Fixing The Vikings Offense

In my previous post, I made the case that Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress should be fired after this Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears, regardless of the outcome, and former St. Louis Rams coach Scott Linehan should be installed.

However, I also realize that this is a move so unlikely to happen that it's almost a moot point.  The Wilf family has shown extreme patience with Childress since his hiring, and I admit that it is a bit unorthodox to fire the head coach when competing for a division championship.  So, with the likely prospect of having Childress donning the headset and play sheet for the rest of 2008, the focus should probably be on how to fix the Vikings' offense.  First, though, one must understand the current strategy (however unsuccessful) the Vikings use to try and breach the end zone:

From what I have seen, the Vikings (like most teams in the NFL) rely heavily on runs (from Adrian Peterson and sometimes Chester Taylor) and short passes to set up the occasional deep strike.  Essentially, it is a West Coast offense.  When run to perfection, this type of offenses does two things: 1. It softens up the defense line by pounding the ball at them time and time again; and 2. Because of that pounding, the line is not strong enough to put pressure on the QB, who is then free to complete short passes (under ten yards) and look for the occasional man coverage on the outside to take a deep shot.  However, the Vikings lack one key component of that system: the ability to complete short passes.  Leaving Bernard Berrian out of the equation for the moment, the Vikings' other receivers (Bobby Wade, Aundrae Allison, and Robert Ferguson) are just not good enough to consistently get open and make the play required of them.  Allison is too inexperienced and penalty-prone, while Fergie and Wade are too old).  So, what ends up happening is that opposing defenses even leave the short-yardage receivers in loose coverage, instead choosing to stop-up Peterson, a strategy that has been quite successful in rendering the Purple impotent with the ball.  The end result is Peterson getting stuffed, and the receivers dropping enough passes (or just plain not getting open) to set up third and long situations, which a West Coast offense is not equipped to convert, as the defense can finally play a little looser knowing that a pass is almost surely coming.

So, at least to me, that is the problem that plagues the Vikings: An inability to effectively run the West-Coast offense.  Of course, anyone can diagnose a problem...the difficult part is fixing it.  What I feel the Vikings need to do is get Bernard Berrian more involved in stretching the field.  Right now, opposing defenses know that a 20+ yard pass from the Vikings happens maybe once a quarter (if that), so they are clamping down and letting the corners man cover the outside of the field.  Instead of taking advantage of this coverage, though, Childress seems to insist on beating his head against the wall in trying to break it, running the same offense every week.  It kind of reminds me of a baseball analogy, where the great Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox would never hit the ball to the left side of the field when the entire defense was shifted to the right because he was so doggone stubborn.  I believe that Childress is doing the same thing...he goes by the philosphy that his offense can beat anything the defense throws at him, thus he doesn't adapt.  A very noble goal...until it becomes apparent (like last year, perhaps?!) that the strategy isn't working.

Thus, I would like to see Childress (or whoever designs the offensive attack each week) weave more deep attacks into the offense.  At least once a drive, I would launch a deep pass in Bernard Berrian's direction (not just once a game) in order to make the defense at least think you might do it again on the next drive.  This will be easy to do, of course, when Sidney Rice returns (if he ever does) from his injury, most likely after the bye week in two weeks.  With both Berrian and Rice on the field, defenders will have a much more difficult time patrolling the deep portions of the field.

Besides the deep passes, I would also like to see a few designed screen plays for Peterson or Taylor.  Childress does get them the ball in the flats, but seemingly only on a check-down option, so they don't have any room to run.  I remember back in the late 1990s, when Dennis Green used to use many screen packages for RB Robert Smith, who thrived with that kind of blocking in front of him.  Mike Tice did the same sort of thing with Michael Bennett and even The Whizzinator (Ontarrio Smith).  However, Childress seems content to just run Peterson into the line on every rushing play, which gets old and predictable after a while (especially two seasons!).  Imagine what Peterson could do with Bryant McKinnie and Steve Hutchinson standing in front of him pancaking defenders?!

So there you have it...those two things (throwing a few more deep passes and using some screen plays once in awhile) are what I would do to try and change up the Vikings offense.  Sure, it would be a dramatic shift (especially in blocking for the offensive line), but can it really get any worse than it is right now?  Personally, I would rather go down fighting than banging my head against a wall and hoping the wall breaks.

NFL Notes:

-Pac-Man is suspended again.  This guy is turning into the Mike Tyson of the NFL (besides the whole children-eating thing).

-The Dallas Cowboys also signed Roy Williams today from the Detroit Lions, likely to give new starting QB Brad Johnson some more security while Tony Romo is out.  In my opinion, Roy Williams has always been a very overrated player, but perhaps playing a prolonged period in Detroit will do that to a person.