The TD was to Hill, in the corner. The only player on that side of the field was Smith. Smith got caught thinking they were going to through a quick swing pass to the running back, who was uncovered. I actually thought one of the linebackers screwed up and Smith tried to "cover" for him by cheating toward the running back then got burned when Hill went deep. If Smith had stayed with Hill and Brees had dumped it to the running back, there was no one else within 20 yards.
This isn’t getting talked about enough. How can NFL coaches be so awful with time management? They could’ve gotten the ball with like 2:40 left but instead let the clock roll down and then the 2 minute warning went by during the punt. Didn’t they end up not even using their timeout either? Terrible
He was responding to my comment, in which I mentioned the long completion thrown by Taysom Hill. I just said whether or not that deep completion was on Rhodes, he still deserves a lot of credit for playing well, especially hurt considering his struggles this year. I know the Vikings didn't really say - they just said it was a miscommunication. Based on Rhodes outside leverage and Smith bailing to get deep I could see that maybe S help in the middle was supposed to be there, but considering it was Hill at QB and Brees on the sideline I could also see them leaving Rhodes on an island on that play. It's rarely straightforward with Zimmer. Coverages are tough to diagnose, and there is so much demanded in run support from the Safeties and Corners on a given call that it's tough to say.
I think the guaranteed aspect is really overblown. Considering his age and the length of the contract barring something really wild it was going to all get paid to him anyway. And I think people have to look at what he did at Washington with some perspective. He would get them to the playoffs surrounded by very little talent in an organization that has been one of the most disfunctional messes in the NFL for 20 years. I think they have to also look at what the Vikings have done with the OL. In the last 6-7 drafts They have spent maybe three round 1-3 picks on OL. They stockpiled late round picks and have picked some OL, but have pretty much missed on all of those. The single biggest unit on a football team, and they've been very frugal both with high picks and free agents. I think blowing all that money on the OL a few years ago with Boone and others had Spielman really gunshy about spending picks and $ on the OL, but have addressed it a bit the last three drafts. I think Stefanski deserves a lot of credit for dealing with a less than stellar OL. The right side has been very good run blocking, the Left side pretty solid in pass protection, and as a whole they are good in the screen game. Fortunately Cook doesn't need a dominant OL, and because of the ability of Cook and the right side of the OL in the run game, the play action is deadly.
They kept one timeout, then all hell broke loose when Kamara picked up a false start on a spike play. That incurred either the usage of that TO, or a 10-second runoff (this was at roughly the MIN 40 or so). They elected to take the runoff, ran one play for a few yards, then kicked a FG with 7 seconds left...after, like you said, unnecessarily running down all the way to the 2-min warning.
I was wondering all game how long it would be until the Vikings deployed the PA home run pass. They waited and waited and waited...until the Theilen hit in OT. IIRC every other time they ran a similar play, the throw was <10 yards away.
I can see how neutral and opposing fans might get a bit tired of the homerism but he talks so much that he does a really good job of describing each play. You can generally get a pretty good feel for what is happening when he is announcing.
