Minnesota Vikings: Brett Favre to Randy Moss—Grading the First Quarter

The Minnesota Vikings started the season as Super Bowl hopefuls.

The late arrival of Brett Favre, the later decision for Sidney Rice to have surgery on his injured hip and the even later arrival, or make that return, of Randy Moss, and the Vikings find themselves in the middle of an upside down NFC. 

No team in the NFL is left unbeaten, the first time this has occurred since 1970, and the teams to lead the conference at the first quarter mark are the Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chicago Bears, an unlikely trio of teams with only one loss apiece in the early going.

At the same time, the Super Bowl favorite New Orleans Saints find themselves at 3-2, along with the Green Bay Packers, while the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys, preseason favorites, have gotten off to a terrible start, losing three of four. 

With the NFC North not looking that strong, the Vikings still have a chance to turn things around and defend their division title. 

Here are the Vikings' grades for the first quarter of the season.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly—Vikings Offense

Adrian Peterson's longest career touchdown run.

In 2009, Brett Favre had his greatest season statistically.

The weapons at his disposal included eventual Pro Bowl receiver, Sidney Rice, and AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, Percy Harvin.

Include a career best year for Visanthe Shiancoe, and another 1,000 yard season from Adrian Peterson, who led the league in touchdowns, and it was easy to understand how the Vikings finished with the second highest scoring offense in 2009. 

Minnesota did not lose its second game until Week 13, going 10-2 to start the season.

The 2010 season did not start out nearly as well for Favre and the Vikings, having opened the season with back-to-back losses, and dropping three of the first four.

The Vikings started the season thin at the wide receiver position with the likes of Greg Camarillo, Hank Baskett and Greg Lewis. Bernard Berrian has been nowhere to be found, even forgetting how to return punts.  

With a lack of quality receivers, Favre has already thrown seven interceptions and only five touchdowns. His quarterback rating is only 67.0.

Slowed in the preseason with migraines, Harvin is just starting to show flashes of his rookie season with two touchdown receptions in the Jets game.

The return of Randy Moss, and the downfield passing game, has the potential to pay huge dividends.

While the passing game has suffered, Peterson and the running game look to be doing just fine. 

At the end of last season, many proclaimed Tennessee's Chris Johnson as the best back in the NFL. Something tells me this did not sit well with Peterson and he is running like he has something to prove.

With 480 yards on the season for a 120 yards per game average, Peterson has been the bright spot so far this year.

Grade: At 1-3 the offense gets a D plus

The Purple People Eaters Revisted—Vikings Defense

The Vikings' Defense has picked up right where they left off in 2009.

The Vikings defense has been solid to start the 2010 season. 

In their opening two losses, the defense allowed only 14 points to the Saints and a single touchdown to the Dolphins.

At 16.8 points per game, the Vikings find themselves third in the NFL, and tops the NFC.

The passing defense, which opened the season without corner backs Cedric Griffin and rookie Chris Cook, and will once again be without Griffin who suffered another season-ending knee injury, is currently sixth in the league against the pass, allowing only 185 yards per game. 

The rushing defense, while not as good as last year, was set back after allowing 155 yards rushing and is now yielding 104.2 yards per game.

While the defense has done more than enough to keep Minnesota in each of the first four games, there has been a lack of production in the way of sacks and turnovers. 

Last year after four games, the defense had 15 sacks and eight turnovers, while this season there have been only six sacks and five turnovers.

Grade: The lack of sacks and turnovers brings this down slightly—B

The Not-So Special Teams

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MINNEAPOLIS - JANUARY 17: Bernard Berrian #87 of the Minnesota Vikings runs the ball against the Dallas Cowboys during the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on January 17, 2010 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.The Vikings defeated the

When the Vikings traded Darius Reynaud (along with Sage Rosenfels) to the New York Giants, the question was, who is going to return punts for the Vikings? 

After four games that same question remains. Greg Camarillo has taken over from Bernard Berrian after he muffed two of three returns with a 0.7 yard average. Camarillo has done slightly better with an 8.1 yard average. The Vikings are currently 27th in the league with a 6.1 yards per return average.

