Question Childress - Why pass?
by PurpleSoul on Oct 25, 2009 5:32 PM CDT
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PrintDespite everything that went south in the game to that point, Brad Childress should have kept the ball on the ground with the Vikes on the 19 yardline, 2nd and three with a minute nineteen to finish and a three point deficit, period.
I have a high regard for this present coaching staff but this decision was a fatal flaw in a game that should have been tied or up 7 points late in the running.
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with all the criticism of chillys conservative play calling this time I can say he was just going for the kill, I though it was a good call that just went bad
conservative play calling? are you serious? we have been throwing way too much… at this rate favre will be worn out by week 11 and we’ll be back in the same boat we were last year… let’s face it, childress deserves no credit for our 6 wins so far, unless you count coaxing favre out of retirement, which is like coaxing a drunk into a bar
favre, jackson, rosenfels, the tooth fairy... i don't care, just give me a Super Bowl!
You’ve got to be kidding. Was the ground game even working well this game? Not so much. How’d we get our yards? Through the air, because that’s how we moved the ball for the most part. You want Childress to slip into the prevent offense? No thanks.
of course we got our yards through the air, all we did was throw it! have you been watching the games this year? brad childress is like a little kid with a new toy… he’s going to wear out favre and we’re going to be screwed at the end of the year… and yes, there is a time for playing it a little close to the vest, like when you’re already in FG position and you have the best RB in the league… childress needs to go and i think he will after the Vikes can’t put together the kind of season that they should
favre, jackson, rosenfels, the tooth fairy... i don't care, just give me a Super Bowl!
To be fair, Favre is 15th in the league in attempts per game. Couple that with the fact that twice we pulled Favre out of the game at the end, and that is too many passing attempts for old man winter.
Passing is what we needed to do in this game. Not only are the Steelers better against the run than they are vs the pass, but we were playing from behind.
Offense did their job
We scored the go ahead TD and some ref from Pittsburg screwed us. It should have been our defense on the field at the end. Considering that the Steelers only had one offensive TD.
It should have come down to see if the Steelers could drive for the winning score not the other way around. It’s a shame. How can you look at that play and call tripping? I know its sour grapes but refs can’t be deciding games. We almost pulled it out dispite the call. I hope that guy doesn’t work the Superbowl.
i have a very low opinion of this coaching staff and childress will end up being our achilles heel (when it’s not refs)… he’s from the andy reid school of coaching, throw throw throw until it kills you…. i feel bad for Adrian Peterson who is being wasted right now
favre, jackson, rosenfels, the tooth fairy... i don't care, just give me a Super Bowl!
Wasted?
With his running style, we NEED to keep his touches down. He hits hard, and runs upright. The more we run him, the shorter his career will be.
I’ll take 5 less touches a game for Purple Jesus if we get him for a few extra years.
From laughing-stock to legit SB contenders...
in what, 3 or 4 years? In case you hadn’t noticed, we were playing a SB champ in their town and we got 3 crucial bad breaks in the 4th qtr. They were doing everything within their power to stop us, and still they needed those breaks. They took advantage and made a couple huge plays… that’s what good teams do when they are otherwise getting their asses handed to them.
This is the best team we’ve put on the field in 30+ years. Even Dan Snyder wouldn’t consider firing these coaches. Ok wait, maybe he would… you and Dan Snyder.
Bad time to throw away conservatism… I agree with ‘foot, use your sharpest tool in the shed to get ur done Chilly and that’s number 28.
In the last 3 games
Favre, (along w/ the receivers) have been the sharpest tool in the shed – He was today, too – 66% and 300+…. 18 for 69 yards and 3.8 per isn’t AP’s 5.1 per when he’s ‘on’. Best RB did not get the push from the O’line to be effective. Sending him on his own 30 times is a parallel to giving Favre one ‘ok’ receiver and no running back. Not good odds of success.
The O’line was fairly ‘owned’ when running the ball. Especially up the gut and to the left. Good overall pass protection, though. Sometimes I don’t get how Vikes fans hate Chilly conservativism, and then think he’s off his rocker when he gets aggressive (while choosing what has been most effective weapons in the game). No win situation for Chilly in this room- but then again, we don’t sign his checks. I doubt he reads this, either.
This is a good point
Taylor is one of the most reliable pass catching backs in the league. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it go through his hands.
What’s scares me is that you guys are leaving AP on the field on passing downs more and more, and when he catches a pass he does something with it.
