The Morning After: Packers 24, Vikings 19

I knew I could count on coming here to see the glass is half full report……I am afraid to go to the boards that I usually frequent

Yes, there is reason to say that this team will be good. Remember the Vikes have the toughest schedule in the NFC and we are going against good teams. You are correct in saying that if the special teams had played better and stopped Blackmon, we would celebrating this morning.

I too agree that Childress and his game planning will be key. The ultra conservative approach ends with 8 or 9 in the box and is way too predictable. We need play calling diversity. You mentioned running to the outside… We had a pitch to AD going left the second offensive play after halftime. It went for 3 yards. But that was it in my notes. We did run tackle to tackle and the back occasionally bounced it outside.

I felt going into Monday nights game that the Vikings would be a solid football team; not only against the Packers on opening night but against any other team on the season schedule. I was impressed with the progress that T-Jack made during the offseason in his brief showing in two preseason games. I felt encouraged at how our defense closed out the preseason with a solid performance against a good Steelers team, and I was not one bit worried about the lack of production the running game had up to that point.

However, after conclusion of Monday nights game, I have different feelings and opinions on my favorite football team than I previously had mentioned.

After the game I felt that T-Jack, although not perfect, showed some major improvement in his passing ability and decision making. Compared to last year I did not see T-Jack throw one of his patented "jump pass" balls that he was notorious for last year. Instead, he hung in the pocket when he had to and made some nice throws. He also was quick on choosing when to leave the pocket (65 yards rushing) and when to throw the ball away.

However, this does not mean he was perfect by any stretch. It wasn’t until this morning that I did a little research and found out that he had the fourth lowest QB rating in week one. Overall, I thought he had played better, but he had way too many incompletions. He also seamed to want to get out of the pocket too soon and I am not sure if that was because he wasn’t comfortable or the receivers were not getting open. I tend to sway to the latter as T-Jack took some really good shots (i.e. AJ Hawk) hanging in the pocket trying to make a good throw. I have to mention here that the receivers/ tight ends had way too many drop passes. Also, I have never seen a group of receivers mugged, held, hugged and abused as much as our group did last night. I have no explanation as to why their appeared to be so many non calls against the Packers secondary.

Does Bernard Berrian not look as fast as advertised to anyone else?

On another note, I was very disappointed with the defenses ability to put pressure on Rodgers and in turn they allowed too many big plays in the passing game. Very early on the Vikings were able to pressure Rodgers and the Packers offensive line, which led to way to many penalties for me to keep track of, but the Packers adjusted and we were not able to get pressure on Rodgers for the remainder of the game.

This leads me to my primary complaint which is the play calling for both the offense and defense.

If this is to be T-Jacks season of truth, which he has received praise from Childress all off season long, then why is he only attempting 7 passes in the first half of the game? Why wasn’t he allowed to open up the offense in the manner that we came out with in the second half? Jaws certainly made comment of this during the entire second half of the game.

Regardless of our running game, Childress has stated that we have to show that we can throw the ball to be successful. Attempting only 7 throws in the first half not only shows that we cant and don’t want to throw the ball, but also shows that Childress didn’t have a lot of confidence in T-Jack in the first place. Lastly, what’s up with running a 4 WR shotgun set on 3rd and 1? That has to be one of the worst play calls I have ever seen. We will try and run the ball on 3rd and 6 for the first down, but we won’t even attempt to look like we want to run the ball on 3rd and 1? Just doesn’t make sense.

Lastly, the play calling on defense was just as bad as the offensive play calling in my opinion. If we were unable to get pressure on Rodgers with our front four then why didn’t we try sending 5, 6, 7, 8 players on a blitz more often than what we did? Just making an attempt to heat up Rodgers might have made him less comfortable. Instead our secondary, especially Tyrell Johnson on the long pass play, looked like burnt hash browns….probably tasted like them too!

Special teams looked atrocious…that’s all they get from me.

I loved that AD trucked the HELL out of Al Harris!!!

Were our receivers running bad routes or was our QB that bad? Watching the 2nd half of last night’s game it appeared the receivers were either underthrown or thrown behind.

It doesn’t make sense. Coach kept telling everyone (including Zyge, I’m sure) that his (Coach’s) draftpick (Tavaris) is coming along, but at the same time it seems as if Coach tightened the reigns on the qb. I think in the end, Childress has bad karma and is too controling. I remember reading that Donavon Mcnabb didn’t want to come to Minnesota because he didn’t like playing for Coach. Analysists were exploring the possibility of Favre coming to the Purple, but they also thought their egos would clash. Tavaris is a back-up level quarterback and it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Take a look at Seneca Wallace in Seattle. Same caliber as TJ, but Senneca is much better suited for a back-up role. Last year AP single handedly won about four games. Childress is has not proven a single thing, and quite frankly, I haven’t seen a lick of improvement since his first game at the helm. The only thing that has changed is the level of talent at his disposal. I don’t remember the last time I was this dissapointed following an opener. Sky high expectations and the ole’ ball coach is afraid to unleash the hounds. Sad.

I’m not blaming Tavaris. The guy is working his tail off. His work ethic is not the question. Some just are better suited for other places on a team than the starting quarterback. Heck, let the kid play a slot receiver position. He’s got the hands and speed to produce. Let him handle the back up duties. But I feel bad for him because he is not in the best position for his abilities to be fully realized and he is going to take a lot of heat for it. Childress is letting him out to dry.

As far as I am concerend this game was decided by 2 plays. the first was the bigtime fake out of winfield that led to the first TD for Greenbay. Before that our D was doing great and that includes the pass defence. Aaron Failures didn’t seem to have any one to through to and Grant had no where to run. And while it did not show up in the stats JA was comming up huge, putting all kinds of pressure on Failures. Then the long ball happened and our D seemed to disapear. The Packers O line figured out how to stop JA and Aaron Failures had so much time, I could have found open recievers.

Despite that, we held them in check and could easily have won the game. that is until Ted Thompson slid a few Franklins to the Refs at the replay booth. a correcty called catch there and the Vikes have a first down and a real shot at a TD, at least they would have been close to field goal position. A field goal there and it would have been a 1 point game. also if the refs had refused the bribe there, the Packers would not have had the opportunity to return a punt for a TD. That’s an 11 to 14 point swing, either way that would have been enough for us to win that game.

… can’t we all just be friends?

Anyways, I’m definitely disappointed but still optimistic. I am looking forward to AP continuing his run to 2000 yards next week and the D-line scaring Manning worse than Chicago. Hopefully Chill uses the flats more with AP, Chester, and Mills.