Written By Sam Ekstrom
Every football season can be summarized into a Twitter-friendly phrase or buzz word. For example, when long-in-the-tooth Vikings fans look back on the 2013 season decades from now, they’ll remember it as the season with countless fourth quarter collapses. The prior year will be remembered fondly. It was Adrian Peterson’s pursuit of the rushing record that culminated with No. 28 finishing eight yards shy of Eric Dickerson’s record as the Vikings beat Green Bay to make the playoffs.
It continues …
2011: The McNabb Experiment
2010: Brett Favre. Jenn Sterger. Lewd photos.
2009: Twelve men in the huddle.
It’s much easier to categorize seasons when you shorten the narrative because, usually, one brief phrase allows you to fill in every other blank. Like with the 2011 McNabb season, it’s easy to recall what happened around McNabb’s brief cameo: The Vikings wanted a veteran option to pave the way for rookie Christian Ponder, McNabb bounced throws like he was a cricket bowler and Ponder was thrust into a starting role before he was ready. McNabb’s failure to perform defined the season and set Ponder up to fail. Boom, there’s your season in a nutshell.
Need another example? Last year – the fourth quarter collapse season – was all about bad defense, primarily late in games. Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Green Bay, Baltimore – all disasters, all games that would have been won if football games were 59 minutes long; the difference between five wins and 10 wins, the difference between a top-10 draft pick and making the playoffs. That was 2013.
That begs the obvious question: What is the 2014 theme?
The honorable mention
Unique for a 7-win team, there would be some logical arguments to say the story of the season was a positive one. Mike Zimmer and Teddy Bridgewater laying the groundwork in the first year of what fans hope to be a many-year partnership. With a 13-9 win Sunday against Chicago, Bridgewater finished 6-6 as a starter after taking over for Matt Cassel in Week 3 when the veteran broke his foot against the Saints.
“One thing I do know about Teddy is he learns from a lot of the experiences that he's had, and I expect him to continue to improve in those ways,” said Zimmer about Bridgewater’s learning-on-the-job season. “I'm glad that he's playing. I'm glad that we're keeping him upright. You can think back on some of the quarterbacks that have had to play as rookies or been playing as rookies and got the heck beat out of them, and they haven't made it, so that was the most important thing to me to start this season was to take care of him and when it's time, it's time.”
The “time” came sooner than expected for Bridgewater as he made his first start in Week 4 against Atlanta and led the Vikings to a 41-28 win while throwing for 317 yards. He ended the season with three games of 300 yards or more and completed at least 68 percent of his passes in each of the last five games.
“I have complete faith in this kid,” said Zimmer earlier in the year. “Everything about him is the kind of guy you want. I'm sure I've said before, any of his deficiencies or perceived deficiencies that anybody has including him — and he's a hard critic on himself, too – he will continually work at improving those and being better.”
While Teddy engineered Norv Turner’s complex offense, Zimmer retooled the Vikings defense into an adequate unit that finished top-10 against the pass. Perhaps more importantly, he spent a season relentlessly preaching a losing-is-not-an-option mentality.
“We're going to keep pounding the message,” said Zimmer after the team’s loss to Detroit. “My mentality has not changed, my mindset has not changed. As I told the team, we're going to stick with it, keep working on getting better, because we've got something to build for the future.”
That might explain why Zimmer was so livid after the team’s 37-35 Week 16 loss in Miami where the defense allowed 30 second half points. He considered it one of the worst defensive performances he’s ever seen. “At some point in time I’ll get that defense fixed,” said Zimmer. “It might not be this week, it might not be until the middle of the year, but it will get fixed, you can bet your butt on that.”
This kind of gusto has been sorely missed in the Vikings’ coaching ranks for the past decade. Neither Brad Childress nor Leslie Frazier were particularly charismatic in their respective tenures. Zimmer isn’t a rah-rah coach but isn’t afraid to show his emotions, which he acknowledges – last week, he referred to Bridgewater as the “anti-me” because of his calm demeanor. Zimmer demands accountability. He doesn’t find silver linings where they don’t belong.
