Eagles 26, Vikings 14: Can't Quite Put My Finger On It

Last Sunday's 26-14 Viking defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Wild Card round was a tale of two halves:

In the first half, the Vikings' stingy defense limited the Eagles to just three field goals (although an interception of Tarvaris Jackson by Asante Samuel gave them 16 points for the half).  On offense, the Vikings looked more than decent against a difficult-to-decipher Philly defense and got two Adrian Peterson runs for scores.

At the half, then, with the Vikings trailing 16-14, I really thought that our Purple crew could pull it out.  The Eagles were doing absolutely nothing on offense, while Adrian Peterson was just starting to get warmed up.  Of course, as it turned out, the Vikings laid an egg in the second half and couldn't put up a single point.  The defense still played very well, allowing just one more David Akers field goal and surrenduring a lucky screen pass to Brian Westbrook that went 71 yards for a score, but the offense did not (for the umpteenth time the last few years) hold up its share of the load that it takes to win an NFL football game.

To be honest, I really can't quite put my finger on why the offense couldn't get going, but I do have a few potential culprits who, when combined, prevented the Vikings from scoring in the entire second half:

First, the play of QB Jackson.  Jackson looked great in the first half, but when Philly amped up their blitzes later in the game, T-Jack started getting jumpy and missed a few receivers on plays that should have moved the chains.

Secondly, the playing calling of Head Coach Brad Childress as it relates to the running of Adrian Peterson.  Since Peterson is one of the top runners in the game right now, I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't just screwing around in the backfield.  Instead, the blame goes to Childress for not utilitzing AD in a better fashion.  During the third quarter, Peterson had six rush attempts for ten total yards, which is unacceptable if the Vikes want to win a game.  I understand that Chester Taylor is much better at picking up the blitz and thus needs to be on the field for many third-and-long passing situations, but (at least to me) that doesn't excuse the strange non-usage of Peterson.

However, and this is the last reason I think the Vikings got beat on Sunday, we were just plain out-played by the Eagles' defense.  Jackson wasn't good enough to navigate their blitzes in the second half, and they were able to bottle up Peterson time and time again (a difficult feat even if the Vikes aren't calling the correct plays for him).  We got beat, fair and square.

Although it is disappointing to not make it past the first round of the playoffs, I can console myself a bit in the knowledge that the Vikings wouldn't have made a big Super Bowl run anyway.  They are still a few pieces short of a solid team, and in the coming days/weeks my blog posts will shift their focus to how the Vikes can improve moving forward to the start of the 2009 season.  I mean, when you really think about it, this year's Vikings team could have just as easily been 8-8 (a season deemed a failure) as 10-6 (supposedly a "solid team").  There's still much work to be done.