Post by Krauser on Nov 4, 2022 13:10:13 GMT -6
I will say that the execution was crisper against the Cardinals, which is exactly what one would hope for coming out of the bye week. And they ran it better. I particularly enjoyed the runs off Tackle that has been lacking prior to Sunday. Darrisaw is a bulldozer.
This will be an interesting test. The last two opponents were blitz heavy. Washington will look to get pressure with their front four.
In terms of failed execution, Cousins missed a couple of throws on 3rd downs (Osborn by the sideline, Jefferson on the scramble drill in the 1st quarter) that he usually makes. The strip sack fumble lost was Ingram being a half-step late to pick up a blitz, but Cousins really should’ve pulled the trigger sooner on the dig route to Jefferson anyway, given that Arizona was bringing pressure. Ingram also got run over by JJ Watt on a couple of other 3rd downs. I don’t remember any other big issues. They went 3 and out a couple of times at the end of the game but they were pretty clearly in clock killing mode, running on 1st and 2nd down into stacked boxes.
On the flip side, the run scheme was excellent, with some interesting wrinkles. Mundt’s TD was another great design by O’Connell, who’s created a wide open receiver in the end zone on a low red zone play just about every week. They got receivers open in intermediate windows, even if Cousins missed a couple of those throws.
Arizona’s defense isn’t terrible. They got smoked by the Chiefs in week one when they stupidly decided to blitz Mahomes on almost every play, but they’ve been respectable otherwise. Aside from KC, their two worst games by expected points were the Eagles and Vikings, both just under -10. Minnesota would’ve scored 38 on them if Joseph had made his kicks.
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In the bigger picture, KOC has had to adapt a few times to defenses taking away what he wants to do on offense. The Lions (doubling Jefferson and holding Thielen) and Dolphins (playing base vs 11 to stop the early down run game) in particular forced him to change strategies on the fly. The good news is that the offense improved as those games went on, and ended up with respectable points totals in both (even if the fancy stats were terrible in Miami), and a couple of wins. I do think there’s a learning curve, but some of that is within-game, not so much over the course of the full season, and O’Connell has been able to make those adjustments.
Main problems with the offense so far IMO:
Cousins is (still) too conservative, taking so many checkdowns off play action, and (unusually for him) not consistently accurate
Cook has been OK but not breaking tackles to turn nice gains into big plays. With the run blocking as good as it is, an elite back (which Cook probably isn’t anymore) should be dominating games
The IOL pass blocking still isn’t great, especially the last 2 weeks as Ingram is trending down
They haven’t had a weapon at TE. Irv Smith hasn’t been getting open downfield consistently and he had a couple of bad drops when he did get targeted on what should’ve been big plays
Thielen and Osborn are a good WR2 and 3 pairing but they don’t scare anyone downfield, so safeties haven’t had to respect any deep threats aside from Jefferson.
None of those factors are really scheme dependent or have anything much to do with the play calling. O’Connell’s offense is well designed and the execution has been good for the most part (aside from Cousins missing some throws, the IOL pass pro and Irv having a bad year).
The personnel is limited in some important respects, including at QB. Kwesi’s moves may improve that as the year goes on. Hockenson is a big upgrade at TE and I still have some faint hope of incorporating Reagor as a deep threat WR4 who gets targeted on a go ball 2 or 3 times a game to keep the safeties honest. Ingram hopefully will improve again (he was better earlier in the year, and pass blocking was his strength in college), and if not, they do have some useful veteran depth in Chris Reed. Not an addition of course but Cousins can also play better, and maybe he will as he gets more experience in the scheme.
But overall, I think they’re more likely to be a top 8-10 offense than top 3-5, even if everything is going well. Cousins doesn’t have that elite top end, and O’Connell’s scheme isn’t revolutionary stuff (like Reid or Shanahan/McDaniel), it’s just a good modern offense, with an admirable attention to detail. It doesn’t look like they’re expecting to be able to blow the doors off anyone, they just want to put up some points and find a way to win at the end. It’s not a recipe for an elite contender but it does fit with them being a good, competitive team this year.
... and neither is this Chris guy.