Throughtout this week it has been reported that there has been an ongoing conflict between quarterback Brett Favre and head coach Brad Childress. As reported the conflict exists from Favre calling too many audibles when Childress wants him to stick with the original play call, a power struggle if you will. It has also been reported that in the third quarter of the game against the
Panthers coach Childress wanted to sit Favre due to the fact that Childress believed the quarteback was getting banged up quite a bit. Here is my take on this.

First of all, the fact that Childress wanted to take Favre out when the Vikings were leading 7-6 is difficult to understand. The Vikings were up by one point and in no way in control of the game. This was a very important game. The Vikings needed to win this game in order to take advantage of the Saints loss and keep distance from the Eagles. Did Childress really think that Brett Favre would be ok with this?

Did Childress want to take Favre out because he thought he was taking too many shots and could possibly get injured? If this is true what does this say to Tarvaris Jackson? Maybe it says “Brett is getting beat up out there so I (Brad Childress) want you to play to protect Brett. So grab you helmet Tarvaris and go out there and let them knock you around a little bit!”.

There are a few ways to look at this. Did Childress think that Tarvaris Jackson with his scrambling abilities had a better chance to be successfull? This could possibly be true. Also did Childress believe that he had a better chance with Jackson but maybe told Favre something different in order to avoid conflict? (if this was the case that sure didn’t work out). Childress could have possibly
told Favre that he was worried about his health without revealing what he really believed. Which could have possibly been that Jackson’s style would give us a better chance to win against the Panthers. To me this seems like a more logical explanation. Either way I would be very curious to see how the game against Carolina would have turned out if Tarvaris Jackson did replace Favre.

Secondly, throughout the 2009 football season there have been multiple times that I have seen Favre audible and I was thinking “just run the ball”! Some of the audibles worked and others did not. What we will never know is what was the
original play that was called or if it would have worked? Most likely it was a run. Would Peterson have possibly broke off a big touchdown run? This will never be known.

So now the Vikings at times appear to be an unbalanced team that rely heavily on the pass. Is this the fault of Brett Favre calling too many audibles? Possibly. What we do know is that the offensive line is at fault for some of the unbalance. The lack of big 1st down runs sometimes force passing on 2nd and 3rd down. We also know that when teams like the Cardinals and Panthers shut down the pass offense the Vikings have problems moving the ball. When they are balanced, such as the Bengals game, they are a much better football team and hard to stop. After three years of watching Adrian Peterson it is clear to me that he appears to get stronger with each carry and has the ability to wear down a defense. In my opinion, Peterson should not have anything under 20 carries a game. Maybe Brad Childress has a point?

Paul Gantner