Just kidding.
Yet, I'm kind of not kidding.
It's true that the Vikings won when they had to on Sunday. They didn’t back into the playoffs. They didn’t choke and now they’re NFC North champs with the best record a Vikings team has posted since 2000. Congratulations, Vikings.
But Sunday’s 20-19 win over the New York Giants makes one wonder – again – where the Vikings would be if they had a better head coach. And a legitimate passing game, which is supposed to be one of Brad Childress’s areas of expertise.
Instead, what we got is what we often get from the Vikings offence (Canadian spelling alert) when Adrian Peterson is getting gang-tackled for minimal gains or losses. We get an offence that scores 10 points in the first half despite some favourable field position. We get an offence that had roughly 60 yards passing in that half and only threw three balls (and completed one) to its top receiver, Bernard Berrian.
But that wasn’t all. The decision by Childress to go for it on fourth-and-one with 31 seconds left in the first half and with the ball at the Giants 39-yard-line – regardless of what the play-call ended up being – was a head-scratching blunder. The safe call would have been to punt it and go into the second half with a 10-6 lead. But Chilly didn't go the safe route. Instead he decided he was going to be a gambler.
Why he made that decision I don't know. Maybe he wanted to prove a point to a fan base that mostly despises him for feeding them three years of conservative, no-frills offensive football. Maybe. But whatever the reason, he lost the gamble. The Giants got the ball back and were able to pick up a cheap three points and go into the second half down 10-9. It wasn’t a big swing in points. But it was big enough in a game where it looked like points were going to be hard to come by.
Finally, if Vikings fans needed more proof that their team often succeeds despite playing for a shaky head coach, there was the Vikings final drive that led to Ryan Longwell’s game-winning 50-yard field goal.
From the point where the Vikings picked up a big first-down on a third-and-two completion to Visanthe Shiancoe, which put them on the Giants 30-yard-line, the Vikings showed no urgency or even seemed to have a clue that they should be showing urgency.
The clock showed there was 1:11 left in the game when Shiancoe made the catch. But Tarvaris Jackson and the rest of the offence seemed to think they had all the time in the world. What followed was a disjointed, confusing series of plays where a hand-off to Peterson lost two yards, then the Vikings wasted 27 seconds before deciding they wanted to send Longwell in to kick the field goal. Then Childress changed his mind and decided to have Jackson drop back to pass with nine seconds left in the game, no timeouts left and the Vikings down by two points. And then the play Jackson made was a high-and-wide sideline pass that only someone in the first row of the Metrodome could have caught. In hindsight, that was probably the most sensible thing the Vikings did in that short sequence. Doesn’t Childress practice this two-minute drill stuff?
Fortunately, it turned out okay in the end. The Bears even did their part and lost. Now the Vikings get to host a playoff game and are in the Super Bowl derby. They will either play the Dallas Cowboys or the Philadelphia Eagles.
I know I’m sounding like a curmudgeon here during what should be a happy time. And I am happy. The Vikings are in the playoffs and I think they could do some damage there – maybe even get to the Super Bowl.
However, I think that because I believe in the Vikings talent. I believe in Adrian Peterson. I believe in Bernard Berrian. I believe in Steve Hutchinson. I believe in Jared Allen and Antoine Winfield and Kevin Williams and Chad Greenway. Jesus, I’m even starting to believe in Tarvaris Jackson a little bit.
What I don’t believe in is Brad Childress. The Vikings could go far in January. But if they do it won’t be because of any head coaching brilliance. 10-6 could be as good as it gets under Childress. I wish I felt otherwise. But I don’t.
Now watch Zygi Wilf give the guy a contract extension.
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11 comments:
Childress's challenged call was crazy. Like a lot of NFL coaches, he seems to lose his sense of vision and his ability to reason when it comes to challenging plays. It's not the first time I've been vexed at one of his challenges.
Remember when the Vikings ran Peterson on an end-around from the slot? It gained about seven yards. A typical Viking run play is simply a run between guard and tackle on 1st and 10. If Peterson were used on some of those creative plays, he'd make a lot more big plays.
And every time they throw a pass to Tahi, I think, "why?" That play is maxed out at 3 yards; Tahi never runs it further.
So I too am ecstatic but frustrated by Childress.
You are not the only one that feels that way about Childress and the game. I got told by my daughter, "Dad, you are usually happy for days after a win, but you don't seem it now." I told her I was happy that we won and won the division, but she is right that I'm not as excited as I thought I would be.
I was going nuts a lot of the game wondering why Childress believes in his "keep it close and you may have a chance to win in the 4th quarter" philosophy. It drives me nuts!
Even though I don't think a loss would have gotten Chili fired [he has the Wilf's snowed], we know that we now have another full year of this type of football versus a dominating style that all the talent on this team could produce on a regular basis.
Just wanted you to know that you aren't alone, and that there even more fans like us that feel that way. In the mean time, I told my daughter that all we need now is a 5 game winning streak, and we just got the first one.
PV and Luft:
It's a little late here in The Great White North, so my response will be brief.
Certainly the lack of creativity in using Peterson bothers us all. But to me, Berrian is the poster child for Childress's offensive failings. Here is a guy who caught 70 passes last year with no running game to speak of, Muhsin Muhammad as his wing man and Rex Grossman and Kyle Orton throwing him the ball.
This year he catches 48 – with teams often selling out to stuff Peterson. He almost had a 1,000-yard season, which is pretty remarkable on only 48 catches but it seems Childress and Bevell have gone out of their way to minimize his contributions. All they do is throw the deep ball to him a couple of times a game.
All I know is we are 10-6 with the Feables coming to town. Childress along with Spielman and Wilfs money has brought a group of players in that can make a run. For every bone headed move he has made, he has made a good move. I've cursed him out many times as well but take a step back and look at our losses. They have been close games that could have gone the other way(usually a blown special teams play). Our free agents at the ending of the year could ALL walk and we are still good to go. EVEN SHARPER. Childress's KAO is s..l.o.w.l.y progressing and with the addition of a right tackle and fullback we will be in even better shape. Just a little D for Chlly.
I'm not sure I even believe in Peterson any more. I've got that same kind of "Is he going to turn it over?" mentality every time he touches the ball that I used to have with T-Jack.
And PV, I scream every time Tahi gets a pass, too.
Anon:
I understand your point of view. But I think some of those close losses could have been wins with a better coach. What factors could have led to that? Well, If we had a better starting QB, for starters. If the Vikings could design plays to maximize their offensive players talents better. If the special teams would stop giving other teams touchdowns. If the offence knew how to run a proper two-minute drill and if the Vikings didn't take so many penalties (three weeks ago, they led the league in this area. Not sure where they are now). Responsibility for all that stuff ultimately lies with Childress.
Sure, we could do worse for a head coach and the players do appear to play hard for him, so I'll give him that. But when I watch the Vikings play under Childress, I see a team that often doesn't do the "little things" well.
But that's just my opinion. I do like the Wilf's. They are willing to spend the money to make this team a contender. The jury's still out on Spielman. We'll see how his drafts and free agent decisions pan out – they were bad when he was running the Dolphins.
I just hope with chilli's experience with Mcnabb and the O of philly, he and frazier can come up with a way to play wackanabb. Cause when hes smacked a few times he turns to TJack07.
Anon:
Chilly's intimate knowledge of McNabb didn't seem to help last year when the Vikes lost to the Eagles at the Metrodome.
But this Vikings defence is better than last year's unit and the Eagles (and McNabb) have been very inconsistent this season. We also won't have Kelly Holcomb playing quarterback. That's got to be worth two touchdowns for the Vikes right there.
Jason:
About AP's fumbling problem. Last week the Pioneer Press ran an article where Robert Smith talked about what a RB must do to protect against fumbling. I'm sure you read it. While it was interesting enough, what Smith talked about seemed like the kind of basic techniques you'd learn in a Running Back 101 class.
I'm pretty sure Peterson took that class at some point in his football career. But I also think how he carries the ball has never been an issue for him because, well, nobody ever tackled him much in high school or at Oklahoma. So I don't think it's been emphasized by his past coaches nor has it even been identified as a problem. But it's a problem and it's correctible. With enough reps, the fumbling will stop. Maybe even as early as this Sunday.
The vikes offense is simple and easy to cover because they never attack the hash marks down the center of the field. Opposing defenses must love defending this offense. As an X college player myself I would love to D-up this offense. I'd do just what the eagles did...sit on the short routes and blitz the hell out-of-em day long.
This offense is unwatchable!!! Fire that Ned Flanders look alike!!!
Anon:
Slight correction: The Vikes O is unwatchable except for Peterson.
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