Playoffs? PLAYOFFS?!?

So I just watched again and even thought the All-22 isn't available yet I do think there are some interesting things:

First off, Reagor and Special Teams did everything they possibly could to lose this game and the Refs made some really terrible game changing calls.

-Let's start with Reagor - he was fine on punt return for the most part. He did a little less of his 'shuffle shuffle run into a defender' signature move. Then there was the 'oh sh*t I didn't complete my route. I'll just move over here at the last second so my qb can throw a pic six' move and the ever popular 'Did I leave the iron on? Oh sh*t, I was supposed to keep running' and then finally the end around where he looked like the kid that spun in circles on the bat and then tried to run. I didn't even pay attention to when they didn't target him because I'd already had enough. He's terrible.

-Now ST's. Blocked punts and allowed their offense good field position all day. Why didn't Joseph just kick the ball through the back of the end zone for the love of god. At least he made all of his FGs/PATs.

-Refs. Early whistles several times as we know. Those Sullivan plays were almost catastrophic. Helped us with the Ryan sneak on 4th down. There was also a missed PI on JJ by Gilmore on a critical play where he clearly face shielded him.

Defense
It was good not great in my opinion. Essentially giving away so many early point set the game script in motion that allowed the defense to appear better because I'm not sure they do it that way if the colts don't do certain things because of the score. But I'll give some examples.

In a couple of the colts early drives, especially on their TD drive, the defense did it's usual two deep guys in no mans land and they were able to exploit the middle of the field. The colts also had some success running the ball outside or short passes to the outside early on. Whether with WR's or RB's. Luckily, they only did it a few times. And granted they wanted to chew up some clock but they rarely exploited passing over the middle like in their first couple drives and here's probably why:

The vikings did change things up somewhere starting around the 11 minute mark of the second quarter when it was 20-0. First, they started blitzing a lot. I didn't count how many times, but they brought more than 4 a ton from this point and it put Ryan under way more pressure. Second, they were running Bynum and Harry up way closer to the LOS. Usually after the ball was hiked. But they were both taking up space in the middle of the field and ready to attack either the run or short passes because that's all Ryan could get out with the increased pressure. I want to say that they also had their CB's giving less of a cushion. They weren't pressing at the LOS at the time of snap but they were breaking on the receivers routes much earlier. It also helped with run defense doing it that way. It was actually a pleasure to watch the defense the defense dictating the pace and action than watching them sit back and wait for the opposing offense to pick them apart. It was so much more aggressive.

Two problems with it though, a mobile QB would probably eat them alive, and I almost wonder if it will be just a one time deal while they go back to death by a thousand cuts. Some combo of both would be great to at least keep the opposing offense on their toes. However, against certain teams it could certainly make them vulnerable to big plays.

Offense

There were two important things that I saw. One, they made Cook dangerous. Two, they finally used Osborn the right way.

First let's talk about KJ. I never really loved the idea of him being sort of a decoy while Thielen was the #2 WR. Where KJ might do a lot of deep routes and if he wasn't open he'd just drag defender and open the field for others. I never felt that's how he was dangerous. He just didn't have the dynamic speed to do that but I think his route running and having the ball in his hands is where he excels. And they made him that option yesterday. While he had a couple of deeper shots, it was mostly short passes and him finding seams in the middle then breaking tackles. I really really hope this is not just a one time deal and they keep him as involved in the offense.

Second, Dalvin. I've been mentioning from early on that I didn't think Dalvin was a great fit for this run scheme. Part of it was the scheme but part of it was Dalvin's skill set in that he wasn't as good at YAC as he used to be and he's not a very good pass catcher. And while it still burns my ass to watch him run into the back of his own guys on those runs up the middle, they got him outside more and they also made him a receiving weapon. Again, that may have been out of necessity to the game script, but I hope they learned something.

I didn't get the sense that the colts D was being overly prevent like in coverage or against the run. Still seemed like they were pretty much running their normal defense. Which is a very good defense at that.

I used to give the previous regime a ton of crap for running a fairly vanilla offense and it was true. And while I don't think the current offense is overly Vanilla, I do think it became fairly predictable. The high tempo, balls to the wall action that we saw yesterday is how I'd like to see them do it and what bodes well is that even though they slowed it down a bit in OT, they still used ALL of their weapons on both drive.

And here's the good news as well - when the D could have gone back to it's sort of wait and see approach, they dialed up blitzes on 4 of the 6 pass plays in OT and got a sack on one of the ones they didn't. They were also in much tighter coverage on all three completions. Not some dude standing in the middle of the field without a defender for 7 yards. When Bynum was deep though, he was still literally out of the screen and there were still plenty of plays where he was the second or third guy to the reception with almost no impact on the play.

Anyway, that's my two bits from yesterday. Fingers crossed that they go to school on that performance and use the next three weeks to perhaps experiment with what worked and what didn't. I would like to add one more thing on Donatell and KOC. In the second half it finally felt like they took the training wheels off and started calling the game with some balls. Like they finally said F it and let the players eat. Especially Donatell. KOC still did some wonky stuff but it was much less than normal. Maybe like he was trying to keep things too simple.