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Looking ahead to Minnesota

welsh texan

welsh texan

You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one
The Vikings have had a great start to the season, 2-0 and coming off a *edit* home win over the 49ers, they host the Texans in good form and having recently beaten a similar blueprint team.

We face Greenard and Cashman on their D, 2 players who will be up for a battle against their former employers.

Their O, captained by Sam Darnold who looks to be having something of an Indian Summer to his career, passing the ball to the elite Jefferson who will pose a test to our young cornerbacks, whoever ends up trying to man up with him.

We’ve seen both Offensive and Defensive coordinators come at each game with very different game plans so far, how will we approach this game and who will feature?

Excited to see how we stack up against a really good team in good form.
 
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Excited for the game. One of my best friends is a Vikings fan so he, his brother and I will be watching.

They had an incredibly rough pre-season. One of the roughest ever and are now 2-0 and looking good. I'm hoping to see us clean up a lot of our issues from the first two games and hopefully put a better product out there. I fully believe we can do it.
 
I'd say Vikes have a slight edge, especially at home. They are the league's biggest surprise early on, imho, with the Saints being a very close runner-up. This coaching staff has managed to turn Darnold into a more than serviceable QB - it's very early, but that's the most shocking development. We need to rattle his cage and force him to turn back to the SD we all know.

In any event, I'd like to turn Cinderalla's carriage back into a pumpkin at noon this Sunday.

If the Texans hope to win...they must clean up some of the nonsense we've seen the first two games. So many mistakes and sloppy play. Reduce the crap we've seen, and put the offense into a higher gear and we can do it. But neither of the first two performances is likely to get it done vs. the Vikings. 2-1 certainly isn't a bad start, but 3-0 heading into the Jax game would be sweet as hell.
 
welsh texan said:
We face Greenard and Cashman on their D, 2 players who will be up for a battle against their former employers.
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There's Danielle Hunter going back to Minnesota, as well.

Is there a more surprising 2-0 team than the Vikings? I've never heard of Patrick Jones, but the 4th year edge rusher has 4 of his career 9 sacks in the first 2 games of 2024. I thought I was familiar with Sam Darnold, but not the version that carries a Passer rating over 100 in his first two games. Is this a mirage, or can O'Connell and staff keep this hobo train rolling? I'll let @CloakNNNdagger fill in the details later, but the Vikes apparently have a loooong list of players heading to the injury list.
 
Lucky said:
There's Danielle Hunter going back to Minnesota, as well.

Is there a more surprising 2-0 team than the Vikings? I've never heard of Patrick Jones, but the 4th year edge rusher has 4 of his career 9 sacks in the first 2 games of 2024. I thought I was familiar with Sam Darnold, but not the version that carries a Passer rating over 100 in his first two games. Is this a mirage, or can O'Connell and staff keep this hobo train rolling? I'll let @CloakNNNdagger fill in the details later, but the Vikes apparently have a loooong list of players heading to the injury list.
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I think it's a lot less personnel and more Brian Flores being a very good DC. He's definitely going to cook up tough looks for CJ.

I'm going to be watching the Vikings day today but I've already seen clips of a lot of funky disguises from the defense.
 
welsh texan said:
The Vikings have had a great start to the season, 2-0 and coming off a road win over the 49ers, they host the Texans in good form and having recently beaten a similar blueprint team.
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The Vikings were at home against the 49ers, they beat the Giants on the road. They do have a very good defense, not sure how much offense if Jefferson is hobbled.
 
JB said:
The Vikings were at home against the 49ers, they beat the Giants on the road. They do have a very good defense, not sure how much offense if Jefferson is hobbled.
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I’m a silly billy I got that one wrong. And yes, Jefferson claims it’s a nasty bruise and he’ll have no trouble being ready in a week, he’s as good as they come if healthy, and when you are forced to respect a player to that extent it leaves receivers 1 on 1 elsewhere.

