Patrick Reusse: $63 million hasn't bought much to cheer about

NASHVILLE — Vikings owner Zygi Wilf tapped on a door in the visitors locker room and then opened it. The man behind the desk was Brad Childress, and Zygi's hand-picked coach appeared to be as pale as the whitewashed wall behind him.

Wilf closed the door, stayed inside for a couple of minutes and then headed for the locker room exit. He was asked for a comment on his high-priced team falling to 1-3 with Sunday's 30-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

"I don't like to comment after a loss," he said. "Catch me after a winning game."

Presumably, the owner figured he would have more than one of those to celebrate in the season's first month when he forked over all that money to upgrade a team that was 8-8 a year ago.

Zygi approved the trade for pass-rushing end Jared Allen and gave him a contract with $33 million in guaranteed money. He also guaranteed $16 million to receiver Bernard Berrian, $13 million to safety Madieu Williams and nearly $1 million to fullback Thomas Tapeh as free agents.

So far, Wilf has the right to feel short-changed for his $63 million investment both in the standings and in production. Consider:

• Allen and the Vikings were sackless for the second time in four games on Sunday. He has two sacks, Kevin Williams has two, and that's it for what was advertised as a fearsome front four.

• Williams has missed the first month because of a bad neck. He finally made it to the practice field for limited work last week. He will miss several more games.

• On Sunday, Tapeh -- the alleged replacement for veteran Tony Richardson -- was inactive for a second game in a row.

The owner might not have wanted to comment immediately after Sunday's loss, but that surely wasn't a problem with the Purple Faithful. There's nothing that will upset a wild-eyed fan more than starting September with the vision of a Super Bowl, and starting October with the playoffs as a long-shot.

The urge back home will be to throw the athletes from both sides of the ball under the bus, but the problem Sunday was the same as it has been for four games:

A mistake-prone, stagnant offense, whether it's Gus Frerotte at quarterback or Tarvaris Jackson.

Did anyone check the playsheet? Rodgers was successful with a few rollouts in the first half, and then the Packers put the offense in storage in the second half.

They ran a total of 17 plays in that half. They threw only six passes, mostly dumpoffs well underneath the first-down chains.

It wasn't much different in Sunday's second half.

Once Rod Bironas' 49-yard field goal gave the Titans a 23-10 lead midway in the third quarter, the Titans either ran or threw the ball short. They totaled 70 yards and four first downs in the second half.

Allen was making apologies for the 1-3 record and offering what he figured the public would want to hear -- namely, "We have to get more pressure" -- to the TV cameras.

"We made some mistakes -- turnovers, and we had some mistakes on defense, too -- in the first half and fell behind," Allen said. "What happens when you're playing from behind is the other team is going to run, or throw quick and with max protection.

"We had good pressure in the second half last week against Carolina, because we got ahead of them. And you know what? We also had good pressure the whole game against Peyton Manning in the Indianapolis game.

"We hit Peyton all day. It's just that he's so good, gets rid of the ball so fast, that he can make a play even when he's getting hit. That pass play that won the game for Indy ... Peyton got buried on it and still made a great throw."

Allen paused and said the obvious: "We have to get on some teams early. If we're playing from ahead, the quarterback will start dropping back, and then you'll see pressure ... lots of pressure."