“We’re not into moral victories around here,” said Zimmer. “We’ve gotta keep pushing, keep grinding to get over the hump. It’s all part of getting them to understand the things we have to do to win the football game.
“It’s part of our job to play hard and play fast and physical, but my expectations are way higher than just playing hard.”
The rest of the story
Make no mistake, however, the 2014 Vikings will be defined by a litany of off-field infractions that would make Jameis Winston blush.
Before the season, special teams coordinator Mike Priefer was suspended for two games due to homophobic remarks he made towards former punter Chris Kluwe. Defensive tackle Linval Joseph was shot in the calf at a downtown nightclub. While Joseph was considered an innocent bystander, his D-tackle counterpart Tom Johnson was tased two months later for unruly behavior at another downtown establishment. Wide receiver Jerome Simpson was suspended before the season began for a drunk driving arrest and then later released for violating his parole.
But the elephant in the room all season long was Adrian Peterson, who was separated from the team following an indictment of child abuse before the team’s Week 2 game against New England. Peterson was reinstated briefly by the Vikings (a decision that was met by nationwide criticism), then placed on the commissioner’s exempt list during his legal process – essentially, paid leave – then suspended by the league after a plea deal was reached in court.
It was a messy situation that hung over the locker room and permeated press conferences periodically for the remainder of the season. Despite coaches’ and players’ assurances that they would welcome Peterson back to the team if he was reinstated, the running back’s future in Minnesota was placed firmly in doubt. A soon-to-be-30-year-old back with a surgically repaired knee, a damaged reputation and a ludicrously large contract? Hard to see him back in town.
While many Vikings missed significant chunks of time due to injury – Kyle Rudolph, Anthony Barr, Brandon Fusco and Matt Cassel among them – Peterson’s absence hurt the most. The Vikings rushing offense dropped from top-10 in the league the past four years down to 15th entering play in Week 17.
“I think any time you lose players,” said Zimmer, “regardless if it’s the Hall of Fame player, the best player on your team, or other players, you have to figure out ways to use guys and change things.”
The Vikings used Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon as starters in Peterson’s stead, though both dealt with injuries throughout the season. McKinnon ended the season as the team’s leading rusher with just 538 yards – 32nd in the league as of Sunday afternoon.
“It hurts me to see my presence not there and help those guys,” Peterson told ESPN. “The only thing I can do is sit back and imagine the weight that would be lifted off Teddy's back (if I was out there). It'd be night and day. I'm able to sit back and watch, able to see the difference I make. I really don't look at myself in that light (very often), but I can really see how much I matter."
Peterson’s punishment was unprecedented in league history, and some might say the Vikings were victims of an NFLPA vendetta against the league’s higher-ups. Others would opine, however, that the Vikings were saved from themselves. Their initial decision to activate Peterson was met with serious backlash. Had they been enabled to let Peterson play a second time, the Internet might have experienced a Twitter-pocalypse.
Peterson had rushed for over 10,000 yards in a Vikings uniform. His image was, and still is, emblazoned on the makeshift fence surrounding the Vikings new stadium site. Just weeks prior to his indictment, he was quoted as saying he wanted to retire a Viking. Within the course of several days in September, his status as one of the NFL’s “good guys” was tarnished, and the Vikings were placed in the middle of a cultural controversy – “Is switching your child acceptable in the South?” – and a moral one – “At what point has Peterson paid his debt to society and to the league?”
The saga created an upheaval that began in Week 2 and lingered for the majority of the season, only to be somewhat resolved in early December.
When we look at the 2014 Vikings campaign, we’ll recall Bridgewater evoking “Ted-dy!” chants and Mike Zimmer rallying the defense, but those memories will have a big asterisk hanging over them. Arrests, shootings and suspensions dominated the headlines instead.
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-10 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.” Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights.