Speculation

Love And Childs Look Forward To Finally Playing Their Rookie Seasons… Next Year

October 11, 2012, by 13 comments

This preseason, the Vikings lost two young offensive players to injury that have yet to play in a regular season NFL game.

Offensive tackle DeMarcus Love has to have a torn pectoral muscle operated on last month and only recently regained full motion and will soon begin his rehabilitation.  Love was a sixth round selection from Arkansas in 2011.

“This is my last week in my sling,” Love said on Thursday. “So, now, it’s just basically starting the rehab and getting everything back stronger.”

“It’s frustrating, but I can’t dwell on it,” Love continued. “Got to go ahead and move forward. It is what it is.”

Fourth round 2012 selection Greg Childs, also out of Arkansas, tore the patellar tendons in both knees on the same play this preseason.  He was spotted this week rehabbing his knees at Winter Park, and by all accounts was walking well with a positive attitude.

“I like to do things that people think other people can’t do,” Childs told reporters. “I’ve got a strong head. You can ask any of the players in here. I come in here attitude good every day and trying to get right, trying to get back on the field. I’m going to do everything I can to step back on the field for next season.”

The Vikings will certainly welcome that added competition that Love and Childs would bring to their respective positions next preseason, and if their rehabs go as well as these two hope they will then the two might be ready to legitimately compete for roster spots next August.

Links Of The Week: Headed To D.C.

October 10, 2012, by 28 comments

Heck, it has been a while, so let’s do this thing:

A Different Kind Of Challenge

October 8, 2012, by 9 comments

The 4-1 Minnesota Vikings have faced quarterbacks Blaine Gabbert, Andrew Luck, Alex Smith, Matt Stafford, and Matt Hasselbeck so far this season.  Through five weeks these guys have rushed 59 times for 302 yards and two touchdowns.

Robert Griffin III alone, however, has rushed 42 times for 241 yards and four touchdowns (and a concussion).

That concussion could keep RGIII off the field this Sunday, giving the Vikings their second backup quarterback in a row, but all of the reports on Monday suggest that Leslie Frazier’s Vikings will, at the very least, need to spend this week preparing to face their first uber-athletic quarterback of the season.

RGIII has taken the league by storm, right up until he got blown up this week, and is making a strong bid to be 2012’s rookie of the year.  The Vikings have struggled against scrambling throwers in the recent past, but this defense has a very different feel to it.

Let’s take a look at how the Vikings defense might approach the new challenge that RGIII presents:

Spy Games

One of the most tried-and-true approaches to stopping a flight risk quarterback is to assign a “spy” to that player.  A defender with the discipline, intelligence, and instincts to prevent a guy like RGIII from ripping off big chunks of yardage on the ground.

Antoine Winfield, Chad Greenway, and Harrison Smith all come to mind as guys that might fit that bill and they could be key in keeping Griffin under wraps.  Ideally, the Vikings would be able to rotate “spy” duties throughout the defense to keep the Redskins guessing, and to perhaps sneak a few plays in there where no spy is actually assigned.

Mix It Up

Griffin has received plenty of praise for his ability to make good reads and stay cool under pressure.  He is still a rookie, however, and the Vikings could be well served by showing a lot of different packages and blitzes.  The team has recently made a new commitment to “keeping it simple,” but rookie quarterbacks are prone to make mistakes and confusing him could only play to our advantage.

I would be very pleased to see Winfield, Josh Robinson, or even Marcus Sherels blitz fromt eh corner from time to time, aiming for Griffin’s blind side.

Match That Athleticism

Veteran smarts and savvy cannot be undervalued on this young defense, but sometimes athleticism like Griffin’s needs to be matched with athleticism.  In this case, matching Griffin with Griffen could be very interesting.

I would, at least slightly, increase Everson Griffen’s snap count this week.  Griffen is almost certainly the most athletic player on this defense and he needs to be included in the effort to stop RGIII.  For his size, Griffen is incredibly fast and has long limbs, both of which would help him pursue Griffin on the run.

