Chillyball

A win is still a win, but when you win like this, it's about the worst one can feel after a win. I was at the game. I screamed my guts out, much to the chagrin of the neighboring fans. My mood while ruining my voice varied greatly however.

The game could not have started better. The Vikings made the rare decision to receive the ball on the kickoff, and it paid off with a quick touchdown drive, set up by All Day's first of over twenty yards in a few weeks. He stayed quiet for the rest of the first half, but he wasn't needed.

Brett Favre has transformed this offense. The threat of Peterson gives Favre very good looks, and he's taking advantage. After a season with a forty-seven:fifty-three pass:rush ratio, the Vikings have already passed ten more times than they've ran. That's a great thing because, after the first two games of dinking and dunking, Brett's leash is off. He's developing a good rapport with Sidney Rice between the red zones and with Visanthe Shiancoe in the red zone. What's odd is that Bernard Berrian hasn't gotten a lot of long looks, which seems a side-effect of the play-calling. Either way, you know the offense is absolutely humming.

The defense is humming in a different way. When the pass rush doesn't hurry the quarterback, e.g. the entire fourth quarter, the secondary lets receivers get open. It didn't help that Antoine Winfield got hurt (seriously, why can't they announce that at the stadium?), putting Karl Pay-dirt-for-you-mah into the line-up. As you can imagine, it did not work well. He overran Mark Clayton on his touchdown catch, in addition to completely whiffing (with his half of the Vikings defense) on Ray Rice for a big preface to another touchdown. That's fourteen points that Winfield might have prevented. He's one of their best defenders. When he's not on the field, twenty one points in the fourth quarter happens, game-winning field-goal drive happens, and a well-deserved loss should have happened.

Yet that gift-wrapped win could have been taken on the Vikings last offensive possession. Third and nine at the Baltimore seventeen yard line. Childress had ridden Favre's hot right arm all day, yet with the game within grasp, Chilly stepped off his steed and rode another. Peterson had a great game as well, but the likelihood of gaining nine yards on a draw play on such a crucial play? Very low. I've no doubt that Childress would say he was trying to catch the defense off-guard. The truth is he settled. He settled for the small hope that his tired, injury-depleted defense could do what they hadn't done the entire fourth quarter. He played so as not to lose. He did not play to win, and it's a miracle they ended up winning despite him. It was Chillyball at its very finest, in the most leveraged of moments. Kudos to Brad for collecting all this great talent. It does not make him a good game-manager.

The Vikes are undefeated, but I'm still bitter that Childress made me feel otherwise.