Hauschild- Don’t you think it may be a bit too much to say Favre was out of sorts today? He was off in the beginning but as the game went on he picked it up, and you guy converted on a buch of 3rd and longs.
The play-calling was a bit questionable but I don’t necessarily know if it was bad enough to complain. The Steelers bottled up AP pretty good, and Favre found a rhythm there in the 2nd half, and the Steelers were struggling to stop the pass. Had Childress pounded AP more towards the end of the game and he fumbled I have a feeling everybody would be asking why you guys didn’t continue to pass.
by packallday555 on Oct 25, 2009 11:15 PM CDT up reply actions
I was surprised as well. But even the the most reliable backs make mistakes.
AP’s evolvement in the passing game is making me REALLY excited to see what he can eventually do. I have always complained that we don’t get him the ball in space as often as we should, and that hit on Gay was the reason we should do it as often as we can get away with.
Favre had 25 completions in 31 attempts in the second half.
True
Yeah, I really don’t like that AP is out there more and more. I guess I was hoping he would never learn how to be pass block or catch the ball haha. He could actually be more effective catching passes then when he gets hand-offs. He would likely out run any LB covering him everytime, and then just have to make 2-3 CBs miss, which for him isn’t a problem.
Doesn’t surprise me. It seemed like he completed every pass he threw in the 2nd half.
by packallday555 on Oct 30, 2009 4:39 PM CDT up reply actions
I can't place the blame
all on Taylor. I saw a short easy to make pass that was thrown high and to fast. It would have been a great catch if Chester had made it.
"Skol pa fiskande"
FULLY AGREE ...
That was terrible play-calling on that final play for several reasons. First, you don’t need to score quickly – if for no other reason than your defense is notorious for letting opponents score TD’s in less than a minute. Second, why in the world would would an OC call a freakin’ SCREEN pass of all play calls? It makes NO sense whatsoever and Brett is also notorious in these types of high-pressure games for throwing too skittishly, especially on screens. He’s had several of these picked off in his career.
It was an AWFUL offensive performance and what really hurts is that the Minny D pretty much shut down the PItt O. That really, really frustrates me to no end.
Brett was really out of sorts today and I’ve noticed over the past twenty years that he tends to play the game out in his head and if he sees his team losing, he seems to sort of mentally lay down for the entire game. Sure, he’ll make plays, but he seems to play right into defenses hands. He’s always played against Pitt’s defenses like he did today – made some plays, but really dropped the ball when there was no reason to. He really played scared today for no reason – he really had no pressure.
I HATE games that we lose where we CLEARLY exhibited superior talent to the opposition.
Have to agree
I really believe we were the best team on the field. Our D limited them to one offense TD for the game. Great job guys and missing Winfield to boot. The pass by Favre was to high a too fast. That bad call changed the whole game. The Steelers should have been down by 4 and needing a TD from their offensive to win. Would they have got it? Maybe, Maybe not.
At least they would have had to earn it rather than the Ref beating us.
I don’t understand why people question the play calling on this play?
Yes, it sucks that Chester didn’t catch the ball, and it sucks that Favre threw the ball high, and it sucks that Fox was in the right place at the right time.
But it’s not like we were trying to score on the play, it was a screen pass and was intended to get the three yards we wanted. If we had run the ball and AP fumbled it, you would have been bitching about that play call as well.
And I don’t know what you mean about Brett being out of sorts. Pittsburgh is a GREAT DEFENSE, quarterbacks play worse against great defenses than they do against shitty defenses. That should be obvious.
You also seem to forget that they gameplanned against Favre all week, and did a good job of shutting him down in the first half. Then we made a second half adjustment to our plays and Favre went 25 for 31 in the second half.
How exactly is that “out of sorts”?
One bad bounce and all of a sudden it was a bad playcall? If we had got the first down you would be singing a different tune.
One bad bounce and all of a sudden it was a bad playcall? If we had got the first down you would be singing a different tune.
Exactly. Some folks are just getting a bit hysterical, no point in letting them start a stampede.
I agree, the Vikes should have won. But we didn’t, that sucks and now we have focus on the next game.
Bottom line is that the Vikings proved themselves this week, everyone saw that, and we’re 6-1, which is on pace for nice, tidy home field advantage for the playoffs.
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
SKOL!
