Koren, There's Always Next Year

So, does everyone agree now that cutting Koren Robinson was the right move?

" Green Bay Packers wide receiver Koren Robinson was suspended without pay Tuesday for a minimum of one year for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy."-ESPN.com

Hopefully this decision helps Brett Farve start throwing interceptions again. If he doesn't, he's not going to set the career mark this year.

Thanks a Bunch Peter King

My take on the five key defensive match ups for Sunday is going to have to wait. Why? Because Peter King is being an idiot. Last night’s game was not, nor will it ever be, considered one of the "biggest choke jobs in sports history". Yes, it was bad. Yes, the Cardinals are a snake bitten franchise. But, I’m sorry, blowing a 20 point lead to the best team in the NFL, IN THE REGULAR SEASON is not a historic choke job. Da Bears were only down 10 points going into the fourth quarter. 10 POINTS—that’s it!

I know this shouldn’t anger me like it does, but I consider myself, as a Vikings’ fan, something of a connoisseur of choking, and hyperbole like this gets to me. This is the kind of crap I’d expect out of someone like Sean Salisbury, or, well, pretty much anyone involved with ESPN, but Peter King is a better writer than that. I mean, I can name five choke jobs involving the Vikings off the top of my head that were much worse than this one. If I included other teams, and other sports, I’m not sure the Cardinals' loss would even crack the top 100.

Don’t believe me? Here are five choke jobs (in no particular order) that were worse:

1) 1998-99 NFC Championship Game—Minnesota Vikings choke against Atlanta Falcons

The Vikings had the best offense ever and were undefeated at home (their average margin of victory at the Dome was 23 points) with a perfect kicker. When Gary Anderson lined up to kick the field goal that would put the Vikings’ up 10, the game was over. Until he missed. You can fill in the rest yourself. I'm not getting into it.

2) 2000-01 NFC Championship Game: Minnesota Vikings choke against New York Giants

Unless you’re Temple, losing 41-0 is a massive choke job. Care to guess the common theme between this choke job, the 1998-99 NFC Championship game and the Cardinals loss last night?

3) 1997-1998 NFC Wild Card Game—New York Giants choke against Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings put up 10 points in the final 90 seconds, including recovering an onside kick, in the Meadowlands to knock the Giants out of the playoffs. Possibly the only time in the history of the franchise that the Vikings' opponent, rather than the Vikings' themselves, choked.

4) 2003-Week 17—Minnesota Vikings choke against Arizona Cardinals

Leading 17-3, the Vikings allowed the Cardinals to drive down the field and score a touchdown with 1:54 to play. After E.J. Henderson lit up Emmitt Smith to prevent him from getting in the end zone on the two point conversion, the Cardinals recovered the onside kick. Then, just to make it more painful, they gave up two sacks, pushing them back to the 28 yard line with almost no time left on the clock. Then, well, I’m sure you remember Tyrone Poole’s touchdown as he was pushed out of bounds. And if you're like me, you’re still haunted by Paul Allen's screams of anguish on the radio.

5) Super Bowl IV—Minnesota Vikings choke against Kansas City Chiefs

Coming into the game, the Vikings were 13 point favorites and had the NFL’s best offense and best defense. Of course, that didn’t matter, as the Vikings never showed up against the Chiefs, turning the ball over five times and generally looking like a 2-12 team, not a 12-2 team. This choke job was so bad, it's taint still sticks with the franchise today.

So there you go. 5 games that were worse choke jobs than last night’s, all involving the Vikings, and four of them by the Vikings. I’m going to close by thanking Peter King for making a statement so inane that I felt it necessary to relive the most painful moments in Vikings’ history just to prove him wrong. Thanks a bunch Peter.

[Edit: Gary Anderson missed field goal would have put the Vikings' up 10, not 13, as this article on Wikipedia implies. Last time I trust Wikipedia over my own memory.]

It's a Game Week Again!

