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Change the Game December 2, 2023
It has never been about making the playoffs. The trap that too many had
fallen into as if to think that doing so would somehow save your job as head
coach in the NFL. The very thought is a fallacy.
The objective is and will always be ... making it to the Super Bowl ... to have
a 50/50 chance of hoisting that Lombardi trophy ... in our case ... for
the first time. That hasn't happened since our 1976 season to which I cut
a one inch yellow ribbons in shame to add to the back of my shirt. It is a
symbol of cowardice as it takes pure "insanity combined with resolve"
to punch that ticket into having that chance. It is that way just because
... even though you are there ... you must face the possibility of being bested
on that day. You don't want to see that shirt ... to see the shame that
I'm carrying ... for each year, that some say just doesn't matter ... for all
that pay makes for a very comfortable hammock. Well we are here to tell
you that it does matter as the yellow ribbons don't come off until they punch
that ticket to the Super Bowl. It is time to awaken from the simple
slumber of being just a naive dope. People ... it is well beyond being a
Minnesotan.
So we are 6 & 6 ... which doesn't matter. All that matters is
qualifying for that tournament..
Does a quarterback's win/loss record based upon starting the game really
matter? No, it does not as in the NFL you're in the consideration of a
team sport. Can the quarterback influence the outcome? The answer is
unequivocally yes but it is only part of the equation with too many variables to
count. In other words, is Tom Brady a cheater? No ... he has perfect
balls.
Does a head coaches win/loss record really matter? The answer is
unequivocally yes.
Brian Flores has the entire league "A-Buzz" where all discussions turn
quickly to him being the next NFL coach once again. Why? Because he
... like Buddy Ryan ... has changed the game. In Buddy's case ... it was
his 46 defense that sent quarterbacks throughout the league into the chopping
mill. In Brian Flores case, he's invented a new pressure defense ... like
Buddy ... with 6 or more rushers on the line that fall back into a hybrid
defense.
Now Kevin O'Connell is clearly a great coach but it's not time to blow smoke up
his ass. He must understand that it is him that decides the outcomes of
these games which means both "The Good" and "The Bad".
In watching his latest contest versus the Bears, there was a great deal
decisions on that field that must be discussed in earnest in that Kevin
O'Connell must understand that he must focus on the ultimate goal of getting to
the Super Bowl and to do so ... he must "Change the Game" like Flo ...
but on the offensive side of the ball. To do so, we need to review &
dissect it all.
To begin let's talk about mocking God. It is reported that Adrian Peterson
was asked to blow the Gjallarhorn. There is only one place Adrian Peterson
should be & that is on your practice squad busting his ass to get his shot
at immortality. Horror & dread was unleashed upon me followed by a
torrent of anger & wrath upon my failure to open that door. This was a
major screw up or gaff ... of historic proportions ... leading to the door being
left just ajar enough to get your shit together. Get off your ass &
get your ducks in order. Adrian can say no but so could Anthony Barr have
said no but I see him on that field ... didn't I. Get the hell off your
egos.
Coach O'Connell is taking considerable heat for his mid field call to go for it
on 4th & 6 to which I say this is exactly how you change the games.
Sure, at first I was angry as it resulted in a turnover on downs, which
ultimately resulted in 3 points for the Bears. This opened the flood gates
of criticism upon coach as he should have punted the ball as they say but to be
direct, the call was exactly right. Firstly, NFL kicker are pieces of
shit, where if you'll look closely, our punter help to decide the outcome of the
game by punting the ball out at the 22 yard line rather than trapping the Bears
inside the 10. I wonder who paid for that? Then again, Coach
O'Connell ... just prior to that major punting gaff ... made the decision not to
try a 61 yard attempt by our place kicker which again was the correct decision
with his history of shaving points. Maybe one day we'll get all those NFL
kickers to answer "THE QUESTIONS" hooked up to lie detectors to see if
all that crap is on the level ... to clean it up once & for all. From
what we've seen ... kicking in NFL games is allot like stuffing all those ballot
boxes. No! No! Both are as pristine as an azure
river.
So what was the net result of Kevin O'Connell's decision? He is clearly
making a conscious effort to change his offensive approach to NFL
football. After all, on that 4th & 6 from mid field he didn't fail ...
the offense failed to execute what was necessary to secure that first
down. I don't care if Dobbs had to break the pocket with his legs or if
one of his receivers needed to break the sticks somewhere down the field.
