Now that the Vikings are close to securing a playoff berth, I thought it would be appropriate to recap what they've been doing well and where there's still room for improvement.
On a positive note, Adrian Peterson has been much more successful at holding onto the ball this year. In addition, Favre has thrown very few interceptions. In fact, only Vince Young and Brady Quinn have thrown fewer interceptions this season. Sure, both AP and Favre haven't been perfect, but whom among us is? From a strictly statistical perspective, Jared Allen is 2nd in sacks, Peterson is 3rd in rushing yards, and Sydney Rice is 5th in receiving yards. All good stuff, but what I'm equally impressed with is the person who's responsible for telling Brad Childress when to challenge a call. I'm not sure what his exact stats are on challenged calls, but he's won the majority of them. Had he lost, he could have cost the team some valuable time outs.
Even the best teams and best athletes have areas where they can improve or develop, and the Vikings are no exception. For example, they need to work on avoiding dumb penalties. While the Vikes have been victims of a few bad calls this season, they've also been responsible for making some bad moves. The other thing they need to do is be ready for their road games. The only two games we've lost this year have been to mediocre teams on the road. The Vikings played well against the Bengals, but I couldn't help thinking how differently things could have turned out if they would have played in Cincinnati. The Vikings have used the noise of the home team crowd in the Dome to their advantage, but they also have to be more consistent and bring their A-game with them when they play elsewhere.
So, in the spirit of Christmas let me end with this: on Allen, on Favre, on AP and Sidney, on Winfield, on Harvin, on Kluwe and Brinkley -- from the field named after the world's largest mall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all (the way to Miami)!
