Seattle at Minnesota: Vikings Give One Away

Seattle takes over first place in the NFC West by beating the Vikings on Sunday. It was the first time in about a month that the Seahawks have shown any heart. They held off the Vikes for a win, but it was more like the Vikings handed them this one.

Both defenses were pretty inept in the first half, but they both rebounded in the second. Seattle moved the ball pretty well in the second half, but had to settle for 2 field goals. It was more than enough to overcome the Vikings' play-calling and clock-management mistakes.

In the second half the Vikings abandoned the run and once again forced Culpepper into full pass mode. The Seahawks stepped up their defensive pressure, and the Vikes folded up. Onterrio Smith had only 2 attempts in the second half and fumbled a third. Michael Bennett came in for some plays and did well running on the few attempts he got.

Then, with Seattle leading 27-23 and a little over 3 minutes left in the game, the Vikings got the ball at their 27 and quickly marched downfield to the Seattle 20 with 2:16 remaining.

Here is where the Vikings coaching staff apparently suffered simultaneous blackouts and some junior staffer took over. I say this because the smart thing to do in this situation is to run down the clock a little bit and try to score a TD with less than 40 seconds left in the game. One run by Bennett or Smith would have taken the clock to 2:00. It also would have left the Vikings some options to try and score on the ground rather than risking interceptions.

But the Vikings decided to try to score a TD as quickly as possible and leave plenty of time for their pathetic defense to allow Seattle to drive only 40-50 yards for field goal position. This strange strategy might have worked, but they decided to remove any doubt and allow Randy Moss to attempt the apparent game-winning-only-to-be-lost-by-the-defense TD pass. It was, to nobody's surprise, picked off.

In an earlier post I praised Bill Cowher for his smart play to let Jerome Bettis throw a pass which was caught for a TD. I am not being inconsistent. Cowher called this play after running Bettis up the gut of the Jets several times and luring them into believing that Bettis was going to be the one to carry it in. Bettis is a RB, not a WR, which also helps to pull the defense up and open an area up for a receiver.

Bettis' pass only had to travel a few yards, where Moss' pass was over 20 yards. There was no real threat of Moss running, so the DBs stayed back in coverage. And, finally, the play with Bettis was not a do or die situation where the game, division title, and a playoff berth may have been on the line.

Cowher showed how to game plan, use the running game, and bait your opponent into coverage that you can take advantage of. Tice showed that he hasn't a clue how to manage the clock, use the running game, or adjust to their opponents.

And that is why Cowher is headed to the playoffs again, and the Vikings are going through another late-season collapse.