MinnesotaSportsScene.com

With no Vikings currently residing in drug treatment centers, it appears Zygi Wilf’s efforts to clean up the team’s image has been bearing fruit. Now that character is being managed, it’s time to consider the question of talent.

One potential weakness is at quarterback. Despite a decent record as a starter, QB Tavaris Jackson is still a question mark as a starter for the Vikings, carrying around an abyssmal passer rating, even though he improved during the team’s five-game winning stretch. The question is, can he improve enough to give an Adrian Peterson-fueled team the firepower it needs to win in the five-to-seven year window that Peterson’s career is likely to provide when it comes to going deep in the playoffs and make a Super Bowl.

Probably the most established name still out there is QB Byron Leftwich, formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars, most recently of the Atlanta Falcons. Leftwich has shortcomings but is considerably more experienced and could be a proficient enough caretaker to make plays and keep the team from losing off his own mistakes; but Leftwich wants to be an immediate starter, not a number two, and is certain to demand a meaty contract that would be substantial enough to force the team to give up on T-Jack altogether.

Probably not a direction the Vikings are ready to go just yet; look for them to draft a project QB in the middle rounds, perhaps late on Day One.

The Minnesota Vikings are still looking for help at defensive end. Almost a month into free agency, and one of the team’s top three glaring needs remains unaddressed. Although the weakness at wide receiver was strengthened with the signing of Bernard Berrian and the depth at safety was helped by the recent signing of Michael Boulware, as well as Madieu Williams earlier in free agency, the team still has not yet signed a defensive end.

In part, it was the team’s emphasis on these other positions that led to the oversight at DE. The top four or five free agent prospects signed before ever visiting Minnesota, primarily because Zygi Wilf’s private jet was too busy being a one-way ferry service for Williams and Berrian.

It appears that Vikings management may have to stock up on self defense products and hope that they can address their DE deficiency through the draft and post-draft roster cuts.

Basketball coaching legend Tubby Smith recruited over the summer like a man possessed and landed one of the best Gophers recruiting classes for his mens’ basketball team, possibly in Gophers history. However, Smith had a longstanding reputation to fall back on; no matter where he coaches, his name is nearly a brand name for quality coaching, just like Nike is a brand name for athletic footwear.

Gophers football coach Tim Brewster, not to be outdone, has worked tirelessly recruiting for the U as well, but with fewer advantages. First, Brewster’s a first-time head coach, not a living legend or a brand name coach. Second, in his first season as Gophers coach, his team posted a miserable 1-11 record. Nevertheless, Brewster proved hard work, enthusiasm and never taking no for an answer can produce results; depending on who’s doing the ranking, Brewster’s first recruiting class is a beaut.

Rivals.com ranks Brewster’s recruiting class for next fall as 16th in the nation and third in the Big Ten, while Scout.com ranks the Gophers class 24th nationally and fourth in the conference. Either way, it’s probably the best recruiting class any Gophers coach has put together since 1984, when Lou Holtz put together a great recruiting class following a 1-10 season.

The fact that the Gophers are set to debut in a brand-new on-campus football stadium in the fall of 2009 played a factor, I’m sure; recruiting top-notch football classes is about a lot more than handing out customized cheap pens. So a tip of the hat to Tim Brewster; with a lot fewer assets to work with and a much larger recruiting class to fill, Brewster has shown he can recruit right along with the best of ‘em… including Coach Smith of the basketball Gophers.

Whether it’s the Wilfs’ private jet or something as simple as a foam mattress, the Vikings ownership claims they want to build the club into a first-class organization, and they at least have several Vikings players believing it’s possible.

This off-season, the club will be looking to fill gaping holes as defensive end, wide receiver, and safety, as well as shoring up one side of its offensive line and upgrading depth at quarterback. While Minnesota’s cold-weather city locale may be a negative, most Vikings players apparently believe the team’s 8-8 finish places the team as a club on the cusp of playoff contention, which should make the Vikings organization a hot spot in the free agent market.

“I think we’re going to be one of the most dangerous teams out there, and that’s no exaggeration,” Vikings linebacker Ben Leber told the St. Paul Pioneer Press recently. “You look at the way we climbed the charts at the end of the season, and what we have playmaker wise, on offense and defense, and I really think this team is a shoo-in for the playoffs.”

Provided the team can shore up its weaknesses in the off-season through free agency and the NFL draft. With offensive rookie of the year Adrian Peterson bolstering the team’s running game, the Vikings are not far from the promised land.

