A lot of iconic sayings ran through my head last night while watching football. The first was "When it rains, it pours", in reference to both the inclement weather and the never-ending avalanche of bad luck/news that's following this Vikings season around like Charlie Brown on a bad day. The second, via a text from my brother during the second half, was the iconic Godfather III line "Everytime I think I'm out, they pull me back in" (with accompanying hand gesture, of course). Finally, after the final collapse, I was channeling George Jetson, "Get me off this crazy thing."
I wanted to be in Walter Sobchak mode ("Nothing is f**ked here dude, nothing is f**cked") based on the glimmers of hope that were offered last night from a solid defense and improving offense. But I just can't get past my inner Herb Brooks here ("You're playing worse and worse every day and right now you're playing like it's next month"). Glass half-full guy says the NFC is terrible, competition is falling apart and the Vikes will get better with time to gel; half-empty view still sees three make-or-break games closing out October and doesn't like the odds.
While it should be said that Brett Favre dusted off some of the old magic in the second half last night, and made some impressive plays, watching him gimp around hardly inspired confidence. Grasping his arm after every throw like it was about to snap off at the elbow was not very helpful either. It's become clear that the guy is either A) Seriously hurting or B) Setting himself up with a convenient excuse when things go in the tank. I'm not sure which I consider more likely, as I think winning is important to him, but only slight more so than maintaining the Legend of Brett Favre.
Anyhoo, Packer fans, and to a lesser extent Jet fans, had to be laughing their asses off last night, and who can blame them? For all the hoopla about Favre's history, the game always seems to end with him winging a pass into the arms of a defensive player. Perhaps that's just the nature of the beast when you're being asked to pull off comebacks in tough spots, but anyone who's watched him can recall at least 2 or 3 off the top of their head that were unforced errors totally on him. Maybe ending things with a pick in two NFC Championship games are the reason he's still here at all? Could walk away with a loss, but not with an INT as the last pass on his record? Whatever the reason, it's clear that this is it, too many miles, too much accompanying nonsense, we're seeing the end of Brett Favre.
Not that last night is all, or even mostly, on him. What has happened to the Vikings offensive line the past two years is a crime, apparently Matt Birk really was the glue that held things together. Since his departure, this has gone from a unit that could open holes against stacked defenses with no fear of our inept passing game, to a disturbingly dismal set of widebodies who just sort of mill around the line of scrimmage, with no real plan of attack. Steve Hutchinson is a shell of his former self, the fact that Bryant McKinnie was ever a Pro Bowler is baffling, and Phil Loadholt, although decent in pass protection, remains perplexingly inefficient in the run game. I'm a big Loadholt guy, love the name, love the size, want to see him do well. But if a 6'8" 330-punder can't get a push up front, well just what the hell is going on here? (And yes, I know AP is still churning out yards, but that's because he's running harder than ever, go back and look at him in '07/'08, then tell me there's not a serious problem here)
Toss in dumb penalties and cornerback depth thinner than my patience with political ads, you get what we got last night. The Jets are a good team. The Vikings will be better. The problem is it must happen very quickly, time is not on our side here, and the road gets no easier.
See what a great job I'm doing not wasting too much thought on the struggles of this team? :)
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