It was obvious the Minnesota Vikings took the momentum into halftime. Antoine Winfield 
had just scored a touchdown off of a sack on Jake Delhomme in which he forced the fumble and then recovered it and danced into the endzone all in one play to tie the ball game at 10-10. It was the 14th touchdown by the opportunistic Minnesota defense since 2006 (most in the NFL in that time span).
The second half belonged to the Vikings. When I left I said Minnesota was going to get the ball. I said they needed to start getting Peterson more involved. And I talked about how they needed to get the ball into the endzone on the offensive side.
Well that's exactly what they did on their opening possession. They marched 80 yards in 5 plays on a drive that was jump-started by a Gus Frerotte deep ball to Bernard Berrian (a former Chicago Bear- more on them later) for a gain of 48 yards on 3rd and 7. 2 plays later Frerotte hit the much-maligned tight end Visanthe Shiancoe on a crossing route and he walked into the endzone from 34 yards out for Minnesota's first offensive touchdown since midway through the fourth quarter of the Green Bay game.
A Ryan Longwell field goal in the fourth quarter added insurance to the lead to give the Vikings a 20-10 cushion which would hold to be the final. However, what was troubling about that drive is that Minnesota had the ball inside the 10 knocking on the door for another TD when back-to-back penalities crushed the drive. Chestor Taylor caught a touchdown pass from 13 yards out, but that was nullified. Carolina even helped out by getting an illegal contact penalty which gave Minnesota a first down, but the Vikes couldn't muster anything and settled for the trusty right leg of Longwell.
What was good about that drive is the amount of clock the Vikings chewed up. A drive that started at the 5:41 mark in the third culminated in a 19-play, 75-yard drive that ended with 9:11 to go in the fourth quarter. Minnesota had taken all the wind out of the Panthers' sails with that drive.
Once the Vikings had the lead the coaches turned the defense loose. It was refreshing to finally see Minnesota's defense be able to pin their ears back for a change, whereas I've been accustomed to opposing teams doing that to Minnesota and making our line and QBs look silly trying to frantically stop or avoid the pass rush.
Delhomme was sacked three times in the 2nd half ( five total) and twice in the 4th quarter. He also lost 2 fumbles on the game one being the critical forced fumble by Winfield that was returned for the game-tying score.
The Vikings had knocked off the previously unbeaten Panthers (2-1) to get their first win of the season (1-2).
Gus Frerotte went 16-of-28 for 204 yards with a touchdown and an interception in his first start of the season. Adrian Peterson looked a little banged up at times and you could tell there might hae been some hesitance due to the hamstring injury he was nursing earlier in the week, but he finished with 17 carries for 77 yards. Chestor Taylor added 44 yards in relief. Bernard Berrian led the Vikings in receiving with 3 catches for 79 yards and E.J. Henderson recorded 12 tackles to lead all defenders.
A few notes from the game:
- The Vikings may have surprised even Carolina by coming out aggressive and pass-happy to start the game. They used the pass to set up the run and it started to work in the second half. Minnesota showed that it wasn't afraid to go down field and by actually completing some of those Carolina had to show some respect. I doubt it will be a continuing trend as Minnesota will always be a run-oriented team, but it sure was a nice change of pace once I saw the way things came together for the offense.
- Frerotte had a solid outing. I was actually kind of impressed by his performance. I expected him to do just enough and let Adrian Peterson lead the team to victory, but it was Frerotte's accuracy and reading ability that was key for Minnesota on Sunday that was the main part of Minnesota's offensive success.
Frerotte is not the quarterback of the future by any means, but the Vikings want to win now and if Head Coach Brad Childress sees that the 37-year old Frerotte gives this team the best chance to win then I'll go with that. What is it with ageless quarterbacks nowadays?
- The defense is coming around. Finally a complete game by the defense. This is what you're gonna get when you have an offense that doesn't sputter and leave the defense out to dry when they take the field again, or in some cases seem like they never left. Minnesota held Carolina to just 204 yards of total offense and just 47 yards rushing. It was the second game the Vikings haven't allowed an opponent to rush for more than 50 yards- they held Indianapolis to just 25.