It was a monumental failure of "Coach's-putting-Trust-In-His-Offense"
where he was let down. Coaches response should have been ... "OK, you
failed ... but now you owe me ... and I'm not going to take my foot off the
gas. I'm nuts ... and that how we are going to play it going
forward. We are not going to leave it on the field. Losers settle
for field goals. Losers don't respond to opportunities. It's your
choice. Nut Up!" So yeah, we should be applauding Kevin
O'Connell's decision in that crucial 4th & 6 play at mid field ... as it was
early enough to respond to our failure. Kudos to Kevin O'Connell on
attempting to change the game even though his risk ended up badly.
They clearly did not understand his "ORDER" to decapitate ... without
question.
Now for Kevin O'Connell's tragic failure. Justin Fields just fumbled where
the Vikings march down the field & score our first touchdown of the
night. After an entire day of watching our offense sputter, Dobbs finds
that spark within himself after dealing with four (4) interceptions ... none of
which I had a problem with except his first he was a little late versus a great
play on the ball. We have a 10-9 lead with newly established Viking
momentum. The kid was dealing with a massive load of crap & he finally broke
through the barrier. The Vikings kick off and the Bears move the ball
right up to Justin Fields 2nd fumble with a Viking recovery. To be direct,
the Vikings win percentage at that very moment was very near 100% along with one
caveat ... the Vikings needed to secure 1 more first down. Get that 1st
down and the game was over. That should have been coaches one & only
directive where it comes down to guys ... we have four downs to do this.
Now was his opportunity to
shine.
This is were Coach Kevin O'Connell had his opportunity to not only secure
victory ... it was his chance to change NFL football on par with Flo's newly
invented defensive schemes. Instead, what he did was to follow the NFL's
playbook of loser football.
What should have been paramount in his mind is that I have this impressionable
young quarterback with a beyond belief story ... that was in process of being
written under my guiding hand. Josh (in his ear piece) ... we have four
shots of trolling this first down & I'm going to put the ball directly into
your hands to get it done. I don't give a crap what's thrown at you ...
use your arm ... use your legs ... use your creativity to extend the bitch until
you get it done.
So what did we get? 1st & 10 Alexander Mattison for no gain. Win
probability from 100% down to 35%. 2nd & 10 Alexander Mattison for no
gain. Win probability is now down to 0%. Kevin O'Connell's
directives were absolutely insanity & to be direct the Viking nation is sick
to death of this baloney. Handing the ball off to Mattison literally
let the air out of the balloon ... like watching that Viking in the balloon
floundering in Super Bowl IV. With one more little detail to go with this
monumental gaff ... this isn't the 1st time Kevin O'Connell has used this game
management fallacy.
Now instead on 1st & 10, Ty Chandler is in that backfield, where his
role is to pick up the blitz where if the Bears drop into coverage, Ty would
then bleed out of the back field as an additional slashing outlet. The
offenses intent is to secure yardage 4 to 6 yards either by using Dobbs arm or
by using his legs if the opportunity presents itself. In fact, maybe we
should have used a designed role out. At that moment, the Bears had to
cover the entire field, not just the sidelines, meaning everything favored the
offense in that moment to secure yards. If caught in bounds, the clock
runs & the Bears call time out. If the ball falls incomplete ... great
... the clock stops & both teams keep their time outs. At just under 3
minutes at the start, maybe were at 2:40 left on the clock. 2nd down, same
thing, maybe we secure enough yards to get to 3rd & 4 to 3rd & 1.
The clock runs and the Bears call their final time out. If that 2nd down
attempt falls incomplete again, you have 3rd down with the Bears with 2 time
outs remaining with 2:32 left on the clock. Again, you call the same type
of pass play on 3rd down & if close enough on 4th down you do a
QB-tush-push. Either way the offense focus is on securing that 1st down
using the entire playbook to get it done. Instead of giving this up &
coming phenom 4 chances to secure the victory by securing just one more 1st down
... instead we give him just one attempt using a quick out 1 yard loss.
These actions were inexcusable ... and Kevin O'Connell lost his chance to
"Change the Game".
Again, once you qualify for the commissioners playoff format, the regular season
results are meaningless. Did we forget that we were 13-4 in 2022 ...
