Spielman: Big Vikings spending spree unlikely

**BBQ Platypus** · 03-08-2009, 12:56 PM

"Ranger" wrote:

What constitutes a serious advance into the playoffs?
A conference title game (which the Cardinals won, making them the NFC Champions, despite you thinking it's shameful that we're worse than the Cardinals)?

What's disturbing about this is that we had more talent at almost every position (except the skill positions).
The Cardinals are not a complete team.
Their Super Bowl run was a fluke - they won't be going back next year.
The fact that they did more with a less-balanced team speaks volumes for how poorly we're playing at QB and how inept our coaching staff is.

Without Peterson, we'd be struggling.
Sure, I'll grant you that.

Without Brady, the Patriots missed the playoffs.
Without Manning, the Colts would miss the playoffs.
Without Warner, the Cardinals would miss the playoffs.
Without Big Ben, the Steelers would miss the playoffs.

Peterson is our franchise offensive player.
He's a guy you build around, and a guy we are building around.
Of course his absence would hurt us in a huge way.

1. The Patriots had a better record than we did.
They missed the playoffs because they were in a competitive division.
Try again.
2. The Colts have one of the best starting QBs in the league - of course it'll affect them if he gets injured - the same is true of ANY team's quarterback.
They still have more talent on the offensive side of the ball even WITHOUT Manning.
Without Manning, they'd have all the same things, only they'd have a backup quarterback under center (which is exactly what we have).
3. I'll acknowledge you're right about the Cardinals.
They have no depth - we SHOULD be better than they are, but we aren't.
But quarterback play and offensive innovation goes a long way.
4. I wouldn't be so sure about attributing all of the Steelers success to Big Ben.
The Steelers win games primarily because of their defense.
Ben's an important part of their offense, sure, but they'd still be a playoff team without him, which is more than I can say for the Vikings without Peterson.

What disturbs me is not that Peterson is a key part of our offensive success, but rather that he's all we have.
Without Peterson putting the fear of God into opposing defenses, we have absolutely NOTHING.

You can't say that we've peaked under Childress for a fact, anyway.
We've improved each year under him.

Our defense has improved.
However, our offense (you know, that thing that Childress is supposedly an expert on) has not improved in any really significant way.
We still can't pass worth a damn.

Regardless of all this, what is irritating me the most is that I can't read an article about anything without a bunch of guys rolling up to beeyatch and moan about something.
We signed a kid to help fix up our special teams coverage units, and somebody rolled in to bash the coach and FO.
I mean...seriously?
SERIOUSLY?
On a special teams role player post?

I know exactly what you mean.
A couple weeks ago, I was every bit as irritated by it as you.
Believe me, I can relate.
However, Chilly is the President Bush of this organization.
Bashing Childress for our many frustrations fulfills a basic human psychological need.
As a result, we tend to see signs of Childress's incompetence EVERYWHERE (even with minor stories that really shouldn't arouse such ire).

The fact that he actually IS at fault for a majority of what's wrong with this team certainly helps fuel the fire.

At one point, I was just as annoyed as you.
However, I've decided to just roll with it now.
You can't hope to stop it anymore than you can hope to stop an avalanche.
It won't be long before he'll be gone anyway.
Then, we can move onto other things.
Worst case scenario, we'll move onto blaming someone else.
I certainly hope not, though.

**jessejames09** · 03-08-2009, 01:00 PM

"BBQ" wrote: