Vikings' midseason grades: So Favre, so good

To give the defensive secondary a grade of B is ridiculous. Yes they have played OK for most of a game in most of the games, but when they break down it's like they're not even there. How many times have we seen a receiver make a catch with no defender within 10yds. The Viking secondary is one of the worst in the league. Antoine Winfield is their best man. He's great tackler but not a great cover guy. Opposing teams know they can get completions against him but they don't go far after catch it. The rest of the DBs don't cover well and they are poor tacklers. The Vikings rank 21st in the league in pass defense. Giving the defensive secondary a B is way more than generous.

Buuuuuuuuuutpacker fans? Where aaaaaaare you???

Just when I put a little trust in the Packers to win I pick them in my pool and here they go and crap their pants against the Bucs.

Someone on here said the Vikings haven't beat anybody yet this year. Well, they beat the Packers twice and now they are a nobody team so, I guess they're right.

S-U-C-K on it long and hard Packer backers. Now go away and stop embarrassing yourselves here.

MY APOLOGIES TO PACKER FANS

On behalf of my team, and your X-QB I would like to apologize for demoralizing your Packers to the point of losing to the lowly Bucs. It was not our intention to completely demoralize and discombobulate your team to the point of.....never mind...SKOL VIKINGS. Packers fans? Back to your own Paper.

I'm so used to packer fans hanging around-I kinda miss 'em-NOT

Too many A's not yet!! Wait to see if they can pull off a couple playoff games.

Nice job, Pukers. Another airball for Gay Bay (I watched the game with my buddies - it was a blast. We've never laughed so loud and so much. Good stuff, Pukes. Hey, not long ago, we had a girl-hater named ranks666 on this blog. And another boy-lover named *Big John From Wisconsin*. The first s-bag chump claimed he was taking over this website (and the Star Trib). Where are you now, gay boy? I'll be at the Dallas game (at Lambow), gay boy. I'd love to meet you and talk some football. Let us know where you'll be and when...

Here's some more grades after today: Packers F for losing to the Yuccaneers. Bears F for getting pummeled by the Cards. More distance from the NFC North leading Purple. Skol Vikings.

Hmmm, let's review the records currently of the teams we have beaten.
Browns 1-7
Lions 1-7
49ers 3-5
Packers 4-4 (2-1 when played)
Rams 1-7
Ravens 4-4 (3-2 when played)
Steelers 5-2 (Except this was a loss)
Packers 4-4 (4-2 when played)
All teams beaten so far are a 500 team or less as of now. Some however, were above 500 when played. I guess that doesn't say a whole lot for us to brag about, but it proves that we can't get overconfident. But it does seem like a lot of teams out there are not doing so well this year.
Bears are also 4-4.. We also have a lot of teams to play yet that are 500 or less. I imagine that we'll easily take the division, but the tougher teams will come when the playoffs arrive. Let's hope we're prepared.

And you can't complain about this.. Sunday and the Vikings are on their bye week while the Packers, Bears, & Lions all lose. Nothing like increase the game to ensure we take the division.

Upcoming games where teams have winning records as of now.
Cardinals 5-3
Bengals 6-2
Giants 5-4 (4 straight losses?? ouch!)

I think worst case scenario we go 12-4...
But out of those 3 games, the Bengals sort of scare me the most, followed by the Cardinals.
But there can always be upsets (Packers proved that today)

I do like that the harder games are a little bit later in the season to prep us better for playoffs. But if we win 1/2 of those 3 above.. We can hopefully get a 1st round bye..

I see this team going to the NFC championship, but that is where that NFC championship game will probably be tough regardless.

I'll actually be rooting for the Packers next week when they face the Cowboys...come on Pack put it together for one game and pray for a few bounces and give us some space for that first round bye. If you Packers hate the Vikings so much you should just throw the game...thats the only way you can get to the Vikings. So if you play normal you hurt us.

Does anyone know if winfield is playing this week against the lions?

