Just after the Vikings had scored 14 points in the game's first 95 seconds I heard people at the bar start talking about a blowout and I thought to myself. . . these are the Vikings. The Brad Childress Vikings. The Brad Childress Vikings don't "blow teams out" with any sort of regularity. The gameplan of the Brad Childress Vikings is to play teams close, slug it out until the end of the game, and hope that either a) your team makes a big play, or b) the other team commits a massive screw-up.
But on Sunday the Jaguars seemed bound and determined to get blown out, and the Vikings. . . for once . . . happily obliged.
The game started off with a play that I don't think I've seen before in my years of being a football fan. David Garrard lined up in the shotgun, called for the snap, and Jags' center Brad Meester snapped the ball. . . approximately 6 inches or so. Unfortunately for the Jaguars, Garrard was about 7 yards behind Meester at the time. The Vikings' Napoleon Harris alertly pounced on the fumble, sprinted 26 yards, and the Vikings had a 7-0 lead a whole 13 seconds into the ball game.
After a Jacksonville fumble on the ensuing kickoff, the Vikings found themselves with first and goal on a run by Chester Taylor and an end-around by Bernard Berrian. Then, Frerotte handed the ball to Taylor again, and Taylor put on the most beautiful move executed by a Vikings' running back since Adrian Peterson humiliated Kenoy Kennedy at the Metrodome last season, and the Vikings were up 14-0. As you can see by the final score, that turned out to be all the points Minnesota needed. . . but not after making things a little more interesting than they needed to be.
The Vikings were outgained by the Jaguars on Sunday by a count of 321 yards to 226, and Maurice Jones-Drew put together what has got to be the quietest 113-yard receiving performance the league has seen in a long time. I know I had to do a double-take when I looked at the box score. Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor, considered by some to be the best running back duo in the league not comprised of backs named "Adrian Peterson" and "Chester Taylor," combined for 24 yards on 9 carries. David Garrard did throw for 317 yards, but only one of those passes found the end zone, and two of them found the hands of Minnesota defenders. He was also sacked four times, a component that was missing in the Vikings' 19-13 loss to Tampa Bay.
The Vikings won despite another lackluster performance from Gus Frerotte. . . and "lackluster" is being generous. Don't get me wrong. . . I'm sure that Gus is a fine human being, he's a local boy to me (Ford City grad), and he's a very scrappy competitor and all that. But you'd think that a guy that's been in the league for as long as #12 has would know that there are times when nothing's happening that you need to take the ball and throw it into the fifth row of the stands rather than do something crazy with it. Crazy things like. . . I don't know. . . throwing across your body while rolling out and overshooting your closest target by 10 yards en route to throwing an INT. Or rolling out on 1st and goal from the 2 and losing 10 yards on a sack rather than throwing the ball away.
The latter of those two incidents is an illustration of why this team rarely blows anybody out, despite all their talent. The Vikings lined up on that series with 1st and goal at the 2-yard line. They have the best running back tandem in the league on the sidelines. They have a huge offensive line that had been getting good push on the entire series.
Why on earth, then, would you call a designed rollout for a guy with very limited mobility in that situation? Why would you just not slam Peterson and/or Taylor into the line anywhere between 1 and 4 times, take your touchdown, and be happy that you've put the game away?
At times like this, Childress reminds me of a guy that's playing video games with his little cousin. You know that if you're playing your little cousin and you start winning by too many, he's going to start whining and crying and throwing things. . . so you start calling plays and doing dumb things to try to let him at least get close again. He doesn't have any killer instinct at all. He gets his foot on a team's throat, and is content to let them back up again. At some point, this really needs to change. This team has too much talent to try to go the distance in a slugfest every week. It would be nice for the Vikings to not just knock a team down early, but then jump on them and continue pounding away until their opponents just lose their desire to fight back.
