Back to back: Another Vikings collapse?

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 12/15/2004

 

Yes, we’ve seen it all before, starting 6-0 and missing the playoffs. If the Vikings don’t hurry up and get busy over the next three weeks, they will have allowed yet another potential championship season to go up in smoke.

 Preseason Super Bowl team on the road to Jacksonville — right! Getting out of the gate fast again at 5-1, this team, like last year’s, has been in the playoffs virtually since September.

 One problem: After September comes October, November and December, and if you don’t get it done then, January can be cold and cruel. We reminded most of you months ago not to believe the hype, that this team is simply a paper champion until they actually do it.

 It has become abundantly clear that Mike Tice, the third-year head coach of the Vikings, still has the training wheels on. He proved it last year, starting 6-0 and finishing the season 3-7. Can you remember Arizona?

 Opening drive of the last game, Cardinals vs. Vikings, the Purple got to the one-yard line first and goal. After three cracks, Tice decided to gamble and go for the touchdown in a scoreless must-win game instead of taking the sure three points and the field goal.

 It backfired. Minnesota got stuffed and lost the game and the NFC North title on the very last play of the year, 18-17. It was the greatest collapse in NFL history. Players play and coaches coach.

 When the Vikings were 5-1 again, I suggested that Tice made a big boo-boo on Saturday, October 31, introducing President George W. Bush to 20,000 screaming Republicans at the Target Center rally and presenting him with a Vikings No. 1 jersey.

 It was the Saturday night before the Vikings vs. New York Giants game, with the most important presidential election just three days away. The Giants trampled the Vikings 34-13 that Sunday.

 I suggested then that Bush might win reelection but Tice may have lost his football team. Since October 31, the Vikings are 2-5 and have lost two in a row.

 And what happened Sunday in the 27-23 loss to Seattle with 2:16 to play in the game, first and ten for the Vikings at the Seahawks 20? Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan called for an end around reverse pass by Randy Moss intended for Marcus Robinson in the back of the end zone.

 The pass was poorly thrown and intercepted; Vikings lose. It might have been a great call in the preseason, or in the park somewhere playing with the boys. It’s easy to blame Moss and say he should have just thrown the ball away.

 But Moss is not a quarterback; he is a gifted receiver just trying to make a play. That was a terrible call when your season is on the line, a bad coaching decision just like handing that Vikings jersey to President Bush in a blue state.

 Point the finger of fault at Tice, because he is the head coach. It was a boneheaded call that worked in practice but not when it counts, and it may cost the Vikings a playoff spot.

 Red McCombs, remember this: You get what you pay for. Tice, making $700,000 a year, is by far the lowest-paid head coach in the NFL and the only head coach earning less than $1 million a year. Mike Holmgren, head coach of Seattle, makes $5 million a year.

 With three games remaining in the season, the Vikings travel to Detroit this week. They then play Green Bay in the rematch Christmas Eve, December 24, at the Metro Dome, and then go to Washington January 2.

 If the season ended today, the Vikings would be in the playoffs. One problem: It ends on January 2. Last year, with three games to play, the Vikings lost both road games and beat Kansas City at home.

 Another Vikings collapse? Stay tuned.

 Fitz Notes & Quotes

 What do Mike Tice, Mike Mularkey and Jack Del-Rio all have in common? They are all former Vikings players turned NFL head coaches. Mularkey is at Buffalo, Del-Rio at Jacksonville, and Tice is with the Vikings.

 All three head coaches have their teams in playoff contention with 7-6 records. Which one becomes the first former Vikings player to lead his team to the playoffs? Go to www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com. 

 Tyrone Willingham is the first Notre Dame coach in 70 years in any sport to be fired before his contract was up. Was race a factor?

 Willingham has landed on his feet, becoming the first African American head coach in Division 1 A to be fired and re-hired by another university. The University of Washington has hired the former Vikings assistant.

  Catch the Arizona Cardinals’ leading receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, Jr., on “Wheel of Fortune” Friday, January 7, with proceeds to benefit the Carol Fitzgerald Memorial Fund.