Nice points Jerami - I was kind of thinking the same things as I was watching games being played on Sunday. I was hoping to see some of the better teams go down against the mediocre teams (anything that helps the Vikings in the end). Hopefully the Packers can be the Cowboys, which I really think it may be possible considering how the Pack had such a devistating loss that must be embarassing.
With the Packers showing themselves to be a 500 team at the moment, it only proves that our wins against them to have less creidibility at the moment.

b love- With two relatively easy games coming up, I would say if he's not 100% healthy, why not rest him, or give him limited play time.-- We have done good w/o him at the moment, so let's save his health to ensure he'll be there when we need it. But I think he'll be back. I'm waiting to see the injury reports to see how he's marked.

The secondary and coaching grades were a little inflated.
Cedric Griffin and Tyrell Johnson are both terrible and show no signs of improving.
The offensive play calling has shown me a disturbing trend that will come back to bite them against better teams later in the season. Have you noticed how many times they get into the red zone and don't make a single try at the end zone? Settling for field goals makes for an easy way to lose a playoff game.

If the Vikings can correct those fourth quarter defensive letdowns, they will win the NFC.
The also need to avoid major injuries to key players, i.e., Favre, Peterson, Allen and Harvin, but really the Vikings in some respects seem to be a team of destiny this year. It really has been a magical season. Farve and away this is a Super team!

I have been a little concerned when I looked at Favre's sacks from his year with the Jets & his last year with the Packers.
2007 - He had a total of about 16
2008 - He had a total of about 30
2009 - So far this year, has had about 18.
(the two GB games, he didn't get sacked at all)
His interceptions however, are greatly reduced when compared to 07 & 08.

So I think the Offensive line still has a little bit of work to do with some room for improvement.
I know I've seen plays where Favre has had forever to hold onto the ball, but there have been plays where he's had to release quickly.

With the majority of his pass plays being within the 1-10 yard range, that also decreases the chances of picks. But I do feel we need to air that ball out from time to time just a little more often so those shorter 1-10 yard pass dumps will work better. This will also maybe help open up some holes for the run.

I think play-calling offensively, we need to keep attempting to put points on the board even when the scoreboard shows us in complete favor to win the game. I think we've given the defense enough times of practicing a fear of a comeback/loss.

Our secondary is not all that great, but, I don't see any real easy suggestions on fixing the issue except maybe they spend more time reviewing tapes for game preperation & incorporate into their practice better.

Harvin has showed to be a great addition & I'm loving watching him make great plays.

I feel bad for AP in a sense, since it seems he doesn't get many rush attempts as normal, but he's still getting a lot of yards.-- I want to see him have a tremendous game or two this year. Well past 100 yards rushing with maybe a few breakaways for a touchdown.

Favre has a lot of great receivers to pass too; Rice, Harvin, Shiancoe, Peterson, Taylors, and sometimes Berrian.-- I like how he doesn't really seem to show that he favors any in particular, but if I had to say he does.. I would go with Rice at the moment.. Spreading the ball arounds helps keep pressure off of certain receivers.

The 2nd 1/2 of the season will be exciting, but it just doesn't seem like we'll be challenged against any real hard teams to prep us for playoffs. I hope that is something we take into consideration when the time comes.

I believe it'll be a nice season for the Vikings, but I'm still sketchy with the playoffs. I predict the season to go 14-2 or 13-3.. Hopefully we get a 1st round bye playoffs with ease. Only have to win 2 games to make the big bowl than.

b love wrote:

Does anyone know if winfield is playing this week against the lions?

He practised today, but is not listed yet. Personally, I'd like to see him sit out longer than shorter to decrease the chance of getting re-injured....

I'm looking for some Packer or Bear fans. Anybody seen them?? Geez, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting one of them a few weeks back in this forum!... Where the hell they all go?? Why won't they come out and play anymore?.. Maybe cause their teams won't?? hmmm. I miss em.

Anyway.. Good grades. We could nitpick it to death but the bottom line is this: No team in the NFL wants to have to play the Vikings. and from what I saw of the Saints this weekend, and last week for that matter, I see the Vikes as the stronger team.. given that they play all 4 quarters from now on. If you look at our strength of schedule versus theirs, we could end up with home field throughout. No time to get soft. Get well AW!!