Well, some entertaining football was played today at the Metrodome as the Vikings lost to Denver 35-32. I just don’t think it was good football. I’ll get to Christian Ponder’s play in a bit, but first a few words about Minnesota’s defensive performance in the second half.
I don’t know what happened. The unit had a standout first half. It stuffed the run, kept Denver quarterback Tim Tebow contained in the pocket and made the Broncos offence look like a high school outfit. In the second half, it was the other way around. It’s not like Denver did anything different, either. But the Vikings defence couldn’t tackle. Denver running back Willis McGahee – who’s not the most explosive guy anymore – made big runs with simple jump cuts and reversing direction. Then some blown coverages allowed Tebow to make some big (but pretty easy) throws. It was a mess.
We all know Ponder’s gift interception on the last Vikings drive set up Denver’s winning field goal, but I pin the blame for this loss much more on the Vikings D. The defensive line couldn’t get any penetration or get off any blocks. Linebackers Chad Greenway, E.J. Henderson and Erin Henderson were garbage – getting washed out on running play after running play, even though they knew what was coming, and they were unable to make the initial tackle when they had to.
Jamarca Sanford also proved he’s a very good special teams player, but that’s it. What a terrible game he had. He was juked out of his pants on the 41-yard catch and run touchdown by Demaryius Thomas and a 24-yard touchdown run by McGahee. It also looked like he made wrong reads on Thomas’ 21-yard touchdown catch on the Broncos first drive of the second half and the 42-yard catch Thomas had that set up McGahee’s 24-yard touchdown that tied the score at 29-29. Even with the injuries the Vikings secondary has, Sanford should no longer be alowed to start. Is Jarrad Page ready to play?
We all know the Vikings are playing shorthanded on defence (as well as offence), but you wonder what the future holds for defenisive coordinator Fred Pagac, and maybe even head coach Leslie Frazier. The unit plays pretty hard, but it doesn’t play very well. It's play in today's second half had to be an embarrassment. Maybe it’s not just the players that have to go.
Now for the Vikings offence.
On Friday I wrote that Ponder needed to have a breakout game to ease my doubts about his play of late. This could have been that kind of game – except for the turnovers. For all the good things he did in this one, and there were many, his turnovers of late are starting to kill the Vikings.
I like the kid, but the strip fumble by safety Brian Dawkins deep inside Denver territory can’t happen. I also don’t know what he was looking at on the pick six he threw to the Broncos Mario Haggan. Fox color guy Brian Billick felt Ponder didn’t see him – and he obviously didn’t – but he should have. It’s not like Haggan was hiding somewhere.
The late interception to Andre Goodman was a case of being tricked by the coverage. Teams have enough tape on Ponder now to know what he likes to do and to play off of that. And he’s shown he struggles when the Vikings get deep in an opponent’s territory. That’s partly the result of the personnel he has around him, but it’s also on him. It is impressive that Ponder could throw for 381 yards with the receivers he had at his disposal on Sunday. Still, he can’t turn the ball over three times and help his team win games.
Some other comments on the loss:
* Percy Harvin is pretty good, and the Vikings most valuable player this season. So how come every time he makes a catch or a run, he gets taken out of the game? The man’s in great shape, albeit a bit banged up. But I’d rather have a slightly winded Harvin in the game than a fresh Greg Camarillo.
* I couldn’t agree more with Fox play-by-play guy Thom Brennaman’s criticism of the Vikings personnel alignment on the first-and-six call with eight seconds left in the first half. Rookie tight end Kyle Rudolph is a guy who has shown he can catch jump balls in a crowd and he's standing on the sidelines. And not having Percy Harvin on the field when you need a touchdown is just madness.
* I thought the Vikings offensive line played very well in the second half after a typical lackluster first half. They opened creases for Toby Gerhart (21 carries for 91 yards) and gave Ponder a clean pocket on his many passes. It was the unit's best half this season.
* Biggest surprise of the day: Devin Aromashodu actually doing something. The Vikings need somebody besides Percy Harvin to make a play in the pass game. Aromashodu did that today (six catches for 90 yards.) I just don’t expect it to become a habit.
* Vikings offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave should consider using Rudolph on fades when the team is inside the 10-yard line. Rudolph’s not a shifty guy, but he’s bigger than any defender that will be covering him and as we saw on the 19-yard touchdown pass from Ponder, his hands are like Velcro.
* Fullback Ryan D'Imperio is growing on me. He's making some good lead blocks for Gerhart and he can catch whatever is thrown his way. He plays well on special teams as well.
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3 comments:
I thought Ponder played pretty well. The turnovers are regrettable, but they'll go away as he gets more experienced.
To me, the failure of the defense in the second half boiled down to the inability to contain Tebow in the pocket. While the secondary was horrific, it was also what one would expect from a unit that started the season near the bottom of the NFL and has since been decimated by injuries. It's just unrealistic to expect this secondary to maintain coverage for 5+ seconds while Tebow scrambles around. In the first half, they basically forced Tebow to play like a standard NFL pocket QB, and he played the way all the experts predicted he would. When he scrambled around, inevitably someone would get wide open downfield, and he was able to make plays.
Also, all the bullet points you put at the bottom: those thoughts all occurred to me at some point as well.
This is "Bismuth" commenting, by the way. I don't usually comment with my google account, but I forgot to change my identity before hitting submit. When I tried to go back, the comment was gone and I didn't want to retype everything.
Bismuth/Derek:
Ponder did play pretty well, but I'm trying not to slap him with a handicap just because he is a rookie.
The inability to stop McGahee in the second half hurt just as much as Tebow's throwing. You put Tebow in third-and-medium and third-and-long situations consistently and he's not going to be able to do very much. But the Vikings keep on finding ways to lose, so it was no surprise to see them crumble in the second half. They are incapable of playing a complete 60 minute game.
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