Vs. Patriots

from: livewire.wcvb.com

How ‘bout that first drive? Yeah, we looked really good for that five minutes. And that was about it.

I will be honest and say I only saw about two and half quarters. I didn’t see the whole thing; I couldn’t stand it. So I’m going to share some of the things I saw knowing full well that I missed some other plays.

That first drive was amazing. The Patriots keyed in on Cordarrelle Patterson so heavily it gave Cassel wide open looks to the other side of the field. Phenomenal play calling. I understand that couldn’t go on the whole game, but we needed something else. Maybe start going back to Patterson, run him on some end arounds, something to keep the Patriots guessing.

Chandler Jones is great, yes, but he made Matt Kalil look like a rookie. And the rest of the line didn’t play much better. Loadholt got beat easily by a few of the Patriots slower pass rushers, and our guards weren’t doing much better.

from: pressherald.com

Asiata looked pretty good though, running and catching. No, he wasn’t Peterson. But like Cassel supposedly said before the game, playing without Peterson makes the Vikings more unpredictable. I didn’t see Asiata drop a pass, and while he isn’t going to juke his way around two defenders before being taken down, he runs hard through the line and almost always falls forward for two or three more yards. Granted, he ended with only thirty six yards and no rushing touchdowns, but he did have a pretty twenty five yard touchdown catch and run to cap off that first drive.

I don’t really need to say much about Cassel. He threw four interceptions. I only saw the first, and if you’re going chuck it, don’t underthrow your guy. I’m still all for Cassel starting to give Bridgewater more time to learn everything, but I may change my mind if we see a couple more days like yesterday.

from: usatoday.com

Where was the defense from a week ago? I know Tom Brady is much different than Austin Davis, but we were getting beat in so many other aspects that Brady didn’t even stress himself. With the defense causing so many turnovers and stopping our offense, the Patriots didn’t have to drive far to score. The blocked field goal that was returned by none other than Chandler Jones to end the first half didn’t help our situation at all either. Tom Johnson had the only sack, we had a few tackles behind the line, but the majority of tackles came from our safeties and linebackers four and five yards past the line of scrimmage. Brady never really had to pass, so we rarely had a chance for any sacks. When he did though, we gave him the space. Edelman in particular was all over the place. Our secondary could still use some work, but hopefully Zimmer will whip everyone into shape soon.

from: concordmonitor.com

It wasn’t pretty. That’s all I’m going to say. But it has to get better. Right? Well, we have a tough road ahead. The Saints, Falcons, Packers, and Lions. Granted, they all have their weaknesses, but the Vikings have a way to go for perfection. Let’s just hope next week we can see some progression. It has to be better than this week. Right?