Thread: Vikings won't practice this week

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth

What are your thoughts? I would have like to see us work on pass protection a bit more. The teams we are going to be playing bring pressure( Greenbay, Arz, Cowboys, Eagles).

No no, take the whole week off. Hell, I think they can even take a week and a half off.

Isn't like they haven't had problems getting ready for teams this year.

“It’s not a hard decision at this point in time,” Childress said. “[Based on] where we’re at, the age of our team, our leaders. ... I just think that serves us best. You have to make the bye serve you from a mental standpoint, from a physical standpoint. It’s not going to do us any good to sit and grind on the unknowns of somebody you might not play.”

Seems reasonable to me. After >6 mos of playing together they could use the break and some rest and then they still have three extra days to prepare (considering they will meet next Saturday and usually get Mondays off after a win on Sunday). That's a day or two of working on basics and then preparing for a specific opponent.

It may be a good idea to give the players some off days, but the players could go through game film and scout their own team to see what can be improved. The coaches are not certain whom they will play in two weeks, but they do know that the Vikings will be there.

I suspect the players will have many days off this week but a longer classroom and film week than usual next week.

In his press conference, Childress cited two reasons.

First, the veteran leaders on the team have all been there before, and could benefit from the extra rest and treatment.

Second, the rookies on the team aren't used to playing this deep into the season, and could also benefit from the extra rest.

He also pointed out that the coaching staff is NOT getting the week off, and they resume practice on Sunday. It looks like he is treating this the same way as the bye week in the regular season. And he pointed out that the players could use some time away from each other as well.

Personally, I don't have an opinion one way or another. There are people who say that the week off is the kiss of death, there are those who say that fresh legs after a bye is significant. Honestly, I don't think it makes a huge difference one way or the other.

I like it

On the surface I don't *really* mind it ... but with the problems this team has had recently ... I am against an all out no practice policy.

I would allow all the players to go home until Thursday when I think I would at least want to get the back in so that they can go over film and other things.

We don't really know who we are playing, so we can spend the time just dissecting ourselves and making minor changes and fixing the little problems.

Like I said ... I don't think it is a huge mistake or anything, but I definitely think that we could use some time figuring out the small things.

This is a dumb move. We will lose because our team will be soft and unprepared.

C Mac D wrote:

This is a dumb move. We will lose because our team will be soft and unprepared.

Yes, they were too soft in camp, not ready to play when the season started. The QB didn't come until after the preseason was well under way and missed the whole camp....I think I heard that somewhere before.

Prophet wrote:

C Mac D wrote:

This is a dumb move. We will lose because our team will be soft and unprepared.

Yes, they were too soft in camp, not ready to play when the season started. The QB didn't come until after the preseason was well under way and missed the whole camp....I think I heard that somewhere before.

We win two of our last 5 games and now we get a week off?