Stillers-Vikings Postgame Analysis and Notes

Stillers 27, Minn. 17� ���. Oct 25, 2009 ����Game # 7

 

Stillers-Vikings Postgame Analysis and Notes

 

The Stillers, with luck befitting The Irish, staved off the Vikes in a thriller to go into the bye week at 5-2.�� Along with Sister of Still Mill, Still Hacking, and Steel Hawkeye, I attended this barnburner of a game.� In the interest of time and expediency, this report will be shorter than normal.� �

 

Notes:

 

QB:� Ben had a very mediocre day.� Numerous passes were scattershot or indecisive.� 14 for 26 doesn�t cut the mustard.� His failure to scramble, with Moore available to block and plenty of green grass, on the 3d & 2 scramble late in the 3Q was inexcusable.� He followed that decision with a poor, low pass to Tonio that fell incomplete.��� He also had a foolish, careless fumble late in the 4Q that luckily rolled OOB.�

 

RB:� Mendy ripped off runs of 14, 16, and 17 yards, but sparingly carried the ball, toting it only 10 times for 69 yards.� He had an unforgivable fumble at the Vike 4 in the 4Q and was benched after that.�� He continues to fail at emplacing 4 points of contact on the ball when he�s carrying it.�� Parker was on the field for a play or 2 and had 1 rush for 2 yards.� Moore replaced Mendy in the 4Q, but for the 2nd consecutive game did not catch a pass.� Very bizarre.�

 

FB: Never used in this tilt.�

 

WR:� Wally led the way with 2 huge grabs, including the 40-yarder that produced the lone offensive TD.�� Tonio had a big RAC for 45.�� Ward was very quiet, with 1 grab for 3 yards.�� Gee, that Arians guy is a genius�.!!�� He dropped a seamer on 3D when he was hit immediately.�� Limas Peed did not dress.��

 

TE:� Miller had some clutch grabs in traffic and finished with 6 grabs for 38 yards.� His blocking was decent�.aside from a pathetic, weak-assed rushing attempt that personally caused Mendy to lose 3 yards in the 2Q.�� Very weak.��� Spaeth did little, as usual.�� Johnson had 1 grab for 4.��

 

OL: �A solid afternoon.�� Given the foe, this was their best effort of the season.� They opened room for the ground game and gave Benji decent time.�� Starks fared very well against the dangerous Jared Allen.� There was more BF penetration on some ground plays than I would have liked, but overall, well done.�

 

DL:� The line was okay against Petersen, who gained a healthy 69 yards on only 18 carries.� They did have a good goal-line stuff on 1st down against Peterson, although the Dykings helped out by foolishly passing the ball on both 2d & 3d downs.� Fat Casey, the fat pile o� shit that he is, was whistled for 3 (THREE) offsides penalties, which is inexcusable no matter what rationalization or excuse one might come up with.� Keisel made a tremendous play to fight thru a block and then chop the ball out of Brett Larvae�s hand for the key strip & turnover that was returned for a TD.�� Kirschke played okay.�� He got hurt in the 4Q, and instead of highly touted 1st rounder Ziggy Hood, the coaches sent in Dick Eason, the guy who�d been cut just a few weeks ago.�� Hood played very sparingly during the game.�

 

LB:� Taunto Farrior, who�d done absolutely nothing the first 6 games of the season, apparently felt he owed Colbert at least a game or 2 of decent play in gratitude for the outlandish contract extension he�d received last year.� Taunto had a strong game, recording 9 solos and 6 A�s.�� He did get badly sealed on the long run by Peterson in the 4Q, but he made a sterling play a few plays later when he shed the blocker on a screen and stopped the ballcarrier for a 5-yard gain.�� Harrison drew both a hold and a tripping penalty (yes, a valid tripping penalty, by the way)� and was active all day long.� I loved his pile-drive sack of Larvae on the game�s final play, which a Dyking O-lineman took offense to.�� Timmons had a couple decent plays but hurt his leg in the 4Q.� Fox replaced him and, of course, had the Dong INT that he adroitly returned for the big TD to seal the deal.�

 

Woodley did very, very little the entire game.� I isolated on him quite a bit and it was extremely disappointing.� What little pressure he generated was when he was totally unblocked.� Most appalling was this guy�s total inability to shed blocks on ground plays.� On more than 1 occasion, including the 19-yard scamper by Peterson in the 4Q, Woodley simply titty-fought with the blocker as the runner cruised by, INCHES away, and even after the runner was long gone, Woodley was still grappling and jousting with the blocker�s breasts and other body parts.�� Unreal.�� And piss poor.�� The slouch finished the game with 1 solo and 1 assist in the game where the Vikes ran over 70 plays from scrimmage.� �Woodley also had a weak-assed, pathetic WHIFF on a slowfooted FB, Tahi, after a short dumpoff in the 4Q just before the Keisel strip.� Tahi catches the ball, and Woodley is right there, in PERFECT position, for an EASY hit and stuff.� Instead, he stands upright, bites on a simple inside move, and then flails.� Instead of a stop at the 12, Tahi was finally tackled at the 8-yard line.�� You should have heard me cussing out this sorry bastard in the bleachers.� The next play, Woodley at least had some presence to scoop up the loose ball and then slowly rumble for the big TD, but a Dong TD doesn�t dismiss an entire game�s worth of futility and hapless play.� .�

 

DB:� Troy was active, although he over-bit on a key 3D play in the 2Q and gave up the huge pass play down to the PIT 1.� �Watching the game in-person, it�s fascinating to see how much ground this guy covers, both before the snap as well as after.� Ike had good downfield coverage, but as usual, lost sight of the ball or misplayed the ball�s arrival.�� Gay had some ok coverage, although he got picked upon incessantly with his softee coverage.� He also got trucked badly by Peterson after a dumpoff in the 4Q.�� Clark laid a big hit on Harvin on a deep 3rd down seamer that was broken up.� Town chipped in with a couple solid tackles.�

 

Spec teams:� An utter disgrace.�� A debacle.�� A complete disaster.�� The KO return for a TD by Harvin was piss poor coverage at its worst.� Reed, who is usually such a tough guy when he�s liquored up, was a complete pansie on this play, giving Harvin a lil� baby-shove when Harvin was a good 10 feet from the sidelines.�� Had Harvin been a paper towel dispenser, Reed probably would have been a bit more aggressive and assertive.� The blocking on Steeler returns was just ugly.�� Being there in person, I could see the blocking develop on each play, and it sucked badly time and time again.� At this point, Logan may volunteer to return to Canada with the beating he�s receiving from a total lack of any blocking.��

 

OC:� A typical grab-bag, incoherent effort by Arians.� Mendenhall was ripping off huge chunks of yardage, at 7 yards a clip, but that wasn�t good enough for Arians, who called his number only 10 times all day long.�� Every time Mendy would rip off a nice gainer, he would be dismissed from carrying the ball for several plays or the next series.�� The dink n� dump offense enraged me, as Arians, the clueless idiot, spent 99% of the day throwing little piss-ant 2-yard dumps and curls against a defense missing its best DB.�� The game plan was pure vomit and only the 2 scores by the defense enabled this game to be won.� ��D��

 

DC:� There�s a lot of fawning about how the defense �shut down� the Dykings.�� Shut down??��� Brett Larvae shredded the defense for 334 yards; the Vikes dominated time of possession; and the lone INT was on a play where the open RB allowed the ball, in Limas Sweed fashion, to CLANG off his hands for an INT.� �Adrian Peterson was hardly �shut down�; rather, his idiot coaching staff failed to give the NFL�s best RB sufficient work, including the failure to give him the ball on 2nd &/or 3rd & a foot in the 2Q.�� The best running back in the league is gaining nearly 4 yards per carry, yet he gets only 18 carries in a game where the Vikes ran over 70 plays?�� The Dyking staff should be shot.� The Stillers could have salted this game away with a stop on 3rd & 18 in the 4Q, but unbelievably, a WR was left WIDE OPEN along the sidelines for an easy 25-yard completion.�� I mean, I thought the Vikes had cleverly slipped the guy off the sideline after the ball was snapped.� How in the hell do you let a guy be this wide open on 3rd & fuking 18 ??? ��The Vikings ran up and down the field the entire 4th quarter, where games are won and lost.�� Sure, Keisel had the strip to stop 1 drive, but the game-tying/game-winning drive was thwarted ONLY because an open backup RB allowed a simple pass to clang off his hands.� The idiots like Ron Cook can fawn all they want over the defense in this game, but I will never fawn over mediocrity.�

 

HC:� Tomlin had the team decently fired up.� He has the bye week to get the defense tweaked and fixed, as it is still woefully inadequate.��

 

Synopsis:� A big, thrilling win over the undefeated Dykes.�� A bye week awaits, followed by a trip to Denver.�� Midseason grades will be released next week.�� Special thanks for Steel Hawkeye for hooking me up with a great seat for this game!�� Hawk has a hawk-like eye for the game and was a superb, astute compatriot to watch the game with.�� Thanks to Still Hacking and his dad for a superb tailgate party as well!� It was off the chain!�� Kudos to Sister of Still Mill for chasing down Mel Blount and Rocky Blier before the game�.good call and good effort!��� Combined with the lopsided win by the Pitt Panthers, this was a most enjoyable trip to the Burgh�.!��

 

 

(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers, no one else comes close�.)