Preseason Game 2 - 49ers @ Vikes

Ahh, the truth comes out at last. Explains everything.

You leave Michelle outa this buddy, she's a saint.

You having a Zach Wilson moment or something?

My apologies!

Time to change the batteries on my sarcasm detector.

People paid to watch that game last night. Smart or not - they did. 

In all seriousness, we know things are vanilla. But why does our vanilla look worse than most other teams' vanilla? I think two teams scored fewer than us this week (with Arizona still playing) - exactly one team scored fewer than us this week - and supposedly game 2 is the new "game 3" for preseason's importance. Other teams are somehow managing 27, 32, 42, etc. also "not showing jack on offense or defense". For a team that is considered a contender, you want to see a bit more consistency - yes, even in preseason and even from your backups. Miracles? No. But something resembling even a preseason NFL offense would be nice. If our backups can't execute "vanilla" against vanilla, what happens if we have a few key injuries? I get that the idea is that the other starters will mask those injuries, but as we saw the past couple of seasons, that's easier said than done. 

Also, I've been hearing all these great things about our WR depth. Did I doze off? Because I don't remember much from WR4-WR6. I get that Mannion and Mond aren't good, but if these guys have been looking so good in training camp, you'd think we would've seen a few more flashy plays against the Raiders and/or 49ers. But maybe I'm just cranky. I wait all week to watch Vikings football, and whatever THAT was last night was a disappointment. Outside of McGill - who is pretty darn impressive for a journeyman cut a million times - there wasn't much worth watching. For a team trying this "competitive rebuild" thing - you want to see a bit more from the "rebuild" portion, especially in preseason. I wanted to get excited about a lot of these younger guys. So far, preseason has left a lot to be desired - vanilla or not. 

yeah it sucked, but once it was announced that 27 players were going to be missing from the game, I already knew what to expect.  

our vanilla QB2's are more like that cheap imitation vanilla with that acrid medicine like smell.  But our 2nd tier defense pretty much dominated their 2nd tier offense. 

And because I was only looking at individual performances without the expectation of seeing anything that would resemble vikings football from a scheme or play standpoint it made things a bit more fun.  

If we have a few key injuries, we're screwed.  Probably like most teams.  

I'm actually decently excited about several young guys.  Cine, Asamoah, Evans, Booth (before he got hurt) all showed some nice stuff early.  I was hoping that there would be someone emerging from the Dline depth via last or this year's draft, but to no avail.  

the competitive rebuild component portion of what they trying to do is actually what you saw.  That rebuild portion.  Most of our depth is guys drafted within the last 3 years.  The most veteran guy on our second team defense is who?  Troy Dye maybe at 26?  or McGill if he makes it.  

It's what happens when you go four drafts in a row without getting a single useful defensive player.  2016-2019.  The best defensive player from those drafts is currently Armon Watts.  So that's why everyone looks green and hell and why the niners 3rd and 4th team beat ours pretty handily.  

there is some talent on the defense or at least it seems so.  Most of them aren't going to truly have their NFL sea legs for a full season if not two.  

And for those pining for a full rebuild, saturday's game is pretty much what that would look like just about every game.  

Well, it's either him or Blake Brandel as our primary swing tackle. Hopefully it's Brandel, but he doesn't have any experience starting so that could be a big problem if Darrisaw or O'Neill get hurt.