Other than those two minor quibbles, there's not a lot to be sad or angry about with Sunday's game, and there's never any need to apologize for a win. The Vikings are 6-5, and will spend this week in no worse than a first-place tie in the NFC North. They also have a HUGE, Jarvis Redwine type game coming up in prime time on Sunday night against the team they're currently tied with, the Chicago Bears. Every week for the last few weeks has been the biggest game of the year for the Beloved Purple, and Sunday night's matchup is no different.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
The Morning After Pill - Week # 11
At halftime of yesterday's game I was pretty happy with the way things were progressing. The Vikings had compiled a 13-6 lead, they had scored the game's lone touchdown on a 4-yard flip to Bobby Wade that capped a 76-yard scoring drive, and Adrian Peterson had carried the ball 13 times for 71 yards. Even though Jeff Garcia kept running around and avoiding Viking defenders and the Buccaneers had actually outgained the Vikings yardage-wise, the momentum seemed to be in the corner of the Vikings.
Then they had to stop the game for this crazy "halftime" thing and everything changed.
Jeff Garcia kept running around all over the place and avoiding Viking defenders until the Bucs got down to the Vikings' 17-yard line and found themselves with 2nd and 10.
Then they committed a holding penalty to make it 2nd and 20.
Then they committed another holding penalty to make it 2nd and 30. And at this point, I was crazy enough to start thinking to myself, "You know, we can hold them to another field goal here, keep the lead, keep the momentum. . ."
Then, after a Minnesota offsides penalty, Garcia stepped up and lofted a ball down the middle of the field that found its way into the hands of Jerramy Stevens. The play got the Bucs down to the Minnesota 1-yard line, and even though the B.J. Askew TD run on the ensuing play merely tied the score at 13, I have watched the Vikings long enough to know that the game was effectively over at that point. Teams don't convert 2nd and 25 and lose. . . and teams don't allow other teams to convert 2nd and 25 and win.
The offense was fairly horrific in the second half. There was a drive that had some promise and concluded with an incomplete pass to Adrian Peterson on a 4th and 1 play (where Peterson may or may not have been interfered with. . . since I'm not a Steeler fan, I won't sit here and whine about it), and that was really the last time the Vikings would threaten on the afternoon.
I said throughout the whole game that in order to win, the Vikings needed to contain Jeff Garcia. It's safe to say that they did not. Garcia completed nearly 80% of his passes for 255 yards, and just basically ran around any pressure that the Vikings got on him all day long. The stats say that he was sacked once, but for the life of me, I don't remember that happening. The Vikings were getting pressure on Garcia, but they just couldn't drag the old veteran down when they needed to.
I really don't know why the Vikings' offense basically went to sleep in the second half, and in particular in the fourth quarter. You know those 13 carries for 71 yards that AD had in the first half? He ended the game with 19 carries for 85 yards. . . and he touched the ball ONCE in the fourth quarter. ONCE, people. And that was on a kickoff return. That is incredibly unacceptable, and I'm starting to think that the wheels didn't come off of the "Fire Brad Childress" bandwagon.
By this point in his coaching tenure, Brad Childress HAS to know that Adrian Peterson is the best running back in the world, and possibly the best player in the National Football League. It blows my mind that such a player can go an entire quarter, and in particular a fourth quarter of a tied game, without touching the ball on offense. San Diego doesn't do that crap with LaDanian Tomlinson, Washington doesn't do that crap with Clinton Portis, and the Vikings certainly shouldn't be doing that crap with Adrian Peterson.
Really, there's not a whole lot else that needs to be said about the game. It was pretty much the same as most of the games we've seen in the Brad Childress era. It was the 8th of Minnesota's 10 games this year that was decided by 7 points or less. In addition, the Vikings entered the fourth quarter still very much in the football game. As most of the guys said at Barry Dyngle's these are the Brad Childress era Vikings. Be conservative, play it close, get down to the end of the game, and hope that either a) your team makes a big play or b) the other team screws up. Neither of those things happened today, and as a result the Vikings are part of a three-way tie atop the NFC North instead of sitting in sole possession of first place.
Then they had to stop the game for this crazy "halftime" thing and everything changed.
