What we learned from the Vikings game

I learned that the NFL will do whatever it can to glorify Favre's legacy. The League loves it that he is still in the game and not just that but that his team is winning.

It's too obvious now days and makes it me sick. They called a BS roughing the passer call on Justin Smith when he attempted to knock Favre down by his feet. The NFL would have hated Favre to get hurt before next Monday Night's game between him and Green Bay. Come on now did you see the referee helping Favre fix his shoulder pad after a hit?

F*ck Favre. Like Matt Barrows stated (which surprised me a bit), Favre wants to portray a tough, hard working all American guy when he is really just a pre -madonna who loves the attention. I hope Green Bay ends his season.

I learned that Singletary is much better a challenges than Nolan . . . even though he throws like a girl with his left hand . . . I kinda cringed at that.

But Sing is 2 for 2 in challenges this year . . .

I learned that we should have beaten an over rated team that hasn't had the lead going into the half all year against 3 teams who sucked last year and two of those teams really suck this year.

Originally posted by scopur49er:
Ok so we lost to the Vikes at home. Time to move on and learn from our mistakes.
IMO, the Favre miracle pass had nothing to do with it but rather this key statistic did.

Third down conversions:
Niners, 0-11
Vikings, 10-20

If you all recall, one of our biggest problems the last couple years is that our defense couldn't get off the field on 3rd downs. Allowing 50% conversion on third downs pretty much sealed the defenses fate if you ask me. Our guys are tougher this year and they can hang with any offense in the league but not if you keep letting them move the ball down field and control the clock. Preventing 3rd down conversions is a crucial part of that.

On the flip side, we didn't convert ANY third downs which, quite honestly, is just pathetic. The root of this became apparent during the game. At one point towards the end of the game they flashed a stat which showed our average yards needed on third down and it was (if I recall) around 9.2 yards. It should be no wonder we had such a hard time converting.
So why were we so often in 3rd and long situations?
Well if you watched the game you know exactly why. Jimmy Raye was challenging the Vikings d-line by trying to push the ball up the gut and let's be honest, we lost that battle far more often than we won it. When you run up the middle on first down and fail, then run up the middle on second down and fail hey guess what? It's 3rd and long now. This happened quite often, far more often than it should have.

Let's be honest. Jimmy Raye is no offensive genius. If you know you're going up against a defense that tops the league in run stoppage, why do you continue to try and run up the gut long after it's already proven to be ineffective? We won't win games with offensive playcalling like that and it shows that Jimmy Raye either:
a) Failed to gameplan properly against the Vikes
or
b) Stubbornly refused to adapt the gameplan when it was evident things weren't working.

I think it's time Sing pulled his pants down and had a chat with our OC about his offensive strategy.

This is the MOST telling stat in determining if we make the playoffs! Every team last year that made the playoffs except for Miami and The Vikings converted at least 40% of their 3rd downs. If we can't get to that number we are probably not going to make the playoffs and if we do we're 1 and done.