I’m a little sour by how it all went down, but I'm not entirely displeased with Sunday’s 27-17 loss to the Steelers. I do feel the football gods did not treat the Vikings kindly in this game.
The Vikings defence played its most complete game of the season and held a very good Pittsburgh offence to 13 points. Our coverage units did a solid job, the offensive line held up well against the Steelers pass rush and Percy Harvin returned another kickoff for a touchdown. I think the Vikings were (slightly) the better team. Yet they lost this game on two – I won’t call them fluky, just rare – turnovers returned by the Steelers defence for touchdowns.
One occurred after a questionable tripping call on Jeff Dugan wiped out a Sidney Rice score that would have given the Vikes a 17-13 lead (this was not a good series for Ron Winter’s officiating crew. The holding call on Bryant McKinnie earlier in the drive was awful and they incorrectly ruled a crucial third down catch by Rice as out-of-bounds, which was challenged and subsequently reversed.) The other turnover came when a screen pass went through the hands of the sure-handed Chester Taylor and was smartly picked off by linebacker Keyaron Fox.
However, the Vikings can’t blame the football gods for everything. The team committed 11 costly penalties and the offence, which has been so good the past three weeks, had a horrible first half where it produced one great drive, two three-and-outs, three six-and-outs and one kneeldown at the end of the half. The unit had too many downs with negative or minimal gains in the first half, it hurt itself with several false start penalties and Brett Favre really wasn’t sharp - off-target on quite a few makeable throws.
I was also surprised by how often the Vikings chose to pass on first and second down and didn’t put the ball in Adrian Peterson’s hands. That could simply be a function of the Vikings taking what the Steelers defence was giving them. But I don’t think the Vikings coaching staff wants Favre to throw the ball 51 times as he did in this game.
Still, this loss isn’t a killer and it probably serves them well as they head to Lambeau Field to play the Packers next Sunday. If the Vikings defence we saw today against Pittsburgh shows up against Green Bay and the Vikings get an offensive performance more like what we saw in the first Vikes-Packers game, Minnesota could have its first sweep of the Packers in Brad Childress’ tenure as head coach of the Vikings. That is what I’ll be taking away from this loss.
Update!
And for your reading pleasure, I link to this sportswriting masterpiece by CBS Sportsline's Pete Prisco.
I wondered how long it would take for some sportswriters to work the "Favre's breaking down again" angle if the Vikings lost a game on a Favre turnover or two. It turns out it took only a couple of hours after this game.
I don't like Prisco as a writer, but the logic in this article seems bad even for him. Those two turnovers are both on Favre? It's all his fault. Really?
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About Me
- Darren Campbell
- A lifelong Viking fan who doesn't have nearly enough time to be writing this blog.
10 comments:
I've nominated you for Best Sports Blogger in the Canadian Blog Awards. I hope that's OK. If it's not, please let me know and I'll get in touch with the organizers.
Hi Megan:
I've got no problem with you doing that at all. Thanks for the nomination.
Prisco's an idiot. If it were up to him, every game would be Peyton Manning vs Kurt Warner with no defenses, just touchdowns.
I often wonder how several of their writers got their jobs at CBS Sportsline. I like the site, but Prisco is pretty bad. I can't get through two sentences of any of Mike Freeman's stuff and Greg Doyel is a complete ass, although he can write.
Pete Prisco's priceless. Pure preposterous-ness.
I'm anxious to read a really good article about the game's officiating. I'm hearing mixed things about Dugan's tripping/leg-whip and I don't understand the delay of game call on the defense.
Some weird things happened in that game, but some really, really good things also. Like you said, the Steelers offense only scored 13 points. 'burger only threw for what, 175? And the Vikes won time of posession pretty handily, something like 37 to 23 if I recall.
One commenter over at PV said "I almost feel better about this loss than I do about the win against Baltimore", and that resonates with me. It helps that Minnesota's W-L record can easily absorb the loss against an AFC opponent on the road, but still.
So long as we crush the Packers, I'll be elated during the bye week.
Peter:
We've always got to be careful about being "happy" with a loss. Would New England or the Colts be "happy" with a loss on the road that they kind of gave away? That said, it feels like that for me as well. I knew this would be a tough game for the Vikings to win yet they acquitted themselves quite well and if not for a couple of freaky plays, they probably win this. This one probably makes up for the win over the 49ers, I guess. The important thing is putting the hammer down on the Packers next week at Lambeau. a 7-1 record going into the bye week and a sweep of the Packers would be sweet.
As for the officiating, not the crew's best work, but i really hate whining about calls that didn't go the Vikings way in a game like this. That's the way it goes sometimes. I've heard a few people mention that delay of game call. They must have forgot that Roethlisberger had completed a short pass to Hines Ward on that play for a first down anyway.
Hey Peter, that was me over at PV!
DC, you're right about being happy with a loss. I hope the Vikings players feel like they got punched in the gut and had their lunch money stolen from them, then take it out on Green Bay next week. The mood in the locker room isn't affected by how us fans feel, and the way the Vikes played in Sunday's loss was more encouraging to me personally than the final 3 quarters of the Baltimore win.
Bismuth-
Funny! Good comment.
And yeah, I felt upset after the loss. Not because it was a loss, but because of the way it happened. I was rehearsing some foul language in my head in preparation for any arrogant Steelers fans' ignorant remarks today, but I've been sticking mostly to Vikings blogs that don't attract trolls today, so that energy has been shifted to finding positives in the game.
"I was also surprised by how often the Vikings chose to pass on first and second down and didn’t put the ball in Adrian Peterson’s hands. " I think this said it all. I don't understand the coaching staffs play calling. AP is the best offensive weapon and he is only getting 18 attempt. Thats crazy. And the 1st and goal on the 3 and we only hand it to him once. They seem to have forgotten whose shoulders this offensive is carried on.
Anon:
There is a post at the Difference Indifference blog discussing this if you care to check it out.
This is the danger of having a future Hall of fame QB that makes your offence more balanced. If the running game isn't working early, you start passing the ball more, maybe way more than you should. The past couple of years with TJack et al. playing QB, the Vikings had no choice but to keep feeding Peterson the ball.
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