In my previous post, summing up the Vikings/Bears contest of last Sunday, I touched on the multiple areas in which the Vikings failed to put that game in the "W" column, including offense (four interceptions thrown by Gus Frerotte), and special teams (two mangled plays that led to Bears touchdowns). However, in this post, I would like to lay the blame where I strongly feel it sorely belongs...on the pass defense.
A quick history lesson....the Vikings' defense began to deteriorate in 1998, when Red McCombs took over as owner of the franchise and was too interested in used car shows in Arlington, Texas to spend any money renovating the d-unit. By 2001, the defense was horrible, and pretty much stayed that way until 2004. Duante Culpepper and Randy Moss (among other offensive players of that time period) needed to score at least 30 points a game to have a shot at winning (and often times even that wasn't enough!).
Yet, in 2005, when Ziggy Wilf bought the team, the defense finally started to improve, as players such as Pat Williams, Antoine Winfield, and Darren Sharper (2006, I believe) were brought in to solidify the unit. However, there has always been one area that has not improved in the least...pass defense. The unit seemed to improve in the 2005-2006 seasons, but that proved to be only a mirage, as teams had never run into a run-stopping line like the Vikings had, and thus didn't adapt quickly enough (it probably didn't help that the old football adage is to establish the run to set up the pass, which played right into the Vikings' hands). But it quickly became apparent in 2007 and so far this year that the pass defense is woefully inadequate, allowing teams to completely abandon the run (like the Bears pretty much did on Sunday) and just pass, pass, pass.
What I don't understand is how opposing receivers (even those as undaunting as the Bears') can get so wide open in our secondary (see picture above, which many times is, sadly, not an exaggeration). Whereas Viking receivers have to struggle for every yard, it is not an uncommon site to see an opposing receiver catch a pass and run for five yards before the nearest Purple defender even touches him! To me, this is not acceptable, yet it hasn't changed a bit in Childress' three (?!) year tenure at the helm. Much like on offensive, where Childress uses his West-Coast system to a fault (as the receivers aren't good enough for that kind of offense), he also keeps using the "stop the run at all costs" mentality on defense even though it clearly isn't working if a team like the Bears can cut you to threads without hardly running at all.
In all honesty, I don't exactly know how to fix this terrible malady, but ousting Chilly would be my first step (talk about a preview for my next post!)...
