Last night’s final preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys could have gone better, both for the team and for Sage Rosenfels, who is fighting for the backup QB spot behind Brett Favre:
Brad Childress knows he has his starting quarterback now that Brett Favre is wearing purple. But with eight days until the regular-season opener in Cleveland, the Vikings coach cleary isn’t happy with his quarterback situation as a whole.
That became clear after Sage Rosenfels and John David Booty threw third-quarter interceptions that were returned for touchdowns in the Vikings’ 35-31 loss to Dallas on Friday night in their preseason finale before an announced crowd of 62,334 at the Metrodome.
“At times [the quarterback play] was embarrassing,” said an upset Childress, who rarely is critical of his players in his postgame news conferences. “I’ll end up putting that on myself. Not having them ready to come out of the locker room at halftime. But all the quarterbacks I’ve ever coached have some regard for the football, and you can’t throw it to them.”
I’m still hoping that the Vikings hang on to Tarvaris Jackson, rather than cutting or trading him. He showed that he’s still got lots of potential:
Jackson started and played through the Vikings’ first series of the second quarter, completing two of four passes for 42 yards with a touchdown and a 127.1 passer rating. Rosenfels entered in the second quarter and finished 7-for-15 for 115 yards with a subpar 45.1 rating; Booty was worse, going 7-for-13 for 85 yards with a 42.1 rating. Childress said he benched both quarterbacks after their interceptions, meaning Booty replaced Rosenfels, threw one pass and then was lifted for Rosenfels.
“It always seems like you want to take back one play, and I wish I could take that one back,” Rosenfels said of a pass that was picked off by Cowboys cornerback Pat Watkins and returned 23 yards down the near sideline for a touchdown. “It was just a bad play by me. Other than that, I felt real comfortable out there, and I thought I did a pretty good job executing the offense other than that one play.”
Today is the worst part of the season for aspiring young players, or for veterans trying to catch on with a new team: it’s when teams have to cut down to their 53-man roster.
