Quotulatiousness

August 20, 2019

Vikings beat Seattle 25-19 in second preseason game

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

The Vikings’ preseason home opener went well enough, although neither team’s starters were able to score a touchdown during their respective series before the backups and long-shot hopefuls took the field. Vikings presumptive backup quarterback Sean Mannion had one of his passes picked off and run back for a defensive score, but other than that the Vikings quarterbacks did well. Recently acquired punter/kicker Kaare Vedvik did well in both punting (averaging 46 yards) and kicking (one made extra point and kickoffs). Embattled cornerback Holton Hill — who already faces an eight-game suspension — may have flushed his chances of sticking with the team after a couple of penalties culminating in an ejection from the game after a nasty helmet-to-helmet tackle of Seattle backup quarterback Paxton Lynch.

A view of the Minnesota Vikings’ new home stadium by “www78”
“Viking Stadium” by www78 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

As usual, Ted Glover posted his impressions of the game at the Daily Norseman fan site:

Buy: Duke Thomas strip. Thomas has had a rough camp and first preseason game, and he really needed to make a play. He did, forcing a fumble after a completed pass.

Sell: Duke Thomas premature celebration after the strip. But he celebrated a bit too early, and the Seahawks ended up recovering the football. Granted, he wasn’t really in position to jump on the ball, as momentum from the strip kind of moved him away from where the ball was bouncing. Still not a good look, though.

Buy: First team offensive line pass protection, kind of. There were a couple breakdowns, most notably when Kirk Cousins had to bail out of the pocket and throw the ball away just so he wasn’t murdered. But overall, Cousins had time to set up and make throws, and made some nice plays.

Sell: First team offensive line run blocking, kind of. Like last week, the first team offensive line had trouble opening holes for Mattison. I thought he had a little more room to run, but it wasn’t consistent, and the best run Mattison had with the first team unit was only five yards.

Buy: Sean Mannion-led TD drive at the end of the first half. After a pick six that gave Seattle the lead midway through the second quarter, the Vikings got the ball back with just under two minutes, down 10-3. Mannion led the offense 63 yards on seven plays, and it was capped by his three yard pass to Irv Smith for the game-tying score. I know it’s only preseason, but last year the Vikings just seemed to pack it in when a play went against them last year. I know the two aren’t related, but it was still nice to see.

Sell: Mannion pick-six. But Mannion’s interception was brutal. It looked like there was a miscommunication between him and Chad Beebe, so it could have been a wrong route that was run, but the ball should have never been thrown. Just a bad sequence all the way around,

Buy: Mike Boone is RB3. Mike Boone and Ameer Abdullah were locked in a pretty pitched battle for RB3, but it feels that after two preseason games, Boone has taken the lead. Abdullah didn’t play against Seattle, and Boone made the most of the opportunity. He had over 20 carries, and one reception for 45 yards. He’s looked very good so far this year, and is earning the RB3 spot.

Sell: Kyle Sloter is QB3. Sloter needs a serious look at QB2. He just plays football very well when the lights come on, and if nothing else, has earned a look with the rest of the second team.

Buy: Brandon Zylstra and Laquon Treadwell both flashed. Both Zylstra and Treadwell had good games. Zylstra had five catches, and Treadwell took over in the fourth quarter. Zylstra finished with five catches, 37 yards, and a touchdown. Treadwell had four catches for 47 yards, and led the team in receiving yards. And based on that alone, you would think there was a pitched battle for WR4 right now.

Sell: The Laquon Treadwell bandwagon. But if you thought Treadwell was making a final push to secure roster spot, you would be wrong, gentle reader. NAY! So, what was going on? Per Mike Zimmer, the team was showcasing Treadwell for other teams. I don’t know how you need any more clarity on that situation; Laquon Treadwell is as good as gone.

December 12, 2018

“(Almost) scoreless in Seattle”, prompts the Vikings to fire offensive co-ordinator John DeFilippo

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Monday night’s game was a great example of how not to run an offence, courtesy of a season-long determination to avoid running the football at all costs. Seattle moved the ball almost at will, but didn’t have the points to show for it until late in the game. Minnesota played as if they were afraid to take any kind of risk at all. The Vikings ran zero plays in Seattle territory in the first half, and went into the locker room down 3-0, but the way they’d been playing, it felt like a lot more than that.

The Daily Norseman‘s Ted Glover did his usual Stock Market Report after the game:

Blue Chips:
None. The offense is as fun to watch as a traffic jam stacking up in front of you, the defense gave up 200 yards rushing, and I literally laugh every time Dan Bailey trots out to kick a field goal, because a Choose Your Own Adventure book has less possible outcomes. This team is heading south faster than a flock of migrating birds, and as amazing as it seems, with few exceptions no one on the Vikings plays like they care about what happens right now.

