Thread: The "fake" field goal

Ok so I know it completely sucked that we didn't do anything off of it, and I know I probably shouldn't even start with the if's but can you guys imagine how awesome it would have been if we would have gotten a TD off of that?? Frerotte would have been a hero. Oh well they missed it and what can you do? Now they just gotta go out and make some plays.

I think the Vikes should have just gone for it with the real offense. Trickery doesn't outweigh competance most of the time.

Clutch catch by Moss! It can still happen! :-)

They should have gone for the field goal!

And if you were going to go for it, then bring in the offense and really try for it. A trick fake field goal in the playoffs looks stupid, even more so when you can not even run the play correctly!!!!

I guess I'm torn on what to think about that particular play. I think it was a good call (timing wise) for a fake and I like the idea of having Moss out there and really catching them by surprise, but had Moss stayed on the field we would have had 12 men on the field, but that might not have been that bad. If the pass is completed, they accept the penalty, we back up 5 yards and then most likely kick the figgie. On the other hand, I figure that if we are going to go for it, put the damn offense out there and let Daunte work his magic!

Why is it that gol 'darnit comes up whenever you try to type d a m n?

What I don't get is supposedly they had been practicing that play for some time, so why wasn't Moss where he was supposed to be, why didn't he know what was going on?? Is that his mistake or a coaching mistake?

Those trick plays didn't really work at all this year, as soon as they screwed up that play all I could think about was the Russell fake punt and Moss' terrible throw.

"WBLVikeBabe" wrote:

What I don't get is supposedly they had been practicing that play for some time, so why wasn't Moss where he was supposed to be, why didn't he know what was going on?? Is that his mistake or a coaching mistake?

I agree, I heard they had been working on that play for two weeks. Is that how it looked in practice? Man, it was good in theory and probably on paper, but in the game that was pathetic!!

"VKG4LFE" wrote:

"WBLVikeBabe" wrote:

What I don't get is supposedly they had been practicing that play for some time, so why wasn't Moss where he was supposed to be, why didn't he know what was going on?? Is that his mistake or a coaching mistake?

I agree, I heard they had been working on that play for two weeks. Is that how it looked in practice? Man, it was good in theory and probably on paper, but in the game that was pathetic!!

yea it was pretty pathetic, man if only the trick plays we tried this year had worked out, well maye next year!

I think we've had poor communication and dismal special teams for years. We've never been that great at performing various trick plays (except for the occasional first-down conversion types), and I remember a number of times where we have been extremely vulnerable to biting on opponents' trick plays. I don't think our playbook is very creative, and we should have just stuck to what we know. For example, look at how good we've been at converting 3rd and 20+ this year. All those conversions to Nate Burleson and MRobb? The fact remains that we never should have screwed up that badly on downs 1-3 to end up in a 4th and 22 position anyways. And the Eagles weren't gonna bite on that fake FG, Jimmy Johnson runs a tight defensive ship in Philly.

I really don't think the Vikings have been stellar at getting all 11 guys on the field and the coaches on the same page since 1998. Too much of the 'Randy on an island, Daunte on an island" stuff. We still had solid enough squads in 2000 to get to the NFC Championship, but you could see at many points during that season that we weren't working cohesively. So my question is: How does this get fixed?

It has to be at least partally a coaching issue, but this was also happening under Denny Green. Possibly Red McCombs has some sort of negative impact in this regard? He was the owner in 1998, but if memory serves me correctly, he was a lot more hands-off in his approach, and our team facilities, staffs, and equipment (and seemingly morale) have deteriorated since then.

What about losing John Randle? He was inarguably a major leader on the Vikes D, and I seem to remember him being a highly involved mentor for the younger players, making the whole unit step up and focus. Have we even had a significant 'Leader' type on D since he left? There's no question that our Defense loses focus more often thatn not.

I would love to hear some thoughts from you all on whether you agree that our team lacks cohesive focus in general, how this has happened, and how we go about repairing such an overarching but rather untangible problem.