Good points
From what I’ve seen you guys execute screen plays with the best of them, so why that’s a bad play-call I’m not sure. Especially when you consider that Pittsburg had been blitzing a lot. I do think I would have maybe run the ball more on that last drive but like you pointed out the passing game had been very successful in the 2nd half, so why go away from it?
by packallday555 on Oct 30, 2009 4:41 PM CDT up reply actions
Wow...
“Brett was really out of sorts today and I’ve noticed over the past twenty years that he tends to play the game out in his head and if he sees his team losing, he seems to sort of mentally lay down for the entire game.”
What game were you watching? That’s so not right that it hardly qualifies as wrong.
Ok, maybe I’m a tad bit frustrated at the end result. Maybe what bothered me most about Brett today was his feeble attempt at taking down an easy target after that fumble. That really burns me and as many fumbles and pick-6’s that Brett’s had over the years, I don’t remember him ever bringing down the defender that either picked him or scooped-up his fumble.
What I liked today was the defense pretty much shutting down a potent offense on the road. And, if you have to lose a game, losing to an AFC opponent is the best loss.
"Maybe what bothered me most about Brett today was his feeble attempt at taking down an easy target after that fumble."
He’s 40 years old and not a defender. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him make a tackle, though he occasionally throws a useful block. He really just doesn’t know what he’s doing in those situations and probably has some inclination (which we should all be happy for) to not risk that old body too much in what is generally a chaotic situation.
by Migrant lurker on Oct 26, 2009 7:40 AM CDT up reply actions
As much as I hate Childress
The main reason we are questioning the call is because of the end result. If Taylor catches it and immediately gets tackled we move on to the next play and no one thinks twice about it.
It’s a fair point that we should have kept it on the ground, but we also needed a TD to win, and the Steelers kept the running game pretty much bottled up all day. It was a questionable call, but if he’d called a run and Chester or AP had fumbled everyone would be complaining Childress got too conservative and didn’t give Favre a chance to win it for us.
I’m also not going to complain too loudly over the tripping call. Dugan overshot his block and rolled into it, it was close enough that I’d bet it gets called 50% of the time.
The Steelers took advantage of a couple opportunities on D and they blocked like hell on those returns. They earned it this week and we don’t really need to be overly upset at any particular players or coaches blowing it for us. I guess I could throw Chester under the bus for tipping it up, and I will if he does it again, but he’s been too good a player for me to do that.
It’s almost harder to lose a close fought game like this than one where you can clearly see the where the problems were. But I’m not going to waste any time whining about play calls or officiating this week.
Fire Childress!
no if peterson fumbles i’d be crying about how AD will never get over that part of his game…. he does have fumble issues for some reason
favre, jackson, rosenfels, the tooth fairy... i don't care, just give me a Super Bowl!
+1
We have some things to address coming out of that game, but the fact is it could have gone either way, with or without the refs calls. We had two turnovers in the game and both of them bounced right to someone who was able to take them standing up and run to the end zone; how often will that happen? (and not taking anything away from the outstanding play of their ‘defense turning into an offense’). How often does Chester Taylor drop that pass, and how often does it then bounce right into the hands of a defender?
We lost and sometimes games go that way. We were in the game against a tough team, considerably limited their potent passing attack and put up a lot of yards on their excellent defense. We failed to make some big plays (dropped passes, dropped ints) when we could have, and beyond the questionable calls, we still committed a heck of a lot of unnecessary penalties. Hopefully we will make more of those plays in the future, and hopefully we got a few bad breaks out of the way in this one. Forget the refs, there’s nothing we can do about that anyway. Let’s focus on what we did right, did wrong and what we can do better in the future.
by Migrant lurker on Oct 25, 2009 8:00 PM CDT up reply actions
Well, I’d much more easily accept a fumble because a running play was almost mandatory in that spot – too much time left to score – even though the Minny D was shutting down Big Ben and company, a minute is a LOT of time to work with.
It’s all about being cognizant and understanding the moment when you call plays.
Thats what he was doing.
the screen play was the best call believe it or not because their D was being aggressive towards the run. It was just a bad bounce thats all. I know screen plays count as passing stats, but essentially they are run plays.
I actually believe Chilly was calling a good game today, he tested the waters and realized that passing was the best option in this game. He even found ways to get AP the ball out in space with the screen. The whole team is learning and growing thats including the coaches. I just hope we all take this loss as a lesson learned, fans and the team alike.
If we must find something negative to scrutinize about lets talk about Mr. “keep me on special teams please” Paymah.
by midnightwonder on Oct 26, 2009 7:33 AM CDT up reply actions
I agree
I thought it was great that he started the game with a pass play and then kept on passing. I really thought the other team was going to bite on that and open it up for AP. But alas, people respect AP way to much to ever let their guard down.
