Vikings Must Play Smart Football to Defeat Tampa Bay

Watching the Vikings give away the game last week was incredibly painful, the more so because there was absolutely no reason for it to happen.

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They had the game won until Chad Greenway fell asleep and allowed a first down conversion on 4th-and-20. That’s one of your supposed veteran leaders out there completely pooping the bed in crunch time.

Mike Zimmer defended Greenway during the week but privately I’m betting Zim had a little conversation with Chad. I’m guessing that conversation was not especially pleasant. A few eff-words may have been uttered.

It must be incredibly frustrating for Zimmer to see a player like Greenway, a supposedly heady player, make such an absurd rookie mistake. Zim preaches playing disciplined and smart, but he shouldn’t have to preach that to a player of Greenway’s experience.

Shutting down Buffalo late and preserving the victory would have been a great boost to a defense that is struggling to establish an identity. Would have. But Greenway flushed that down the toilet with one play.

Thanks Chad. No really. Thanks.

Painful as that loss was, the Vikings must now erase the whiteboard of their memory and go to work on Tampa Bay. If I were to write down the keys to the game on my whiteboard, these would be the top 3:

1. Protect Bridgewater

2. Get after Mike Glennon

3. Pay f–king attention on every f–king play until the end.

With #3 circled about fifteen times.

Or, to put it another way, PLAY SMART YOU IDIOTS.

Playing smart has not been the Vikings’ thing this year. Mental breakdowns have plagued the team throughout the season, particularly on the offensive line and in the whole defense.

Not all the breakdowns have been as glaring as Greenway’s brainfart at Buffalo, but most of them have hurt.

Penalties here, missed tackles there, missed assignments everywhere. Captain Munnerlyn getting burned for touchdowns at a 2013-Josh-Robinson rate.

It’s super-annoying and they need to cut it out.

The veteran brain burps have been the most annoying. The rookies have the excuse of being rookies but when guys like Greenway and Munnerlyn and Everson Griffen and Matt Kalil and Phil Loadholt are breaking down mentally in the heat of battle, it’s tough to stomach.

It’s a cliche but it’s true: You can live with being beat physically, but you should never get beat mentally. You should never lose because you don’t know what you’re supposed to do or how to do it.

It would suck, really suck, for the Vikings to fail at Tampa Bay because of another mental meltdown. Because this is a winnable game.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are an awful awful football team right now. Their offense is not very good and their defense is just putrid.

The Vikings would seem to be at a disadvantage on the road against a team coming off a bye, but I don’t think those things matter much today. Tampa Bay is just that bad. And the Vikings have proven that they’re not intimidated by the road this year (unless that road leads to Lambeau Field).

I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a slam dunk for the Vikings but I truly believe if they keep their heads in the game and execute they can handily defeat Tampa. A two-touchdown victory would not shock me.

Unfortunately, it would also not shock me if the Vikings lost a squeaker at the end because of an absolute unforgivable mistake. That’s just the way it’s gone for this team this year.

Let’s hope there are no key meltdowns today. Let’s hope everyone knows their job and does their job. If they do, this game should not be difficult. That’s Leslie Frazier’s defense out there. Let those guys make the stupid mistakes.

Don’t disappoint Zimmer by laying another egg, Vikings. That guy is coming off surgery for kidney stones. He really isn’t in the mood for your bulls–t. And neither am I.

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