The Revolution, the Bounceback and the Lynchpin

The Tarvaris Revolution has Begun!!
And it is about damn time. As anyone with a pair of eyes could see, the Vikings' passing game has been a disgrace this year and a lot of that has to do with Brad Johnson's quarterback play. The fact that the Vikings are still in the NFC wild card hunt is a testament to their tremendous run defense and quality running game, not to mention the mediocrity of the conference. It's nice that Brad Childress finally realized that Tarvaris really couldn't play much worse than Johnson has been. And he has the talent and potential to play a lot better, which we saw on Sunday.

You could see the differences between the two as soon as Tarvaris came in. First of all, Jackson actually has the ability to move, which Childress took advantage of by getting Tarvaris out of the pocket on bootlegs. It was also obvious how much more Tarvaris able to get on his passes, and he displayed a nice touch on his touchdown pass to Mewelde Moore. Finally, he was throwing his passes where his recievers wanted, hitting them in stride, putting it over the proper shoulder and not hanging them out to dry over the middle. The talent is obvious and I think Childress' offense is going to look a lot better with a quarterback that can make the throws.

Bounceback from a Benching
Another positive note from Sunday was the game turned in by Troy Williamson. He actually looked like a reciever while hauling in 6 passes for 74 yards including snagging a high hard one from Tarvaris that I feel like he would have dropped at the beginning of the season. Considering he was benched and written off two weeks ago, it was an eye opener and showed that he isn't a bust yet. I don't know if he'll ever produce like the #7 pick in the draft, but this is a nice start (it won't hurt having a real quarterback either).

Big Pat is the Lynchpin
I think Pat Williams had it right when he said, "I play nose tackle, they never give us nose tackles any credit". The Vikings are still on pace to have the best rush defense ever (all they have to do is give up fewer than 199 rushing yards in the next two games) and yet the key to their rush defense is only going to the Pro Bowl because Tommie Harris is hurt. I know I shouldn't bother getting worked up for this, because Big Pat is going anyway and because Pro Bowl voting is a joke, but that doesn't mean that Pat Williams shouldn't have been the voters first choice for Hawaii.