Monday, September 08, 2008

Coming off the Ledge

A long week: six days until the Colts come to Thunderdome.

Brad Childress: that's 0-5. The Packers come to Thunderdome later this season--for the love of all that is purple, please win a game against the Packers.

Adrian Peterson is all things to all people. But the Vikings are 0-1.

Does anybody have any confidence in the Viking passing game?

A long week: six days until the Colts come to Thunderdome.

18 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:45 PM

    i am pissed. all that money for a pass rush and they let a first career start quarterback beat them. no defensive turnovers, i don't think any sacks. poor calls by the refs. an obvious pass interference on the deep ball, the challenged call was a catch. adrian looked good, travaris not that bad. come on vikes, you make me want to throw up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:14 PM

    Dan hit just about everything I was going to say. I would only add playcalling: there were too many deep balls by Tarvaris where he clearly does not have accuracy (or has not built the necessary rapport with receivers), and they abandoned the running game too quickly, although they did go back to it some in the middle of the 4th quarter.

    But the lack of pass rush was inexcusable.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The officiating was poor, but not nearly a valid excuse. I had high expectations for this team this season, but from what I saw this season will be no different from the last. We still couldn't put pressure on the quarterback; we did not send a single blitz package, we just sat in zone and let a rookie pick us apart. Tarvaris Jackson still can't consistently hit a target, especially down field. Did anyone see that last interception? Who was he throwing to? He made some good decisions to run, and to some of Tjack's defense, the play calling was horrendous. Did you ever play tecmo super bowl on nintendo back in the day? Well McCarthy picked our play about 80% of the game. Childress is a moron, Tjack has not improved at all from last season, and our passing defense doesn't look upgraded in any regard.

    This is going to be a 5th disappointing season in a row. There's teams turning around in 2 years. What will it take for Ziggy to realize the coaching staff and quarterback need new personnel?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:21 PM

    There were lots of penalties called as is common for a Tripplett crew. They like to throw flags.

    By all accounts that was a makeshift offensive line for the Packers. Their starting center was out so some guy named Spitz was making his first start at center. And that Moll guy seemed clueless on the plays as it was penalty that took away that Driver TD. Clifton really did a number on Allen. Wow.

    Big plays hurt. Will Blackmon? What's up with that? And the hole for Grant on that one big run was HUGE. Vikes got caught in the wrong defense. Had to be.

    But Rodgers played well. He really drilled the ball. Makes me worried he might keep doing it.

    Tavarius surprised me. He really came on in the second half. Maybe if he had had a BIT more practice....

    The Vikes DOMINATED the second half. D-O-M-I-N-A-T-E-D. And still lost.

    I can't help but think McCarthy is the better coach. And in two pretty even teams that makes a difference.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:34 PM

    The passing offense was laughable. If T-Jax was able to play like he did in the later portion of the 3rd and most of the 4th we could be a halfway decent team in the passing game.
    But like everyone else who has posted I agree that the play calling was an absolute joke. 3rd and 1 and Peterson isn't even on the field? I understand the whole idea of trying to throw the opposing team off but in that situation there is no excuse to having your best player not handling the ball.
    At the very end of the season if there is any positive to come from this it is that hopefully Childress will be gone. Going 0-5 against your most heated rival is a joke and shouldn't be tolerated.

    ReplyDelete
  6. For the record, when I projected the season, I had the Vikes losing this game: I thought it would go like it did, a team not ready to win at Lambeau (but I hoped). With the Viking schedule, they might start 2-3 and still win 10-11 games. I expect the Vikes to play much better when the Packers come to the Dome.

    The absence of McKinnie was noticeable: the pocket was often tiny. He could have made a difference in the running and passing game.

    T-Jack can run--he'll help the team get first downs this year. Frustratingly inaccurate at times, but fairly poised in the pocket.

    There will be games when the pass rush is shut down. Over the course of the season, it will be there. It certainly looked weak today. But Kevin Williams is quite a player, isn't he?

    I'd like to see AP in on more passing downs--you just can't take your best offensive player out of key situations so often.

    I just hate seeing the Vikes lose to the Packers. It's been too long since the positive feeling of a Viking win over the Packers (2005!).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:52 PM

    The Vikes have been hamstrung since the beginning of 2006 because the Packers had a better QB and were better coached.

    I didn't see anything this evening that changed that scenario.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous12:27 AM

    i agree with everything dan said....but what stood out to me was you could tell Tyrell J. the rookie was LOST on the all the long passes and run...pisses me off spend all this money on a safetly and he hurts his neck?what the heck....

    ReplyDelete
  9. Besides the play calling (which was AWFUL, by the way), I think T-Jack played pretty well. The last interception aside, he was making plays to move the ball and he was converting on a lot of 3rd downs. The knocks against his accuracy on the deep ball are arguable though, most plays he didn't have a lot of time in the pocket and he was just throwing it down field to try and draw a flag/throw it away. Not having McKinnie hurt a lot. The pocket was really tiny. Plus whenever Jackson rolled to his right, they had the outside linebacker keying on him. Seemed like AD and Taylor were getting stuffed a lot on the left side as well (more than usual).

