The Leslie Frazier Era – Week Two

Interim head coach Leslie Frazier took a dip in the Hot Tub Time Machine last week to come up with the formula for the Vikings first road win in 13 months.

Run the ball a lot. Employ a simple passing game. Stop the run. This is the way the Vikings played in 2006, 2007 and 2008 under the reviled and recently fired Brad Childress.

And as much as I liked the desire and disciplined football the Vikings displayed against Washington, I winced a bit when I heard Frazier talk after the game about the Vikings needing to get back to running the ball and stopping the run to start winning football games again.

That kind of old-school thinking isn’t really what I’m looking for in the Vikings next head coach.

That kind of talk says to me that the coach doesn’t really think good quarterback play and passing the ball are all that important to playing winning football. It also might signal that Frazier is okay with the band aid approach the franchise has used to fill the quarterback position for the last 20 years.

Yuck.

But maybe I’m just paranoid. Frazier seems like a pretty smart man and I’m sure he is seeing exactly what Vikings fans are seeing – it’s not 2009 anymore. The Vikings don’t have an offensive juggernaut that can put up points in bunches and they’ve been getting subpar quarterback play from Brett Favre all season.

So what do you do when you’re faced with those facts? You do exactly what Frazier did against Washington – minimize Favre’s impact on the game, and attempt to maximize the impact of your two best offensive players – Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin.

It didn’t work out as planned – Peterson got injured early and Washington kept Harvin in check – but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a sound strategy given what Frazier has to work with this year.

I just hope that isn’t always going to be Frazier’s blueprint to victory.

The NFL is a quarterback league and a passing league. Whomever is the Vikings next head coach needs to assemble talent and gameplan accordingly.

So Mr. Frazier, please tell me you’re not one of those “run the football and stop the run” kind of coaches. We already had one of those around here. We didn’t like it very much.

Vikings – Bills

I don’t think I’ve ever read so much about how good a 2-9 team is as the stuff I’ve been reading about the Buffalo Bills this week.

Statistically, the Bills aren’t really very good at anything. Their best ranking is their 10th ranked pass defence. But maybe it's highly ranked because nobody has to pass against them. The Bills also have 31st ranked rushing defence. They also have the 18th ranked running offence and 23rd ranked passing offence.

They have played a very tough schedule and have lost several close games. But good team finds a way to win more of those than they lose, don’t they? The Vikings have also had a tough schedule and have lost some close games. I don’t hear anyone calling the Vikings a good team – because they aren't.

However, if you still care whether the Vikings win another game this season, Buffalo does have some players that should concern you.

I used to think Ryan Fitzpatrick was another way to spell “suck”. But Fitzpatrick is actually having a nice year.

Fred Jackson is a quality back who runs and catches the ball effectively.

And you probably heard Bills wide receiver Steve Johnson Twittered about God forsaking him after dropping a game-winning pass in overtime last week. That story probably also made you look up Johnson’s stats (I know I did). Shit. The guy has 59 catches and nine touchdowns this year. Think he’ll give the Vikings secondary problems?

So the Bills can move the ball a bit. As for the Vikings – not so much.

The Vikings could be very limited offensively in this game. You know Adrian Peterson is iffy. You know Steve Hutchinson is also iffy.

With a week to prepare, will the Bills fall for those bootleg plays by Favre that were so effective against Washington? And if Peterson can’t play, can Toby Gerhart keep churning out those four and five-yard runs to keep the chains moving and keep Favre from throwing multiple interceptions?

The Vikings have been a bad offensive team all year. Even if Peterson and Hutchinson do play, that’s not going to change. They will struggle to score points no matter whom they are playing. And I’m not convinced they can go another entire game without turning the ball over more than their opponent.

Bills 23 Vikings 13