Solid Investments:
Dalvin Cook, RB. Cook looked decent running the ball, although once again he only got 13 carries in a game that was within one score well into the fourth quarter. He also had the Vikings lone touchdown which yay I guess.

Anthony Harris, S: Harris looked like he was one of the few guys going all out on every play, from the first snap.

Holton Hill, CB: I thought Hill played a solid game in place of Trae Waynes, and had a big pass break up in the end zone.

Junk Bonds:
John DeFilippo, OC: The play calling is something right out of a Dystopian Fever Dream where your playbook consists of shit you draw on napkins, and you’ve managed to spill drinks and ruin all the napkins but about two or three, and yeah hey maybe this one will work this time. For example, on fourth and one in Seattle territory, everyone knew in the stadium the Vikings were going to hand the ball off to Latavius Murray. Loss of a yard, turnover on downs. The calls down on the goal line when the Vikings were stopped were questionable, and when Laquon Treadwell has more targets well into the third quarter than Adam Thielen does, something has gone horribly wrong.

Mike Remmers, RG: Remmers was dough tonight, and the the Seahawks were a rolling pin.

Kirk Cousins, QB: Kirk Cousins tonight, in one picture.

Yes, that’s the guy making $28 million dollars turning his back to the line of scrimmage and throwing a forward pass … backwards … to Latavius Murray. While completely ignoring a wide open Adam Thielen 20 yards downfield. It’s so amazing in many ways I feel that if someone paints this in oil it will one day hang in the Louvre.

Last week, after the Vikings’ sad effort in New England, I wrote:

At one point, the broadcast talking heads (Joe Buck and Troy Aikman) were making noises about just how good a job the Vikings offensive co-ordinator had done this season and how he (John DeFilippo) would certainly be a top candidate for one of the head coaching openings after the season is over. I nearly choked to death. Of course, so did the Vikings offence. If what we’ve seen of his body of work is accurate, I think the team should do everything in its power to encourage him to become head coach of another franchise (Green Bay? Can it be Green Bay? Please?). The sooner the better. The man seems to know even less about running a modern NFL offence than I do!

Earlier on Tuesday, the DN News and links post included this, which I fully agreed with:

My yelling was mostly directed at the Vikings’ offensive coordinator. His tenure is a beautiful example of how the national sports media knows very little (the same could be said for the national media in general, I suppose). A narrative gets started somehow, then gains steam, then before long, all the parrots are repeating the same thing. Take the post-season buzz about John DeFilippo. We all heard that John DeFillipo (I have used many other names for him this evening) was a genius, and will be NFL’s next great head coach, and that we were lucky to get him as our offensive coordinator. Well, I have to say that I think they were wrong. I’m not normally prone to over-reaction, but this guy is not good at what he is being paid to do, I see no reason to think that will change, and he is ruining the chances for a very good team to do very good things. He seems inflexible, incapable of adjusting mid-game, and his situational play calling is baffling. 1st and goal from the two? Three straight plays from the shotgun, then the failed attempt on fourth, which I can’t recall right now, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he sent everyone deep. How many third-and-short plays were roll-out plays to the right that wound up being throw-aways? A lot. and if Green Bay still wants to hire him as their head coach, I say they should hitch up the buggy, load it up with a few days’ supplies, and come get him. I’ll be in town Saturday, I could help him pack.

On Tuesday, the team parted ways with DeFilippo, and will replace him (at least temporarily) with quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski:

John DeFilippo is a bright offensive mind and he might someday become a great offensive coordinator, but something had to change for the Minnesota Vikings.

After being shut down on national TV in Seattle, the Vikings dropped to 6-6-1 in large part because of the 20th ranked scoring offense. They nearly went six quarters without a score — a streak that was only ended by a garbage-time touchdown at the end of Monday night’s loss.

[…]

While an OC change at this point in the game may seem like a panicked move, there is precedent. In 2012 the Ravens fired Cam Cameron in favor of Jim Caldwell. They went on to put together one of the best performances by a quarterback in postseason history and win the Super Bowl.

The way the Vikings defense is playing, an offensive turnaround could give them a chance to achieve the goals they set out to accomplish in training camp. They allowed just 72 yards passing to Russell Wilson and only six points late into the fourth quarter. The defense has repeatedly given the Vikings a shot to win big games, including against the Saints and Patriots.

