Rainy Days & Mondays Always Get Jeff & Jeremy Down...

Monday emails...
Jeff,
Do you still think the NFC West is the worst division in football? The only NFC North team to even look competant last week got trounced by the Bears, the Vikings might be the worst team in football and the Packers aren't far behind. Will 2005 go down in history as the worst year ever to be a Minnesota sports fan? Think about it.
Jeremy

Jer,
Yes, it's unquestionably the worst division in football now. I tell ya, the fact the Bears are leading with Kyle FREAKIN Orton at QB, that's all you need to know. How do the Vikes get fixed? I mean, at least the Pack have been competitive in their 2 games. The Vikes have looked awful in pretty much every aspect. Culpepper needs to figure things out in a hurry, and as scary as it is to say, I think Tice calling plays now will be an improvement over Loney. By the way, we can STILL blame that one on Red, as he again didn't want to spend decent $$ for a coordinator.
Jeff

Jeff,
I agree, blaming Red for Loney is the right call. But what about everything else? We picked up talent all over the defensive side of the ball and they are just flat out embarrassing right now. The offense... there's no excuse for that either. Something has gotten inside Daunte's head and he is in trouble in a big way, the running game is non-existant. Anybody who still thinks that Michael Bennett has a shot to be a good back in this league is kidding themselves. I was shocked when I heard a guy this morning on KFAN say that they need to just give him the ball for an entire game and let him figure it out. Really? Seriously? Two fumbles in the first half isn't enoughto yank him? And then for him to complain about getting pulled, give me an F'ing break!!! Our only hope at this point is Zygi Wilf... he's going to pull the trigger here pretty soon and I think we are going to see a shake up like nobodys business.
Jer

Jer,
Agreed about Ziggy. He already made a shrewd move by only reworking Daunte's contract for this season. And of course not re-upping with Tice. My question is how long do you stick with Daunte? By leaving Daunte in there the entire game, AND by taking over control of the play-calling, it seems to me TIce is going down with his QB. Granted the offense looked better on that last drive, but the intensity from Cincinnati is going to be a little different when they're up 37-0 than if the game were close. Still, I'll give the passing attack one more game to see if play-calling is really all it is. But with how lost Daunte looks, I don't think that's all it is.
As for running the ball, Mewelde should be the starter. Yeah, it's tough to give Bennett more carries when they got in the hole so fast against the Bengals, but he's had 2 games and done nothing but fumble or barely cross the line of scrimmage.
Defense? What to do indeed. 9 guys, Jer- NINE of them are either 1st round picks or have been to the Pro Bowl. There's talent there but something's wrong. As good as our line is supposed to be they're still not getting a pass rush or stopping the run, and the secondary can be better. We need to start over at linebacker. Watching the Chefs game last night, I'm now thinking Derrick Johnson should have been the choice instead of Mike Williams instead of Troy Williamson with that 7th pick. If Daunte continues to struggle, when SHOULD we see Brad Johnson?
Jeff

Jeff,
Are you like me? Are you totally NOT looking forward to the BradJohnson era? I'm not convinced it will come to that. I still believeDaunte is going to figure something out, but if he doesn't do it byhalftime of the Saints game, he's a marked man. Like I said before,it seems like something just got in his head. He says he's going tobe as confident as ever, but he doesn't look like it now. Regardingyour voicemail about him seeing new defensive sets this year and notbeing able to figure it out, that would make a lot of sense. Hedoesn't seem to know who to throw to, he's missing the guys that he isthrowing to, if he sees them at all, and it literally almost lookslike he's throwing to the other team sometimes.You are right about the defense, I can't argue at all. Is it possiblethat Ted Cotrell just isn't that good of a coordinator? He had verylittle talent last year and he did nothing. This year he's beenhanded the world on a silver platter and still nothing is going right.I'm struggling with where the line between bad coaching and notexecuting comes in. Obviously turnovers aren't a coaching problem andneither are penalties, but then again, does that point to the team notbeing prepared? I just don't know. If a coach is to blame then ALLof the coaches are to blame. Did you see how wide open Johnson was onthat first touchdown? Nobody was even close. Is that poor execution,or was the wrong defensive set called?All I know is somethings got to give and something needs to give soon. It's a good thing we are in the NFC North or we'd already be out ofit. What's our time frame for hitting the panic button? I saw a staton SportsCenter today: since 1990 only 14% of teams starting theseason 0-2 made the playoffs. Ouch! So... what was your favoritememory of the Mike Tice era?
Jeremy

Jer,
Not sure if you've checked out ESPN.com lately. The poll question right now is should Tice be fired? Over 80,000 have voted and 54% say yes.
Also, the Texans, whose offense has sucked as much as the Vikes, fired their O-Coordinator today. Hmmmm...