Too dumb to know when I've been lucky

[PABoysFan]

I keep reading 'analysis' from the experts that either outright states or implies that Dallas was lucky that AP only ran the ball 12 times or that the Vikings somehow blew it by not running him more.
I am by no means a charting, film study kinda fan but a quick scan of the Fox Sports play-by-play log shows me the following about when the Vikings had the ball ...
1. The Vikings converted a 3rd or 4th down on only 2 drives. One being their opening drive (2 conversions) for a TD.
2. They had five 3 and out drives. One of those drives was from the Minn 1 where they were just trying to ram the ball out. Another was at the end of the game where Minn was throwing. So that leaves 3 drives (9 non-punt plays) where AP got the ball 4 times for 7 yds. Seems like they made every attempt to use him here.
3. There was 1 take a knee drive to end the half.
4. There was one 2 play drive where AP had a carry for 1 yd then fumbled on the next carry. No lack of use on this drive.
5. The six and eight play drives in the 2nd half contained a mix of AP, CT, and the pass.
6. After Minn was down 10 in the 4th qtr they went into catch-up mode and tried to move the ball through the air.

So my question is "Where are the missed opportunities for AP to get the ball?" Looks to me like Dallas created their own luck in regard to how often Minn was able to run the ball.

 

[Cowboys22]

You are correct. Dallas kept the ball out of his hands by contolling the time of possesion and playing good D. They limited the number of plays Minn had, thus limiting the number of times AD could get the ball. Not luck at all. It was good gameplanning and good execution. If you want to assign luck to anything, Dallas was lucky that Minn has a totally inept QB. However, every opponent they have faced has had the same luck and those teams failed to neutralize AD.

 

[Hypnotoad]

Every time it was a 3rd down and not short they always passed. When it was in 4th down territory they punted. Lets not pretend the Minnesota offense is amazing. They have trouble keeping drives alive having about 14 first downs per game, the third worst team at converting third downs with 32% (detroit 29% and 49ers 25%), throw .5 more INTs than TDs per game, have the 2nd worst QB playing (rating wise..rams are worse with 59), and offensively they average an amazing 39 yards per game less their biggest passing play of the year.

They suck...they are putrid...horrible... We should have won by more... But I'll take the W anyway.

To give or not give him the ball...we would probably have stopped him...

 

[Future]

Chester Taylor had a bunch of carries too...If Peterson had the whole workload it would have been like 20 carries.

Minnesota's game plan is the reason he only had 12 touches.

 

[WarC]

Yeaaah its one of those things where your damned if you do, damned if you don't. AP is their main weapon so after a loss to us its natural that people will question his role in the game. If he was featured more and got thirty carries and still lost the game, people would be asking if they relied on him too much and exposed their one card.

If they had somehow managed to win without giving the AP the ball so much, they'd be playing up how we got outsmarted by their coaching because then it would have been a great move not to rely on him.

It's all subjective. Bottom line is we played 'em and they lost, thats the only stat that counts in the end.

 

[Idgit]

Good thread, btw.

 

[dogunwo]

Peterson did show many flashes of being elite. Great dreaft pick by the Vikings, who have been drafting fairly well lately, except for the Tavaris Jackson pick, lol

 

[jazzcat22]

Have you noticed the media, mostly ESPN and NFL Network analyst's and how after just about every game, do not talk about how Dallas won, it's about how the other team lost. Or what the other team didn't do, so Dallas could win.

So as soon as anyone starts to talk about this game...it's....AD didn't get enough carries. They will not bring up the points in this thread, like Time of Posession, or Taylor also having carries.

Oh well, I once heard somewhere.......EMBRACE THE HATRED....

 

[AdamJT13]

Every time it was a 3rd down and not short they always passed. When it was in 4th down territory they punted. Lets not pretend the Minnesota offense is amazing. They have trouble keeping drives alive having about 14 first downs per game, the third worst team at converting third downs with 32% (detroit 29% and 49ers 25%), throw .5 more INTs than TDs per game, have the 2nd worst QB playing (rating wise..rams are worse with 59), and offensively they average an amazing 39 yards per game less their biggest passing play of the year.

They suck...they are putrid...horrible... We should have won by more... But I'll take the W anyway.

To give or not give him the ball...we would probably have stopped him...

Going into our game, Minnesota was ranked 12th in total offense, No. 1 in rushing offense and 16th in points scored. They obviously were good enough to have some success doing some things against other teams.

It's not like we were playing against 49ers (31st in points, 32nd in total offense, 26th in rushing, 32nd in passing, 32nd in first downs, 32nd in third-down conversion rate), whom the Giants' awesome defense "shut down" by allowing nine more first downs, 71 more yards, twice as many offensive touchdowns and twice as many third-down coversions as we allowed the Vikings.