Vikings' Jackson is Mr. Composure

Early in his first game Sunday as the Vikings' unquestioned starting quarterback, Tarvaris Jackson ran into a slight problem. He couldn't understand the play calls through the tiny speaker in his helmet.

A frequency problem transformed coaches' voices into high-pitched squeals, blending in with crowd noise at the Metrodome. Displaying no signs of panic, Jackson calmly improvised.

"I just went with what I thought I heard and what I knew we had in the game plan," Jackson said "There was only so much that it could have been. I called what I thought I heard."

The Vikings corrected the problem after several series, Jackson said, in their eventual 24-3 victory over Atlanta. Monday, Jackson had a chance to grade his guesses during a film session.

Did he get them all right?

"Nope," Jackson said, smiling. "I was wrong on a couple. It wasn't a bad play. It was nothing like calling a pass play when it was a run. It was a run play, just the wrong run."

Jackson figures to encounter regular adversity as he navigates his first season as the Vikings' starter, but coaches will be more than satisfied if he reacts with similar poise. While there was plenty to pick on from his Sunday performance — a third-quarter interception and two errant passes for receivers open deep down field, for example — Jackson's composure was an encouraging sign for future encounters.

Coach Brad Childress, in fact, might have invented a word in evaluating Sunday's game.

"I thought he looked comfortable back there," Childress said. "I didn't see any jitteriness."

Avoiding jitters has long been one of Childress' top criteria for quarterbacks. He describes the position's ideal personality as "flat-line." He has spoken often about the dangers of a young quarterback who comes to the sideline with a "wide-eyed look" that conveys a frazzled and/or panicked mental state.

Jackson, according to Childress, "has always been clear-eyed." Whereas a "wide-eyed" quarterback might struggle to focus on the sideline or have an inaccurate perception of the previous series, Jackson engaged Sunday in normal discussions with Vikings quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers.

"[Jackson] keeps his mouth shut," Childress said. "He doesn't vent when I may be venting to him a little bit. He does a good job of getting back with Kevin, sitting back there and going through the pictures and the looks. ... He doesn't see ghosts. When you go back and look at the pictures or look at it on the tape, basically he is telling you what happened. He sees it pretty clearly."

When a quarterback is even-keeled, the theory goes, he can more quickly address mistakes. Childress noted at least two areas for improvement from Sunday's game.

The first was a pass intended for tight end Visanthe Shiancoe. Jackson rifled the pass so hard that when it glanced off Shiancoe's hands, it traveled some 15 yards before Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall made a diving interception.

The other play also came in the third quarter, when Jackson ran into trouble on a bootleg pass. He sprinted out too quickly, beating his protection to the spot, and Atlanta linebacker Michael Boley grabbed him for a potential sack.

Instead of immediately throwing it away, Jackson first tried to fight free from Boley's grasp. Finally, Jackson flung the ball sideways out of bounds.

"I hate to see that [ball] swinging around," Childress said, "but I'm glad he had the presence to know he was out of the pocket and was able to throw the football away."

Overall, Jackson said he "felt a lot more comfortable" Sunday than he did in his two-start stint at the end of last season. Not even a high-pitch squeal fazed him.

Kevin Seifert • kseifert@startribune.com