NFL 2015-2016 Season Thread

Blitz_sl said:

I personally like Dilfer, guy knows his shit. Dude is an analyst/coach though, so his excitement was just bleeding through like crazy. Too much coaching in the booth tonight. Hard to be excited for that game, just imagine if it was a well played offensive game.

Click to expand...

Yeah. Like I mentioned earlier, when he's talking to someone like Steve Young or just explaining some QB shit he seems smart and engaging and is a marginal improvement to the awesomeness of Ray Lewis having a conversation with Keyshawn or Ditka.

You have a back like Adrian Peterson getting 3 yards a carry you keep giving him the ball until he breaks one imo. 10 carriers was retarded, it all started on that first drive after the FG block. 3 straight bad passes? What?

The Vikings were dominated in the trenches, and the offensive play calling was terrible. The issues on the offensive line for the Vikings may be a larger issue than anticipated. I don't know what Turner was thinking trying to run Peterson on sweep or flat routes for passes. 49er's are still very athletic at the linebacker position and the only success the Vikings had was in the 3rd quarter with the play action pass and throwing the ball behind the linebackers in the middle of the field. But once the 4th quarter started they ran two sideline routes which didn't even get close to being completed.

Bad offensive line play, poor play calling, bad front 7 play on defense, bad tackling, bad gap control, these are some pretty huge issues to fix for the Vikings moving forward. 49ers may be fractions better than anticipated, and the Vikings line issues may be way worse than predicted. Peterson isn't going to rush for 1500 yards running from the gun all the season.

You basically saw a Vikings offense in flux with Peterson back, they have to decide if they are going to be a play action pass orientated offense keying off of Peterson's run game. Or if they are going to keep trying to run RB sweeps/flat routes all game. I think the Vikings are a better offense off the play action pass, as we saw in the 3rd quarter.

My take on the Niners.

First, let's not pretend containing Teddy Bridgewater to 3 points is THAT special. Containing AP to 31 yards is commendable but since he basically hasn't really played in two years, it's not like the Niners were tasked with stopping him in potential MVP form. The scheme the Niners D ran definitely is more flashy than that of the Harbaugh era. This is the thing though, back then the Niners basically said "hey, we'll be rushing 4 and dropping 7 into zone coverage, go ahead and try to score some points." It wasn't flashy but damn was it effective. Now we are getting flashy, which is more exciting to watch but also indicative of how much talent they lost on that side of the ball. Scheme can cover some deficiencies but can also leave you very exposed. I think what Mangini is doing is great, but I'm worried about what a real QB is going to be able to do to that defense.

Offense doesn't look a whole lot different than what we saw in the Harbaugh era. A pretty pedestrian passing attack supported by a beast of a run game. I said Hyde would be a key player to watch this year and so far he's delivered (and I'm harking back past this one game here on that). I'm confident in Hyde as the Frank Gore heir apparent. Curious that the O-line seemed to be run blocking much better than last season, I'm really wondering if they quit on Harbaugh actually. I do realize it is a new zone blocking scheme, but generally it seems that it takes new O-lines several weeks to nail down the zone-block run scheme...

Special teams... wtf guys? Was for the most part pretty terrible. Overall I give the coaching a grade of incomplete, I think they put together a great defensive scheme but pass offense still isn't clicking and just too many killer penalties out there.

*edit: Oh, and after looking great one play Reggie Bush is hurt the next, on a scale of 1-10 my level of surprise on that was about a -3.

Stat line this morning is... yeah, I dunno. 10 carries? Jesus fuck why don't you just kneel it out for an entire half.

Bradford had 52 pass attempts. I would be really interested on the actual yards in the air versus YAC. It seemed to me like he never threw more than 5 yards down the field and the one time he went further (8 yards!) it ended the game.

Once the Eagles started clicking they looked fine. They had a terrible half and it cost them. Dallas doesn't beat us next week.

The game I watched had Atlanta playing 5 yards off receivers, leaving guys wide open on the sidelines, and missing tackles. That's why I'm interested in seeing YAC because it seemed like Atlanta was just doing a horrible job of handling the underneath stuff and giving up a lot of that.

I expect Dallas to play a bit better. Atlanta is at least getting a new system into place and their defense has been pretty bad for a couple of years now and were 32nd last year.

Don't get me wrong, this is an even matchup so it should be a good game.

Convo_sl said:

Once the Eagles started clicking they looked fine. They had a terrible half and it cost them. Dallas doesn't beat us next week.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't be surprised if it'still a repeat of last year where Eagles blow Cowboys out in the first game while the Cowboys blown them out in the second. They're going to be down Dez, Hardy, Rolando, Gregory, and Leary next week.

49ers looked a LOT better than I thought they would. My mancrush on Jarryd Hayne has subsided a bit after watching what transpired last night, but he is a rookie who did rookie things. Im willing to look past this game.

