I'm a little bit of a (ok, a big) Vikings homer, so allow me to gloat a little about the 19-16 victory against the Redskins. Beating a playoff team on the road to start the year on Monday Night Football is not something I've been able to get used to during the Mike Tice Era, so this was especially great. Even more so because of all the predictions such as Sports Illustrated, which had them at 6-10, or others that picked them last in the NFC North. Anyway, all of my rambling, incoherent thoughts follow... probably more than you'd care to read about the Vikings, but it's my blog and I'll write if I want to!
- How good was the debut of Brad Childress? Beating Joe Gibbs on the road on MNF? With a starting safety suspended? I just can't say enough about how excited I am about Brad Childress being the Vikings head coach... everything looks crisper.
- Brad Johnson just did what he always does. He's efficient with the ball, doesn't make mistakes, and puts the ball where it's supposed to be. He's not very mobile. He doesn't have a rocket arm. But he's smart. And that makes up for the lack of physical skills. 7.4 YPA, 1 TD, and 0 INT. I'll take it.
- Let me say something... it's an absolutely joy to watch Steve Hutchinson block. I never thought I'd say it was a joy to watch someone block, but then I hadn't watched Steve Hutchinson all that closely. He's just a mauler, opening up holes for the RB and not letting his man get anywhere near the QB. He was expensive, but on this night at least, he was worth every penny.
- The Redskins have a very good defense. So to go 9/17 on 3rd down against these guys, well, that's awesome.
- There's definitely room for improvement defensively... they didn't really put much pressure on Brunell and they didn't cause any turnovers... but they held a good offense (preseason stats be darned!) to 16 points and 266 yards. I'll take it for the first week in a new scheme with a new LB corps and a rookie starting in the secondary.
- I was kind of watching the Raiders/Chargers game as I was typing this... and wow, that game was absolutely atrocious. Maybe Aaron Brooks should try holding onto the ball a little longer.
- Did I mention how much I like Brad Childress?
4 comments:
Huge victory in Washington!
I'm glad Childress was able to send a message to the team with Dwight Smith and still get the W. I also have to think that when Smith plays, some of those WRs who were open won't be.
I might be eating my words when it comes to Childress. At the time, I thought it was a bad (baffling) hire, mostly because I thought the "West Coast offense" was largely antiquated, and didn't suit the Vikings' roster very well. But that must be my Detroit bias factoring in, as the WCO never worked here. Of course, the Lions never had a smart QB like Brad Johnson at the controls, either.
Of course, a head coach can have much more of an effect with instituting a system and a sense of organization, and it appears Childress has done a great job of that, and taking control of a team that spiraled out of control under Mike Tice.
In my view one and all should browse on this.
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