I love talking Vikings, so I figured I would start a blog. Better late then never huh? So here I go, taking off down a road I have long wanted to travel.
Speaking of travel, our Minnesota Vikings are heading to Tennessee to play the Titans this weekend. But before I get to that, I'm going to do a brief recap of how I see the Vikings getting to this point in the season.
In the first week of the season, the Vikings played Green Bay in Green Bay. I hate the Packers, but they are a heck of a good football team. Aaron Rogers did his part to make the Packers front office look like Geniuni (that's the plural for genius... or at least it's my plural for genius) for letting Brett Favre move to New York. The Vikings got outplayed and out coached in that game. Actually, the score was a lot closer than the game was in my opinion.
In the second week of the season, the Vikings took on the Colts for the first home game of the season. This game was ridiculous. The defense played well... for almost three quarters. Then there was the fourth quarter, which proved to be the difference. The offense moved the ball well until things started to really matter, at which point we sent the field goal unit out. Six field goal attempts with five being converted is not a very good formula to win games in the NFL.
This gets us to the third week when we played the Panthers. The Vikings finally got their first win in this game with a fairly sound beating of a solid football team. Jake Delhomme was frustrated much of the second half as the Vikings provided a good combination of pressure and coverage. The offense ran the ball well enough and threw the ball efficiently.
The biggest news of the season up to this point has been the changing of quarterback from Jackson to Gus. Regardless if you think Jackson is the future or not, the change seems to be positive for the time being. However, I believe that the biggest reason for success is because the coaching staff clearly believes in Gus more than Tarvaris. This has little to do with what they have said, but rather how they came out with their game plan. The Vikings threw the ball early and often against the Panthers. This deviated heavily from the former plan of run the ball on first down, run the ball on second down, and then if it was third down and long, throw the ball and hope for the best from a quarterback that you don't seem to have much confidence in (otherwise maybe they would throw the ball more on first and second down?!?) Now, I need to acknowledge that we have a phenomenal running back situation with Adrian and Chester and we need to make sure they are a heavy part of the game plan, but I would have liked to see less predictable play calling in the first two games to help the offense catch opposing teams off guard.
Obviously that was condensed view of the first three weeks, but I don't want to focus on the past as much in this as much as I would like to get to the upcoming game with the Titans. We are 1-2 and there is nothing we can do except prepare for the upcoming game against the Titans.
The Titans will be an interesting match up for the Vikings in that both teams have a similar philosophy both offensively and defensively. For offense, run the ball effectively and throw the ball enough to keep teams honest. Defensively, stop the run first and then wait for teams to make a bad decision forcing a pass and capitalize with a turnover.
Though I know many are picking the Titans to win this game, there are several reason I think the Vikings should win this game.
1. Adrian Peterson, Chester Taylor, and the Vikings offesive line. Yes the Titans are good at stopping the run, but unless you've played the Chargers, then you haven't faced a back of the quality that we have here in Minnesota. The three teams that the Titans have played so far this season (Jacksonville, Cincinnati, and Houston) have 1 win combined. Furthermore, none of these teams had a 100 yard rusher until week three. Jacksonville had 2 (Jones-Drew and Taylor) who both rushed for over 100 yard against Indy (whose run defense is poor at best - especially without Bob Sanders) and Houston had Steve Slaton, a rookie who ran for over 100 yards against Tennessee. All of this leads me to believe that perhaps the Titans run defense is not what many think it is. The Vikings will have more success running the ball than many think they will.
2. Gus Frerotte. The Titans force opposing quarterbacks into making mistakes. Gus is a veteran who isn't going to make many mistakes. The interception last week was a dropped pass that was then picked off for an interception. It was a tough pass to catch, but that should be a catch if you can get two hands on the football.
3. Defensive line. This is an obvious strength for the Vikings week in and week out. When your front four can put pressure on a quarterback without blitzing, it opens up so many options. Look for pressure on Kerry Collins early and often and Leslie Frazier will undoubtedly dial in some blitzes to mix things up defensively. Also, this will be a good test for Tennessee to measure just how good their running game is against one of the best rushing defenses in the league.
Alright, that's all for this week. Next week I'll be back with another post to talk about what happened in the Titans-Vikings game and a look ahead at next weekend. Until then, cheer loud and enjoy the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment