Managing Expectations

A week ago T-Jack was unquestionably the Vikings quarterback of the future. The guy has one bad game and the ship jumping begins. Writes Boz:

I had a feeling TJ was going to have a bad nite. Jesus, he looked HORRIBLE. Seriously, Pat i am NOT sold on this kid. I just dont see him getting much better. 2 of those INT's were SO bad. Everyone else on the Offense looked pretty good, the recievers are still making great blocks downfield, the line did as well as can be expected against Da Bears even considering they have lots of injuries. Ap still needs to learn how to block though.

Looking beyond the atrocious grammar, clearly Mr. I-Could-Do-It-So-Much-Better is unsatisfied with the young Vikes QB, who,with all of 12 starts under his belt, was, until Monday night's exposure as a fraud, poised to general the Vikings to a 2007 Super Bowl championship, I guess.

Sure Jackson struggled, but he wasn't getting much help either. Contrary to Boz's "the O-line can do no wrong" groupie devotion, our husky stalwarts did not have a good game. Birk got man-handled all night, and failed to notice a blitzing linebacker twice, despite the fact that Urlacher was all but whispering in his ear.

Aside from the two picks (the third was Ferguson's fault), T-Jack had a career night with 249 yards, produced over 20 first downs despite our running backs barely producing 100 yards, and controlled the ball for 35 minutes.

So, if not for the bumbling of TJ, we would have smoked Da Bears. Granted a win is a win, but we didnt win, the bears lost. Can you imagine what we could do if we had a QB??!! If we could get Mcnabb next year we would be unstoppable.

McNabb? You have got to be freakin' kidding me. Without his running ability, McNabb is an only slightly improved version of Byron Leftwich. Trade our young, bound to improve quarterback with a great arm for the aging Chunky Soup guy? Boz. Dude. Wonder no longer at the injustice that you are not an NFL head coach.

Personally, I thought the Bears had their best defensive game of the year, and it was probably because it was do or die for them. Even with the Bears backs against the wall, the Vikings offense produced 372 total yards. Not bad against a defense that can make just about anybody inept when it feels like it.

I would like to give Tj another chance, but I just dont see it. I could be and hope I am wrong because we will NOT go after another QB next year, and TJ will be our starting QB. Anyways, guess we'll have to see how he does next week.

Prediction: Next week T-Jack, with the national stage jitters old news and a week to look at the film, will have a much improved game, and I will get an e-mail from Boz titled "We're going all the way baby!"