Minnesota Vikings: 5 Things the Vikes Brass Can Learn From This Season
Oh what a difference a short little 15 weeks make.
Coming into this season, the Vikings were expected to make another run at the playoffs, be in a head-to-head battle with Green Bay for the NFC North title and even possibly get another shot at getting to the Super Bowl.
They had the quarterback with the second highest QB rating last year, the running back with the most rushing touchdowns from a year ago, a tremendous deep ball threat wide receiver and a defensive line that racked up sacks like Brett Favre racks up retirements.
Now, they still have all of those players, but the outcome is slightly different. OK, so it's about seven wins different.
That does mean that the season is a loss in terms of success, but it doesn't have to mean that it is a loss altogether, there is still much to be learned from this season.
So, here are the five main things that Minnesota's front office, coaching staff and players can take away from this season.
Don't Overwork Your Star
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There is no question that the next five years of the Minnesota Vikings lies on the legs of Adrian Peterson.
Peterson may need to carry the ball less in the coming years, before injury problems start to pile up.
He has carried the ball over 300 times in each of the previous two seasons, and would have gotten there this year if not for his knee injury that held him out of Monday night's game.
He is 38 carries away from averaging 300 carries a season for his first four seasons in the NFL, which isn't that bad in itself, but when you take Peterson's balls-to-the-wall running style into account, that's a load on his legs.
They realized after the 2008 season that he might need to lighten his load (he ran the ball 362 times that season), so they threw the ball more (Brett Favre may have aided in this decision just a tad) starting in 2009.
With Favre likely retiring for good (He can't possibly come back...can he?), they will need to lean back on the run game to win games, which should mean more of Toby Gerhart, not necessarily more of Peterson.
If they keep running Peterson ragged, he could burn out before we even know what happened.
They Need a Coach the City Will Love
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Many Viking fans in my Rolodex have lamented their bad luck with coaches over the past few seasons.
Mike Tice seemed to be more interested in scalping Super Bowl tickets and ran the team shoddily, and Brad Childress was criticized for his clock management, and sometimes, for his silly trades and play calls.
Tons of Vikings fans hated Childress and Tice while they were still on the team and doing well, not just while the team was struggling.
The fans need a coach they can stand behind—one who commands respect from his players and can whip this team into shape.
Quarterbacks Are Important
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I seriously can't believe that I had to write that.
Early in September, they traded away their backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels to the New York Giants for some late draft picks in the next few years.
Tavaris Jackson is no Sage Rosenfels. Rosenfels was a poised quarterback and one of the best backups in the league, and Tavaris Jackson is looking more and more like a garbage time quarterback.
They need a quarterback who can manage a game well, as Favre did a season ago, in order to get back to the peak that they were at a year ago.
A quarterback who is respected by the rest of the team and can work hard enough to elevate the game play of everyone else on the team would fix this team right up.
This season failed because of their lack of central leadership. Childress was clueless and Favre was distracted by both the Jenn Sterger scandal and the fact that his game was in a decline and he was on the verge of real retirement.
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Good Teams Can Fall Apart...
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By all means, this Vikings team had the makings of a great team, with its good defense and running game, and the only question being whether or not Favre could duplicate last season's heroics.
The defense was nearly as good as it was last season, despite the lack of fanfare. They went from 218.4 passing yards given up a game (19th NFL) to 206.6 per game (10th NFL), gave up only three more points per game and went from second to eighth in the NFL in run defense.
They did not put up the huge sack numbers they did a year ago, so they did not get as much attention, but they were still a top 10 defense.
The problems is there is a difference between being good on paper and being good on the playing field, there are too many things to take into account, and this season it just went the other way.
The NFL is fickle, what happened to the Vikings happens to a team every year it seems, and they were just unlucky enough to get hit with the, "What the hell happened?" bug.
There is a chance that they find the right quarterback, or Tavaris Jackson somehow becomes good, and they make it back to the playoffs in a year.
...So Don't Overreact
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It's very easy to look at the Vikings 5-9 record and think, "This team did not have a good season, they're gonna need a lot to get back to the top."
That may not necessarily be true.
The biggest problem they had this year was mental, and it started with their lack of leadership in the coaching department and quarterback spot.
It is very plausible that the only thing they need is a respectable coach and a smart quarterback to get back into the playoffs.
They have all of the pieces from a playoff run from a year ago that was excellent, they just didn't fit together as well this year.
If they can find a trade or a free agent for a decent veteran quarterback while they look for a young prospect at the same position, this team will stay afloat and be back on top in no time, they just have to be smart about it.
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