Vikings-Jaguars Preview

The Vikings must prove they can win on the road today. At this point in the season every game is critical, but today is especially important because we have the Bears next week at the Dome and first place could be at stake. I look for this game to be very similar to last week's grind it out game in Tampa. Whoever can make the one big play down the stretch will come out on top. They definitely won't be able to run much on us, so the key on defense will be to put pressure on David Garrard. The Jaguars identity is their running game, so I like the match up because Garrard doesn't have many weapons to work with and he's struggled at times this year. We haven't seen a patented Vikings defensive touchdown lately, but I sense one today. On offense, we must hand the ball to Adrian as much as possible. It sounds easy and obvious, but last week at Tampa Adrian had under 10 carries in the second half and wasn't on the field for the final two drives of the game. Hand it to him early and often. Apparently, this Jacksonville secondary is beat up and not too good, so look for us to try something deep early to Bernard Berrian, who hasn't scored a TD in the last two games. As I've said before, we have to throw a few deep balls every game just to show that we have it in our play book and to get the defense thinking about something other than Adrian. Gus Frerrotte must avoid mistakes and Childress must have a good coaching day if we hope to win in a tough atmosphere on the road. My prediction: Adrian has a big day, Berrian finds the end zone again, and the defense scores a TD and causes a lot of problems for David Garrard. Vikings 27, Jaguars 17. SKOL.