Quotulatiousness

September 19, 2011

Vikings blow 17-point halftime lead, lose to Bucs

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:12

For the second week in a row, the Minnesota Vikings had the lead at halftime, then went on vacation for the second half of the game. Unlike last week, the Vikings lead after 30 minutes due primarily to their own efforts, with a strong running game and a passing game that gained more than 39 yards (last week’s total). It just wasn’t enough of a cushion to allow the team to check out for the second 30 minutes of play.

Mark Craig:

The Vikings blew a 10-point lead at San Diego, losing 24-17 in Week 1. But as bad as that was, the sequel was much worse considering the level to which the Vikings were dominating the league’s youngest team at home at halftime.

The Vikings led in total yards, 284-62; first downs, 17-3; rushing yards, 137-23; and, well, everything else.

“I’ve been playing a long time,” receiver Michael Jenkins said. “Eight years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game that different from one half to the next half.”

Obviously, a pattern has been established: The Vikings are a 30-minute team in a 60-minute league. And they trail the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions by two games in the NFC North heading into Sunday’s home game against a Lions team that has won six consecutive games and is coming off a 48-3 victory over Kansas City.

Jim Souhan:

The Vikings haven’t just begun the 2011 with two losses, they’ve blown two games with poisonous second-half performances that call into question the ability of their coaches to adapt during games, their offensive philosophy, their choice of veteran quarterbacks and their ability to fulfill the lofty expectations of ownership.

Since 1990, only 12.5 percent of NFL teams that have lost their first two games of the season have made the playoffs, and we can probably make a leap of logic and guess that an even smaller percentage made the playoffs after getting outscored 41-3 in the first two second halves of the year.

The Vikings have begun a season in which they proclaimed themselves contenders and during which they are seeking approval for a billion-dollar stadium by treating the second half the way your average downtown office worker treats Friday afternoon. They’ve taken off early.

The Christian Ponder era gets closer with each loss, but for Ponder’s sake, I hope he doesn’t need to step in this soon in his rookie season.

During the first half, Adrian Peterson went into the record books again, as he scored the first of two rushing touchdowns, moving him into first place in team history for rushing TDs.

Update: As Christopher Gates reminds us, the Vikings have to make a roster move this week to make room for Kevin Williams, who is returning after his two-week suspension in the StarCaps case. Who does he want to see get cut to clear space?

The first one would be Bernard Berrian. I said this last week, and I’ll say it again . . . this guy never should have been on the roster coming out of camp. He’s a speed receiver with no speed, and shows absolutely no will or desire when the ball is coming his way. In two games this season, he has one more reception than I do. [. . .] Or, if you’re going to cut a defensive player, look no further than Tyrell Johnson. Jamarca Sanford has clearly outplayed Johnson this season at the safety spot opposite of Husain Abdullah, and Johnson’s missed interception that could have, potentially, sealed the deal for the Vikings this afternoon is basically the last straw for me. If we’re going to try to work some young guys into the lineup this season, get Johnson the heck out of town and give Mistral Raymond some run in his place.

(more…)

July 28, 2011

Rice cashes in: $1 million per TD over the last four years

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:42

I really like Sidney Rice, and I’m sorry that he won’t be with the Vikings this year, but I have to agree with Ryan Boser on this: Seattle overpaid to get him.

In four seasons as a Minnesota Viking, Sidney Rice scored 18 touchdowns. Yesterday, he was rewarded with $18.5M in guaranteed cash from the Seattle Seahawks. In a nutshell, Rice’s 2009 breakout was so impressive that agent Drew Rosenhaus found a sucker willing to anti up a gaudy five-year, $41M deal for a guy with one great season smashed between three injury-plagued disasters.

Rice’s first two seasons were marked by underachievement and knee injuries. After stealing his paychecks in 2007 and 2008, Rice showed his true colors on the heals of his 2009 breakout.

Assisted by what may have been Brett Favre’s greatest season, Rice tallied 83 catches for 1,312 yards and eight scores. With one year still left on his contract, Rice demanded a raise from the Vikings.

On the other hand, as has been pointed out by several people, an NFL player’s career can be cut short by injury so it’s hard to blame Rice for taking the bigger paycheck, especially the $18.5 million in guaranteed money.

