Empircal evidence? that CHILLY is NOT to blame?

I did some stat sifting over breakfast after reading rubes online at the Star Trib whinge about play calling. Here are my findings and retort to said Rubes.

"It sure is easy to sit and talk smack in hypotheticals.. as if the plays you run in madden would work in real life.. it's so easy to move the ball and score in the nfl right?

If you go game by game 90 percent of our drives stall due to turnovers or penalties or drops. NOT PLAYCALLING..

All defenses have an advantage in the red zone, there is less space to cover, it doesn't mean we're predictable if we have to settle for a field goal every now and then...

even with all the griping and moaning we still have a top ten offense and we've played A LOT better defenses then a lot of the teams that avg 10 or 15 yrds more yards a game then we do.

It just makes me laugh. Chilly has done option plays, fake field goals.. gone on fourth downs at mid field as much as any other guy.

And for "plays longer then 20 yards" we are THIRD in the NFL and it's not cuz of AP.

so get your facts straight. you can laud the dolphins and their progressive offense all you want meanwhile they're like 25th in scoring.

here are some odd stats.

the vikes are 5th in penalties, and 26th in plus minus (turnovers)

i think those stats back up what I am saying pretty good.. better then you're arguments with hypotheticals"

Now
I know people will say that the coach is responsible for penalties but I think that's another lame cop out, that he has to instill professionalism etc. You can only do so much... some people are stupid or slow or just suck (ryan cook tends too)

Now let's right the ship, reduce drops, penalties and turnovers and get back to winning

Chilly's Press Conference (post bears - pre bye)

(From Mike Wobshcall @ VIkings.com)

As for today’s press conference, which comes on the heels of a 48-41 loss to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, here are a few of the notable highlights:

 

-- The Vikings came out of the game okay injury-wise, Childress said. But he did mention that several players will be in this week during their time off to treat injuries. When pressed about any significant injuries, Childress said there were none that he would note.

 

-- At 3-4 after Sunday’s loss to the Bears, there is a disappointed and bitter fan base in Minnesota. The Vikings acquired a number of high-profile players in recent offseasons and they entered 2008 with the reigning rookie of the year, but that hasn’t yet translated to sustained on-field success. And Childress made it clear that no one inside of Winter Park is happy with the current standing of the football team, either. “There’s nobody in this building that is happy with the standard right now that we’re playing at. I think the good thing is it’s recognized by the members of this football team. And they want to be better, they want to improve, they’re all pulling for each other; so I will continue to look for that improvement.”

 

-- Childress also verbalized a list of areas where the team will look to improve. The list consisted of the following areas: turning the football over; taking it away (from other teams); offensive, defensive, special teams penalties; and explosive plays, getting them on offense and denying them on defense.

 

-- A bye week typically means time off for players and coaches. It’s a time for the team to heal from injuries, recharge the battery and refresh the mind. This year the Vikings bye comes in Week 7, significantly later than Childress’ byes in his first two years. This is advantageous because it gets the team through a large portion of the schedule before a break, leaving nine games left instead of 11 or 12 (as in previous years).

 

As for the bye and what he’d like the players to do with their time off, here’s what Childress had to say: “If we’re going to take this time off, they have to use it appropriately. For some of them it’s down time, not being on a schedule, letting their bodies heal a little bit. I mentioned to the guys who were there yesterday, a Week 7 bye is a little bit longer into the season here, so they are beat a little more than a three week bye or four week bye. So they understand for the long haul here, for the nine games that comprise the rest of the season, they’re going to have to be fresh, they’re going to have to be fresh mentally. Some of it is to step away and not even think about football; there’s nothing wrong with that.”

 

-- Childress was asked about safety Madieu Williams, one of the high-profile free agents the team signed this past offseason. Williams was injured his neck at some point before the season and has not seen any game action as a result. Here’s what Childress had to say about Williams: “Based on how he’s moving, I’d say he’s got a chance to contribute some here as he comes out of the bye. It’s all been a process with him; with healing, and getting the cardio back to where it needs to be and back to the football-type of movements and then last week introducing some of the collision-type stuff that has to go on that you have to be comfortable with. You don’t want to do full-speed contact work for the first time in an NFL football game…he’s relatively close; he needs to have a good bye week.”

