Destiny abandons Vikings in NFC final collapse
If it was the bold uncertainty of destiny against the comfortable submission of tradition, tradition clearly won last Sunday’s shocking end to the Minnesota Vikings season in that 38-7 debacle in Philadelphia.
Vikings fans are legendary for their long-suffering outlook and ultimate failure to win a Super Bowl. Story after story told the tale, of how even Bud Grant couldn’t win one with repeated tries. Each retelling those stories was magnified because, of course, the Super Bowl will be in the Vikings palatial new Minneapolis stadium next week.
But all those stories made me wince. Teams and players are not affected by all those historic horror stories; they know nothing about them, and they don’t care. They are media fabrications, and so many in the Twin Cities media are at their best when they write negative stuff and point out all these meaningless historical retellings.
My standpoint is that each season is its own entity, and each team has its own shot at grabbing the elusive momentum of destiny. The UMD hockey team did it when they won its only NCAA men’s title; the UMD women’s team did it five times under founder and first coach Shannon Miller. The Twins did it when they won both their World Series crowns. The University of Minnesota hockey team did it three times in six years when Herb Brooks waved his magic wand, and when he waved it again while coaching the 1980 U.S. Olympic team to its Miracle on Ice gold medal at Lake Placid, it was conclusively a team of destiny.
I was among those who was strongly in favor of destiny, and in fact I believed the Vikings would convincingly beat the Philadelphia Eagles because of quarterback Case Keenum, who brought the offense to cohesive life, and that No. 1 ranked defense. Destiny did grab hold of that NFC playoff game when the Vikings opened the game with Keenum directing a surgically precise march down the field, for an opening touchdown pass to a remarkably wide-open Kyle Rudolph for a 7-0 lead.
Maybe from 50 years of covering all kinds of sports, seeing thrills of victory and considerable agony of defeat, I was not watching through purple-colored glasses. I had predicted exactly what happened on that opening drive, although I was pleasantly surprised when it happened on the first touch of the football.
I settled back into my favorite recliner and prepared to watch the game unfold. The great Vikings defense held, and the Vikings got the ball back, but a stunning turnover and a defensive touchdown for the Eagles made it 7-7. At that point, there was not fear or apprehension, just the realization that this would be a tough game.
There was no way to know that the entire Vikings game rhythm, and that date with destiny, had disintegrated that swiftly. A horrible ending to the first half put the Vikings in arrears, and when the Eagles scored after the second-half kickoff, the Vikings dissolved into a puddle of ineptitude. Game after game, under Keenum’s amazing hand, the Vikings had come through for all sorts of victories and only a couple failures. This was a failure brought about by complete collapse of everyone in the organization, and being one of the NFL’s four best teams won’t do much to put salve on the wounds of those who seem to crave wounding.
A 38-7 thrashing had its good points. It seemed incomprehensible that any of the naysayers and cynics trustiing in the tradition of losing could point to any single play, or any single player, as the goat or the reason for the loss. If it had been 38-35, they would have been everywhere. But 38-7 represented a total team effort, in the totality of its collapse.
And yet, Twin Cities columnists and fans who seemed to be just waiting for failure jumped on coach Mike Zimmer, and on Keenum, and on the defense. In reality, all were to blame, if blame must be handed out. True, Keenum didn’t have a great day, and Zimmer had to be in shock, as his trusted defense suddenly was incapable of stopping the Eagles offense and contributed to making Eagles quarterback Nick Foles look like the superstar of the year. Keenum was hammered and hassled, as the offensive line suddenly was incapable of blocking any of those blind-side rusher.
But you know what? When the current media types feel the need to jump on any and every losing team, I always think back to a Minnesota Wild dressing room scene, when captain Mikko Koivu courageously faced the relentless media horde trying to find players to blame for losing their Stanley Cup Playoff series to the St. Louis Blues last spring. The Wild had played hard, much better than the Vikings did last Sunday, but they lost four excrutiatingly tough games. When the sound-bite-seeking media pestered Koivu for explanation, he quite calmly said, “You know, the other team played very well, and they have the right to take the momentum, too.”
Every team has a chance to win, just as every team has a chance to fall short. In the end, only one team can win it, and losing 38-7 might be easier to stomach than losing 28-27 for the diehards.
My only point of consternation is that if the Vikings had fumbled and bumbled every opportunity from the opening kickoff on, it would have been a collapse of monumental proportions. But they played their system, executed every play and marched down the field with such authority and precision for that opening touchdown, I was suckered into thinking they were about to play “their” game. That should have given them rhythm to support their great chemistry, and allow that now-trite word “momentum” to hold sway.