Note I said a “high regard” not necessarily “respect” for this coaching staff and call. Hauschild says it all “being cognizant… of the moment you call plays”. Inside two minutes is a whole other strategy that negates much of what has transpired in the rest of the game. In this case, play out the clock on the ground for an odds on tie and OT or the likely win. Not inspired, just smart football and play calling.
It’s all good fellas… I’m moving on already tho’ the taste be bitter.
Sure, anythings possible on any given Sunday. But I’d opt for an AP running attack over a screen pass in traffic any day given the game situation.
At least
we have Childress and Peterson, not Singletary and Gore; I shudder to think of that possibility. Be thankful for what we have!
The result of this play is why I didn’t bash Chilly last week for running it agains Baltimore and going for the field goal. I’m w/ Dwarg – tough to get mad at CT when he’s been nothing but good and classy for this team.
Bright spots:
1. Sydney F’ng Rice: 11/134. Money.
2. D w/o Winfield held Big Ben to 14/26, 175 yds. Well done, secondary.
3. We most likely weren’t going to go undefeated, so at least it was an AFC team.
4. Chicago is who we thought they were.
Bring on the Packers – GO VIKES!
Good Post Jason
I read a hundred post last week bashing Chilly for calling a running play in the 4th quarter when we were behind and needing a field goal to win. This week people want to bash him for calling a pass. I don’t want a predictable offense. I do want a smart offense.
In this case Steelers had stopped the run all day. We were moving the ball. A short pass to Chester is like a run play anyway. It was just one of those football things. Execute extremely well or lose. We lost because of Two defensive T.D.s. away from home. We played great. We just didn’t win. I’m very proud of what this team accomplished.
If I were Geen Bay I would be very scared.
+1
Exactly, it was just like a run except you hopefully draw some people out of the box and get room to run. It’s ironic that we played our best 60 minutes so far this year in our first loss… welcome to the NFL. No way could I say it any better but it sure as hell bears repeating:
“If I were Green Bay I would be very scared.”
Childress calls a pass play late in the game...
And it’s, “WTF is he doing?! We should be running out the clock!”
He calls three run plays to burn time outs and it’s, “WTF is he doing?! Go for the kill!”
Is he the best play caller out there? Of course not. To expect such would be folly. The Vikings are 6-1, and to pin this loss on playcalling would be just silly. It was big plays and mental mistakes, both of which are fixable.
Childress, like all coaches, calls bad games. Baltimore is a good example, in the fourth quarter, but the team pulled it out. Like it or not, he has the team playing well, and he’s going to get an extension, barring some huge collapse. He’s here to say, at least for a few more years.
Visit:
http://www.vikingvigil.com
Skol Vikings!
Woot Woot!
Why is it, when games in which we run the ball, and it doesn’t work….we all have gripes about not throwing, and when we throw the ball, and it doesn’t work, we complain that we didn’t run.
Early on we saw AP was clearly not going to get 100+ yards. So, they finally fall back on the passing game, which clearly worked. I wish a couple more passes were caught, but at least there was always a receiver in the area, and it was almost caught…it’s not like watching Favre in his Packer days where there wasn’t a receiver in the area, and it was picked.
Anyway, 2nd and 3….the main instinct would be to run the ball. It pained all of us at the bar to see AP sitting on the sideline during that play, but on the other hand we did see a 1st and goal, on the 1 yardline scenario play out earlier, and running obviously didn’t pay off, nor passing (dropped pass in the end zone). Had they ran the ball, I’d like to think it would have equated to a first down, and later a score….
When all is said and done...
I’m going to beat my own dead horse here…
AP had just mowed down William Gay for big yardage, the young man is pumped…
Favre has thrown 50 attempts for 33 completions, the veteran is fatigued, evidenced by the inaccuracy in the throw that resulted in the unfortunate bobbled catch to the usually reliable hands of Chestor Taylor…
WHO THE F… CARES WHAT WENT DOWN LAST F…ING WEEK WITH BALTIMORE, THIS GAME, THIS MOMENT, THIS TEAM DESERVED TO TAKE THE WIN FROM THE DEFENDING SB CHAMPION IN THEIR OWN HOUSE! WE HAD THIS ONE FELLAS, WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE, IT WAS OURS TO WIN OR LOSE. ALL I’M SAYIN’, WORD.
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