MVN - Most Valuable Network

Vikings Lose A Completely Insane Thriller

So, your team turns the ball over five times, your kicker has a chance to make a game-winning field goal but hits the post, and your backup quarterback flat-out DROPS a snap which leads to a game-winning drive by the opposition.

Yeah, it was a wild day for Vikings fans.

I honestly don’t even know where to begin with this one.

Well, let’s start with Tarvaris. T-Jack- I’ve constantly stuck up for you. I’ve always been a big supporter. But you made so many bad decisions today, it’s hard to keep track of them all. Which leads me to my next point…

Any quarterback would have struggled with the nonexistent pass protection that Tarvaris had today. T-Jack had absolutely no time in the pocket…he needed to get rid of the ball far too quickly.

I can’t help but worry that future opponents are going to replicate what the Lions did on defense. Detroit blitzed ruthlessly…and when a young quarterback feels the heat, he tends to make mistakes. Detroit’s strategy worked brilliantly.

While the pass protection is definitely rippable, I just can’t defend T-Jack. He made too many throws that a veteran quarterback wouldn’t dream of making. I know these mistakes are inevitable for a young quarterback, but man…he was extremely careless at times.

But I’m not giving up on Tarvaris. This is just one game. As inept as the passing game was, it’s way too early to start considering a quarterback change.

I honestly thought I was seeing things when Brooks Bollinger entered the game after Tarvaris got injured…I couldn’t believe that Bollinger, and not Kelly Holcomb, was replacing Jackson.

Am I missing something? Wasn’t Brooks demoted to third-string quarterback in the preseason? I don’t get it…I would have much preferred to see Holcomb in the game.

Well, Brooks completely choked. I expected nothing less from him. He’s been an absolutely worthless quarterback throughout his entire time in Minnesota…so I wasn’t at all surprised to see Birk’s snap go right through his hands.

All right. Now, I’ve gotta talk about the coaching.

Far too often in today’s game, the Vikings went through stretches where Adrian wasn’t getting the ball. That should never happen. Ever.

He’s the one guy on offense who can make plays. He’s the home run hitter. And yet, Bevell didn’t give him the ball often enough. I mean, Tarvaris wasn’t making anything happen through the air…so why wouldn’t Bevell go to Adrian more frequently?

If they were afraid of overworking Adrian, then they should have gone to Mewelde more often. The running game was actually effective at times. The same can’t be said for the passing attack.

On the defensive side…those guys played their hearts out. The turnovers they forced gave the Vikings a chance to win. But there were still big problems on D.

It was way too easy for Jon Kitna. When Detroit wasn’t shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers, they were effectively moving the ball.

At times, the Vikings were successful in keeping Kitna off-balance…especially in the first half, the blitzing caused Kitna to make some rushed passes. However, in the fourth quarter and overtime, the pass rush (or lack thereof) was a major disappointment.

The fourth quarter brought back some memories of last year’s New England game. Tom Brady never felt anything even resembling a pass rush, and he absolutely tore up the Vikings secondary. Similarly, in the fourth quarter of today’s game, the Vikings did a very poor job of pressuring Kitna, and Kitna responded by effortlessly moving his team down the field.

Closed-circuit to Leslie Frazier: Did you notice a pattern in today’s game? When your guys blitzed, the Lions offense actually slowed down a bit. When you rushed four, Kitna picked apart the secondary.

Next, penalties. Last week was promising…the Vikings only had four penalties. But this week, it was business as usual for the most-penalized team in the NFL.

The Vikings had 12 penalties for 96 yards. Completely ridiculous.

It was a tough game…a game that highlighted some coaching issues, and some on-field weaknesses. Back to the drawing board.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 16th, 2007 at 6:59 pm and is filed under Darrell Bevell, Brad Childress, Leslie Frazier, Tom Brady, Jon Kitna, Mewelde Moore, Adrian Peterson, Brooks Bollinger, Detroit Lions, NFL, New England Patriots, Minnesota Vikings, Kelly Holcomb, Tarvaris Jackson, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.