Certainly Stefanski isn’t a cure-all. The offensive line is still going to limit what the Vikings can do on offense, but in order to have a shot the Vikings don’t have to be elite on offense, just effective. They haven’t been anywhere close to effective lately.

Zimmer picked the right week to make a change. The Vikings come back home against a competitive, but not great, Dolphins team. They need to prove a winning team can be defeated in order to avoid a complete season meltdown.

Before Tuesday, nothing pointed to a turnaround. Now at least there is a chance.

August 25, 2018

Vikings 21, Seattle Seahawks 20 in third preseason game

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 11:41

The third preseason game is traditionally the “dress rehearsal” — teams play their starters for an extended period of time (sometimes going into the third quarter) before subbing in their reserves. As the columnists at the Daily Norseman tend to write, it’s the “All-Important Third Preseason Game™”. Friday night’s game in Minneapolis saw the Seattle Seahawks come to town to test Russell Wilson against the Vikings’ league-leading defence from last year. Unlike last game, where the Vikings couldn’t seem to buy a first down, yesterday the first-stringers under Kirk Cousins were able to keep the chains moving (amassing 120 yards in the air through the first quarter) but not to get points on the board. Newly installed placekicker Daniel Carlson didn’t cover himself in glory, missing both of his field goal attempts to the left from 42 yards and encouraging the team to try a two-point conversion after their first touchdown. On the latest Purple Podcast, Judd Zulgad said explicitly that coach Mike Zimmer deliberately ordered the two-point attempt because he didn’t trust Carlson to make the extra point.

Second-string quarterback Trevor Siemian had a bad game (4 of 8 for three yards) and looked very frustrated by the time he was done. However, Siemian did have one particular pass that made the highlight reel:

Third-stringer Kyle Sloter, on the other hand, put on a very good show and led the team to the winning touchdown (and a two-point conversion):

It will be interesting to see if the coaching staff still has confidence in Siemian as the backup after the first three preseason outings, where he didn’t set the world on fire. Sloter is certainly showing that he’s got the chops, if not the experience, for that role at some point in the future. Early in the fourth quarter, I texted to a fellow fan “Sloter >> Siemian” (and that was before Sloter got the first TD. I’m clearly not alone, as at least one Daily Norseman writer feels the same way:

As a former starter with many games of experience in the regular season, you’d expect a guy like Trevor Siemian to show more command. More ability. He should be a little above the second stringers he’s playing against. But he didn’t. He didn’t look like a starter. He didn’t look like a guy you want starting at QB for your team either. And that’s the point.

He was inaccurate. He looked poor under pressure. He did not lead second stringers, he let them down. There was a lack of energy. Quite simply, his game was not up to the task.

By fairly obvious contrast, as soon as Kyle Sloter took the field in each of the first three Vikings preseason games, there was energy and leadership. There was the will to win. There was a QB looking to make plays, not just play out his time.

And Sloter showed presence. Poise. Better scrambling ability. Better acccuracy. And he made plays. Every game. What plays did Siemian make? Zero. Nada. Bupkis.

Sloter led drives. He came through in the clutch. He delivered when he needed to. Yes, he went down twice late on back side blitzes, but he managed to escape from several others and made plays too. Siemian never did.

And, as every NFL head coach knows, if you want to win, you need a quarterback that can make plays. You can’t coach that. You can’t learn that in practice. Experience can help, but not that of Trevor Sirmian’s kind. He was not a playmaker in Denver, and he was released as a result. I’m not sure how that type of experience is a plus. It sounds good to say, “now here’s a QB that’s started a lot of games in the NFL, who can come in a take over if Cousins goes down.” But you could say that about Christian Ponder too.

I don’t think the team should go with only two quarterbacks — not after our experiences over the last several years with quarterback injuries — but I do think that Sloter should be given the primary backup responsibilities.

Newly signed safety George Iloka played a key role with the second team, tipping a pass that was intercepted by Anthony Harris.

August 22, 2017

Vikings preseason game 2 good and bad performances

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

I was all set to watch last Friday’s preseason game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks, only to discover that my local cable provider had, at some point since last season, changed out the NFL Network channel for something like “Memories of NFL Network” instead. Where the real NFL Network channel was showing the Seahawks and Vikings, my local “equivalent” was showing endless episodes of something like “A Football Life”. I’d tell you more, but I turned it off quite quickly.

This is why, among other reasons, I didn’t do any kind of post about the game over the weekend. To make up for that, I’ll just roundup the winners and losers in the race for the 53-man roster from game in Seattle.

