Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Well, after suffering through yesterdays Vikings loss, I felt it behooved me to share a few thoughts.  First off.....39 passing yards?........for the entire game?   Hideously unacceptable.  I know the blogosphere is already howling about Donovan McNabb being washed up and we need to start Christian Ponder right away and blah, blah, blah.  But I'm looking at this debacle from a different angle, and I'm very disappointed with the game plan that new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave vomited upon us yesterday.  All through the preseason (I know, I know..preseason doesn't count--but I want to make a point here), all through the preseason, whether it was 1st, 2nd, or 3rd stringers, no matter who was at quarterback, the Vikes spread the ball around very evenly between the backs, wideouts, tight ends...it was very unpredictable and had some flow to it, and I was thinking the days of ex-head coach Brad Childress "kick-ass offense" were behind us.  Instead, yesterday we get Adrian on 1st down, Adrian on 2nd down, then attempt a dump-off to Percy Harvin on 3rd down and hope he runs for it.  That was it.  For four quarters??  I'm not questioning featuring Adrian, but the predictability was not what I was looking for.  Contributions from Bernard Berrian, Visanthe Shiancoe, Kyle Rudolph, Lorenzo Booker, Greg Camarillo, and Devin Aromashodu yesterday?  Zero.  Efforts to include any of these guys in the play calling...maybe a couple of times.  What is that?  Prime example of piss-poor play calling:  3rd quarter, Vikes ball around their own 40 or so, 1st down, and we line up in our Blazer formation (our version of the Wildcat)  Some people are saying this was a bad move, but I disagree.  Perfect time to throw in a new wrinkle or two, but what happened?  We've got QB Joe Webb in the shotgun with Adrian and Percy next to him, arguably the most athletic trio of teammates the Vikes have ever lined up in the backfield to take an offensive snap, and Bill Musgrave calls.................????................two gut plunges.......................??  Really Bill?.....two gut plunges??  That's just sad.  Defensively, I thought they played pretty well, but due to the offense's ineptitude, the defense was stuck on the field for 37 minutes and eventually just wore down.  And they also couldn't seem to figure out a way to cover TE Antonio Gates and RB Mike Tolbert, who continually got open underneath.  Also, I thought CB Chris Cook had a decent game.  He did have two pass interference calls.  One was legit, however the other one was a really bad call.  And Percy Harvin returns the opening kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown, and for the next kickoff return...we get Lorenzo Booker back there??  Booker is a pretty good kick returner.....Percy is ELITE.....why is this an issue somehow???  Well anyway, plenty of crap to look at on film and get cleaned up before facing Tampa Bay at home next week.  SKOL VIKES!

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