Well, unfortunately for Vikings-nation, my prognostications proved to be all too
prophetic with the Vikings getting spanked 31-3 by the hated Packers, at home no
less (I had predicted 36-13), and Head Coach Brad Childress was fired.
Surprising?...eh?....no. It was the same ol', same ol', with dropped passes,
turnovers, blown coverages, dumb penalties, in other words, the exact same thing
we've seen all year. I believe that the Childress firing was apprpriate, and I
did get the sense that this team had quit on it's coach, but I'm not ready to
lay all of the blame on him. He certainly deserves his share of the blame
however. Poor game planning, poor play calling, poor clock management, and
really the defining problem with the Chilly-era, was a complete and total lack
of ability to connect with and communicate with and motivate his players.
Again, it's a fine line....he doesn't have to be everybody's buddy, but he came
off as a very distant dictator, and like it or not, today's pro athletes are
necessarily thrilled to be lorded over. Out of his control of course, is that
QB Brett Favre has been terrible, pretty much from the get-go, save an awesome
performance against the Cardinals in an overtime win. I think stud RB Adrian
Peterson, while being 2nd in the league in rushing, has been underutilized. The
pass rush had been non-existent while showing a modest comeback the last two
games. The pass coverage has been poor. And we're last in the league in
turnover differential.... (-13). You're not going to win much with those things
happening. Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier has been annointed as the
interim-head coach, and here's hoping he can at least bring this team back to
some kind of respectability and competitiveness in these last 6 games.
The Vikings 3-7 start is actually the 3rd worst start in TEAM HISTORY. That's
pretty hard to swallow for a team and a fan base hoping for a Super Bowl run.
The fact is, this team will look a lot different next year. Favre will be gone,
DT Pat William will be gone, LB Ben Leber, S Madieu Williams, WR Bernard
Berrian, DE Ray Edwards, and probably TE Jim Kleinsasser will all be gone. That
doesn't necessarily gut the team, but that's a lot of holes to try and fill.
The Vikings need to do several things, contractually speaking: Re-sign K Ryan
Longwell, LB Chad Greenway, and WR Sidney Rice. Then, they can look at signing
RB Adrain Peterson to a contract extension. The cupboard isn't bare by any
means, assuming Peterson, Rice, and Harvin are all here and producing.
No comments:
Post a Comment