Afterthoughts: Vikings vs. Saints

Talk about seeing 'stranger things happen'... to quote my preview of the game. Such a crazy game that there is so much to talk about this took me awhile. Anyway, on to that Crazyness:

-As everybody probably saw, this was the first game in NFL History with a Blocked FG return for a TD, 2 Punt Returns for TD, a non QB throwing a TD pass, and 2 FGs of over 50 yards(who comes up with this?...).
-CB Antoine Winfields snatch and return of a Blocked FG for a TD was a regular season first time occurence in Viking franchise history.
-Bernard Berrian turned in a career high 110 yards receiving (which was surprising to me, considering we paid him top of the NFL WR money), and was the first Viking to go over 100 yards in the last 35 games (even more surprising).
-The Vikings were the first team in NFL history to lead by 10 points at halftime after being outgained by more than 130 yards in the half.
-Adrian Peterson had the lowest rushing average for an NFL RB with at least 20 carries in a game in six seasons.

If we look at the History of these teams, one could say we should have expected something of this nature in this game, The Vikings had similar victories against the Giants in the past few seasons, having 3 intercceptions returns for touchdowns in a game, a Viking first, and being the first team to have an INT, Punt Return, and Kick Return TD in the same game. They also beat the Saints a few years ago courtesy of a last second 2 pt conversion from Daunte Culpepper, who fumbled the snap on the play. As for the Saints, they've shown a knack for being in weird games as well, and most of the time on the losing end.

Anyway, on to the game:

OFFENSE

After this game I'm a big Gus Frerotte fan, though I always kind of have been (ever since he took over for Culpepper a few years ago and in 2 1/2 games produced 690 yards, 7 TDs and only 2 INTs), that guy has got some big time competitive fire and Cajones to stand in there and deliver some passes when he knew he was going to take a shot from a D-Lineman.

The running game was pretty absent though, which was surprising considering the deficiencies of New Orleans' defense, but winning the turnover battle and scoring when it was needed proved to be enough.

And even though Childress and Bevell actually appeared to show some imagination in having RB Chester Taylor throw a pass on the goal line for a TD, it doesn't really score any points with me as I have seen this play run before (Shiancoe dropped 2 of them last year), and I'm looking for something NEW, like Taylor and Peterson in the same bacfield a LOT more, so much could be done with misdirections and what not with them both. And this also brings me to my evaluation of the Coaching Staff's playcalling. The Breakdown:

Total Offensive Plays(minus pre-snap penalty plays): 67 / 43 passes / 24 runs
1st Down Plays: 26 / 10 passes / 16 runs
Any down and less than 3 yards to go: 5 / 2 passes / 3 runs

I'll cut Childress a miniscule amount of slack for the disparity between total pass and run plays as the Saints were definitely putting all their resources into stopping the run, but what I think these numbers also point out is the still extremely predictable and poor playcalling, as 16 of 24 total team rushing attempts occurred on 1st Down, thats 66% of them, far too much. This also means that on 2nd and 3rd downs, 33 of 41 plays were passes, a whopping 80.5%. If I was a Defensive Coordinator, I'd love playing those odds, and If you ask me, it looked like Gary Gibbs did as well...

I also HATED, absolutely HATED, the 3rd and 3 play where we got the pass interference call that set up the winning FG. That pass never should have been thrown in that situation if you ask me, Childress caught a break with that one. And its not like Gus saw single coverage or something so he decided to take a shot, because Berrian was double covered by a corner and a safety, and I'm pretty sure somewhere in the playbook there is a play designed for a 3rd and short situation such as this where there isn't a go-route involved, I would have been much more confident in completing say a 5 yard out than going for it all with a bomb, but hey, a lot of the plays seemed to finally go the Vikings way in this game, and they got lucky with this one. If I was Childress, I would have bought that corner and the 2 referees who threw the flags dinner, because they may have well preserved his job.

Was very nice to see Bernard Berrian breakout in relation to his history that I pointed out above, 110 yards is good, but not a spectacular career high. He also dropped one 3rd down reception that would have kept a drive going and would have stopped Reggie Bush from returning one of his punts for a TD, at least for a few plays anyway. But it looks like he and Frerotte are developing a good chemistry and this is nothing but good news.

As for Adrian Peterson, I have this feeling that he is trying so hard not to try and break a big play every time he gets the ball, that he has lost some of his Killer Instinct. I say just let it loose man, it seemed to work just fine for you last year, don't waste that natural and uber ability by trying to be something that you're instincts and history say you're not. Just let your natural abilities guide you, and the mojo and big plays will come back. (This is not a knock on AD, just a 'maybe' observation, he's still the man, every RB has a bad game or two, ask LT). The return of Bryant Mckinnie also may have played a part in this as he hasn't played next to his teamates in a game for a long time. And on the plays where I actually decided to watch how Mckinnie looked, I saw nothing but good things, but I also know he had a False Start penalty and probably was part of the reason for a sack or two, but I'm still not as down on this guys play on the field over the last few years as a lot of people are, as I can't think of many Left Tackles in the league that I would want on my team over him, and he'll get back into the groove as he works in practice.

The Good: Gus Frerotte and Bernard Berrian developing chemistry, and 0 turnovers.
The Bad: Strong rushing game disappearing.
The Ugly: Still the playcalling from Childress and Bevell.

DEFENSE

The defense actually gets a pretty good grade from me in this game. They did give up 330 yards passing to Drew Brees, but who hasn't this season? But one thing they did do that nobody else has is force turnovers, and in bunches, getting 2 fumble recoveries and 2 interceptions. Brees also only completed 56.5% of his passes after completing 73% of them this SEASON before this game. Thats a pretty good job of disrupting his comfort zone if you ask me. Fact of the matter is, New Orleans' high powered offense only produced 13 points on its own, and thats a number I'll take every week.

Can't say enough about Antoine Winfields play this year, he deserves all the credit he is getting and to be in the Defensive Player of the Year So Far conversations. He has been a HUGE part of both of the Vikings victories this season, and you could even say he IS the reason. Always loved this guy and thought he has deserved a Pro-Bowl appearance for the last few years, lets hope he gets it finally. Also love the nickname I heard for the first time from I can't remember who on KFAN, 'mighty mouse.' Anyway dude is awesome, I hope someone else can step up like he has with the loss of E.J. in the middle.

The Good: Antoine Winfield and forcing turnovers.
The Bad: Special Teams coverage.
The Ugly: Brad Childress blaiming the punter for Reggie Bush's 2 Punt Return TDs.

The ugly comment here was a very low blow in my opinion. Ya, you may have told him to kick it out of bounds, and he should have, but there are still 10 other guys on those coverage units that have a responsibility to undertake and execute, and that obviously wasn't done either. Don't forget that Chris Kluwe was the best P in the NFL last year in several significant punting categories Chili, this was one bad game, which everybody has, and I still think you deserve more of the blame than the player for not getting your guys to execute properly on something that should be pretty easy for an NFL team to do, and thats cover a punt. Even more disappointed that Brad Childress would resort to this type of under the bus throwing to try and deflect the blame from himself(you did still WIN by the way, you could almost blame him for that as well, seeing as how he gave the Vikings more time with the ball on offense to get the game winning FG because Brees' offense didn't use any for a drive after those...just sayin...), just more proof in my opinion that he is not the right guy to get the Vikings to the playoffs and a Superbowl.

Anyway, not sure If I should make any predictions before games anymore this season as it seems I have some clairvoyant ability to make the exact opposite of what I predict happen, your thoughts on this would be welcome...Very happy the Vikes pulled this one out though as it was a hard-hitting and history making game that was fun to watch.

'Til next time...