vikings/nfl
Dan Wiederer began covering the Vikings in 2011, enthusiastically delivering insight on the team across the Star Tribune's print and digital products. Prior to joining the Access Vikings team, he spent seven seasons covering ACC basketball at The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. He also covered the Chicago Bears in 2003 and 2004. Follow him on Twitter @StribDW.
Mark Craig has covered football and the NFL the past 20 years, including the Browns from 1991-95 and the Vikings and the NFL since 2003. Since 2008, Craig has served as one of the 44 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors. He can be followed on Twitter at @markcraignfl.
Posts about Vikings defense
Cook could return this week
Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: December 17, 2012 - 2:30 PM
Vikings expect Cook to be ready
Vikings cornerback Chris Cook could return to the field Sunday in Houston.
Cook, who broke his right arm Oct. 26 against Tampa Bay, was put on injured reserve with designation to return, a new category this season. Each team is allowed to use one such designation per season.
Cook has been practicing with the team two weeks. This Sunday will be the first time he will be eligible to play.
“We’ll continue to practice him much like we have the last couple of weeks,” Frazier said at his weekly Monday press conference, “with the mindset that we’re getting him ready to play because he’s eligible. We’ll have to see how he does as the week goes on, but our goal is to try to get him up if he shows that he’s ready. We’ll make that determination later in the week.”
In Cook’s absence, A.J. Jefferson has been taking the majority of snaps at the right cornerback position.
Cook’s return would be timely with the Vikings still chasing a playoff spot and with a tough road game against the Texans on the schedule.
Frazier said he didn’t know whether Cook would start or not should he play.
“We’ll just have to see how he does during the week and see how he comes along from a conditioning standpoint, as well as some of the things we’ll ask him to do game plan-wise,” Frazier said. “And then we’ll make a decision later in the week.”
Should Cook be active, the Vikings would have to make a roster move to make room for him. One possibility would be to release tackle Troy Kropog with the idea of returning him to the team’s practice
squad.
Forcing adjustments
Frazier said quarterback Christian Ponder’s play early helped spring running back Adrian Peterson.
The Rams were clearly keying on getting penetration to slow Peterson, who started slowly. Frazier said getting Ponder on the move helped change that.
“What kind of helped us was some of the naked (bootlegs) that we ran early that got Christian on the perimeter a bit. It made them take a little bit off of what they were trying to do as far as bringing a lot of people to the line of scrimmage. They had to step back at some point and say, ‘We need to play a little coverage.’ Once we got them in that mode … we were able to create some openings in their defense. But it was obvious their game plan was to just have a lot of people at the line of scrimmage to try to get penetration.”
Why bother?
Frazier was asked if he spent any time trying to figure out the NFC playoff scenarios involving his team.
In a word, no.
“I won’t even try,” he said. “I won’t even try. (The team will be) focusing on how we can beat a very, very good football team, the Houston Texans. That’s the most important thing, without question.”
Moving like a linebacker
Remember when the Vikings spent some time looking at Everson Griffen at linebacker? Sunday fans saw the skills that prompted the Vikings to give that a try. With the Vikings in a zone blitz, Griffen lined up at defensive end but dropped into coverage, intercepting Sam Bradford and sprinting 29 yards for a second-quarter touchdown.
“He’s one of those guys that can drop back in coverage, but yet he can put his hand in the dirt and rush the passer as well,” Frazier said. “That makes him unique in that regard. That’s one of the reasons we looked at him at linebacker. Some of the traits you saw on that (interception) were linebacker traits. The catch, the turn, and of course the run as well. You just don’t see D-linemen to be able to run down the sidelines like he did.”
Injury update
Defensive lineman Brian Robison, who sprained the AC joint in his right shoulder in the first quarter of Sunday’s game in St. Louis, is questionable for the game in Houston. The team, confident in its diagnosis, did not do an MRI on the shoulder, opting for an X-ray instead.
“We’ll have to see how he does throughout the week,” Frazier said. “We’ll get a better gauge towards the end of the week whether or not he has a chance or not.”
The only other injuries were minor, Frazier said. Cornerback/returner Marcus Sherels had a back contusion, but should play. And running back Adrian Peterson had some soreness coming out of the game.
Frazier said the team planned to continue to rest veteran cornerback Antoine Winfield during the week to keep him ready for games.
Warming up
To get ready for what the Vikings expect to be a warm Sunday in Houston, the indoor practice facility will be heated up during practice this week.
“Our players don’t know that yet, but on Wednesday when they come back we’re going to warm it up a little bit,” Frazier said. “They’re predicting about 72 to 75 (degrees in Houston Sunday), which is a lot different than where we are now.”
Final report: Vikings 36, Rams 22
Posted by: Dan Wiederer Updated: December 16, 2012 - 3:11 PMPostgame snapshot from the Edward Jones Dome, where the Vikings beat the Rams 36-22.
