5 statements that make me mad

Except BB is bad! He drops a LOT of balls thrown to him. Unless it is a GO pattern he drops it. In traffic, he drops it. It has gotten ridiculous!…. Sorry but I am realistic and I don’t need to watch the tape in slow motion to determine that. ;-)

Berrian appears to have replaced TJ as the new whipping boy around here now that preseason is over. He didn’t have a great game but the Saints did a good job doubling him and Harvin and held our 4 receivers to 1 catch apiece. Their pass defense combined with Favre being a little inaccurate shut down our receivers.

Young did do a good job blocking and receiving but he didn’t look very good running the ball. Longwell and Mckinnie were both solid but not spectacular.

As for the coaches I’ve been ripping Childress for AD getting zero carries in the fourth quarter and only six in the second half. I’ll stand by the position that it was a terrible decision to not go to Adrian more in the second half but I’ll amend my position on Childress and correctly blame Bevell for this mistake in strategy : )

1. Of the top 60 WRs by DYAR, BB’s Catch Rate of 60% had ranked about 36th in Catch Rate (Football Outsiders). He shouldn’t be anyone’s #1 WR. (Sidney’s Catch Rate was 69% and Harvin’s was 67%. Other Catch Rates from 2009: Camarillo 69%; Colston 65%; Meacham 70%.)

1. Young simply must be a better runner in order to be worth playing as a 3DRB. Otherwise, the D will know it’s a pass when Young is on the field or the Vikes will unsuccessfully run him on 3rd and shorts anyway.

1. What happened to Rhys Lloyd?

1. I don’t understand how Frazier gets any praise at all. The D has been below average twice and average at best once in his 3 years in Minnesota. The safeties have been terrible, and those are hand-picked talents.

Bevell needs a future HoFer like Favre in order to appear competent.

Childress is a former OC. He chose Bevell because they supposedly had similar offensive strategies.

I spent more time in the game thread Thursday night and I noticed that a lot of us are critical of specific players/plays as we don’t do well during the game. A few of us will generalize those same criticisms after the game, but most of us are more understanding after the heat-of-the-moment has passed.

For the most part I agree with LLV that we have proven talent that has earned support and respect here and throughout the league. It’s easy to be critical, and why not… don’t we all believe that our team should be good enough win every battle? In truth, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that every down we’re lining up against incredible talent/coaching/effort, and it’s just not easy regardless of our level of ability.

Still, I can’t help but be disappointed and concerned about our safety play. Maybe I don’t thoroughly understand their role in Frazier’s scheme, but too often it seems to simply be that of the “oh shit” observer.

I think the problem people had with Berrian in that game was more punt return related. He dropped one of the punts and, on another return, he seemed to slip and fall forward before he could even make anything happen.

I still think he’s a good receiver….and, you’re right, the Saints’ defense did a great job on him.

The whole team just looked shaky….as expected for our first game…in New Orleans….without some key players.

I have been a Viking fan for over 40 years. One of the things I have learned is to NOT be a fair weather fan. As soon as the team puts it together, the naysayers will have a difficult time jumping back on the bandwagon with any credibility. As I said the other day, the Vikings looked no worse, and maybe even better, than they did last year after game #1 against Cleveland. Except for AP getting about 95 fewer yards rushing (and this is my primary critique- no one was more motivated to win this game than him, and they took him out of the gameplan), the statistics are similar between the two games. This is NOT the time to be sniping at individual players, especially when it is on a personal level. If you think this team was good enough to go all the way on Wednesday, it is weak to think otherwise today. That is all.

I saw what this team looked like in the 2nd quarter and was impressed. They owned the Saints from the middle of the first quarter until half time, thought they looked really good. After that they didn’t make the right adjustments but N.O. did. I think they definately got outcoached a little. Also Bert really looked like shit in the second half, looked tired and showed his age a little I think. Could be from not being conditioned in camp or the fact that he is 41. Would have been nice to have Chester on a couple of third downs too, lets see what Toby does next week. Berrian is definately not a number 1 but usually he is at least good for some pass interference calls, think he led the leauge in interference yards last year or the year before, not sure. I think once this team gets firing on all 8 cylinders they should be fine. Oh, and the more I think about it maybe Rice held off on getting that surgury on purpose until they knew that Favre was coming back, maybe they thought he would not come back if he knew Sid wasn’t going to be there. Or maybe not , just a thought..