Jeff Garcia kept running around all over the place and avoiding Viking defenders until the Bucs got down to the Vikings' 17-yard line and found themselves with 2nd and 10.
Then they committed a holding penalty to make it 2nd and 20.
Then they committed another holding penalty to make it 2nd and 30. And at this point, I was crazy enough to start thinking to myself, "You know, we can hold them to another field goal here, keep the lead, keep the momentum. . ."
Then, after a Minnesota offsides penalty, Garcia stepped up and lofted a ball down the middle of the field that found its way into the hands of Jerramy Stevens. The play got the Bucs down to the Minnesota 1-yard line, and even though the B.J. Askew TD run on the ensuing play merely tied the score at 13, I have watched the Vikings long enough to know that the game was effectively over at that point. Teams don't convert 2nd and 25 and lose. . . and teams don't allow other teams to convert 2nd and 25 and win.
The offense was fairly horrific in the second half. There was a drive that had some promise and concluded with an incomplete pass to Adrian Peterson on a 4th and 1 play (where Peterson may or may not have been interfered with. . . since I'm not a Steeler fan, I won't sit here and whine about it), and that was really the last time the Vikings would threaten on the afternoon.
I said throughout the whole game that in order to win, the Vikings needed to contain Jeff Garcia. It's safe to say that they did not. Garcia completed nearly 80% of his passes for 255 yards, and just basically ran around any pressure that the Vikings got on him all day long. The stats say that he was sacked once, but for the life of me, I don't remember that happening. The Vikings were getting pressure on Garcia, but they just couldn't drag the old veteran down when they needed to.
I really don't know why the Vikings' offense basically went to sleep in the second half, and in particular in the fourth quarter. You know those 13 carries for 71 yards that AD had in the first half? He ended the game with 19 carries for 85 yards. . . and he touched the ball ONCE in the fourth quarter. ONCE, people. And that was on a kickoff return. That is incredibly unacceptable, and I'm starting to think that the wheels didn't come off of the "Fire Brad Childress" bandwagon.
By this point in his coaching tenure, Brad Childress HAS to know that Adrian Peterson is the best running back in the world, and possibly the best player in the National Football League. It blows my mind that such a player can go an entire quarter, and in particular a fourth quarter of a tied game, without touching the ball on offense. San Diego doesn't do that crap with LaDanian Tomlinson, Washington doesn't do that crap with Clinton Portis, and the Vikings certainly shouldn't be doing that crap with Adrian Peterson.
Really, there's not a whole lot else that needs to be said about the game. It was pretty much the same as most of the games we've seen in the Brad Childress era. It was the 8th of Minnesota's 10 games this year that was decided by 7 points or less. In addition, the Vikings entered the fourth quarter still very much in the football game. As most of the guys said at Barry Dyngle's these are the Brad Childress era Vikings. Be conservative, play it close, get down to the end of the game, and hope that either a) your team makes a big play or b) the other team screws up. Neither of those things happened today, and as a result the Vikings are part of a three-way tie atop the NFC North instead of sitting in sole possession of first place.
Monday, November 10, 2008
The Morning After Pill - Week # 10
We don't win games like this.
We never win games like this.
Other teams are the teams that win games like this.
I'll admit it. . . when Adrian Peterson got in for that last touchdown, the first thing I did was look at the clock and realize that there were still two minutes and change remaining. I remembered that Brad Childress was 0-5 against the Packers going into today's game. I remembered that the Vikings' special teams, who had been great in kick coverage all afternoon (not on punt coverage, but on kickoff coverage) was due to give up a decent return. And they did.
And when a pass that had been tipped by Ellis Wyms landed in the hands of Donald Driver for a 19-yard gain, I knew that the game was going to come down to a last-second field goal attempt for the Packers. And it did.
And I was prepared for Brad Childress' record against the Packers to go to 0-6 and for our playoff chances to, effectively, be circling the bowl.
And it. . . did. . .NOT!