Good news: The Vikings defense came to play Sunday afternoon. And it started on the first series. A Brian Robison sack was the biggest play on the Rams’ opening possession, forcing a punt that allowed the Vikings to start their first TD drive in Rams territory. The offense responded with a 45-yard march and the Vikings took a quick 7-0 lead. In building a 30-7 halftime advantage, the Vikings defense got sacks from Robison, Christian Ballard and Erin Henderson and takeaways from Kevin Williams and Everson Griffen. Griffen returned his second quarter interception 29 yards for a touchdown. The Vikings finished plus-two in turnover margin. Quarterback Christian Ponder (17-for-24, 131 yards plus a 5-yard TD run) steered clear of costly mistakes. And, oh yeah, that Adrian Peterson kid busted off an 82-yard touchdown run as part of a ho-hum 24-carry, 212-yard day.
Bad news: On a day where so much went right, it’s hard to find much bad news. But the Vikings’ clock management again seemed suspect at the end of the first half. They took over for their final drive with 1:00 left at their own 47 and got four consecutive Ponder completions netting 29 yards. But the final pass of the half was a strange 2-yarder to Jerome Simpson. And with timeouts left, the Vikings probably could have run a few more plays. Instead, they let the clock run down to 0:04, called timeout and let Blair Walsh kick one of his five field goals on the day.
Extra point: With two games left in the regular season, Peterson has 1,812 rushing yards. He needs to average 147 per game in contests against the Texans and Packers to break Eric Dickerson's NFL single-season record of 2,105 yards.
Next up: The Vikings will travel to Houston next weekend. The Texans improved to 12-2 Sunday with a 29-17 home win over the Colts, clinching the AFC South title.
Kluwe: It was worth it
Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: December 12, 2012 - 1:44 PMKluwe: It was worth it
The final price tag for Vikings punter Chris Kluwe having voiced his opinion: $5,250.
And it was worth every penny.
Last Sunday NFL uniforms sported a patch celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Kluwe taped to cover the patch, then wrote, “Vote Ray Guy” on it. His point was that no punters were in the Hall of Fame, and that Guy certainly deserves to be the first.
Kluwe, who became a rather famous advocate for same sex marriage this fall, has now gone from Gay rights to Guy rights. And it cost him an NFL fine, standard issue for first-time uniform infractions.
Kluwe knew the fine would be coming, and it was worth it, he said, though he did have to get his wife to sign off on the protest beforehand. “It got people talking about it,” Kluwe said. “I heard the broadcast team talked about it for a bit. And hopefully people will realize, ‘Hey, punters aren’t in the Hall of Fame, maybe we should do something about that.’ ‘’
As usual, Kluwe took to Twitter to announce his fine, tweeting, “The good news is all the money goes to support former players through the NFL charity programs. Maybe they’ll vote for Ray Guy.”
So has Kluwe talked with Guy, whose cause he has taken up? “I haven’t talked with him,” Kluwe said. “Hopefully I’ll get to talk to him when he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
Enough talking
It’s not that there has been a shift in emphasis in the locker room. The goals the Vikings defense enter each game with haven’t changed. But, with a playoff push in progress, defensive end Brian Robison said there were some discussions last week on what the defense needed to do down the stretch.
“To us, it doesn’t matter what the offense does,” he said. “In our minds, we have to out-play the other team’s defense. That’s what it comes down to, the team that makes the most stops wins the games. .. We’ve always depended on ourselves to do that, to be the best defense on the field that day. But we haven’t always played like that. We came out last week and we said, ‘You know what? Enough talking about it, we gotta be about it.’ That’s what we did last week, we out-played them on defense, we scored on defense, we created turnovers, and we want to do the things that put our offense in the best position to be successful. Now we have to do that again.”
One area in which the defense has definitely improved is against the run. After a stretch in which the Vikings were gashed on the ground, the run defense has been good in three of the last four games.
During that four-game stretch Minnesota has allowed 133.3 yards per game, but just 2.6 yards per rush. This week the Vikings will see Steven Jackson, the Rams running back who is 71 yards from reaching 10,000 for his career.
“He looks awesome on film,” safety Harrison Smith said. “He’s a beast – tough to tackle, big, good runner. He’s patient. He gets his blocks and runs off them.”
Sherels could replace Jefferson
Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: December 10, 2012 - 3:24 PMThe concussion sustained by cornerback A.J. Jefferson against the Chicago Bears could test the team’s depth at the position this week.
Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said the team will have to wait and see if Jefferson is able to pass the tests necessary to play in St. Louis Sunday. Veteran Chris Cook is not going to be available to come back from his broken arm until the Dec. 23 game at Houston at the earliest. So who plays?
“It would be Marcus,” Frazier said of Marcus Sherels, the backup who has been a punt- and kickoff-returner this season. “And then, of course, we have Brandon Burton as well. So between those two, they’d get the bulk of the reps. And we’d define that as the week goes on.”
Sherels has started three games in his career, all coming last season. Burton has appeared in 14 games the past two seasons, starting one.
