NOTE: I haven't seen Jon's post about the Vikings. We're just both thinking football, I guess!
I was surprised and pleased with the Vikings' win over Green Bay on Sunday. It appears that the coaching staff re-examined some of their assumptions and decided to try a different strategy to correct failures or shortcomings. This seems obvious; it's something that Bill Belichick's Patriots do every week when game-planning, but it's something that escaped Vikings coaches for much of this year and last year. Early in the season, the Vikings played a compelling game against Dallas (who we later learned wasn't a terrific team by any measure), but in that first game their best run blocker and their starting right tackle were injured and lost for the season. It wasn't until last Sunday that the Vikings played a similarly complete game.
The Vikings have a deep stable of running backs, and all of them were hurt or unavailable for parts of the season, making the team's depth enviable. But the Vikings also have not decided on a plan to use any, let alone all, those backs in actual offensive plays. Even in their impressive playoff performance, the team's leading rusher was a scrambling Daunte Culpepper. The offense didn't see the need for a screen pass until late in the game (where it worked wonderfully, and it would have worked wonderfully all game). Matt Birk, the All-Pro center, is the best pulling center in the game. If he has a weakness, it's stand-up blocking on the nose tackle for dive plays. In addition, Grady Jackson of the Packers is the best run-stopper the Vikings will face. It seems reasonable to avoid dive plays, especially with the back (Michael Bennett) LEAST likely to break tackles running up the middle. Yet the Vikings tried four or five of these dives early in the game, more than one of them losing yardage. It led to the coaches believing they couldn't run against the Packers defense, and in the third quarter, when the team ran deep routes for the whole quarter without any screens or draws to re-direct the Packers' increasingly effective blitzing, it looked like this talented offense would again fall apart in the second half.
But look what happened! The Vikings went back to the things they do as well as any team in the league. A quick pass in the flat to a single-covered Nate Burleson resulted in big yards, which it always seems to. On second and long, Daunte picked up good chunks of yardage running or dumping it off to Jermaine Wiggins, terrific options compared to the desperate downfield attempts to a limping wide receiver that characterized so many recent second halves. And they ran off-tackle, where the running backs have some space to make the vulnerable Packer defenders miss tackles, and they ran a screen pass, where the running backs have some space to make the vulnerable Packer defenders miss tackles! I don't know why the team makes it so hard sometime; it's not that hard. The screens and draws, off-tackles and quick passes will always work. Pittsburgh's opponents know that the Steelers intend to run the ball down their throat. If they plan for the run, the Steelers still can ram it down their throat, because they're good. The Colts' opponents know that Peyton Manning is going to audible to any number of pet routes to Reggie Wayne or Marvin Harrison. But the defense can't stop it, because the Colts are really good. The Vikings would enjoy similar success if they just stuck with the approach that always works. Too often, the team's coordinators appear to talk themselves out of success, convinced the defense is ABOUT to stop the screens and short passes, even though they haven't yet, all season. Instead, after a couple dive plays and a long-developing pass play where Daunte doesn't have time or comfort to find the open receiver, the Vikings punt and punt and punt. The Vikings have enough offensive talent that even these poorly called games and drives work out well on occasion; the problem then is that Mike Tice and Scott Linehan are left to assume that the team's failures were the result of a good defense, instead of poor scheming and an inability to adapt.
Similarly, on defense, the Vikings actually figured out that they're reasonably fast, and if they force the tempo, the other team's offense will make rushed mistakes. Brett Favre, clearly not the best quarterback in the division anymore, threw four interceptions on Sunday, and it was because of an uncharacteristically aggressive Vikings defense. The blitzing would have worked all season. Defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell said that the team's youth and inexperience led him to be skeptical of the effectiveness of blitzing. Yet the team's inexperience (or ineptitude) in the linebacking corps and at the safety positions led to big plays for the other teams all over the field, plays which were allowed to develop according to plan because of the Vikings' steadfast refusal to disrupt the opponent's timing. On Sunday, much of that changed, and the result was a clear and formidable victory.
The Vikings are a terribly flawed team. They have suffered myriad injuries to the offense, and the resulting lack of continuity has led to more penalties, a more redundant playbook, and many missed opportunities. On defense, the team clearly lacks a linebacker with any ability to correctly position the defense and dictate the tempo of the play. The linebackers seemed confused, simply running the wrong direction much of the time, like when you're playing a video game with the controller upside down in your hands. It's very disorienting, and obviously something that needs immediate correction. The Vikings had an underachieving Chris Hovan and a clearly tired Kenechi Udeze on the defensive line, and two of the weakest safeties in football and no respectable depth at cornerback. Strong safety Corey Chavous appeared to spend so much time trying to point other, younger defenders in the right direction that he wasn't able to concentrate on his own task of covering receivers and providing run support.
It's nice to see that the coaches have responded to the team's glaring weaknesses in an attempt to neutralize their impact on a game (albeit ten weeks late). Can't run up the middle? Don't; run somewhere else. Can't find time for those deep routes against this blitz? Throw a screen, or throw twelve in a row, until you score or until they stop it. Can't rely on disciplined coverage from the fast linebackers? Blitz them and try to force an early pass. Can't make tackles? Replace them with someone who will. It's not rocket science, this coaching, but it's also not without diplomatic considerations and fifty rich but fragile men. I congratulate the coaches on the adjustments they've made, and I hope they spend a lot of time watching film of the 2003 Eagles, because that's who they're playing this Sunday.
Oh, and the moon thing. Again, I think the pants actually have to be down if it's to be a "moon." I think the Packers fans get too much credit for being "classy." Many of them seem drunk, like Browns fans, except with a fawning media spotlight. One Packers announcer said he was sorry the team lost, but they won't lose sleep because they have a classy team, unlike Moss and the Vikings. It's such a ridiculous statement that it almost doesn't merit a response. But this is too much fun! The Packers feature a running back (Najee Davenport) who spent time in jail for shitting in a woman's closet, all over her clothes, in the course of stalking and intimidating her into courtship. Quarterback Brett Favre very publicly denied his addiction to alcohol, first, and Vicodin, second, before undergoing rehab for both. Former tight end (and Favre roommate) was arrested for statutory rape. He was convicted, although I believe he pled down.
The Vikings are full of creeps too. A couple of years ago at one of the team's winter functions, there were sexual harrassment and rape allegations against one team member and several former Vikings players. Defensive end Kenny Mixon has had several DUIs. Randy Moss appears to be a real mixed bag, part misunderstood, part charitable, part creep. He did run into a traffic cop with his car, something I can't imagine ever doing, even if provoked. Quarterback Daunte Culpepper was born IN JAIL. He's actually a great guy, by all accounts, but the point is this: the NFL is full of people who have either been pampered through school due to their talent, or scoffed at due to their upbringing and/or race. They all excel at the modern-day gladiator sport, football. There are a whole bunch of chips on those shoulders, and not everybody is able to deal with the spotlight well. A huge percentage (it's over 30%) of the NFL's players have been arrested, and a dossier of ugly off-field incidents fills every NFL town's papers. It's just the way it is. Somehow, like the Oakland Raiders before them, the Vikings are on the verge of becoming "the bad guys." If it actually happens, it's terrific. Everybody wants to be the bad guys, deep down. There's a lot of Lutherans in this part of the country who, if they weren't diehard, irrational Vikings fans to begin with, would be very scared of that hair.
Me, I love the hair. Those who pick together, stick together...
Posts
