Vikings @ Panthers - Week 15

There's something about Sunday nights.....

Once again, the Vikings laid an egg in primetime. I don't get it. The two worst games of the season for the Vikings have come on Sunday nights, and it's not even close. Two weeks ago in Arizona, they had a thoroughly disastrous game that involved an absolute thrashing by Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, a bumbling missed-tackle fest on defense, and a complete inability to utilize this team's many offensive weapons. This past Sunday was largely the same story, but the caliber of the opponent was just much worse.

A single poor game in Arizona is unfortunate, but it probably isn't worth getting too worried about. However, when the same issues emerge against a team not nearly as tough as the Cardinals, you have to start wondering.

The offensive line? It got shredded by Julius Peppers. Favre's performance? Well..Jim Kleinsasser was the team's leading receiver in the first half..what's that tell ya? And for the record....if you are looking to this blog to see my thoughts on the whole Favre-Childress saga...look somewhere else. Adrian Peterson? When he actually had the ball, which wasn't terribly often, there was no room to run. The defensive performance? It had a tough time handling Matt Moore, a scrub who made high percentage throws and was sacked just twice. The tackling was ugly and the pass rush belonged on the side of a milk carton.

Despite my gripes about the defense, the offensive performance was horrendous. The #1 thing you can do to get beat by a mediocre team is allowing them to hang around early in the game. That's just what the Vikings did in this game. Check out the first four offensive drives of the game:

5 plays, 8 yards
3 plays, 0 yards
4 plays, 4 yards
3 plays, 8 yards

Embarrassing. The first half stats: 66 total yards, 1/5 on third down, Matt Moore passes for double the yards that Favre did. Yet, still 7-6 Vikes at the half.

Here is the second half for you:

3 plays, 5 yards
4 plays, 23 yards
3 plays, 4 yards
3 plays, - 3 yards
5 plays, 16 yards
4 plays, 15 yards

When you perform incompetently in the first half and come out and perform just as incompetently in the second half, you're an offense that stopped caring. You're an offense that faced adversity and flopped.

Some called this a trap game, and some said the Vikings got complacent after clinching the NFC North title earlier in the day. I'll call it this: GETTING CRUSHED. I'm not gonna make excuses for this team, because they don't deserve it. What's most disappointing of all is that they seemed to be on the right track just one week ago. After having quite a few problems exposed by the Cardinals, they responded in a big way against the Bengals.

Ultimately, don't call it a fluke when it happens twice in three weeks. The Beloved Purple are slipping at a time when they need to be building momentum, and suddenly, a first round bye is hardly a sure thing. However, I'm not so concerned with the bye or homefield advantage as I was Sunday morning after the Saints had lost. I'm just worried about this team even winning a playoff game..