Is there anything worse than a bye week? The off season is bad, but you have the draft, free agency and hope and optimism. The bye week is different—it forces you to stop and wait—it’s like the scene in the first new Star Wars, where the two Jedi are fighting, but force fields keep popping up between them and they have to sit and stare at each other until the force fields go down and they can resume fighting. It’s excruciating. And, thankfully, it’s over, and nothing bad happened (that we know of).

So now the Vikings can focus their attention at the 11 game sprint to the playoffs, and these next two games are going to be huge. If they can split with the Patriots and Seahawks, they’ll be 4-3 and likely favored in seven of their last nine games. Now, there's no need to panic even if they drop the next two games, because they’ll still have a good shot at 10 wins and a playoff berth, but their margin for error will be pretty slim at that point.

Since it’s a game week (Have I mentioned that fact yet?), I’m going to spend today and tomorrow looking at the important match ups on both sides of the ball, starting with the offense. The Vikings can beat the Seahawks in Seattle, but they’re going to have to play their best game of the season in order to do so. And here are the match ups that the Vikings’ offense are going to have capitalize on to come away with a victory on Sunday.

1. Troy Williamson and Marcus Robinson v. Michael Boulware

Seattle’s defense is bad against the pass. They’re the 5^th worst in the NFL, allowing 239.2 yards a game through the air. If the Vikings are going to win, their receivers are going to have to get open. In order to do so, Williamson and Robinson must beat both Boulware and their suspect hands on their deep routes. If they can stretch the field, it will open up the underneath routes and create running lanes for Chester Taylor, and the offense might actually start to click.

2. Brad Johnson v. Checkdowns

It doesn’t matter how open the receivers get if Brad Johnson keeps checking down on every play. He has to fight his instinct to dump it off immediately and look for his receivers deep, otherwise the offense is going to continue to be unable to move the ball. Due to the Seahawks' suspect secondary, the receivers are going to be open, but will Brad trust his arm enough to throw them the ball?

3. The Offensive Line v. the Refs

The Vikings’ red zone woes can be attributed to two things—an inability to convert on third and long and the penalties that put them in third and long situations. They've only scored 3 touchdowns in 11 trips to the red zone and a lot of that can be blamed on poor line play. It seems like every time the Vikings get past the twenty, Marcus Johnson or Artis Hicks commit a holding penalty or false start and the drive stalls when they can’t convert on third and long. The Seahawks have a very good offense, and if the Vikings are going to keep up, they have to score touchdowns, not field goals.

4. Chester Taylor v. Lofa Tatupa

It doesn’t matter how well Brad Johnson plays if the Vikings’ running game is shut down. Brad Childress has done a good job of sticking with the ground game (except against Buffalo), which means that Taylor is going to get 25-30 carries on Sunday. What he does with them will play a large factor in whether the Vikings’ offense is successful. If he can make Tatupa and Seattle’s other linebackers miss like he did against the Lions, he’ll have another big day, putting the passing game in situations where it can be successful (2^nd and 5, 3^rd and short). If not, the offense is going to have trouble putting together drives, since they aren't able to convert on anything longer than 3rd and 5.

5. Bethel Johnson v. the Seahawks Coverage Team

Odds are the Vikings are going to need a big play out of their special teams or defense in order to win. That’s where the newest Viking comes in. The kick return team has done a good job of blocking, but Troy Williamson hasn’t been able to capitalize on it. If Bethel Johnson can find a hole, he has the speed to house one, something that would likely lead to a Vikings’ victory.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow, when I'll be breaking down the key matchups on the other side of the ball.

Vikings Youtube-a-palooza

No rooting guide today, mainly because it was quite stupid of me to think that there is a definite team to root for when two teams the Vikings are vying with for the playoffs are playing in Week 6. Just a silly idea.

So instead, I’m going to have a Vikings Youtube-a-palooza. You know you love it. Also, if anyone wants to buy this site for a hundred thousandth of what Google dropped for Youtube, I’m definitely willing to listen to offers.

