CouchCoach
Staff member
- Messages
- 41,122
- Reaction score
- 74,972
I wanted Rush to start because I wanted to know how this team would respond. In the past, the response has not been what I wanted to see.
There is no better place to find out about the resiliency and ability to circle the wagons of your team than on the road. The distractions are limited and each player gets a little more personal time to do a little self-talk about his responsibility in this game.
I don't know when the team got the news that Cooper Rush would be their QB in this game but it wasn't long into the game that Big Smitty goes down and add another wrinkle to this. Backup QB and backup LT? That's a recipe for disaster.
#1WR's do not spend a lot of time with the backup QB unless he's getting reps with the #1 team but it was Amari Cooper that stepped up when his team and his backup QB needed him the most. Cedric Wilson had a relationship with Rush but Amari Cooper established one with him in that game as he took himself to another level and ignored that hammy to come in and help him win that game.
Micah Parsons played like a man possessed and just when you see Cousins set up some play that in the past would have gone for at least 10, he blew in there to blow it up with a sure tackle every time. 10 of them, 10 solo tackles that caused the Vikings offense all kinds of problems and 3rd down challenges they could not overcome.
Amari and Micah were stars for sure and those two RB's got some dirty yards and milked every inch out of every run. Players were showing up and it was the team that was the magic on this night.
I had asked "what happens when we don't get the turnovers"? I hadn't asked the back half of that "and they get two"?
They've shown the propensity to play team defense in each of the previous 6 games but that was a dress rehearsal for last night because they played their best game of the year exactly when they needed to do that.
Their backup QB needed his RB's to fight on every play for every yard, needed his receivers to make the tough catches and his OL to protect him especially when the key player went down. He needed his defense to keep the game within reach and not allow too many 3rd down conversions.
And the backup QB needed one more thing. For his coaches to believe in him. He knew going in this game was going to be on him as Zimmer was not allowing the run game to get untracked with an unproven QB. He would have to make the plays and his play caller would have to have belief in him that he would do that. Even when he made mistakes, they did not lose confidence in him.
Today, I bet every player that played in that game last night has a little something extra special to consider. That wasn't the stud QB coming through to get most of the glory; that was a team win and a team that played like one when they needed it the most.
There is no better place to find out about the resiliency and ability to circle the wagons of your team than on the road. The distractions are limited and each player gets a little more personal time to do a little self-talk about his responsibility in this game.
I don't know when the team got the news that Cooper Rush would be their QB in this game but it wasn't long into the game that Big Smitty goes down and add another wrinkle to this. Backup QB and backup LT? That's a recipe for disaster.
#1WR's do not spend a lot of time with the backup QB unless he's getting reps with the #1 team but it was Amari Cooper that stepped up when his team and his backup QB needed him the most. Cedric Wilson had a relationship with Rush but Amari Cooper established one with him in that game as he took himself to another level and ignored that hammy to come in and help him win that game.
Micah Parsons played like a man possessed and just when you see Cousins set up some play that in the past would have gone for at least 10, he blew in there to blow it up with a sure tackle every time. 10 of them, 10 solo tackles that caused the Vikings offense all kinds of problems and 3rd down challenges they could not overcome.
Amari and Micah were stars for sure and those two RB's got some dirty yards and milked every inch out of every run. Players were showing up and it was the team that was the magic on this night.
I had asked "what happens when we don't get the turnovers"? I hadn't asked the back half of that "and they get two"?
They've shown the propensity to play team defense in each of the previous 6 games but that was a dress rehearsal for last night because they played their best game of the year exactly when they needed to do that.
Their backup QB needed his RB's to fight on every play for every yard, needed his receivers to make the tough catches and his OL to protect him especially when the key player went down. He needed his defense to keep the game within reach and not allow too many 3rd down conversions.
And the backup QB needed one more thing. For his coaches to believe in him. He knew going in this game was going to be on him as Zimmer was not allowing the run game to get untracked with an unproven QB. He would have to make the plays and his play caller would have to have belief in him that he would do that. Even when he made mistakes, they did not lose confidence in him.
Today, I bet every player that played in that game last night has a little something extra special to consider. That wasn't the stud QB coming through to get most of the glory; that was a team win and a team that played like one when they needed it the most.