Percy Harvin has handled the kickoff returns, and his 23.2 yard average per return matches the Vikings' average for 2009.    

Last season, place kicker Ryan Longwell made 54 of 55 PATs; in 2010, he is four of five. And while he has made all of his field goal attempts, there have only been three so far this year.

Grade: B

Decisions, Decisions—Brad Childress's Lack of Ability To Be Decisive

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NEW ORLEANS - SEPTEMBER 09: Head coach Brad Childress of the Minnesota Vikings reacts late in the second half the New Orleans Saints at Louisiana Superdome on September 9, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

If you were to ask some Vikings fans, some would say there has been too much Adrian Peterson, while others would say not enough.

In the opening game against the New Orleans Saints, it appeared that Brad Childress went away from Peterson who had 13 carries for 57 yards in the first half, and only another six carries for 30 yards in the third quarter and no carries in the fourth.

On the opening drive in the game against the Miami Dolphins, Childress, while in field goal range, decided to go for it on the Miami 26 and ended up turning the ball over on downs. 

Then with 2:21 left in the game with the score 14-10, the Vikings had the ball on the Miami 1-yard line and again went for the touchdown instead of kicking in the field goal.

They would get the ball back with 1:42 left in the game. They would drive to the Miami 27 before failing to convert on a 4th-and-6. 

They were one-for-four in going for it on fourth down in the game, passing on the field goal all four times.

In the fourth quarter of the New York Jets game, the team seemed confused when they scored their second touchdown making the score 15-13. 

The Vikings seemed to take forever to make a decision, then lined up to kick the extra point before calling timeout and then going for two.

What should have been obvious to the entire team, appeared to confuse Childress.

Grade: Because of the lack of a clear strategy and too many errors in decision making—C

Wheeling and Dealing—The Third Time's the Charm

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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - OCTOBER 11: Randy Moss #84 of the Minnesota Vikings catches a 37-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter against Antonio Cromartie #31 and Jim Leonhard #36 of the New York Jets at New Meadowlands Stadium on October 11, 2010 in East

When Sidney Rice decided to have hip surgery in August, there were still approximately two weeks before the start of the regular season.

The first response of the Vikings' front office and Vice President of Player Personnel Rick Spielman was to trade for Greg Camarillo.

Camarillo, who averaged 52.5 receptions in the past two seasons with the Miami Dolphins, has four catches in four games this year.

I guess he still hasn't learned the Vikings' offensive nomenclature well enough to get more plays.

When this didn't appear to be the answer, Minnesota picked up Hank Baskett after the Eagles released him.

Baskett had only five receptions in 12 games last season between the Colts and Eagles.

Clearly neither of these two, nor Greg Lewis, was going to be able to fill in for Rice.

After falling out of the good graces of head coach Bill Belichick, Spielman was able to work a trade to bring back Randy Moss. This is the downfield threat the Vikings were missing without Rice, who averaged 15.8 yards per catch in 2009.

The Vikings still need to find some depth for the offensive line, especially with center John Sullivan  slowed by a calf injury.

The Vikings also find themselves thin in the defensive backfield. After coming back from an ACL injury to his left knee, which he suffered in the NFC Championship game, corner back Cedric Griffin is lost for the season with an ACL injury to his right knee. Second-round pick, Chris Cook is expected to take over the starting role, but the Vikings may need to add some depth. 

Grade: Adding two receivers with little and no impact brings this down—B

Minnesota Vikings—When You Put It All Together!

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HOUSTON - OCTOBER 10: Randy Moss #84 of the Minnesota Vikings celebrates after a touchdown during their game against the Houston Texans on October 10, 2004 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

A slow start by the Vikings could look a lot worse.

When you look at them, the standings in the NFC almost appear to be upside down.

The NFC North is wide open, despite the Chicago Bears' 4-1 record to start the season.

The Green Bay Packers, who a lot of people picked to dethrone the Vikings, are being decimated by injuries. 

Yet for the Vikings, who sent three players on a private jet to persuade Brett Favre to return because he was the linchpin for a Super Bowl run, a 1-3 record does not sit well with the Purple Faithful.

The window of opportunity is closing fast.

Grade: C