.  Turnovers, an inability to get off the damn field on 3rd down, and an inability to get open and make plays passing.  It's ultimately the coaches fault they signed off on these guys before the season started. We have an awful crop of WRs.

I am embarrassed but not surprised you'd hope the coaching staff would introduce new wrinkles or make in game adjustments but they've proven o er and over again they just aren't good enough to.

I know Ponder didn't have a good game but I'm not ready to throw him under the bus.  The kid needs help.  Are we still paying CHILDRESS?  Member where we played the day before he got fired?

YUP

Chin up, AP. You did what you could. 

El Blogado Skolgante '12 (bye week blowout)

It's that time of the year.  It was nice to get the win at home vs the Lions moving into our bye week.  Nothing to do today but reflect and hope for packer and bear losses. (Damn Packers Won)  I am glad we got a late bye our players are pretty dinged up... it's good for them to get some rest.  

What do you think of our chances the last 6 games? Playoffs? Division crown?  Fill out the poll. (top right)

Here is our remaining schedule... (click to enlarge)

Here is last years blogado skolgante! Fun to compare moods!

Without further adieu, please watch this highlight video. It's very well done and will remind you why our team is awesome. So much has happened this year it's hard to remember everything. From game winning FGs to APs first TD, Ponders AWESOME throws, (yes he had some!) kick returns, punt returns, nasty sacks. etc.  

^You better be watching this^

Ahhh. That was fun no?  Are you pumped up for the final six games?  I like how he put ALLEN as the last clip. THAT is our squad. Fighting. SKOL!!

An omen perhaps?

Let's take it down a notch now... deep breaths.

Ohhhhhhmmmmm  (the blue collar spelling)

Now, let's talk about Ponder.  To me he 's the new CHILLY. Polarizing, he either "sucks" or people still have faith and "aren't worried".   

Ponder's game is simple but effective. He CAN make passes

No one can argue he had a good first few games then shaky next few but all in all his stats are utterly avg.  Is it all his fault?  How do you rate our WR crew?  The only real positive is he completes a high percentage of passes (not including the one pictured above he's at 65%) but let's be honest, its from dink and dunk stuff.  My take on him is that he's a bona fide franchise starter and will serve us better for years to come. He'll be better then Brad Johnson ever was for example. I don't know if he'll ever have the weapons Daunte had (CC AND Moss) but hopefully he will know what it's like to have a legit #1 WR sooner then later. RG3, Dalton, Luck all have someone.  We have HARVIN who is awesome but he's a slot receiver/scat back, it's a weird combo.  

I say give Christian more time, we all know the WIN - LOSS record of Manning and Aikman etc. their first 16 games.  PONDER is around 8-12 so far I think. That's not awful.  RG3 and Cam Newton are a combined 6-14 this year. Whoop de doo.

Surprises this year?  Well hell. First and foremost I'd have to say our ROOKIE crop. Holy shit these guys are ballin. 

 You're allowed to deflect forward passes? Thanks for showing me Robinson 

 Rookie pick six? FINE! Reggie Rutland would be proud Mr. Smith.

Week 1- Walsh makes 50+ yard FGs in end of reg & OT to secure win 

Jarius' first TD reception. You are all Wright with me, son!

Blair Walsh should make the pro bowl.  Harrison and Robinson producing in the secondary, Jarius Wright got to play last week and repped hard. As an old school VIKEs fan I am just NOT used to rookies contributing. It happens like once every 5 years. Holy shit, I almost forgot about this guy.  We never hear his name which means he is doing his job.  He plays like a Vet! 

"Being an O lineman is so boring and easy, I wanna practice being a QB"

Serious, look at WALSH's stat line. I pick him and Janikowski for Pro Bowl. 

Let's talk about Adrian Peterson. He's number one. Simple as that. In our hearts he's first. In the stat lines he's first. On Defensive coordinators he's problem numero uno.  We all were worried about his return but he put those worries to bed fast. He may have tweeked his running style a little, more towards the power side, north south for now, but man he is having a CAREER season. I can't say enough about him.

