2024 Weekly Report Card: Matt LaFleur

[milani]

Maybe we will stage a miraculous second half comeback and can reassess if/when that happens but so far this isn’t going much to dispel the notion that LaFleur tends to get out-coached in big games/when it counts. Yet another game where our opponent looks dramatically more well-prepared than us.

May see Willis come out. Not worth the risk of letting Love get his head knocked off. We get uphill and stopped running the ball.

 

[OldSchool101]

May see Willis come out. Not worth the risk of letting Love get his head knocked off. We get uphill and stopped running the ball.

Sad part is we got anxious. Had we just run the ball and get to this point and get to 14 points it’s still in reach.
14-28. We just hit the panic button too early.

 

[milani]

Sad part is we got anxious. Had we just run the ball and get to this point and get to 14 points it’s still in reach.
14-28. We just hit the panic button too early.

Lot of what ifs. 1st drive we get a crucial false start, a drop that could have gone for a TD, and a missed FG. If we get to the 10 yard line he makes that.

 

[XPack]

Week 4: vs Vikings

Another scratchy coaching outing for MLF. The game plan looked to be for a prime in-form Love, rather than one playing his first game back from injury. (Over) Ambitious and backfired quick. Easy to blame Narveson, but problems are more deeper than that. Very mixed gameplan that neither never really utilized either the pass nor run game well till HT.

The problems with adapting to a moving game seems to be MLFs weakness. If his gameplan doesn't work, he just takes too long to make adjustments, rather preferring to push through hoping it clicks later on. We should have had far more runs and short/screen passing and gradually ease Love in. It worked well with Willis so not reason it won't work well with Love at least till Q2.

Coach rating: C-

Sidenote: Despite the loss, this actually boosts my confidence on Love especially in adverse game like this. We can always come back as long as he's in there. Had this with Aaron & Brett and now getting the same vibe with JL.

 

[milani]

Week 4: vs Vikings

Another scratchy coaching outing for MLF. The game plan looked to be for a prime in-form Love, rather than one playing his first game back from injury. (Over) Ambitious and backfired quick. Easy to blame Narveson, but problems are more deeper than that. Very mixed gameplan that neither never really utilized either the pass nor run game well till HT.

The problems with adapting to a moving game seems to be MLFs weakness. If his gameplan doesn't work, he just takes too long to adjustments, rather preferring to push through hoping it clicks later on. We should have had far more runs and short/screen passing and gradually ease Love in. It worked well with Willis so not reason it won't work well with Love at least till Q2.

Coach rating: C-

Sidenote: Despite the loss, this actually boosts my confidence on Love especially in adverse game like this. We can always come back as long as he's in there. Had this with Aaron & Brett and now getting the same vibe with JL.

In the 2 Willis games we were not up against potent offenses with experienced QBs and few weapons. So our D allowed us to be in the game. The pressure of trying to match the Vikings drive for drive was not wise. You want to keep their offense on the sideline as long as you can. It rests your defense if nothing else. But the reality of having to play uphill without a kicker pushed MLF to dial it up. You could see his anger at the end of the half.

 

[tynimiller]

To me MLF deserves a freaking A for the second half, D- for the first half and a C or C- as a whole. Just how it felt for me.

 

[OldSchool101]

Sidenote: Despite the loss, this actually boosts my confidence on Love especially in adverse game like this. We can always come back as long as he's in there. Had this with Aaron & Brett and now getting the same vibe with JL.

While it sucks to watch MN move to
4-0 they have deserved it. I still believe they have caught teams at the right time also, which has aided their perfect record. The Packers came nowhere close to playing their best football. I’m trying to be fair MN because they get credit for causing some disruption, but many plays were broken down because it’s early season and Love missed time. Imo that partially led to a lethargic start and a host of missed opportunity.

I don’t like to blame injuries but they do factor some. Missing J’aire did not help. Although I was proud of us holding the Vikings to a measly 120 ground yards at 3.5 per carry

Love was obviously a little gimpy and couldn’t put ideal velocity on many passes. I believe that led to several throws arriving a hair late and also a smidge off ideal target. Overall Love did do ok and gave us a chance to win.

After watching us bounce back, I’m optimistic we can overcome some of these deficiencies and clean up our game as the season progresses. Love looked like Brett Favre out there today. He left it all on the field and was really several catchable but dropped passes and 1 INT from otherwise having a good day.

 

[milani]

To me MLF deserves a freaking A for the second half, D- for the first half and a C or C- as a whole. Just how it felt for me.

3rd quarter was more of a C. 4th quarter better. We forced turnovers but made some more ourselves.

 

[OldSchool101]

I’m not sure what defines a C grade. But this was a rollercoaster ride.
I’m going with a C grade coaching
We are going to need to even out the porpoise ups n downs. I would give Matt a C+ but he HAS to get the penalty count down to normal or below.

Got out of control early, but we willed our way back into respectable. The play calling wasn’t that bad, the execution is where we faltered more. It’s not Matt’s fault we dropped like 5+ Catchable balls and found a way to miss like 5+ more passes due to poor ball placement. I’ve never seen so many passes that were close, but a hair late or a hair off the mark or hit the target but were drops. I think we literally went 0/10 on drops that were catchable passes. In a normal day you catch 4-6 of those 10 so it was almost irritating how it unfolded

 

[XPack]

I still believe they have caught teams at the right time also, which has aided their perfect record.

Yeah. Love will get better and it's a matter of time when Darnold get back to his usual tricks.