What philosophy does Ryans go for? Am I right in thinking he lets Stingley play left side and Lassiter right rather than travelling?
 
Vikings appear to be banged up at WR. Will be interesting if Jefferson and Addison can’t go or are limited how DeMeco deploys the CBs. I would think he’ll have Stingley travel with Jefferson. Sting might demand following his old teammate if he has that kind of pull with the team.

I expect DeMeco to craft a gameplan that will have Sam Darnold go back to seeing ghosts!

But I also expect Flores to take advantage of the Texans’ inability to pick up stunts.
 
After the Texans had 12 penalties for 115 yards and let the Bears have a chance to win the game with under 2:00 I did some research looking at other teams and their penalties in week 2. Bears had 9 penalties for 60 yards. Nearly half the penalty yards definitely helped them remain competitive in a game that should’ve been a blowout victory for Houston:

1) Ravens dropped a close game and had 11 penalties for 109 yards. Their opponent, the Raiders had 3 penalties for 15 yards. 3 point loss, safe to say a cleaner game would make the Ravens winners here.

2) Browns beat Jags 18-13. They have 13 penalties for 100 yards. Similar to Texans, their sloppy play kept this game close. Browns completely shut down Lawrence similar to Texans defense with Williams.

3). Broncos lose 13-6. They had 9 penalties for 124 yards. Steelers, similar to Bears gave up their share as well with 10 for 78. Sounds like a sloppy game!

4) Bengals lose a heartbreaker to the Chiefs 26-25. They had 8 penalties for 79 yards, none bigger than the 4th and 16 PI to end the game. This was a fair call, just sloppy play by the rookie safety… similar to the Texans PI on Bullock that led to Chicago’s only td.
 
I've seen Darnold start and play the whole game once and that was several years ago, during the Watson regime, when the Texans traveled to New Jersey to play the NY Jets which were
the team that drafted Darnold.
I was favorably impressed with him and remember him having a strong arm and also decent mobility.
 
I penciled this in as a win in the preseason. I'm completely baffled by Darnold's emergence through 2 games. I'm gonna watch their games and see what I think. Beating the Niners is impressive, for sure. Should be a tough game. Worried about Mixon's injury and all of the penalties. The latter HAS to be cleaned up.
 
I agree with DocBar that the OL penalties are very disturbing. A very good team performs without the distruption of OL mistakes. I’m only pointing out OL as we will have to score more than 20 as the Vikes are hot on offense.
 
ghostlight said:
I agree with DocBar that the OL penalties are very disturbing. A very good team performs without the distruption of OL mistakes. I’m only pointing out OL as we will have to score more than 20 as the Vikes are hot on offense.
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I think it's likely going to be a lot more of defensive slugfest like it was vs the Bears. Just need to cut out all the self inflicted problems.
 
I am surprised at the few if any comments about the lack of productivity from tank dell. Is it on Stroud? Where is all the connectivity I have heard about between the two best friends?
 
badboy said:
I am surprised at the few if any comments about the lack of productivity from tank dell. Is it on Stroud? Where is all the connectivity I have heard about between the two best friends?
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With the quality of all our receivers, Tanks targets will be less than last season. Tank didn't capitalize on the targets that he did get vs the Bears, but I think he will rebound in the coming games.
 
Im going to do something different and say there is no way we win this game.

It will be 10,000 to 3.

Vikings will gain 27,540 yards. 20,000 of those yards will be thanks to penalties on the Texans.

The 3 will be from the Vikings kicker in the last minute of the game, but they will attribute those points to us just cause Vikings dont like eggs... or round things.

Bah humbug.... just getting it out of the way now.
 
ghostlight said:
I agree with DocBar that the OL penalties are very disturbing. A very good team performs without the distruption of OL mistakes. I’m only pointing out OL as we will have to score more than 20 as the Vikes are hot on offense.
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They will score more than 20.
 
