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Broken Plan November 24, 2020
You could learn allot from the Cowboys game plan as it was exactly what should
have been done for Dalvin Cook. It's the difference between losing the
game ... which we did ... and being able to beat any team that we face.
So, who was that lying on the carpet near the end of the first half?
Yup! Dalvin Cook after a brutal hit over the center of the field.
That was after an entire half of Dallas's defense keying solely upon Dalvin Cook
... to brutalize him. What do you think might have been the result of that
contest if Justin Jefferson caught that TD early in that first half, after
establishing a series of methodical first downs? Do you think it might
have altered Dallas's game plan from focusing all their defensive reserves into
brutalizing Dalvin Cook? Well, was Elliot brutalized anywhere near that
extent in the first half? Do you think Alexander Mattison could have been
used in that first half to establish our early run game or is his approach to
the game too brutal on opposing defenses? I know ... Minnesotan's are not
only supposed to always be naive ... we must always play nice too. YOU
CANNOT HIDE THE BRUTAL EFFECTIVENESS OF ALEXANDER MATTISON.
So let's take a look at the game from Dallas's perspective. Dalvin Cook
makes up what percentage of the Vikings offense ... essentially all of it ... as
without him, the Vikings sport their Kirk-Tank-Offense-Incomplete (Isn't this
alone enough to want to protect Dalvin for the End Game?)? Well, because
the Vikings still haven't learned a thing ... they will clearly chase the
fallacy of securing an early lead, focused purely on riding #1 resource as if
there were no other ways of accomplishing their goals. Meaning that they
are going to want to establish Dalvin early & often to get that lead.
No wonder Cowboy fans call it Minne-HAH-HAH!~ Great, let them fall into
that trap, because our entire defense is going to key on him & we are going
to brutalize him with all our early reserves. You see, we (Dallas
Defenders) are willing to recklessly throw our well rested but callused bodies
early in any contest to destroy your #1 threat ... not so much in the 3rd &
4th quarter. So what was the result? Dalvin Cook took a brutal
beating again in that first half. Mission accomplished.
Now imagine what Kirk Cousins would have been without Dalvin Cook available in
that second half? Now look at how the Cowboys used Elliot in that first
half. He was used but he was not featured, nor was he taking the hits
anywhere near compared to what Dalvin Cook endured. Do you think Dallas
was following some sort of plan? Let me answer that for you. Those 3
receivers didn't destroy your defense ... the end game running game did.
Now imagine what Kirk Cousins would have been without Dalvin Cook available in
that second half. It's not that Alexander is a lesser threat than Dalvin,
however not having Dalvin on that field does directly affect Kirk Cousins
confidence levels.
Again, we are not trying to win the 1st & 2nd quarter. We are trying
to win the 3rd & 4th quarter. In other words, Kirk Cousins has to
establish his numerous offensive threats first ... keeping Dalvin Cook in
reserve for the end game.
So you still don't get it. What happens in chess when you bring your most
powerful piece out early in a game? Early in the game almost every piece
is on the field, primarily in defensive positions. From there an onslaught
of pieces are brought to bear upon your most valuable piece to trap it either
into an ineffective position or susceptible to a pin or scissor. Well that
is exactly what the brilliant omnipotent Gary Kubiak is doing with Dalvin Cook
rather than pressing Kirk Cousins skills into developing his very numerous
assets.
Last week, our head coach Mike Zimmer stated that he understood that he needed
to get Alexander Mattison involved in the game earlier, however that is exactly
what they didn't do. In other words, Mike Zimmer understood the problem,
however he wasn't strong enough as a leader to make 100% certain his plan was
followed or that he didn't actually believe that it needed to be done thereby
allowing Gary Kubiak a degree of freedom to allow him to continue unabated.
In other words, his command wasn't followed because it was without a clear understanding.