Kaepernick was obviously pretty poor in respect to being able to move the ball down field via the pass, but I kind of liked his attitude and commitment to not being sacked. He was sacked more than anyone other QB last year not named Blake Bortles. I mean, he got sacked 58 fucking times or something, and Im sure the coaching staff sat down at some point and was like "ok, guys, listen, we need to protect our QB " and it showed. Tomsula is going to have Chryst design schemes to protect Kap, and if that means limiting him to 20 throws a game and using jumbo sets Im fine with it.

Hyde looked like the young, powerful player he was all along. Harbaugh just didnt really want to put Gore out to pasture out of respect for him as a player and person, so Hyde was limited to cameo's last year. Now he is going to get 20+ carries a game for the rest of the year. He might finish with 350 carries when its all said and done, because the 49ers will end up having the heaviest run game in the NFL when the season is over.

Ambiturner_sl said:

Wouldn't be surprised if it'still a repeat of last year where Eagles blow Cowboys out in the first game while the Cowboys blown them out in the second. They're going to be down Dez, Hardy, Rolando, Gregory, and Leary next week.

Click to expand...

No Dez really going to hurt against the Eagles. Julio Jones abused the Eagles secondary and Dez is the same type of receiver, he would have smoked those poor Eagles CBs like a pack of Marlboros.

Slaythe_sl said:

I have to give credit to you Jozu. Somehow you always find a way to look at this team with a glass half full. Why do you think the 9ers have a chance tonight? Beyond that, why are they going to beat the Steelers? Because they lost to the Patriots in week one? And Seattle lost GAME ONE, so obviously that division is up for grabs now?

I live in MN. I'm in a constant state of pessimism about my teams because through the course of my life they have let me down more times than not. There are a lot of homers out there, but you take it to another level.

Click to expand...

Yea, Im a die hard Niners fan so my opinion of them is obviously biased lol.

But hey man, they won this game pretty convincingly, and whats better, their secondary looks pretty decent. Bridgewater might be secretly bad, so it wasnt that big of a feat, but Eric Reid is a top 10 safety in this league IMO. 3rd year guy already a captain and leader on defense, and he isnt even the best Safety on his team, with Bathea coming off a Pro Bowl season. Add in the other young DB's like Reaser, Ackers, Johnson, Ward, and Tartt, to go along with Brock, and you have a solid defensive backfield. Bowman had 7 tackles and a sack last night so he is still finding himself, but Aaron Lynch looked damn good.

I think this is a defense that can shut down mediocre/bad offenses, but will look average against the Aaron Rodgers of the world. Overall though, my optimism will probably start to wane once that tough schedule kicks into gear and they are sitting at 2-5 lol.

Sounds like the excuses have started.

Slaythe_sl said:

Rough game from Teddy but pretty knee jerk to declare him awful after one game. Especially after how well he played as a rookie. I'd put most of the offensive blame on the o line and play calling.

Mobile QBs have always been an issue for us, but the rhetoric coming out of training camp and the offseason was just how much focus they put on run defense. I don't think the D plays that terrible all year, and we'll have better luck against a more pass heavy team that we're built to defend. Certainly a disappointing outing.

Click to expand...

Thats why I said secretly bad. Im not going to lie I did edit the post from originally saying he sucked lol.

I dont think he is a bad QB. But the lamentations about the offensive line were true it seems, so it doesnt matter how dynamic of a player he is if he has no time in the pocket. Honestly look at Kap last year. Thats what im most pleased about going forward, him avoiding getting hit and sacked. When your QB is always under pressure your season usually turns out bad. If the Vikings dont fix their o-line, its not gonna get any better for you.

Slaythe_sl said:

Rough game from Teddy but pretty knee jerk to declare him awful after one game. Especially after how well he played as a rookie. I'd put most of the offensive blame on the o line and play calling.

Mobile QBs have always been an issue for us, but the rhetoric coming out of training camp and the offseason was just how much focus they put on run defense. I don't think the D plays that terrible all year, and we'll have better luck against a more pass heavy team that we're built to defend. Certainly a disappointing outing.

Click to expand...

I'd agree... He did some stupid stuff and overthrew, but that one pass that wasn't called a PI was beautiful. The issue was he basically had 0 time to do anything with how much pressure he was getting due to the bad o-line. Getting Peterson out there may have helped some, but probably not as it seems the o-line couldn't block a elementary school team with how abysmal they were. I usually put very little weight in the first games of the season, but it was bad all around for the Vikes.

Convo_sl said:

Sounds like the excuses have started.

Click to expand...

For stating the reality of the situation?

I actually think Dallas will be fine. They managed well enough without Dez on Sunday and defensively the Giants were a good test for teams that work quickly and utilize the short game. Besides, I wouldn't give you the satisfaction of a "but we were missing x player" response. That's too far into homerism for me.