Playing tonight on a possibly slippery field, the Vikings will attempt to regain balance in their offense by running the football with more competency. At Chicago’s Soldier Field, with an ESPN national TV audience watching, the Vikings will face a Bears defense giving up 128.5 rushing yards per game, ranking 26th in the NFL.
The Vikings (11-3) have bettered 100 yards rushing in one game out of three since the Bears (5-9) came to Minneapolis on November 22 and gave up 159 yards. In two road losses during the last three weeks the Vikings rushed for 62 yards against Arizona and 41 versus Carolina. In a home win the Vikings had 142 yards while defeating Cincinnati.
Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell indicated at a news conference last week that there will be a commitment to run the ball at Solider Field where the game time temps figure to be in the low 20’s and the wind a possible problem for throwing the ball. “I’ve stood up here many times and said that that’s who we are; we are a running team,” Bevell said. “We would all kind of joke about, ‘Hey, there is nine, 10 guys up in the box and you’re still running it, you’re still getting positive yards.’ We need to get back to that.”
While Bevell didn’t express concern about the offensive line, a former pro football coach told Sports Headliners he sees a problem. “The offensive line looks like it’s struggling,” the source said. “That’s where the alarm goes off. The Vikings will win a Super Bowl pounding the ball. I don’t see them winning it with (Brett) Favre throwing 40 times a game.”
Adrian Peterson ran for 19 yards in the Arizona loss, a game where Favre threw 45 passes. A week ago Sunday night Peterson had 35 yards when Carolina beat the Vikings. Peterson, who led the NFL in rushing last year, ranks fourth now with 1,235 yards and has no chance to catch league leader Chris Johnson of Tennessee who has 1,872 yards.
The Vikings couldn’t run block or pass protect against Carolina. The 40-year-old Favre was taking “vicious shots,” according to the former coach who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Peterson is struggling and the way defenses are playing (crowding the line of scrimmage to stop the run), it makes it tough sledding,” he said.
Regardless of whether the field is wet or dry, the Vikings hope for better “sledding” tonight.