Two absolute polar opposites happened in two weeks. The Vikings destroyed the packers week 1 and then traveled to Philly and got destroyed. Now there are a lot of things that can be said about these games and there are certainly conclusions to be drawn.
As all people who watch the NFL, we tend to overreact to amazing wins and horrible losses. After two weeks of the season nobody truly knows the team’s identity or how the season will end up. However there are trends to look at and glaring holes to examine. Overreacting to horrible games can be more justified than overreacting to good wins, a team getting completely exposed on both sides of the ball can conclude that there are some problems with the team.
In the Vikings case they showed some really offensive prowess in week 1 and flashed some potential on defense. The packers had virtually no weapons but had a good rushing attack against the Vikings. This caused some concern and 1 week later the eagles did whatever they wanted to do in the run game. These low spots were easily seen in week 1 yet dismissed because of the dominant offensive performance. The Packers had a wide open Watson for a touchdown, only he dropped it. In week 2, Eagles wide receiver, Quez Watkins didn’t drop it. There are small things you can chop up to luck or really dig deep to see the root of the problem.
After playing a shell zone defense the first half, the assumption was that many adjustments would be made following. However nothing changed as they continued to play soft zone and let up countless 5-6 yard passes. This makes no sense, to not even try something different is really concerning and seems like Donatell was being arrogant in thinking his defense could keep up with the high flying eagles. leaving mismatches such as D.J Wonnum on Devonta Smith apparent almost every drive. The players were dejected and half assed a lot of plays. There needs to be an ability to adjust and adapt to an opponent. The offensive struggles could be a result of a new coach still learning and fainting confidence. But Ed has been coaching for 37 years and yet he looked like a first year coach who was scared to change from a vanilla scheme.
Now all of this could be a huge overreaction and the Vikings could come out of this week and turn the tide. But the glaring problems this week could turn into much worse if not addressed. The Vikings have a new culture and I think they will bounce back from this and build off of their loss. Only time will tell but until then don’t take overreactions too seriously.