We may never know what the Eagles did to adjust and suddenly take over the game by making all the plays while disrupting anything and everything the Vikings could try. We do know that the Vikings couldn’t find any way to make any tactical adjustments to counter the Eagles. But that might have been because the 180-degree change in the game’s proceedings was so sudden, in the final minutes of the first half and the opening drive of the second.
We can only assume there was a surprising and complete shattering of the Vikings spirit and emotion. It was mental, on both sides, with the Eagles seeing the chance and barging onward and upward on one side. And it was as though the Vikings all became dispirited simultaneously at the thought that their grip on destiny was gone and all that negative tradition was easy pickings for the aroused Eagles. Or, maybe, the Eagles were a team of destiny too. And only one could advance.
In the AFC final, we know New England has all systems “go” at playoff time, and Tom Brady was magnificent in leading the comeback victory over a Jacksonville team that certainly also looked like a team of destiny through the firt half. The Patriots comeback was a lot like the Drew Brees New Orleans rally against the Vikings a week earlier, only this time the Patriots pulled it off.
We will not get too far into the accusation that the officials always seem to give New England as many breaks as required in games at New England, but you could go back and look at three or four pass interference calls — both ways — and make your own decision. Whenever a Jaguars receiver ran down the field and had a Patriots defender grab and interfere, the announcers accompanied the video replays by saying, ”Great defense.” And when a Patriot receiver seemed to hand-grapple with a Jax defensive back, more interfering than interfered-with, the announcers would say, “That was obvious; they’re going to call that every time.”
Still, I don’t understand how a Patriots defense shredded by Jacksonville through the first half, suddenly played so well through the second half. Are they ridiculing the Jaguars in the Jacksonville media? Not sure. That might be the exclusive property of Vikings backers, who have their own definition of “long-suffering.”
And now, we await the change that will make next season a unique proposition. Case Keenum is the catalyst of this team, but a healed Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford are also capable of quarterbacking this team. Interestingly, all three are free agents. Will some get great offers elsewhere? Will Pat Shurmer, signed immediately to go from Vikings offensive coordinator to New York Giants head coach, and who was a champion of Keenum’s long-suppressed potential, cause Keenum to follow him to the Giants? And what happens if all three quarterbacks sign elsewhere?
Sadly, the collapse in the NFC title game will obscure the many games and thrills this season’s Vikings team provided for us.
Oh, and by the way, they’re still going to play the Super Bowl in Minneapolis next week. Does anybody care?
Greyhound Hockey Rolls
The Duluth East hockey team continues to roll through the season, winning 4-1 over a strong Brainerd team last Friday night, then erupting to blitz Roseau 10-3 Saturday afternoon at Essentia Heritage Center.
This Greyhound team is something special to watch, and dedicated fans understand the preciousness of this outfit. A very good friend who is also a very good hockey fan told me he didn’t go to last Friday’s UMD-North Dakota game because “I wanted to watch East.” It’s true, that while we don’t know how far this year’s East team will go, they are going into their final eight regular-season games, starting with Prior Lake Thursday night and Bloomington Jefferson at 12:45 p.m. Saturday.
Last Saturday, the ‘Hounds got a 2-0 lead on Roseau when Jack FitzGerald scored twice for the third line’s ignition. In the second period, the first line clicked into more than sharp focus. Garrett Worth, who might be the most dynamic goal-scoring machine in the area, scored a goal at 3:21, then another at 6:36, coming off the right boards and fitting a perfect shot high, short side. Nick Lanigan deflected in a right-point shot by Frederick Hunter Paine, and it was so deft the officials first credited the goal to Hunter Paine. But it was scored by No. 11, at 11:11.
Worth scored again at 11:26, and it was 6-0 before a quick and elusive Roseau senior named Alex Verbout scored for the Rams at 13:39. Worth notched another at 14:49, and his fourth goal of the period made it 7-1. Ryder Donovan opened the running-time third period with a goal at 0:17, and after Aaron Huglen scored for the Rams, Worth was the only player to spot a puck resting alone in the crease and knocked it in for his fifth goal of the game. FitzGerald finished the East assault to complete his hat trick from behind the net, and Roseau scored last, when Verbout converted a perfect 2-on-1 saucer pass from Nathan Adrian.
I heard a cynic say on the radio that East was “trying too hard,” and getting 50 shots a game but only two or three goals. That was a couple of hours before the Greyhounds scored 10, on 37 shots. This team is something special, and the season is running short.
