Sid Hartman: Vikings offense has great weapons, as Billick knows

Brian Billick was the offensive coordinator for maybe the most talented offense in Vikings history. On Sunday, he might have gotten a chance to see a team with the personnel to challenge that 1998 team.

That was Billick, who went on to win the Super Bowl as coach of the Baltimore Ravens, doing color commentary for Fox on the telecast of the Vikings' 34-20 victory at Cleveland on Sunday.

And Billick, a great student of the game, talked about three of the great offensive weapons the Vikings have in quarterback Brett Favre, running back Adrian Peterson and versatile rookie wide receiver Percy Harvin.

Billick coached the 1998 Vikings team that scored 556 points in going 15-1, an NFL record for points in a season at the time. That club then blew the chance to get to the Super Bowl by losing to Atlanta in the NFC Championship Game.

That club had quarterback Randall Cunningham at his best with a great receiver in rookie Randy Moss and running back Robert Smith, three weapons similar to what this team has.

Favre didn't put up very big statistics in his Vikings debut, completing only 14 of 21 passes for 110 yards. But he can certainly match Cunningham in ability if he stays healthy. Peterson, who carried the ball 25 times for 180 yards and three touchdowns Sunday, is going to rewrite the Vikings record books over his career.

No rookie receiver will ever come in and dominate the way Moss did in 1998, but the Vikings coaching staff has said Harvin has the potential to be a great star. Like Moss, Harvin fell in the draft because of perceived problems out of college. The Vikings got Moss with the No. 21 pick and Harvin at 22.

The big question about this year's team is the offensive line. That 1998 team had a veteran offensive line, while this current group has a first-year starter at center in John Sullivan and a rookie right tackle in Phil Loadholt.

Time will tell if they can join Bryant McKinnie, Steve Hutchinson and Anthony Herrera in protecting the way that 1998 group of Todd Steussie, Randall McDaniel, Jeff Christy, David Dixon and Korey Stringer did.

Well, the schedule is in the Vikings' favor. It sets up well for the younger players to get better with experience by the time to start facing better teams later in the season.

Not surprised One person not surprised at the play of senior linebacker Nate Triplett is former Gophers coach Glen Mason, who recruited the Delano football standout. Triplett gave a commitment to play for the Gophers in May 2004 during his junior year of high school.

Triplett has been perhaps the Gophers' best defensive player through two games, after getting a key interception in overtime against Syracuse before coming up with 17 tackles and a 52-yard fumble return for a touchdown in Saturday's 20-13 victory over Air Force to open TCF Bank Stadium.

Mason said Triplett "is a physical specimen, he's a put-together guy. He could run and he was strong and he was tough, good kid, good student."

Triplett also played running back in high school, with one of his more memorable performances coming at the Metrodome when he ran seven times for 140 yards and two touchdowns and caught an 80-yard TD pass in a 28-13 victory over Crookston in the Class 3A semifinals in 2003.

"I had always thought he'd be a good player," Mason said. "But after the Penn State game [Mason did color commentary for Saturday's Penn State-Syracuse game on the Big Ten Network], I went to a place that had two TVs. I had the Ohio State-Southern Cal game and I had the Minnesota game against Air Force on Big Ten TV, and I'm sitting there watching him play, and he's making tackles all over the place. That play he made on fourth-and-1 where he stopped the guy [Air Force receiver Jonathan Warzeka], that won the game. Then the fumble recovery, I was sitting there and a bunch of people are sitting around, and I said, 'That guy right there, Nate Triplett, if you're just basing it off of performance, he's playing as good as any linebacker in the Big Ten Conference.' "

There are 27 seniors on the Gophers, most recruited by Mason and his staff.

"Well, I had feelings for those kids, I wanted them to succeed," he said. "And it makes me feel good. You take a guy like Nate Triplett, and all of a sudden in his senior year he's playing great. You look at a guy like Eric Decker that literally the only two people that recruited him was us and St. John's, and he's as good as any wide receiver. You know what I thought about Adam Weber, I thought Adam Weber was perfect for our run offense and the things that we would do off that. But, yeah, it makes me feel good. We recruited some good football players."

There were three Minnesota natives on the Air Force traveling squad: kicker Erik Soderberg of Eden Prairie, reserve defensive end Wylie Wikstrom of St.Paul and linebacker Jordan Waiwaiole of Spring Lake Park.

Zac Lee, the son of former Vikings quarterback Bobby Lee, took over as the starting QB for Nebraska this year. In the Cornhuskers' first two games, blowouts of Florida Atlantic and Arkansas State, the young Lee has hit 42 of 57 passes for 553 yards and six touchdowns.