Correct optimism or a blurred picture?

After seeing the Vikings defense give a great effort against the Jets tonight, you'd get the feeling that they may be ready to take the next step and challenge the Chicago Bears for the NFC North division. Yet we get sidetracked and have to remember "This is just the pre-season." The Vikes will unlikely have 3 defensive touchdowns in one game (much less two) every game, but this defense and running game is showing that is capable of challenging in the NFC.

As I had mentioned before, the pass rush is and still remains a question mark and it's now obvious that Brian Robison and Ray Edwards need to be the starters. Robison has that burst of athleticism that this unit hasn't seen from the edge in quite a long time. The part that seems surprising to me is the effectiveness that the Jets were able to run the ball during the 1st half and has me questioning the overall depth of the defensive tackle rotation. Although non-football related and a bit of a mess from a PR standpoint, you can't help but be intrigued by the tenacity it took officers to arrest the latest addition of the Minnesota Vikings

With the majority of the scoring being handled by the offense tonight, it's still tough to figure out what to make of this Viking offense. We have yet to see Tarvaris Jackson throw a deep ball and signals to me that Brad Childress may be hiding his lack of accuracy on deep throws to prevent defenses from overloading the box until he improves. Reading too much into it? Possibly, considering the West Coast offense is predicated on short passing, yet that didn't stop Bollinger from nearly having a deep ball picked off on his first drive.

I'm beginning to change my opinion on how I feel about Bollinger. And this is where the pre-season becomes difficult to judge as there are over-riding factors involved such as which first and second stringers are in the game, play-calling, and the overriding factor that defenses are playing very vanilla in the pre-season. It makes Tarvaris' evaluation more difficult as you have to remember in the first game against St. Louis that the Rams have one of the weaker defenses in the NFC and aren't going to come out and test Jackson right away. If neither QB can succeed in that kind of a situation, their success will be limited.

Either way, Tarvaris is the starter for this team, but the situation behind him stands blurred at best. Brooks has been shaky, Drew Henson looked OK but is largely inexperienced, and Tyler Thigpen should not be considered an option to be a #2. As largely opposed as I've been to some of the decisions to bring in what are essentially "Chilly's guys" (Bollinger, Hicks, McMullen, etc.) Kelly Holcomb would make me and a lot of fans rest easier.



Miscellaneous thoughts:




-Dear Joe Buck,

Stop broadcasting.

Signed,
DeafEars

After Buck had defended Jericho Cotchery's spike of a football (which seemed strange considering he bashed Randy Moss to death over PRETENDING to moon Green Bay) I turned on the mute button and listen to Paul Allen on KFAN. As a fellow play-by-play broadcaster myself for several years I continue to be in awe in how much I enjoy listening to Allen call games for the Vikings.

-Allen brought up an interesting point in which the Vikings may have the best rotation of three running backs with Adrian Peterson, Chester Taylor, and Mewelde Moore in the NFL. That's not to say that they have the best combination of backs as compared to the rest of the league, they don't, but looking at the depth chart and going "three deep" it's impressive. It's shocking to me how underused Mewelde Moore has been, and it will likely continue with addition of Adrian Peterson.

Add Artose Pinner and Ciatrick Fason behind Taylor, Peterson, and Moore the Vikings have great depth at the position.

-As a proud Iowa Hawkeye fan, I'm very excited about Chad Greenway. The second he was drafted, I ran out in my yard screaming sounds of joy. And so far he hasn't disappointed.

-LOL @ this piece written on Dontarious Thomas at VikingUpdate.com. A player who has largely looked clueless, missing tackles, and was routinely faked out of his shoes in his first two seasons appears laughable to me to receive any praise. Great, he can miss tackles at every linebacker spot, good for him. Let's keep him as he is, a great athlete that lacks the instincts to be a good linebacker.

-Although he'll like never play much, Heath Farwell strikes me as a tough, scrappy player who would fit in well if called to duty. Generously listed at 6-0, 235 pounds, he tackles well and has a nose for the ball that has always impressed me in the past 2 pre-seasons I've seen of him. Unfortunately he will find himself with 7,500 less in his paycheck this week.

-This special teams is far from earning that title. Coming from a unit that never blocks a FG, rarely blocks a punt, nor creates big returns in the punt and kicking games, and gives up huge chunks of yards, this unit may be what keeps this team from being able to make it far in the NFC.

-I've never been a big Ryan Longwell fan and continue to have mixed feelings on him. The part that disturbed me about signing him was his performance in 2005 at Minnesota while he was still in Green Bay when he went 2-4. The Vikes won that game 23-20 with a Daunte Culpepper 23-31, 280 yard, 2 touchdown effort which seems to be a distant memory. Either way, he'll remain what he is, a solid kicker that's pretty good inside 40 yards and pretty shaky outside of it. To my disappointment he'll likely still be kicking off this season where he finished 34th out of 36 possible kickers in Touchback %.

-I expect that the New York media will be calling for Chad Pennington's head as he did his best impression of Brad Johnson tonight. The winner of the "Comeback Player of the Year" award looked largely overwhelmed by the pass rush and overall pass defense giving up 2 INT's. Pennington in the previous game against Minnesota last season went 29 for 39 for 339 yards with a TD and INT. That said, let's hope as a Vikings fan base that the pass defense will be able to put up this kind of performance in the regular season.

-I will remain unconcerned with Cedric Griffin even after a poor performance where he missed a few tackles. It will take more than one preseason game for me to change what was a solid season by Griffin last year. Even if he falters this season, the Vikes have improved depth with Marcus McCauley looking impressive and a returning Devonte Edwards (and hopefully the release of falsely charged Ronyell Whitaker).

-I don't check out Page 2 at ESPN.com very often, but these pre-season news and notes gave me a good laugh.

-A big thanks goes out to Aaron Gleeman for the link on his blog

I'm still without FSN North and ESPN in my apartment, so I'm still without the ability to comment on the Minnesota Twins. Given how horrible the offensive production has been for the Twins, maybe I'm doing myself a favor.