Moss, the Quarterback

A lot of people are going to question the Viking play call of an option to wide receiver Randy Moss near the two minute warning of the Viking-Seahawk game on Sunday. Don Banks writes

What on earth were Mike Tice, Scott Linehan and the Minnesota Vikings thinking? With the game — and quite possibly their season — on the line at home against Seattle, the Vikings ran a reverse/option pass to receiver Randy Moss, who proceeded to get picked off by Seahawks super rookie Michael Boulware in the end zone. It was first-and-10 from the Seattle 20, with the Vikings trailing 27-23 and 2:09 remaining when Minnesota got at least too cute by half.

Let me get this straight: You have a Pro Bowl quarterback with 31 touchdown passes already to his credit in Daunte Culpepper, and you opt to let Moss — wearing a glove, no less — throw maybe the biggest pass of the season? I wouldn't want to have been in Vikings owner Red McCombs' box when Moss tried to make like Peyton Manning. McCombs has fired NBA coaches for less than that.

As a Packer fan, I think it was an absolutely brilliant call! Seriously though, it was the kind of call where, if it works, the coach is a genius, if it blows up, he's a moron. The Steelers made a similar call against the Jets (Bettis throwing a touchdown pass), and no one is calling Cowher a fool.

The call wasn't really that bad (too cute, perhaps, but not really bad). It was the execution that was bad. As Don Seeholzer of the Pioneer Press says, "What no one said — even if they were thinking it — was that Moss shouldn't have thrown the pass, no matter what the call was." To me, as an armchair quarterback, the decision making on the field should be pretty simple, even for a non-quarterback. The faker looks to see if the defense has bitten on the fake. If it has, throw the ball to the intended receiver. If it has not, run or throw the ball away. In the Steeler version of events, the secondary players broke off their coverage of the receivers and started to converge on Bettis, who made the right decision and threw the touchdown. In the Viking version, the secondary did not break off, leaving Robinson in double coverage. Moss had no business throwing that ball. If he ran the ball or threw it away, the Vikings would have still had the opportunity for Culpepper to throw the touchdown. It was only first down, and they were in the red zone.

Coach Mike Tice has been on the hot seat in Minnesota all season, and the Vikings blowing the game and perhaps the season will not help his cause. But in fairness, one has to remember how far Tice has brought this team. When he took over, the team was in disarray, a losing team with players bickering amongst themselves on the sidelines. Randy Moss was a prima donna, only playing when he felt like it. Daunte Culpepper was a young quarterback being constantly berated by Moss and Cris Carter among others. The team was falling apart. Today, Culpepper is a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback. Were it not for Peyton Manning, Daunte's season would be one of the big stories of the year. Moss is a committed leader on the team. The Vikings were one (beautiful) play away from winning the division last year, and are still very much alive in the division race this year. The Vikings have made some shrewd personnel moves, such as drafting Nate Burleson, who no one else thought much of but is blossoming for Minnesota. With one or two more playmakers on defense (Antoine Winfield cannot do it all), they could be a favored team.

It's true that Tice has not been able to push his team over the top to join the elite of the NFC (to the extent that the NFC has an elite class). But he has turned a losing, imploding team into a playoff contending, offensive powerhouse. He should be given credit for that, and given the chance to finish what he started.