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December 16, 2016

Fixing the NFL’s Thursday Night Football problem

Filed under: Football, Media — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

At 1500ESPN, Matthew Coller suggests a (pretty obvious) solution to the NFL’s ongoing problem with Thursday Night Football:

On Nov. 20, the Minnesota Vikings had the type of game that turns a season around: A 30-24 win over the Arizona Cardinals at US Bank Stadium. On Nov. 24, they were on the road playing on national TV against the Detroit Lions. The Vikings lost a hideous, good-thing-you-didn’t-pay-to-watch-that-one game in the Motor City by three points. The game essentially cost them a shot at winning the NFC Central.

It’s hard to take that result seriously.

There are several lenses in which we can look through when discussing the misguided way the league has implemented Thursday games. The first is player safety. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman recently attacked the hypocrisy of the league claiming the game is safer, then pushing players back on the field without proper time to heal.

He wrote on the Player’s Tribune:

    “I just don’t understand why the NFL says it’s taking a stand on player safety, then increases the risks its players face by making them play on Thursday, before their bodies are ready.

    My Seahawks teammates and I are playing in one of the last Thursday night games of the season this week, so we’re one of the last teams to be exploited in 2016. One of the last to be taken advantage of. One of the last to get the middle finger from the NFL.

    But as long as the NFL is using that same finger to count Thursday Night Football dollars, I don’t think it really cares.”

The solution seems so easy. Why can’t TNF begin in Week 5 and have the schedule set up to give the two teams the previous week off? Bye week. Thursday night. Then 10 day break until the next game.

That scheduling tweak would almost certainly make a huge difference for the individual teams assigned to the TNF slot: it’s like a mini-bye-week.

August 19, 2016

Vikings beat Seahawks 18-11 in second preseason game, without Teddy Bridgewater

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:41

Perhaps the oddest thing about watching last night’s Vikings-Seahawks matchup was seeing Shaun Hill take the start instead of Teddy Bridgewater. Teddy wasn’t hurt, but head coach Mike Zimmer “explained” it as being his decision not to play Teddy. No additional information was provided. Quite odd, but it did show what the backup and third string quarterbacks could do in real game situations. At 1500ESPN, Judd Zulgad describes the press conference exchange after the game:

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer surprised everyone on Thursday night by not starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and instead giving the assignment to veteran Shaun Hill.

Asked why Bridgewater did not start in the Vikings’ 18-11 preseason victory in Seattle, Zimmer said, “because I sat him.” Asked why he made the move, Zimmer responded, “because I wanted to.”

While Zimmer would not go into any detail, he did make it clear the move wasn’t for disciplinary reasons. “Teddy Bridgewater’s the nicest kid in the world,” Zimmer said, “there’s no disciplinary action ever with Teddy so it had nothing to do with discipline, it had to do with my decision.”

Zimmer became annoyed with follow up questions during his press conference. “It was my decision,” he said. “How many times are we going to go through this? It was my decision. Good enough?”

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January 11, 2016

Vikings lose wildcard game to Seattle 10-9 on failed field goal attempt

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

It certainly wasn’t a pretty game to watch, and given the extremely low temperature at kickoff (tied for the third coldest playoff game in NFL history), nobody was expecting a high-scoring extravaganza. The game turned on two plays: a bad snap to Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson that he somehow turned into a big gain and a missed field goal by Blair Walsh that ended the Vikings’ hopes. 1500ESPN‘s Andrew Krammer:

They made the gap feel closer than 27 yards.

This wasn’t like any of the Vikings’ other five losses in the second season under Mike Zimmer. The same team that was thoroughly handled by San Francisco, Green Bay and Seattle proved to be the better defensive team in Sunday’s 10-9 loss and first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Seahawks. They were the better offensive unit up until kicker Blair Walsh missed a chip shot, shorter than an extra point, into the open, windy end of TCF Bank Stadium.

They showed signs of a potential NFC force turning the corner, giving traction last week to their shock-the-world mission by walking out of Lambeau Field with a division title. The first 59 minutes and 34 seconds through Sunday’s bone-chilling game put the odds in the Vikings’ favor — Walsh was 30-of-31 in his career from inside 29 yards.

But their shot at dethroning the reigning conference champions ended at Seattle’s 9-yard line, where Walsh pushed a 27-yard attempt wide left.

[…]

Though it was more than a missed kick that ended the Vikings’ season.

A botched fourth-quarter snap gave life to the Seahawks. Wilson chased the snap 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, recovered and evaded a duo of Vikings’ blitzers in cornerback Captain Munnelryn and linebacker Eric Kendricks. Wilson scrambled right, and the coverage followed. That left receiver Jermaine Kearse wide open in the middle of the field. Kearse outran cornerback Xavier Rhodes and picked up 35 yards to the Vikings’ 4.

“Honestly, I thought the ball still was on the ground,” Munnerlyn said of Wilson’s recovery. “He had a knee down and I’m like, ‘Man, is he going to get up and run with it?’ He picked it up and [spun] out and found the open guy. At that point, I wish I could take that play back and go up field…I didn’t know where nobody was. I was just trying to make a play and that’s one play I regret.

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December 7, 2015

Vikings lose at home to Seahawks, 38-7 in blowout

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 07:19

Fortunately for me, I was unavoidably busy on Sunday afternoon and missed what sounds like the worst game Minnesota has played in the last two years. If there were any bandwagon fans left after the loss to Green Bay, they’re probably all gone now. The bad news started long before kickoff, as nose tackle Linval Joseph was listed on the injury report all week and then downgraded on Friday, so he and starting strong safety Andrew Sendejo were both out. Middle linebacker Anthony Barr and free safety Harrison Smith both started the game, but were standing on the sideline not long after the game started. Without Barr, Joseph, and Smith, the Vikings defence was a hollow shell, and Seattle took full advantage of the weakness. Usually, after a game I didn’t get to watch, I’ll read through the hundreds of Twitter posts in my Vikings list. Today, after looking at a couple of dozen of the most recent ones, I decided that I should just give the rest of them a miss:

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February 5, 2015

How not to do media relations, NFL style

Filed under: Business, Football, Media — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Unusually, in one of his last Tuesday Morning Quarterback columns of the season, Gregg Easterbrook actually talked more about football than usual:

In the run up to the Super Bowl, Marshawn Lynch received a huge amount of attention for insisting he just wanted to be left alone. If he’d actually just wanted to be left alone, he would have gone to the podium, offered a few sports platitudes — “the Patriots are a fine, fine football team” — and everyone would have left him alone. By making a great show of appearing in very dark glasses and ignoring questions, Lynch drew attention to himself. Which, one presumes, was what he wanted all along.

Many pro athletes don’t like having to face the media; Bill Belichick* doesn’t like to, Roger Goodell doesn’t like to. Their contracts require them to, because professional sports fundamentally are a form of entertainment, and fans find the media conferences entertaining. (Lord knows why.) Many players came from high school and college environments where the local sports media consisted mainly of homers: scandals were downplayed, the toughest question was, “How do you explain your brilliant success?” At the NFL level, players can be surprised to encounter sharp questions and hostile tones.

Not, certainly, because NFL games are more important than prep or college contests — NFL games are strictly entertainment, the outcomes are irrelevant to society. It’s just that at the NFL level, the sports reporters are at the top of their profession, too. They ask tough questions. Most players and coaches learn it’s the path of least resistance to play along, even when the questions veer into the absurd. Smart players and coaches discover that beginning a media conference by bantering with reporters about their careers rapidly turns them from attack dogs to lap dogs.

Then there are the players who would radiate hostility toward the sports media, such as Lynch. In 2009, he was suspended by the league for three games. Lynch seemed to expect sports reporters would act like team publicists and change the subject; instead he got abrasive questions. Since then, including last week at Super Bowl media events, he has accused the sports media of printing lies about him: “You all can go make up whatever you’re going to make up.” I’d venture a guess Lynch actually does not know what the sports media is saying about him because he doesn’t read the newspaper. He may prefer to believe himself the victim of some vast sports-media conspiracy.

The odd thing is that Lynch has a sense of humor, as he displayed in his Skittles parody. If he’d only show that humor at a media conference, the ice would melt. Instead he says things like this from last week, when he was supposed to take questions: “I come to you all’s event, you shove cameras and microphones down my throat. I ain’t got nothing for you all.” Reporters and spectators don’t get angry at Lynch when he expects them to attend games: for him to get angry when he’s expected to fulfill a contractual obligation involving cameras and microphones shows bad manners. At media conferences Lynch acts like a spoiled brat, which reflects poorly on him and his team.

When Thurman Thomas couldn’t find his helmet at a Super Bowl, then the Bills lost, for a while he was angry at the media because reporters kept bringing this up. One day he walked into a media conference with a basket of miniature helmets that he handed out to reporters, and told a couple jokes about himself. For the rest of his career, Thomas had the sports media eating out of his hand: When it was time to cast Hall of Fame votes, Thomas got a landslide of votes. Somebody in the Seahawks’ organization should tell this story to Lynch.

