The Vikings need a star

As I watched in horror during the interception in the Miami game, the radio announcer said that no Viking other than Brad Johnson was running after the Miami player jogging toward the end zone. Has it already reached this level of despair? Is this a team that has no heart (other than Antoine Winfield's)?. But what about the leaders like Brad Johnson and Brad Childress?

Brad Johnson was running down the field. Further, in his career, Brad Johnson has led numerous 4th quarter comeback victories, including for the Vikes. There's no question that he never gives up.

Brad Childress is a coach with a good resume. I generally like the moves he makes, even if I don't like the results. That said, he seems to lack for passion. Maybe Brad Childress needs to see Dr. Phil and get some fire. I know though that is BS. Childress isn't out there on the field. Bud Grant was not an arm waver. It was rare to detect any emotion from him at all as he stood on the sideline.

I was watching NBC's dull highlight show. They interviewed Philip Rivers from the Chargers. He was talking about their 49-41 come-from-behind win over the Bengals.
He said that to overcome those odds and come back to win, you need a team that believes in each other. The Chargers have all been through hell with one another now. They're more of a team now than a collection of indiividuals. They are forged in the heat of battle.
The Chargers got that way through good leadership (which the Vikings now have) and big plays by stars on offense (which the Vikings do not have).

So look at the Vikings roster, especially on offense. Who are the playmakers, the difference makers? Chester Taylor is a good NFL running back. He's not Robert Smith, but he gets the job done and Chester is a warrior and runs with all he's got. Troy Williamson has the athletic talent to be a top-5 wide receiver, but he makes mental mistakes, drops passes, and seems distracted. Does he need a confidence boost? Mewelde Moore and McMullen can't seem to get on the field despite their electrifying play.

Where are the stars? We don't have a Cris Carter or a you-know-who anymore. We don't have Robert Smith or Anthony Carter or Ahmad Rashad.

The elite NFL teams all have stars on offense (Tomlinson, P Manning, Steve McNair, Tom Brady, and Tatum Bell).

Don't get me wrong. The Vikings have a lot of talent. While Brad Johnson won't be starting for the Vikes next year, even he is still effective as long the offensive line gives him 3 seconds and a throwing lane.

I think the problem is the Vikings don't key on a single WR enough in a game. Today, Travis Taylor got hot. Then they stopped throwing it to him. They didn't throw it to him deep. I wonder what Travis Taylor was thinking in the 4th quarter. Probably "Why don't they throw me the ball?"

It's the hot hand theory. Pick a WR or TE or RB with the hot hand and keep giving them the ball. If that doesn't work, switch to the next guy. Eventually one of these guys will step up and make the big plays. That guy will be the star. The guy the Vikings go to when they need it bad.

Before any of this works though, the offensive line has to get better. I think McKinnie needs to be spelled during games. He's just too big. He gets winded and DE's jog by him on their way to the QB. That and Marcus Johnson keeps forgetting how to block. How about shaking up the OL?

In short, the Vikings have a lot of talent. Just keep fighting and make minor adjustments.

Go Vikings!

STAY THE COURSE!!!


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If we stay the course with only minor adjustments we lose out, i'ld rather not.[/size]

BC needs a Mark Grace Slump-Buster...

peace...

"Gift" wrote:

Quote:

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STAY THE COURSE!!!


[size=2pt]
If we stay the course with only minor adjustments we lose out, i'ld rather not.[/size]

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Haha....any chance Rumsfeld wrote this?

We need to make Tarvaris into our new star...starting next week!

scratch that.
we need a play maker.
the star shite comes after you make the plays.

IMO we are 3 steps away from being a playoff contender.

1. We need a gamebreaking quarterback. We need a quarterback who takes risks with large rewards. A quarterback that can open up the vertical passing game and make the offense more mobile.

2. We need a star wide receiver and a solid receiving corps. Out of our current Wide Receivers the only one's worth keeping are Marcus Robinson and maybe Bethel Johnson for his kick returning ability. Dwayne Jarrett should be around when we pick if we keep playing the way we are playing. Drew bennett is also available in free agency this offseason.

3. We need to finish off the offensive line with a solid right side. The left is pretty much complete. Although they are underachieving, i think they would play even better as a unit if they had a solid right side as well.

3 steps, all on offense and we are a legit super bowl contender. Can we make these moves this offseason? Hopefully. Tarvaris is right there and will likely be the starter next year. As mentioned before Jarrett is a good option and so is Bennett. The offensive line talent pool is decent this offseason but no huge stars.


For now there is no way to fix our problem other than start Tarvaris early. We may ruin him that way which is the underlying dilemma...

/beings praying for brady quinn

Purple People Eater, I would agree that those three steps would make us a PLAYOFF contender but to get to the Super bowl we still need some help on the defensive side of the ball. Specifically a stud linebacker with speed. I do not think Greenway is that guy. I think Chad Greenway will be a good linebacker but does not have the speed to be great. Trying to fill all these gaps in one year would be difficult but not impossible. We would have to "hit" on every draft pick and FA pick-up.

we outta get calvin johnson next year with prob the 6th pick when we finish 6-10. then pick up a good veteran complementary reciever like a bobby engram, darrell jackson, or patrick crayton.we need to get rid of marcus robinson , our RB and FB are fine for the next few years but the vikes should try to draft a more modern, athletic TE . it seems like noone has anyone ever thought of that, our TE's are garbage. And finally we just gotta hope tarvaris jackson is the real deal and if he is we could develop an explosive offense once again. Then hopefully brad childress wont be stupid enough to dink and dunk the entire game with 4 yard passes.