I wanna see this ten more times. 

PERCY? Well shit he single handily won a couple games for us. He's a beast. I don't know where to start with him either. He's gonna finish top five in receptions and yards I bet.  He got slowed down with this ankle sprain.  I like how competitive he is.  That is contagious. 

He needs to touch the rock 15 times a game

Jared Allen, well it's hard to hate on him, he is on pace for 15 sacks and another pro bowl. We all know he is being chipped and double all the time.  I am glad that ROBISON has done what's expected of him.  I always knew he was a 4 down player.  The only thing that worries me is how sometimes our entire defense goes quiet.  Sometimes for 3 quarters in a game.  Those are the games we lost. More on this later.

69 and 96.  The ying yang brothers!

So here we sit at 6-4.  A very respectable mark with 4 division games yet to be played!  As part of my little retrospective I'd like to recap my pre-season predictions.  Man, it's pretty hard to mess with CROM when it comes to logical takes!  A few snippets I am proud of.  (And a big F.U to y'all saying we'd be 6-10.  SMDH )

• "We can make the playoffs.  We have the skill sets!"
• "If we can just MAKE SOME GOD DAMN PLAYS on defense we will be OK.  Rookies CAN make an impact.  It doesn't have to mean we will suck."
• "I would take 6-4 going into the last 6 games with two a piece VS the Bears and the Pack. Anything can happen by then...

What else...? Green Bay won, barely, and CHICAGO lost bearly. (In big fashion, see what I did there?) They re both 7-3 and one game ahead of us. Chicago has only beaten one team with a winning record.  I hate to say it but GB has most of the momentum in the division right now, but as we know too well, that can shift in a week! I bet 10-6 wins the division, maybe it'll be with a tie breaker but still.  That last game in the dome VS the Pack might be HUGE.  It could be PONDERs big game, who knows!? I know there isn't one player on our team that I don't like. Which I couldn't have said last year... there is one thing I don't like though, we lead the league in rushing but don't have an effective play action pass game?  Are our WRs that bad?  Honestly, time and time again no one gets open.  It's mind boggling.  I've seen PONDER do the check downs over and over, it's like we aren't allowed to do post routes, slants, anything in the air btwn 10-25 yards.  It kills me. 

This also bugs me...  Has this guy gotten one snap?  

I hate the whole "we can't pull Ponder for a play or series cuz it will hurt his ego" argument. Bullshit. Run an empty backfield hurry up shotgun with WEBB for no reason at all in the 2nd quarter, 3rd and 2? Put Webb in.  Who cares if it moves the football?!  Be creative. 

Ok, Ok, Crom. First Percy yells at me now you. I will make changes. Keep calm

Hurrumph!

It's so stupid.  I do not endorse our coaches or coordinators.  You can't take a bunch of assistants and expect them to all work out.  It seems like they never make adjustments.  You guys know I am the LAST person to bitch about play calling.  Usually I blame penalties, poor run blocking, pass protection or execution as the main reason our offense stalls.  But seriously... show some wrinkles... run some power tosses.  Do an option, wild cat, fake FG, anything!  Or just give it to AP every play, I don't care. DO something logical.  

What do you guys think? Have a "wait and see" attitude?  Feeling positive?  Did you take the new poll up top?  I think we'll make the playoffs... and, once in it, we can win a game or two.  Why not?!

SKOL!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Thought we'd be 6-10, eh?

I hope we bring our A game next wknd!

The fact that he "only missed one game" IS what is amazing about it! HELLO!

For you Chilly haters... I am glad he brought in the players STILL playing for us

Lions Sweep (6-4)

• 

Well, before this one I felt confident but knew we had to play good.  Every game this year it seems to come down to turnovers.  We had zero, the Lions had 3.  That was the key.  If you told me Megatron would light us up for over 200 yards I would have expected a loss.  The key to this game was when they pulled within six and AP busted that lovely long run.  

