Now that we've had a reasonable night of sleep to digest and think about what transpired yesterday in San Diego, here are five thoughts we'd like you to consider: 1) Donovan McNabb's 39 passing yards amount to a paltry, sad number. But anyone pining for Christian Ponder already should consider that the young rookie would potentially be killed or at least scarred for life playing behind the offensive line as it stands right now. McNabb at least did a credible job on some occasions of avoiding the rush and keeping plays alive with his feet. That was probably the most encouraging thing we can say about the passing game yesterday.
2) However: You simply cannot win in the NFL in this day and age with that type of passing output. Adrian Peterson is great. He is your money man. But a modern team cannot be solely built around a great ground game. It's just not how the NFL works any more. As such, our greatest fear for these 2011 Vikings is that their two biggest weaknesses in Week 1 -- passing offense and passing defense -- were not mirages, and that they lack either the personnel, the schemes or both to keep up with a lot of teams.
3) As bad as the offense looked at times with McNabb at the helm, it was absolutely ludicrous to bring Joe Webb in for that two-play sequence during a crucial stretch of the second half. Jared Allen had just bailed the team out with an interception. It was still a 17-14 Vikings lead in the third quarter. Peterson had just established a little ground control with two runs for a combined 12 yards and a first down at Minnesota's 43. The Webb stuff is a wrinkle you unveil early when you are testing the waters -- not on perhaps the most critical series of the game.
4) You might look at 300-plus passing yards for Philip Rivers and declare otherwise, but we actually thought the play of the secondary was encouraging in many regards. The biggest difference between the first and second half, in our mind, was the Vikings couldn't muster enough pressure in the final two quarters to make Rivers uncomfortable. Even when sending 5 or 6 men, he had time to throw, which is asking a lot of your defensive backs. We liked how Fred Pagac dialed up pressure from different angles (though we despise blitzes from corners and safeties that take 8 years to develop). San Diego just did a better job of adjusting to it in the second half.
5) Ultimately, the outcome was the expected one. The Chargers should win their division this year, while any sane Vikings fan will admit that while it might not be a true rebuilding year, it will be a feeling out process under a new coach and several new players in 2011. As such, we weren't left feeling infuriated at the end of the game (except when the Chargers were able to ice the clock with 3.2 billion off-side penalties). The biggest frustration is the game was there to be stolen. The rational comedown is that the better team won.
