Disaster in the desert!
By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 12/31/2003

Phoenix, AZ — Only two teams in the annals of the NFL since 1978 have started the season 6-0 and missed the playoffs. Welcome to the We-Blew-It Club, reserved exclusively for Washington and Minnesota. For the Vikings, it’s three years in row on the outside looking in.
The NFL Playoffs — that is what this business is all about. When you don’t get in, it’s because you were not good enough to be in. To lose the way this team lost is a disgrace. To have the No. 1 offense in the NFL and to know that you gift-wrapped the NFC North to the hated Green Bay Packers is a joke.
The Sun Devil Stadium was filled with at least 40,000 Vikings fans; the 52,743 in attendance was the second largest crowd of the year for Arizona. Green Bay drew a season-high 58,000.
I don’t care what Head Coach Mike Tice says, this team underachieved. It did not reach its potential. And that’s coaching, for all of you brainwashed fans who thought better days were ahead when owner Red McCombs blew it in firing Dennis Green. You’re part of the problem, too.
Please, a show of hands! Thank you, you may put your hands down.
Before the season, I told you this team should be no worse than 10-6. They beat four playoff teams — Kansas City, Denver, Seattle and Green Bay. Then they turned around and lost to four 4-12 teams — Arizona, Oakland, San Diego and the New York Giants. I’m telling you, four of the worst teams this league has seen in a long time.
This team lost two games in December in the fourth quarter on the very last play of the game both on the road at Chicago and Arizona. This coaching staff was far too conservative in their offensive approach to attacking this dreadful defense.
This team also wore down. They had two many practices that went too long, and it showed in the fourth quarter, where most games are won and lost. The Vikings gave up 120 points in the fourth quarter over 16 games, the only quarter they allowed 100 or more points all season.
The Vikings took their first offensive possession and drove to the Arizona two-yard line by throwing the ball to Randy Moss three times for 45 yards. Arizona never stopped Moss; the Vikings coaches never threw to Moss again. Not scoring on that drive is what cost the Vikings. After that, the team seemed to get tight offensively and allowed this sorry Cardinals defense to shut them out in the first half.
Randy Moss became the first player in NFL history to eclipse 1,632 yards and score 17 touchdowns in the same season. And the Vikings only threw the ball his way twice the rest of the game for 11 yards. That is why they lost. Forget about the miracle finish and the 28-yard desperation TD pass by Josh McCown to Nathan Poole.
Again, the NFL blew it. No way was that a touchdown. If Bryan Russell had not touched Poole, he never would have gotten the other foot down. For the officials to rule that he had possession and assume that Poole would have gotten the other foot down had Russell not pushed him out — that was, in my view, no touchdown.
Tice has allowed himself to make emotional decisions in the heat of the battle that hurt his team. Passing on a field goal at the one-yard line against Arizona to take the lead was big, too. The kicking game was not consistent. Green always had a consistent kicker.
Going for it in the Rams game with the score 20-17 in the third quarter and passing on the game-tying field goal. Cutting former Pro Bowl tight end Byron Chamberlain, an excellent pass-catching tight end. Not challenging the spot on the 4th down play on the drive before, where it appeared the receiver’s knee was down.
The Vikings also committed far too many penalties — 127 for 1029 yards — and their opponents had only 90 penalties for 720 yards. A difference of 300 yards and 37 penalties is a sign of weak discipline. Arizona had one penalty for five yards; the Vikings had seven for 71 yards.
Owner Red McCombs has not confirmed that he will bring Tice back as head coach. Tice is 15-18 as head coach. It was the team’s first winning record in three years at 9-7. Is that enough to save his job?
“I don’t know,” said Daunte Culpepper. “I don’t make that decision, but I hope he is here. I think he’s displayed what it takes to be a winning coach, and he knows his stuff, and he’s on top of his game. I’m behind him 100 percent, because he had faith in me, and I definitely have faith in him.”
In my 25 years of covering the Vikings, this is the greatest collapse by a Vikings team, a team that led the Division every day of the season until the last day. Playoffs? It wasn’t in the cards.