Rants and Raves 2024 Edition

The guy is a total embarrassment, right across the board.

 

It’s gonna be okay

Eberflus said he plans to be more involved with special teams coaching due to all the errors that have happened there

so that should fix everything

 

You guys are reminding me that Everlose already did this crying to the NFL about the non-call against the Packers. So a little bit of coming apart is happening already.

 

Did you see the 45yarder the Rams kicker missed in the Eagles game? Huge leg. That thing would've missed from 65.

Blang is there a reason you spend basically all your time on this subject talking about the kicker and not the actual blocking or even the scheme/assignments? I mean with this "low trajectory" kicking style i guess Santos has had loads of kicks blocked throughout his career which must crush his FG % right? Weellll, he's the all-time franchise leader in FG % among people who've attempted like more than 2 kicks, even after these recent blocks. And remember when he made like 40 straight FGs? A streak that only got snapped when Matt Nagy totally screwed him over and sent him out to try like a 58yarder. How on earth could someone make that many straight kicks with such a blockable kicking style??

1- You guys need to get a grip.
2- F all of you, making me cape for the kicker. I hate kickers ha!

 

Flush is a clown who should've said all of that a week ago, but there's some truth nuggets in there. There's blockers just failing at their jobs, thats one thing. But more than that the personnel assignments are all over the place, particularly on that left side where the problem has been. That lands squarely on the ST coach. Any co-incidence that the left is the problem side and on the left you've had your two guys weakest against a bull rush in Bumston and Shelton?

The first kick against the Vikes(blocked) there's massive penetration and Bumston gets destroyed. Second kick they move Wright from the right side to the left, stabilise the situation and its a much more comfortable kick. Then third kick they move Wright back to the right side, there's penetration past Shelton and its close to being blocked again! Total clown show. Only reason the ST coach still has a job is Flush doesnt want the heat of another bad coaching hire.

Hoge did a very good breakdown of this. With a bonus bit where he highlights some of Brown's offensive creativity/differing use of DJ.

 

- Been watching some film back of the Vikings game and there are several throws in there from Caleb that are frankly outrageous power/accuracy throws. Just jaw dropping. Actually conventional wisdom says they're balls you have no business attempting. This goes back to something i said early on, we may need to alter our own criteria for good/bad throws with this kid and we may have to be more accepting of picks that occur from what would previously be considered "bad choices". The guy makes throws other people wouldn't dare and i for one am going to try and go easy on him those times it goes wrong because its gonna go right so much more and it will be difference making.

Cutler had an absolute canon for an arm, Williams has him at least matched for raw power. Also, whereas with Cutler a little, and def Fields i always felt, the windup was just a bit slower than you'd want, Caleb's throwing motion is ridiculously fast when he wants it. There's clips on twitter, but multiple times there are miniscule windows which i would'nt even consider open, where you need max power + accuracy just to have a chance....and he makes them. Crazy.


- Andrew Van Ginkel is an under rated, good player who was a very solid signing by the Vikes this offseason. With his feel for pressure, speed and elusiveness, throwing power, Caleb made Van Ginkel look like a clown in that game from start to finish. Defenders are going to grow to truly loath playing against Williams in the years to come.


- I wanted to go back and look at the coaches film of that sack. Truly back breaking and an area of opportunity that Williams is going to have to really work on to minimise(it won't completely go and we should all accept that). But i really want to use those camera angles to look at the WRs cos imo on a 10second dropback there should be throws available. There wasn't a lot. Quick out right on the boundary to Keenan if that had been the first read(it wasn't) then he ran straight up the boundary and took himself completely out the play. DJ found a hole v briefly, but then just kinda shuffled around after the defender came over. You need to keep moving. Odunze was the worst for me. His route broke down and then he kinda ambled back towards Caleb but clearly never felt he had a chance. Thing is if he'd just driven hard back to the middle of the field there was a huge hole that would've been right in Caleb's eyeline.

The sack went on the QB and i get it. But we've seen it before this season, these WRs have got to do a better job when it gets into scramble drill mode.

 

I didn't even notice Hightower pulled Backspin Jones out of there on that other kick, but then again it should have been done after the result from the previous week. Instead, Hightower deflected and was rambling about how much practice time in 2.5 years they spent on the onside kick. Spending that much time on something that requires more luck than skill is no different than practicing to win the lottery.

 

Breaking news….kickers sometimes miss.

I like Santos a lot. He’s reliable and consistent. But also it would be nice to know that a 56 yarder is doable in a tight situation. Just saying.

 

Literally all you have to do Ev is remember what was said by every Packers player on the FG block team last week. They noticed the low trajectory Santos' kicks and said so to the media (then added their surprise at why Flus didn't try to get closer but that's another story). I'm not excusing the bad blocking we've seen from our side. ST coach needs to fix that shit now. You can continue bury your head in the sand but it's a problem for Santos.

Going back to the Colts game when he was short on a 55 yard FG indoors, it struck me that he is likely the only kicker in the league that would not have the leg to hit that. Then as we went through that winning streak (perhaps due to PTSD from Parkey) it crossed my mind again that it would suck if we missed out on the playoffs because of the disadvantage we have at kicker, I pointed that out here at the time.

Overall I like Santos. I place the vast majority of the blame on Flus for the Packers game, not Santos. Flus has to know what Santos weaknesses are though, as he has to know what are the weaknesses of all of his players. This is a definite weakness of his game and it's starting to bite us in the ass as teams are picking up on it.

 

Jaquan Brisker's reaction to Eberlose showing up to his press conference this morning: