Vikings Rant #1

Since my partner in crime has brought up sports (well cockfighting is not really a sport, more like a hobby) it is time for my post-Vikings season rant.

I am a Viking fan and have been since the 70’s and the purple people eaters. It meshes nicely with my affiliation with UGA and Terry Bradshaw’s magnificent run as Vikings QB.

Mike Tice has to be one of the most idiotic coaches that can win games in the NFL. Having watched the majority of the games this year his choices of when to throw the red hankie is appalling. In one of the games near the end of the season he threw the flag for a ball spot after failing to get the first down. While this might be a good move if he went for it on a fourth down and it was a crappy spot, it is completely and utterly idiotic to throw the hankie when the resulting play gives you 3^rd and maybe a foot. Hey dumb ass, we have a 260 lb QB that can get a foot on a sneak at any time not to mention a bunch or quality RBs and an excellent O-line. Why waste a time-out (the play stood since no ref is going to move the ball a couple of inches on a replay) and a challenge? Then in the Eagles game early in the season he wasted his flags on plays that didn’t matter and had none left to challenge TO’s TD catch in the 4^th, in which he was clearly out of bounds on replay, costing the Vikes a shot at the game.

Then there is Tice’s inability to pick a RB and stick with him. Sure there were some problems with RB in the beginning of the season, Bennet wasn’t fully recovered, Smith and his drug suspension, and Moore got a shin bruise or something, but at the end of the season if you didn’t rip off a 20 yard carry in your first 4 attempts he switched to a different RB. Everyone knows that the more a RB plays in a game the more likely he is to break off a couple of good runs and start dominating. Did he forget that last year the Vikes were the top rushing team in the NFL?

I understand why McCombs (I will rant on cheap-ass owners at a later date) is sticking with him since he is one of the cheapest head coaches in the NFL (there are many assistants that made more than Tice last year) and he has shown that he won’t totally ruin your team, but the Vikes should be better than this. They have one of the top offenses in the NFL and play in a pretty crappy division. Sure their D isn’t that great, but what do you expect when you play vanilla, your players are constantly out of position (great coaching) and never run the ball. The Vikes should have won at least 10 games this year, but more like 11 or 12.

To top it all off the Vikings beat GB in the playoffs. Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing the Vikes beat GB, but the victory assured Tice of another season of moronic calls and poor coaching. This guy reminds me so much of Ditka, without the charming personality. He's even got the same draft acumen that Ditka showed in NO.

This rant will continue with analysis of both the offense and defense since this post is already too long.