Did the Vikings celebrate winning the NFC North a little early? An hour or so before the Vikings were supposed to take the field against the Carolina Panthers the Packers lost to the Steelers giving the Vikings the NFC North title for the second year in a row. Was this a “trap game” as labeled thoughout the week? With the Saints losing the previous night and the Eagles winning earlier in the day the Vikings had everything to play for. The Vikings still had a legitimate opportunity at earning the top seed in the NFC and also needed to win to maintain distance from Philadelphia Eagles. So with everything to play for they lose 26-7 to the 5-8 Carolina Panthers. What happened?

The game looked eerily similar to the Cardinals game a couple of weeks ago, but perhaps worse. Worse in that they could not consistently stop the Carolina rushing attack. Similar in that the secondary looked poor, the rushing game was non-existant, the offensive line did not have an answer for the Carolina pass rush (especially Julius Peppers), and the Vikings did not appear to want to win the game. The Vikings did not look like an 11-2 football team who were hungry to win.

With Deangelo Williams on the sideline it appeared that the Vikings had the advantage against the rush. Unfortunately this was not the case. Poor tackling resulted in the Vikings defense allowing their first 100 yard rusher in over 30 games. Poor tackling was one of several reasons why the Vikings did not win this game.

With Jake Delhomme on the sideline it appeared that the Vikings had the advantage against the pass (well maybe not with the year that he is having). Matt Moore has only had a few starts in the NFL but did a great job at limiting mistakes and finding the open receiver. Moore did not have a spectacular game but did what was necessary to get the win. The lack of a consistent pass rush
by the Vikings resulted in Moore having plenty of time to locate his receivers. Antoine Winfield, who played spectacular last week, was burned on the three biggest Panther pass plays of the game. Two were to Steve Smith, one of which was poor tackling by Winfield after the catch.

The Vikings struggled to rush the ball effectively and protect the quarterback. Peterson or Taylor did not have a great game statistically, but it all starts up front. On a lot of the running plays Peterson was getting hit before he made it to the line of scrimmage. Peterson is a great running back but if he is not getting the blocking up front he will continue to appear ordinary. Against the Cardinals and the Panthers the offensive line got beat up pretty good. Can anyone remember the last game when Peterson rushed for more than 100 yards? But it is not all on Peterson and Taylor.

The offensive line did not protect Favre, similar to the game against the Cardinals. Favre played a decent game but was not given sufficient time to go through his progressions to pass to the open receiver. At first it was thought that Bryant McKinney was hurt when he was not in the game, but it was later learned that he was replaced because he could not stop Julius Peppers. If the
offensive line does not improve the Vikings will continue to struggle.

The last observation, and maybe the most disturbing, is that the Vikings did not appear to be motivated to win the game. They appeared lethargic and unenthusiastic. The Panthers appeared to be the playoff team. This is where Brad Childress must take responsibility for not having his team prepared to play a very important game.

So where do the Vikings go from here? The most important issue at hand is to secure the NFC second seed playoff spot. The Saints will not lose both games so the fantasy of being the NFC top seed ended when the Panthers went up 19-7. The Eagles are one game back of the Vikings and would win the tie-break and the Eagles are the hot team right now. The Vikings should not expect the Eagles to lose any of their remaining games, even playing at Dallas in the last week. If the Vikings win out the second seed is secure. The Vikings will most likely have to win out to secure the second seed. Will the Vikings make the necessary changes and get back to playing good, solid, sound football? If not expect another very early exit from the playoffs, just like last year.

Paul Gantner