The Vikings get beat 30-17 by a Cardinals team who outplayed the Viking’s in every area of the game. And truth be told, it looked like the Cardinals wanted this game a lot more than the Vikings. Blame can be placed on the Viking’s offense, defense, and special teams. This wasn’t a loss that ended in optimism for the Viking fan. This was a game that left the Viking fan wondering “where do we go from here”? Offense, defense, and special teams left no reason for the Viking fan to be optimistic.
The game started off good for the offense. The Viking’s recover a fumble on the Cardinals first series and put up a touchdown within the first few minutes of the game. Little did we know that this was going to be the best part of the evening for the Viking offense.
The Vikings could not run the ball. Peterson ended the night with 13 carries for 19 yards. The interesting thing about this statistic is that his longest run of the night was for 11 yards. So he basically had 12 carries for 8 yards. Peterson was totally shut out running the ball. Was this the fault of Peterson? Maybe the offensive line? Nevertheless the top rushing team from last year have problems, serious problems.
Favre, without a doubt, played his worse game as a Viking so far. With the Viking’s opening the third quarter down by 11 he threw his first interception of the game. Fortunately the Viking defense held the Cardinals to only a field goal. So with the Viking’s down by 14 points Favre again threw another interception. Both interceptions looked really bad and it was obvious at this point that Favre was confused and uncertain as to what to do. Favre ended the night with two interceptions but could have easily ended up with 4. Favre was 30-45 for 275 yards, with two touchdown and of course the two interceptions. Was the Cardinal defense really that good or did Favre just have a bad second half? Favre had an ok first half and had a great opportunity to tie the game at 14 right before halftime. Unfortunately the Vikings setteld for a field goal and gave the Cardinals plenty of time to score another touchdown before half.
The Viking defense was obviously outplayed by a strong Cardinal offense, especially in the first half. Kurt Warner ended the first half with three touchdowns, two to Anquan Boldin and one to Larry Fitzgerald. The secondary of the Viking’s were weak and a lot of times looked out of place. This coupled with the fact that the Cardinals did not allow a sack. Warner had plenty of time and the Viking defense paid for it. Fitzgerald and Boldin ended the night totaling 15 receptions and 3 touchdowns. The Cardinals have some excellent receivers and a possible Hall of Fame quarterback. Nevertheless, the Viking’s must be concerned about how the defense played.
The 64 yard punt return by Breaston in the first quarter totally changed the momentum of the game. With the Viking’s up 7-0 the momentum was in their hands. The punt return followed by the touchdown pass to Boldin evened things up and perhaps gave the momentum to the Cardinals. This was a concern of the special teams for the Vikings’ last year and continues to be a concern.
So the Minnesota Viking’s go to 10-2. But it is without a doubt a disappointing 10-2 after the Cardinal loss. The two games in which the Vikings lost were against teams, at that time, had winning records. All 10 of the Viking victories were against teams that had losing records. With the poor performance against the Cardinals on Sunday night one must wonder “where do we go from here?”. From the special teams, to the offense and defense, there are areas of concern. This loss against the Cardinals makes next weeks game against the Bengals all that much bigger.
Paul Gantner