Mason Crosby pushed his 52-yard field goal attempt wide to the right, and the Vikings held on for a 28-27 victory in a game that, by all rights, shouldn't have been anywhere near that close.
The Vikings were the better team on the football field for the majority of the game, and anyone that watched the game from start to finish would readily admit as much. 17 of the Packers' 27 points were basically gifted to them by Gus Frerotte. Their longest drive of the day. . . the drive where they scored their only offensive touchdown after Frerotte's first interception. . . netted them 48 yards. The Packers had 184 yards of total offense as a team. . . Adrian Peterson had 225 all by himself. The Vikings held the ball for just over 36 minutes to just a shade under 24 for Green Bay.
Defensively, Jared Allen was using his one healthy arm to beat Chad Clifton like a drum all afternoon long. The Vikings as a team racked up five sacks, including two that resulted in safeties. Aaron Rodgers ran scared all afternoon, and the Vikings' defense played like the all-world unit we knew all along they were capable of being, despite not having E.J. Henderson available.
But at the end, we were locked in a dogfight because. . .well, Gus doth giveth, and Gus doth taketh away. Actually for most of the afternoon, Gus gaveth away. . . and he damn near gaveth the Packers the football game. When it counted the most, however, the Vikings knew what they had to do to get themselves a victory. Everyone on the Green Bay sidelines knew. Everyone in the stands knew. Everyone watching on TV knew.
And it simply didn't matter.
69 yards on the final drive of the game. 64 of them accounted for by Adrian Peterson, including a 29-yard run to tie the game for Minnesota.
Yesterday's game affirmed a few things for me. First off, nobody runs the ball like we do. For the second season in a row, Adrian Peterson is the first back in the NFL to reach the 1,000 yard mark, and currently leads the NFL with 1,015 yards, 20 more than Washington's Clinton Portis. (Nobody else in the NFL is over 900 yet.)
Second, when our defensive line is on, there are very few (if any) defensive lines that can hang with them, and even fewer offensive lines that can actively handle them.
Third, that Chester Taylor guy is a pretty damn good football player, and needs to see more touches. Oh, and has anybody found Desmond Bishop's jock strap? He lost it when #29 faked him out of it on his 47-yard TD catch.
Fourth, the Packers are not a better team than we are. They're certainly not more talented and...it's going to be weird to say this. . . they're not better coached than Minnesota is, either.
Fifth. . . if you're going to go on NFL Network to run your mouth on how the Vikings' secondary can be exploited. . . it would be nice of you to go out on Sunday afternoon and do better than 3 catches for 37 yards. Yes, Greg Jennings, I'm looking at you.
So now we're 5-4. . . but four of the next five games are on the road, including two trips to Florida in the next two weeks to face off with the Buccaneers and the Jaguars. For now though I can leave you with the following words:
The Vikings beat the Packers.
How sweet it is.
We never win games like this.
Other teams are the teams that win games like this.
I'll admit it. . . when Adrian Peterson got in for that last touchdown, the first thing I did was look at the clock and realize that there were still two minutes and change remaining. I remembered that Brad Childress was 0-5 against the Packers going into today's game. I remembered that the Vikings' special teams, who had been great in kick coverage all afternoon (not on punt coverage, but on kickoff coverage) was due to give up a decent return. And they did.
And when a pass that had been tipped by Ellis Wyms landed in the hands of Donald Driver for a 19-yard gain, I knew that the game was going to come down to a last-second field goal attempt for the Packers. And it did.
And I was prepared for Brad Childress' record against the Packers to go to 0-6 and for our playoff chances to, effectively, be circling the bowl.
And it. . . did. . .NOT!
Mason Crosby pushed his 52-yard field goal attempt wide to the right, and the Vikings held on for a 28-27 victory in a game that, by all rights, shouldn't have been anywhere near that close.
