Cowboys at Vikings

[bt08]

No offense, but you have generally been striking me as the least logical regular poster on this board. After the loss in Detroit, you argued up and down the line about how the defense deserved a large percentage of the blame despite only allowing 13 points before the offense giftwrapped Detroit by turning it over deep in Vikings territory at the end. The O, of course, struggled to put up a pathetic 13 points of their own. This time against Dallas, the offense was nearly as bad, only putting up 15 points, but they did manage to almost tie the game at the end (before blowing the 2-point conversion) rather than handing it over easily to Dallas. In both games, the defense squandered away small leads (which I don't blame them for - but you did, hence why I bring it up) in the 4th quarter.

So why does the offense deserve more credit for the loss against Dallas than they did in Detroit, while the defense deserves more praise? Again, the offense actually outperformed themselves compared to the Detroit game (albeit it marginally so), but last week, you were all upset about the defense as well. You make no sense, dude.

I was arguing up and down? I was just making an observation based on, on field performance. Anybody can criticize the Offense, we could go on all day about them but it was the D in those 2 Detroit games that didn't get it done when it counted.
We all know football analysis is all about sense right. Your're reading too much into everything I post. Bottom line is the team is now 6-6 and if we don't go at least 3-1 the rest of the way we are done.

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

This team is fucking snake bit.

I'll always be among the last to ever be willing to blame injuries for a team performing badly, especially over the course of an entire season. That said, the 2016 Vikings team is somewhat an except to me, despite what I consider a fairly firm unwillingness to be a homer about things.

This season, we have lost -
1) Our starting QB Teddy Bridgewater a week before the season began, had to trade last second just to get a serviceable player at the most important position in the game.

2) Starting RB who is arguably still top tier (never had a chance to prove he wasn't still the top pure rusher in the game this year) 1 1/2 games into the season. Never mind the fact that this team has been built almost entirely around AP for the vast majority since he entered the league a decade ago, this was a massive change that impacted the team probably even more than Teddy's loss.

3) The O-line sucked all along from the start, but they're basically on 3rd and 4th stringers all the way around at this point. As a result, we've had one of the league's worst O-lines in recent history to protect our last second replacement QB and run game that relied immensely on AP being a beast despite poor O-line play, without him.

4) Norv Turner resigning 7 weeks into the season. Tough to imagine a team having a good year overall with their O-coordinator giving up on them like that, good reasons for doing so or not.

5) Blaire Walsh was stinking it up for 9 games at an embarrassing rate that would have been hard to predict based on his overall performances in years past. Having to replace your kicker for being this awful mid-season does not bode well when you already field a bottom feeder offense that struggles to put up any points.

6) DT Shariff Floyd has been out all year. Some other key defenders have been banged up on and off all year as well.

7) Zimmer having to be gone for this past heartbreaking loss to Dallas that pretty much sealed the fate of the season - and hopefully he isn't gone for more.

I don't care how anti-homerism anyone might be, but expecting this team to perform much better than they did given the circumstances would have been blind optimism at best. I'll admit I held onto that optimism myself to an extent up until the loss in Chicago, but that was it for me. "Maybe next year", story of us Vikings fans...

 

[GhostOfPoverty]

I was arguing up and down? I was just making an observation based on, on field performance. Anybody can criticize the Offense, we could go on all day about them but it was the D in those 2 Detroit games that didn't get it done when it counted.
We all know football analysis is all about sense right. Your're reading too much into everything I post. Bottom line is the team is now 6-6 and if we don't go at least 3-1 the rest of the way we are done.

As in our previous interactions, you're not really rebutting anything I've said. You continue to strawman what I say and base what your own arguments primarily on emotion (which you even alluded to in this post I'm quoting).

It's not like I've been a total stat monger about this like you imply. The only stats I ever referenced were the D being top 3 in total defense and top 2 in points allowed, used more as an emphasis on what I was already saying to defend them than relying primarily on the stats. Also, I'd say points allowed by a defense are just as good of an indicator of their overall season performance as points scored is for offenses - pretty significant considering those are the only stats that matter when it comes to winning the games. If anything, it's pretty amazing that the defense has managed to stay top 2 in total points allowed despite having arguably the worst O in the entire league to compliment them. I mean, imagine how lights out they'd be if the O was even just middle of the pack instead of consistently ruining every chance they have at winning games, lol.