Ramble on

After a week to cool off from the loss to the Eagles, I bring you a few rambling thoughts about the purple.

Bernard Berrian
When Brad Childress and his coaching staff dissect the 2008 season, they'll need to ask themselves how they can make better use of Bernard Berrian next season. (Note to Chilly: Having him return punts isn’t one of those ways).

Berrian had 11 games (including the playoff loss) with a catch of 20 yards or more. During one stretch this season he had seven straight games with a catch of 20 yards or more. That's pretty good. But he only caught 48 passes.

Having Gus Frerotte and Tarvaris Jackson throwing to him had something to do with that. But Berrian caught 71 passes last year in Chicago with Rex Grossman, Brian Griese and Kyle Orton throwing to him and no real running game to divert attention away from the Bear passing game. So I think it's reasonable to blame the coaching staff just as much as Jackson and Frerotte for the failure to utilize Berrian more.

Berrian’s more than just a guy who can run deep post patterns. If the Vikings had got the ball into his hands on pass plays 20 more times this year, what would that have meant to the offence?

There’s a good chance it would have meant more first downs and more big plays. The Vikings offence needs more of Bernard Berrian in 2009.

The coordinators
Besides Leslie Frazier, who is probably going to be a head coach somewhere very soon, Childress says he expects the rest of the Vikings coaching staff will be back if they want to come back in 2009. But how about this?

I’ll be more than okay if special teams coordinator Paul Ferraro leaves. The Vikings special teams were bad at just about everything that didn’t involve Ryan Longwell kicking a field goal last season (check out this post by The Ragnarok on the Vikings return game failures). A coaching change here might be for the best.

And how about offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell? He hasn't done much to distinguish himself in his three seasons on the job.

I guess there has been some progress. The Vikings have gone from 26th in the NFL in points scored in 2006 to 15th in 2007 to 12th this season. And 2008 was the first season in the Childress/Bevell era where Vikings quarterbacks had more touchdown passes than interceptions.

But is Bevell responsible for that improvement or is it the addition of Adrian Peterson and Bernard Berrian that’s led to it? I’m thinking more the latter.

When I watch the Vikings on offence, too often I'm fantasizing about how it might function if Josh McDaniels (Denver’s new head coach) or Mike Mularkey or even Mike Martz was the OC. Bevell seems too unimaginative and too much of a Childress yes-man to ever be a great offensive mind. The Vikings could do better here.

Chester Taylor
While Taylor is under contract until the end of next season, his situation is worth monitoring. Taylor signed with Minnesota in 2006 to be THE guy running the ball. That lasted one year and then Adrian Peterson came along.

This season he had his fewest carries since 2003. He did have an important role with the team as a third down back and the guy we dumped the ball off to on third-and-15, but I doubt it’s the role he had in mind when he signed with the Vikings.

Taylor’s very important to the Vikings. But he turns 30 next September. Considering running backs have short shelf lives, I can’t see Taylor wanting to spend one of his few remaining prime years as the Vikings third-down back. Taylor's been a good soldier through all of this. But don't be surprised if there are some rumblings this offseason that he wants to play somewhere else.

The offensive line
When you watch a Vikings game on TV or listen to an expert talk about the Vikes, the offensive line usually gets mentioned as a team strength. But that line is probably going to get a major shake up during the offseason. Matt Birk is almost certainly gone and the Vikings might (and really should) be looking for a new right tackle.

We should embrace change here. Forget this unit's reputation – the current starting five has often struggled to open the slimmest of holes for Peterson. It also gave up 43 sacks this season. Only six teams gave up more.

No doubt Gus Frerotte was responsible for some of that. He’s slow and sometimes holds onto the ball too long. But some of the NFL’s best team’s at protecting the quarterback also had some slow starting QBs – Tennessee ( Kerry Collins; 12 sacks given up), Indianapolis (Peyton Manning; 14 sacks given up) and Atlanta (Matt Ryan; 17 sacks given up) come to mind. Apparently, having an immobile quarterback doesn’t mean you have to accept you will give up a lot of sacks.

The Vikings offensive line struggles in protecting the quarterback stem from two problems, I think. One – the offence often doesn't do a good job picking up positive yardage of first down and ends up facing obvious passing downs thereafter. The second problem is that this O-line doesn't pick up blitzes very well.

But problem #2 is a direct result of problem #1. Because the Vikings have so often found themselves in second-and-long and third-and-long situations during the Childress years, they are forced to pass. And because they are forced to pass, opponents know it and blitz the hell out of them.

Better play from the quarterbacks and wide receivers would obviously help the Vikings succeed more on first down. So would better offensive line play. Replacing Birk and Ryan Cook and Artis Hicks with better players would be movement in the right direction. The Vikings should pursue upgrades to these positions with zest.

The Cardinals
Last year the Vikings embarrassed the New York Giants by surprisingly trouncing them at home. The Giants made the playoffs but many expected them to be a one-and done team. Of course, they went on to win three straight road playoff games and won the Super Bowl.

This season the Vikings embarrassed the Arizona Cardinals by surprisingly trouncing them at home. The Cardinals made the playoffs but just about every football expert expected them to be a one-and-done team. There was also a consensus that they didn't even deserve to be playing that one game.

The Cardinals have now won two playoff games and if they beat the Eagles next Sunday (doubtful but can we doubt anything in these playoffs? It seems anything is possible) they will have a shot to pull off a Giants-like feat – the only difference being the Cardinals played two home games instead of three road games.

It's a silly coincidence. But one I couldn't resist mentioning.

The blog
I'm excited to watch some good football over the next three weeks but with the Vikings eliminated from Super Bowl contention I'm less excited to write about it.

So I don't know what that means for this blog over the next month or so. I'll still be posting, just not as frequently as I have been during the regular season.

I also could change my mind about that. In case I do, keep stopping by.