The Vikings were the better team on the football field for the majority of the game, and anyone that watched the game from start to finish would readily admit as much. 17 of the Packers' 27 points were basically gifted to them by Gus Frerotte. Their longest drive of the day. . . the drive where they scored their only offensive touchdown after Frerotte's first interception. . . netted them 48 yards. The Packers had 184 yards of total offense as a team. . . Adrian Peterson had 225 all by himself. The Vikings held the ball for just over 36 minutes to just a shade under 24 for Green Bay.
Defensively, Jared Allen was using his one healthy arm to beat Chad Clifton like a drum all afternoon long. The Vikings as a team racked up five sacks, including two that resulted in safeties. Aaron Rodgers ran scared all afternoon, and the Vikings' defense played like the all-world unit we knew all along they were capable of being, despite not having E.J. Henderson available.
But at the end, we were locked in a dogfight because. . .well, Gus doth giveth, and Gus doth taketh away. Actually for most of the afternoon, Gus gaveth away. . . and he damn near gaveth the Packers the football game. When it counted the most, however, the Vikings knew what they had to do to get themselves a victory. Everyone on the Green Bay sidelines knew. Everyone in the stands knew. Everyone watching on TV knew.
And it simply didn't matter.
69 yards on the final drive of the game. 64 of them accounted for by Adrian Peterson, including a 29-yard run to tie the game for Minnesota.
Yesterday's game affirmed a few things for me. First off, nobody runs the ball like we do. For the second season in a row, Adrian Peterson is the first back in the NFL to reach the 1,000 yard mark, and currently leads the NFL with 1,015 yards, 20 more than Washington's Clinton Portis. (Nobody else in the NFL is over 900 yet.)
Second, when our defensive line is on, there are very few (if any) defensive lines that can hang with them, and even fewer offensive lines that can actively handle them.
Third, that Chester Taylor guy is a pretty damn good football player, and needs to see more touches. Oh, and has anybody found Desmond Bishop's jock strap? He lost it when #29 faked him out of it on his 47-yard TD catch.
Fourth, the Packers are not a better team than we are. They're certainly not more talented and...it's going to be weird to say this. . . they're not better coached than Minnesota is, either.
Fifth. . . if you're going to go on NFL Network to run your mouth on how the Vikings' secondary can be exploited. . . it would be nice of you to go out on Sunday afternoon and do better than 3 catches for 37 yards. Yes, Greg Jennings, I'm looking at you.
So now we're 5-4. . . but four of the next five games are on the road, including two trips to Florida in the next two weeks to face off with the Buccaneers and the Jaguars. For now though I can leave you with the following words:
The Vikings beat the Packers.
How sweet it is.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Time to Retool the Chase...
Unless Jimmie Johnson suffers a collapse of historic proportions, the final two races of the 2008 Sprint Cup season will just be a high-speed victory tour for the # 48 team. The defending two-time champ has a 106 point lead over Carl Edwards despite back to back wins from Edwards. So, for the fourth time in the last five years the season finale at Homestead is likely to lack the one thing the Chase was designed to create - drama!
So, what can NASCAR do to inject some excitement into the Chase? Well I have a few ideas:
1.) Create a separate points system for the Chase drivers- Back on Oct. 11th, Edwards' engine stalled at Charlotte which led to a 33rd place finish that resulted in a 96 point difference between him and Johnson in that race. Johnson finished 6th in that race and of the 27 drivers who finished between Johnson and Edwards, 21 of them were non-chase drivers. So here's my theory:
The highest finisher among the 12 Chase qualifiers in each race would earn 12 points; second would get 11; third 10; and so on down to one point for 12th. If a Chase driver won the race, he would receive a three-point bonus, and if he EARNS (not thanks to rain canceling qualifying) the pole, he would get a one-point bonus. I did the math and research- under this scenario, Johnson's edge over Edwards would be just 19 points, and eight drivers would still be in the hunt.
2.) Add new tracks to the Chase- In the regular season 27% of the races are held on 1.5 mile tracks, but in the Chase 50% of the races are run on those tracks. Shouldn't the Chase reflect conditions in the overall season? I propose taking away two of the 1.5 mile tracks and replace them with one road course and maybe Bristol. Not only would this provide a variety of tracks, but would also reward for all-around driving, not just specializing on 1.5 mile tracks.
