Did Zeke have any room to run?

[aikemirv]

He had 21 carries for 71 yards with 3 catches for 45 yards.

Compare that to Zeke last night

Did Zeke play KC?

Our fans got nothing on our coaches!

 

[mattjames2010]

Well he's not going to always make the right reads so get ready for disappointment. You don't have to wait, look it up.

I will be disappointed because he won’t justify his contract. Actually, that’s the problem with QB contracts in general. Very few QBs live up to the guaranteed money.

And why won’t you answer? Remember when we got rid of an RB because he left “meat on the bone”?

 

[DC4L_0420]

It's like the beginning of his career he was playing for a big contract, now he's running for longevity since the RB position has a short shelf life.. It doesn't make sense. But neither does his play right now.

 

[quickccc]

I haven't watched the All 22 tape but from my observation I didn't see any missed cutting opportunities for Zeke.
He seemed to be corralled all night by the Vikings D.
He basically got all that he could out of most of the runs.
The Oline didn't seem to do him many favors too.

6 yards was Zeke's longest run and did not have a single lone carry for a first down run.
and even with vikes losing their best interior run defender with pro bowler DT Linvall Joseph being out.
and first thing I thought was ... why can't we have that kind of physical presences in our inside DTs who clearly
were imposing their will vs the run.

the run blocking was definitely one question,.. but i'm telling ya'll, I simply do not like that zeke no longer is displaying breakaway explosiveness
how do lose that after two years ? is it a certain way or running style that they want him be more of than his previous 2016/2017 form ?

More Levon Bell like patience at the line in waiting for holes and lanes to develop ... and be far more physically geared to a Frank Gore type ball control pounder and grinder
and less breakaway type ? i'm just guess-working at this but this seems a totally different runner than the one coming into the NFL as the 4th overall pick ?

and it wouldn't surprise me as they seemed to be developing and misusing Pollard as strictly a seldom used running the ball backup, rather than the so called dangerous receiver out of the
backfield and in the pass game as many assumed was going to be the case coming out of camp. " Alvin Kamara, McCaffrey, etc" . ... specialty catching back.?
I am really wondering if poor coaching is coming into play with our RBs .

 

[Rayman70]

no

 

[khiladi]

Why is this even complicated?

The Vikings brought extra resources up front. They played man coverage, single safety all game long and left even their back up corner on an island with Cooper all game.

They even did it on third and long. A majority of Dak’s yardage came on these plays. We couldn’t score on the red-zone basically, we scored on one on one matchup intermediate to deep routes.

 

[Rayman70]

VIKINGS HAD A BETTER DEFENSIVE GAME PLAN THAT WE DID. SO WE LOST. We never adjusted on either side of the ball.

 

[Praxit]

Vikings DL are coached to cover backside gaps, once they feel the OL head cross the play side shoulder

It's a thing of beauty

Frederick was PISSED

..you wonder if a good coach, would see it and counter it?

 

[khiladi]

Besides the fact the Vikings brought extras resources, the defense tackles solid and maintains their positions. The LBs maintain their gaps.

You aren’t playing mediocre defenses.

 

[DFWJC]

Not much room to run except that after he got stuffed several times, he seemed to hesitate a few times when there was a hole their briefly.

They have a strong defense and totally sold out to stop Zeke.
They had injuries in the secondary and still let those guys try to handle our wideouts on their own.
Easy pickings for our passing game but a nightmare for Zeke.

 

[TwoDeep3]

With the money he’s being paid, there should always be room

This is the prevalent mindset here. This is wrong for many reasons.

The Viks were playing man to man on defense to sell out to stop Zeke. Dak tore them a new one last night.

The run calls weren't very intuitive.

 

[mattjames2010]

This is the prevalent mindset here. This is wrong for many reasons.

The Viks were playing man to man on defense to sell out to stop Zeke. Dak tore them a new one last night.

The run calls weren't very intuitive.

Lol the best back in the league can’t get over 6 yards as the longest run without the defense focusing completely on the pass.

You’re right. Every back in the league sucks this bad when that doesn’t happen.

 

[TwoDeep3]

Lol the best back in the league can’t get over 6 yards as the longest run without the defense focusing completely on the pass.

You’re right. Every back in the league sucks this bad when that doesn’t happen.

Did you not hear Collinsworth say Zimmer told his DB's they would have to be on islands because Zimmer was selling out to stop Zeke? They talked about this from the opening remarks of the telecast.

Explain to me how Zeke had three straight 100 yard rushing contests right before this one. Your anger at the loss is directed at Zeke, but he was not the problem. He didn't call the two plays at the end. He didn't block for those plays and were overwhelmed as the Dallas line was.

This is not about losing skills.
This is not about lack of effort.

This is about a team that has the defensive front to stop a top running back if they focus on him solely. And the proof is Dak tore them a new one in the passing game because they played man-up.

I know everyone is angry. But Zeke is not the reason this team lost last night. This game was lost because of horrendous tackling. No penetration in the middle of the offensive line by the Dallas Defense. The lack of pressure from the Dallas defensive line filtered to the Dallas DB's who had a sub-par game.

The offensive didn't do anything in the first quarter.

Coaching decisions.

There are evident reasons why this was lost if you look. Or the ones with lazy minds and run away emotions can point to Zeke as if he also blocked on those two running plays called that took the ball out of the hands of Dak.

 

[mattjames2010]

Did you not hear Collinsworth say Zimmer told his DB's they would have to be on islands because Zimmer was selling out to stop Zeke? They talked about this from the opening remarks of the telecast.