Praising the kids
One big reason for the improved Vikings record is the play of rookie cornerback Josh Robinson and rookie safety Harrison Smith. Both intercepted passes Sunday. Smith returned his for a score, his second pick six of the season. Robinson returned his pick to the Chicago 5-yard line, setting up the team’s second score.
“We’re making such improvement, and we’re doing it with a lot of young, young guys,” defensive end Brian Robison said. “Normally it takes two, three years before you start seeing results like that. Guys like Harrison and Josh Robinson, the plays they made {Sunday}? And you look at the improvement {safety} Jamarca Sanford has made this year? He looks nothing like he did last year. Guys are making improvements and it’s helping out the whole team.”
Road woes
With two consecutive road games coming up, and with the Vikings believing they have to win out to earn a playoff berth, the job is simple. The Vikings have to learn to win on the road.
This season Minnesota is 6-1 at home, 1-5 on the road, with the only victory coming at Detroit Sept. 30. Over the past two seasons the Vikings are a combined 3-11 on the road.
So what will it take to win on the road?
“I think if we can play a clean football game, where we are – for a change – plus when it comes to turnovers,” Frazier said. “Even in some of our games on the road we’ve executed well at times, but we haven’t done a good job when it comes to winning that turnover battle and it has cost us. Our margin for error is not very big, and when it happens it become very problematic for our team. So I’d love to go on the road, play some clean football, and see what the results would be.”
Said receiver Michael Jenkins: “We’ve got to find a way to play better on the road. I don’t know, {maybe} we could take the Metrodome name wherever we go and put it on other peoples’ stadiums.”
An important moment?
Frazier again emphasized the positive with quarterback Christian Ponder, pointing to what he called a key drive that began late in the third quarter.
The Vikings, leading by 14 points, got the ball at their 1-yard line with 48 seconds left in the third quarter. On the drive Ponder had two third-down throws to Jenkins on third downs, both of which resulted in first downs. The first was an 8-down completion on third-and-7 from the 4-yard line. Six plays later Ponder hit Jenkins for 10 yards on third-and-6.
The Vikings drive ended on the Chicago 41, resulting in no points. But it did have a big impact on field position. Chris Kluwe’s ensuing punt was downed at the Chicago 5.
“What he did in that fourth quarter, when we had those third-down conversions, that was big for our football team,” Frazier said. “It allowed us to possess the football. We were in a backed-up situation. … It was a major part of our being able to win that game.”
Etc.
One of Robison’s most enjoyable moments Sunday came when he led Harrison Smith into the end zone after Smith’s third-quarter interception. The fact that he got to engage Bears QB Jay Cutler in the process made it even better. “Any time you can throw a block you feel like an offensive player,” Robison said. “A fullback-type. So I got to see what Jerome Felton feels like."
Getting to the quarterback
Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: November 26, 2012 - 3:38 PMPressure drop
The Bears entered Sunday’s game with the Vikings ranked near the bottom of the league at allowing sacks. So why is it the only time Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was technically sacked was when he got his foot stepped on by his own lineman, falling to the ground?
In other words, why were the Vikings unable to get to the quarterback?
A big reason, Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said, is that the Vikings rarely put the Bears in the position of having to get the ball deep downfield. “They had a lot of five, six-yard passes and trying to run after the catch,” Frazier said. “So we didn’t get them into the kind of game we needed to be, where we were able to take advantage of what we thought was an opportunity for our defensive line.”
The Bears started the game by chipping on the Vikings defensive ends with the tight end, and never really had to deviate from that plan. Things were different for the Bears against San Fransicso the week before. In that game Chicago got behind early and had to get more aggressive in the passing game.
Sunday the Bears came out with a conservative game plan -- helping the line with tight ends and backs -- and the Vikings never forced Chicago to change.
“Their passing game was different than what they had used the week before or the week before that,” Frazier said. “They really shortened some things down, which was smart. They did the right things to do.”
And the Vikings offense never put the Bears in a position to have to change things up.
“In (the San Francisco) game they were behind,” defensive tackle Kevin Williams said. “They had to get receivers out and backs out to catch the ball. (Sunday) they chipped our ends and doubled up inside. That made it tough to get to the quarterback.”
--Williams was asked if playing outside, on natural grass, was a problem for the Vikings. Minnesota will do that again this week in Green Bay. “You’ve just got to execute,” Williams said. “Doesn’t matter where you play the game at. It’s about executing and doing your job. If you don’t do it you don’t win, whether it’s inside, outside or on the roof.”
--Center John Sullivan said the Bears used an unusually high amount of line stunts in an attempt to get pressure on quarterback Christian Ponder. “There were a lot of line stunts, but that’s also because they were up by so much, we were forced to pass the ball. It’s a byproduct of how the game is going. When a defense like the Bears can get you behind, and they can just pin their ears back and pass rush, it can be a pretty tough group to deal with.”
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