I stumbled unto this really cool blog,  with a story about losing Randy Moss. Titled a “Tale of Woe” it wasn by an author called “The Madman.”  I agree with his unique perspective; an analogy of Moss being a kid’s favorite childhood toy. The toy was not taken away just once, but TWICE! The second time by a mean, klutzy Stepfather. I love this type of writing!

But articles like this are not all you get at this blog. There graphics, pie charts, data and even cool videos that all “nail” the mood of Vikings fans during this crappy NFL season of 2010. Here, for example is their video of how the whole Superfreak vs Chilli confrontation went down:

I always will say, and believe that NFL players are not my friends. I don’t care about what they do off the field (as long as it ain’t illegal or harmful to society in a menacing way) because their sole job is to entertain us when they are on it.

Players to me, are like the gladiators of yore;  fighting the wild lions, tigers, and bears on their Ben Hur chariots, using their swords, in a survive or die atmosphere. I don’t want them to be role models, Read on…

Yahoo Sports Jason Cole, reported that the Vikings are involved in another Brett Favre schism. You might remember last year? Favre shows up, players take T-Jack’s defense, a supposed riff happens in the Vikings lockerroom? The same type of hyperbole is happening all over again.

According to this Yahoo Sports Report Favre and Brad Childress are the combatants. The report quoted unamed players as saying,

“Brett thinks Childress has no clue about offense!”

One only has to watch last year’s games with the Panthers and Bears to see that they disagree on offense. I am not a football guru, head coach or Hall of Fame QB, but I do know about body language. It was clear that the coach and player did have a disagreement on offensive philosophy. But I also know that in any relationship (say, between a husband and wife) there will be disagreements, and arguments. This doesn’t mean that one should lose all hope, quite, give up or retire.  It also doesen’t mean that all is lost for the Vikings.

If Childress and Favre can agree to disagree on philosophy of NFL playcalling, they still can work together on the business of winning.  Afterall, for both parties, it’s all about winning. Childress wins if Favre plays, and Favre wins because he comes here for his last season to help his loyal teammates win.

I at least give them both credit for realizing that they stand to benefit personally from the team’s success (if that does happen.), 

It doesn’t matter if you believe that Childress is  an average coach with a good track record for assembling talent.  Some of the worst coaches in history have rings on their fingers because talent was put on the table for them (George Seifert, Barry Switzer).  Childress might be smart enough to back off the offense, and let Favre run it… that would be credible to his desire to win.

People have to realize that this might be the ONLY chance the Vikings will have to go to the Super Bow for the next decade. It’s an ALL IN season! All the chips are on the table. With a lock out looming, and no Vikings stadium planned or being built, there is an off chance that this season might be the last season ever for the Vikings in Minnesota.

The NFL as we currently know it, may no longer exist after this season. Big changes to the rules, schedules, settlements, infrastructure,  contracts and unions may all be in place after a lock out.

So Vikings fans,  enjoy the heck out of this season. Take everything in this year like it is the last time you will see it, because that just might be the case.

Go Vikes

I just got off the phone with my dad after wishing him a happy birthday, and of course we ended the conversation with a discussion about the Vikings season.

It’s his fault that I am addict of the purple. I grew up watching him call the defense “hamburgers” after missing tackles, and jumping for joy when “Chuck Foreman” broke the Rams back in the 1976 NFC Title game. There are so many other stories of Vikings greatness that I shared with him, but I will write about them all later.

Tonight our conversation was about the 2008 season. Tonight it was about a very flat “hamburger” who runs the team on the field named Brad Childress.

Coach Childress has a team so loaded that it could be the “Super Whopper”, or the “Biggest Big Mac” in the history of fast food, but instead Vikings fans are served a “kids meal.” The coach of this team is so flatline with a stubborn coaching style that will keep the Vikings from putting any condiments or cheese on the purple offense burger. This is fine if you are fan of close games that always come down to the last 2 minutes, but it is BRUTAL if you are a Coach who cannot work those 2 minutes as part of your plan.

Let me explain. Childress plays close to the vest, and is relentless at forcing the team to adopt to this style. The formula might work with a talentless team, but the Vikings have so much high priced “varsity” NFL stars that it should have something more it’s game plan at critical times. At the very least, the Vikings should be winning 12 games a year with the players they have on the roster.

My dad an I agree that Childress is still learning, and probably knows that the team is only a good quarterback away from making a long playoff run like they used to do back in the day. We are willing to put up with him for another year to see if this can happen.

In short the team is close, but we both see that our Coach has to know 100% what to do when his team needs the leadership at crunch time. If he cannot improve this, he is worthless, and the team will turn on him. Just look at the last 55 seconds of the Giant game, and anyone who has ever played Madden on Playstation knows what to do. It was simple.

There was absolutely no excuse for him not trying to advance the ball when they got into field goal range after Visanthe Shiancoe converted a first down to the 32 yard line. A first run down attempt by AP loses 2 yards. It’s now 2nd down and 12 from the 34, with 27 seconds left, and 1 time out. A 51 yard field goal attempt looms at this point and the clock is ticking. Sure, Longwell kicks the ball long, and this is makeable, but… um… well… there should have been time enough for 2 more plays, right? But here’s what ensued:

The Vikings were unprepared, the Vikings panicked. They argued on the sidelines and looked dis-shelved. The clock ran down to 9 seconds, and Tarvaris called a time out. The fans booed. The fans pulled out their Helga horns and cried “UFF DA!”

The Vikings wasted 18 valuable seconds, called a time out on 2nd down, and came back in to try that long 51 yard Field Goal. The Giants called a time out to freeze Longwell. The Vikings regrouped, and uh, thought, uh, “Well, let’s try a safe sideline pass?”
In came T-Jack.

They attempted that safe sideline pass, Bobby Wade was open, but T-Jack overthrew him intentionally to be safe? Of course it was incomplete. SURPRISE!!! The play wasted 4 more seconds. Now 5 seconds left? Talk about a clusterF**K. It was now 3rd and 12. Then a mad scramble to get Longwell in to get that 51 yarder kicked with the 30 second play clock ticking. The Giants call time out again. (Thank You Giants?). The kick was good… Oh my… ESPN analysts are still laughing, calling the Vikings goofy on National TV… WHY?

Here’s what they should have been prepared for:

It’s time to get on the line and run a play for this situation. This is where you try that safe little sideline pass. Worse case incomplete, and 19-20 seconds left. Clock stopped. 3rd and 12. Still time for run up the gut and chance to improve on a 51 yard FG distance to 47-48 yards. You call time out with 4 seconds left and try that field goal.

Best case you advance the ball down the sidelines, 5-6 yards by a pass. The clock stops on the out of bounds. It’s now 3rd and 6 or 7 with 17-18 seconds left and you still have a time out left. You have time for a signal from the sideline, you get the play; presumably a run , QB keeper, or off tackle. You gain get 2-3 yards It’s now 4th down, and field goal of 45-46 yards is a much better option. You let the clock run down to 4 seconds left and you call that last time out.

I don’t care that they won, it should not have been that close. Childress has proven time and time again that he is unable to be an effective NFL head coach even with a team stacked with talent.

What a hamburger? Maybe. But can he can still improve? Yes. I know how he can. All he has to do is buy a Madden game, load it up and practice the 2 minute drill all off-season. I mean, dude, he has to master that 2 minute pressure drill, and manage the game plan that he so brilliantly instigated for his kick ass offense. If he can’t master that, he has to pray that the front office gets him a veteran quarterback who can take this “fatal flaw” away from his coaching acumen.

Maybe his buddy Brett will read this and start speed dialing Winter Park again? Now that might be the Cheese this offense is missing? It should be an interesting off season.

Posted on Yard Barker, Tuesday, October 7, 2008:

Rarely will I ever comment on an individual game that I’m not a fan of.

But tonight’s Monday Night football game was a coaching debacle on so many levels that not commenting would be a crime.

First you have Minnesota coach Brad Childress who decided to kick to Reggie Bush after Bush returned one punt for a td and then a second one for 29 yards.

And had Bush not slipped in the open field, he would have scored.

But that wasn’t enough evidence for Childress who kicked to him a third time right in the middle of the god damn field. Not surprisingly, Bush pulled the same move most good punt returners use. Get the flow going one way and then make that quick cut back before they can react and scored his second punt return td.

And then you have Sean Payton, who misused the clock so atrociously at the end of the game that I would honestly consider firing him in the morning.

With 2:59 left in the game, New Orleans had the ball at the Vikings 29 with a first down. If they played it right, they should have been able to run the clock down to 2 minutes and then kick after the stoppage in play.

But after a Deuce McCallister 1 yard gain, there was some confusion on the sidelines and Brees was forced to take a timeout. A timeout the Saints would regret later.

At 2:13, Brees threw a very short incomplete pass to Stecker that took 4 seconds off the clock.

Instead of running Deuce or Reggie Bush for another short gain of 1-3 yards, they took the risk of the clock stopping and an incomplete pass.

Bad decision

On 3rd and long, Brees again threw a short incomplete pass which took the clock down to 2:04.

At this point, even if the field goal try was good for the Saints, Minnesota had plenty of time to get up the field and try to get into field goal range themselves.

Anyways, in strolled Martin Grammatica. A man who takes so long to kick a field goal that you wonder if the snap count needs to be in spanish for him to understand.

Earlier in the game, Grammatica’s attempt got blocked and returned for a touchdown. Ron Jaworski commented that it took Martin a full quarter second longer to kick the ball than most field goal kickers.

A 46 yarder was no gimme and Grammatica proved it by hooking his kick.

And now Minnesota only needed about 35-40 yards to win the game.

Even though Minnesota’s offense is inept beyond Peterson, the task didn’t seem impossible. So Minnesota used the ol “I’ll throw up a hail mary and hope my guy gets interfered with trick”.

And by God, it worked. The New Orleans defensive back was so out of position that he ended up tackling the receiver.

So now, with 1:18 left, Minnesota was at the 13 yard line waiting for the clock to run down.

And New Orleans, who stupidly wasted a time out on their own drive could do nothing to stop them except use their last two timeouts.

Minnesota wisely ran the ball up the middle 3 times and Longwell trotted in and kicked a 30 yard field goal to win the game.

And this folks, is where NFL coaches fail to be innovative.

I don’t know the exact statistics of field goals in the NFL but I can bet you that field goals of 30 yards and less are made more than 95% of the time; regardless of the time on the clock.

The odds of a professional kicker missing a field goal of that length is virtually nil.

So why not take your chances with your offense at that point? Why not just allow the Vikings to score a TD and put your offense on the field to see what would happen.

I can guarantee you that your chances of scoring a TD are much better than a Vikings blocked or missed field goal.

But Payton did nothing.

Let me say that again for coaches who are just not intelligent or creative enough to pull the trigger on some innovation.

If your opponent has a chip shot field goal and there is minimal time left in the game, let them score.

Put your offense on the field and take your chances scoring a touchdown.

I realize the old schoolers will say, “What about the Tony Romo botched snap in the playoffs”.

Yes, that was the exception rather than the rule.

I can literally point to dozens of situations where a team scored a touchdown with less than two minutes on the clock but I can only point to a handful of missed field goals from that range.

So Payton sat there as the clock wound down to 16 seconds and the Saints walked away losers.

And while some of the blame falls on Saints players, a majority falls on the head coach.

A losing coach for a losing team.