The rookie

When the Vikings played the Kansas City Chiefs Friday night, the point of interest for me was not Brett Favre, but Percy Harvin.

There’s not much to discover about Favre at this stage of his career. Harvin is another matter. He put up crazy numbers in college and if you’ve been reading the Access Vikings blog during training camp, you’ve heard he’s made some big plays against his teammates in practices. The Vikings might have another dynamite, game-changing player on their roster.

This was his first chance to make plays against an opponent in the NFL. It was also the first chance for Vikings fans to see Harvin make plays against an opponent.

So what did we learn?

Not much. Harvin returned a couple of kick-offs without incident. He lined up in the left and right slots the majority of the time. He was used as a decoy once on a fake reverse. He caught two passes for nine yards – one a heater from Favre that he plucked an inch off the turf with two Chiefs defenders closing in on him. But there was no wildcat. No triple reverses. No getting the ball to Harvin in space and seeing what he could do. Maybe we’ll see more of that next week against Houston. Maybe we won’t see it at all until the regular seasons starts. I’m not worried, but this was a ho-hum debut for Harvin. I was anticipating a bit more flash.

Other notable stuff
* I plan to pay closer attention to John Sullivan and Phil Loadholt next game to see if my novice football eyes can spot anything alarming or encouraging about their play. To my untrained eyes both guys seem to be holding up well. It’s time someone came up with a catchy nickname for Loadholt though. Anyone who is 6’8 and 330 pounds should have a nickname.

* I know it’s only two preseason games but the Vikings pass rush looks like it will be incredibly good this season. Peyton Manning was sacked three times in the first series by the first-team defence last week. This week the Chiefs Matt Cassel was under heavy pressure on almost every pass he threw while facing that first-team defence (a defence without Jared Allen.) I was pleased to see Brian Robison making plays all over the place. He could be an important situational pass rusher for the Vikings. I also find myself being pleasantly surprised by the work of Fred Evans. But again, it’s only the preseason.

* If Tarvaris Jackson played like this all the time (12-15, 202 yards, two touchdown passes), the Vikes wouldn’t have had to suckhole to Favre and drag him out of retirement. Jackson has always struggled with his accuracy and touch on any pass longer than 10 yards. But his 29-yard pass over the middle to Visanthe Shiancoe in the second quarter and his 64-yard touchdown pass to Darius Reynaud over the middle in the third quarter were both bullets and beautifully accurate. Maybe the Vikings can get a draft pick for him.

* Tonight’s brief look at Favre made me think about how sharp he’s going to be when the regular season starts. My worry is he won’t be sharp enough. He’s missed all the OTAs and training camp. He played two short series against Kansas City. He’ll probably play the first half against Houston and then maybe not at all against Dallas. And then the regular season starts.

I don’t see how Favre can possibly be in top form by then. The early schedule looks easy (Cleveland, Detroit and San Francisco) but one way bad teams can even things out against good teams is when the good team’s quarterback struggles. Favre has a lot of rust to wear off.