If you'll recall, I did this last year at the mid-season point and at the end of the season.  Yes, I know we're not "technically" at the mid-season point yet, but we're pretty close to it, and I don't think one game is going to change these that much anyway.

Now, these aren't "official" or "scientific" or anything like that.  They're my take on how the players that the Minnesota Vikings have put on the field this season have performed.  I'm anxious to hear what some of you folks think about these. . .should be a good topic for discussion.

So, without any further ado, here are your mid-season Minnesota Vikings Power Rankings:

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Yep. . .that pretty much says it all.  A season that started with so much promise now teeters on the brink after seven games with the Beloved Purple going into the bye week.  No, the season's not over by any stretch, but there are a lot of things that need to change if things are going to improve in the season's second half.

So what have the major lowlights been to this point?  Let's go through them, as only we can.

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It doesn't seem like a year ago, does it?

A year ago at this time, the Minnesota Vikings were coming off of a bye week, prior to which they had lost three consecutive games by a touchdown or less.  They were sitting at 1-3, the offense was sputtering, the natives were restless, and they were looking at a trip to a place that had been a personal house of horrors for them for about a decade.  Yes, trips to Soldier Field for the Vikings in recent history generally had not gone well. . .they had lost their previous six meetings at the spaceship by the lake, and though the Bears were 2-3, they were carrying the momentum of a victory over the Green Bay Packers the previous week, and were considered to be favorites going into their Week Six matchup.

The game got off to an auspicious start, with the first score of the afternoon coming on a 89-yard punt return by the phenomenonal Devin Hester.  However, the Vikings quickly answered, as on the ensuing drive Tarvaris Jackson. . .yes, that Tarvaris Jackson. . .performed a beautiful play-action fake and lofted a 60-yard touchdown pass to Troy Williamson. . .yes, that Troy Williamson. . .to tie the score at 7 after one quarter.  What everyone had expected to be a defensive slugfest was getting ready to turn into a shootout.

That's when the real show started.

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Like many of you on Monday night, I spent much of the second half screaming at my television for the Vikings to NOT punt the damn ball to Reggie Bush.  The Saints were basically doing nothing offensively in the second half, and there was no logical reason for the Vikings to keep kicking the ball to the one guy that could have made a huge difference.

But whenever Chris Kluwe punted the ball away, it kept landing in the hands of Reggie Bush, and giving him plenty of room to work with to boot.  Reggie Bush had five punt return opportunites in the second half on Monday night.  His average was a cool 35.2 yards a crack. . .more impressive given the fact that one of those five punt returns was a two-yard loss.  So why the heck did the ball keep landing in Bush's hands?

Apparently it was because Chris Kluwe wasn't doing his job.

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Yes, I know exactly what you're thinking, because I thought it for a while last night myself.

Nine months of preparation. . .millions of dollars spent. . .an off-season of lies perpetuated by the Green Bay front office and placed at our doorstep. . .and the Vikings go out and put up a performance like THAT!?

But there are some important things to remember here.  By the end of last night's game, the Vikings were down to their third-string left tackle.  When you get down to the #3 guy on the depth chart at any position, the result is usually going to be less than optimal, but I thought that Marcus Johnson actually held up pretty well at a spot that, I'm assuming, he hasn't gotten a heck of a lot of snaps at.  I'm not sure how severe the injury to Artis Hicks' elbow is, but whoever starts at LT this coming Sunday is going to have to deal with Dwight Freeney, so this is something that needs to be resolved sooner rather than later.

The most important thing to keep in mind here is that this is, still, just one game.  Yes, it hurts worse and sucks more because it was a loss to Green Bay.  But there are still 15 more of these to go this season, and I have a feeling that things will be getting better the rest of the way.  Having my theory proven true hinges on the abilities of one man.

Brad Childress.

As of this moment, I've given up trying to figure out how Brad Childress constructs his offensive game plans.  The first half of last night's game was one of the single worst first halves of football I've ever seen.  Tarvaris Jackson had 7. . .yes, SEVEN. . .pass attempts in the entire first half, and only completed two for 16 yards.  Yes, we have Adrian Peterson at our disposal, and he was his usual God-like self last night, given the circumstances. . .but during the pre-season, we saw an improvement in Jackson's play.  Brad Childress told us all off-season about how Jackson had improved and was going to be a big surprise this year.

And then you go out in the first half and give him, basically, zero opportunities to make plays.

When I posted the injury report on Friday, I suggested that the Vikings would be wise to get Peterson and Chester Taylor out on the edges, as well as roll out Tarvaris Jackson frequently in an effort to get Green Bay's ailing defensive line to chase him around and wear themselves out.  Did we run a single time to the outside last night?  Was there a toss or a sweep play to be found anywhere?  If there was, I don't recall it.  When you have Steve Hutchinson and Matt Birk, two of the premiere "pulling" players at their positions, at your disposal, you should be running towards the edges a lot. . .and, for some reason, the Vikings seem to be content to just keep slamming people into the middle of the line repeatedly.

