Intentionally tanking is very hard. No player would ever want to tank on purpose because it essentially means they play **** all year and most players careers are only like 3 years anyway, so to have one of them being really **** makes it very hard to find another team. Cousins is out of contract this year, if he carries on as he has been what team is going to want him or pay him anything like what he earns now? He will want a good year for his new contract so won’t buy into a tank to, ultimately, draft his replacement. The only way to tank is for the owners and GM to agree to it and trade away anyone any good so the team is just **** and lose by lack of talent. The fans generally hate it as the draft is such a lottery anyway that getting rid if proven NFL level players for college players who nobody really knows will be any good is a huge risk. The Vikings owners historically would never tank and usually are happy to just be mediocre as it keeps the fans turning up and the money rolling in
The thing is, we generally haven't played like ****, our offense had great stats prior to today, Hunter is leading on sacks, it's only on turnovers that we are shooting ourselves in the foot, and I feel turnovers are easier to hide as being deliberate and can also be a way of facilitating losses but in a way that doesn't destroy the players reputations so long as they continue to play well just throw a silly interception or fumble the ball in the redzone every now and then and share around the turnovers so no one player gets too many. As for Cousins, he knows this is likely his past season with the team, maybe he's agreed to help put the team in the best position to draft his replacement I admit it is a bit of a conspiracy theory but you never know But no, I don't like tanking. Especially the trading everyone away kind of tanking
No. Players want to win. Cousins also isn't going to sabotage his pending free agency by tanking either.
Cousins always has great stats overall, except in the one that really matters. One playoff win in his career. To put it in football terms it’s like when you have 60+ possession and triple the shots of your opponent but lose and people say “only the score line matters” His stats are usually hugely inflated against teams not very good or when the team has already lost and he gets 100 yards passing against another teams second line defence. If you look at other stats like his record against teams who are over .500 it is terrible. It is why he is so divisive, but ultimately he isn’t a QB who has ever proven he can win much which is what everyone wants. If the Vikings go something like 7-10/8-9 this season then I think there is a good chance they re-sign Cousins as they won’t be in a position to draft one of the “better” QBs in the draft. But as I say that is all a lottery, Brock Purdy was the last pick in the whole draft a couple of years ago and he is the starting QB for one of the Super Bowl favourites
So I actually didn't see a lot of that game as I was on the way back to Wembley, but from what I saw when I did have signal on my phone Akers looked tasty and Davenport got two sacks so he seems to be a good acquisition. And another sack for second year Evans ... maybe this GM does actually know something about football, maybe we shouldn't write off a draft after one season and three games for this most recent one) and maybe we (Vikings fans) should all chill a bit?
I don’t think any of those things are going to go away because they won 1 game against another winless team.
Let me have my optimism. Also we're one of the later games on Sunday, why is it when we're one of the later games, it's always 9:25 and never 9:05? I'll be shocked if sky don't pick the match for coverage sadly, and no doubt the US commentary will be harping on about Taylor Swift
I'm sorry dude, although personally I'm surprised and happy. If you don't mind less than, er, totally legitimate ways of watching, I know a way you can watch the Vikings. It's not perfect, but it's something. I knew a better source in the past but it was, er, removed. Though I would recommend gamepass if you can afford it! If you spread out the cost it's only like £35 a month
TBH I'm perfectly happy watching the Sky coverage. I can follow all the plays of the Vikings game on the NFL website so it's not the end of the world.