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Additional Minnesota Viking Commentary

Foreign Matter
Defense is not a concern.  It can be corrected.

There is a reason why the Viking's franchise has never won a Super Bowl championship.  It is due to foreign matter ... something that we cannot identify with ... something that is foreign to us.  Even with AD, we have never stressed the run game to it's proper level.  We are destroying our greatest asset by acting like foolish children.  The run has always been viewed as a necessary evil rather than the primary key to our success.  We've bought into the glamorous passing concept that is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, leaving the true key to success as hidden from our view.  

This offense, even before placing Joe Webb at its helm reminds me of the Parcells New York Giant team that defeated the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV (25).  The Giants were facing a high powered passing offense, not unlike the Patriots assemblage of today.  To defeat the pass happy scheme, Parcells employed a steady diet of time consuming ball control offense that was heavily based upon the run.  The run in this particular game, like so many other of the NFL's greatest games, was not an afterthought.  It was the primary key to victory.  To succeed, all that was required was for the high powered pass offense to slip up somewhere along the way, which it always does, and their fate soon follows.  The pass game always fails because of its time factor where it is always believed that there is enough time to recover from any situation however it is not only the score on the board that tells the story.  It is in the death of the time that elapsed upon the clock.

Regardless of whether it was that New York Giant team or the ball control offenses that we faced in the Super Bowl's (Dolphins, Raiders & Steelers), what is of fact is that there is no team that can contend with a team that can run the ball.  A team that can rip yardage at will.  Let's not forget its was a Buck ball run that sealed our fate on Sunday.  It was the same the week before.  Is there anyone that has the pure runners of Harvin, Peterson, Webb, & Gerhart.  Again, we are taught to think that we were burned by the pass on the past two Sunday's but it was the run that did us in.  Think about it.  Before laying this out, I wonder how many have had second thoughts about the effectiveness of our run game and whether we should abandon it completely.  By the way, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result is one of the primary definition of insanity.       

Keep in mind that it doesn't take much to derail a passing campaign.  See Peyton Manning or Michael Vick last night or even Bret Favre in a certain Championship Game versus the Saints.  What I'm telling you is that it is impossible to stop Webb & company.  Wake up pin heads.  Does anyone remember Lombardi's famous quote.  He didn't say pass it into the alley, he said, "Get a seal here and a seal hear and run it in the alley".  To be direct, in my entire life, my thinking on the run game has been all upside down.  I completely bought into the Viking passing game fallacy.

Timing is also an issue.  What did Peterson have in the first half during his NFL record setting game.  All those yards came in the second half.  What did Bill Walsh say, "We will use the pass to set up the run".  Like idiots we've played into the hands of our foes.  The first thing we do is slam Peterson into the jaws of a fresh defense, with fresh legs and expend AD's energy, and his tank, to take away AD as a threat.  How many times did we see Chili pull AD off the field in the 3rd & 4th quarter knowing that for all purposes, we were now done for the day.  We act like petulant children.  No, we introduce the pass with a steady diet of Gerhart with a taste of Peterson to keep them honest.  Gerhart, like Riggo or Czonka, is a big back to be used to tire legs to soften defenses.  It is time to ask Peterson, do you have to have it now, now, now or are you willing to wait and win by scorching absolutely everything down to ground level.  Less always begets more.  Let's not forget that that the Buck's were down 17-0, and they went directly to the run game.  Use those tight ends early & often.  Use the pass to set up the run.  Pass on first down.  Don't be afraid of 2nd and ten or 3rd and long early in the game.  Peterson should be used sparingly in the first quarter and the first half of the second quarter.  After that, feed him a steady diet to all those tired legs.  There is no will on earth that can handle this load.             

Jim Taylor (Gehart) was used between the 20's.  Hornung, like Peterson had a knack in tasting the goal line.  It doesn't matter if they know its coming.  They will be powerless to stop it.  You could literally hand them the game plan ... everyone will know what is coming ... no one can stop it.  We are running on every down ... except that one.  

Now imaging Joe Webb with 49 yard passing toting a victory.  Oh! The humanity!  Imagine the interview, "We thought about passing the ball but we wanted to win too much".  Tell me, who could bear that thought!  The ravenous Berserker Nation ... that's who.

For God's sake, use your imagination.  Is it not Raider's mythology, "The long ball is our shtick"!  Reality Check!  Ask a Redskin fan if he remembers a guy named Marcus Allen that turned about and ripped through that defense.  The same happened to us in Super Bowl XI after fumbling on the 1 yard line.  Hello!  What beat the Redskin's on that day wasn't through the air.  For you hunters out there, the heart shot came on the ground.

Before you use the word patient again, you better first put your petulant actions in check.  Wasn't it Nepoleon that lost at Waterloo by throwing he elite corps into the fray rather than to hold it in reserve for the kill.  Stop sacrificing your greatest weapon (Peterson) like a petulant bunch of children.

The Viking Ghost Writer
http://MyVikingBlood.org
Date: September 20, 2011

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