The Morning After Pill - Week # 4

Two minutes left in the ball game.
No time outs.
Down by two scores.
And you punt the football away.

Rewind back to last week. The Vikings were playing a Carolina Panther team that was in much the same situation that Minnesota was in yesterday. They had no time outs left, they were down by two scores (20-10), and with 2:46 left on the clock, they faced a 3rd and 39 from their own 6-yard line. They managed to turn that into a 4th and 27 at their own 18.
Did John Fox kick the football away and basically tell his team, "You know, I realize that our chances to win are pretty much zero at this point, but I don't feel as though you guys even deserve the opportunity to try?"
Hell, no, he didn't. . .he had his guys line up and run a play to at least try to convert that 4th and 27. Granted, the Panthers didn't convert and the Vikings pretty much just ran out the clock, but at least John Fox didn't give up on his team.

Now, back to yesterday. The Vikings are down 30-17, no time outs left, right around two minutes left in the game, facing a 4th and 13 from their own 18-yard line. The starting quarterback had just gone out of the game with an injury, and the backup QB was taking the snaps.
And rather than line it up and attempt to run another offensive play, Brad Childress sent his punt team out on to the field and gave the ball back to the Tennessee Titans, knowing full well that there was absolutely, positively zero chance that they would get the ball back.

What Brad Childress did today was an act of full-blown cowardice, compared to such NFL events as Brett Favre taking a dive for Michael Strahan to allow him to set the single-season sack record. . .with Denny Green taking a knee and settling for overtime in the 1998 NFC Championship Game. Take any spineless, gutless act that you can think of that's ever been perpetuated on an NFL field, and what Brad Childress did today was exactly the same thing.

Brad Childress gave up on his football team yesterday. I was pissed off when Randy Moss "quit" in the game against Washington in 2004 when there was a playoff berth on the line, but this is worse on so many levels. This guy is the head coach. The "leader" of this football team. Who in that locker room is going to buy into Brad Childress' message of playing hard and giving it all you've got for 60 minutes and all that other inspirational stuff from a guy that thought it would be best to curl up into the fetal position rather than going down swinging?

No, Brad Childress isn't the sole reason that we lost this football game today. (I'm guessing four turnovers, numerous penalties and a bogus spot of the ball on a 4th down when the Titans were on the two yard line had something to do with it). But he's the source of the problem. He's the biggest problem. This team will never, ever see any meaningful success under his watch. He needs to be removed, and he needs to be removed sooner rather than later.