thanks for stopping by. I am very interested to see whether we can establish a running game against you guys. Your front seven did a great job shutting down Pierre Thomas and making the Saints offense one dimensional. It does seem that we will need to elevate our passing game as the way to attack you is through the air. Look for Marshall, Bess and Fasano to be targeted often against your team. On defense, its going to be a great test for us. We were dominant against a poor offense and this will give us Miami fans a better feel for how good we are on defense. Expect a lot of blitzes. On paper you should be able to have some success. Hopefully though, your offense continues to show rust. I wonder if Adrian Peterrson will be fed the ball more this game. He was having a great game and then inexplicably you guys stopped running him in the 2nd half
oh, he will be....their a match made in heaven....you will love Cam...completely underrated player, by even his own fanbase. Iam just hopin your boy Sapp can make my anger over losing him go away...
you think because Sapp can play the Nickel and Smith and Allen can not, this trade could be viable and even?
I'm not sure if it's been pointed out, but FWIW Minne will have 3 extra days of rest and preparation for us. Grrrrrrrrrr.
I don't know if I could say it's "even" b/c head to head I think a healthy Cam is a better player. However, IMO our strength currently lies in our defense (which will hopefully be winning many games for us), so I'd rather make sure it has as few weak links as possible. That's why I give the nod to Sapp.
I wonder how the Vikings run D will do this year. In 2007 and 2008 the Vikings were #1 against stopping the run. Last year we dropped a notch to #2. Not a huge drop (obviously), but a drop none the less. Possibly a sign of the future? Pat Williams would have retired this year if we weren't so close last year. He's on his last leg and gets limited playing time. Winfield is a great run stopping CB but he's also getting up there in age. Our MLB is coming off of a gruesome snapped femur from last year and Leber is also getting up in age. Long story short, the Vikings defense isn't getting any younger and our run stopping is no longer a guarantee. With a healthy run game like the Phins have, you might just be able bust some gains and open things up. It's early in the season so who the hell knows what to expect. I also am scratching my head at the lack of Peterson in the second half. It's possible Favre felt the pressure of trailing and was switching back to passing plays at the line, but only him, his teammates and the coaches would know that. Which brings me to my last point. The Vikings coaching staff seems to hold this team back at times, especially our OC and HC. Favre seems to have twice the concept of a West Coast Offense than Childress. What the Vikings do bring to the table is a mature, proven defense loaded with veterans, a winning QB with an adequate Oline and a lot of pressure to win this game. Vikings have a brutal scheduled this year. It's bad when facing the Dolphins is one of our "easier" games in the first half of the season. With one loss under the Vikings belt already, it's entirely possible for them to start out 1-6 to 3-4. Week 2: Phins Week 3: Lions Week 4: Bye Week 5: @ Jetts Week 6: Cowboys Week 7: @ Packers Week 8: @ Patriots Point being, Vikings need to win this game to keep up with GB. My hope is that they will come out playing like it on the field Sunday. God knows going into the homes of the Jetts, Packers and Patriots is not going to be easy and will likely spell big L's for the purple guys.
I think this is a game that could be won by Miami. Personally, on offense, I'd come out passing. Get Henne moving around in the pocket and throwing short passes. Get the guys running curls, dig routes and more corner routes. Minnesota likes to run Man-Free and then get the Tampa 2 in there. Get Ricky/Ronnie out in the flats some to draw cornerbacks down and then hit them with a corner/flag route behind the cornerback. I think they are an aggressive bunch so you play them short and then at the right time, you hit them deep. Abdullah is a smart safety but isn't incredibly gifted physically and if he's working as the single high safety, I think you have to hit them deep at least two to three times in this game. I think you can hit on at least one. Then get the run game involved. Some stretches, a little bit of tosses and off tackle. Run off of Jake's side quite a bit. I think if you run right at the wall in the middle, you won't have much luck. On defense, I would sit in zone and don't let them hit deep. Favre is prone to mistakes as we all know so sit in zone coverage and give them the underneath. The longer their drives are, the more likely they are to make a mistake passing the ball. I like how the front four played yesterday, albeit against Buffalo's weak line, but dial up some zone blitzes from time to time to keep Favre guessing and hopefully planted on his ***.
They do have 3 extra days of rest, but as far as preparation goes, not sure they had much film on our defense until we actually played against the Bills.
Very kind of you, thank you. I watched a little of Minnesota, not anymore than any other team out there, honestly. I'm more of a general football fan than a single team fan.
While Peterson is a key, I'm less worried about this than I probably would have been before yesterday's game. With Bell and Clemons both looking good in run support and having 2 physical corners in Allen and Davis I think even when Peterson does break contain we've got good personnel to limit the big gains.
