Frustrating loss today by the beloved Vikings to the San Diego Chargers. Here’s the stock report. Note we tend to keep it with 3 up and 3 down. It really should be more like 1 up and 5 down. But without further delay…
UP
Percy Harvin
So we begin this blog post with Percy running the opening kickoff back for 103 yards. It was a fantastic play. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there. Percy had a mere 4 targets and caught 2 passes for 7 yards.
Erin Henderson
Erin quietly had himself a nice little game. He was all over the field defending both the pass and run. When all was said and done he finished the game with 9 tackles, 3 of which were for a loss and a sack. If there was any controversy of who should be starting at weakside linebacker there isn’t anymore.
Jared Allen
Jared talked before the game on how excited he was to play for Leslie Frazier and the new staff. That’s refreshing considering he mailed in the first half of last year and looked like the Jared of old (sans the mullet) the second half of the season. He finished the day looking like a defensive back intercepting a pass and was in on a sack. If that’s any indication, another double-digit sack season seems to be store and his counterpart Brian Robison looked solid as well.
DOWN
Donovan McNabb
McNabb was downright miserable today. It’s only so fair to criticize a new QB with new offense playing on the road. But when one goes 7/15 for 39 yards (which equates to 2.6 yards per attempt) and a rating of 47.9 nothing positive will be said. His first pass was a miserable interception and other than one incompletion to Bernard Berrian no attempt was longer than 15 yards. McNabb still had to deal with protection issues due to Charlie Johnson getting beat on several occasions, but he did have a clean pocket more times than not and the results weren’t there.
Letroy Guion
Missing Kevin Williams was not supposed to be this bad with the defensive line one of the Vikings strengths, however Guion was a huge liability. So bad if someone were to make the case of cutting Guion now they wouldn’t have many debating it the other way. He was pushed around far too often opening up holes for Mike Tolbert and Ryan Mathews. Then later in the game drew two offside calls from jumping too early off of Philip Rivers’ hard count. How is it that Pat Williams, Tony Brown, Gerard Warren and Tommie Harris are out of work yet Guion has a job?
Bill Musgrave
It’s obvious this team is motivated to play for Frazier. The defense made plays and Frazier has a defensive background. But when you account for a total of 187 yards of offense you have to point the finger at the man in charge. The play calling was dismal and the execution was even worse. Why did Adrian Peterson only get 16 carries when he was averaging over 6 yards a carry? Would have it killed the offense to run sweeps with Adrian to the outside? Isn’t this suppose to be an offense predicated on getting playmakers the ball? What was with those two wildcat plays in the middle of the 3rd quarter that killed a drive? Where were all of these two-tight ends sets that were suppose to get Visanthe Shiancoe and Kyle Rudolph the ball? When will this offense be opened up? Is this all a ploy so Christian Ponder starts sooner rather than later?
Guess we have a whole season for these question to be answered. Lets just hope it’s not a long one.
Jon Merckle may be followed on Twitter @thevikingpig