 

-- A reporter asked Childress to characterize the communication patter than exists between himself and ownership on a weekly basis. Childress said that he typically speaks with either Zygi of Mark Wilf “a couple times a week,” depending upon their individual schedules. “There’s pretty good open dialogue about where we’re at as a team; what injuries we think we’re dealing with; what personnel,” Childress said. “Last week obviously there was pretty good dialogue about where we were at the inside linebacker position and what were some of the things we were going to do at that position to fill the void; what moves we were going to make at the end of the week with some people to fill up that 45 (-man roster); who was going to be up and who was going to be down. We talk about all those things. Obviously as owners, they have the right to know and it’s important that you explain the rationale.”

 

That’s it for now, but be sure to check back to the vikings.com and the Vikings Blog continuously this week for more updates and information about the Vikings and the bye week.

Here's why i don't hate CHILLY

Chilly counts the fans he has left (not including his family)

I listen to all the press conferences.. read all the blurbs.  He never makes excuses, he holds himself accountable.. as you are supposed to.  He has never said we were a great team, he has never said we'd make the playoffs, he never  promised us a super bowl.

He always tells the truth and he doesn't sugar coat. 

Meanwhile fans with their naive expectations sit and trash him.. now let's look at Denny Green - THERE was a guy who'd make excuses, who had too much pride, who was stubborn. There was a guy who refused to be accountable.. now THAT was annoying.

Bud Grant was over rated.  Les Steckle sucked.  Mike Tice was a inside joke by McCombs.. but he did OK considering he had the lowest paid team in history.. My favorite was Jerry Burns, anyone know where I can find his rant defending Bob Schnelker and his "give up play"

So are people just mad at CHILLY because of our record- they thought we'd be 6 and 1 right now? We'd have the best defense in the league and a really good offense?  Stats don't mean anything, neither do rosters on paper.  Injuries, luck, penalties, turnovers, drops all affect the Ws.  Look at dallas right now.  New England.  Ouch

We got a solid team making the transition into a real good team.  I am content.  If  the rubes would actually listen to the press conferences and read the quotes they'd realize chilly is smart, candid, and even at times, funny.

Sure he's "un-proven" but that doesn't mean anything.  Our team doesn't quit and they don't moan about CHILLY so neither do I

Sure he's a funny looking guy.. an odd duck but he's not inept like people make him out to be.

this kid should hold a chart over HIS face

I am actually more happy then sad about yesterdays VIKES - BEARS game

I woke up today real pleased. I don't know why. Am I the only vikes fan who feels this way? Im happier with our loss then I would have been if we won a similarly ugly 10 to 7 "battle" and i think this is why.  

Now don't get me wrong, I know every game counts and by the end of the season this "could come back to haunt us" I'd also like to preface that I hate to lose and I spend most close viking games to nervous to eat towards the end and tend to have my whole day ruined if we lose... but having said that. After clearing my head with a hot date and some video games and movies and waking up to go to work and reading the box score on the way to work I was like. WOW. We lit those guys up. 

WE were a Juggernaut yesterday. Over 400 yards and moving the ball at will at times. 28 first downs? against a pretty damn good defense (even with their sub D-Backs) I thought "so all we need to do is not fumble the ball in our end zone, on our 5 yard line and not give a INT return to our 6 yard line and not have 8 penalties for 85 yards and we can win some games?" Really- that's all we have to do.

Because yesterday we FINALLY saw AP break one... We saw BERRIAN make some really nice grabs.. WE saw SHANKOE make his money.. Bobby wade do his thing (drops aside) and we saw some draw plays work, some 3 receiver sets.. a nice screen. We played from behind against defense designed to limit our passing and still passed. We saw defenses designed to stop our run and still ran. We saw JARED ALLEN get two sacks and make some nice plays. Hell, even Napolean harris had 5 tackles. In other words.. we saw most of the people do what they're supposed to do (except our safeties.. is SHARPER over the hill?) and were betrayed by "role players"and our normally smart consistent QB.

