As if the Vikings didn’t already have enough problems with a 2-5 record, now they have to suffer the embarrassment of Randy Moss pointing out their mistakes. The playmaking receiver, who was held to just one catch against the Patriots, conducted his own news conference with the media where he didn’t take any questions. He did talk about the game and brought up a few points that makes the coaching staff look bad. Moss says he wanted to help share information about his former team with his new one:
“I tried to prepare; tried to talk to the coaches and players about how this game was going to be played – a couple tendencies here and a couple tendencies there,” Moss said. “But the bad part about it, you have six days to prepare for a team and on the seventh day, that’s Sunday, meaning today, I guess they come over to me and say, ‘Dang Moss, you were right about a couple plays and a couple schemes that they were going to run.'”
On top of the blunder of not listening to Moss’ inside information, Brad Childress made a costly decision just before halftime. With the game tied at 7 and a minute left before the half, Childress decided to run Adrian Peterson on a 4th down at the one. Minnesota should have kicked the field goal to take the 10-7 lead but instead they went for it and were stuffed. Moss knew that was the wrong call, “I wish we could have had that three at the end of the half,” he said. “Maybe it could have been different, maybe not.”
Kicking for the lead was the right move in that situation. That was one of quite a few bad calls made by coaches over the weekend (Todd Haley going for a 4th and 2 instead of a field goal of around 39 yards, Norv Turner running plays 20 seconds before halftime, and Mike Shanahan benching Donovan McNabb) that could have cost teams. Every game that the Vikings lose makes them one stepper closer to firing Brad Childress.
