Vikings – Bears
Are the Chicago Bears the Vikings opponent in Monday night’s matchup? Or is it Soldier Field?
A football field can’t complete passes, run for touchdowns or sack quarterbacks. But the fact is the Vikings are 2-7 at Soldier Field this decade, with some truly horrendous performances coming in those seven losses. So I never look forward to a Viking game at Soldier Field. And I don’t think the Vikings do either. Okay, Adrian Peterson probably does, but that’s about it.
The forecast Monday night is calling for a high of 29 and a low of 10 in Chicago (those forecasted temperatures are listed in Fahrenheit, not Celsius, my fellow Canadians.) It will probably be windy as well. Such a forecast wouldn’t be a problem if this was the 2007 or even the 2008 Minnesota Vikings. But the 2009 Vikings have become a pass-first team and on a cold night with the wind knocking down Brett Favre’s passes and the Vikings offensive line unable to open any holes for Peterson, the Minnesota offence could struggle again.
For me, this game will be all about the Vikings offensive line. We can worry about the Vikings defensive performance against Carolina on Sunday – the missed tackles and Matt Moore torching them in the fourth quarter – but when the offence has 11 drives that last six plays or less, well, it’s hard to win that way.
I blame a lot of non-production against Carolina on the Vikings offensive line.
The Vikings offensive line has to dominate this game. It has to finally open some holes for Peterson to run through and it has to give Favre some time to throw the ball. And it can’t commit false start penalties and holding penalties that short circuit promising drives.
The Bears don’t have anyone like Julius Peppers to throw at our offensive line and the Bears are banged up with nine players on the injury report. Some of the wounded players (Lance Briggs, Adewale Ogunleye) are key guys who either won’t be playing or are doubtful to play against the Vikings.
The injuries on defence – coupled with Jay Cutler fresh off another woeful performance and the Bears unable to run the ball – indicates this game should not be difficult for the Vikings to win.
But we all thought the same thing last week against Carolina. This is a late December game at Soldier Field and the Vikings seem to have lost their mojo.
I’ve got a bad, bad feeling about this one.
Bears 24 Vikings 17
The Favre/Childress tiff
You’ve likely read lots on the Brad Childress/Brett Favre drama this week and you’ve likely wondered lots if it has already scuttled a rare special season for the Vikings.
This post by ESPN’s Kevin Seifert actually made me feel good about the whole thing. Seifert points out Chilly has had several run-ins with Favre this year, most of them coming when the Vikes were red-hot and being mentioned in the same breath as the Colts and the Saints as the league’s best team.
So I don’t worry that Chilly is going to lose the locker room because it appears he has no control over Favre. I also don’t worry this is somehow going to cause the Vikings to morph into the Lions.
The Viking players have known what this relationship is about for a long time. When your head coach meets Favre at the airport and personally drives Favre to the Vikings’ facilities, it's pretty clear Favre is going to be handled differently than other players. This was never your typical coach/player relationship, and up until three weeks ago, the rest of the Viking players handled it just fine.
Despite what Kevin Seifert writes or Ed Werder says, if the Vikings lose to the Bears Monday night, it will have nothing to do with any of this nonsense. It will be because the Bears were better on that night than the Vikings. The same goes for rest of the season.
Here's Mike Lombardi's take on it, by the way.
It ain’t all bad news
Football Outsiders Mike Tanier names Percy Harvin and Phil Loadholt to his All-Rookie team.
The selection of Harvin isn’t surprising. The selection of Loadholt? If you put a lot of stock in how he played against Carolina, then it is.
Personally, I’ve been happy with Loadholt’s play. I also agree with Tanier that Loadholt is a better pass blocker right now than a run blocker. It was supposed to be the other way around. But no matter, despite Loadholt’s struggles last Sunday, I think history will show Loadholt was a pretty good pick.
Ho, ho, ho
It’s Christmas time and if I had one wish for all Vikings fans, it would be for the Vikings to beat Chicago convincingly Monday night and then kick off 2010 with a win over the New York Giants.
Perhaps I should wish for you all to have a safe and enjoyable holiday season, but a couple of Viking wins is where my head is at these days.
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