Explain to me how Zeke had three straight 100 yard rushing contests right before this one. Your anger at the loss is directed at Zeke, but he was not the problem. He didn't call the two plays at the end. He didn't block for those plays and were overwhelmed as the Dallas line was.

This is not about losing skills.
This is not about lack of effort.

This is about a team that has the defensive front to stop a top running back if they focus on him solely. And the proof is Dak tore them a new one in the passing game because they played man-up.

I know everyone is angry. But Zeke is not the reason this team lost last night. This game was lost because of horrendous tackling. No penetration in the middle of the offensive line by the Dallas Defense. The lack of pressure from the Dallas defensive line filtered to the Dallas DB's who had a sub-par game.

The offensive didn't do anything in the first quarter.

Coaching decisions.

There are evident reasons why this was lost if you look. Or the ones with lazy minds and run away emotions can point to Zeke as if he also blocked on those two running plays called that took the ball out of the hands of Dak.

“Pay an RB $100 million that can’t make a damn thing happen if the O-Line isn’t creating gaping holes”

Summed up your post without the mental gymnastics and excuses.

 

[TwoDeep3]

“Pay an RB $100 million that can’t make a damn thing happen if the O-Line isn’t creating gaping holes”

Summed up your post without the mental gymnastics and excuses.

Your comment is inane. Notice how you used Zeke's money, as if that was a factor. It is not. Then you used the term gaping holes. That is an outright bull manure comment since he was not running through gaping holes last week and was dragging the defensive line for an extra couple of yards.

Then you claim I am making excuses.

So answer the question.

How can Zeke not be doing his job if he ran off three straight over 100 yard games in a row, but faced a stiffer defense that sold out to stop him, which resulted in Dak have over 300 yards passing?

You danced around that question earlier, although it may have been ion two parts then.

This has nothing to do with logic, and every thing to do with you finding a whipping boy to soothe your hurt feelings.

Sorry Pard, I tend to adult too much to allow my emotions to cloud my brain with hate.

 

[mattjames2010]

Your comment is inane. Notice how you used Zeke's money, as if that was a factor. It is not. Then you used the term gaping holes. That is an outright bull manure comment since he was not running through gaping holes last week and was dragging the defensive line for an extra couple of yards.

Then you claim I am making excuses.

So answer the question.

How can Zeke not be doing his job if he ran off three straight over 100 yard games in a row, but faced a stiffer defense that sold out to stop him, which resulted in Dak have over 300 yards passing?

You danced around that question earlier, although it may have been ion two parts then.

This has nothing to do with logic, and every thing to do with you finding a whipping boy to soothe your hurt feelings.

Sorry Pard, I tend to adult too much to allow my emotions to cloud my brain with hate.

You don’t understand the argument....

It’s about the nature of the RB position and not Zeke - YOU are actually criticizing Zeke here. Zeke can’t get it done unless the O-Line is playing well.

PFF actually wrote about this last season - Zeke is a product of the O-Line. He had 3.8 ypc against the Jets, and had a big game against the Giants (what a feat). He got a 54.9 grade for yesterday’s game per PFF

Why can’t Zeke make a big play happen? How many 20+ yard runs had he had this year? What’s his longest run? If you say “because the offensive line” - you get why we criticize Zeke.

We have have had this discussion before, I have made my opinion on RBs AS A WHOLE known - YOU however are biased, you specifically build your narrative around the defense of Zeke while placing blame on other units as a whole. Nice try, I don’t let that crap slide. Your understanding of the game is limited to your fandom

Next!

 

[nate dizzle]

I will be disappointed because he won’t justify his contract. Actually, that’s the problem with QB contracts in general. Very few QBs live up to the guaranteed money.

And why won’t you answer? Remember when we got rid of an RB because he left “meat on the bone”?

I'm guessing 30 yards because that's about as long as I remember him going for this year. Players are worth what the market says they are. Most are overpaid. I didn't want Zeke signed to the deal he got. RB's in general aren't worth the huge investment. He's still a damn good RB, but he'll never be worth the amount they paid him simply because there are guys showing every week that they can get it done just as well.

 

[mattjames2010]

I'm guessing 30 yards because that's about as long as I remember him going for this year. Players are worth what the market says they are. Most are overpaid. I didn't want Zeke signed to the deal he got. RB's in general aren't worth the huge investment. He's still a damn good RB, but he'll never be worth the amount they paid him simply because there are guys showing every week that they can get it done just as well.

He hasn’t had a 30 yard run this year. Actually, he’s only had one run of 20+ yards.

Zeke is a player who needs 20+ carries a game to do damage.

You can try to defend an RB getting $100 mil with that kind of production, I expect the “best” RB in the league to lead the league in all the right stats.

 

[Nav22]

Zeke didn’t make ONE guy miss last night.

He didn’t break ONE tackle.

The nerve to blame his horrific play on anyone else but him.

I didn’t expect 100+ yards since the Vikings have a good D... but this clown got 20 carries and couldn’t crack FIFTY yards.

 

[KMY_Amber]

Zeke didn't run well, missing the small holes there were at times.

The "best O-line in football" didn't run block that well either, letting too much penetration by the front 4.

So both Zeke and the o-line didn't play well.

Having said that, they could have thrown the ball 90% of the time and would have had consistent success, so why force the run when clearly they're geared up to stop it? Just call play action every play until they back off. Basically, DO WHAT WORKS.