First halfs – who needs 'em

What’s a beautiful sight to see for Viking fans?

It’s watching Brett Favre smiling on the sideline wearing a Minnesota ball cap and Adrian Peterson throwing his cleats into the crowd – and there’s still five minutes left in the game.

When you see those types of actions by your starters, that usually means your favourite team is on its way to a comfortable victory, which is exactly what went down against the Detroit Lions Sunday as the Vikings picked up a 27-13 win to go 2-0.

Vikings detractors will point to another poor first half by the team as evidence that this squad isn’t yet a Super Bowl contender. But once again the team won another game on the road by a double digit score against a team it should beat by a double digit score.That’s what a Super Bowl contender is supposed to do.

Meanwhile, as I write this, the Packers have lost at home to the Bengals and the Bears are tied 7-7 at half time against the Steelers and Jay Cutler and the Chicago offence started the game with two straight three-and-outs. (Update: Bears won 17-14)

So while we should be concerned about some of the bad things we witnessed against the Lions this Sunday, let’s focus on some of the many good things we saw from the Vikings (particularly in the second half) in this game.

Good things like ....

Adrian Peterson catching passes
The Vikings made a concerted effort to get Peterson in space on some screens today. The results weren’t spectacular – gains of five, five, three and 11 yards on each catch – but Peterson looked comfortable catching the ball (something we didn’t see from him last year) and it’s not hard to imagine AP taking a few of these screens to the house later this season.

Peterson catching passes just makes AP a more complete back and harder to defend. I also like seeing a game where the Vikings win and Peterson only had to touch the ball 19 times. Nice to see the franchise avoid more wear and tear.

Percy Harvin’s strength
The rookie hasn’t broken any long plays yet, but it’s clear Favre likes him and he almost always makes the first tackler miss. And how many tackles did he break and Lions defenders did he carry for an extra yard or two when he had the ball?

You wouldn’t think you could say this about a guy who is listed at 5’11 and 184 pounds, but this kid is a load. Get the ball to him and it’s a guaranteed five-to-10 yard gain. Harvin speed and strength is leading to positive plays, first downs and extended drives for the Vikings.

The short passing game
I’m not in love with dink and dunk offences. But it worked in this game. Favre was accurate (only four incompletions) and threw with authority. It was also nice to see Bernard Berrian (six catches) and Sidney Rice utilized today. Number four looks much more comfortable with his receivers now than he did against Houston a month ago. That’s encouraging for a Vikings passing game that’s generally been pretty poor during Brad Childress’ tenure as head coach in Minnesota. I expect Favre and the Vikings passing game to get better.

Discipline
An ugly two-play sequence aside, where Kevin Williams and Jayme Mitchell both were called for 15-yard penalties that contributed greatly to Detroit’s only touchdown, the Vikings did another good job avoiding taking penalties. The Vikes were only called for five in this game and only three against the Browns last week.

Now when you’re playing teams that aren’t as good as you, you probably shouldn’t take many penalties against them. But the amount of flags the Vikings were called for during the preseason was a concern. So far in the regular season, they are not beating themselves in this area.

Heath Farwell and Chad Greenway
Pay attention after an opposing punt or kick-off returner gets off the ground and you’ll probably find #59 getting up off of him.

Farwell made at least two tackles today on punt and kick-off coverages where he prevented a long gain and maybe even a touchdown or two. These are the kind of tackles the Vikings coverage units couldn’t make last year.

Let me be clear – Heath Farwell is one valuable Viking.

As for Greenway, his athleticism continues to surprise me, although I don’t know why. His two key interceptions sucked the life out of Matt Stafford and the Lions offence. And he showed nice hands recovering the Lions onside kick. This guy could’ve have been a tight end if he wasn’t such a good linebacker.

Oh yeah, the Vikings last three number one picks: Greenway, Peterson and Harvin. Nice.

Of course, it wasn’t all good times against Detroit. Another sluggish first half by the Vikings was perplexing. It would be good to see them smoke San Francisco early next week.

Some other concerns: pass protection, Favre’s arm strength on the deep ball and the Vikings run defence.

I find it alarming that Favre’s already been sacked seven times this season (and hit and pressured heavily on numerous other throws) against two bad defensive units like the Browns and the Lions. Favre will have a hard time making it through the season if this continues.

And he still doesn’t look good throwing any ball beyond 15 yards. This has been noted elsewhere by other people the past two seasons – that Favre can’t throw the deep ball anymore – but if teams don’t think Favre can hurt them with longer throws, they are going to start scheming to take away the Vikings short passing game. And what happens to Favre and the passing game then? Is the rotator cuff problem hindering Favre on long throws?

The run defence also doesn’t look sharp. Jamal Lewis looked 10 years younger last week. But when the Browns fell behind in the second half against the Vikes, Lewis didn’t get enough touches to be the factor he was in the first half.

Today against Detroit, I was surprised how often the Lions Kevin Smith, Maurice Morris and Aaron Brown consistently broke through a crowded line of scrimmage for positive – sometimes excellent – yardage. If this continues, better teams will undoubtedly take advantage of that more than the Browns and Lions were able to. But I don’t expect it to continue.

However, no need to worry much about all that right now. The Vikings are 2-0 with the average (at best) San Francisco 49ers coming into the Metrodome next week. It’s good to be a Vikings fan right now. Let's enjoy this one for a while.