Everyone is entitled to one or two bad games (Except T JACK) so I can live with this.. SO LONG AS WE DON'T DO THIS KIND OF SHIT ON A SYSTEMIC BASIS EVER AGAIN. let's hope we got all the bobbled snaps, dumb holds, stupid personal fouls, fumbles, and interceptions "for no good reason" out of the way!!

MY DARRIN NELSON "BUFFALO 66 STORY"

I have a funny "Buffalo 66" like story about Darrin Nelson.  I think I carried a grudge against him for like 10 years after that one ill fated game at RFK.. one day I was at the Loring Bar, drunk.. and I walked into the main area on a Thursday.. back then it was French night,  all the European people would go there.  It was nice to talk to euro girls.. anyways it's always full.  Nowhere ever to sit SO there I am with some friend (i cant remember who) and I look over and who do I see? A nice black fella smiling at me.  I was like "Wow, you never see that in this bar on french night.." 

I got a little closer and noticed he was with 2 hot girls.. then I realized it was Darrin Nelson. I, in my drunk state.. saw red.

I was gonna go up to him and say something, idk what.. but I wanted to get it off my chest. So as I got right up to the table he stood up, all 5'6 of him.. and he flashed that cheesy huge grin and said in his Emmanuel Lewis voice "Hey, you want our table, we're just leaving?" Being a true blue Minnesotan I had to be taken aback at his politeness and sincere gesture- all my rage just melted away like snow in May. 

I was sort of stunned and thought to myself, "damn, that dude couldn't haul in one touchdown for us that ill fated day but he's getting two for himself tonight. psssh." So off he goes but as he was about to exit the main room I noticed his hat on the floor and I was like "Yo, D, your hat" and I flinged it to him.. it hit him right in the chest and he bobbled it onto the floor. hahaha. SMH

Relive the agony

I rank that loss as our worst, followed by 98 followed by the loss to Arizona to get knocked out of the playoffs 5 years ago or whenever that was... I saw the '78 Dallas game finally (I saw it when I was five but didn't remember anything) and I don't feel it was so bad.

My take away from this game (if the bears don't mind sharing)

The bears aren't who we thought they were... and we put ourselves on the hook!

what a weird arena football game we had today

I am gonna go on the record and say that the special teams gaffs, literally giving them 14 points in like 4 seconds.. are NOT the main reason we lost (though it did help get us away from our game plan) And I don't blame the coaches at all, anyone who does is just a dumb ass.

We saw two very un-characteristic things happen today.

1. Our defense got used and abused and rarely stopped the bears. We did get a couple timely sacks and the one fumble hit... but we had no pressure most of the game and only forced one or two punts the whole game before they just tried to run the clock out on us and punted once more. Why don't our blitzes ever work??!? Maybe we should try something new? or just never blitz. Are our players that slow?

this hurts.



2. Frerotte's first two interceptions were both to our "studs" in one on one coverage against their inexperienced corners (who had 4 picks) you can't fault him for his read, but his passes were errant and more to the defenders then our receivers.

This just goes to show you how dumb the pre-game analysts are, they assume with Tillman out that whoever replaces him will make mistakes, and they assume that the game was gonna be 10 to 13 and be a defensive battle. they don't know anything.. they all predicted the Dallas rams game to be a blow out. well they were right - except Dallas got blown out

The saddest thing to me about this loss is that we did a real good job of running the ball and WE stopped them from running the ball.. yet because of the 14 gifted points and some key big plays our D gave up, we had to play catch up.. yet even then we had success but you can't expect our offense to score 48 points.. as it stands, they scored 41! before the game i would have taken that and assumed a win by two touchdowns.

What we learned from this game..

AP is actually as awesome as he is supposed to be and rarely disappoints me. He's such a blessing to our team... his TDs were both awesome and he turns 2 yard losses into 3 yard gains regularly...can we PLEASE block better?



Matt Forte isn't that impressive.. he just benefits from a great offensive line and solid passing attack that benefits him. You could put any number of RBs in at his position and i reckon they'd have similar numbers.

