MVN - Most Valuable Network

Peterson Update; Is Childress’ Job Safe?

*Peterson update:

Asked about how Peterson might be used upon his return, Childress said: “I would say we’ll ease him back in. You’re not going to go back there and turn over the whole load to him. Those guys [Chester Taylor and Peterson] have been good playing off each other. There are conditioning factors involved, there’s fatiguing factors involved when you get involved in playing a 65 or 70 play game. We’ll have a pulse on how he practices and who gets what.”

This being a must-win game, it will certainly be tempting for the coaching staff to give Peterson a bigger workload than, perhaps, they should. That said, though, it’s smart to “ease him back in.” After all, Chester’s been doing just fine…he had a rough game last week, but I’ve still been very pleased with what I’ve seen from Chester during these past few weeks.

And although he probably won’t get a huge workload this week, this is still the absolute perfect time for Peterson to return. This is the most important game of Chilly’s tenure in Minnesota, and Peterson’s return certainly makes Detroit defensive coordinator Joe Barry’s job exponentially more difficult- even if Taylor does, indeed, remain the feature back for the week.

*Is Chilly’s job safe through 2008?

Moments after Brad Childress presided over a key victory, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf guaranteed his handpicked coach’s job security through the 2008 season.

Asked if Childress would return in 2008, regardless of how this season concludes, Wilf said, “Absolutely.”

Look, the Vikings definitely deserve a lot of credit for last week’s win…no one’s going to argue that. But Wilf’s gotta remember that they were playing a Giants team that self-destructed…I don’t think we can say, “All aboard the Brad Childress bandwagon!” after this game, because the Giants had an all-around ugly day.

Wilf, it seems, overreacted after this win, and he could come to regret his words. He let this one win overshadow the endless failings of the Chilly regime…but I think he’ll come to his senses if the Vikings lose to Detroit. For now, though, our owner is a delusional one.

I’m glad Wilf’s excited about the team, but he needs to relax a little. We’ve won two straight and three of four. It’s certainly a positive development, but as of now, it’s just not enough to warrant another season for Chilly. If the Vikings lay a big egg down the stretch, I’m sure Wilf will do the right thing and consider a coaching change.

*From Yahoo!’s NFL power rankings:

Give Vikings coach Brad Childress credit for keeping his team in it while also not pushing rookie star running back Adrian Peterson back onto the field. While some people suggested Childress would act out of self-interest with Peterson, that hasn’t been the case.

While Chilly appears to be rather oblivious to the public’s negative opinion towards him, I’ve gotta think that he realizes that his job is in jeopardy. With that in mind, I have to give Chilly credit…this article is absolutely correct, as no one can accuse the Vikings of rushing Adrian back. I’ve seen more than enough caution out of Chilly in his handling of the Peterson injury.

Do I still think Chilly should be gone after this season? Absolutely. With that said, though, he’s done a good job of being cautious with Adrian’s return to the field.

*Kitna’s stat line in week two against the Vikings: 22/33, 245 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. And keep in mind that he sat for a good chunk of the game after getting a blow to the head…really, Kitna’s performance in that game was dominant. We had absolutely no answer for him, as the Lions moved the ball at will with Kitna at the helm.

If we can’t get to Kitna, he’ll pick us apart. So this week, I want Frazier to attack Kitna in many of the same ways he attacked Eli Manning…give Kitna lots of different looks, and don’t be afraid to put consistent, heavy pressure on him.

*Ticket sales update:

With more than 3,000 tickets still remaining for Sunday’s game against Detroit and no corporate partner stepping up to buy them, Vikings vice president of sales and marketing Steve LaCroix said it’s a concern.

“We’re a bit surprised, coming off a real successful day Sunday and two wins in a row and a lot of positive momentum,” LaCroix said. “We have some good things going, but that hasn’t translated into ticket sales to our fan base.”

I can’t blame them for being surprised…despite last week’s dominant victory, they’ve hardly sold any tickets this week. Perhaps fans that are on the fence about buying tickets are just figuring that Fox will end up buying the remaining seats, anyway.

I’ll be going to the game…even though the Dome is a craphole and a lousy place to watch any sport, I always try to catch a few live games each season. So, in case of a blackout, I’m covered. But really, we’ve just gotta convince Miller Brewing to step up and buy some tickets again to prevent a blackout this week…it’s the high life!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Zygi Wilf, Brad Childress, Jon Kitna, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, Eli Manning, NFL, Detroit Lions, 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.