In the art of war, a clear & concise command was given, to which the ladies
of his court looked at each other, giggled, then thought to themselves that they
didn't have to follow his orders ... his plan of action. His response was
immediate. He dispatched one of the ladies of the court in front of all of
their very eyes to clear up any misconceptions of his direct order ... his
plan. Do you think they followed his orders to execute his plan after his
action to their response? I'm going to go out on a limb here but I think
they obeyed every order after that. Taken another way, when Lee
halved his army in the face of an already superior force at Chancellorsville, to
have Stonewall take a very nearly full day journey, on that still existing dirt
road, to position his force on the Unions exposed right flank, to route them at
the end of the day,(3rd & 4th quarter), do you think his orders (his plan)
was followed, or was it all by happenstance?
Have you ever heard the saying, the chain is only as strong as it's weakest
link. Did we forget that there is a chain of command. Sure, you can
impart anything & everything prior to the plan being established but once a
directive is given ... it must be followed ... or the chain is broken.
They call that losing. Knowing this, is it better to stress Kirk Cousins
into using his skills to exploit his offensive threats early or is it better to
stress Kirk Cousins late?
So what did we get from the Cowboys? Late in
the game did they stop running? No ... just the opposite. At the end of
the game what did we get? Well, to start, a well pounded piece of meat not ready
to Dalvin Cook. What followed was a bunch of incomplete passes that
stopped the clock thereby preserving time for the Cowboys ... so that they could
run the ball. In other words, Head Coach Mike Zimmer's potential master
plan was in fact thrown back into his face as Dallas did exactly what we should
have done.
Then again, maybe the plan was to lose this game even before it was ever played.
So where was New York, looking at Kirk Cousins strip sack, where he clearly took
a helmet shot in the head which we all know is illegal in the NFL. Keep in
mind, there was no flag thrown in Green Bay when Diggs touchdown was negated by
an offensive pass interference call that came from New York, causing us instead
to have to settle for a field goal & a loss rather than a 21-21 tie
overtime game. No, ... a sack was not enough for Mr. X-Green Bay.
No, he wanted more. So a long delay replay was reviewed by the
officials. They could have stated that Kirk Cousins was in the grasp, when
he was contacted by the second Poke, or in other words, they could have ruled
sack forward progress & left it at that. So instead of New York
declaring an obvious 15 yard personal foul, in our favor, for spearing the
quarterback helmet to helmet, the ball was handed over to the cowboys near our
red zone for an early 6 point lead. The league should be ashamed of
themselves.
How about those other calls, like the chop block, which requires two offensive
linemen to engage one defensive lineman. Yes, he was clearly chopped but
he was not engaged by a second offensive lineman. Sure, the offensive
holding on Bradbury looked bad however it looked bad because his own man took
out his legs, where Bradbury's hand where in perfect position. These all
negated Dalvin Cook's runs, which on the surface might not appear to be
important, but doesn't it does send a message that the officials are intent on
shutting down our run game,
Then, the most blatant call of them all, was the offensive face mask. Did
he actually grab the mask & twist it or was the head rotated in response to
the hand positioning on the helmet. Well I'll never know as they never
provided any other angle to see if Bisi actually grabbed the mask. Said
another way, why is it, that our defense never gets an offensive face mask
penalty call or is it that only some teams count whereas others don't?
Have you ever seen another kicking team being penalized for blocking in the back
or should it been handled like a running play where the defender turns his back
to the run offering no surface to block?
Here we go again. From that first strip sack fumble call which actually
was the spearing of Kirk Cousins helmet ... this was definitely a Dallas
officiating crew. Or does the league have absolute power over who
officiates what & for what measure. In fact, it would be nice to see a
random list of officiating crews posted before any season begins, or at least
before I purchase a ticket. Maybe all the officials names should be
displayed before the names of the offensive & defensive starters are
displayed.
One thing is for certain. Officiating is definitely controlled by the
crowd as without the crowd strange things can happen. It's not like it is
showing up in the win loss stats. After all those lovely calls, do you
wonder how a stadium full of purple might have reacted? Did it feel like
4th & 22 on December 28, 1975 all over again?
The Viking Ghost Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: November 24, 2020
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