Minnesota Vikings 2007: A Team Already in Turmoil

For your average National Football League team, mid-season crises aren't supposed to happen until, oh, mid-season.

But for the 2007 version of the Minnesota Vikings, the crisis has arrived just four games into a campaign so dismal that it has all the potential to rival some of the worst the once-proud franchise has ever had.

At 1-3 the Vikings quickly have found themselves entering their bye week three games behind the resurgent Green Bay Packers, who stopped the Vikings on Sunday in the Metrodome, 23-16, in yet another game the guys in purple could have won.

Future Hall of Famer Brett Favre torched the Vikings defense for 344 yards on his way to breaking Dan Marino's record for career touchdowns. The Packers didn't even need their normally anemic running game - Packers backs gained just 46 yards - as the Minnesota defense picked up where it left off in 2006. Teams know they don't need to even try running on the Vikings with the aerial game coming so easily.

Still, the Vikings defense is good enough that it will keep the team in most games this season. But the offense is so horrid, so pathetically inept and devoid of imagination that teams that score double figures against the Vikings will be almost guaranteed a victory.

For the 2007 version of the Purple Gang, there are five serious issues that, left unresolved, will continue the Vikings on a journey that could well end with a record bad enough to generate a top five draft pick next spring.

1. Quarterback, or lack thereof.

Tarvaris Jackson, too hesitant to make plays with his legs and too raw to deftly command an NFL offense, was largely ineffective in the team's first two games, a 24-3 win over the Atlanta Falcons in a game where the defense scored two touchdowns, and a heartbreaking 20-17 overtime loss to division rival Detroit Lions.

Hurt near the end of the Detroit game, Jackson has watched as journeyman Kelly Holcomb has been equally ineffective and at times downright pathetic in two subsequent losses to Kansas City and Green Bay. The Vikings, in fact, are two grossly overthrown Holcomb balls to wide open receivers from a potential 3-1 record.

But football is a game of inches and the inches have clearly been on the other team's side.

The salary cap-friendly Vikings had the opportunity to go after any number of available free agent quarterbacks in the off-season - Matt Schaub, Damon Huard and Byron Leftwich to name three - but chose to stick with an unproven rookie and two veterans who had done absolutely nothing to distinguish themselves during their careers.

2. Poor play calling.

Yes, the team has come a long way from 2006's maddening tango offense (1-2-3 kick) that often featured two weak-side Chester Taylor runs and a screen pass, but there's still much to be done.

The solution to this year's quandary seems to lie in seven relatively simple words: Just give Adrian Peterson the dang ball.

Peterson is easily the most talented skill-position player on the team yet toted the rock a mere 12 times Sunday in which he gained 112 yards (that's 9.3 yards a pop for those keeping score at home). In all, Peterson has 76 carries for 383 yards, a 5.0 average and a pace that would give him a Vikings season record of 1,532 yards.

And he gets the ball 12 times Sunday?

Coach Brad Childress, whose wise move to cede play calling after a disastrous 2006 when he ran the Vikings offense hasn't paid off, needs to make a mental note to himself to make sure Peterson touches the ball no fewer than 25 times a game.

3. A weak pass rush.

The Vikings D line had a big game against Atlanta with five sacks but has been relatively lackluster in getting to the quarterback the past three weeks, getting just one sack on a stationary Brett Favre. In all the Vikings have 12 sacks this season, not a horrible total after four weeks but not good enough to get consistent QB pressure.

4. Poor offensive line.

Probably the most underachieving group on the entire squad, this richly paid group makes the running backs fight for every yard they get, and the right side is just plain worthless. Matt Birk is a potential Hall of Famer as is LB Steve Richardson, but Bryant McKinnie continues to be a weak spot guarding the QB's blind side despite the fat contract extension he received. Holcomb's inability to perform Sunday wasn't all his fault - he had constant pressure from Packer pass rushers.

5. An inability to finish teams off.

The best thing you can say about this team is that 1-3 easily could be 4-0 right now. Ryan Longwell bounced a game-winning field goal off an upright in Week 2; the secondary gave up a brutal late-game drive against the Chiefs and the offense had a chance to win the game all the way to the end, and the Packers gift-wrapped a late fumble for the Vikings which the team was unable to capitalize on.

Call it a weakness of character or whatever, but remember this: The fish rots at the head and this is a team that clearly has not figured out how to win close games yet. That's a mental toughness that comes from the coach and has to be passed through the locker room. The 2007 Vikings don't have it.

Overall, this was supposed to be the easy part of the Vikings schedule. Things get rough now, with Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and San Diego, all games where the Vikings will be underdogs, waiting in the four weeks ahead.

It would be a shame to see the Vikings waste such a phenom as Peterson. But unless the team corrects some very basic but glaring mistakes, a team that should have done better looks well on its way to a historically disastrous season.