December 6, 2010

Vikings win in Turnover Bowl

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:26

Yesterday’s game in Minneapolis wasn’t expected to be very entertaining: a 2-9 team visiting an out-of-conference 4-7 team isn’t quite ratings gold. The turnovers started early in the game, as Brett Favre went down to a backside hit while throwing, putting the ball up for grabs. Buffalo got the ball and, at least for a few minutes, the momentum.

Favre was injured and Tarvaris Jackson came in to start the next series. Jackson threw an interception that Buffalo ran back for the first score of the game.

After that, it got entertaining — if you were a Vikings fan, anyway.

A month ago, the play that transpired with 4 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first quarter Sunday would have led to the Vikings’ undoing.

Tarvaris Jackson, in place of injured Brett Favre, threw a pass that Buffalo cornerback Drayton Florence stepped in front of and returned 40 yards for a touchdown and a seven-point lead. Under Brad Childress, that would have been a “here we go again” moment.

But under interim coach Leslie Frazier, Florence’s touchdown ended up as a footnote following the Vikings’ 38-14 demolition of a Bills team that looked every bit a bad as its 2-10 record at Mall of America Field.

Favre’s injury was reported as a sprained sternoclavicular joint and he’ll undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the damage. Interim head coach Leslie Frazier said that if Favre could play next week, he’d play — that is, there’s no quarterback controversy here.

Rookie Chris DeGeare made his first start, replacing Steve Hutchinson, and only got mentioned for a false start penalty. That’s good: when you don’t hear the names of your offensive linemen, that usually means that they’re doing a good job. Also on the injury list were Percy Harvin and Ray Edwards. Adrian Peterson was a game-time decision with his sprained ankle from last week (he played, gained 107 yards and scored 3 touchdowns).

Sidney Rice played a great game — he’s finally back in 2009 form, going over 100 yards receiving and scoring two TDs. He clearly was the missing element in the first half of the season.

Joe Webb, the Vikings’ third string quarterback was on the active roster for the first time this season, as a receiver/kick returner, but injured his hamstring and left the game. Running back Toby Gerhart was the replacement KR (replacing Webb, who was playing in place of Harvin). This might have created a problem if Jackson had been injured, as neither Favre nor Webb could go back into the game. Luckily, the issue didn’t arise.

It seemed like a good idea, but Webb’s day ended in the first quarter when he suffered a pulled right hamstring while playing on a punt return.

“I was expecting a lot” of action at receiver, Webb said. “The coaches told me during the week. We had a couple of banged-up guys and they were going to need me to lineup there. I just had my chance to do a couple of things. My [hamstring] just gave out on me but it’ll be all right.”

Frazier acknowledged the Vikings had a “package” of plays for Webb.

Webb’s athletic ability is such that the Vikings decided to give him his first-ever reps on kickoff returns Friday and then trusted him enough to have him return Sunday’s first kick. Webb took the ball 30 yards to the Vikings 35.

“I was trying to pop it out,” he said. “That was my first time ever running a kickoff return. Now that I’ve got a chance to see it and know how I can read it up, I’m sure the next one will be a lot different.”

November 21, 2010

Vikings (finally) activate Sidney Rice

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 11:50

It’s been a long time coming, but the Vikings filled that last roster spot they’d been holding since releasing Randy Moss.

Wide receiver Sidney Rice is expected to make his 2010 debut on Sunday against the Packers after being placed on the Vikings’ 53-man roster Saturday.

The move came by Saturday’s 3 p.m. deadline and nearly three months after Rice underwent hip surgery that landed him on the physically unable to perform list. Rice also did not take part in training camp because of the hip problem, which was never fully explained.

Rice, who had a career-high 83 receptions for 1,312 yards and eight touchdowns last season, started practicing on Nov. 3 and needed to be activated by this coming Wednesday or his season would have been finished.

He’s still not back to full speed, but I hope he’ll be able to contribute a bit, as the Vikings have been a funhouse mirror of their former selves without him.

November 13, 2010

Sidney Rice to play tomorrow against Chicago Bears

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:38

According to Bleacher Report, Vikings wide receiver Sidney Rice will play in tomorrow’s game against Chicago:

Sidney declined hip surgery this offseason, despite several doctors strongly recommending he undergo the procedure. As it turns out, this was a foolish decision on Rice’s part.

Had he undergone the surgery in April, Rice would have been fully healthy when Week 1 rolled around against the New Orleans Saints.

With that said, the past cannot be changed, but it’s a wonder as to how much better the Vikings would be if they had Favre’s favorite target on the field.

