FanPost

Tarvaris: System or natural ability?

I've been thinking about this question over the last week as I try to understand why the Vikings so consistently play below their talent level (they're kinda like the White Sox, in a way--lots of talent, swagger and talk; always coming in second to the Twins). Then I just saw this post over at Vikings War Cry and I think it's time to figure this out:

Which is the bigger contributor to Tarvaris' ineptitude as a QB: the system, or his natural ability?

During the Denny Green years we were incredibly fortunate to have great WRs who helped make anybody look great, but we also had an offensive system that enable QBs to come in and excel. Moon, Cunningham, George, Daunte (The Agent) Culpepper--even Brad "The Noodle" Johnson looked great in our system. Is Chilly's system really that bad?

Personally, I don't think so. I like Tarvaris, and I think if he were allowed to just play, better things might happen. I often get the sense when watching Chilly's offense that he's trying too much to play "idealogically"--that is, he's playing the offense as developed on paper and in theory. Why else keep AD off the field on your last possession of a game you're losing but could still win? Why else insist on all these crap routes in the beginning of the game until you're already down or until AD does his thing and gets you points?

McCarthy, as much as I don't like the Packers or Favre (and especially new golden boy Rogers), is very good at calling and adjusting game plans to what works and what doesn't. He's not married to doing it "the right way", or even necessarily doing it his way (ugh, that sounded dirty. my apologies). Point is, in the NFL you gotta do what ever works, or else you're 8-8 at best.

It's interesting to me that Baltimore's offense still sucked when Billick got there. He helped make our offense terrific, but his ego is well known and I suspect that it (and his offensive ideas) got bigger than figuring out how to put his guys in the best position to succeed.

So, is Tarvaris really that bad, or does Chilly need to take a shot of Jag before each game and not over think play calling?

One last question--if Tarvaris was playing for McCarthy right now, would he be a better QB or worse?

 

This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.