Friday's football post – Nov. 6 edition

I’ve been working on a Vikings-at-the-midway-point post since Monday. But I still haven’t got it where I want it yet. Expect it early next week. In its place, here’s a short Friday post featuring some links and commentary.

Leading off, SI’s Ross Tucker rips Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay coaching staff a new one for poor game-planning and coaching in last Sunday’s loss to the Vikings.

As usual, Tucker makes some good points here (he’s becoming one of my favorite football writers.) But isn’t it strange to read someone claiming Brad Childress’ staff outcoached McCarthy’s staff? I’m particularly surprised to read Tucker’s chief criticism of the Packers coaching staff – that they were unwilling or unable to make adjustments to their blocking schemes to slow down the Vikings pass rush.

This sounds very familiar. In fact, hasn’t that always been one of the main criticisms of Chilly’s offensive game-planning – unwillingness or an inability to make adjustments and that the Vikings offence under Childress does the same things over and over, even if they aren’t working?

Last season, after the Vikings lost the season opener to Green Bay, which gave Childress an 0-5 record against McCarthy and the Packers, I think everyone – including me – believed McCarthy was the better coach. Just over a year later, we’ve got smart and knowledgeable people like Ross Tucker thinking otherwise.

Doug Farrar’s always-informative “Cover Three” column for Football Outsiders examines what the Packers did differently to go from passing for 38 yards and no touchdowns in the first half to 249 yards and three touchdowns in the second half.

Farrar’s conclusion is that the Vikings pass rush is very good and Rodgers held onto the ball too long in the first half against that pass rush. I’d have to agree. I really like Rodgers – or to clarify, I like him as a quarterback, not as a Packer – but during the first half against the Vikings he appeared jittery and was not very sharp. He fixed things in the second half, but by then Green Bay was down 24-3, which was too big of a deficit to come back from.

The Packers offensive line is still weak in pass protection, but Rodgers lack of pocket presence isn’t helping them out. And this isn’t something that’s popped up suddenly this season. Remember the Vikings sacked Rodgers four times last year at the Metrodome – two of them for safeties – and smacked him around a bunch of other times in that game.

The Packers need to improve the play of their offensive line, but the coaching staff also needs to teach Rodgers to throw the ball away more and get that internal clock ticking in his head where he gets rid of the ball after three or four seconds on a consistent basis.

I hope they’ll continue to be unsuccessful in their efforts.

Just about everyone has read this by now, so a couple of points about Jared Allen making Sports Illustrated’s list of the NFL's dirtiest players.

Point #1: There were 296 players polled. There are 53 players on an NFL roster and there are 32 teams. Multiply that and you have 1,696 players. So only 17 per cent of the players in the league were polled and out of that small percentage only 3.2 per cent thought Allen was the dirtiest player in the NFL. Big deal. Perhaps all the votes came from Houston Texan players?

Point #2: If you’re going to have a poll like this, include some player comments about why each dirty player player is considered dirty. Fans like me want the gossip. SI – this list is lame.

By the way, If I had to vote on whom was the Vikings dirtiest player, it would go to offensive guard Anthony Herrera. That guy is a nasty fucker.

Finally, the National Football Post’s Matt Bowen wrote this week that former Viking safety Darren Sharper was his choice for NFL MVP at this point in the season.

I’ll give Bowen credit for making an unconventional pick, but as a former player, I expect a bit more insight from him on this topic. (Of course, Bowen was a safety in the league.)

Sharper isn’t even the most valuable player on his team. Before Bowen wrote the column, he should have asked himself this question: Whom could the Saints least afford to have out of their lineup – Darren Sharper or Drew Brees?