Vikings Run Out of Offense

By MikeBullock  |   Monday, December 21, 2009  |  Comments( 0 )

Minnesota Vikings
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Either the Minnesota Vikings are allergic to Sunday night games, or there are some serious problems with the newly crowned NFC North Division Champions. For the second time in three weeks, Minnesota played on the national stage of Sunday Night Football and had their collective butts handed to them by a easily beatable opponent.

After coming out flat, and not seeming to wake up until the final minutes of the fourth quarter against the Arizona Cardinals two weeks ago, you’d think head coach Brad Childress would have had his Vikings fired up to play the Panthers when they hit the field in Charlotte, North Carolina last night. By all accounts, the exact opposite happened as the Vikings cobbled together a Frankenstein effort, showcasing their lack of energy present in the loss to Arizona and their fourth quarter defensive collapse exhibited in week six when they narrowly avoided a loss to Baltimore in the waning seconds of the game.

With only two real plays all game that typified the Vikings offense that took them to their 9-1 record prior to the Cardinals game, last night’s offensive performance brought new meaning to the term lackluster. The passing game seemed out of rhythm, the offensive line overmatched, the running game anemic and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevel returned to calling plays that were predictable to anyone who had played defense beyond the Pop Warner ranks. Even the vaunted defense, which played masterfully for the first three quarters, collapsed completely in the fourth quarter, making Carolina’s second string QB Matt Moore look the like the wily veteran.

Gone was the Adrian Peterson many have dubbed the greatest running back in the game. No longer evident was the performance that sends many on the Vikings’ o-line to the Pro Bowl year in and year out. Nowhere to be found was the Brett Favre playground razzle dazzle that electrified this team earlier in the year.

The truly mindboggling piece in this puzzle is the Vikings complete inability to run the ball. In recent years, with a nearly impotent passing game and constantly facing eight and nine man fronts, Minnesota continually racked up one hundred, two hundred and three hundred yard rushing games against some of the best defenses in the league. Now, with the ever present threat of Brett Favre’s arm and his talented receiving corps emergence as a legitimate threat, it seems as if Minnesota’s rushing game has run out on them.

Looking ahead, the Vikings can recover next week when they face one of their divisional punching bags, the Chicago Bears, a team Minnesota should beat soundly. However, the final game of the year will once again be a night game facing a playoff caliber team in the New York Giants. While the G-men have an ailing secondary, they still possess a defensive line as formidable as the Panthers, Steelers and Cardinals. Should the Vikings be unable to cure their running ills by then and lose to both Chicago and New York, not only will any hope of the number one seed in the NFC playoffs vanish like a puff of breath in the Minnesota cold, but the Vikings could conceivably drop as low as fourth.

If Minnesota had won last night, they’d be looking at ways to rest up for the playoffs today. Now, after last night’s meltdown, they better be looking for a way to make sure they aren’t resting after January 10th.

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