Simple Basics

Kevin Williams opened last week’s game by letting a tackle for a loss and then a sack slip right through his fingers.  Those types of missed tackles might be a side note in the aftermath of a game against Matt Hasselbeck and the Titans, but Griffin and the Redskins are more dangerous on offense and those miscues can easily turn into important game changers in the blink of an eye.

Williams and the rest of the defense have to make sure to take advantage of the opportunities they do get.  This is a tougher task than the Titans were, and missed tackles and dropped interceptions are not something we want to be the main focus after this weekend.

Vikings Improve Record By Rolling Past The Titans

October 7, 2012, by 20 comments

The bad news?  The Chicago Bears won again.

The good news?  Everything else that happened on Sunday.

That’s right, folks.  Your Minnesota Vikings are now a 4-1 football team that absolutely dominated the Tennessee Titans in every facet of the game.  They won by a score of 30-7.  They had seven more first downs than the Titans.  They had 123 more rushing yards and 43 more passing yards.  Plus, they won the time-of-possession battle by six minutes.

It was just an all around good day for the Vikings (including that glorious loss Green Bay suffered!) and here are some main points of interest following the team’s latest victory.

Harrison Smith’s Ejection

Harrison Smith had already made an impact early in Sunday’s matchup by recovering a Chris Johnson fumble and on a couple of nice hits.  What will be most remembered, however, is the look on his face when he realized he was being booted from the game when he decided to get too physical with an official following an Antoine Winfield interception.

“I really dont know,” Harrison said of his status for next week.  “I hope to be out there. But I made a stupid decision and I have to accept the consequences.”

“Stupid by me,” Smith admitted to Tom Pelissero.  “I should never put the officials in a position like that. I should never touch them. I know that. I’ve lost my head before, but I’ve never had an incident with an official. I completely apologize for that.”

Smith deserves credited for owning his mistake, and it is easier to forgive provided the outcome of this game, but we all will hope this event never repeats itself.  His intensity needs to be contained between the whistles on a weekly basis.  I’d like to say this was just a rookie mistake, but those rules are the same in college and high school and even earlier.

I would be shocked if Smith gets any sort of suspension, but he can certainly be expected to be nailed with a fine upwards of $20,000.

Ponder Makes Some Progress

Christian Ponder sandwiched some very poor decisions with a great start to this game and a strong finish.  He ended up completing 25 of 35 passes for 258 yards and two scores.  He also tacked on a trio of good looking runs for 31 yards.

His first two interceptions of the year came on back-to-back pass attempts, one at the end of the first half and one to begin the second half.  The first resulted in a missed opportunity to add points and the second could have shifted momentum greatly had the Vikings defense not been so dominant today.

Ponder hit eight different pass catchers today, though, and looked mostly comfortable in the pocket, confident, and like he is making strides in the right direction.

Harvin Continues Incredible 2012 Campaign

Last week, Harvin willed his team to a victory by making the most of his special teams opportunities against the Lions, and this week he didn’t get to return a single kickoff.

Instead, he ran the ball twice for eight yards and a score, and hauled in eight catches for 108 yards and a touchdown.

I am becoming more and more convinced that no single player, especially non-quarterback, is as important to his football team as Percy Harvin is to the Vikings right now.  His ten yard touchdown catch and run is something I could watch over and over and over and over.

Walsh Leads Impressive Rookie Class

Six rookies registered stats in the box score today, but perhaps none is quite as important than Blair Walsh’s three field goals in as many attempts.  Not to mention his five kickoffs for touchbacks, neutralizing the return unit of the Titans.

Rookie cornerback Josh Robinson led the defense with six solo tackles and held up well considering how much the Titans tried to pick on him today.

Rick Spielman and his staff deserve credit for this rookie class coming in and helping in ways, both big and small, to get the Vikings to where they are now.

They Even Get To Pick The Music

October 6, 2012, by 3 comments

When Percy Harvin, early in the offseason, expressed great displeasure with the Vikings organization and demanded a trade, Rick Spielman and Leslie Frazier had conversations with their star receiver that quickly made him change his tune.