3.) End the Chase a month sooner- The deeper the season goes just means the NFL season is further along. Once the NFL season is heating up, Sprint Cup usually has it's champion emerging with still races on the calender. This causes less and less people to become interested and not just television viewers. Each week I'm noticing more and more empty seats at racetracks.
Overall the Chase concept is good, but NASCAR needs to keep guys from running away with it. The Chase is broken, so get under the hood and make the tweaks.
So, what can NASCAR do to inject some excitement into the Chase? Well I have a few ideas:
1.) Create a separate points system for the Chase drivers- Back on Oct. 11th, Edwards' engine stalled at Charlotte which led to a 33rd place finish that resulted in a 96 point difference between him and Johnson in that race. Johnson finished 6th in that race and of the 27 drivers who finished between Johnson and Edwards, 21 of them were non-chase drivers. So here's my theory:
The highest finisher among the 12 Chase qualifiers in each race would earn 12 points; second would get 11; third 10; and so on down to one point for 12th. If a Chase driver won the race, he would receive a three-point bonus, and if he EARNS (not thanks to rain canceling qualifying) the pole, he would get a one-point bonus. I did the math and research- under this scenario, Johnson's edge over Edwards would be just 19 points, and eight drivers would still be in the hunt.
2.) Add new tracks to the Chase- In the regular season 27% of the races are held on 1.5 mile tracks, but in the Chase 50% of the races are run on those tracks. Shouldn't the Chase reflect conditions in the overall season? I propose taking away two of the 1.5 mile tracks and replace them with one road course and maybe Bristol. Not only would this provide a variety of tracks, but would also reward for all-around driving, not just specializing on 1.5 mile tracks.
3.) End the Chase a month sooner- The deeper the season goes just means the NFL season is further along. Once the NFL season is heating up, Sprint Cup usually has it's champion emerging with still races on the calender. This causes less and less people to become interested and not just television viewers. Each week I'm noticing more and more empty seats at racetracks.
Overall the Chase concept is good, but NASCAR needs to keep guys from running away with it. The Chase is broken, so get under the hood and make the tweaks.
Monday, November 3, 2008
The Morning After Pill - Week # 9
The Vikings are back to .500, and back into a tie for second place in the NFC North. The first half looked like the Beloved Purple might turn this game into a blowout, but the Texans, to their credit, gave them a run after subbing in a new quarterback and figuring out how to get the ball to guys not named Andre Johnson.
Like I said in the last blog. . . Bernard Berrian is officially worth the money. He now has 621 receiving yards, four touchdowns, and is averaging over 20 yards a catch. At one point in the first half, Gus Frerotte had 143 passing yards. . . Berrian had been on the receiving end of 104 of them, with his 55-yard grab to open the game and his TD catch with the Madden '09-esque spin move that covered 49 yards.
Speaking of free agent acquisitions showing up. . . Madieu Williams looks like he might have been worth the wait. He led the Vikings with 8 tackles, had a very athletic interception in the end zone, and played a very solid football game all-in-all. Since I think this is Darren Sharper's last year in Minnesota, it will be interesting to see the tandem of Williams and Tyrell Johnson at safety in the near future.
Oh, and that Jared Allen guy is still pretty good, too. He was credited with two sacks today (although I thought he had three. . . doesn't a forced fumble on the QB count as a sack?), which gives him 7 on the season. He led a defensive line that was getting outstanding pressure on the Houston quarterbacks for most of the day. Speaking of which, Ray Edwards is now only 21 sacks away from breaking Michael Strahan's regular-season record. Way to go, Ray! (Note: Ray Edwards said in a preseason interview that he wanted to break the sack record this year....hmm?)
Then there's Adrian Peterson. The best running back in football had 14 carries for 35 yards in the first half. He wound up with 25 for 139. Seriously, teams will eventually learn that it's rare to keep this guy down all game long. They just haven't learned it yet, that's all. Some of the runs he put together today were breathtaking.
