The Minnesota Vikings dropped their season record to 5-3 with a home field loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rookie running back Doug Martin put on a great show, getting his first career 100 yard game while Minnesota put on another clinic of poor tackling skills. During the game, the announcers pointed out that Martin by himself was out-gaining the entire Vikings offense. To be fair, the Vikings defence was the best of the three units on the field last night: the offense was putrid and the special teams players didn’t improve much from last week’s debacle.
Dan Zinski from The Viking Age:
It started bad for the Vikings tonight and just got worse. In the first half they had no answer for Tampa Bay’s Doug Martin who cracked the 100 mark in rushing yards before halftime even arrived. Martin kept getting to the second level against the Vikings’ defense and making hapless tacklers miss. For the second straight week the Vikes made a no-name running back look like Jim Brown.
Offensively the Vikings could get nothing going. Two fumbles made life very difficult for them in the first half. A couple poor Chris Kluwe punts helped Tampa keep good field position and keep putting pressure on the defense. The Vikes managed to get one good drive going thanks to big plays by Percy Harvin. They got it to 20-10 going into the half. And that actually seemed encouraging.
But in the second half that man Doug Martin stuck the dagger in them. He took a screen pass to the house from 64 yards out. That made it 27-10 and really the game was over. The Vikes showed fight like they always do of course. Literal fight. Jared Allen and Donald Penn threw down after Penn ripped Allen’s helmet off. Allen came back the next play with a big sack to fire up the Metrodome. But the offense could do nothing with the momentum. Tampa Bay iced the game with a long fourth quarter drive filled with big third down conversions.
1500ESPN‘s Tom Pelissero and Judd Zulgad perform the autopsy in the press box:
