This game tomorrow ... got no feel for it at all.
I think it's a really hard game for anyone to predict. Both teams are relatively new to the upper echelon, though the Vikings have been building something over a couple of years.
Both have benefitted from relatively soft schedules. The best team the Vikings have beaten is probably NO which I believe took a while to settle in to the season. We've beaten the 'Boys, a half-excellent Jags team, and the Texans D front without their young stud QB. ... I dunno.
Both teams have really good defenses which have faced few premier offenses.
Our offense is probably higher octane. Theirs is perhaps steadier, and may have more upside than it has shown.
Coaching on both sides is excellent. Do McV and Wade have higher upsides? Maybe. Maybe not. McV is still inexperienced, which can show up in really tight games.
OL. DL. Who knows? Lots of quality on both teams. Their lines more broadly top shelf? I dunno.
Our biggest deficit: the running game. Their D is superb against the run. Our D is suspect against it. Can we for once shut down a tough running game from the gun? Can McV figure a way to get production from the running game against a really tough D front 4 with fast LBs?
Perhaps our biggest edge: the medium passing game. They have got to be thinking A) stop Gurley, A1) cover the deep ball, A2) rush Goff. I think we have to throw to TEs and WRs from 2-12 yards, underneath the Cover 2. We have a lot of capability there, though we haven't seen it lately. Big day for Kupp?
McV loves misdirection. Does a broadly tough D with a great front 4 and fast LBs simply sit in their Cover 2 zone, ignore the fakes, and rally to the ball? Shades of TB, 1999. Will McV get tied up in ineffectual complexity?
My biggest question: Is McV
THAT BRILLIANT? The Vikings are a classic case of a very well coached team. Is the young McV so brilliant he can beat utterly sound coaching of a fine defense? We'd like to think so. But perhaps he is "just" a very good coach who got their at a young age. Maybe we don't have a coaching edge on Offense.
I just don't bleeding know. I have little feel for this game. My head tells me that it's the sort of game that an up-and-coming falters in because they aren't used to that level of competition. On the other hand, believe it or not, my heart more or less expects a win. That combination is unusual for me--usually it's the reverse.
I also wonder how much history is clouding my (our?) perspective. Lots of years of losing and a pent-up sense of expectation that the fates owe us something. Add in the reverberations of '99, which we all know was once in a lifetime and yet which always lingers in our minds as a template for what happens when the Rams rise.
I have no freaking idea. None whatsoever.
I suspect a tight, low-scoring game. I expect that we will compete pretty well. I know that both teams will know a lot more about themselves afterwards. But, the result? Not a clue.
This game is a turning point in our re-build. And I have no idea which way we are heading. At least, living in Minny, I get to see the game.