Some noteworthy things about this game.

• AP topped 1000 yards  (YAWN)
• Jarius Wright got his first Viking reception & TD
• Rudolph went off for 7 catches and a TD
• Ponder played as he did earl, efficient, productive, no TOs
• Walsh was 4 for 4
• We held them to 1 for 9 on 3rd down
• We had some big hits causing fumbles 
• GREENWAY finally got an interception. (2 year wait!)

Wright's first catch!

Deuces! See you after the bye y'all



FOR THE LION SWEEP!

"And you know what, we now have a taste of Lion, we've talked to ourselves, we've communicated and said, you know what? Lion

tastes good!"

SKOL!

Seattle Seahawks. We got Lynched. (5-4)

It sucks that we lost to an average team that we had TEN days to prepare for but hey, records aren't everything in this league. Like I said before the game they had a sick secondary and they gave our WRs and PONDER headaches.  Even with APs great game we couldn't open up any passing on play action etc.  

Meanwhile their QB made us look slow and unprepared.

Overall we got our asses handed to us.  They made plays and sustained drives and we didn't.  Tough place to play so I can't be that upset. It was a statement game though. We have work to do.

Here is the pic that sums up the game...

Sorry, fellas.  Not today

Stuck between a Buc and a Seahawk (5-3)

Well... Ugh.  

Sums it up

I'm not gonna sugar coat it, we got handled. The Bucs owned us in time of possession, 37-23 minutes.  Their no name RB had almost 30 carries at almost 5 yards per carry. They had over 400 yards and most important made plays all game. I was AT THE GAME and trust me, the crowd stayed into it, always sensing a comeback. After APs dope long the (about time!:) for  a TD we were within 13 with plenty of time to go in the 3rd. We forced a couple short gains, had a big skirmish with off setting penalties and a bloody Jared Allen, then Jared channeled all that anger and frustration and beat three bucks for a sack. We got the ball back with momentum and went three and out, because of a bad snap on third down. WTF? 

To TBs credit they got the ball back and marched  85 yards and chewed up like 8 minutes then scored a TD. That effectively killed our comeback.  It sounds cliche but they came to play and we didn't. This was one of the most lopsided games in a year or so.  At least we finally got to see this...

AP busts a 65 yard TD

My boys were all getting on FRAZIER and the O COORDINATOR about play calling. It is odd that we can have the leading rusher in the entire league, and a receiver in the top five, yet have so many three and outs.  Even Kluwe played bad!

Are LGBT advocates stealing KLUWEs focus? 

(J/K  - NoH8)

Idk the solution I do know that other teams are taking away Rudolph, spying Harvin and stacking the line with run blitzes and it kept us  out of a groove. Why has Joe Webb not got one snap either? (As a deep threat or bubble screen or reverse etc)  

This leads to my new poll. (in side bar) 
Who do you blame for the recent slump in offense?

Lets forget that TB game already, they seem to own us.  
At least it was a week ago already. We fought but we just couldn't stop them. 

The state of the franchise. Time to fight back

So.... Ten days to prepare for this road game against the Seahawks with their sick secondary and Mr Marshawn Lynch. What are we gonna do scheme-wise?  Which O Line is gonna show up? Is Rudolph or Simpson gonna have an impact?  I don't make predictions, I just have hopes. Every game has been puzzling, even our victories! Offense, defense, special teams... You never know who's gonna show up.  Rarely all three do.

Make no mistake, this SEAHAWKS game is huge for us. A "statement" game.  I am looking forward to seeing what these players are made of.  Also I hope I am pleasantly surprised by our coaches and their schemes.  Let's see some wrinkles!  Even so, if they give AP 30 carries and target Harvin 20 times I won't be mad. They make the plays, not the coordinators. 

SKOL and Vote NO in the coming election

Click on pic to expand