Green Bay as a team rushed for 139, but the Vikings have not allowed an individual 100-yard rusher yet this season. The prolific Carolina combo of DeAngelo Williams and rookie sensation Jonathon Stewart were held in check rushing for 27 and 15 yards respectively on Sunday.
- The offense needs to stop shooting themselves in the foot. Dear lord this game wouldn't have been as close as it was if Minnesota would've limited the uncharacteristic penalties on the line. Too many drives were killed because of them including the last scoring drive that resulted in a field goal, but should've been a touchdown. The play calling was better this week, so I'll lay off them for now, but hopefully we'll see more of what we got this week against Carolina in the weeks to come. Maybe not so much the pass, but just more creativity and variety instead of run three times and punt or pass three times and punt. But back to what I said earlier, they need to get those penalties out of their system now so it doesn't end up continuously costing them down the road.
The other thing is: Find a way to involve Chestor Taylor. This has become a common topic among sports fans interested in the Vikings. Peterson is the stronger of the two, but Taylor has an elusiveness about him that forces defenses to think differently when he's in there. He can also catch well out of the backfield and make defenders miss, and it's definitely not like he lacks game-breaking speed. After all he holds the franchise record for longest run from scrimmage at 95 yards. The Vikings use him on special teams, but if they can find a way to utilize him more on offense it might be even more benificial to them and could give them one more weapon defenses must worry about. It might also take some pressure off of Peterson to perform every single play.
The Vikings head to Nashville next Sunday to take on the Tennessee Titans, who could again be without Vince Young at quarterback. A win on the road would move Minnesota back to .500 early in the 2008 season. The Vikings can do it. They just need to keep executing like they did on Sunday against the Panthers.
Hawkeyes at the Metrodome- Chad Greenway had another solid performance with nine tackles and a sack against Carolina. Greenway now has 23 tackles on the year (tied for 21st best in the NFL). The former Hawk who surprised me, though, was rookie Charles Godfrey. Godfrey has worked his way up through the ranks after signing on as an undrafted rookie and has earned himself a starting position for the Panthers at cornerback. Godfrey had six tackles and a sack and was all over the place yesterday. It looks like another Hawkeye has a solid career ahead of him in the NFL.
had just scored a touchdown off of a sack on Jake Delhomme in which he forced the fumble and then recovered it and danced into the endzone all in one play to tie the ball game at 10-10. It was the 14th touchdown by the opportunistic Minnesota defense since 2006 (most in the NFL in that time span).The second half belonged to the Vikings. When I left I said Minnesota was going to get the ball. I said they needed to start getting Peterson more involved. And I talked about how they needed to get the ball into the endzone on the offensive side.
Well that's exactly what they did on their opening possession. They marched 80 yards in 5 plays on a drive that was jump-started by a Gus Frerotte deep ball to Bernard Berrian (a former Chicago Bear- more on them later) for a gain of 48 yards on 3rd and 7. 2 plays later Frerotte hit the much-maligned tight end Visanthe Shiancoe on a crossing route and he walked into the endzone from 34 yards out for Minnesota's first offensive touchdown since midway through the fourth quarter of the Green Bay game.
A Ryan Longwell field goal in the fourth quarter added insurance to the lead to give the Vikings a 20-10 cushion which would hold to be the final. However, what was troubling about that drive is that Minnesota had the ball inside the 10 knocking on the door for another TD when back-to-back penalities crushed the drive. Chestor Taylor caught a touchdown pass from 13 yards out, but that was nullified. Carolina even helped out by getting an illegal contact penalty which gave Minnesota a first down, but the Vikes couldn't muster anything and settled for the trusty right leg of Longwell.
What was good about that drive is the amount of clock the Vikings chewed up. A drive that started at the 5:41 mark in the third culminated in a 19-play, 75-yard drive that ended with 9:11 to go in the fourth quarter. Minnesota had taken all the wind out of the Panthers' sails with that drive.
Once the Vikings had the lead the coaches turned the defense loose. It was refreshing to finally see Minnesota's defense be able to pin their ears back for a change, whereas I've been accustomed to opposing teams doing that to Minnesota and making our line and QBs look silly trying to frantically stop or avoid the pass rush.
Delhomme was sacked three times in the 2nd half ( five total) and twice in the 4th quarter. He also lost 2 fumbles on the game one being the critical forced fumble by Winfield that was returned for the game-tying score.
The Vikings had knocked off the previously unbeaten Panthers (2-1) to get their first win of the season (1-2).
Gus Frerotte went 16-of-28 for 204 yards with a touchdown and an interception in his first start of the season. Adrian Peterson looked a little banged up at times and you could tell there might hae been some hesitance due to the hamstring injury he was nursing earlier in the week, but he finished with 17 carries for 77 yards. Chestor Taylor added 44 yards in relief. Bernard Berrian led the Vikings in receiving with 3 catches for 79 yards and E.J. Henderson recorded 12 tackles to lead all defenders.
A few notes from the game:
- The Vikings may have surprised even Carolina by coming out aggressive and pass-happy to start the game. They used the pass to set up the run and it started to work in the second half. Minnesota showed that it wasn't afraid to go down field and by actually completing some of those Carolina had to show some respect. I doubt it will be a continuing trend as Minnesota will always be a run-oriented team, but it sure was a nice change of pace once I saw the way things came together for the offense.
- Frerotte had a solid outing. I was actually kind of impressed by his performance. I expected him to do just enough and let Adrian Peterson lead the team to victory, but it was Frerotte's accuracy and reading ability that was key for Minnesota on Sunday that was the main part of Minnesota's offensive success.
Frerotte is not the quarterback of the future by any means, but the Vikings want to win now and if Head Coach Brad Childress sees that the 37-year old Frerotte gives this team the best chance to win then I'll go with that. What is it with ageless quarterbacks nowadays?
- The defense is coming around. Finally a complete game by the defense. This is what you're gonna get when you have an offense that doesn't sputter and leave the defense out to dry when they take the field again, or in some cases seem like they never left. Minnesota held Carolina to just 204 yards of total offense and just 47 yards rushing. It was the second game the Vikings haven't allowed an opponent to rush for more than 50 yards- they held Indianapolis to just 25.
Green Bay as a team rushed for 139, but the Vikings have not allowed an individual 100-yard rusher yet this season. The prolific Carolina combo of DeAngelo Williams and rookie sensation Jonathon Stewart were held in check rushing for 27 and 15 yards respectively on Sunday.
- The offense needs to stop shooting themselves in the foot. Dear lord this game wouldn't have been as close as it was if Minnesota would've limited the uncharacteristic penalties on the line. Too many drives were killed because of them including the last scoring drive that resulted in a field goal, but should've been a touchdown. The play calling was better this week, so I'll lay off them for now, but hopefully we'll see more of what we got this week against Carolina in the weeks to come. Maybe not so much the pass, but just more creativity and variety instead of run three times and punt or pass three times and punt. But back to what I said earlier, they need to get those penalties out of their system now so it doesn't end up continuously costing them down the road.
The other thing is: Find a way to involve Chestor Taylor. This has become a common topic among sports fans interested in the Vikings. Peterson is the stronger of the two, but Taylor has an elusiveness about him that forces defenses to think differently when he's in there. He can also catch well out of the backfield and make defenders miss, and it's definitely not like he lacks game-breaking speed. After all he holds the franchise record for longest run from scrimmage at 95 yards. The Vikings use him on special teams, but if they can find a way to utilize him more on offense it might be even more benificial to them and could give them one more weapon defenses must worry about. It might also take some pressure off of Peterson to perform every single play.
The Vikings head to Nashville next Sunday to take on the Tennessee Titans, who could again be without Vince Young at quarterback. A win on the road would move Minnesota back to .500 early in the 2008 season. The Vikings can do it. They just need to keep executing like they did on Sunday against the Panthers.
Hawkeyes at the Metrodome- Chad Greenway had another solid performance with nine tackles and a sack against Carolina. Greenway now has 23 tackles on the year (tied for 21st best in the NFL). The former Hawk who surprised me, though, was rookie Charles Godfrey. Godfrey has worked his way up through the ranks after signing on as an undrafted rookie and has earned himself a starting position for the Panthers at cornerback. Godfrey had six tackles and a sack and was all over the place yesterday. It looks like another Hawkeye has a solid career ahead of him in the NFL.
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