Had Rice been playing on a weekly basis, Minnesota would’ve never made the acquisition to bring Randy Moss back to the team who drafted him in 1998.

Minnesota also would still have their third-round-pick in 2011.

While I can’t blame him for not wanting to undergo a surgical procedure if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, the decision certainly had deep repercussions for his team. It’s not Rice’s fault that all this happened — there’s no guarantee that the team’s record would have been any better if he’d been on the field from the start — but it’s indisputable that him not being available had a domino effect.

Update, 14 November: No, the Vikings didn’t place Rice on their active roster, so he won’t play in today’s game.

August 24, 2010

Sidney Rice has hip surgery, won’t be ready to play until November

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:39

In what many are claiming is a contract-related move, Vikings wide receiver Sidney Rice had hip surgery yesterday for an injury he took in the NFC Championship game:

There has been a lot of controversy concerning that injured hip of Sidney Rice, primarily questions about when the injury happened and why it wasn’t reported until a Twitter-related confession from his agent.

Rice was at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo. No, not to try to pull John Elway out of retirement but to have his injured hip examined by a new set of eyes. Rice confirmed to the Star Tribune he had surgery that is expected to sideline him for the first half of the 2009 season.

What makes the situation curious is that Rice, whose contract calls for $550,000 for the 2010 season, went through minicamp without any obvious hindrances and now needs surgery. The injury is said to have happened during the NFC Championship Game vs. the Saints in January.

If he had been in a scenario that would need surgery, the team clearly would have preferred to have the procedure done much earlier so that he would be ready for the start of the season. As it stands, he could be sidelined until November.

This is a very odd development: as John Holler points out above, this is an old injury and if surgery was required, it could have been done earlier in the year. If the Vikings had indicated that they weren’t willing to pay Rice extra for the breakout season he had last year, it could easily be interpreted as a deliberate move to punish the team for being unwilling to reward Rice.

Update: The Vikings have signed Javon Walker, who played with Brett Favre in Green Bay:

Walker worked out for the coaches Friday and, contrary to Walker’s recent body of work, there seems to be enough left in his 31-year-old body to give them depth at a position that has none.

We’ll see. Until Walker has a chance to prove himself, it would be a shame to see him move ahead of younger players such as Logan Payne. Payne, 25, played in two games with Seattle in ‘08 but has potential. Walker is a household name with a Pro Bowl past, but he also has been beaten down by injuries and off-field trouble the past four seasons.

The last pass Favre threw to him was in the ‘05 season opener. Walker tore an ACL on the play and has had only one productive season since. Heading into that season, a rift developed between Favre and Walker because Favre publicly criticized Walker’s decision to stage a contract holdout. The Favre-Walker relationship obviously has been mended because the Vikings never would bring in a receiver Favre didn’t want.

July 31, 2010

Vikings training camp opens

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 10:41

The Minnesota Vikings opened training camp yesterday at Mankato. Not attending, as expected, is quarterback Brett Favre. Two players started camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list: cornerback Cedric Griffin (recovering from a torn ACL) and wide receiver Sidney Rice (hip injury from the NFC title game).

Pat Williams reportedly lost 18 pounds over the off-season, prompting coach Brad Childress to say “Pat’s big enough to eat hay and (poop) in the street. I’m not sure how he lost those 18 pounds, but I’m happy he did.”

January 19, 2010

TMQ’s view of the Minnesota-Dallas playoff game

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 13:05

I don’t always agree with Gregg Easterbrook, but I always find him an interesting writer. Here’s some of his observations on the Vikings-Cowboys game:

Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees — the run-up to Title Weekend is sure to focus on them. For my money, the Colts, Jets, Saints and Vikings made the championship round because they have the league’s four best offensive lines.

Ninety percent of the action in football occurs away from the ball. When Jersey/B runners burst into the clear, or Favre casually dissects a defense, what’s going on is terrific blocking. Manning was sacked less than any other NFL quarterback this season because the Colts’ offensive line is tremendous. The Jets are in the championship round because of the holes their blockers open. The Vikings’ and Saints’ offensive lines both pass-block and run-block equally well, which is a rare combination. The TV commentators will be watching the glory boys holding the football. I’ll be watching the offensive lines. All four are tremendous.

