You mad?

Yesterday, the Vikings played a strikingly similar game to the one that led to a loss in the season's first week.  Impressive starts in both games led to healthy halftime leads, but second-half meltdowns caused them to evaporate, leaving fans and media to bemoan "collapses" that cost the team victory. 

Some people are really ticked off at the thought of how close the team is to 2-0, a few of the most reactionary are already calling for the coach's head and backup QB.

My view is slightly different, but has remained unchanged from the beginning: This team just isn't that good.

The Vikes have looked impressive for stretches, and Adrian Peterson in particular has played certain series like a one-man wrecking crew.  The problem here is the same one that has plauged them since Randy Moss left town the first time (save for Favre-to-Rice -- Season I), the passing game isn't going to make big plays routinely. 

You can do the coulda/shoulda/woulda routine if you like, but the current level of angst has far more to do with opposing teams forgetting to show up early than it does the Purple failing to seal the deal late.

If either of the first two opponents were to be moved back a few weeks on the schedule, it's doubtful that the Vikes would've had the opportunity to blow the game in the first place.  Touchdowns count the same in the 1st quarter as they do the 4th, but the fast starts in these two games have felt a bit fluky, and subsequent events have borne that out.

Take a closer look at who they've played. 

The Chargers are the most notorious early-season underperformers in the league.  They have special teams breakdowns with the same frequency as Chris Cook injuries, so the opening kick return that made the game look so winnable at halftime was not a shock.  Neither was the fact that it took them the better part of two quarters to get their bearings, that's about five quarters sooner than the average Norv Turner squad figures things out.  Once they did, sans kicker and all, dispatching the Vikes was not a problem.

Similar things can be said yesterday of Tampa, a good matchup for the power running game and suspect secondary of Minnesota.  The youngest team in the league did what young teams do, walked into a road game without their minds in the right place.  After a half of getting things taken to them physically, they got them in the right place, and the rest was history.  Nothing was a foregone conclusion, but it did have a feeling of inevitability to it as soon as they cut the lead to 7 late in the 3rd quarter.

Not to play the "Knew it all along" card here, but nobody should've expected to be anything other than 0-2 at this point.  It's not illegal for a team to jump up and win a football game it should probably lose, it happens all the time, and the Vikings had ample opportunities to do so.  You can hang your hat on dropped passes, missed interceptions or blown coverages all you want, and a moment or two can certainly be the difference.  But over time, all of those little moments form a trend, and all the trends eventually morph into percentages.  The percentages say that for the long haul, we are going to see more failure than success from this club.

I picked this team to be 7-9 this season, and 2-3 when they travel to Chicago in Week 6.  Two weeks into the season, that still seems pretty likely.  The victory chalked up for next week against Detroit is suddenly dicey, but Kansas City appears to be the worst team in the league, and even this putrid pass offense stands a good chance of carving up Arizona.  Our team isn't all that bad, they just need to play someone worse.

In the meantime, let's focus less on the scores, and more on how they occur.  Does it look like our veterans will stay productive?  Does it look like the young guys are figuring it out?  Can our coaching staff throw out an interesting gameplan once in awhile?  Basically anything positive that can distract you from the fact the division suddenly looks really good, and at least six games a year for the forseeable future will be played against quarterbacks far superior to ours.

Losing close games will always stink, and the comeback here is that these two games could be the difference between making the playoffs or sitting at home.  While that may be true, it does nothing to change the fact that the absolute ceiling for this team is a Wild Card upset, at best.  Hanging in with a couple good teams is good for the psyche, but did you see anything to convince you that the current collection of players is destined for great things?

Me neither, but that's what happens when you gamble and lose.  We had a party, and this is the hangover, you can either go with some hair-of-the-dog, and a quick fix that will cost you more in the long-term, or gut out the unpleasantness. 

Put your focus on whether the QB of the future can show promise, some other pieces can emerge, and what sort of playmakers need to be put around them going forward.  I can't guarantee positive thoughts on that score either, but I can guarantee it will be better for your blood pressure.