Vikings End of Season 2 Report

by poohty_t | 9 years ago | 0 Comments

After last nights game in Arizona, we caught up with Coach Dizel to talk about this past season as the Vikings miss out on the playoffs by one game. 

- Coach , you said last offseason, you needed to improve your offense. You went out and used all of your draft picks on offensive players but one , how do you feel that worked out for you this season?

 

- Dizel: Well, we knew our offense lacked alot power and lacked being effective, partially due to turnovers. We told Teddy in the offseason , we wanted that to be his focus this year, less turnovers. We went out and got some younger olinemen to try to help our run game in the future. We want to bruise up defenses , but we also want them to have to be affraid of the pass as well. We picked up a good wr in draft, great HB to fit our style, Good olinemen as well as a couple TEs to work into something.Overall , the ones who played this year, we felt did a good job. Our HB is in the running for OROY in the NFC, and thats after having about 5 bad games.All in all we are happy with how our season went , just wish we had gotten about 1-2 more wins to get in playoffs But our record actually imrpoved from last season , so we see improvement in that.

 

What impressed you the most out of your offense this season?

 

Dizel: Well, Teddy had his best year yet.He cut down on his ints , from 32 last season to 20 this season. We would like it alittle lower , but thats a heck of an improvement from last year. His QBR went upfrom 65 last year to 91.4 this year. Thats a big jump and we are proud he was more focused this year. Our rookie HB, showed us, the trade of AP was not a bad move at all for us. He will finish as a rookie with just under a 100 yards under what AP will do this season, and he is just a rookie , so he has lots of room to improve.Plus with that trade ,we also got a 2nd round pick that secured us a nive olinemen as well , to help us out there as well. So while we know many scratched their heads at the move, we are happy it paned out for us , or i may be out of a job quickly .  

 

What would you say was most surpsise of this past season?

 

Dizel: Well , we were surprised our defense gave up more yards passing this year than last , and points as well. We have good players on that side of the ball, but we feel maybe they were just looking at plays from a bad angle all season , up until the game tonight. we hope a new perspective for the defense will help them out more next season, but we shall see.

 

 - WR Mike Wallace went down in your week 8 game and was out until week 14. How did that effect your team?

 

 

- Dizel: Well to be honest, it hurt us alot more than we expected. You dont really see , all the things a player like Mike does for your offense, until he cant play a few games. Because he is such a great wr, it forced defenses to put more focus on trying to stop him, which opened up other things for our offense. We went 2-3 with Mike out , in a 5 game stretch. We only lost 4 games in the other 12 games we played. The worst part was, in all 5 of those games, our offense struggled the worst they did all season to move the ball alot. Players like Mike dont come around everyday, we are lucky to have him, making alot of plays for us , and mostly when it counts. Alot of our games ,were close, and those wins , we owe alot to Mike making plays when it counts. 

 

- What do you want to see improve about your team next season? 

 

- Dizel : Winning more of the close games. Making the plays needed to win , when the game is on the line. Still want to cut down turnovers again. Would love to see us create more turnovers . Id like to see our guys take a step forward , we are already behind alot of the better teams in the league in skill and talent. We need to take a step closer to the teams above us really. Not sure we can, but i am sure , we will give it our best to do so. 

 

- How do you feel this season went for your crew overall?

 

- Dizel : We improved on our overall record , we cut down on turnovers, and ran the ball better. Those are the positives. The negatives were even with all those improvements, we still failed to make the playoffs. So that just shows , we have a long , tough road ahead if we ever want to say , we  are able to compete with the better teams and make any type of run, and until then, little progress  means nothing if we cant get good enough to do that. There is no trophy for just being average . Improving is good , but it takes alot more than just alittle improvement to get over this hump we face.Hopefully next season we can come out strong and finish the season stronger than this year.We knew when we looked at the schedule at start of season , the last 7 games were where we would win or lose the season. We knew most of those opponents have had our number for a long time . We did manage to pull out 1 upset out of that 7 but we needed 2-3 upsets , which we didnt get. Proud of our guys for fighting each game though.Only 2 times this year were we blown out , the rest, single possesion games. We just gotta learn how to not fold under pressure in those going forward.

 

 

The Vikings had a decent season , and are looking forward to the upcoming offseason , and getting back on the field again to put this season behind them and get to working on the next. Their rookie HB Griffin looks to improve upon his numbers from this year, as well , does Teddy .