The rook and Stingley better be up for the challenge because Jefferson is a bad boy.

I surely hope Meco brings that fire like he did this past Sunday. You can’t let Dornold set in the pocket all comfortable and stuff. He’ll dice you up for sure.

The Vikings defense is solid as well. So we might have another defensive showdown.

What’s the update on Scruggs? We’re going to need him because Patterson is trash.

If we’re able to establish the running game I believe we’ll win.

Texans 23
Vikings 20
 
A lot of negativity in here... if everything goes its normal way, we easily win this one. If we keep shooting ourself in the foot with penalties, fumbling the ball at the 5, getting our punt blocked and keep getting Stroud getting sacked - and if they keep on overachieving, they win. But we are clearly the better team. Focus, execute and we get the W.
 
LikeMike said:
A lot of negativity in here... if everything goes its normal way, we easily win this one. If we keep shooting ourself in the foot with penalties, fumbling the ball at the 5, getting our punt blocked and keep getting Stroud getting sacked - and if they keep on overachieving, they win. But we are clearly the better team. Focus, execute and we get the W.
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What negativity? Nobody is talking negative like that.
 
LikeMike said:
A lot of negativity in here... if everything goes its normal way, we easily win this one. If we keep shooting ourself in the foot with penalties, fumbling the ball at the 5, getting our punt blocked and keep getting Stroud getting sacked - and if they keep on overachieving, they win. But we are clearly the better team. Focus, execute and we get the W.
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Easily?

Vikes just beat the Niners.
 
Texansballer74 said:
The rook and Stingley better be up for the challenge because Jefferson is a bad boy.
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Sting and Jefferson used to go at it at the LSU practices. Going to be like old times.

Jefferson was double covered on the 97 yard TD. Obviously, that didn't matter.
Texansballer74 said:
What negativity? Nobody is talking negative like that.
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That's @KA4Texan thing. He has to do that like some players have to wear the same socks in a game.
 
DBCooper said:
Easily?

Vikes just beat the Niners.
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NFL teams beat NFL teams - on any given week even a bad team can beat a great team. This week, Baltimore lost to LV, Dallas to the Saints, Detroit to the Bucs, the Colts to a Lovelss GB team. Not all of these teams are bad, but I would argue all of them were the underdog.

Like TheRealJoker V2 has said, there were a lot of momentum swing big plays in that game, including a blocked punt, 2 turnovers and a 97cd TD throw. Those things don't happen every week - and it is really hard to overcome them.

On paper we are better than them almost across the board. Take away that long play by Jeffersion and Darnold would be 16/25 for 171 yds, 1TD and 1 INT. Week 1 was against the Giants which doesn't really tell us much. So far they have been good at getting to the QB and forcing TOs while taking care of the ball themselves. Our focus should be on protecting CJ Stroud. If we can do that, I think we are completely fine. As an eternal optimist I go into this game expecting us to win by double digits (I was also expecting that against the Bears...)
 
LikeMike said:
NFL teams beat NFL teams - on any given week even a bad team can beat a great team. This week, Baltimore lost to LV, Dallas to the Saints, Detroit to the Bucs, the Colts to a Lovelss GB team. Not all of these teams are bad, but I would argue all of them were the underdog.

Like TheRealJoker V2 has said, there were a lot of momentum swing big plays in that game, including a blocked punt, 2 turnovers and a 97cd TD throw. Those things don't happen every week - and it is really hard to overcome them.

On paper we are better than them almost across the board. Take away that long play by Jeffersion and Darnold would be 16/25 for 171 yds, 1TD and 1 INT. Week 1 was against the Giants which doesn't really tell us much. So far they have been good at getting to the QB and forcing TOs while taking care of the ball themselves. Our focus should be on protecting CJ Stroud. If we can do that, I think we are completely fine. As an eternal optimist I go into this game expecting us to win by double digits (I was also expecting that against the Bears...)
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I’m actually about to watch the Vikings/49rs now
 
Just keep drinking all night cuz there will be nothing for you to be happy about on Sunday.

Looking forward to having you with us in our game day threads!!! I went to Lambeau when the Texans played there a few years ago. We won, it snowed SLIGHTLY.
 
Only thing I’m worried about is Flores’ defense. They didnt elaborate much on it yesterday, but John and Lance yesterday morning referenced how Flores’ defenses tend to perform well against Shanahan type offenses. It was said that his defenses are “barometers” for whether your qbs are good or not in those types of offenses. And last week’s defeat of the 49ers did nothing to dispel this notion as his defense all but shut down Purdy and that explosive 9ers offense. I think Stroud will be ok, but if he struggles, we could be in for some trouble.

Defensively I think as long as we can get to Darnold, he’s gonna give us at least 1 extra possession and that might prove to be the difference if Flores defense keeps our offense in check. I see another grind it out but close win similar to the Bears victory 20-13 good guys.
 
NitroGSXR said:
Just keep drinking all night cuz there will be nothing for you to be happy about on Sunday.

Looking forward to having you with us in our game day threads!!! I went to Lambeau when the Texans played there a few years ago. We won, it snowed SLIGHTLY.
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I hope we can pull it off. It will be a tough game. I remember watching that Game in Lambeau where we lost to you guys. I remember beating you guys on SNF on a game winning FG too. You guys returned the favor in that game in GB.
 
Lucky said:
Sting and Jefferson used to go at it at the LSU practices. Going to be like old times.

Jefferson was double covered on the 97 yard TD. Obviously, that didn't matter.

That's @KA4Texan thing. He has to do that like some players have to wear the same socks in a game.
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Well he said a lot of negativity and we should all know KA4 is joking around.


I forgot they went to LSU together. Should be a nice battle between those two.
 
Mr teX said:
Only thing I’m worried about is Flores’ defense. They didnt elaborate much on it yesterday, but John and Lance yesterday morning referenced how Flores’ defenses tend to perform well against Shanahan type offenses. It was said that his defenses are “barometers” for whether your qbs are good or not in those types of offenses. And last week’s defeat of the 49ers did nothing to dispel this notion as his defense all but shut down Purdy and that explosive 9ers offense. I think Stroud will be ok, but if he struggles, we could be in for some trouble.

Defensively I think as long as we can get to Darnold, he’s gonna give us at least 1 extra possession and that might prove to be the difference if Flores defense keeps our offense in check. I see another grind it out but close win similar to the Bears victory 20-13 good guys.
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Purdy stat line: 28-36 319 yards 1 TD and 1 Interception. He was sacked 6 times.

Mason rushed for 100 yards, 5 yards a pop, a TD and he fumbled once.


Those two mistakes cost them the game. The Niners had 421 total yards from scrimmage.


You can’t beat yourself like the 49ers did against them with those turnovers.
 
Texansballer74 said:
Purdy stat line: 28-36 319 yards 1 TD and 1 Interception. He was sacked 6 times.

Mason rushed for 100 yards, 5 yards a pop, a TD and he fumbled once.


Those two mistakes cost them the game. The Niners had 421 total yards from scrimmage.


You can’t beat yourself like the 49ers did against them with those turnovers.
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Agreed, but those 2 TO’s were forced & not sure how much of those stat lines are garbage time. And just for reference, we sacked Williams 7 times.
 
One of the biggest red flags with our offense is the pass protection. Both of our games so far, Cj has had to run out and he’s been sacked multiple times.

Being predictable against elite/good defenses won’t cut it. Averaging 2.6 ypc on first down and 3.4 ypc total doesn’t mean you force the run on 1st and 2nd down putting more pressure on your qb for 3rd down.

I think we’re 2nd in the league in sacks behind the Vikings. Slowik has to bring his A game. I think we can win but we can’t force the run game if it’s not working. Find ways to get the ball out quick.
 
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