Now, the bad stuff. . . does any team get lit up by backup quarterbacks more horribly and more frequently than the Minnesota Vikings? After doing a decent job against Matt Schaub in the first half, the Texans turned to Sage Rosenfels, and he proceeded to shred the Vikings for 224 yards and two touchdowns (to go along with the aforementioned Madieu Williams INT) in one half of football. That's unacceptable. At no thyme should Sage do that to anybody. Ha ha...I just made a funny.
Also, as we've seen on numerous occasions over the past few years, the Vikings can't cover tight ends to save their souls, as Owen Daniels went off for 11 catches and 133 yards.
I don't know how much of this is due to the loss of E.J. Henderson, because Napoleon Harris looks like as much of a stiff in coverage as he ever was, but at some point the Vikings' defensive schemes have to take that position into account. It's been a LONG time since we had a truly great coverage linebacker in Minnesota. I love our LB corps, but the tight end is playing a bigger role in this league, and the Vikings need to realize that.
Other than that, there weren't a lot of things to complain about. Enjoyable game all around, particularly for we fans of the Beloved Purple. Now it's on to the game I've looked forward to since Week 1 - the rematch against the Packers!!
Like I said in the last blog. . . Bernard Berrian is officially worth the money. He now has 621 receiving yards, four touchdowns, and is averaging over 20 yards a catch. At one point in the first half, Gus Frerotte had 143 passing yards. . . Berrian had been on the receiving end of 104 of them, with his 55-yard grab to open the game and his TD catch with the Madden '09-esque spin move that covered 49 yards.
Speaking of free agent acquisitions showing up. . . Madieu Williams looks like he might have been worth the wait. He led the Vikings with 8 tackles, had a very athletic interception in the end zone, and played a very solid football game all-in-all. Since I think this is Darren Sharper's last year in Minnesota, it will be interesting to see the tandem of Williams and Tyrell Johnson at safety in the near future.
Oh, and that Jared Allen guy is still pretty good, too. He was credited with two sacks today (although I thought he had three. . . doesn't a forced fumble on the QB count as a sack?), which gives him 7 on the season. He led a defensive line that was getting outstanding pressure on the Houston quarterbacks for most of the day. Speaking of which, Ray Edwards is now only 21 sacks away from breaking Michael Strahan's regular-season record. Way to go, Ray! (Note: Ray Edwards said in a preseason interview that he wanted to break the sack record this year....hmm?)
Then there's Adrian Peterson. The best running back in football had 14 carries for 35 yards in the first half. He wound up with 25 for 139. Seriously, teams will eventually learn that it's rare to keep this guy down all game long. They just haven't learned it yet, that's all. Some of the runs he put together today were breathtaking.
Now, the bad stuff. . . does any team get lit up by backup quarterbacks more horribly and more frequently than the Minnesota Vikings? After doing a decent job against Matt Schaub in the first half, the Texans turned to Sage Rosenfels, and he proceeded to shred the Vikings for 224 yards and two touchdowns (to go along with the aforementioned Madieu Williams INT) in one half of football. That's unacceptable. At no thyme should Sage do that to anybody. Ha ha...I just made a funny.
Also, as we've seen on numerous occasions over the past few years, the Vikings can't cover tight ends to save their souls, as Owen Daniels went off for 11 catches and 133 yards.
I don't know how much of this is due to the loss of E.J. Henderson, because Napoleon Harris looks like as much of a stiff in coverage as he ever was, but at some point the Vikings' defensive schemes have to take that position into account. It's been a LONG time since we had a truly great coverage linebacker in Minnesota. I love our LB corps, but the tight end is playing a bigger role in this league, and the Vikings need to realize that.
Other than that, there weren't a lot of things to complain about. Enjoyable game all around, particularly for we fans of the Beloved Purple. Now it's on to the game I've looked forward to since Week 1 - the rematch against the Packers!!
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