The Tarvaris Jackson Bowl. Yes, it’s the one you’ve all had circled on your calendars, Minnesota travels to Seattle to face their one-time starter at quarterback, Tarvaris Jackson, now leading the Seahawks. To add a little spice to it (as if you needed it!), the Seahawks also made Sidney Rice a free agent offer he couldn’t refuse (and the Vikings couldn’t or wouldn’t match) to join up with Jackson in the Pacific Northwest.
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The Vikings roll into town needing to work out how to replace the dynamism that Rice gave them on the outside, and also needing to replace the holes left by a few more long-time starters – Bryant McKinnie at left tackle, Ray Edwards at defensive end, Madieu Williams at safety. Some of those will be harder holes to fill than others.
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Minnesota wound up winning the game 20-7, but let's have a look at a few things beyond the score.
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Minnesota – Three Things of Note
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● This was the game the Vikings’ offense started to resemble that of the 2010 Atlanta Falcons. There’s no Matt Ryan or Roddy White, but there are a lot of heavy run looks with play-action fakes and exotic use of tight ends and running backs. Atlanta was able to methodically march down the field all season long last year (uh, right up until they met the Packers in the playoffs), and the Vikings mounted some effective long drives of their own in this game. This is how Minnesota can be effective even without very good blocking up front; misdirection.
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● There was a mini controversy brewing in Viking-land last week, and it might rumble on through this week too after seeing this game. On the air, Mike Mayock blamed DE Brian Robison for losing contain on a play and that comment was picked-up and used by many as proof that Robison is just a pass rusher that can’t play the run. Mayock did the same thing this week on a play the Seahawks ran with a play action fake and a tight end coming across the formation. Firstly, in none of the three seasons we’ve been grading have we given Robison a poor season run grade. Secondly, as I’ve learned from a source with the Vikings, Robison doesn’t have contain on that play. His job there is to work flat down the line – much like he did – and someone else has the backside flat. Robison left the game with the rest of the Vikings’ defensive starters mid-way through the first quarter and he hadn’t had other opportunities at the point of attack in the run game to judge, so it’s a little early to write him off with an incorrect guess as to what his assignment was on a particular play.
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● Cedric Griffin, after tearing his left ACL in the 2009 NFC Championship game against the Saints, and then tearing his right ACL again last October, started this game. He only played the first series on D, and the Vikings’ coaches are still clearly easing him back into things, but it really is worth pointing to a genuinely staggering medical recovery from a double-injury blow that could easily have ended careers.
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Seattle – Three Things of Note
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● In Seattle’s first preseason game, I charted all the throws made by Tarvaris Jackson to illustrate a point: by-and-large he doesn’t do much wrong, but he just won’t attack downfield and all too readily comes off his first or second read in favor of a dump-off. In that game he was without both Mike Williams and Sidney Rice, a pair of 6’4+ weapons on the outside. Did things get better with them both in the starting lineup this time? Well, no. He did take a couple of downfield shots to Rice, but missed the field by 5 yards on one and should have been picked on another. If you’re only working from the box score, ignore his pick-six. That INT came off the hands of Golden Tate on what should have been a first down throw on 3rd-and-7. Beyond all of this, the opening play of the game is what I want to highlight when talking about Jackson’s problems. Seattle lined up four-wide while the Vikings stayed in their base, leaving the outside receivers covered with CBs, safety Hussain Abdullah on one slot receiver (Golden Tate) and Chad Greenway covering Sidney Rice in the other. Regardless of the call, that ball has to go to Rice. It didn’t. It was incomplete.
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● We know what Zach Miller can do from the tight end position, and we like it, so needless to say, we were big fans of the move to acquire him in free agency. The Seahawks seem to have themselves a nice TE duo … and I’m not including John Carlson in that. Anthony McCoy was a stud at USC under Pete Carroll and, for the second game in a row, he came away with a touchdown along with a few other nice catches. Carlson has been a perennial underachiever in our eyes and, with just a year remaining on his contract, his snaps are sure to dwindle this season and his time in Seattle may be running out.
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● The more I see of Alan Branch, the more I think he can be a player for the Seahawks, who continue to trawl the league for D-line reclamation projects. The Cardinals could never figure out how to properly use him; he was miscast in their (mainly) 3-4 scheme. As Doug Farrar put it (better than I ever could have), Branch is a 3-technique DT at 130% size. He has the quickness and the size to be very disruptive.
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So it looks like, in the end, the Minnesota Vikings won the Tarvaris Jackson Bowl, and – unless the Seahawks can get him to improve his deep accuracy – they may well have won the war by letting him move on in the offseason. Jackson does a lot of good things, but at the moment his flaws are fatal ones for a starting QB at this level.
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Follow Sam on Twitter: @SamMonson … and give our main Twitter feed a follow too: @ProFootbalFocus
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