RE: Minnesota Vikings: What To Say?

This is a response to another blog.  My first blog, so bear with me.  I'm going to be writing a heck of a lot more.  Stay tuned for more!

I like what you said. I think there's just too much negativity in football today. I think what the caller said about AP was just outright unfair. I believe AP just has that overall impatience. He wants to make the big play, running over the defense, and being the hero. It's one of his weaknesses, and it's something I think we have seen over and over again. He's one of the best NFL running backs, and it's just that this weakness is just something that bites us in the behind time and time again; it's something that we have to deal with. It just so happens it happened at a crucial time. Had it happened earlier, we win- well, then everyone is still content with AP. They still think he's the best. Which brings me to another point...fair weathered fans and how much I think they stink. They need to stop whining and go to sleep, drink their juice, or get a life. PERIOD! I can't say how much it annoys me to see all these fans whom are happy one minute when the Vikings are doing so well, but then jump off the bandwagon once we start struggling or lose. GUYS: REALITY CHECK. No one's perfect, no team's perfect...blah blah blah. We see Jim Caldwell pull the starters and boom...the Colts lose. OH NO! They are no longer perfect, and all the "bandwagon fans" jump right out and start criticizing. These are the same fans who would totally get all up in Caldwell's face had he kept the starters in and any of them gotten hurt. We see how important it is to keep starters healthy.

So, my next point is that no one is perfect, and AP is not far from perfect; he is having an off-year and sure it is very weird. But overall things are very interesting this year. I think we give a lot of credit, as hard as it may be for some of the Non-Childress fans, to Childress himself. It's because he brought in Favre, who we also give credit to, because no doubt he is a 40 year old who SHOULD BE RETIRED. No doubt is he a leader who has brought a lot of composure and energy to MN and this team. We can see that had Childress been content with Favre's retirement plans, we may not be sitting at a 11-4 and possibly/most likely 12-4 record.

When we look at what we need to work on, it's so simple, and it brings us back to what we have been doing so good in the beginning of the season: work on the offensive line some more, work on AP making better decisions for the team (which will overall make his image better by making those decisions, not trying to prove himself more than he needs to), etc. etc. I think that Antoine Winfield doesn't suck; he is having a total off-rest-of-the-season. His foot is not 100% yet, and it's something he needs to just get comfortable with...he's one of our biggest players and he is still definitely one of the top corners. We need to give him more credit than he is currently receiving because obviously he is coming out here, working hard on an injured foot, etc. He had a good game vs. Cinci because of a few possible factors: either his foot hadn't been worked a lot then, his foot just so happened to "magically" feel good then and not now, or E.J. Henderson's disappearance is finally starting to take a toll. Ah, my next point.

E.J. Henderson was just starting to get his game back. He's one of the best, but he definitely had an off couple of weeks. I think his season-ending injury is definitely hurting us. Jasper's great but not excellent; he's a rookie and he's learning. I think someday this kid Brinkley is going to be a great player. He's a rookie making mistakes. So when you have a rookie instead of a pro like E.J. Henderson, obviously it's going to hurt a little. More like OUCH instead of ouch. So Winfield is not totally out of the game; he's just not having a couple good of games and I think he'll figure it out. Once again, if it's his foot, he'll have to work it out, otherwise we could be done.

Another point I'd like to make, after watching tonight's game, is tackling. I feel like we miss too many tackles that we HAVE to make. It's something that kills us. More like absolutely takes away our game-winning style we had earlier in the season. I don't understand why a lot of our players don't just wrap up the players and bring them down. It's something I'll never understand as a fan unless I get out on the field and actually play the game.

My LAST point: I feel we are looking too much at the bad things in life concerning this team. Obviously we see this team has some things to work on. But when we think about it, we should keep in mind that our situation is not as bad as it could be. Ok...so we have had some opportunities that we have let go such as Homefield Advantage. I feel that the Saints losing two really opened up a door that we could have walked right through. We better not let the second seed go, because if we lose and the Eagles lose, we still don't get it. We have homefield advantage this Sunday and it's a big factor in us not losing. These last 3 games we have lost have all been away. Actually it's all of the games we have lost. But we still think about what we can do next week. We can clinch a first round bye, which may or may not suit the Vikings. I feel that some rest for Winfield's foot, some rest for Brett Favre, some rest for AP's supposedly injured leg, etc. etc. could prove good. Well, hell rest could benefit this whole team. But we could also lose rhythm; however I feel that the former is better, though. If Winfield's foot is still nagging, a week off could prove very good for the Pro-Bowl's foot and his play in the game. In closing, we are very lucky to be where we are, and if we just pull together, work on a few things, and get energetic, we could still do some damage and still have a flight down to Miami.