Kyle Orton is a baller. period.

Our blitz sucks and I am starting to question Leslie Frazier's schemes and over all ability

I think over all we had a good offensive game plan and that we adjusted to the situations pretty well.. I think the coaching staff did ok for the most part.. I know some people will criticize that one possession in the red zone were we ran three times and settled for a field goal, but we did the exact same thing a few times on our last TD drive and it left us with a lot of third and shorts instead of third and longs... i know you all liked going for it on 4th the first drive and AP's 2nd and third effort to get that TD and prolly hated the roll out on fourth and shot in the third quarter.. i think it was a good call but they had it covered and i think AP shouldn't have been the receiver, since he's keyed on, would have been better to have the FB the receiver. I also think Frerotte shoulda tried to run for it.. really sucks we cant have T JACK step up a little more.. we could have had him run for a couple of third down conversions easily this game. oh well.

Frerotte had 4 ints, they were all his fault. sucks.

Our defense gave up 34 points. sucks. 34. to Kyle Orton. might have been more with out Marty Booker's drops.

Same old story, we find a way to make it hard on ourselves.. we do shit you never see.. i don't blame Gordon for trying to block the gunner, you're taught to let the ball bounce inside the 10 and he was blocking.. it bounced super weird and high and hit his hand.. and the Punter's drop, how dumb was that. wth?!?! you just cant prepare for that crap.

we fought back hard and stayed in it though, i give them credit.

so we're 3 and 4 going into the bye.. we need to come out and get a solid performance with no gaffs and a win against the Texans..

nothing to fear, we're still in it.... let's hope our "NEW " LBs can get into the system now with this bye and hope they can contribute throughout the season.. they did well considering though Chicago's TE ran rough shot

America's Game - The Missing Rings - 1998 Vikings

I am glad I watched the show. Though it was hard knowing what it was all leading to, I enjoyed listening to John Randle talk his talk, Cris Carter too.. I can't say I enjoyed Dennis Green's takes. He always sounded like a bullshitter to me - and I resent that he never made any efforts to improve our defense after our 15-1 season.

The fun thing about watching highlights of the game for me was the stuff we forget. Sure we all remember "taking a knee" at half and who could forget Gary Anderson's only miss of the whole year, "wide left." But some things I forgot that I'd like to mention. Randy Moss' dropped TD in the second half.. and our defenders drop of a certain INT in the end zone on the Falcon's game tying drive.. if he would have held on to that, we win.

So it brought me back to the now, and the coaching vs who's making plays discussions and who is ultimately accountable. I think the vikings as a team collectively lost that game. Robert smith did his thing.. Cunningham. there were a couple turnovers on each side of the ball... People forget that the Falcons were 14 - 2 that year. They were a very good team but I always felt they were worse then their record and that Chanlder was over rated, Jamal Anderson even.

If only we could have had players brought in during the following years like Atlanta had, the Ray Buchanans, or Aneas Williams from the cardinals types but Denny Green didn't bring in one blue chip defender after that, nor draft one. IT isn't forgivable and it is why we squandered that offense that we had for a few great years.

We won a lot of games that year 40 to 30, 34 to 28 etc... We ended up losing to the rams twice i think in the coming years, each game in the 40's... And who could forget losing to the NY Giants 41 to 0.

Awful.

If you want to go down memory lane.. go here.

article about the game

I miss John Randle.. and Moss obviously. I am so grateful we have AP. Let's hope we can turn him into a total threat like Reggie Bush or Brian Westbrook.

I wonder if we are gonna change up our blocking schemes.. my favorite plays involve going outside left or right with a pulling guard or two...

enjoy the game tomorrow!

