Expect the expected with these Vikings

I don’t want to linger too much about another Vikings loss. Yes, the offence is often punchless, the Vikings don’t have any receiving threat that can stretch the field, they can’t make plays – offensively or defensively – in the second half, blah, blah, blah. Still, there are few things I’ll mention.

Playmakers
The Kansas City Chiefs had two players the Vikings had to stop in this game. One of them is wide receiver Dwayne Bowe. The other is linebacker Tamba Hali. Bowe ended up five catches for 107 yards. Four of his five catches were for first downs and his 52-yard touchdown catch (breaking tackles from Cedric Griffin and Jamarca Sanford in the process) early in the fourth quarter basically sealed the win for the Chiefs.

Hali had two sacks and pressured Vikings quarterback Donovan McNabb a number of other times. The Vikings had so little confidence in right tackle Phil Loadholt being able to handle Hali that they often had tight end Jim Kleinsasser blocking Hali mano-a-mano, with mixed results.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs kept Adrian Peterson from breaking off any big gains; his longest play was for 14 yards. Percy Harvin did rip off some nice runs on reverses, but he couldn’t break the real long play the Vikings needed so badly in this game.

Donovan McNabb
Where do the Vikings go from here with the quarterback situation? It’s not that McNabb played badly again the Chiefs. He was decent (18-30, 202 yards, two touchdown passes), but the Vikings need more than decent play from their quarterback this year. It doesn’t appear McNabb can provide it.

So at 0-4 and the playoffs a pipe dream, the calls to replace McNabb with rookie Christian Ponder are going to get even louder this week. Putting in Ponder will give Vikings fans some excitement and give him (we hope) valuable game experience, preparing the Vikings for a quick turnaround in 2012. But is Ponder ready to start this early in the season? (Apparently Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier doesn't think so.) Only the Vikings coaches have any real idea. Personally, I’m terrified of having Ponder playing behind this offensive line.

Ryan Succop
The Chiefs kicker went into the Vikings game having made only two of his five field goals in the first three games and his longest was 33 yards. Today he was five-for-five and nailed a 51-yarder and a 54-yarder. He may have been the Chiefs MVP in this game.