Stick a Fork in That Piece of Toast: Vikings 2010

[Fritz]

I normally hesitate to make such bold pronouncements (well, let's pretend I do) - football is such a funny game it's hard to say what will happen - but in this case it's hard to see the Vikings turning this around.

I attribute this largely to the locker room dissension. Less than a week after spewing about Chilly to the Chicago Sun Times, and saying they weren't going to lay down, the quotes in today's Minneapolis Star Trib suggest that the players felt not enough effort was given at certain times...in addition, Chilly apparently barely spoke with any players.

Wll Zigy give Chilly the Ziggy this week? I wonder. They seem adrift now.

[Iron Mike]

Anybody want to hazard a guess as to whether retaining Moss and canning Chilly instead would have stopped BrINT from throwing multiple picks yesterday???

[channtheman]

Wilf reportedly not going to fire Chilly. Let's see if we can blow them out and get him fired.

[red]

That team has flat out quit

towards the end of the game yesterday when the queens still had life, the camera showed rice, berrian, and harvin all sitting on the bench joking around and not even paying attention to the game

pretty sickening sight

[Scott Campbell]

Could this be the most disappointing season for Viking fans ever? I mean, what a train wreck. What a freak show.

Thanks Ted!

[Tony Oday]

It is awesome...The Traitor losing BAD and hopefully quitting when they are mathematically out of the playoffs. Chilly keeping his job thus far. Allen showing what a fraud he is, the defense showing that they are not that good...I LOVE IT!!!

[red]

after the game favre came up with a brand new injury. he says his shoulder is all screwed up and thinks it might be related to the bicep injury from a couple years ago. he says he will be meeting with DR. Andrews this week

i have a feeling this could be the end for him and its his way of getting off the sinking ship

[denverYooper]

Agree with that. They just looked bad yesterday. The Bears committed 12 penalties, Cutler threw 2 picks and the Bears still won by 2 TDs.

It didn't really help that they kept kicking to Hester.

[Fritz]

That team has flat out quit

towards the end of the game yesterday when the queens still had life, the camera showed rice, berrian, and harvin all sitting on the bench joking around and not even paying attention to the game

pretty sickening sight

Sickening? That's awesome!

[gbgary]

bert, jen, chilly, moss, 3-6...LOL!!

[MadScientist]

I was trying to find an on-line applet that would turn the Viking logo into a piece of toast, but no luck. Anyone good with photoshop want to take a crack at it?

[hoosier]

http://www.domeplus.com/images/Vikings_images/Home/toaster.JPG

[vince]

Man I hope the Packers stick the final dagger into the throats of these guys on Sunday.

http://1500espn.com/sportswire/Pelissero_Time_to_face_facts_these_Vikings_just_ar ent_any_good111410


Time to face facts -- these Vikings just aren't any good

CHICAGO -- It's still too soon to bury the Minnesota Vikings. Check back on that in a week.

It is, however, time to bury the notion they're a better team than they've shown in a season-long calamity that crossed its midway point on Sunday at Soldier Field.

For all their talent, big names and bigger expectations, these Vikings are lousy. Period, point blank, no questions asked.

Their slow-bleeding, 27-13 flop against the Chicago Bears showed again that any interested team with half a quarterback can win just by waiting for the guys in purple to sabotage themselves.

"We're running out of games," Vikings quarterback Brett Favre said, understating the obvious for a team that stands three back of Chicago and Green Bay with seven to go.

"At the rate we're playing, it won't take but a couple more and we'll be out of it."

Forget playing a complete game in all three phases -- one of the running clichés recited six times now through nine games in losing Vikings locker rooms.

This was a three-phase failure against an overachieving Chicago side that at times seemed equally hell-bent on self-destruction.

Four turnovers, five negative-yardage plays and only 240 net yards on offense.

A trip and bad read opening the door for touchdowns on defense.

A coverage-unit collapse Devin Hester exploited for returns of 42 (on a punt) and 68 yards (on a kickoff) against the Vikings' suddenly beleaguered special teams.

"It ain't over yet," end Jared Allen said. "We can still go 10-6. I know that's optimism, but heck, what are you going to be, jar's half-empty guy?"

At this point, half-empty would be an improvement. This jar is coated with a thin film of backwashed delusions from a locker room that hasn't bettered a decent outfit yet.

Owner Zygi Wilf's flight home surely included a protracted pondering of Dallas' 33-20 upset against the New York Giants, six days after coach Wade Phillips got canned.

Next weekend's home showdown with the Packers represents the last chance for rescue to the Vikings, who have lost nine straight on the road and nine of their last 14 overall.

"You deal with it," coach Brad Childress said about calls for his firing. "It's not something you're happy to deal with, but you deal with what's out there. My name's behind the Vikings team, and it all starts with me."

That's why it keeps looking more and more likely Childress eventually will pay for the Vikings' epic failure, even though blame has to be spread for their weaknesses on the field and weirdness off of it.

Who can really fault Sidney Rice and Bernard Berrian for refusing to play at less than 100% on what looks like a sinking ship?

By the end of Sunday's game, Percy Harvin had joined them on the bench, leaving a $1 million-a-game quarterback searching for the likes of Greg Lewis and Hank Baskett in the 2-minute drill. And afterward, Favre was left to answer questions about whether he's a peace that his 20th -- and theoretically final -- NFL season might end like this.

"Will we make the playoffs? I have no idea," Favre said. "No idea. And for anyone in our locker room, for anyone to think beyond next week or really, beyond today, do a little self-evaluation -- we will be watching the playoffs. That's probably the better guess than us making the playoffs, and that's just being honest, unless we -- old cliché -- find a way to turn it around."

The Vikings have 60 more minutes to do it. Sixty minutes next weekend at the Metrodome to keep the glass from being drained completely empty.

And it's hard to imagine the Packers doing more to help the cause than the Bears, who dropped a handful passes, missed a field goal, threw an end-zone interception and racked up 116 yards in penalties -- yet still won by two touchdowns.

"You have the ability to go 10-6, which last time I checked was a really respectable record," guard Steve Hutchinson said. "We've got the guys in the room to do it, and for the most part, we've got the majority of the guys who did it before. If you come to work like all's lost, you can't do that."

Sixty more minutes of this, of course, and all really would be lost.

Then, these Dead Vikings Walking could be buried for good.


Tom Pelissero is Senior Editor of 1500ESPN.com

[ND72]

A ton of the people I talked to up in Minneapolis this weekend are sick of the football season, and mostly sick of Brett Favre. I kind of chuckled in talking to many of them. They really thought the Favre thing would be a one year thing, and it was magical, it just didn't end the way they wanted....but almost all of the people I talked to really thought and hoped they would move on and see what Tavarias had or anyone else would bring, and were angry they didn't draft Colt McCoy.