The phrase “must win” is already being used by Minnesota Vikings players two games into the 2011 season.
After leading in the first half of both regular season games, the Vikings find themselves as the NFC North’s “cellar dwellers” two games out of first place behind both Green Bay and Detroit, the latter being Minnesota’s next opponent at home this coming Sunday.
Vikings fans at the Metrodome had a lot more to cheer about last weekend in the first half than when the score of the Packers trailing Carolina was shown around the stadium. Minnesota took a 17-0 lead against Tampa Bay into the locker room.
However, despite having an even larger halftime lead than the opening week at San Diego, where passing yardage was a scarce commodity for the Vikings, Minnesota once again saw a significant lead turn into a defeat against the Buccaneers.
Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns, said the team did a better job against Tampa Bay of “mixing up” running and passing plays, but in the second half didn’t turn offensive drives into points.
“We started out pretty good in the second half, but we need those drives to keep us alive — some kind of points with those drives...,” Peterson said. “You gotta give credit to Tampa Bay, they wanted it more (Sunday).”
By falling to 0-2 on the season, the Vikings have fallen into a statistical longshot category, in which several sports commentators have recently stated that only 12 percent of NFL teams losing the first two games of the season have made it to the playoffs.
The Vikings were without the sizable presence of Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kevin Williams, who sat out the first two weeks because of a suspension that finally took effect. However, head coach Leslie Frazier didn’t attribute Williams’ absence to the loss to Tampa Bay, which scored 24 points in the second half.
“(Williams is) a great player, but the guys that are playing, they have to play well and at times, they have,” Frazier said. “Letroy (Guion) has played well. Christian (Ballard) has played well at times. We just have to, across the board, play better for 60 minutes and we’re not doing that right now.”
The only points the Vikings scored in the second half came on a Ryan Longwell field goal after a drive stalled deep in Tampa Bay territory.
Quarterback Donovan McNabb, who characterizes Sunday’s home game against Detroit as a “must-win situation,” is stressing the importance of scoring touchdowns rather than settling for field goals when the Vikings get within the opponent’s 20-yard line.
“We have a tough opponent coming in with a little confidence,” McNabb said. “This is an opportunity to kind of get back on the horse and put ourselves in position in our division to where we want to be.”
Detroit has greatly improved from being the NFC North’s laughing stock in recent years, which have included an imperfect 0-16 regular season record, with the help of high draft choices at quarterback and on the defensive line, for instance.
Losing to the Lions would put the Vikings three games out of first in the NFC North, regardless of whether Green Bay wins or loses against Chicago on Sunday when the Packers return to Soldier Field for the first time since last season’s NFC Championship game.
Though the NFL regular season still consists of 16 games following approval of a new collective bargaining agreement this summer between the players and owners, overcoming a division deficit of three games even this early in the season doesn’t make the phrase “must win” much of a stretch, given the competition.
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Boneske may be reached via e-mail at kevin@ifallsjournal.com