Moving right along...I'm going to start out with the strong safety of the future, Greg Blue. Remember this hit? You might have seen it featured on Monday Night Countdown’s Jacked Up. That hit makes me feel all happy inside. The Vikings haven’t had a safety that could destroy people like that in a long time, that’s for sure.

While Darren Sharper isn’t laying people out, he is still one of the better free safeties in the league. One of the reasons is that he doesn’t have claustrophobia. I couldn’t sit inside a hyperbolic chamber like that without freaking out. I could deal with a tent, like OSU’s Anthony Gonzalez has, but not Sharper’s tube.

On the other side of the ball, it was a little harder to find good videos from the present—I wonder why. I did manage to find Troy Williamson’s highlight video from college though. It helped remind me why they drafted him 7^th (and if you’re like me, you probably were mad they didn’t take Mike Williams instead. Wonder how he's doing?). As with all things Vikings, fans are a little too crazy—people need to take a step back and let Williamson develop a little before giving up on him. He’s only in his first real year of playing, and he’s stuck with Brad Johnson as his QB. Give him a little more time before you decide he's not a playmaker.

Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s being compared to Moss. Which is just unfair—Williamson has the potential to be a really good receiver. Moss is already one of the best-partly because he could pull off plays like this one.

Finally, I found a Chuck Foreman highlight video. I’m a relative new comer to the Vikings (1997 being the first season I followed them), so I’d never seen him play before. The man looks like he was a beast. Now, I couldn’t find this info on the internet, but did he have problems with fumbling? It looks like he carries the ball away from his body, like a loaf of bread. Anyone know?

I hope these clips help get you through the weekend, what with no Vikings’ game and all. And I’ll see you back here on Monday, when it’ll finally be game week again (and hope Shaun Alexander has a setback with his foot injury).

Welcome Bethel!

The Vikings signed Bethel Johnson yesterday to return kicks and add depth to the recieving core. This is the kind of midseason pickup I like to see--it adds depth and addresses a weak spot. It also gets Troy Williamson off the kick return team, which is a great move--he wasn't all that great at it, there's a high risk of injury and it will allow him to focus solely on wide reciever.

So welcome Bethel! Hopefully Purple and Gold fits you better than Black and Gold (and whatever the Pats colors are).

And of course, each new beginning is some other beginning's end, and so we must bid farewell to Drew Henson. As always, parting is such sweet sorrow.

A Victory Before the Bye

I was in Minnesota (hence the lateness of the posts) and was lucky enough to find tickets to the game on Sunday. Tailgating, seats twenty rows up from the end zone and a dominating effort from the defense made the experience a memorable one. And, in case you were wondering, I was one of the people booing Brad Johnson after his awful first half performance. The man deserved it.

It was that performance which told us what the problem with the offense is. It’s not Childress’ offensive scheme, and his play calling, while a factor is not the big issue. The offense is sputtering because Brad Johnson is a backup quarterback at best. He’s made quite a few stupid decisions, he can’t throw the ball deep, he has problems hitting open receivers (he short hopped/over threw a ton of passes) and he has a tendency to hang his receivers out to dry. He threw about 4 passes on Sunday that put his receivers in the supporting role of a Jacked Up scene. Part of the reason the receivers aren’t catching all the balls they should is they know in the back of their mind, BJ is likely to get them killed. The sooner Tarvaris Jackson is ready to go, the better. And everyone who thought BJ might be the starting QB next year, is an idiot. And that includes me.

Luckily for the offense, Chester Taylor is starting to hit his stride. He had a monster day, ripping off 123 yards on 26 carries, most of it behind the left side of the line. He was making people miss, and had some sweet cutbacks. Hopefully, Childress has noticed that the Vikings’ best games have been when they relied on the running game. He abandoned it against Buffalo, which was likely one of the reasons the offense performed so poorly. BJ is not a good quarterback, and his likelihood of success diminishes when the opposing defense doesn’t have to worry about the run at all.