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think there's a lot of positives to be taken out of this game, it was certainly far better than the 0-34 game last year!

    Aaron Rodgers looked very good, but our pass defence didn't exactly trouble him.

    Jackson looked decent, and the moments of 'classic TJ' were far fewer - I'm certainly not ready to apportion him full blame for the pick at the end of the game. He looked good in the pocket and 65 yards rushing was a good contribution.

    Vikings receivers dropped a lot of balls again but I can't remember any point last season where we had as many consecutive passing plays as we did towards the end of the third quarter.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm comparing this year's first two games to last year's first two games. A solid home win against a terrible Atlanta team, followed by a close road loss to a bad division opponent in Detroit. If the Vikes can find a way to knock off Indy, they'll have a solid home win against a good opponent, and a close road loss against a good division opponent.

    I still think the Vikes can start 0-2 and be OK, but a win against the Colts would have me feeling pretty good about being 1-1 at this point.

    I'm mixed on Tarvaris. During the game I felt like I did last year: we're missing the elements of a professional passing attack. I'm afraid I'm going to feel that way all season. It was a tough way for Jackson to have to start, though, for a lot of reasons.

    ReplyDelete
  12. At least it was better than T-Jack's other start in Green Bay. Remember that? 10-20 for 50 yards?

    It seems like they only have two pass plays for him: the 5-yard "safe" completions (which he still tends to throw behind or above the receivers) or the deep passes (which are either overthrown or into double coverage). Where are the intermediate routes, the 10-20 yard plays? It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I feel like too many of you are giving T-jack too much credit for such a weak performance. Yes he's young, he went to a small college, and didn't have a lot of clipboard time under a legend. That only works as an excuse for so long. Playing well in the third quarter doesn't warrant any appraisal, it's a 4 quarter game, not one.

    Here's a list of quartbacks currently playing in the NFL that have made much farther strides in ability in a lot less time:

    Ben Rothliesberger
    Donovan McNabb
    Tom Brady
    Carson Palmer
    Matt Ryan
    David Garrard
    Tony Romo
    Phillip Rivers
    Jay Cutler
    Derek Anderson
    Chris Simms (until the spleen thing)

    Here's who have been in the league at least a few years now and have not developed or shown any CONSISTENCY at quartback, and imo never will:

    Rex Grossman
    Marc Bulger
    JP Lohsman
    Kyle Boller
    Alex Smith
    Jay Feeley
    Damon Huard
    Joey Harrington
    Byron Leftwich
    Eli Manning (he had one good game, it happened to be the superbowl)


    You have to make a decision fast. Some guys will never break out, they just don't have it. If they don't show improvement or capability in at least a 2nd season, it's not going to happen. Tjack had his chance, I say cut him.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. That was a weird game. It seemed like the Packers played well in all phases. They passed well, ran effectively and were great on special teams (save the blocked fg). The Vikings on the other hand seemed to have played poorly in all aspects of the game save running the ball. But the score was very close.

    Jackson's accuracy issues are troubling for any Viking fan. In particular his passes on long bombs are almost never catchable (evidenced by the league low comp % on passes over 20 yards).

    Perhaps as troubling was the complete lack of pass rush be the Vikings. Granted they didn't blitz much at all but if they are going to be a decent team they need a pass rush from the front 4.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm mellowing.

    It was a close game between two good teams; the margin was less than a touchdown, and the home team won. It happens.

    I want to see the Vikes go 4-2 in the division this season (split the Packers and Bears, sweep the Lions) and go at least 6-2 at home (7 or 8 home wins is possible, but they'll need at least 6 to make the playoffs).

    OK, we lost on the road to the Packers week one. Victories at Lambeau are rare for this team . This was a winnable game (what if Bernard Berrian doesn't fall down on that one play?), but the Vikes lost a close one.

    I'm disappointed, but patient.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm not sold on Rogers. The Packers gave him a really safe package and the Vikings came after him with just 4 guys all night and put very little pressure on him.

    While he obviously throws well he has a history in the NFL of getting sacked at a very high rate (14% roughly pre and reg season - 250 or so attempts). Observing him I can see he is the type to hold onto the ball too long.

    The Vikings unfortunately never put any kind of pressure on him. I think teams will see they need to attack the Packers with heavy blitz packages. With Favre that was suicide - I suspect it will be very effective with Rogers.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous6:03 PM

    To me, that game was one special teams play away from a win. If Green Bay hadn't run that kick back, they would've wasted time in a short drive, then punted, and Minnesota would've had the same march that brought them from 12 points to 19. (Probably would've been 18 or 20 after a conversion attempt. Either way, GB has 17 points.)

    The MIN D stopped GB dead between 3:00 and 2:00 left in the 4th quarter, and they could've done it in my scenario beteen 1:00 and :00.

    Not bad for less than stellar (though improving!) QB play, dropped passes, and questionable officiating.

    I, for one, am encouraged at the Bears' victory over Indy. Minnesota's got the D and running game to give the Colts the same problems. If Dungy can't adjust extremely well to his team's current weaknesses, that game is looking fairly winnable.

    ReplyDelete