Vikings Message Board.Com

So here we are - at the half-way point in the 2012 season.

I'm not sure we've really made any progress as a team. Sure, the record is better, but the last three weeks have certainly put a damper on any enthusiasm for that. For one, compare the scores from last year. Each game was a repeat of a 2011 game. At the Redskins - last year, a 33-26 win: this year a 38-26 loss. Home vs. the Cardinals - last year a 34-10 win: this year a 21-14 win. Home vs. the Bucs - last year, a 24-20 loss: this year a 36-17 loss. So by those accounts, the Vikings are roughly 17 points worse this year than last year. That's a pretty depressing thought, that we could be much worse than in 2011.

As a matter of opinion, I can't see us winning more than one game in the second half of the season. The home game against Detroit is the best bet. Away at the Rams is the next best shot. Other than that - fuggeddaboudit. At Green Bay, Chicago, and Houston?!? Not a chance in heck. At Seattle, and home against the Pack and the Bears - not seeing it.

I've tried to not jinx this next fact, by not bringing it up, but what I've seen in the past three weeks makes the jinx effect pretty superfluous. We needed to get to eight wins, but we aren't going to make it. Why you ask? Because in the history of the NFL, we are the only team to limit our back-to-back losing seasons to two (other than the first three years expansion years of the franchise). Look at every other team, and you'll see they go through down times where they are out of it for five-six, years. Sometimes a decade. But since 1964, the Vikes have never gone more than two years losing before coming back to be competitive. I think that's an amazing record. But now it's pretty certainly going to be three years in a row after the 2012 season.

It's a QB league. And we don't have one. Or at least, we aren't playing one. I keep hearing that Joe Webb is limited as a QB, but can you really be more limited that what has been on display at the position this season? Or that teams figure out Joe Webb. But can anyone say that teams haven't figured out Ponder? I know they won't play Webb unless Ponder gets injured, but I'm fairly certain that he is our last, best hope for victory. So do we hope that Ponder wakes up with a tingly leg (ala Simpson)?

I guess I feel a little bit of the problem with the team is that they have started to read their press clippings - the ones that say that they are a surprise team with a "championship caliber defense". That distraction - that a team is so good that they don't need to focus - is one that has cost the Packers a couple games this year. It happens to all but the best coached teams. It may be why so many Superbowl champions have come out of the wild card round lately.

You want some optimism? Maybe we get to 8-8 with a couple late wins, when Houston and the Pack are resting their starters for the playoffs. But I'm not certain we could beat their second string these days.

John_Viveiros wrote:So here we are - at the half-way point in the 2012 season.

I'm not sure we've really made any progress as a team. Sure, the record is better, but the last three weeks have certainly put a damper on any enthusiasm for that. For one, compare the scores from last year. Each game was a repeat of a 2011 game. At the Redskins - last year, a 33-26 win: this year a 38-26 loss. Home vs. the Cardinals - last year a 34-10 win: this year a 21-14 win. Home vs. the Bucs - last year, a 24-20 loss: this year a 36-17 loss. So by those accounts, the Vikings are roughly 17 points worse this year than last year. That's a pretty depressing thought, that we could be much worse than in 2011.

It's a depressing thought but last year isn't this year and those teams have undergone changes, some of them very significant. That's especially true of the Bucs and Redskins so the point differential between this season's results and last season's results doesn't seem meaningful to me as a measure of improvement (or lack of improvement). Bottom line: the Vikes beat the Cardinals again, lost to the Bucs again and the only game of the 3 with a different outcome was the one against the team with the likely ROTY and a running back who would probably be in that conversation if he wasn't overshadowed by his QB.

I've tried to not jinx this next fact, by not bringing it up, but what I've seen in the past three weeks makes the jinx effect pretty superfluous. We needed to get to eight wins, but we aren't going to make it. Why you ask? Because in the history of the NFL, we are the only team to limit our back-to-back losing seasons to two (other than the first three years expansion years of the franchise). Look at every other team, and you'll see they go through down times where they are out of it for five-six, years. Sometimes a decade. But since 1964, the Vikes have never gone more than two years losing before coming back to be competitive. I think that's an amazing record. But now it's pretty certainly going to be three years in a row after the 2012 season.

We'll see. They're 5-3 right now and I don't think it's anywhere near impossible for them to win 3 or 4 more games this season. They could lose out too but it's easy to be cynical or demoralized after the team has a bad performance or two. The games still have to be played and if the NFL is anything, it's unpredictable. I'm not giving up hope that the Vikings can finish at .500 or above but even if they just get one more win, that would still double last year's win total.

My mid-season assessment is simple: we knew going into the season that this was an incomplete, rebuilding team. We've seen the upside of that in a quick start and great contributions from some young players. We've also seen the downside of it and that's to be expected. The team still has a lot of work to do and their fast start raised expectations so naturally, now that some of their shortcomings have been thoroughly exposed, expectations are crashing as the fans come down off the sugar high of a great start.