Vikings 3 - Bears 28

Minnesota Vikings 3 - Chicago Bears 28

It's time to bring the ship back to shore and replace the captain. Culpepper actually was able to invoke feelings that I have not felt since Warren Moon. Pure incompetence. The only thing successful Culpepper was able to do today was to lead the team down the road of failure. And he did one hell of a job at that. Congrats Daunte, you have managed to go from a great quarterback, to joining the ranks of such classic failures as Ryan Leaf.

Critics and professional analysists will scream that Randy Moss is the reason why Daunte is falling apart this season . . . they are wrong. It would not matter if Randy was on the field, Daunte would not get the ball anywhere near him anyways. High School quarterbacks can ussually hit a reciever on the run, lead the reciever, thus allowing the reciever to gain a few extra yards. Culpepper could not hit a simple button hook with any accuracy. Every pass was thrown behind a reciever, too far above the recievers head, or so damn low that ants started to buy fire insurance for thier hills. You would think that just out of pure luck he could have hit a reciever in the numbers, but Daunte is a statistical anomoly that would baffle Einstien. There is no way Randy Moss would have brought about a different outcome in any of the games this year.

Point #1 - Daunte has a better receiving corp this year. Yes we did lose Randy Moss in the off season, but we gained far better secondary receivers that should have easily covered the Moss loss. Koren Robinson may be a drunk, but he is no slouch on the football field. We still have Wiggins, and Marcus Robinson is in a far better playing condition, with more motivation than he had last year.

Point #2 - Daunte holds the ball too long before making a decision. We may be having problems with our offensive line, but it does not help matters when they have to block for 10 seconds on every play.

Point #3 - The accuracy of Daunte Culpepper is absolutly devestating to his confidence. The reason he probably sits back in the pocket for so long is because he does not trust himself to make the hard accurate throw. He looks at a receiver, decides he can't make the throw, looks at around, but he does not trust himself to make any throws. Then he gets sacked. Tice is probably yelling at him on the sidelines to get rid of the ball, so he goes out there and throws into impossible coverage in an attempt to make something happen.

Culpeppers lack of confidence in his ablility to make an accurate throw, coupled with increasing pressure to get rid of the ball, leads him down the road of bad decisions. He will continue to throw terrible passes and often times into heavy coverage until he learns to trust himself. He does not have a keen sense of awareness of his ability. He is the most destructive force on this team right now because of this. It is time that he gets benched until he learns to trust himself. Bring in Brad Johnson for a few games, let Daunte cool down, relax, and get back some of his confidence on the sidelines. If it never comes back, so be it. We cannot allow our past love of Daunte to interfere with winning football games. He was great in the past, but he is losing games for us now.

The only novelty that Daunte has over Johnson is that he has the ability to run. But Daunte does not run anymore. The asset that made him rise above the average qb in the past, grows dustier and dustier each week. Brad Johnson may not be able to run, but he has proven himself to be an accurate quarterback all throughout his career. I fully believe that it is time to make the switch. BRAD JOHNSON FOR QUARTERBACK!!!!

The Defense was not that bad this week, they were just put in bad situations. They forced 3 turnovers and defended the pass pretty decently. The running game was another story though, as Thomas Jones rushed for 2 Td's and nearly a 4 yard per carry average. Missing a 40 yard field goal puts the defense in bad field position to start, let alone allowing a 21 yard average on punt returns. The Defense is not to blame for this loss.

Edinger, like I predicted, was one of today's goats. Missing 3 of 4 field goal attempts is inexcusable. I don't care if you tripped, or if one was blocked, the second missed attempt was one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. NO excuses Edinger, no excuses. You get paid to make kicks on astroturf and grass.

Mewalde Moore seemed to take a page from the Michael Bennet school of running today. He looked absolutly tired, lethargic, and jsut plain lazy. He lacked heart, just like Bennett, he fell down quickly, just like Bennett, and jsut plain pissed me off all game, just like Bennett.

It is obvious that Mike Tice's days are numbered in Minnesota, but I am taking the stance that he should not be fired until the off-season. There is no point in instituting an interm coach for the rest of the season, the players will not listen nor respect the replacement. Essentially we will be starting a whole lot of drama for no reason at all. The Vikings seem to do this quite fine already anyways.

In recap, pathetic game. The majority of the burden rests upon Culpeppers shoulders though. He is continuing to hurt this team each week he plays. He has lost all confidence and is afraid to make a standard pass. The Running game is not without blame either, Moore laid down today and never established the run. And Special teams took 9 points off the board. There is not a whole lot to look forward to next week. Maybe we just wont embrass ourselves as badly as we have against the rest of the NFL. After all it is the best rivalry in sports, if we cannot get up for the next game, we need to cut bait on this year and look for new quarterbacks and head coaches.

Game Day Hero - Pat Williams, 6 tackles, 1 forced fumble, and the only guy who looked motivated

Game Day Goats - Daunte Culpepper, Paul Edinger, Mewalde Moore

Skol Vikings, or something like that. Whatever

Mr. Weatherstone