Harvin recently said that his issues were rooted with players not really knowing their role within the offense, but that things were clarified and that he now thinks offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave is doing a great job.  Presumably, the Vikings brass were able to convince Harvin that things would be different in 2012 and that he would know exactly what type of role he would be asked to play… a huge one.

On one hand, Spielman and Frazier could be applauded for giving Harvin the tune up he needed to have the season he is currently having.  On the other hand, however, some could argue that Spielman and Frazier may have empowered Harvin and showed a little too much favoritism towards him.

Now, we have another case in which the Vikings uber-talented have approached the coaching staff with hopes of increasing productivity by, for lack of a better term, undermining the original wishes of the coaching staff.

Kevin Williams and Jared Allen, following a horrible week two loss to the Colts, say they approached the coaching staff about “simplifying” the line calls on defense and letting the defensive line just do their thing.

“You know how sometimes, like a formation (will) come up, and they’ll be like, we wanted to do so and so to this formation and this to that formation?” Williams told 1500 ESPN. “Just let us go and work through it and play off of each other. That’s the best thing we’ve got going for us up front.”

“We just stopped trying to make a call for everything,” he continued. “The defensive front has been successful the last few years. We didn’t do a lot of trick ‘em stuff. We just lined up and went after people, and that’s basically what we were trying to get ‘em to do.  Just take the reins off and let us go. We can take care of the rush. We don’t need to design stuff for the rush. Just let the guys go. We’ve all pretty much had experience rushing the quarterback and playing this defense. Just basically, let us go and we can handle it. We don’t need plays or schemes to handle what we’re doing up front.”

Williams is right in saying that the Vikings front line has had success in recent times.  Their 62 sacks since the start of the 2011 season are tied for the most of all NFL teams.  Frazier doesn’t seem to take a very rigid stance on his schemes, unlike previous head coach Brad Childress who was notorious for trying to force square pegs into round holes, and essentially acknowledges that the defense was getting too tricky.

“It’s huge for our players, for the coaches, to be able to generate that type of pressure without having to put the secondary under adverse situations,” Frazier said.  “It was big. It increases our confidence. You go into your next ballgame feeling a lot better about your rush when that happens, especially against a team that throws it as much as the team we played last Sunday and you go into the game knowing that and the fact that we didn’t have to resort to a lot of pressures — it’s a big deal, and hopefully, it’ll be something we can continue.”

So, while some might view Frazier’s willingness to have players take control of how things are done, in the cases of the defensive line and Percy Harvin… there is little arguing with the results so far.

One thing that didn’t go well when control was given to the players, however, was the choice of music during the stretching portion of Friday’s practice.

“Gangnam Style” and “Party Rock Anthem” apparently drew some groans and jeers.

“There were a group of guys [who picked that],” Frazier said. “I don’t know if you’ll get a repeat. There were a lot of guys voicing their displeasure. So I don’t know if that will be repeated.”

WEEK FIVE PREVIEW: The Titans

October 5, 2012, by 20 comments

Last weekend, the Vikings had sole possession of first place in the NFC North for one day, and this weekend they will attempt to begin proving that they are the real deal and not just an early surprise.  At 3-1, the Vikings are unexpectedly ahead of the Packers (2-2) and the Lions (1-3), while holding the same record as the Bears who head to Jacksonville this weekend.

The opponent this week are the Tennessee Titans (1-3) whose injury woes have brought on a state of disarray.  Former Vikings Steve Hutchinson, Darius Reynaud, and Chris DeGeare return to the Metrodome hoping to crush our hopes and I want to take a look at what this game holds in store for us.

Continue Reading →

Another Victory Has People Wondering What To Make Of The Vikings

September 30, 2012, by 15 comments

A month ago, most NFL observers wouldn’t have guessed that the Minnesota Vikings would be heading into week five with only one loss.  Those that believed it to be possible certainly wouldn’t have predicted an impressive victory over the Niners would have been a part of that win total.