Let's go back in time, and let's say we fired Chilly

and lets say WE hired wisenhunt, or jim zorn or mike smith for christs sake.. all of you would have been bitching - all no names or former players or people with ZERO head coaching experience. you’d rip the franchise for not hiring someone with a REP a blue chip coach.

they’re all doing really well.

lets take some of the coaches i like a lot.. herm edwards, holmgren. 

their teams suck

lets take shanahan two years ago, im sure lots of fans wanted a "new direction"
last year denver sucked.


this year? theyre playing good football, maybe getting lucky, but his "fan approval" is high

i loved mike tomlin, wanted to hire him... im happy for his success. OF COURSE HE DID INHERIT AN AWESOME TEAM.

obviously winning means the most, it shuts up a lot of rubes, but I feel strongly that coaches get too much blame AND too much credit. (see deny green "too much credit" who’s players got to the playoffs despite him not because of him, green got out-coached in the playoffs every year. 41 - 0?)

I do not sit around and endorse Brad Childress - but i do indict all those rubes out there who sit around and blame him for the losses AND "ugly wins"

its just like politics - "you guys" will see it how you want, like a McCain supporter vs an Obama one, like people polarized over the OJ verdict, whatever the bias is, it’s really really hard to shake of.. everyone has short memories

no one cites AP’s two fumbles or ryan cooks drive stopping penalty on the 1 yard line, the blame the coach like he’s "all responsible"

and part of that is due to the stupid cheesy cliche press conferences where the culture of the coach being the one "accountable" for anything that happens to "his team" goes through but i find it all a little too bullshitty.

how come coaches can removes themselves from a players behavior off the field in one second, blame the player and have no accountability (more then maybe taking a "chance" signing a "troubled player") yet on the field, if someone fumbles or throws a pick-6, after the game you always hear the coach mumbling some bullshit, instead of just CALLING THE PLAYERS OUT.

it’s a team sure there is order and a pecking order. the coach and coordinators call the shots and ON GOOD TEAMS, the QB can do lots of audibles.. but i think the coaches should have a license to tell the truth and call people out in public.

if AP knows he almost chocked the game away, as witnessed by him praying and crossing his heart "our father" at the end of the game, if the television crew knew AP almost chocked away the game, as proven by them having a camera ISOLATED on AP to get his reaction when the FG went through, why cant all you dumb ass haters understand that too? that the oweness was on him MORE then any other player?

sure, "we win as a team, and we lose as a team" and that’s true BUT it’s just naive to hold EVERYONE accountable or JUST ONE PERSON accountable which is what happens when rubes and haters say the vikings lost and it’s all CHILLYs fault.

it’s just b.s.

either you have an IQ and you can replay the game in your head and see what turnovers and penalties and defensive breakdowns cost us the game (or referee calls=) or you can’t.

so you can waste your time hating on childress all you want, wont change anything. he has demonstrated a learning curve and is getting more and more solid and his "questionable" calls have had no impact on our wins and losses whatsoever this year so its moot.

it’s pointless to talk about playcalling mainly because we dont know who calls what and when nor do we know what the defense is calling.. it’s like trying to prove or disprove jesus, all speculation.

it’s an argument i now I CANT WIN because even though we got over 400 yards last week people still bitched and moaned about the "play calling"

anyways, lets hope the vikes can get the run going against a tough chi defense, i like our guys, we have more big play capability then they do, they’re missing booker and matt forte! =p as well as tillman and their safety. all they have is hester. i hope the bears are who i thought they are. 

A few words about the "experts"

Yesterday's VIKES game, and as another example, the INDY - RAVENS game, are perfect reasons why you as a fan, or a fantasy football player, shouldn’t look at STATS or RECORDS and try to hypothesize.

(or the REDSKINS -ST LOUIS GAME!)

I get so tired of people who said "we were gonna blow the lions out", or who said the ravens DEFENSE would shut down INDY’s passing attack because the ravens are number 1 against the pass etc. or who were dumb enough to bet the spread in the redskins game.

why we were expected to win today...

We’re at home, we have a great rushing offense, the lions have the worst defense etc.


why we might lose...

we just came off a big win and might let down.
we had a "short week" yada yada blah bore snore

it’s allll bullshit

The lions defense played stellar today, they OWNED our offensive line.


PURPLE JESUS almost choked the game away for us, he gave back a potential 14 points by fumbling twice in scoring position, no one EXPECTED that.


DETROIT blocked a field goal, no one EXPECTED that.


DETROIT sacked us 5 times in the first half, no one expected that.


THE REFS GAVE us two really bad calls, the fumble that wasn’t a fumble, and more importantly, they bailed us out at the end with a phantom pass interference call. i couldn’t believe it.
and NO ONE expected that, right??


what’s my point here? why am i ranting?

BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T HAVE THESE DUMB EXPECTATIONS BASED ON USELESS STATS THEN YOU WON’T BE SO UPSET THAT WE WON A GAME IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE.


i have not even read the other VIKINGS strings, no reason to, I'm sure it will be a lot of negativity, and that’s fine, we played like shit. but i don't want to hear about bad play calling, i don't even want to read it, or "why didn't chilly go for two instead of one to tie it 10 to 10.." i have no clue. i don't care.


I know we had over 300 yards passing and AP had over a 100 rushing and yet only one touchdown.. why?

AP fumbled twice at the tail end of scoring drives, Ryan Cook got called for holding when TAYLOR ran us to the 1 yard line. that’s 21 points.


I think watching pre game shows is a joke, i don't even bother, they’re wrong more then half the time about everything.. absolutely everything.


I feel sorry for people who didnt start peyton manning today because he was playing the "number one defense against the pass" today

and props to you guys who started berrian

save yourselves the headache of trying to figure out who is gonna win and lose, that’s why they play the games..

I am glad we won, great win.
it’s a W

Our defense made stops in the fourth quarter, like 3 three and outs in a row i think.

MONDAY NIGHT GAME (Tony Cornholer is the worst football commentator ever!)

worse then randy green.

Honestly, could they suck the saints dicks any harder? when we were tied up in the 4th and the saints hadn’t had an OFFENSIVE drive for a long while.. they were acting like it was a foregone conclusion we were gonna lose when they went up 7 .. there was so much time left. then they missed the FG i thought hell we can do this! why not us, why not now!?

ok.. then the vikes negativitis creeped in...
now we were all thinking, shit, i hope we dont choke this away.. but after seeing the indy game i thought oh fuck it... when i saw FREROTTE whip that ball and berrian get tackled i was hyped!

I am very happy at how many shots we took downfield. 3 big plays.. the two berrian catches and the hilarious pass interference.

i’d like to point out that all of those were on third and long.

TIME TO VISIT "PREDICTABLE" PLAY CALLING.

1st and goal, 2nd and goal, runs to the right. third and goal, we get a second chance cuz of penalty, run the option , works like a charm. good call. the two useless plays set it up. GREAT CALL CHILLY

all the time people say get AP more touches, well, we got him his touches, 22 in fact...didn’t do shit.. is that bad play calling? too predictable? it happens, randy moss gets 3 catches for 8 yards. it happens.

For most of the game i was accepting the fact that maybe we had a very avg football team, even on defense, but then we showed signs of being a real team.. we made the plays that "elite" teams are supposed to make.

FREROTTE did a helluva a job sittin' in there and taking hits, while dishing out that TD especially. hell, he threw it to two receivers in one pass haha thats talent and GOOD COACHING haha if we cant get our receivers to make the one on one plays lets put two of them right next to each other..

worked on our defensive interception to end the game as well.

NOW HERE IS WHERE I REALLY HATE CORNHOLER..

the entire end of the first half they were talking shit about our clock management.. yet somehow we got to the 15 yard line for a chip shot AND had TWO shots at a TD to our receivers in ONE ON ONE coverage! you cant ask for more.

we could have had a TD on either of those passing plays if the ball was 3 feet this way or that way (and in fairness a interception too)

i won’t talk about our punt coverage. ick. but at least i over heard someone say childress was livid with our punter and told him he was supposed to kick it out of bounds but to be honest i dont give a fuck, just kick it and cover it. im not afraid of anyone, that shit happens so rarely. on the first two punts he lost yardage.


we are missing ej henderson =/

cant wait for madeu williams to play, wonder if he will do well

mckinnie sucked today

on our sweep left they had 4 guys in our backfield wtf

great win, very key.

PROPS FOR HAVING NO TURNOVERS! AND ONLY ALLOWING ONE SACK

props for holding them to 7 for 15 on 3rd down