2% Chance
They say that this Vikings franchise
has a 2% chance left (50 to 1 against) of making the playoffs ... that slim to
none if your taking book. Of course this team is now expected to lay down
for the Packers on it's way to this years Christmas Holiday ... not me.
This no talent ravenous dog ... all of it with my back against the wall will
take what's ever left on that table ... and you'll have to drag me off that
field ... beaten down into absolute nothing-ness. It's not about "you
never know what might happen" any more ... it's about "The charge of
the Light Brigade". Some might try to run & hide ... but no
matter what ... we will all find our way to death on this day. This
is the only certainty. The message beaten into my head all Sunday long
was, everyone has a choice how their going to go down, and if the result is the
same ... I'm going to find a way to change the rules ... where I'm choosing the
HARD WAY DOWN!
So, what was it that we had rammed down our throats yesterday. Was it a
reminder that Andrew Luck is in fact a franchise quarterback ... something we've
maybe never had. Partly, but that's just might be the tip of the
proverbial ice berg.
When we hear Sam Bradford state that we way too often ended up not converting
our initial 3rd downs & before you knew it, the game was out of hand ...
what does this tell us? Could it be that we needed to define a schedule of
efficiency immediately doing what we know we can do ... namely short passes ...
to result in 3rd & manageable. Instead, what did we do? Then
again ... how insane was it to give another set of downs after taking an
un-sportsman-like conduct penalty on a field goal attempt inside the 5 yard
line? Maybe we should be practicing shooting ourselves in the foot before
we actually play any actual game.
What were we thinking? It has taken this offense an entire season to learn
how to just walk again. We've finally developed an efficient passing
attack dependent upon a complete receiving corp that even Bill Walsh could call
his own. So what do we do ... we abandon it in favor of a complete
unknown. On 1st down, we hand the ball off to Adrian Peterson to look
forward to a 2nd & 9. Wasn't that the very definition of
insanity. Then we repeated the same insanity again .. then again ... then
again, until Adrian Peterson forces it all into a desperate attempt of making it
work (fumble). Of course what this debacle overlooks is that even in the
best case scenario, everyone understood that AP would be on a pitch count ...
sort of how we handled him in the beginning of that miraculous 2,009
season. As a resource he had to be used at our most effective point of the
game ... after the offense was established. We treated the continuum as if
everything would be solved by some miracle of nature ... some miraculous event
... led by some sort of a guardian savior. We learned absolutely nothing
from that 72 season where everyone focused upon the return of Fran Tarkenton
rather than the 12 & 2 season of 1971. What got us to Sunday's match
resulted from the grind ... not any sort of miracle or miracle event. As
it turned out, the switch didn't refer directly to Adrian Peterson, per se, but
rather everything else around us.
Yesterday, we had a choice. We could have displayed that maturation of an
offense that had learned ... once again ... how to win the game without Adrian
Peterson. This could have been followed by the incorporation of Adrian
Peterson when the Colts had no idea of when we might actually use him. To
be direct, Frank Gore, (8th on the
all time rushing list) was used to force the hand of our coordinators into using
Adrian Peterson immediately. Gore is the only active player that AD trails
& the Colts read that implication brilliantly. It was the perfect
chess match of forcing your opponent into a position before he's ready thereby
weakening his plan of attack into false utility. Instead, what if we had
thrown the ball on 1st & 2nd down followed by Adrian Peterson entering the
game on 3rd down ... dealing with AD's play action? The result may have
been entirely different. We fell into an accepted norm of failure.
What resulted was Luck feasting upon the loss of Waynes & Smith.
There is one piece of great news now. There is no way in hell that we can
even begin to act like were the 12 & 2 Cowboys up upon that frozen
tundra. Our backs are now so against the wall that any and all
conservative approaches will have to be abandoned. It's been very odd how
the making of a 2-points conversion has tipped the balance in game after
game. Maybe we take every kick out of the end zone to take advantage of
Paterson's unique abilities upon a slick field. Opportunities will present
themselves but this time there will be no choice but to act irrationally.
That in itself is Green Bays greatest fear. One successful opportunity
tends to snowball into irrational fear like not being able to stop that over the
top throw.
Your choice is to give it all up or to take the gloves off. Sometimes,
there is no better position to be in as foolish mistakes sometimes tips your
strategy into risk/reward rather than the conservatism of protect your hind end.
The entire Viking Nation
took it in the teeth yesterday. We ain't dead yet.
The Viking Ghost Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: January 20, 2016