1-2 punch
December 1st, 2008 – 12:54 AM by Chip ScogginsYou won’t see momentum change in a game as dramatically as it did tonight in the second quarter of the Vikings 34-14 victory against the Bears.
The Vikings defense had a four-play, goal-line stand from the 1-yard line to keep the Bears lead at 7-3. Then the offense followed with a 99-yard touchdown pass from Gus Frerotte to Bernard Berrian.
“That’s a 14-point swing,” Frerotte said.
On the touchdown pass, the Bears were in a Cover 3 defense and the Vikings had three receivers running go routes. Berrian was split wide left and tight end Visanthe Shiancoe was on his side.
Bears cornerback Charles Tillman said afterward that basically he was responsible for both Berrian and Shiancoe in that coverage. Frerotte looked to his right initially and saw the safety cheating over. Tillman was covering Berrian off the line, but he broke to the middle when he saw Shiancoe running a seam route. That left Berrian all alone running down a go-route down the left sideline.
“It was the luckiest touchdown I’ve ever had,” Berrian said.
Berrian’s catch was the 11th 99-yard reception in NFL history and the first since 2004.Â
Other notes:
– Adrian Peterson took a lot of tough hits and was hobbled a little bit, but he said he was OK after rushing for 131 yards on 28 carries.
– Frerotte was livid with the late hit he took to the back of the head from Bears DE Adewale Ogunleye. Vikings coach Brad Childress said Frerotte was knocked out on the play and Frerotte said the blow “threw me for a loop.” Ogunleye was not penalized but he almost certainly will get fined by the NFL this week.
– Jared Allen had a huge performance: 3 sacks, 4 quarterback hurries, 8 tackles. He was in on the fourth-down tackle of Matt Forte on the goal-line stand.
–Â The Vikings did a very good job against Bears punt returner Devin Hester, who returned three punts for only 12 yards. Hester had a 65-yard touchdoown reception in the first quarter on a quick slant.
– Benny Sapp was the happiest guy in the Metrodome after the goal-line stand. He had a bad unnecessary roughness penalty for hitting Rashied Davis in the head that negated a third-down stop.
That’s it for now. It’s getting late but we’ll have lots more in the paper and online tomorrow. We’ll check in the morning from Winter Park.Â
22 Responses to "1-2 punch"
I hope gus catches a cheap shot every game! If he played like that all the time, we could take it all this year. It was ridiculous there was no flag on the play. Sapp was very lucky his hissy fit didn’t cost anything, or if would have become AV posters’ new black sheep.
Go Vikings!
Oh yeah,
First!!!
(My first first)
Still fire Childress.
Finally, a game where we are not chewing our fingernails or cursing the lack of Twilight’s implementation of the “now.” One game does not a season make. However, if the Kittens put up a good game, but the Vikings win in style then things will be much better. We shall see how it goes. Keep playing like this for all of December and beyond. Better things will happen that way.
- a sweet win
- i still believe the play calling and
mixing it up (especially early) has to get better
- stupid penalties must be stopped
- still don’t believe childress has what it takes to produce a consistent winner
- LIONS - they will be hungry and they are frustrated. should be a battle.
- People who continue to say put T JACK in and yank GUSSIE need to be silent.
T JACK should be selling programs at CFL games.
JD BOOTY perhaps should have come in late to get some game time.
- on to KITTYLAND
[…] Access Vikings: – […]
Won a big game last night, now we’ll have a letdown and get beat by the kitties next weekend.
Such is the genius of Chili…
Benny Sapp and Ogle-eye need to quit hitting people in the head.
The defense was the difference last night, 3 picks, the goal line stand, sacks, etc…
Does anyone still think what we paid for Jared Allen wasn’t worth it? He was an absolute monster last nite…
The 99 yarder to Berrian didn’t hurt either
The playcalling is still predictable. But it was a nice win for the Vikings last night. Childress was able to get his team to perform in a must win game. They’ll need to play next weekend like they did last night and not look past Detroit.
A huge win, much needed!
Allen was a hungry hippo, and I think his mullet made him even more agressive. I hope he doesn’t cut it — did he do CPR on the ball last night in the end zone?! That was amazing 
AP is the man and again showed everyone why the Vikes are #1 in the North…it’s all because of AP. I must say, we were darn lucky on a few plays, I’m not convinced at all that we have locked up the division. I’m worried about the Lions. They have something to play for, Fumblepepper does too. And we are inconsistant.
As far as play offs …. we split with Atlanta/AZ, beat the Lions and play a second string Giants team, and I think we have the play offs.
Oh also, where were the refs last night?! I still can’t believe that hit to Gus was never called. That should have been a TD with four extra downs from that penalty. Unbelievable.
This is funny:
“The previous longest pass completion in team history came in 1962 on Fran Tarkenton’s 89-yard touchdown pass to Charley Ferguson, also against the Chicago Bears.”
[…] [Vikings] Vikings Livid With Late Hit On QB Gus Frerotte Vikings QB Gus Frerotte was livid with the late hit he took to the back of the head from Bears DE Adewale Ogunleye. Vikings coach Brad Childress said Frerotte was knocked out on the play and Frerotte said the blow “threw me for a loop.” Ogunleye was not penalized but he almost certainly will get fined by the NFL this week. Source: Star-Tribune […]
That goal line stand was the total momentum changer for the game. I hope we don’t lose the Williams wall Tuesday.
I want to know who the imposters were who were wearing the Viking uniforms last night….
Atlanta & AZ = both could very easily be losses, Giants game depends on if they end up fighting Tampa for the #1 seed, and the Lions game scares the hell out of me. remember the 12-10 nail biter at home, coupled with the desire of the kitties to get a W and we’ve had a tendency in the past to have a letdown after a big win.
With all that has come out about the StarCaps thing, I’m not sure the NFL will suspend any of those involved, but if we lose the Wall for the remaining 4 games, that changes alot, we face some pretty good RB’s in the remaining games
Tim Hightower - AZ
Michael Turner - ATL
Ward/Jacobs/Bradshaw - NY
Mornin’ Bucky!
throwback uniforms = team played like it did before Chili showed up
I want us to go back to the old uniforms. They are SO much better looking than the new ones.
Plus, they’re now our “Lucky” Uniforms.
Here’s hoping we play the rest of the season in them.
By the way, we will DESTROY the Lions;
Vikings 45
Lions 3
[…] Source: Star-Tribune […]
[…] http://blogs.startribune.com/vikingsblog/?p=2221 You won’t see momentum change in a game as dramatically as it did tonight in the second quarter of the Vikings… […]
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Access Vikings
Join Vikings beat writers Judd Zulgad and Chip Scoggins on a usually informative and often irreverent journey inside the Vikings.
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