One of four… That is where our picks stand so-far this week with the Monday night Saint and 49ers matchup still to come. And the culprit? Fundamentals.
The Miami vs Minnesota match sums up my frustration and has to be one of the poorest games that I can remember. Lets be clear, the Vikings should have won this game, they had almost 36 minutes of possession compared to the Dolphins 24 minutes, they had 22 first downs to Miamis 12, they had double the offensive passing yards and also out rushed the Dolphins. So why did they lose?
The Vikings only converted on ONE of FIVE visits to the Miami red zone. Lets think about this only for a second. Nine times out of ten a visit to the red zone will give you at least a field goal. Five visits = five field goals = 15 points and a Vikings win right? WRONG!
Brett Farve had another shocking evening throwing not one, not two but THREE interceptions. He also fumbled the ball once and his overall passer rating for the night? Fourty-Four. This from a QB whose end of season QB rating last year was 107.
No recap of a poor game would be complete without looking at penalties. Once again the Vikings outdid Miami, receiving SEVEN penalties for 44 yards, compared to Miami’s two for 15 yards.
The New England looks like it was a similar (although slightly less painful) story. Tom Brady who is one of my favourite QB’s had two interceptions and a fumble in their loss to the Jets.
Seattle continues the sorry tale with QB Matt Hasselback joining Brett Farve in the three interception club.
Each week before the college games you hear the coaches say the same thing… “We need to focus on fundamentals, not give away penalties and look after the ball”. After this weeks display, there should be more than a few NFL coaches preparing exactly the same speech…
