Welcome to
my new blog series guys, before we dive into it, I just want to go over two things.
Firstly, I won’t focus on the pandemic as every team had to deal with the same challenges
it brought. Secondly, I will only be doing teams that have surprised me with
their poor performance, teams who I had either making the playoffs or being at
least respectable, so no Jets or Giants in this series. So now let’s investigate
why the Vikings suck so much after the first three weeks.
Last
Season Summary
This team went
10-6 and in the postseason that went to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and got the
W over the Saints. Just going off last year, their defence was borderline top
ten in the league and the most disciplined as they were only penalised 83
times. Their offence was also impressive as they relied more on their running
game with Dalvin Cook, which allowed Kirk Cousins to be more effective through
the air. Sure, his stats took a hit with him posting career lows in yards,
completions and attempts however this also led him to be arguably more
effective, throwing a career-low six interceptions and only being sacked 28
times (tied 5th best in the league). He posted his best quarterback
rating ever of 107.4 and had his best QBR since his 2016 season with 61.7.
Fun Fact #1
– One stat that was
insane to me was that last season, the Vikings defence was tied for 5th in
total sacks with 48, yet they did that on only 21.7% of quarterback pressures
per drop back, which was by far the lowest out of the teams in the top 10.
So, what’s
going on?
The Vikings
are a dismal 0-3, losing games to the Packers, Colts and Titans as the team is
a shell of its former self. Kirk Cousins is allergic to making good passes and
their defence is staying six feet away from their opponents. Let’s exam the
three major factors that are contributing to their poor performance.:
First, I’ll
start with the defence and I’m going be real with you guys, I’m not too mad at
them. They lost a lot of their key starters this offseason like Xavier Rhodes,
Everson Griffen, Linval Joseph, Trae Waynes and Stephen Weatherly. Losing most
of your veteran starters will likely cause any defence to fall off so it would
make sense why they’re the 3rd worst defence in the league in terms
of total yards allowed. Out of their 25 players on defence only six of those
players have been in the league for more than four years. So, the defence is
young and inexperienced, and I can only assume it will get better over time, so
I shall give them a bligh.
Fun Fact
#2 – The average
years in the league for their entire 52-man roster is only 3, which goes to
show you how young this team is on both sides of the ball.
The 2nd
reason for the team’s struggles is their horrible offensive line. Last season their
o-line wasn’t anything too special, but they did their job well enough, but
their line went through some changes last offseason. They released Josh Kline
(G), Pat Elflein (LG/C) injured his thumb week 1 while their replacements
Dakota Dozier and Dru Samia are playing terribly. This has caused Kirk to feel
more pressure than he’s felt in a while. In just three games, he’s been sacked
seven times and he’s been pressured on 34.4% of dropbacks which is way up from
last year’s 22%.
Although
both problems mentioned above are valid “excuses” for Vikings fans to blame
their winless start on, there’s one far greater problem. The man I am giving
the biggest piece of the blame pie to is Captain Kirk himself.
Is he good
quarterback? For real somebody needs to tell me, because I can never decide, my
answer changes every year. If you just
look at his stats then you’ll probably assume he is and that’s fair, he does
have truly amazing numbers, but does he contribute to winning football? He’s
like the Russell Westbrook of the NFL because you watch his numbers and you think,
“he’s great,” but when you watch him play you constantly question the decisions
that he makes. I don’t think he’s stat-padding, but it kind of seems like it.
I wouldn’t
have a problem with him if he was being paid like an average quarterback, but
he isn’t. He's the 7th highest paid QB in the league in terms of
average money ($33 million a year) and I don’t think he makes the team better.
He found success with the Vikings last year because he was handing it off to
Cook, thus lightening his load. But when he had to carry the team on his back,
he has fallen short more times than he found success. He’s being paid elite
quarterback money but he’s not. He’s not bad, I mean he’s only behind Drew
Brees in terms of career completion % so he can make throws with accuracy. To
me, he can’t consistently elevate his game and lead them to victory in big
moments.
The 6 QBs
that are paid more than him (Mahomes, Watson, Wilson, Roethlisberger, Rodgers
and Goff) are a combined 15-4 (Watson had to face three of the best teams to
start, so I’ll let him off the hook.) These quarterbacks are all paid the big
bucks for a reason because they’re the best in the league and have and can lead
their team to a victory almost singlehandedly (Goff may be an exception but
this isn’t his roast.) Did you really have to pay him $66 million over the next
two years if your team is most successful when they’re relying on the run game?
So, my
answer to the age-old question, “is Kirk Cousins good?” is not really. Now that
I say that he’ll probably go on a tear and I’ll have to change my answer once
again thus continuing this never-ending cycle.
Final
Thoughts
On the
defensive side, I trust that Zimmer can whip his defence into shape, so I hope
they’ll be middle of the pack by season’s end. On offence, you just hope that
Pat Elflein comes back soon, and their guard play improves even if it’s only by
a bit. Finally, just give the damn ball to Dalvin Cook, the less Kirk throws it,
the better.
PS – Remember when Steffon Diggs wanted a
trade in the middle of last season, I thought he was crazy. I mean he was
balling on the Vikings why would he want to leave. He seemed to be the smartest
man in that locker room because he got out at the right time.
PPS – I started writing this before Week 4
and they ended up beating the Texans, so congratulations on doing your jobs
guys.
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