It is amazing what a loss can do to the morale of a fan base.  Childress mentioned in his presser on Monday that the mood in the locker room was more that of a 3-11 team rather than an 11-3 team.  Judging from how I feel, and from reading comments on this site and others, the fans are in a similar mood.

Whether or not any real questions about the starting lineup exist in the minds of the coaching staff, I know fans have their fair share of questions.  Let’s take a minute to examine some questions, their effect, and some possible solutions.

BRYANT MCKINNIE

The Problem:  Bryant McKinnie is known in some circles as one of the most overrated and overpaid left tackles in football.  In the midst of his worst performance ever against the Panthers on Sunday, he was benched in favor of backup tackle Artis Hicks.  Considering that Hicks himself lose his starting gig a few years back after being outplayed by Ryan Cook of all people, it may be conceivable to think that McKinnie’s starting position may be in jeopardy.

The Effect:  I don’t see any scenario in which McKinnie gets benched for the long haul this late in the year.  All of the blame cannot be placed squarely on Big Mac for his performance on Sunday as the Vikings scheme against the Panthers was so stubborn that McKinnie nor Hicks ever received any help in pass protection, despite the fact that they were getting pummeled play after play.  Despite some hack blogger being able to predict McKinnie’s struggles, the coaching staff seemed miffed and ignorant as to how to give Brett Favre time to throw the ball.

The Solution:  They cannot sit McKinnie now.  He may be overpaid, and he is definitely overrated, but he is the best option that the Vikings have.  Loadholt would probably fare even worse on the left side and Hicks is too valuable as a utility backup.  Besides, McKinnie needs to save some face for the remainder of the season so that the Vikings can drive up his trade value should they decide to go that route after the season ends.  Something tells me that McKinnie would be twice as good in a system that did not force unusually large players to zone-block… forcing players to fit into the scheme instead of scheming to fit your players’ talents.

JOHN SULLIVAN

The Problem:  Almost a year after Matt Birk refused to re-sign for a team coached by a man whose first name rhymes with “Bad” the Vikings bestowed their confidence in Notre Dame product John Sullivan in the center position.  Sullivan has been serviceable, but I am convinced that the downgrade from Birk to Sullivan is responsible for about 300 more yards from Adrian Peterson this year.  Sullivan has been man handled in a way that should make any decent human feel sympathy for him.  His pass protection in blitz situations is also suspect.

The Effect:  I honestly don’t think that Sully is in any danger of losing his job, but perhaps he should be.  Benching him would require someone to step up, be able to read defenses, make line calls and adjustments, and be on the same page as Brett Favre.  Sullivan’s knock coming out of college was that he may be too small for the NFL, and so far that appears to be a pretty valid concern.  If I am accurate in thinking that Sullivan is the worst run blocker on our O-Line, then a change made to help Peterson have some running lanes could make a profound difference in the success of this offense.

The Solution:  None of us really know what we have in undrafted free agent Jon Cooper, though it is obvious that the coaching staff thinks highly of him.  What I would recommend, however, is putting Anthony Herrera at the center position (he can play it), and put Artis Hicks or Ryan Cook in at right guard.  This will not happen, I am certain of it, but Sullivan is causing breakdowns in the middle of our offensive line which is causing Peterson to fail at being a north-south runner.

TYRELL JOHNSON

The Problem:  The problem is that he decided to pursue a career as an NFL safety despite being unable to cover or tackle.  That’s like someone deciding to become a pilot despite the fact that they have no eye balls.  Geesh.  Johnson was awful on Sunday, missing tackle after tackle just like he has all season long. 

The Effect:  When Johnson suffered a concussion, Jamarca Sanford stepped into the Arizona game and played terribly… not to mention took out E.J. Henderson’s knee.  However, previous to that game Sanford had shown some promise.  Then, when he replaced the still injured Johnson in the game against the Bengals, he did very well.  In fact, he played better than Johnson normally does.  Johnson then returned against the Panthers and missed (and this might be a gross over-estimation, but maybe not) roughly 6,453 tackles.  A quality safety would have stopped multiple big plays that the Panthers had on Sunday.

The Solution:  I have been critical of both Madieu Williams and Tyrell Johnson on this blog, but at least Williams is bale to have a good game from time to time.  Johnson does not appear to be there yet.  Sanford appears eager to step in and has shown enough flashes to make me think he deserves the starting gig over Johnson. 

 

Now, I don’t believe that any of these scenarios will play out.  After all, this is an 11 – 3 football team, and now may not be the time to start screwing around with the starting lineup.  However, I think Childress needs to bench Tyrell Johnson at the very least.

If nothing else, benching Johnson may at least show the McKinnies, Sullivans, Berrians, and Madieus of the world that there are consequences for poor play and that they need to step up or sit down.