As Amazing as Sunday’s Win Over the Saints Was… It Did Bring with It Some Lingering Doubts/Fears
Joe Johnson
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Note from the Author: I love this team more than most everything in my life, a feeling that I was reminded of on Sunday (in everyway possible). However, I have this lingering doubt about the rest of the playoffs based on that game and since I started this site basically as a form of Vikings therapy, so I’m hoping that you all can convince me that I’m wrong (like a nicer version of the response to my Alex Boone piece from two weeks ago)…
Going into the Saints game last week I was initially pretty optimistic that the Vikings, at home, would have the Saints’ number on Sunday and that the Vikings would advance to the fifth NFC Championship of my life after the defense was done with Drew Brees and company. However, as the week progressed and the game got closer, that familiar feeling of doubt started to creep back into my mind, as I realized that the off-season was only one bad game away from staring me (and my empire of Vikings sites) directly in the face. It’s safe to say that I was extremely nervous as early as Saturday night, as I really just wanted the game to be over with. Seeing that the Eagles “upset” the Falcons at home, while to some was bad for the Vikings, was actually the outcome that I wanted as the Eagles scare(d) me far less than Matt Ryan/Julio Jones/Davonta Freeman and company do and the adage that it’s hard to beat a bad team twice in the NFL is true (even if this post-season isn’t showing that to be true). I’d much rather play Nick Foles and the Eagles in Philly than the Falcons here, I told myself and basically everyone who was asking me about it. However, seeing what I thought (and still think) was an easy path to the first Vikings Super Bowl in my lifetime also gave me pause as it reminded me of the 2000-01 post-season, when I thought that the Vikings were set to hit the Super Bowl after both teams that I feared (in the Tampa Bay Bucs and St. Louis Rams) were bounced in the Wild Card/Divisional Rounds. So, while the game on Sunday was the most so amazing, in so many ways, I can’t help but feel that feeling of dread all over again, and this time I feel like it’s at least more rational than usual.
This is a Vikings team that has the number one defense in the league. That was playing at home against the Saints and that had a 17-point lead, really, with only about four-to-five minutes left in the THIRD quarter. The fact that they allowed Drew Brees and company to come back from that deficit after starting the second half with a scoreless but super long drive, makes me feel like there’s no lead that’ll be safe should they make it to the Super Bowl and face Tom Brady, Gronk, and the Patriots. Now, I know that people have said that this isn’t the “Same” Tom Brady or Patriots, that their defense is suspect and that Brady had a pretty bad (for him) final quarter to his regular season. However, this weekend will be the seventh AFC Championship that they’ll have been in, in a row and if last year’s Super Bowl proved anything it’s that Brady is really the GOAT and at no point is he really out of any (important) game (that isn’t against the Giants). Now, it was said by some of the Vikings defenders that they basically became complacent during half-time, assuming that their lead was insurmountable (and it should’ve been), something that from a mental stand-point definitely won’t happen again but that doesn’t mean that the Vikings defense can necessarily control everything that happens in front of them. They hadn’t given up more than 19 points at home all season (that mark was set by the Saints during the season opener) and so it was hard not to feel like they had the game in the bag even with that missed field goal going into the Half. Howeever, if the Vikings allowed Brees and company to come back, is there any way that they’d be able to beat the Patriots? The answer to that is, well, of course, they can.
First, that’s assuming that they even make it to the game, either team. The Steelers showed the rest of the league that sleeping on the Jaguars is a bad business decision, as not only did they beat up on the Steelers earlier in the season but they also beat them in what ended up being a shoot-out, of sorts (it wasn’t really back-and-forth as much as it was a huge start by the Jags that clearly was driven by their intense emotion and feeling that the Steelers were overlooking/disrespecting them). The obvious best case scenario would be that the Jags upset the Patriots, at home, and create a battle of the defenses in Minneapolis in early February. Again, that’s assuming that the Vikings get past the Eagles this Sunday. It’d be really encouraging if the Vikings were matched up with the Jaguars, at home, on Super Bowl Sunday. It’d actually be really hard to feel like the Jags would be able to beat the Vikings, to be honest. However (and again), I don’t see that happening especially after the emotions from the Steelers game made it feel like a finale of sorts for that team, with an in-stadium celebration with thousands of fans in Jacksonville when the team returned from Pittsburgh to boot. While many people on the national stage are saying that it’ll be hard for the Vikings to regroup after the Minneapolis Miracle, you’d think that it’ll be equally as hard for the Jags to get up as much against the Pats as they did against the Steelers (especially considering all the bulletin board material the Steelers gave them).