So, with the Vikings in sole possession of first place in their division (for at least one day), what can we make of this team as they prepare to take on a struggling Titans team at home?  Let’s take a look at what clues can be taken away from Sunday’s win in Detroit.

1.  The Special Teams Were Special Indeed

Sure, Blair Walsh missed his first field goal and Chris Kluwe continued to struggle with a couple of punts.  Outside of that, however, the special teams of the Minnesota Vikings was fantastic.  Percy Harvin made a statement on the opening kickoff in the form of a 105 yard touchdown return and Marcus Sherels followed up by taking the first punt return of the second half 77 yards for a score.  Walsh hit two of his three attempts, including a 49 yarder, but was a beast kicking off as the Lions never even got to return the ball once.  The coverage team struggled a little more keeping Stefan Logan bottled up on Kluwe’s punts, but nothing disastrous took place.

2.  The Passing Game Still Needs Work

Everyone is waiting for Christian Ponder’s light bulb to go on, and despite the 3-1 start, there is no question that it hasn’t happened yet.  He just hasn’t shown the ability to put this team on his back and will it to victory yet.  Sunday he was 16 of 26 for a measly 111 yards and no touchdowns.  In fact, his offense was really only responsible for six points, as the special teams scored the other 14.  That type of special teams production can’t be counted on every week, so Ponder and the gang have to get their act together if they want to continue winning football games.

Jerome Simpson was relatively quiet against the Lions, but he did make an impact in his first game as a Viking.  He played the role of field-stretcher which resulted in four catches, 50 yards, and two important pass interference penalties.  He was the team’s leader in receiving, but that isn’t saying much this week.

3.  Peterson’s Comeback Couldn’t Be Going Much Better

Many of us, including me, have openly questioned the team’s wisdom in bringing Adrian Peterson back into a featured role so quickly after his devastating knee injury.  Four weeks into the 2012 season, however, Peterson appears more than capable of shouldering a hefty load and making this offense better.  Against the Lions he carried the ball 21 times for 102 yards and added four catches for 20 yards, and has shown no signs of being hampered by pain or discomfort.  If the Vikings are truly going to embrace the idea that they can remain on top of the NFC North, then Peterson will be a main ingredient moving forward.

4.  Young Defenders Provide A Spark

Jared Allen got a sack on Sunday and did his signature dance.  The real story here, however, is the impact made by the youngsters on defense that should make Vikings fans hopeful when it comes to dreaming about the future.

Rookie safety Harrison Smith was only credited with one tackle on Sunday, but his impact was greater than his stat line would suggest.  Smith was in on a number of pass break ups with the most notable coming on an end zone play in which he dislodged the ball from the hands of Megatron to prevent a sure touchdown.  Rookie cornerback Josh Robinson was penalized (wrongfully) for a suplex-like tackle that displayed his strength, but his other seven solo tackles (tied with Chad Greenway for the most) did not go unnoticed.  The kid can fly around and make plays.

Perhaps even more notable were the performances of two of the team’s youngest defensive linemen.  Letroy Guion and Everson Griffen each had two sacks, including Griffen’s sack on the final play of the game, denying Detroit a chance at another miracle hail mary.

Middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley also had a solid game, playing a big part in the team’s success against the Lions running game.  55 yards is all that Detroit was able to gain on the ground.

5.  A Tale Of Two Third Downs

On one hand, the Vikings defense was able to force Detroit’s hand on 63% of their third downs (and 67% of their fourth downs).  On the other hand, however, the Vikings offense failed to convert on third down 75% of the time (3 of 12).

Christian Ponder was inaccurate and inefficient on third downs, particularly when rolling to his right, and the Bill Musgrave called plays in a way that made me question the trust he has for Ponder to not make big mistakes.  The Vikings coaching staff, at some point, will have to take the cuffs off and let Ponder win or lose football games as a 25% conversion rate on third down is not going to win very many more games.