Week 3: Panthers @ Vikings

[hermes]

Carolina Panthers 2-0

vs

Minnesota Vikings 0-2



For the Vikings Gus Frerotte is now the starter in an attempt to turn the season around

will he be able to manage the offense and get wins for the Vikings?
will the defense continue to play great and give the team a chance to win
will the offensive line be able to give Gus (less mobile than Tavaris) time to throw the ball


Steve Smith returns this week for the Panthers who will look to him to contribute, as they face a top rush defense


GO VIKINGS

[revprodeji]

nice..nice..

With the "days of our lives" QB drama I bet people forgot about the game.

In a nutshell, similar team to us. Young dynamic 2-headed RB game, aggressive speedy defense with rushes and good DT. Difference is our Def is better, our RB is better, there Qb is better, their WR are better. it is a game of control and who makes the least amount of mistakes. Lets hope that is us. 0-3 hurts.

[hermes]

both teams are very even, minimizing mistakes will be key, along with capitalizing on opportunities

especially those in the redzone, Touchdowns please

[Calinks]

Gus has more pass attempts in like 5 minutes than T-Jax got all half. Our receivers also STILL can't catch for crap. Who is training these guys?

[LordBaldric]

Is the game being streamed anywhere?

[hermes]

VIKINGS WIN

defense played outstanding in the second half, no points, Delhomme sacked twice
offense ran the ball well, timely passing, 11 minute drive
great game


penalties and special teams return coverage are areas of concern

[Sedale Threatt]

^ Definitely; we still have a lot of room for improvement. Generally, however, I was pleased.

Frerotte isn't perfect, nor is he the long-term answer, but he clearly gives us a better chance to win now than Jackson. He and the rest of the team was solid against a really good Carolina defense.

Stuff like that 11-minute drive is exactly what I want to see out of this team -- solid, no frills ball, running with authority with a few passes mixed in for good measure. Would have liked to have gotten a TD, but otherwise that's the blueprint.

Defensively we were outstanding. Great play by Antoine for the strip/TD, timely sacks and we didn't let Steve Smith beat us. Another great game by Henderson; he has developed into such a solid player.

All in all, a step in the right direction.

[NewWulf]

Color me impressed with the Vikes' defefnse. That was better than solid. Jared Allen, KWill, E.J. & Antoine Winfield played outstanding ball today. Allen beat Jordan Gross like a drum all day. Had teh refs wanted to, they could've called 6 penalties on Gross. It was that pathetic.

I agree that Frerotte isn't the longterm solution & that he gives us alot better chance of winning than TJax. I talked last Sunday with Scott Wright from NFLDraftCountdown.com about the Vikings' QB situation. I said that I thought trading for Brady Quinn would be a great move. Scott agreed.

We don't need Brady/Manning level QB'ing to make the playoffs. That said, we definitely need our QB to keep the defense honest. Anytime that they creep that eighth man into the box is when Frerotte needs to burn them deep. He did that often enough this afternoon.

I'm betting that he'll play better next week, too.

[Sedale Threatt]

I'd definitely explore the possibility. But considering how badly Derek Anderson has bottomed out, I seriously doubt Cleveland is going to be getting rid of Quinn any time soon. We had our chance to land a solid QB on the cheap when Pennington became available, and we missed out.

[Worm Guts]

I'm not sure Pennington is much better than Ferotte.

[hermes]

i think frerotte is going to get better as the season goes on, nothing earth-shattering but i think he's going to become the quarterback that this team needs to be successful, and i think childress should be grooming the Booty for the starting job in a couple of seasons- there i said it

Chester also looked good, ran hard when he was in there, hopefully the carries will be more balanced between those two from now on

[Sedale Threatt]

I'm not sure Pennington is much better than Ferotte.

I think Pennington is significantly better than Frerotte -- much more effiecient, much less mistake-prone. He might not have the deep arm, but everything else he brings is exactly what we need in terms of game management. Plus, he's four or five years younger.

I like what I saw yesterday from Frerotte, but at the same time I would take Pennington in a heartbeat, as much to give us more breathing room in the future as we search for a long-term answer. Because, sorry H, if there's anything I am 100% certain about this year's Vikings, it's that Booty is not an NFL quarterback. I'd bet my life on that.

I do agree about Chester -- he was an unsung hero of yesterday's game. You hate to steal carries from Adrian, but I don't have any problem seeing Chet get about 10 or 12. He runs hard and he keeps the chains moving.

[Worm Guts]

I'm not sure Pennington is much better than Ferotte.

I think Pennington is significantly better than Frerotte -- much more effiecient, much less mistake-prone. He might not have the deep arm, but everything else he brings is exactly what we need in terms of game management. Plus, he's four or five years younger.

Pennington has been on average teams for most of his career and never really done anything in the playoffs, and his arm isn't strong enough to make teams pay for stacking the box. He's done more than Ferotte and is better than Ferotte, but Ferotte had been with the team throughout the entire offseason and had more familiarity with offense. I wouldn't want either as the starting QB going into next season.

[deeney0]

Going into next season.... ugh. I guess Derek Anderson is driving down his price, week in and week out.

[hermes]

Pennington is really accurate which would be good, but he doesn't really have that deep ball which gets those extra guys off the line so there is room to run

[Sedale Threatt]

I think Pennington would have been just fine. Frerotte had one long completion that I can remember off the top of my head; the rest of the game he was completing shorter passes to help keep the chains moving.

Perhaps the threat of going deep was enough to free things up. But otherwise, I still saw plenty of eight-man fronts, and I didn't see Gus doing much that Pennington couldn't have done, and probably done better.

No matter; he's in Miami, and we've got what we've got so that's that. Gus turned in a respectable B performance, and if he can do that more often than not we should be in good shape.