The offensive game plan simply MUST be more creative from this point forward if the Vikings are to reach the potential that we all know they have.  Granted, the absence of Bryant McKinnie plays a big part in that, but even with Hicks or Johnson out there at the LT spot, the Vikings need to start doing some different things with Jackson and with the best RB combo in football.

And yet, despite all of that and despite Brad Childress' terrible first half playcalling, the Minnesota offense outscored Green Bay's offense.  They actually outgained the Packers in net yardage, 355-317.  The Vikings had more first downs than Green Bay did (21-15).  Both teams were right around 40% on third-down conversions.  Tarvaris Jackson and Aaron Rodgers both had 178 passing yards and 1 passing TD.  (Granted, Rodgers looked far more efficient in doing so.)  It was truly a tale of two halves for Minnesota.  After letting the Packers win the time of possession battle in the first half, the Vikings had possession for a longer time in the third quarter than they did in the entire first half (12:08 TOP for the Vikings in the first half, 12:42 TOP in the third quarter).  There was a point in the second half where the Vikings had run 29 offensive plays to Green Bay's 3.

As is the case in the National Football League, one or two plays made the difference in this football game.  A few examples of such plays?

How's about back in the first quarter where the Packers' faced 3rd and 13 and ran a draw play to Brandon Jackson.  Jackson fumbled the ball forward, and it looked like numerous Vikings had a shot at recovering the football. . .but at the end of the play, Greg Jennings recovered for Green Bay on the other side of the first-down line, and the Packers kept possession.  A recovery there for Minnesota would have set them up at around the Packers' 30-yard line, and they likely could have gotten at least a field goal out of something like that.

The killer, of course, was Will Blackmon's 76-yard punt return in the third quarter.  That was a combination of a bad, line drive kick by Chris Kluwe and pretty terrible overall coverage by the Vikings' special teams.  Big returns will happen, of course, but usually Kluwe has significantly more hang time on his punts than he had one the one Blackmon took back.  Hopefully this won't become a trend over the course of the season.

Speaking of special teams, how much different could things have been had the Vikings recovered what was a perfectly acceptable onside kick by Ryan Longwell?  Granted, they got the ball back anyway, but if they could have set up shop in Green Bay territory (which is where they would have been, thanks to a dumb penalty on the Packers during the PAT after Adrian Peterson's TD run), they could have better capitalized on the momentum that they had built to that point.

Yes, last night's loss was disappointing, to say the least.  Yes, it's a game that the Vikings could have won.  Yes, Brad Childress is now 0-5 against Green Bay as the Vikings' head coach (and nobody is more infuriated with that than I am).  But it's only one game, and the time has come to move on and start looking forward to the home opener against Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon.  Hopefully things will take a much different path than they took on Monday night.

Yes, I apologize. . .I'm sort of taking the easy way out on this one.  Hey, it's the weekend, and this one still has to be done, so let's get it out of the way, shall we?  The Vikings are pretty well set at all of the special teams positions.  Ryan Longwell is going to be the kicker, Chris Kluwe is going to be the punter, and Cullen Loeffler is going to be the long snapper.

I know that Steven Hauschika, a rookie from North Carolina State, is currently on the roster as a kicker, but he's pretty much just there to give Ryan Longwell a break during the pre-season.  I don't think he's a serious threat to Longwell's job security or anything.  Nor should he be, considering that Longwell has been pretty outstanding for us in the two seasons he's been in a Viking uniform.  Since escaping Green Bay for the much, much greener pastures of the Twin Cities, Longwell is 41/49 in the field goal department (missing 4 field goals in each season), and 5 of his 8 misses have been from 50+ yards out.  He's even thrown a TD pass since joining the Vikings (Week 2 against Carolina in 2006).  Longwell has also managed to improve his kickoffs since coming to Minnesota as well.  He'll continue to be the Vikings' kicker for the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, nobody has been brought in to compete with Chris Kluwe as of yet, and I'd be surprised if anybody was. . .although the Vikings DID work out an Australian punter by the name of Shane Phillips, according to the blog of former Vikings' special teams coach Gary Zauner.  However, Kluwe isn't going anywhere.  The best Vikings' rookie of 2005. . .which is sad, considering he was a UDFA and not part of our actual draft class. . .has done a solid job for the Vikings thus far.  I've got a soft spot in my heart for anyone that can go out and punt with a torn knee ligament, which is what Kluwe did towards the end of his rookie season after getting injured.  The Vikings signed him to a long-term deal not too long ago, so they obviously think he's the answer at punter.  With the way he's performed in his three seasons in Minnesota, I see no reason to disagree.

Cullen Loeffler is the long snapper.  He. . .ummmmm. . .snaps the ball.  Long.  He's been doing the job for Minnesota since 2004, and to be honest, I can't remember very many bad snaps during that time, if there have been any at all.  Long snappers are like baseball umpires. . .we don't notice them unless they screw something up.  The fact that I don't have a whole lot to say about Loeffler means that I haven't noticed him much. . .which, in this case, can only be considered a good thing.

