What's Wrong with the Minnesota Vikings? Look No Further Than Brad Clueless

The Minnesota Vikings 2009 season has played out like an emotional rollercoaster. All was fine and dandy when the Vikings shot out to a 10-1 start destroying most teams in their wake, thanks in part to a balanced offensive attack and a fundamentally sound defense.

Neither of those can be considered characteristics of the 2009 Vikings after week 16 and their tough loss to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. Due to weather and the fact that the Bears play better at home than on the road, all Vikings fans knew this was not gonna be an easy game.

Just looking at the past three years in Chicago, it's never easy and always exciting.

In AP's rookie year, the Vikings won 34-31 thanks to AP's incredible day with 361 all-purpose yards and Ryan Longwell's 55 yard game-winning boot. Last year, the Vikings lost a crazy game 48-41 that was the highest scoring game between the Bears and Vikings in their epic history. Then finally this year, the Vikings lost 36-30 in OT after trailing 16-0 at the half and 23-6 midway through the third.

No one said it was gonna be simple, but it would of been a lot simpler if Brad Childress had any sense of a game plan or discipline within his defensive (special teams too on this night).

After telling everyone that the Vikings need to run the ball and get AP going, Childress proceeded to run AP right twice to start the game for -3 yards. Then on 3rd and 13, he continues to display his gutless, conservative nonsense by running a draw with Chester Taylor that gains 11 yards and sets up a punt. This is the same team that Favre threw for 392 yards and 3 TDs against back in week 12.

Actually, it's an even worse team with the injury plagued Bears starting three back-ups in their secondary with Charles "Peanut" Tillman being the only started (he left in the fourth due to a bruised lung).

Throughout the whole first half, we see the unimaginative and predictive play-calling that Vikings fans have gotten use to with Childress. For some reason, this head coach can NOT grasp the concept that the pass can set up the run as opposed to the run ALWAYS setting up the pass.

If you look around the league right now there is one team currently in the playoffs: Saints , Packers , Cowboys , Eagles , Cardinals , Patriots , Colts , Bengals, and Chargers (rest of AFC yet to be determined) that have a running back who is close to the caliber of Adrian Peterson .

Yes, Cedric Benson is having a nice year and Cincinnati is the only exception to the rule with Carson Palmer not playing the best. However, the Vikings did smoke the Bengals and AP is going on his third consecutive year of top-notch football.

Returning back to my previous point because the Bengals are not going to win the Super Bowl. The only difference is these eight playoff bound teams have figured out how to use their great quarterbacks: Brees, Rodgers, Romo, McNabb, Warner, Brady, Manning, and Rivers to establish their running game.

Thanks to the success and mastery of these QBs in the passing attack their teams are figuring out ways to use the run to their advantage when needed. This is what Favre can do with the phenom that is Adrian Peterson.

I believe it will set-up more explosive runs for him and would even look to get Percy Harvin in the running attack as he was a great running back at the University of Florida. May be get creative and allow Percy to trigger the wildcat with AP coming in motion a few more times. It's only a matter of time before one of them would hit paydirt.

Unfortunately for Vikings fans, Brad Clueless has yet to figure this concept out and continues to waste the talent that is Adrian Peterson. You just can't keep running him into eight and nine man fronts over and over and expect to win with a weak offensive line all of a sudden.

A previous strength has become a growing problem. Bryant McKinnie has fallen apart over the last couple games and Steve Hutchinson has been playing hurt most of the season with a shoulder injury though still very well. Center John Sullivan is not Matt Birk. Anthony Herrera is getting run around left and right. Phil Loadholt comes and goes but I have high hopes for him.

I hope that Bryant McKinnie starts to care about how he's been playing and turn it around. He was named to the Pro-Bowl, start playing like one. But until there is evidence of his improvement, McKinnie would be better served as a pass-blocker and run-blocker when the defense is spread with three- or four-receiver sets.

This would subtract the men in the box and allow AP to use that instinct, speed, vision, power and finishing ability on a lot more runs. It's simple math in my opinion. Less men in the box equals more room for AP to run. Favre is capable of getting everybody involved especially Adrian Peterson. He knows how important AP is. We all do.

In the second half of the Vikings-Bears game, all football fans saw what Brett Favre is capable of doing within this offense when given the opportunity to run it completely.

In the second half, Favre got the whole offense in-sync and rhythm while generating running lanes for AP, who gained majority of his yards in the second half, and scored all 30 of their points after laying a goose egg in the first thanks to Childress' conservative game plan.

Childress comes from the pass happy organization that is the Philadelphia Eagles. Now he sits with a dominating offense and won't let a sure first-ballot Hall of Famer in Brett Favre lead it. You picked him up from the airport Brad, and basically gave every Vikings fan hope that Brett was the missing link to a Super Bowl. Through 11 weeks we all believed you and looked at Favre as a major reason for all that success.

Now, you've taken the keys away from the great Brett Favre and put him on probation like a 16-year-old driving for the first year. News flash, Mr. Childress: Brett has been in the NFL for 19 years and has been in the same offensive system that he is in now for majority of his career. He could teach the offense to anyone in his sleep yet you hinder this match made in heaven.

Please Brad Clueless, for the sake of the Vikings' Super Bowl quest and the sanity of their fans, back off and allow Brett Favre to run the offense. You should take more time disciplining a defense that can no longer tackle and a special teams unit that is losing lane responsibility the minute the ball is kicked than worrying about your offense.

Brett Favre has earned the right to make adjustments, audibles and run the offense through his career and play this year. If only the head coach could see what all Vikings' fans see.