Vikings must play smarter and better

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said "We didn't play smart" following the team's 24-17 loss to San Diego after leading 17-7 at halftime, a good explanation of why the team lost a game it should have won.

Two 15-yard personal fouls played a big part in two of the Chargers' fourth-quarter scores. Vikings safety Eric Frampton committed a horse-collar tackle on a punt return that would have left the Chargers inside the 20-yard line. Instead they started the drive at the 32, which later resulted in a field goal that tied the score 17-17. Then cornerback Cedric Griffin had an unnecessary roughness penalty on the drive that led to the Chargers' winning touchdown.

Give Chargers coach Norv Turner and his staff credit for making some great offensive and defensive adjustments that completely changed the complexion of the game.

The Vikings defensive line shut down the Chargers running game in the first half, holding their great running back, Mike Tolbert, to 10 yards rushing and four catches for 15 yards. The Chargers rushed for only 35 yards in the half.

Outstanding Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers threw for 142 yards in the first half but only one touchdown, along with an interception.

On the other hand, the Vikings passed for only 36 yards in the first half but had an effective running game, with Adrian Peterson totalling 74 yards on nine rushes.

Things completely reversed in the second half. The Vikings and Donovan McNabb had a total of minus-8 yards passing after halftime, a stat that has to be some kind of record for futility. And they rushed for only 34 yards, with Peterson held to 24 yards on seven carries.

And while Peterson finished with 98 yards, it was a far cry from the 296 yards he ran for against the Chargers in his rookie year of 2007.

Meanwhile, in the second half, the Chargers threw for 192 of their 330 passing yards while rushing for only 42 yards. Rivers kept finding open receivers on quick-hitting passes.

And Tolbert had two of his three touchdowns in the second half, including the winning 19-yard touchdown catch from Rivers with 5:01 remaining.

The Vikings put on an impressive performance on both offense and defense in the first half. That type of performance will win a lot of games, but their second-half performance would lose a lot of them, too. One thing is certain: You aren't going to win many games when you are minus-8 yards passing in the second half.

Kill improving Matt Limegrover has been on the coaching staff of Jerry Kill for 12 years and now has watched the Gophers football coach suffer two seizures on the sidelines, including Saturday with 20 seconds to go in the 28-21 loss to New Mexico State at TCF Bank Stadium.

First of all, the good news from the medical staff is that Kill is resting comfortably in a local hospital and he was aware of everything going on.

Limegrover reported that after past seizures Kill has returned to coach the game after he had the attack, but whether he will coach against Miami (Ohio) this Saturday is still unknown.

Before Joel Maturi hired Kill, the coach informed the Gophers athletic director of his problem and wanted him to know about the seizures before he hired him.

Limegrover added that what Kill has told the coaches about the side effects of a seizure is that "it's like having a full-body cramp for several minutes."

"It was kind of a perfect storm of the circumstances [the heat and humidity on the field] that brought this upon him," Limegrover said. "But now it's a matter of getting the medication that he's on back regulated. ... Just recovering from the, for lack of a better term, the trauma of actually having the seizure, in the past it's been several days of recovery and then, as I told several of the players, he'll be back by about Wednesday chewing their tail ends, working on getting them better to go beat Miami."

Limegrover said that while the assistant coaches who have been with Kill for a long time don't discount the severity of a seizure, it's not as bad as it looks when it's happening.

"But that's always the shocker," Limegrover said. "Even myself, I've been through it several times with him, and to have that happen, it takes the wind out of you. So if it happened for the first time, or someone sees it for the first time, you can really appreciate the fact that it's really a shock to the system. That's the big thing we tried to reassure our team is that hey, this definitely looked worse than it really was. And that he's going to be fine and it's just going to take him a couple days to get him back on track."

As for the Gophers' poor performance in the upset at the hands of an ordinary New Mexico State team, Limegrover said: "We have to keep looking at ways to make sure we put those kids in the best positions to be successful, and that right there is not going to cut it. We have a lot of work to do. It's disappointing to all of us."

Jottings • Bryant McKinnie, the left tackle released by the Vikings because he was overweight, was in a Baltimore Ravens uniform on Sunday after he made a weight of 372 pounds set by the Ravens. A weight-loss clause in his contact kicked in, earning $75,000 for McKinnie.

• Ex-Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson played well in his first start for the Seattle Seahawks, although they lost 33-17 to the San Francisco 49ers. Jackson went 21-for-37 for 197 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, posting a quarterback rating of 78.3. Jackson was without the aid of former Vikings teammate and wide receiver Sidney Rice, who sat out the first game of the season because of a shoulder injury.

• Also missing action in Week 1 was former Gophers running back Marion Barber III, who sat out the Bears' 30-12 victory over Atlanta because of a calf injury. Former Gophers tight end Matt Spaeth had a great debut for Chicago, grabbing two receptions for 7 yards, including a 1-yard touchdown pass from Jay Cutler. It was Spaeth's sixth career touchdown reception.

• The three Twins relievers who left as free agents last season have had mixed success with their new squads. Jesse Crain has posted some of the best numbers of his career with the White Sox, going 8-3 with a 2.35 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 61 1/3 innings pitched. His eight victories are the second-highest total in his career, after recording 12 with the Twins in 2005. Matt Guerrier had been serviceable with the Dodgers, going 4-3 with a 3.59 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings pitched. But Jon Rauch has struggled with the Blue Jays, posting a 4.85 ERA, his highest since 2008.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. shartman@startribune.com