Brett Favre may have looked gimpy coming out for the first half against New England, but he ended up playing some of his best ball of the year. “Best ball” in this case meant handing off to Adrian Peterson a lot, hitting Percy Harvin over the middle and not making any dumb mistakes like trying to force it downfield to Randy Moss who was double-covered pretty much the entire half.
Things might’ve gone even better for the Vikings but for a completely crazy bad break: Madieu Williams appeared to have a pick but the ball went right through his arms to the Patriots receiver for a huge gain, setting up the Pats’ only touchdown of the half. This was the only real defensive lowlight of the half for the Vikings who otherwise got decent pressure on Tom Brady and contained the Pats’ attack. If I know anything about the Pats, they’ll come out no-huddle in the second half.
Brad Childress made the right call going with Favre. Unfortunately, he made some other calls during the first half that have once again got Vikings fans jumping all over his back. The glaring one was his decision to challenge the catch on the Madieu Williams missed INT mentioned above. Everyone and their blind grandmother could see the pass was complete, but Chilly challenged – for reasons that remain vague. Childress invited further derision by electing to pull Adrian Peterson from a series and give Toby Gerhart some touches – this after Peterson had run through the Pats’ defense like it was made of paper. All in a day’s work for the ever-more-embattled Vikings coach.
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