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Additional Minnesota Viking Commentary

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


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