Childress/Favre and play calling

They were saying on ESPN earlier that the issue between Chilly and Favre was real, and Favre wants more control of the offense. But who knows thats probably just another Werderumor.

You also have Bevell in the mix. Bevell as the offensive coordinator should be the main guy in charge of play calling. I think Childress puts a lot of his own spin on this though so, I’m not sure how they share duty on it. I do know that Favre audibled quite a bit at the line and that because of that we did better this year than the prior ones. However, you are correct in your assumption that TJ could not handle the entire playbook when he was under center so that pretty much nuetered our offense.

This is the issue with the QB calling plays at the line. He sees what is going on at that moment far better than the coach and can see the blitz and the coverage so he sometimes needs to call out of a play. However, the head coach (HC) and OC have a longer view in mind. They may be trying to show something to the defense so they will bite on plays later on that they are setting up. So it’s a bit dicey Childress I feel likes to keep things close to his chest and so Favre might mess up something he’s trying to pulll off when he’s trying to make a play. With this said I like Favres play calling better than Chilly’s at times.

Defensively we don’t blitz much becasue our front four are so dominant, and it lets us put seven into the back field to try and take away the passing routes. You see a lot of teams attempt to emulate this but none of them do it to the same degree Minnesota does. Now our secondary is very passive and I think they can get more opporunistic. Right now they play a bend don’t break and the go after the receiver instead of the ball. This will reduce YAC but it stops us from making many interceptions.

Hope this helps! And remember no matter how intelligent and confident any of us sound, remember we’re all just fans.

a) Bevell really calls the plays on offense, but Bevell was hired to be Chilly’s lackey. Bevell is Childress’s Mini-Me.

b) At several junctures, it was clear that the more BF controlled the game, the better the variety of plays were (including more downfield passes) and the less we collectively groaned as a Vikings QB threw a 1-yd pass to an average or slower receiver with 9+ to go on 3rd downs.

c) Childress’s “philosophy” is very vanilla in nature and he did not trust The Precious. The result was a vanilla offense with a below average QB minus some flavor…a combination that had previously seemed inconceivable…and last year was a clear indicator that a truly good QB with some control will produce better than anything Childress and Bevell cook up in their vanilla labs with white coats on. Tarvaris Jackson is a career backup. The proof is in Chilly’s moving away from The Precious 3x over so far.

d) I would expect Favre to interject his judgment even more often. Remember that great ending to the SF game? It was improvised on a broken play after whatever Chilly/Bevell had called failed.

e) The Vikings’ defensive schemes, playcalling and possibly the coaching jobs need reshuffling. The consistently poor passing D with hand-picked talent (M. Williams, T. Johnson) and the productivity dip with Sharper before setting him free to prove that he could do great things away from Frazier and the Vikes’ secondary should be grounds to at least put the system and/or Leslie Frazier’s job on the hot seat. Were it up to me, changes would be made this offseason on the D side of the ball.

f) Nah.

(By the way, when I say The Precious, I mean it to reflect that some think that TJ has undocumented and unseen super powers, but ultimately he is bad for us.)

I am a little lost in your thoughts so let me ask you straight up. What do you believe?
Bevelle is a bad OC?
Farve simply knows more than the caoaching staff?
Chilly made a mistake hiring Bevelle?
Ziggy made a mistake hiring Chilly?
Coaching staff is great and gets along with Farve?
Frasier sucks?

My opinion is that we run a complicated playbook an?d we have proven that a big time experienced QB runs it better than a novice QB. That won’t change and if we insert another inexperienced QB we will suffer because of it. That doesn’t change my opinion that the coaching staff has done a good job for the last three years. Getting better each year. This includes the defensive coaching staff
Could you try and pare down a statement for me that explains what your thinking.

In this ESPN video they suggest that Favre will decide on whether to return based on playcalling, the nature of the offense, and so on.

This dovetails with Ryan Longwell’s statement after the NFCCG that Favre had already made up his mind on whether to return a month prior to that time. That would have been about the time of the Carolina game or the Bears game when Childress and Favre seemed to have a disagreement about some things.

According to the ESPN talking heads, Favre wants to “open up” the offense. Otherwise, he will retire.

I take anything from ESPN with a grain of salt, but since it makes sense especially in light of Longwell’s statement, and as Longwell knows Favre from their Packer days, it sounds realistic.

So hopefully Childress and Favre can mutually learn from each other, make some adjustments, clear up whatever issue is out there, get on exactly the same page, and the deck will be cleared for Favre to return in 2010.

With our offensive line aging and not being as effective in the rushing game, going to a pass-first offense may be the smart move. We all saw Peterson get big chunks of yardage on the ground in the Bears game out of a three-wide formation. By spreading out the defense, that will open up lanes for AD, and put more receivers on the field for Favre.

a) Bevell calls the plays. Childress is on the headset, and could always change them. Favre, Jackson, and Rosenfels all are on headset and might pass along something they see to Bevell. Once Favre receives the play, he often would have a run or pass option at the line of scrimmage built into the play. To switch might only require a hand signal. Favre and the other quarterbacks also have the full authority to audible. Favre makes more changes at the line, including audibles than Jackson.

On defense, Frazier calls the plays. They are relayed to the middle linebacker who passes them along to the defense. After EJ got hurt, Jasper called the plays on 1st and 2nd downs, while Leber called them on 3rd downs and any passing down in which Jasper wasn’t on the field. I believe the defensive players can call defensive audibles and make adjustments.

b) I hope Childress does learn from Favre. The best teachers learn from their students. My hope is that Favre returns as a player this year, retires in glory, and then stays with the Vikings organization as a consultant or even coach. Most great players don’t want to coach, but he would make a great consultant for the Vikings. That is just a hope of mine. Favre has more than earned the right to make whatever choice he wants.

c) My guess is that the play calling has remained the same, and the improvement and creativity we saw in 2009 was primarily due to Favre making adjustments at the line of scrimmage. Favre called a few audibles, too. As I said in a comment above, though, Favre seems to want the offense to shift into a pass-first mode. He may have a point. When you have Brett Favre at quarterback, you can pass first and run second. With our personnel, passing first might make sense, and could actually help our rushing attack.

d) I don’t know. I hope that input is made and that helps makes the Vikings successful.

e) There are two goals in defensive playcalling. One, implement the scheme. Two, get the most out of the players we have. When we had Darren Sharper, Frazier unnecessarily limited him. Instead of using Sharper’s talents to the maximum, he put Sharper into a system that Sharper didn’t fit. Then Sharper went to New Orleans, got used correctly, and had a terrific season. Maybe some other players on the Vikings defense aren’t being used correctly. In my opinion, Winfield should be moved to strong safety and asked to play like Bob Sanders used to for the Colts. Winfield could be great at strong safety. We should probably find more time for Brian Robison to play, since he is so effective. If we made those changes, that would suit me. I believe Frazier’s scheme combining elements of the 4-3, Cover-2, Tampa 2, and 46 defenses works well. Frazier has improved over time, and if we are lucky things will really start to come together for him this year as a defensive coordinator.

f) I don’t know if I answered all the questions right, but Cheers!