When it comes to Philly, I do believe that the Vikings beat the other best team in the NFC this past Sunday and that this Eagles team, while talented, really shouldn’t give the Vikings too much trouble regardless of the location. Sure, Keenum played arguably his worst post-week-five game against the Packers in Lambeau (also ignoring the Panthers game), where he and the Vikings offense struggled in the cold weather. However, Philadelphia, as of the writing of this article, is forecasted for a high of 51 degrees (and a low of 39 degrees) Sunday. That’s balmy! While Foles has had success in the NFL and played a lot better against the Falcons than he had over the final three weeks of the season, he’s obviously no Drew Brees so if the Eagles want to beat the Vikings they’ll have to rely on their late-season addition in Jay Ajayi and that defense. That’s a defense that did just shut down the Atlanta Falcons, but something was just off with the Falcons this year and whether you want to call it a Super Bowl hangover or the loss of Kyle Shanahan or some combination thereof and they clearly weren’t the team that got to the Super Bowl in 2016 (despite their win over the equally lethargic Ram of Los Angeles).
I guess my point is that I’m terrified of facing the Patriots. So, I’m really holding out hope that Blake Bortles and company can dismantle Brady and company and end that threat before it reaches Minneapolis, however, I really don’t see how that could happen even with the Jags offense putting up 45 points against the Steelers. The Jags do have a great defense, one that is said to be better than even the Vikings’, but that’s also a defense that gave up 42 against the Steelers after a disastrous first quarter in Pittsburgh and as has been proven year-in-and-year-out, Big Ben and the Steelers really aren’t Tom Brady and the Pats. So, while I want to remain optimistic, it’s definitely something that concerns me, however perhaps the second half collapse that this defense/team suffered Sunday was exactly what they needed. Perhaps it was the wake-up call that players like Everson Griffen claimed it was. In a post-game interview during the “Ball and Get the Call” segment with Deion Sanders on NFL Network, Griffen stated that he and the defense got “complacent” and basically started looking forward to the Eagles (a lot like I’m looking forward to the Patriots?) and because of the Minneapolis Miracle the Vikings were able to get out of the Saints game with a win and keep their season/the dream alive.
That very well could be the spark that re-lit the fire that this Vikings defense played within the first half against the Saints. They now know that they won’t get away with that, especially against someone like Tom Brady, so they’ll do everything in their power to keep their boots on the neck of the Patriots should they meet them in the Superbowl in a little over three weeks. There were also things that happened in the Saints game that hadn’t happened all season, namely that blocked punt, which was the fault of the new long-snapper Jeff Overbaugh and something that should be corrected this week (one has to hope). Outside of that, the new offensive line configuration looked good against the Saints and should play even better this weekend, giving Keenum the time he needs to avoid throwing balls like the one that helped the Saints build on their hope and momentum. Beyond that, there is a recipe for beating The Patriots in the Super Bowl and it’s something that the Giants somehow figured out… Twice. You’d have to shut down Gronk, which would require putting a linebacker on him as a shadow. Luckily, the Vikings have two of the best young linebackers in the league both playing and healthy in Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr. Now, you’d like to think that Barr would have the size and strength to go up against Gronk, but I’m not sure that his role as the outside linebacker would allow him to cover Gronk as often (or at all) as Kendricks. Kendricks is a beast and is faster than Barr, he’s just not as big/strong. Beyond that, you have to rattle Brady and to do that you have to bring pressure from the inside of your defensive line (as he loves stepping into the pocket to avoid outside pressure). That’s where things get a bit hairy as obviously the Vikings lost Sharrif Floyd to nerve damage last season and his replacement, Shamar Stephen left the Saints game with a knee injury that looked really bad (although he was questionable to return (although he didn’t) initially which made the injury sound less severe than it looked when he couldn’t put any weight on it as he was helped off the field. That could make former GIANT Linval Joseph the MVP of the Super Bowl, something that makes so much sense that I’m surprised I came up with it!
Perhaps this really is the Vikings year and I hate to look beyond the Eagles, but I just wanted to vent and hear some angry reassurances from our readers as sometimes people need a rude wake-up call. In the case of the Vikings that was the second-half of the second-half Sunday and for me, let’s hope it’s the response to this article!
SKOL… and ROAR? Or whatever Jags fans say!