Feeling Superstitious about San Diego

Normally, I'm not a superstitious person. I have a black cat in residence who is constantly crossing my path, I don't shy away from picking up coins that are tails side up, on occasion I have opened umbrellas indoors, and 13 never seemed like a particularly ominous number to me. But my normally levelheaded attitude is pretty much gone when it comes to football. Games like Minnesota Vikings' season opener against the San Diego Chargers, don't do much to dispel that tendency.

While there are plenty of reasons for why the Vikings wrote A Tale of Two Halves at Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday, it seems that bad ju-ju is as likely a reason as everything else I have heard.

More on this superstitious line of reasoning after the jump.

I trace the change in the game's momentum to the seemingly reasonable idea of putting my 20-month-old niece down for a quick nap. My sister and my niece were flying back home to Michigan Sunday evening and we thought it was worth a try to get Rookie (a.k.a. baby niece) to take a nap because it was going to be a late evening for her. Until this point, Rookie had been suited up in her new Adrian Peterson jersey and she was grooving to "Skol Vikings." It was crazy cute to walk into the room and see her get excited that the rest of us were wearing purple jerseys just like her jersey.

All suited up and armed with a wiggly toddler, we watched the Vikings start off their season with Percy Harvin returning the ball 103 yards for a touchdown. That opening play was fantastic, but things got even better because the Vikings' offensive line did a respectable job of helping Donovan McNabb stay upright and giving Adrian Peterson holes to run through. Free-agent acquisition Michael Jenkins gave us hope for the receiving corps. Fred Pagac's aggressive defense kept San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers from getting comfortable with pressure from the Vikings' revamped defensive line. Mike Singletary's linebackers tackled like men on a mission. The Vikings looked a lot more like a team making a statement than a team in a dreaded rebuilding year.

Then Rookie, much to her very vocal dismay, was put down for a nap and things went all pear-shaped for the Vikings. Now, I suppose that it might be silly to credit the Vikings' second-half collapse with the absence of a toddler whose understanding of the game is comprised solely of her affection for the color purple but, when faced with the possibility that Bill Musgrave's offense is no better at adapting and executing than Brad Childress's offense, I lean toward the missing toddler theory because it's a much easier fix.

That offensive breakdown was the loose thread that unraveled what could have been an upset victory for the Vikings on the road in San Diego. Instead, the Vikings are starting the season in the NFC North's basement because all the other teams in the division won their opening games. While being one game behind the rest of the division is hardly hole the Vikings can't climb out of if they correct the problems they had on Sunday, it isn't the way Leslie Frazier wanted to start his first full season as head coach, and it isn't a great way to build positive momentum for a team that is seeking a new stadium.

For me, the most mind-boggling moment in Sunday's game came when the Vikings sent Joe Webb in to take snaps in the Wildcat formation. As much as I love watching Joe Webb play, I'm biased against the Wildcat formation-not because it isn't a good idea, but because I've never really seen it work. It's supposed to confuse and confound an opposing defense so the offense can break lose an explosive play. While the Wildcat did confuse the Chargers on Sunday, it also seemed to confuse the Vikings because after two plays they were in a third-and-ten situation. But the worst part of it was that the Vikings squandered the momentum Adrian Peterson had created with two strong runs.

Adrian Peterson wasn't awarded a $100 million seven-year contract just because he's a swell guy, he got it because he's a strong, punishing running back. The offense is built around him and he's going to be the face of the franchise for many years, so why, why would you take the ball away from him when he's hot? Seems to me that Bill Musgrave would do well to heed the immortal words of Bruce Springsteen, "Tramps like us, baby we were born to run."

When you've got a talent like Adrian Peterson, why would you want to do anything else?

The Vikings' running game is the center of the Vikings' team identity. It's meant to punish and demoralize defenders who try to stop it, the running game sets up the passing so the quarterback can take advantage of opposing defenses loading the box to stop the run, and it takes time off the clock helping the team win the time of possession battle. Taking time off the clock is especially handy in spelling the defense so they have the energy to stuff the opposing run and force them into third-and-long situations. Therefore, I cannot understand the decision to abandon an effective running game for a gimmicky play. The Vikings didn't need to do it.

When faced with both the possibility that the Vikings new offensive system is falling prey to the same mistakes that their previous offensive system made, is it any wonder that I prefer to hope the offense can be fixed by making sure Rookie doesn't miss a game? Making sure my niece has access to NFL Season Ticket is a lot easier than suffering through a season of Childressian offense.