The Minnesota Vikings have tried the unconventional but...
It hasn’t been the season the Minnesota Vikings envisioned. Last year they lost in the NFC title game to the eventual Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints, and this year they expected to be one of the teams challenging to represent the NFC in this year’s
Super Bowl in Dallas.
Instead they’re off to a 2-5 start, the quarterback they convinced out of retirement is under controversy both on and off the field, and the most recent attempt to solve the team’s problems has been a complete disaster, ending with all-star wide receiver
Randy Moss being released.
Quarterback woes
Brett Favre has been in and out of retirement more times than he’s thrown shovel passes for interceptions, and that’s quite a few, so it wasn’t really a surprise to see him return for yet another final season this year, his 20th season in the
NFL.
Favre is coming off one of his best seasons in the NFL. It was a season in which he led the Vikings to their second straight divisional win, and the NFC Championship game.
But...
An accusation was made by a sideline reporter in New York that Favre was sending inappropriate pictures of himself to her while he was with the Jets.
He’s having one of his worst statistical years with a quarterback rating of 69.8 over the first seven games. His lowest rating at the end of a season came in 2005 when he had a quarterback rating of 70.9.
He’s playing on a foot that’s broken in two different places, breaks that doctors say are fine to play with on their own, but not so good to play on when combined.
And on top of all that, Brad Childress has expressed his displeasure with Favre, and has considered not starting the veteran quarterback, which would end the NFL’s longest ironman streak. It sits at 292 heading into Week 9.
The return of the crybaby
Back when the team was 1-2, and there was plenty of time to turn the season around, the decision was made to bring Moss back into the fold after a six-year absence from Minnesota. Childress traded a third-round pick to New England Patriots for the receiver.
Moss played his first seven years for Minnesota, and scored 90 touchdowns in that time. He made the Pro Bowl five times with the team, and is one of the best wide receivers in the game, so at the time the move seemed to be a good one.
But...
Moss caught all of 13 catches in the four games he played for Minnesota this year. He had 174 yards and two touchdowns and the team went 1-3.
After their loss in Week 8 against the Patriots, Moss went on at length about how great the Patriots and their coach were in a press conference. He didn’t exactly say Childress wasn’t great, but he did question the coach’s decision to go for a touchdown
on fourth down at the end of the first half instead of kicking a field goal. The Vikings lost that game 28-18.
That press conference, and a couple of restaurant mishaps that shed some light on Moss’s true character, made the team decide to release him. Thankfully for Minnesota fans a team in the AFC picked him up.
What’s next?
The season isn’t over yet. They’re in third place in the division behind the 4-3 Chicago Bears and the 5-3 Green Bay Packers, and the wild-card spots are within reach, but they need to start winning. They’re probably going to have to win eight of their last
nine games to make the post season.
Other than three tough divisional games, two against Chicago and one at home to Green Bay, their schedule is not too difficult. They play the New York Giants at home on 12 December, and they go to Philadelphia to play the Eagles on 26 December, but the rest
are all very winnable games.
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