So now that we've talked about the specialists, let's take a look at a couple of positions that need to be filled by guys that we've already discussed.  I'm referring to the positions of kick returner and punt returner.

I've mentioned my confusion over the signing of Maurice Hicks before, because from all of the reports that have been out there, the guy was primarily signed for his return skills.  It's puzzling because I thought that Aundrae Allison had done an outstanding job in that role for Minnesota in 2007, with his 3 returns of 60+ yards and 28.7 yard return average.  Hicks is also the #3 running back, but come on. . .barring injuries to both Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson, how many snaps is he actually going to get back there?

I guess that I really, really just don't understand the role Maurice Hicks fills on this football team at the moment.  Allison is our best kick returner, in my opinion, and is the best choice to stay there.  I know that Allison's role in the offense might be increasing, but he's still, at best, the #4 guy on the depth chart right now (behind Bernard Berrian, Sidney Rice, and Bobby Wade), and possibly lower depending on your opinion of Robert Ferguson.  Allison has great speed, good moves, and seems to be a natural returner.  If I'm the Vikings, I'm not sure I want to mess with that.

As far as punt returning goes, our main guy last year was Mewelde Moore, who has since moved on to Pittsburgh.  The only other guy on the roster that returned any punts last year was Bobby Wade.  Neither of them have met a fair catch that they didn't like.  Hicks, again, doesn't seem to fit in here either, as he hasn't returned a single punt in his 4 years in the NFL.  This will be one of the more intriguing positions to watch in training camp this year.  Is this going to be how rookie Jaymar Johnson makes his way on to the roster?  Will the Vikings give someone like Charles Gordon (who was an outstanding college return man) a chance to win the job?  Or will they stick with the one real proven commodity they have and let Wade keep the job?  To be honest, I think that with Johnson's speed, I hope he can handle the role.  It would be nice to have explosive young returners on both the kick and punt return units.

What do you folks think about out special teams?  Go ahead and discuss it right here, and we'll be back either later today or tomorrow morning.  Continue enjoying your Saturday, everybody!

I promise to get back into the 53-man roster breakdown tomorrow. . .it's been a pretty hectic day over on this end when it comes to "real world" stuff.  Just thought I'd hit a couple of tidbits here.

First off, as Robert Rence pointed out over in the FanPosts yesterday, the Vikings were able to recind their waiving of Erasmus James and, instead, trade him to the Washington Redskins for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2009.  The "condition," apparently, is that he makes the team.  Well, it's better than nothing. . .I don't see how he's going to pass another team's physical if he couldn't pass Minnesota's (you would think they'd be similar), but that's not for me to decide.

Also, Pete Prisco from CBS Sportsline has given us his annual list of the most overrated and underrated players on each NFL team.  His nominees for the Vikings?

Overrated: LT Bryant McKinnie. You look at his physical skills and you should see an elite tackle. You just don't. He's OK, but has never lived up to the hype.

Underrated: LB E.J Henderson. He moved back to the middle last season and showed he's there to stay. He is a big reason the Vikings played the run so well in 2007.

Hard to argue with the "overrated" choice.  McKinnie has always been an outstanding run blocker (even before the addition of Steve Hutchinson), but an "elite" left tackle shouldn't get constantly abused by speed rushers the way that he does.  He should be able to handle those sorts of players. . .hell, he gets paid a great deal of money to handle those sorts of players.  It would be nice if he would start doing it eventually.

The underrated choice, however, might be a bone of some contention.  Not because E.J. Henderson isn't a great player, because he most certainly is.  He showed that last season.  I say that because that people now KNOW that E.J. Henderson is a great player, and for that reason he sort of ceases being underrated.  It's sort of like when Hines Ward was the "most underrated receiver in football" for roughly ten straight years.  I don't know if someone's underratedness can become overrated, but that was a case where it certainly could have.

(And, honestly, I'm not sure who was underrating Hines Ward all that time.  I've always thought he was a heck of a receiver.)

So who's the most underrated Viking?  My nominee would probably have to be one of Henderson's fellow linebackers, Mr. Ben "Ach Du" Leber.  On a defense that's loaded with talent at all three levels, Leber doesn't get a heck of a lot of hype. . .he just goes out every week and does a hell of a job.  He tied for the Vikings' lead in sacks in 2007 (including the one on Eli Manning at Giants Stadium that should have had the theme music from The Benny Hill Show playing in the background), threw in an incredibly athletic interception in the game at Chicago, defended passes, and was rarely out of position.

Leber might not get the ink that Henderson does. . .shoot, he probably doesn't even get the ink that Chad Greenway does. . .but, in my opinion, he's just as big a part of the Vikings' defense as either of those other two starting linebackers, and would definitely be my pick for most underrated Viking.  My runner-up in that category would probably have to go to Chris Kluwe.

What do you think?  Who are your selections for the most overrated and underrated members of the Beloved Purple?  Discuss in yonder comments section, and we'll be back tomorrow with our continued breakdown of this season's 53-man roster.