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Well fans, I pen these notes from hiding, as I do not wish to encounter any boisterous cheeseheads for a few days.
As if the Vikes didn’t have their hands full slowing down Aaron Rodgers and his wrecking crew of receivers, they blew coverage on the very first punt to give away the first seven points on special teams. The kick was nice and high, not appearing to be any special opportunity for the Pack’s Randall Cobb, when suddenly the right side of the Vikes defense bunched into the middle of the field as if it were pioneering a new type of formation in Indian file. Or maybe they were hiding behind each other so that the coaches couldn’t figure out who was to blame for letting Cobb bounce outside and scamper to the end zone.
After that it was their usual Monday night stink fest. The Pack loaded the line of scrimmage to stop Adrian Peterson, and when the Purple tried to take advantage with the short pass, Christian Ponder was chased off with a blitz that the Vikes were unable to pick up, a consistent weakness of theirs over the years. It is too early to consult the game stats, but I would be surprised if the Vikes QB completed as many as 50% of his passes.
Towards the end of the game he was throwing up floaters, but with as little protection as he had, that should probably be forgiven. Both teams racked up three sacks, but it was the Pack that applied consistent pressure to wreck the Viking offense. More often than not, Rodgers had all night to pick a target, which he never missed. Was somebody saying the Pack had a problem on defense? You wouldn’t have suspected it Monday night.
They have looked better in previous weeks, but the Vikes are still a team which makes way too many mistakes from a seeming lack of concentration at crucial moments. How can you get flagged for motion on a field goal attempt? HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY GO OFFSIDES ON A KICKOFF? (Was it Norm VanBrocklin who told his assembled team that anyone who made that mistake should just keep running out the other end of the stadium and not stop?) The real question is how can the Vikings consistently incur so many penalties? This too has been a problem over the years. Can one bear to be reminded that this team missed a trip to the Super Bowl in 2009 because it lined up 12 men on the field for the winning field goal attempt down New Orleans?
Perhaps they can regroup next week when the Raiders come to town, but the Vikes are once again looking like a bad team with inept coaching.
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