Imagination Is Lacking for the Vikings

The most compelling difference between the Minnesota Vikings and St. Louis Rams in their playoff game today will be the way they use their exceptional offensive talent.

The Rams have the more modern offense and thus get more out of their players than Minnesota does.

Although the Vikings lead the NFL in offensive talent, their offense is too simple.

They have scored far fewer points this season than a team with four star wide receivers--Randy Moss, Cris Carter, Jake Reed and Matthew Hatchette--should have produced. Not that they are talent-short elsewhere. Running back Robert Smith, several tight ends and the league’s best offensive line complement passer Jeff George.

This is the NFL’s most dangerous band of offensive players.

In any reckoning of where the Vikings stand, you begin with their coach, Dennis Green, who is unsurpassed as a talent scout.

Green was, for example, the one NFL coach who knew he could handle Moss and who had the wit to bring him in.

But the Vikings seldom use Moss or any of their other people imaginatively.

In their main formations, the Vikings simply station Moss and Carter far left and far right and send them down the field like semi-pro kids.

Even when it was obvious that the Dallas Cowboys were regularly double-covering the Minnesota wide receivers against the two sidelines last Sunday, the Minnesota coaches didn’t revise their attack to send Moss to the middle until well into the second half.

As one consequence, in a 27-10 victory over Dallas, the Vikings made hard work of getting the 27 points against an overmatched team they should have beaten by 50.

*

Jones hurts Cowboys: When wild-card weekend was over, Miami Coach Jimmy Johnson was still in the playoffs, but Dallas owner Jerry Jones was out, and that was a reminder that their 1994 rift in Dallas--where Johnson won consecutive Super Bowl titles for Jones--remains one of the saddest sports stories of the 1990s.

At least in Texas.

The Cowboys could have won nearly every Super Bowl since then if they had continued to combine the leaders who lifted them to the top, Jones, Johnson and offensive coach Norv Turner.

The rift was entirely Jones’ fault.

As a football man, he overrated himself.

He could have held Johnson and Turner indefinitely with record salaries--$1 million a year or whatever for Turner, and the sky’s the limit for Johnson.

Since the early ‘90s, it has been apparent that Johnson ranks with the best of all time as an NFL coach and talent scout--except in offensive understanding--and that Turner, whatever his problems as a head coach, has the offensive erudition that Johnson lacks.

Together, they would still be all but unbeatable.

*

Three aces lose: The stars of the team that Johnson put together for Jones were quarterback Troy Aikman and running back Emmitt Smith, who had all the help they needed to win the championships of 1992 and ’93.

Even after Johnson walked away, his hand-picked players dominated the NFL again in ’95 under caretaker coaches and won another Super Bowl.

On offense, however, the Cowboys had nothing left by 2000 but Aikman and Smith, who lasted for 15 minutes last Sunday, helping Dallas to a 10-3 lead at Minnesota but then disappeared under a blizzard of dropped passes and missed blocks as the Vikings came on to win.

Except for the two offensive stars and the one defensive star who joined Jones after Johnson left--Deion Sanders--”America’s team” has disintegrated.

It lacks precisely what it had when Johnson and Turner were there: annual infusions of fast new talent, plus skilled, aggressive, triumphant play calling.

*

Great five yards: The best running play last weekend wasn’t Emmitt Smith’s 65-yard bolt to set up Dallas’ go-ahead kick, 3-0, or Robert Smith’s 26-yard screen run as Minnesota caught up, 10-10.

It was Emmitt’s five-yard run to Dallas’ only touchdown.

Heading right, Emmitt cut sharply to his left to evade half the Vikings, then cut left again to fool the other half.

*

Marino can drive: Quarterback Dan Marino of Miami, the sentimental favorite of the playoffs, scored the upset of wild-card weekend with second-half drives of 60 and 85 yards to oust Seattle’s favored but indecisive Seahawks, 20-17.

To go 60, Marino completed all six of his passes.

To go 85, he hit wide receiver Tony Martin with a 23-yard sideline bullet on third and 17, then hit him twice more for 17 and 20 yards before reaching wide receiver Oronde Gadsden down the middle for 24 yards with a different kind of throw, a touch pass.

Thereby, Marino was answering what has seemed to be the question of the year in Miami: What’s wrong with Marino?

The answer in that game was either not much or nothing.

*

Third-Down Passing: Between Marino’s two sizzling touchdown drives in Seattle, the Dolphins, as usual, ran the ball.

On one series, they ran it four consecutive times with a third-string tailback.

That set up third and 13, whereupon Johnson called on Marino, who, not surprisingly, couldn’t deliver.

The best you can say for a coach who prefers early-down runs followed by third-down passes is that he’s a tough guy--with a misunderstanding of modern offense.

In his Dallas days, Johnson had Norv Turner wising him up on play selection.

On Turner’s calls, Johnson won one Super Bowl with four touchdown passes thrown by Aikman on first down.

In Miami, Marino’s job is to bail out failed first-down runs with third-down passes. No passer can do that consistently.

*

Nine-point error: At no time did the Tennessee Titans appear to be the better team last week when they won anyway, ousting the Buffalo Bills, 22-16, on two freak plays, the first of which was a low snap by the Buffalo center on the Buffalo goal line.

A nine-point error, that misplay was to put Tennessee suddenly ahead in the second quarter on a safety and a quick touchdown, 9-0.

Next, after quarterback Rob Johnson drove Buffalo into a last-minute lead, 16-15, Tennessee tricked the Bills with the game-winning kickoff return, which began as a surprise cross-field lateral and ended as a long touchdown run.

From beginning to end, Doug Flutie’s successor, Johnson, outplayed Titan quarterback Steve McNair.

Behind Buffalo’s battered offensive line, from which injuries had subtracted tackles John Fina and Robert Hicks, Johnson completed deep sideline darts whenever his blocking held up.

McNair, on an off-day, completed one of three for one yard in the third quarter, then threw only twice in the decisive fourth quarter.

He won because Johnson didn’t have enough help.

*

Scoring team rewarded: One question is whether Tennessee ever would have scored on Buffalo in this game without the accumulation of trouble that piled up for the Bills after the low snap in the second quarter.

Because Johnson had to retrieve the ball off the ground that time, Buffalo’s timing crashed.

And as a result, a running back retreated into the quarterback’s path, where Johnson stumbled into him and fell in the end zone.

There, Tennessee’s brilliant rookie defensive end Jevon Kearse fell on Johnson to get credit for a safety.

Worse, the Bills then had to kick off from the 20-yard line, giving good field position to the Titans, who quickly jumped from 2-0 to 9-0.

*

Selected Short Subjects:

* The defensive MVPs of wild-card weekend were Miami linebacker Zach Thomas, who alternately blitzed the passer and covered receivers, and Tennessee’s rookie linebacker Jevon Kearse. Both are AFC players.

* The difference between Marino and Seattle’s first-year quarterback, Jon Kitna, seemed to be in their NFL experience as starters: 17 years. In other respects, Kitna looked as solid psychologically as Marino, looked to be about as strong, and threw as accurately when he had sufficient time. What Kitna needs most is several years under Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren.