It was tough being at the Metrodome this past Sunday and watching the Vikings season come to an end. Unfortunately, in the loss to the Eagles, we saw all of the negatives that plagued this team throughout the year: Terrible quarterback play, awful in-game coaching, zero clock management skills, and bad play calling. Obviously, heading into this off-season the biggest question will be if Tarvaris Jackson is the right quarterback for this team. I'll address that and several other questions below. I'll also cover the good and the bad of the 2008 Vikings.
The Good
-Run defense was outstanding again. For the third straight year, the Vikings were #1 in the NFL against the rush. The Williams Brothers are the best defensive tackles in the league.
-The pass defense dramatically improved. Acquiring Jared Allen was the main reason this happened because he took a lot of pressure off the secondary with his ability to get to the quarterback. However, another reason for the ascent of the pass defense was the improvement of Cedric Griffin and Chad Greenway. Both of these young players played with a lot more confidence as the season went along and began to emerge as young stars on this team and in this league. Leslie Frazier and the entire defensive staff deserve a lot of credit because they really didn't take much of a hit after losing pro bowl caliber linebacker E.J. Henderson early in the season.
-Our two-headed rushing attack was very good. Adrian Peterson got even better in his second year and Chester Taylor was among the league's best backs on third down. The Vikings rushing attack is clearly the strength of this offense.
-Our pass rush was excellent thanks to the acquisition of Jared Allen. Allen had 14.5 sacks and two more in the playoff game. He constantly harassed the opposing quarterback and was exactly what we expected him to be.
-Nearly all of our major off-season acquisitions paid off. I discussed the positive impact of Jared Allen above. Bernard Berrian provided the big play threat that we needed. Madieu Williams played well after missing much of the early part of the year due to injury. The only acquisition that really didn't pay off was Thomas Tapeh, who didn't even make it through the season.
-Visanthe Shiancoe emerged as one of the best tight ends in the league. This was maybe the most surprising possitive development this season. I never saw it coming and like many other fans was calling for Shiancoe to be released. Visanthe deserves a lot of credit for proving everyone wrong and working hard to get his game better.
-The Vikings won 10 games and their first division title since 2000. That is always the first goal of every team coming into the season and the Vikings were able to overcome a lot of adversity and get the job done.
The Bad
-Tarvaris Jackson didn't develop into a quarterback that we can trust to lead this team for years to come. Coming into the season the quarterback position was the biggest question, and it remains the biggest question today. Gus Frerrotte did a pretty good job, going 8-3 as a starter, but started to regress and is clearly not the answer going forward. Unfortunately, neither is T-Jack, in my opinion. When Tarvaris came back in the middle of the Detroit game, it really looked like he had turned the corner. He played great against Arizona, but his regression started in the Atlanta game and culminated with a dreadful performance against Philly in the playoffs. When Jackson returned he looked like a completely different quarterback. However, in his terrible game against the Eagles, he displayed all of the traits that forced Brad Childress to bench him in the first place: staring down receivers, inaccuracy, bad decision making, and a complete inability to lead a two minute drill. Tarvaris is still the biggest question heading into this off-season, however, this time around he better not be the answer at the quarterback position.
-The Vikings failed to get Adrian Peterson the ball in a variety of different ways. AD is clearly the most talented player on the team and maybe in the league, yet we saw no creativity by the coaching staff in terms of getting him involved in the passing game. This is in part due to his terrible ability in blitz pickup, which must improve next season. Against Philly, I really thought we would try some screens to Adrian to try to capitalize on Philly's blitzing. Unfortunately, the coaching staff never made it happen.
-Speaking of the coaching, it was mediocre at best. You only need to look at the Eagles game to see the ineptitude of Brad Childress as an in-game coach. He inexplicably declined a holding penalty that most likely would have forced the Eagles to attempt a longer field goal, he couldn't decide weather or not to run out the clock at the end of the first half, his halftime adjustments were non-existent, and the play calling was the same kind of vanilla variety that we saw all season. In a playoff game one would expect to see a new wrinkle in the play calling that we didn't show during the regular season, but at least on offense, nothing changed. Some of the fan criticism of Childress is probably over the line, but a lot of it is completely justified. The coaching on Sunday was dreadful. I don't know if this team can ever win at a high level with Brad Childress as head coach.
-Our passing game wasn't much better than it was last year. Bernard Berrian certainly provided the deep threat we needed, but because of the lack of a legit quarterback, the passing attack was still near the bottom of the league.
-Adrian Peterson had some troubling fumbling issues, especially at the end of the season. I don't think it will be a huge problem in the future, however, because he didn't fumble at all when he was at Oklahoma. Still, it's a cause for concern and Adrian single handedly cost us the Atlanta game with his four fumbles.
-The special teams unit was one of the worst in NFL history, no exageration. We allowed four punt return touchdowns. On Sunday, Desean Jackson changed the game with his long punt returns. Losing Heath Farwell was probably the injury that hurt the Vikes the most. His absense was noticible Sunday and throughout the rest of the season.
Questions Coming Into Next Season
-Who will be the quarterback of this team next season? If it's Tarvaris Jackson, expect there to be several blackouts. This fan base already despises Childress, but will tolerate him if he continues to win games. The experiment with T-Jack has to end, in my opinion. He has failed to come through in several big spots. He has the physical tools, but the all-important confidence factor is not there, and he seems to get more nervous and stare down receivers more as the games get bigger. The list of possible replacements for Jackson is lengthy. It includes: Brett Favre, Matt Cassell, Jeff Garcia, Carson Palmer, Derrick Anderson, Sage Rosenfels, David Carr, and many others. I'm not sure who I want yet, but one things I am sure about is that we have to have a solid veteran quarterback leading this team. With all the other pieces in place for a Super Bowl run, we can't afford to take a gamble and draft a young QB to start next year.
-Will the coaching improve? As I mentioned above, there were clear issues with Brad Childress and his in-game coaching and his vanilla offense this year. If the coaching doesn't improve, I don't see how we can win at a championship level.
-Will Lezlie Frazier be back as defensive coordinator? Right now, I'm leaning towards Frazier getting a head coaching job. I know Frazier is a great coach, but as long as we keep our great defensive players and get E.J. Henderson back, the new coordinator would have to be completely inept not to succeed with our defense.
-Will Darren Sharper and Matt Birk return? I'm thinking both will be gone. Neither played great this year. Sharper is better in a defense that plays man coverage because he is more free to roam and make plays. Paul Allen had predicted for weeks that Sharper will end up in Pittsburgh next season. After listening to Matt Birk after the game on Sunday, it sounded like he will retire. If he decides to keep playing, I don't think the Vikings will offer him a contract because his play regressed this year and he'll be too expensive. If it's not too expensive, however, I would re-sign Birk because he is a great leader and can still play at a fairly high level.
There are several other off-season questions, which I will address in later posts. In general, I thought the 2008 Vikings season was successful in some ways and disappointing in others. It was successful because they won 10 games and a division championship. However, it was also disappointing because the quarterback question didn't get answered and we didn't play well in the playoff game. It was definitely a fun and wild ride. Should be an interesting off-season. This team is certainly capable and close to winning a Super Bowl if it puts a few more pieces together. SKOL.
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