January 15, 2015

Reasons to hate every surviving team in the playoffs

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 07:31

At Football Savages, “Draw Play” Dave Rappoccio explains why it’s okay to hate all of the NFL teams left in the hunt for this year’s Lombardi trophy:

So only 4 teams are left in this year’s quest for the Lombardi trophy. The Seahawks of Seattle, the Colts of Indianapolis, the Packers of Green Bay, and the Patriots of Boston New England. I hate all of them. I wish for fire and brimstone and chaos in this final 4. I want the winners to limp into the final confrontation in Arizona and die on the field halfway through the first quarter. I hate them. Here’s why I think you should hate them too:

Colts – 2 Super Bowl Championships
Packers – 4 Super Bowl Championships
Patriots- 3 Super Bow Championships
Seahawks- 1 Super Bowl Championship, but it was won just last year

All 4 teams have been to the Super Bowl since the turn of the century. Outside the Packers, all have been there multiple times, and the Packers still won their appearance. The Patriots have the longest Super Bowl win drought, at a measly 10 years, and they’ve been twice since ’04. There is no underdog this season. There is no plucky team that could. There are only spoiled rich kids. The kids in your school who would get the new video games as they came out. The kids who would get dropped off in BMWs. The kids who had pools and pool parties and never invited you. The kids who would get A’s for participation because social interactions are easy when you are the kid everyone adores. Meanwhile the Detroit Lions sit in the back corner of the classroom and have a reputation as the smelly kid.

But championships aren’t the only reason to hate a team. Lots of teams have won championships, many of them multiple championships. But those teams aren’t here. The Steelers are sad and old. The 49ers are literally on fire. The Broncos have been taken behind the shed and Old Yeller’d. The Giants are sitting in the basement eating glue. The Cowboys are running around the lawn with no clothes on covered in filthy mud screaming obscenities. No, we need more to hate these 4 rich kids. We need to add real depth to our hate. So lets go over this, team by team.

October 18, 2014

Percy Harvin traded … again

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 10:18

Former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Percy Harvin was apparently unhappy in his new home of Seattle, so Seattle traded him to the New York Jets, along with his pricey contract. This isn’t the first time Harvin’s been unhappy enough to force his team to trade him: that’s the blueprint of how he left the Vikings. Harvin is a very talented receiver — when healthy — but he seems to be unable to get along with authority figures like head coaches. Even head coaches who are widely known to be easy to get along with, like Leslie Frazier and Pete Carroll. Harvin reportedly threw a weight at one of the assistant coaches early in his career with the Vikings, and gave Golden Tate a black eye during Superbowl week with Seattle. One wonders what he’ll manage to do to destroy the chemistry (such as it is) with his latest team.

At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover reviews the [head]case:

To say this came as a surprise is an understatement, and it makes me wonder that if Harvin can’t play for two of the most player friendly coaches in the NFL in Leslie Frazier and Pete Carroll … how will he be able to fit in with Rex Ryan? And if Harvin wasn’t happy in Seattle, where he won a Super Bowl and has one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL throwing to him…how in the blue hell (as Fearless Leader would say) will he get along with Geno Smith and the talent wasteland that is the New York Jets offense? Yeah, Geno is an upgrade over Christian Ponder from his Minnesota days … but the Jets have literally nothing else in terms of offensive weapons, and a pretty bad offensive line.

And Geno’s not all that much better than Ponder, so yeah. I just see this as another train wreck already in the making, but who knows, stranger things have happened.

So with Harvin now on the Jets, let’s take on final look back on the trade that got this all started. In March of 2013, the Vikings sent the disgruntled but ridiculously talented Harvin to Seattle. In return the Vikings received Seattle’s first and seventh round pick in the 2013 draft, and their third round pick in the 2014 draft.

Arif Hasan at Vikings Territory:

The Seahawks evidently wanted to make this trade for a while. One interesting thing about the trade: Seattle will eat a significant amount of cap space from a trade, perhaps up to $9.6 million in accelerated cap (the combined cost of the future impact of the prorated salary bonus he received).

In all honesty, I can’t really say with confidence what the biggest reason for the Harvin trade was, though I have to imagine it’s more attitude than talent. Pete Carroll was enamored with Percy Harvin coming out of Virginia back when Carroll was at USC. The talent Percy had that made him a first-round draft pick and an early MVP candidate in 2012 is still all there.

But it’s not inconceivable that it’s for football-only reasons—he took up $13.4 million of cap space on a young team looking to sign new contracts, and was going to take up $12.9M and $12.3M in the following years. While he was taking all that cap space, he grabbed 133 receiving yards and 92 rushing yards for 45 yards from scrimmage a game. There are about 66 players with more, including Jerick McKinnon and Cordarrelle Patterson—both acquisitions made as a result of the trade the Minnesota Vikings made with Percy Harvin (McKinnon with a pick received directly from the trade and Patterson as a replacement).

