The most disappointing aspect of the Vikings loss to the Steelers, in my opinion, was that the deciding play took place after the commentators announced "we'd like to welcome our visitors from the Green Bay-Cleveland game." Sure enough, after that kiss of death, with the Vikings driving, Brett Favre threw a pass that hit running back Chester Taylor in a bad spot (the hands) and was intercepted and returned for the winning touchdown.
Now, I am not going to get negative on Chester Taylor. Taylor could start for quite a few teams in the league and has been great as a backup to Adrian Peterson. He's won more games for the Vikings than he has lost. These things are going to happen.
In addition, I am not going to get negative on the Vikings in general. They showed today that they can play with anybody. If anything, the Vikings killed themselves today with 11 penalties for 78 yards, including one that negated a touchdown that would have put them ahead late in the 4th Quarter.
How the team responds to this loss will say a lot about the 2009 Minnesota Vikings. They face another tough challenge at Green Bay next Sunday afternoon. Something tells me that, for some reason, the Packers fans at the game will be quite fired up. And now, it's going to be even tougher with the news that Antoine Winfield has a broken foot and will miss 4-6 weeks. These are the things, however, that good teams overcome.
Let's hope the Vikings go into Green Bay and "play angry" after losing a game at Pittsburgh that they could have easily won.
Jeff
4 comments:
They weren't going to win every game, but it is nice to know that they CAN win every game.
I think this team is going to get better as the year goes on. They might have played their best game yesterday actually. Teams need to make A PLAY usually to win, and Pittsburgh made two.
I hate that I am about to say this, but if Favre stays healthy (and he is almost up to 300 in a row doing that), the Vikings are going to make the NFC title game.
New Orleans is probably the biggest and maybe only obstacle. Giants are good, but not great. Losing to Arizona is never good. The Vikes will beat the Cardinals by 17.
dave m has spoken
Dave - it will be interesting to see how this team holds up over the long haul. Obviously, Favre and Peterson's health are key.
I would say they are in the hardest part of their schedule right now, although I'm not sure what to think of that "at Arizona, Cincinnati, at Carolina" stretch. For some reason, that gives me bad vibes. But I always have bad Viking vibes.
I'm still perplexed that the play calling inside the 5 yard line is what it is. I'd have to go back and look over the tapes, but it seems like we've settled for field goals 3 or possibly 4 times in the last 2 weeks with the ball first and goal... that's troubling to me.
But Gilby, it's not like the Vikes have a running back that can punch it in from 1 or 2 yards out. You know, run over a linebacker.
Oh wait.....
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