
Forum �bersicht Suche Login Registrieren Forums-Blog Landkarte

26	November 2018

it�s time to take a look at things from the other sideline

As we do every week Youth Andrew Sendejo Jersey , leading up to this week�s Minnesota Vikings contest. This week, the Vikings are taking on the New Orleans Saints, and that means we�re exchanging questions with the folks from Canal Street Chronicles, SB Nation�s home for everything relating to Saints football.I had the opportunity to exchange questions with Christopher Dunnells, and whenever they post my responses to the questions they had for me, I�ll link them here and put them at the top of our page. In the meantime, here are the questions I had for him, along with his responses. Enjoy!One of the keys for offensive success for the Vikings on Sunday night? Find Ken Crawley.Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports1) Last season, after a rough start, the Saints� defense rounded into one of the better units in the league. This season, things haven�t quite followed, as the Saints are currently near the bottom of the league in points allowed, passing yardage, and passer rating allowed. What�s changed to derail a pass defense that appeared to be moving in the right direction at the end of last year?Regression from the Saints cornerbacks, most notably in #2 CB Ken Crawley. This is the primary reason the Saints went out to trade for former 1st Round Pick Eli Apple from the New York Giants. Hopefully the addition of Apple will help reinvigorate the Saints secondary and we can see a group that performs to the level of the second half of 2017.Demario Davis has been a key to the Saints� NFL-best run defense thus far.Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports2) Conversely, the run defense has been very good, allowing the fewest yards/carry in the NFL and the fewest rushing yards/game in the league. What has been the key to the Saints� outstanding play against the run through their first six games?The Saints defensive line has been stout against the run this year, but I would say there are two reasons why the Saints have a top-ranked rush defense: 1) the Saints linebackers are playing great - specifically, Demario Davis is having an excellent season in his first year in New Orleans. You could argue he�s playing at a Pro Bowl level right now, but he hasn�t quite gotten the recognition from the talking heads just yet. And 2) the Saints have struggled so mightily against the pass, opposing teams aren�t really choosing to try to run the ball. When you could previously just keep throwing at whoever Ken Crawley was covering, why in the world would you try to run between the tackles?The draft day trade for Marcus Davenport is just part of the reason the Saints have just one pick in the first four rounds of the 2019 NFL Draft.Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports3) With the trades they�ve made recently, the Saints now have just one pick in the first four rounds of the 2019 NFL Draft. Combined with the age of Drew Brees, does this make the 2018 season �Super Bowl or Bust� for the Saints in your opinion?You could see the Saints were going all-in on 2018 when they traded their 2019 1st Round Pick to draft DE Marcus Davenport and passing on QB Lamar Jackson. That made the Saints front office�s direction very clear. At the same time, the Saints had arguably one of the best draft classes in 2017 in the history of the NFL, with the reigning offensive and defensive rookies of the year (first time that happened on the same team since the award�s inception), plus numerous other key, young players.Combine the 2017 rookies with a young core that includes Cam Jordan, Michael Thomas, Marcus Davenport, Tre�Quan Smith, Demario Davis, Eli Apple, and one of the best offensive lines in football, and the Saints team wouldn�t have too many holes to fill in the 2019 draft regardless. The biggest concern would be the Saints� lack of a QB of the future, but if the Saints are able to keep Teddy Bridgewater (heard of him?) a la Jimmy G. in San Francisco after the trade from the Patriots, then I have no issues with the Saints sparse draft picks next year.Taysom Hill does a little bit of everything for the Saints.Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports4) Give us one player on each side of the ball that Vikings� fans might not necessarily know about that you think will play a role in deciding the outcome of Sunday�s game.Well I�ll start with the aforementioned Demario Davis. He�s been great thus far in New Orleans. He�s played the run exceptionally, holds his own in coverage, and has looked great when asked asked to rush the passer on a linebacker blitz. He would absolutely be someone to be aware of when the Vikings offense is on the field. Now when I�m asked to address a player on the �other side of the ball,� I�m going to go a little off script and go Taysom Hill. Taysom, the quarterback, halfback, tight end, wide receiver, gunner, holder, kick returner, hair stylist http://www.vikingsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-ben-gedeon-jersey , travel agent, and tire salesman... OK, I might have gotten a little carried away there at the end, but seriously, check out these numbers:Taysom is an absolute monster right now, and a player the Vikings have absolutely spent hours preparing for.He�s the up back on punts, and the Saints have already successfully executed two fake punts already this season - one was where Taysom threw a pass against the Giants, and the other a rush up the middle by Taysom against the Ravens. He also is seemingly unstoppable when running the read option. He�s let Alvin Kamara run up the middle, but he absolutely prefers to tuck the ball himself and run outside. The Saints have now shown a couple of looks where he�s thrown a pass out of the read option, and the Saints have also had Taysom run a sweep outside only to pitch the ball back to Kamara. Last week, they handed the ball to Taysom like a traditional running back. They�ve also shown multiple looks where Taysom is in blocking like a tight end.The Saints and Sean Payton continue to expand the Taysom Hill Playbook, and it wouldn�t be surprised to see another wrinkle added on Sunday. When Taysom is in at quarterback, Drew Brees stays on the field out wide. You just know Sean Payton is waiting to call some sort of double-pass. Taysom is also the primary holder for field goals and extra points, but we haven�t seen Payton break out the bag of tricks on those plays just yet.He has sub-4.40 speed and is used primarily on special teams, though. He wants to bring every kick that�s not deep in his own end zone out for a return. He�ll also lay the wood to opposing returners when he�s on the coverage unit. No matter how he gets used this week, when #7 goes on the field, Saints fans hold their collective breath in excitement.The last time we saw professional doucherocket Sean Payton, he was doing this. Will we see a repeat on Sunday?Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports5) How do you see the game playing out? Do the Saints get a measure of revenge for January?Mike Zimmer is giving lip service to Xavier Rhodes and Anthony Barr�s chances of playing on Sunday. I think a lot of this game will come down the Vikings ability to stop the Saints on offense. The Vikings will score against the Saints secondary. Adam Thielen will go off and Kirk Cousins will seemingly be able to pass at-will, even behind a shaky offensive line. I�ve just come to terms with that. I think this game will come down to the other matchups - when the Saints are on offense. Can the Vikings get enough stops to win a shootout? To me, if Rhodes is out or limited, I like my QB�s chances in a shootout over yours. Mine has done it before. Yours still has a lot to prove.I like the Saints 35-31, assuming no/limited Rhodes. If Rhodes and Barr are back and at full strength, I could easily see the score flipped.But �revenge?� Revenge for what? The 2009 NFC Championship Game? Your memory must be faulty - the Saints won that game on their way to a Super Bowl (do you know what those are? �Super Bowls?�). There�s nothing there to need �revenge.�But really - good luck this week, and as they say: may the Saints team win. Or something like that.As always, thanks to Christopher for taking the time to answer our questions, and man. . .who needs Cajun seasoning when you got that much salt, eh?I kid. . .Christopher is one of, like, a dozen decent Saints fans, so this was all in good fun. I think. I�m relatively sure. I hope.More on this week�s game as kickoff gets closer. Merry post-win Monday, everyone!Hey, a record of 4-2-1 and division leaders is a lot better than 1-2-1, isn�t it? That was only a few short weeks ago, and the team has rid itself of the anchor it was dragging, and is picking up a head of steam as they approach mid-season. They have another tough one coming up, as the Saints come to town, and the two will square off in Sunday�s late game on Sunday Night Football.Yesterday�s game was very dull for two quarters, the offense did very little, with the exception of a beautiful throw and catch from Cousins to Thielen. The rest of the half for the Vikings� offense was a lot of three-and-outs, very little from the run game, and I was starting to think of the yard work I could be enjoying. The defense was solid, and gave the offense a lot of opportunities, and the offense used those opportunities to give the punter a workout (it�s nice to have a punter with a leg like that, isn�t it?). The second half saw much of the same from the defense, as they dismantled Darnold and the Jets offense throughout the game. They got pressure on Darnold all day long, which translated into turnovers and a very frustrated Jets offense. The Vikings offense got it going somewhat, and although the team finished with 37 points, the offense never looked like they were firing on all 8. Cousins had a pretty good game Sheldon Richardson Jersey , and Murray had a couple of nice runs and two touchdowns, but I still want to see improvement. In the end, the team got its first win ever against the Jets in New York Jersey (yep, first time in history they�ve beaten them on the road), and improved to 4-2-1 and first place in the NFC North. The Packers play tonight, so they could be co-division leaders if the game doesn�t go right, but we�ll just say division leaders, because it really doesn�t matter until week 17 anyway. Those of you who watched yesterday�s broadcast will know that there was a rare atmospheric event in New Jersey yesterday called �wind�. Yes, wind. The announcers talked about it non-stop for much of the broadcast.I�m not really sure what it is, but from what I�ve read, something in the atmosphere makes the air move. It�s supposedly kinda� like if you stick your head or hand out of the window while you drive your car with the windows down, I really don�t know much about it, only the little I could find online, as this is a very rare occurrence, but I�m very shocked that the NFL allowed the game to go on. I looked on the National Weather Service site, and it reported this �wind� in East Rutherford was 19 miles per hour, and the maximum gust was 25 miles per hour. Now, that�s quite a bit lower than the 40 mph gusts they put up during the broadcast, but I�m sure that was a simple oversight by the crew. I�m sure it was hard to concentrate on getting the details right when they were just hoping to go home alive. I mean, we could be seeing the beginning of Armageddon, and they play the game? I�m disappointed that the NFL put everyone�s lives at risk, and I hope there is a full investigation. While I know that it will be another several centuries or more until this �wind� happens again, they should still understand that something so rare carries with it many unknowns, and they really don�t know what could have happened. They�re just lucky that everyone survived.Around the DN since our last open thread:Ted dropped by and delivered the latest Stock Market Report: Jets.Chris has the post-game wrap-up.Thielen tied a record that was set back in 1961, from Lucas Ailport.Could Thielen break the team�s single-season receiving record, currently held by Randy Moss? Vikings fans think so, per Chris.Vikings news from other sources and news from around the league:Over at Vikings.com, see all the highlights from the game, catch Coach Zimmer�s post-game locker room speech, hear the head coach talk with the press after the game, and there are lots more interviews and clips to look through in the media vault.Catch up on all the NFL week 7 scores and highlights, courtesy of ESPN.DeVante Parker�s agent called Adam Gase (Parker�s head coach) incompetent, per NFL.com. The agentinsisted that he was not trying to get Parker moved from the team, but I can�t imagine which other goal he would have in mind. NFL.com has a list of week 7 injuries to keep track of.We come to today�s media selection:I love it when I get to play this one, our DN tradition for the day after a win. STRIKE UP THE BAND!Again, we all know the rules, but in case someone is new: No discussion of politics or religionNo feeding of the trollsThis isn�t a male version of The View, so leave the gender hatred at the doorKeep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)Speaking of which, if discussing a newer show or movie, please use spoiler tagsNo pictures that could get someone fired or in serious trouble with their employerIf you can�t disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go awayWhile navigating the open thread, just assume it�s sarcasmWith that, the beer light is on and the bar is open. Belly up and tie one on. Don�t forget to tip your waitress, and try the knoephla soup.