November 18, 2013

Vikings crushed by “Vikings West”

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:07

It actually looked like a competitive game for most of the first half, as the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings traded scores, but a 58-yard return by Percy Harvin helped put the Seahawks in the driver’s seat just before halftime with a 24-13 score, and the Vikings had no answers after that. There are a lot of former Vikings on the Seahawks roster, starting with their head coach and offensive co-ordinator, both of whom were coaches for Minnesota earlier in their careers. Pete Carroll served under both Bud Grant and Jerry Burns as an assistant, while Darrell Bevell was the offensive co-ordinator for Brad Childress. Former Vikings wide receiver Sidney Rice was sidelined with an injury (the story of Rice’s NFL career), but fellow alumni Percy Harvin put on a very good performance against his former team, and former Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson came in to finish the fourth quarter after the game was out of reach. On the other side of the field, former Seahawk John Carlson was one of the few Vikings to have a good game against his former team.

ESPN‘s Ben Goessling explains why many of us are expecting Josh Freeman to get his second start as a Viking next week against the Green Bay Packers:

Stock watch: Falling: Ponder. The quarterback’s second half was among the ugliest he’s had in 2 1/2 professional seasons; he hit just four of nine passes for 15 yards and threw two interceptions. He had another pass that could have been intercepted for a touchdown. Ponder hit seven of seven throws in the second quarter, and finished the first half 9-of-13 for 114 yards and a touchdown, though he did fumble deep in Vikings territory. But as he’s done so many times in Minnesota, he proved unable to put two consistent halves together, and was pulled for Matt Cassel with just more than 12 minutes left in the game. Coach Leslie Frazier could take most of the week, once again, to decide on a starting quarterback, but if the Vikings aren’t going to use Freeman now, it’s worth asking if they ever will.

Dan Zinski of The Viking Age chimes in on the Ponder situation:

Seattle’s defense set the tone in the second half, picking off Christian Ponder twice, and returning one of those picks for a TD. Ponder played reasonably well in the first half, but whatever tweaks the Seahawks introduced in the third quarter utterly bewildered the Vikings QB. His interceptions were not rushed throws or bad footwork throws or anything that could be chalked up to poor pass protection or receivers running bad routes or any of the rest of it. No excuses for Ponder: he made two of the worst throws you will ever see from a third-year quarterback.

Leslie Frazier decided after the pick-six that he had seen enough and yanked Ponder. But by that point it was too late for backup Matt Cassel to get anything going anyway. Seattle didn’t even need much from their offense in the second half. Russell Wilson did all the damage he needed to in the first half. With Ponder throwing the ball around like a fool, Seattle’s D was able to put the game away without any difficulty.

John Holler makes the same point about quarterbacking for Viking Update:

Christian Ponder’s inconsistency was encapsulated against the Seahawks: promising first half, brutal second half. By now, the Vikings should have seen enough to know what they have in Ponder and make a change to evaluate the next possibility.

What Vikings fans saw Sunday from quarterback Christian Ponder is nothing unusual. His three-year NFL career has been defined more by his failures than his achievements and Sunday was no exception. The difference this time is that it just might be his last disappointing game as the Vikings’ starting quarterback.

Head coach Leslie Frazier said team officials will talk about a quarterback change Monday, but Ponder continued with some of the trends that have made him a human piñata among Vikings fans. He completed 13 of 22 passes to his offensive teammates and two passes to Seattle defenders, one that was brought back for a touchdown. On his first dropback of the game, he was hit from behind and fumbled, leading to the game’s first three points. His three turnovers accounted for 17 Seattle points and turned a close game into a blowout.

This hasn’t been anything unusual for Ponder this season. He has at least one interception in seven of the eight games he has played, and almost invariably his turnovers directly lead to points.

What made Sunday’s game so painful for Ponder apologists is that, aside from the blindside fumble in the first quarter, he was having a decent game. At halftime, he had completed nine of 13 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown – giving him a passer rating of 122.0.

I liked Christian Ponder when the Vikings drafted him, and I wanted him to get the opportunity to show what he could do, but after two-and-a-half seasons, I think we now know what Ponder can do. He may still be able to improve as a passer, but I think it’ll be for another team. The Vikings will almost certainly be drafting a quarterback in the first round of the 2014 draft, and if the team keeps Ponder for the final season of his contract, he’ll just be holding the spot until the rookie is able to take over.