First-year starter and redshirt freshman Adam Weber, who started every game for the Minnesota Gophers last year, will be in for a lot of competition next fall to retain his starting job. There will be so many top athletes vying for the position it could cause Weber to need some progesterone or something, for all the bloating.

In addition to Weber, the team already has the coach’s son, Clint Brewster, who will by vying for the position, but top-notch recruiting Tim Brewster isn’t settled yet. Also on the roster next fall is junior college transfer-recruit David Pittman. This recruiting season, he has already signed two blue-chip prospects, both of whom may be better than either Weber or Clint B.

QB John Nance of Cretin-Derham Hall is on board the the Gophers, and made a high school career tossing the ball to Notre Dame-bound Michael Floyd.

Joining Nance as an incoming freshman, and likely to be redshirted just because of the logjam at the QB position, is Indianapolis prep QB MarQuis Gray, who announced his Gophers-bound intent during the U.S. Army All-American game in San Antonio, TX. According to Rivals.com, Gray is a confirmed four-star recruit.

With all the talent at QB, the only real question for the Gophers is who these hurlers will be tossing the pigskin to, and whether coach Brewster has recruited enough defense to stop their Big 10 opponents once and a while and thus make all that offensive firepower mean something.

Coach Brad Childress saw his Minnesota Vikings drop the final two games of the season, robbing his team of a playoff turnaround to their season. After starting the season 2-5, the Vikings turned their season around more efficiently than a New York moving company, beginning with a big win against the New York Giants. After a loss to the Green Bay Packers, the Vikings when on a six-game winning streak to reach 8-6 and be within two wins of the playoffs.

But the Vikings choked against Joe Gibbs’ Washington Redskins, putting them behind the eight-ball, as they not only need to win their final game against Denver, but hope that a Dallas team resting their starters for the playoffs could still beat the Redskins. Neither happened.

Despite an emotional, two-touchdown, two two-point conversion comeback against Denver to tie it up and force overtime, T-Jack fumbled the game away almost immediately, robbing the Vikes of even an emotional, moral victory of going out on a win.

And even with all this, Coach Brad Childress will be invited back for the third year of his five-year contract; his only hope is to immediately improve the quality of the team’s receiving corps; even Tom Brady would look average throwing to these stooges and greenhorns. Of the lot of them, only Bobby Wade and Sidney Rice have proved they deserve to be back next season.

Bill Clinton won the presidency with a four word motto that helped him stay on message: It’s the economy, stupid.

Perhaps when addressing the problems that remain with the Vikings this off-season, Coach Brad Childress would do well to adopt a similar catch-phrase: It’s the receivers, stupid! When going out on the free agent market for body shop supplies, that’s what we need to stock up on most on offense, not a new quarterback.

That will change once the Vikings rid themselves of receiving cancer, former first-round draft pick WR Troy Williamson and sign a key receiver or two who can actually catch the ball. The problem is not so much in inexperienced QB Tavaris Jackson as it is a dearth of talent in the receiving corps.

Sidney Rice looks like a keeper, and Bobby Wade’s not bad; we just need one or two more decent receivers to back them up, since Robert Ferguson is not a long-term fix. Wade finished the season with 54 receptions, Ferguson and Rice with 32 and 21 respectively. Williamson had only 18. Time for him to go, especially after two yet drops that could have been difference-makers against Denver.

Not even heroic QB Tom Brady would be able to win with this year’s group of sad-sack receivers.

Even though the Vikings missed the playoffs on Sunday, dropping to 8-8 after an overtime fumble gave Denver the ball deep in their own territory following an amazing Vikings comeback i the last seven minutes of the fourth quarter to tie the game up, rookie running back Adrian Peterson will probably still be named NFL rookie of the year.

He finished the season with 12 rushing touchdowns, one receiving touchdown, 1,342 rushing yards, and 268 receiving yards for a grand total of 13 touchdowns and 1,610 yards combined. Of course, that’s not counting his special teams yardage. Not bad for a player who missed two games, because that’s a 14-game total.

So why was his team only 8-8 and missing the playoffs? In my opinion, it call comes down to using Adrian Peterson correctly. In some games, Coach Childress utilized Peterson a lot and in others games, the number of carries Peterson saw was slimmed down by hoodia diet pills to next-to-nothing.

