With the tearing down of the "Williams Wall" forefront in all Vikings fans' minds right now, I would like to go off on a little bit different of a tangent, comparing the AFC juggernaut of his year to a similar 1998 NFC dominating force...
For those of you who may not know, this year's Tennessee Titans football team is currently 11-1 and pretty much blowing away the competition in the entire AFC right now. I find this very interesting, as it reminds me of the 1998 Vikings, who went 15-1 and had a resurgence much like the Titans right now. There are three areas in which I see similarities...
First, in the improvement from one year to the next. The 1997 Vikings made the playoffs and won a game they shouldn't have (on a last-second field goal), then got crushed by the 49ers. The 2007 Titans also made the playoffs, but lost in the first round to the Chargers. Essentially, both squads were good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to make any waves.
Secondly, both teams also brought in high-caliber rookies to jump-start the offense. The Vikings got this guy, who dominated the WR position like almost no other...
The Titans chose to improved their ground game (as LenDale White just wasn't an every-down back) and thus drafted the speedy Chris Johnson, who has provided a spark to their offense as a threat to score on any part of the field...
The third area is an early quarterback move from youngster to veteran. In '98, a young Brad Johnson (yes, at one point, that was possible) injured his leg and was replaced by Randall Cunningham, who was incredible with all the weapons surrounding him...
The Titans star their young star, Vince Young, have a mental breakdown early this year, and made the switch to the grizzled vet Kerry Collins, who has played well, not made too many mistakes, and let his defense take care of the rest...
So, as you can see, the 1998 Vikings and 2008 Titans have taken roughly the same path to go from mediocrity to stardom in a single season. Of course, come playoff time, the real success of the Titans will be judged. Dennis Green led the Vikes to the playoffs only to butcher the NFC Championship contest...I have much more faith in long-tenured Jeff Fisher.
