Thread: A pre - game toast

Over the teeth and past the gums,
look out New Orleans, here it comes!

SKOL!

There are so many angles you can take to this game, but I would like to focus on three items:

1. The soft middle of the New Orleans Defense

Much publicity has been given to the Saints edge rushing ability to get to Favre and force mistakes. What is overlooked is how successful Adrian Peterson and Visanthe Shiancoe were in the 2009 NFCC.

The Saints have the studly Vilma as their MLB, but he is surrounded by Scott Shanle, Jo-Lonn Dunbar, Roman Harper, and Malcom Jenkins. The Vikings must expose those four players to be successful.

I think AD will have another field day, hopefully minus the fumbles. If the OL can get him to the second level, he should make mince meat out of the LBs and Safeties. Shank also should see a high number of targets. Otherwise, either Harvin of Camarillo will be the main WR threat across the middle.

2. Vikings Secondary vs. Saints WRs

One of the things that you must give Leslie Frazier credit for is his management of the Viking DBs. It is his specialty, but still very impressive. Things such as moving Winfield into the slot in the nickel defense have worked well. A more applicable change is when Frazier has chosen to put Cedric Griffin on an island against WR2 so that he could bracket WR1 with Winfield and a Safety. The move worked great against Andre Johnson in 2008, and Marques Colston in 2009, among others.

Since Griffin and Cook are both iffy, what will Frazier do now? Does Lito Sheppard still have the stuff to hang with the speedy Devery Henderson? If so, expect the Saints offense to struggle as it did last winter.

3. Don't forget about Shockey and Bush

We all know about the TO's, but two things have killed the Vikings in the past. The first is the uncanny consistency in which average-to-solid TEs breakout against them. I have concluded that its simply a fault of the defense. No defense can take everything away, and we hold the TE low on the priority list. Shockey, while overrated, is still somewhat dangerous.

The second is that damn Punt Return. Bush was shutdown in 2009, but its hard to forget 2008, where Bush was a shoestring away from 3 PR TDs against us. Punt coverage was good in 2009, but it cannot revert to its 2008 form. Not against the Saints.


SKOL

-V-