On the other side of the ball, the Vikings’ defense had its most dominating performance of the season. The entire front seven was an immovable object, holding Kevin Jones to 16 yards on 10 carries, an average of .8 yards per carry. Their only breakdown came when Jon Kitna quick snapped the ball, sneaking 8 yards for a touchdown, and that was such a gutsy call by Kitna, it’s hard to fault the defense. Watching Kitna somehow make his way into the endzone, I had the same reaction Ron Burgandy did confronting Baxter, “And you ate the whole... wheel of cheese? How'd you do that? Heck, I'm not even mad; that's amazing.”

Pat Williams, however, insured that wasn’t the play of the game when he burst through the line in the fourth quarter, tackling Kitna before he could even finish his play fake and forcing a fumble that Ben Leber recovered for a touchdown. I haven't looked at a list of signings, but Pat Williams has to be one of the best free agent signings in the Vikings’ history. The man is a dominant force against both the run and pass and has been since the Bills let him go.

The other ex-Bill, Antoine Winfield, has also done a superb job for the Vikings’, and he joined the rest of the secondary in shutting down the Lions’ passing game. E.J. Henderson’s interception may have been forced by Ray Edwards, but the only reason Edwards had all the time in the world to get to Kitna was because of the coverage. And that wasn’t the only time that the coverage forced the Lions to have to hold their blocks for longer than any line can be reasonably expected to. Tomlin’s scheme is working extremely well. He even has Dwight Smith as his designated “crowd exciter”. As many people have pointed out, Tomlin’s on the fast track to a head coaching job. Hopefully for the Vikings, it isn’t that fast of a track.

So after five games, we have a solid grasp of who the Vikings’ are. They have a good to great defense that can dominate at times, and one that can create turnovers and convert them into points. The offense is led by an aging back up quarterback, who has problems making throws, but it also has a decent rushing game. The special teams are solid, but are prone to the occasional hiccup. Basically, this is a team that will be in most games, and should be able to turn more than a few into wins. They are by no means favorites for a wildcard berth, but with their favorable schedule and a little luck, the Vikings' could definitely sneak into the postseason.

(I’m going to take the rest of the bye week off so that I can finish my law school applications. I’ll be back on Friday with who to root for on Sunday. Hopefully, there isn’t anything big to talk about until then. The “Chili” jokes the Star Tribune writers are breaking out are bad enough. I don’t think I could take it if the Vikings’ have more off the field issues)

Wisconsin Women with a Tough Choice

Picking which Viking was most responsible for Sunday’s victory was not an easy decision. The Wisconsin women and I debated well into the night (What? You thought they didn’t get some say in the matter?) trying to determine who they were going to spend the week with. There were just so many valid choices—Chester Taylor, Pat Williams, E.J. Henderson, Napoleon Harris, Ben Leber, Ray Edwards and arguments could be (and were) made for almost every major defensive player.

Make no mistake about it—that was a dominating performance by the defense, and one that likely saved the Vikings’ season. That conclusion, along with his inability to get into the end zone in three tries from the seven yard line, eliminated Chester Taylor. If he continues to run the ball this well (4.73 yards per carry!), however, he’ll be in the discussion in upcoming weeks.

And so that leaves us with the defensive standouts. E.J. Henderson and Ben Leber both managed to house turnovers, Napoleon Harris continued his fine play by picking off a tipped Jon Kitna pass and Ray Edwards had a sack and forced Kitna to rush the pass that Henderson picked off. In the end, though, Pat Williams’ play topped them all. He was the one who destroyed Kitna in the midst of his play fake (that’s how quickly he got through the line), forcing him to fumble in the end zone. And he is the centerpiece of the Viking’s rush defense, which held the Lions to 16 yards. 16 yards!!! Kevin Jones didn’t even average a yard a carry! I don’t care how bad the Lions’ line was, that kind of dominance is astonishing. And that’s why he’s going to spend the bye week (heeding Childress’ call to behave, of course) with the Wisconsin women.

Big Pat Dominates