MEANINGLESS! Once there the only perceivable outcome is in the ability to
change the outcome of any game. That takes a coach with a set of big beefy
balls! Are you listening? Do you think for one moment that Flo
wouldn't do it ... given the chance? Do you think any contract that Kevin
O'Connell has will prevent that from happening? Kevin's money is sunk ...
where the only thing that matters is getting it done. Wake up!
Change the Game!
Now let's consider that we just blew 3 plays having missed completions on all 3
attempts. The Bear's have 2 time-outs left, with about 2:20 to 2:32 left
on the clock. We punt the ball to the 22 yard line where the Bears need 3
points to win the game. With those time outs in their pocket & the 2
minute warning they're going to run the ball. Based upon the fallacy they
too run the ball & we consume our 2 times outs plus the 2 minute warning
with one time out left on the clock. Now they are on their own 40 yard
line where they have to use the side lines & their two remaining time out by
passing the ball down the field to secure that next 1st down. What would
Flo do in this situation? Maybe they score ... maybe not ... but the
result of the game either is 10-9 Vikings win or a 12-10 Vikings loss. Say
nothing changes. We can all live with that as now we have no
choice.
What we pissed away was the opportunity of telling those boys that on 4th &
6 at mid field they screwed up during the middle of that game. Now ...
this is your opportunity to pay it back. I believe in all you knuckleheads
& I'm going to pull out all the stops to come up with Kevin O'Connell
magic. UP OR DOWN WE ARE GOING TO LOSE THIS BITCH ON MY TERMS.
Instead, what did we get? We got calls for Joshua Dobbs head to be
served-deliciously-up on a silver platter. Kevin O'Connell's gaff did
everything to destroy Dobbs from taking strides toward becoming elite in this
league. Shame on you for giving him 1 attempt at it when you could have
given him 4 attempts at reaching immortality. Some become immortal over an
entire salty career. Some become immortal in a simple moment in
time.
What you did is irrevocably ... un-reconcile-ably ... inexcusably ...
STUPID! Change the G-d Damn Game!
Hey Shit Head ... Rethink Dobbs? Are you kidding? It's not about
pin-head voting? Dobbs destroyed the Cowboys & he beat two teams with
top 10 defenses in the Falcons & Saints. The Broncos are now on their
5th straight Victory that beat the Packers, Chiefs, Bills & Browns ... a
super impressive list of top NFL teams & we lost by one on a game that we
could have won except for some inept offensive decisions made by our
coach. Dobbs did have 3 tipped ball interceptions & was late on one
throw however if it wasn't once again for our coaches incompetence ... we'd win
that game too. The problem isn't Dobbs although it wouldn't hurt to sport
a neck-hook on the side line to remind Dobbs that its on that side line to
ensure that he secures the freaking ball. To be direct Jaren Hall doesn't
have the NFL's experience to take us down the stretch ... as its now 4 games
further down the season where there isn't the time to prepare him. Nick
Mullens ... are you kidding me ... he has never shown "The Spark" of
that shown by Dobbs. After all, didn't we get a good dose of Mullens last
year versus the Packers. It was brutal.
Nothing personal coach as we all know how brilliant that you are but so was
Robert E. Lee. What he did in Gettysburg was inexcusable. These
words are spun out of absolute anger ... where it's not in scorn of you
personally. You need to CHANGE THE GAME the way that only Head Coach Kevin
O'Connell can do. What the media thinks that you did wrong was actually
correct and what is perceived on being the safe call (Mattison running the ball)
was actually a major gaff of epic porportions. You have to change what
you're doing as your poking large holes into my ship.
This offense was forced into flourishing without either our opening day starting
quarterback & without the NFL's number 1 receiver. The offense has
done remarkably well causing these individual to become
key-dynamic-un-stop-able-cogs moving forward. You would think that this
offense with JJ would be prolific upon his return ... but that's only dependent
upon JJ himself. Maybe in his time off he's learned how to kick.
Maybe his heart is only focused on his promise made on the day he was
drafted. Unfortunately, JJ will have to come to grips with his future with
this franchise & not on the UNCONTROLLED that he may have wanted ... as that
ship ... has sailed. Triggers ... to the head ... are pulled by numerous
UNFORESEEN forces regardless of what anyone may actually want. That is the
nature of Free-Agent-Status ... as the choice lies with the player. Even
Kirk Cousins may say one thing only to do another ... he is real not
fictional. Can you blame him? When it gets down to the marrow ... He
is no different than anyone else.
The Viking Ghost Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: December 2, 2023
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