2-0 Bengals feast on Vikings

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted mm/dd/2005

Already the home team faces long playoff odds

 

So far, the 45th season of Vikings football has been no celebration. What it has been so far is embarrassing.

 

The Vikings fell to 0-2 after being beat down by the young, hungry Cincinnati Bengals 37-8. Last year, the Vikings qualified for the playoffs with an 8-8 record while the Bengals finished 8-8 last year and missed the playoffs.

 

This year, the Vikings were hyped as a preseason Super Bowl favorite because they traded wide receiver Randy Moss and built up their defense. Some in the organization have been patting themselves on the back for doing what they believed were the right things in the off season. But so far, after two games, the Vikings right now appear to be the worst team in the NFL.

 

Here's why they lead the NFL in turnovers with 12 in two weeks: Their Pro Bowl quarterback, Daunte Culpepper, the face of the franchise, has played poorly. Last year, he threw a franchise-record 39 touchdown passes; so far this year, he has zero. His QB rating Sunday was a career-low 36.4, which is as bad as it gets.

 

And, their so-called rebuilt defense allowed the Bengals 504 yards in total offense. The Vikings can't run the football, and when they do Micheal Bennett fumbles it away.

 

On the game’s second play Sunday, the team’s nunmber-one corner back Antoine Winfield was burned badly by receiver Chad Johnson for a 70-yard touchdown. Last week, in the loss to Tampa Bay at home, at least the defense put up a fight before cracking down the stretch.

 

Sunday, the Bengals made them look like the Bad News Bears and beat them down. The Vikings coaching staff have not figured out yet that teams don't fear their receivers deep now that Moss is gone and are sitting on certain routes. When you can't run the ball, you start to force things.

 

The Vikings had the ball 12 times on offense Sunday and turned it over seven times. This team scored their first offensive touchdown of the season with three minutes to play Sunday, trailing 37-0.

 

"We have a veteran group with a lot of pride, and we're embarrassed with the way we're playing, said Daunte Culpepper, who threw a career-high five interceptions and for the second straight game had five turnovers. "I'm determined to fix it. One thing we've got to do is stay together." 

 

That's their only hope, because with 14 games left, if these guys start pointing fingers and the offense blames the defense and the defense blames the offense, Head Coach Mike Tice will surely get fired. This was supposed to be a good football team. Sunday they were simply awful, pathetic, embarrassing.

 

Here's the bottom line: In recent years, only 14 percent of the teams in the NFL over the last six years have qualified for the playoffs after starting the season 0-2. Last year, no team that started 0-2 made the playoffs.