Jared Allen and the Minnesota defense in particular is overrated, but the Denver Broncos are not. The Broncos and the Bengals are officially the surprises of the 2009 season, with each team besting two consecutive opponents considered much better than themselves.
But first, I’ll repeat this: the Minnesota Vikings are overrated. Jared Allen is overrated. Adrian Peterson is overrated. The defense as a whole is overrated.
Jared Allen: “I want you to squeal like a pig”
Today the Vikings beat down the shockingly bad St. Louis Rams. But they gave up 400 yards of offense to those shockingly bad Rams. And yep, they sacked Aaron Rodgers 8 times last week in an emotional win over Green Bay, but Packer receivers also pulled down 384 yards worth of Aaron Rodgers’ passes.
Jared Allen had 4.5 of those 8 sacks, and I believe he has 4 fumble recoveries in the last two games, including one for a touchdown today. No Vikings hater can dispute that Allen plays with relentless effort and is as affective as anyone in the game at going for the ball. He is fast, basically a tight end playing defensive end – he never quits on a play, he is extremely fast on turf, and can make an inexperienced tackle look very foolish.
But he’s one-dimensional. Jared Allen is a speed rusher, and that’s it. He has no swim move, no spin move, and he’s too small to bull-rush. But in an NFL devoid of a surplus of quality d-ends, Jared Allen sticks out. Particularly after the high-profile Monday Nighter against the Packers, in which he played a backup Left Tackle for the first half of the game and then a 3rd-string LT for the 2nd half.
In week one against the Browns and Joe Thomas, he got handled. He had two tackles today against Alex Barron, who got benched last week at halftime. His fumble recoveries where there and were impactful, but he had little production in terms of pressuring the QB.
Adrian Peterson hasn’t broken 100 yards since Week One, and the Vikings are not currently ranked in the top 10 in rushing offenses. That is not what your numbers look like when you have the “best running back in football”.
Some people have argued that the Vikings would still be 5-0 without Brett Favre, but I wonder if they’d have won a game without him. In fairness, it’s equally worth pointing out that the Minnesota passing offense is ranked 18th. It will be interesting to look, at the end of the season, and see where exactly the Vikings peaked. I will put my money on Week 5.
THE OFFICIAL CINDERELLAS
Denver and Cincinnati both solidified their statuses as legit with wins over New England and Baltimore, respectively. Imagine if that week-one miracle victory by Denver over the Bengals were played next week instead of to open the season. It would be seen as a hard-fought, clutch game played by two good teams instead of the lucky-bounce crapfest that it was viewed as a month ago.
Broncos QB Kyle Orton in various stages of undress
Kyle Orton is starting to get some respect, finally. And also finally, Bill Belichick is losing some of his. He’s 0-2 this season against rookie head coaches. What? The Great Hoodie is being outcoached by these young punks, one of them a former underling and another in his own division? What has the NFL come to?
BEARS HOMER SECTION: BYE-WEEK EDITION
Boy, the Bye Week is looking more and more welcoming by the hour. It looks like Chicago is going to need the extra time to game-plan for Atlanta, who waxed the 49ers today. Then after that is another tough road game in Cincinnati. I hope the Bears got healthier, smarter, and tougher this weekend while they sat on a Caribbean beach somewhere. I thought the first three weeks looked tough, but the next three are looking tougher.
contact email: nick.thomas@flyingpigskin.com