Here’s the hard facts: In games where Peterson was allowed at least 15 carries or more, Minnesota went 5-3. In games where he carried the ball fewer than 15 times, Minnesota only went 1-5. So it’s clear that while running Peterson 15 times or more doesn’t guarantee victory, running him fewer times almost certainly guarantees a loss.

The Minnesota Vikings may be back in the playoff picture, but one of the toughest games remaining on their schedule will be played tonight, on Monday Night Football on ESPN, as the Vikings face off with division rival, the Chicago Bears. It’s no secret that the Vikings have played poorly against their NFC North competitors this season, but for the 7-6 Vikings to stay on track for a playoff spot, they must defeat the Bears at the Metrodome.

Fortunately, this is not the Bears team that the Vikings faced earlier this season. QB Kyle Orton will be at the helm, facing off against a decent Vikings defense. And with the Vikings finally having found a passable passing game and discovering their real identity this season as a wham-bam running team, the faceoff should not be a repeat of their last disappointing showing against the Bears early this season at Soldier field.

Tonight’s one of the biggest nights of the regular season for the Vikings: time to put away the skinceuticals and put on their game faces! Time to make sure it’s the Bears who will be massacred on Monday Niight, and not the other way around.

Here’s a question to ponder: which is riskier, banking on a Vikings win or online banking?

Personally, even though the Vikes won ugly, 29-22 over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, I think opening a checking account with an online bank like WaMu is a whole lot safer than relying on this year’s Vikings team for guaranteed results.

Looking over the Vikings game, the team improved a bit by passing for a season-high 171 yards, but still found most of their offense on the ground, with Chester Taylor gaining over 160 yards and three touchdowns in place of the injured Adrian Peterson. The win moves the Vikes to a 4-6 record with six games left, and if the Vikings do everything right, they might just manage to pull an 8-8 finish out of this train wreck. But that’s a big if.

By contrast, WaMu has very nice online security, you can apply online, and the whole experience is really no different than you might find at a local corner bank. Except maybe WaMu is better at email communication, online account access and being a bit human about the whole experience. (I have seen some traditional banks really mess over some friends of mine.)

So yeah, I’d say online banking’s a safer bet than the Vikings right now, much as I am a Purple Pride fan through and through.

Alarmists are already looking to take out a burial policy on the Minnesota Vikings after last weekend’s shocking injury to rookie RB sensation Adrian Peterson, who, now that the dust has settled, appears to be headed toward missing anywhere from one week to the rest of the season after tearing his lateral collateral ligament in a severe knee sprain caused by a helmet-leading hit on Peterson by Packers cornerback Al Harris.

The hit came early in the second half of the game - the half in which Peterson is known for becoming his most explosive - and although Peterson has gone the classy, Kirby Puckett-style route, saying the hit was clean, game footage clearly shows Harris aiming at the knee and leading on the tackle with his helmet. It’s clearer than the Zapruder film.

For this reason, MinnesotaSportsScene.com has decided from this point forward, as long as Al Harris is on the Packers defense, that rather than “America’s Team” or “God’s Team,” the Cheeseheads’ defense will now be referred to as Murderer’s Row. If they want to play like thugs, they’ll get called on it here.

As for Peterson, no one wants to say it out loud, but this type of injury is typically a six-week recovery period, though Peterson wants to attempt a return much sooner, if possible. The great debate is whether the Vikings should allow Peterson to attempt a return and risk a longer-term, more career-threatening injury, or play it safe, bench him the rest of the way, and allow him time to heal completely, and perhaps even get surgery, if that’s needed.

Only time will tell.

Prior to Sunday’s game, Minnesota rookie running back Adrian Peterson was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Month for the month of October. The young-legged runner must want to make it two in a row, as he responded to the honor today by breaking the all-time NFL single-game rushing record against the San Diego Chargers.

In Sunday’s 35-17 Vikings win over San Diego, Peterson rushed 30 times for 296 yards, one yard better than Baltimore’s Jamal Lewis back in 2003. It obviously also breaks Peterson’s own Vikings team record of 210 or so, set back about three weeks ago, the last time the Vikings won and, not coincidentally, also the last time coach Brad Childress actually allowed Peterson to touch the ball 20 or more times.

It’s a simple formula for winning, Chilly: Give Peterson the ball. A lot.

In addition to the 296 yards rushing, Peterson had three touchdowns as well as one reception for 19 yards.

And here’s the scary part: Peterson’s a rookie. He’s not yet the player he can become. The LaDanien Tomlinson era is over; the Adrian Peterson era has begun!