July 31, 2013

Vikings training camp in full swing … and evil genius Rick Spielman is proven right again

Filed under: Football, Media — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:58

The Vikings are at their off-site training camp in Mankato this week, and the various fan blogs are doing a great job of covering the event (especially The Daily Norseman which has bloggers accredited and attending all open sessions). 1500ESPN has filled the void left when the great Tom Pelissero moved on to USA Today‘s sports department with Andrew Krammer (to team up with Judd Zulgad), while the main ESPN coverage is by Kevin Seifert. I hit my “maximum number of articles viewed” limit at the Minneapolis Star Tribune earlier this week, so the coverage from the St. Paul Pioneer Press is filling that gap for me until rollover.

I know most of you don’t much care for sports chatter, so I’ll put the rest of this post behind the curtain…

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April 13, 2013

Antoine Winfield signs with the Seattle Seahawks, official day of mourning declared by Vikings fans

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 10:52

Okay, I’m exaggerating the impact a bit in the headline, as it was highly unlikely that the Vikings would be able to re-sign Winfield after their abrupt decision to cut him in order to make room under the salary cap to re-sign Phil Loadholt. However, it is true that he was one of the faces of the franchise and will definitely be missed now that he’s going to be playing for the “Vikings West”:

It wasn’t exactly protracted as these things go. Just a little two-day mini-drama. And it ended just the way most of us expected. Antoine Winfield ultimately chose Seattle over Minnesota. The Seahawks picked up the former Viking cornerback on a one-year, $3 million contract with $1 million guaranteed. Three million for one year is not a bad score for a 36-year-old defensive back coming off an injury. Good job for Antoine.

We could now sit here dissecting the way this played out and asking lots of questions. Did Rick Spielman’s alleged snubbing of Winfield play into the decision? Were the Vikings ever really players for Winfield after the way he was apparently dissed? The Vikings were reportedly still in on it in the last hours but who knows if they really were. Who knows if Winfield was just trying to get more money out of Seattle by acting like the Vikes still had a shot.

There’s a lot we’ll never know about how this played out. But here’s something we do know. Veteran players on the Vikings are not happy. Several older players expressed their wish to have Winfield come back. How do they feel now that another major piece of the 2012 surprise playoff run team has been let go for money reasons? They certainly appreciate the realities of the salary cap. But they also know that Rick Spielman has been on a frugality kick and there are probably some other guys who are wondering if they will be next to either get cut or be asked to re-negotiate.

The economics of the situation made the release of one of the older, highly paid veterans likely when free agency opened. Many were expecting the victim to be defensive tackle Kevin Williams (who had already indicated he’d be open to renegotiating his contract), or even getting defensive end Jared Allen to sign a new longer-term contract, but it was the way Winfield was treated that shocked most fans. Many of us were hoping that he could somehow be brought back on a cap-friendly deal and finish his career as a Viking, but we all knew that was unlikely after he was released in such a cavalier manner.

March 12, 2013

Reactions to the Percy Harvin trade

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 08:31

As reported yesterday, the Minnesota Vikings struck a trade agreement with the Seattle Seahawks, sending disgruntled wide receiver Percy Harvin and getting three draft picks in return (Seattle’s first and seventh round picks this year and their third round pick in 2014). Under the circumstances, the Vikings got a very generous deal for the extremely talented player. Just a few weeks ago, the guessing among NFL writers seemed to be that Minnesota might be lucky to get just a third-round pick in exchange for Harvin’s services.

1500ESPN‘s Tom Pelissero:

One veteran starter told 1500ESPN.com on Monday the trade ” is genius.” Another said he’s happy for Harvin but Spielman did “a great job” getting so much value for a player much of the league thought the Vikings were desperate to dump.

Harvin had demanded trades. He had clashed with coaches. He had complained about the offense and the quarterback. He once stormed out over a disagreement about medication.

He was, and is, one of the NFL’s most dynamic players for 3 hours after Sunday. It’s the other 165 hours a week the Vikings had begun to fear having a basket case on their hands.

Dressing down mild-mannered coach Leslie Frazier on the sideline in Seattle and again at the team facility weeks later was just the most overt signal Harvin had worn out his welcome and probably wanted out anyway.

Leslie Frazier is reportedly the most even-tempered coach in the NFL: if you can’t get along with Frazier, you probably can’t get along with anyone. Harvin has had arguments and confrontations with his coaches at college and in the NFL, so it will be interesting to see how long he can go in Seattle before the cameras catch him on the sideline giving a coach a dressing-down (or chucking weights at him).

All that, and Spielman still found — or perhaps created — a marketplace and yielded a better return than most around the NFL expected.

“Vikes got very good return for (a) player with no future there,” one NFL personnel man said.

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