I’d argue points 1 and 5. Berrian failed to get separation. Period. Greer was all over him, and basically made him a non-factor. Eventually, it appeared Favre wasn’t even looking Berrian’s way. There was a reason for that in my opinion.

McKinnie didn’t look very good. Sure, he didn’t give up any sacks but that still doesn’t mean he wasn’t get pushed back in pass protection, and do a whole lot of nothing for Peterson in terms of opening up holes for him. As for Loadholt, did you pay close attention to him? I did, and saw Smith beating him inside quite a bit. I also thought he could have been called for a couple of holds and a face mask as well. He looked decent but not good by any means.

The notion that Young didn’t play well is ridiculous. He had a couple of great blitz pick-ups, which is probably the most important thing for a third down running back. He was just fine as a target out of the backfield for Favre too. He looked like he was thinking too much in the few carries he got but that’s not necessarily the end of the world. I’d imagine once Gerhart returns, Young won’t see anything more then an occasionally draw play on 3rd down plays.

I admire your ability to watch the Saints game again. I don’t think I could have, but then I was so hyper about the return of football that I didn’t even sit down through most of the first quarter. And, I liked your validation of Bernard Berrian and Albert Young. After a game there are so many blanket statements about poor performance that it’s enough to make a person heave. Breaking down specific plays makes for a nice change. I am not a fan of McKinnie, but you are right, the guy did his job on Thursday night and Favre was not turned into a mass of bruises and creaky joints the ways he was the last time the Vikings played the Saints. My problem with McKinnie is not that he lacks talent, it is that he has lacked consistency.

I guess the bottom line is what many others have already said…The Vikes didn’t open against Cleveland this year, they opened against the defending Super Bowl Champions. While there is improvement to be made, I saw enough positive out there to believe that we’ll have another great season. Bring on Miami…

before you start castigating anyone else you have to point a finger at Favre. He played poorly and his efforts hurt the rest of the team.

Young did a fine job blocking the blitz however he’s not a full back he needs to be able to run the ball as well. But when we are in certain passing situations I’m happy we have him back there. But honestly if that’s all he good for we should be using the full back.

Berrian did not have a great game, he did miss some balls and he did not get open hardly at all. Part of this goes to the Saints D, I didn’t see many receivers wide open in their back field, however most of this goes to Berrian as he’s a profesional receiver in the NFL and he needs to find ways. Of course his play would have been better if Favre had been able to completel his passes to his intended targets.

McKinney did get pushed around a bit, however, he’s going against one of the top five best DE’s in the league. Hard to complain when the man holds him to no sacks. I have to say that’s a win. He did look much better than Holt who basically looked like a man holding onto a tuft of grass on the edge of a cliff at times.

As for Childress/Bevel/Frasier I think all of them should relook at their strategies. I believe they can all be tweaked a bit. Not a lot but a bit to be sure. I was disapointed that AD never showed up in the second half. That’s part Bevel and part Frasier seeing as our defense just couldn’t get the Saints off the field. However, the defense gets a nod here because hell they kept the Saints down to 14 points. Something that has never been done since Payton has coached there.

Mean while the offense only scored 9 points.. Flat out unacceptable Mr Favre. I understand you’re old but c’mon man practice makes perfect. Childress this is on you as well. Grow a pair.

My tip of the hat to Farve. You damn near beat the Saints. Lets get Miami.

we didn’t “damn near beat the saints”. the score was close enough for us to win in spite of the offense.
we didn’t make much of a showing in the second half because of favre’s poor play and the playcalling.
i don’t tip my cap to favre….he gets a noogie from me, and chilly-bevell get a double-snuggy.