[. . .] between a first-ever chance to host an NFC title game, and the travails of the city of New Orleans, there will be more energy in the Superdome on Sunday than in Iron Man’s pulse reactor. The sheer atmosphere-power within the facility may exceed the crowd feeling of any other game in NFL history. The Vikings are 9-0 at home this season, and 4-4 on the road — the only quality team they beat on the road was the Packers. NFL players are not intimidated by crowd noise. But it won’t just be crowd noise, it will be energy. The Vikings face an uphill climb.

Adrian Peterson — remember him? He hasn’t had a 100-yard rushing game since Nov. 15. The New Orleans run defense is weak, while its pass defense is strong. A conservative, rush-oriented game plan might be just what the doctor ordered considering New Orleans’ personnel and the need to keep the Saints’ league-leading offense off the field. But with Brett Favre and Brad Childress both preoccupied with pumping up Favre’s stats (see below) will Minnesota be able to bring itself to do the smart thing and use a conservative game plan?

When the Saints have the ball, you just never know what is going to happen. They probably don’t either, which is the joy of watching this team. When attention turns to the Vikings, all eyes are on Favre. But what makes Minnesota special is the best pair of lines in the league. The offensive line is stout, the defensive line is fantastic. The Vikings just clobbered the Cowboys via superior line play — if they are to win in New Orleans, their lines will be the key.

I’m looking forward to watching the Saints-Vikings game, but Easterbrook’s praise of Minnesota is a tad overdone. The offensive and defensive lines are good, but they have had some bad outings in the last month, and the offensive line is much better at pass blocking than run blocking (Adrian Peterson is one of the best running backs in the NFL, but even he can’t run if there are no running lanes opened up for him). It’s also not yet known how bad the leg injury to Ray Edwards was (no official word until tomorrow). If he can’t play, it’ll depend on Jared Allen fighting through double-team blocking without the same threat from the other side of the line.

The Brett-Favre-to-Sidney-Rice connection has been wonderful, but after Sunday’s game, New Orleans will be double-teaming Rice all afternoon. Percy Harvin, Bernard Berrian, and Visanthe Shiancoe will have to get open much more this week than they did this time. New Orleans is supposed to be weak against the run (they’ve jumped ahead in most games, so teams have had to throw against them to try to catch up). I hope that’s true, and that Adrian gets some good run blocking to let him do what he’s proven he can do best: hit those lanes and take it to the house.

January 17, 2010

The nailbiter-that-wasn’t

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 17:29

With most media reports emphasizing how Dallas on their five-game winning streak had the advantage over Minnesota, the results didn’t bear out the prognostications. DeMarcus Ware was going to make Phil Loadholt and Bryant McKinnie look like rag dolls. The Dallas nose tackle was going to use Vikings centre Sullivan as a welcome mat. Jason Whitten was going to have a career game against Minnesota’s notoriously bad secondary.

34-3 was the final score, clearly showing the experts knew what they were talking about.

Well, in another universe anyway. Dallas had a great start to the game, putting up lots of yards against the Vikings, while the Vikings had negative yardage. But Dallas couldn’t get into the end zone, while the Vikings started getting there on a regular basis. Brett Favre set yet another record (his 4 TD passes were a personal playoff mark), and receiver Sidney Rice was on the receiving end of three of them, the fourth going to Visanthe Shiancoe. Jared Allen made lots of noise in the Dallas backfield, drawing attention away from the other side of the line, where Ray Edwards tallied three sacks (half of the Vikings’ total in the game).

Although the Vikings’ offensive line kept Favre relatively untroubled, they still didn’t do enough to open running lanes for Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor. Facing New Orleans for the NFC title game next week, the line had better do more to create those lanes, as the Saints are not good at defending against the run.

December 30, 2009

Eight Vikings to represent NFC in Pro Bowl

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:44

The voting for the Pro Bowl tends to trail actual performance by a year or more, as evidenced by the inclusion of Bryant McKinnie with the Viking players selected:

The Vikings lead all NFL teams this year by getting eight — yes eight — players named to this year’s NFC Pro Bowl roster. The next closest were the Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles with six nods.

First, there are the usual suspects: Adrian Peterson and Steve Hutchinson got the starting nod at running back and guard respectively, which shouldn’t shock too many people. Kevin Williams and Jared Allen will once again start along the defensive line. Even Señor Schism himself, Brett Favre, made the team for the eleventh time. He’ll back up starter Drew Brees at QB.

Then there are a couple pleasant surprises. Wide receiver Sidney Rice made his first Pro Bowl, a very worthy selection in my slightly biased opinion. Heath Farwell was the NFC selection for Special Teamer. Besides last night’s debacle, Farwell has been the main reason for the vastly improved special teams unit this year.

A big difference from Pro Bowls in the past is that this game will be played before the Super Bowl, in an attempt to capture a larger viewing audience than the Pro Bowl traditionally garners. It also means that the Pro Bowl players named from teams going to the Super Bowl won’t be playing in the Pro Bowl.

November 16, 2009

Vikings beat Lions in spite of outbreak of penalty-itis

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:38

Not a great game by Minnesota yesterday, but fortunately for them they were playing against Detroit, so the penalties didn’t sink them (13 penalties for 91 yards, a season-worst). Coming out of their bye week, the Vikings looked anything but dominant in the first half, giving up far too much ground for a team with hopes of going deep into the playoffs. Of course, a lot of that was due to penalties. Kevin Seifert runs down the good and bad of the game:

Indeed, the Vikings overmatched the Lions in every way Sunday and ultimately overwhelmed them. They are 8-1 and have a three-game lead in the NFC North. This season is rapidly shaping up as a once-in-a-generation combination of opportunity and chance, putting the Vikings on a pretty short list of candidates to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

But lest anyone get too convinced of that destiny, remember this: If Adrian Peterson can get caught from behind, anything can happen.

“He just made a great play,” Peterson said. “Those guys on the other side of the ball, sometimes those guys are fast, too.”

But the second lesson/reminder of Sunday was that Minnesota has the offensive firepower to overcome even a series of similar occurrences. (It helped to be matched against the Lions’ horrid pass defense, which has allowed quarterbacks to complete 71 percent of their passes on the way to a 107.8 rating.)

Minnesota gashed the Lions for 492 total yards, an average of 7.8 yards per play. Five of them went for 40 or more yards. Quarterback Brett Favre passed for 344 yards, receiver Sidney Rice totaled 201 receiving yards and Peterson finished with 133 rushing yards.

I understand the Vikings won’t be playing the Lions’ defense every week, and certainly not in any postseason game. But as they continue to compile elite offensive numbers, the confidence of the players surrounding Favre will only improve.

One of the good things coming out of this game was that the Vikings didn’t suffer any serious injuries, unlike Detroit — it looked like the head coach was going to have to suit up to play in the defensive secondary by the middle of the third quarter. Lions players were dropping all over the field.

Favre continued to spread the ball around, making it much tougher for the defenders to key in on the most likely receiver. Peterson had a good outing, although the highlight reel footage you’ll likely see is him being caught from behind on what would have been a great touchdown run (Detroit’s Phillip Buchanon punched the ball out, which rolled into the endzone for a touchback).

October 25, 2009

Vikings lose to Steelers, 27-17

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 20:20

It was a very competitive game, but the difference was penalties and turnovers. Minnesota had a touchdown called back on a tripping penalty (one of 11 total penalties), while Brett Favre had a fumble and an interception returned for touchdowns.

The Vikings couldn’t gain a half-yard when it might have turned the game, then watched the Steelers’ big-play defense end their unbeaten season with two long touchdown returns in the final 6½ minutes.

LaMarr Woodley’s 77-yard fumble return and Keyaron Fox’s 82-yard interception return on turnovers by Favre allowed the Steelers to turn back Minnesota’s repeated comeback attempts, and the Steelers rode three major defensive stands to an important 27-17 victory Sunday.

The anticipated quarterback showdown between Favre and NFL passing leader Ben Roethlisberger became a defensive duel. And the Super Bowl champion Steelers (5-2) — No. 1 defensively the last two seasons — are tough to beat in any game that’s decided by defense.

The Viking defence actually did very well in the absence of Antoine Winfield (who may be out for 4-6 weeks), although Benny Sapp had a couple of bad plays during the game. If the Vikings weren’t hurting for DBs, he might have been benched . . . but he worked hard after the mistakes. Sidney Rice continues to develop as a big-time receiving threat, adding another 136 yards after his career performance last week. Percy Harvin had a beautiful kick return for a TD, which put the Vikings back into contention, and Adrian Peterson had good combined rushing/receiving numbers, although he didn’t break 100 rushing yards.

Still, if you had to pick a game to lose, losing to the defending Superbowl champions in an out-of-conference away game would probably be the one to choose. Not that I’m happy they lost, mind you.

Powered by WordPress