| Purple People Eaters | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1998 Central Division Champs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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There's no stopping Vikings' offense Click here for more on this story Posted: Tuesday January 12, 1999 05:47 PM The Vikings score fast and they score often -- their first playoff game was no exception. Their 41 points was the most by any team in this round of the playoffs. Minnesota's passing attack gets a lot of the credit, but the Vikings run the ball well, too. They just don't force it. Offensive coordinator Brian Billick checks to the run when the defense goes to a nickel package or when the offense reads seven in the box. Robert Smith gets many opportunities this way to show his speed and power, and when he's tired, Leroy Hoard comes in and gives the offense a different style. Atlanta middle linebacker Jessie Tuggle needs to stuff the run and outside linebacker Henri Crockett needs to read and defeat the screens. If Atlanta is forced to use its safeties to help with run support, the Viking receivers will end this game quickly. Falcons All-Pro cornerback Ray Buchanan did a good job against Jerry Rice last weekend. But now he has Randy Moss and will be challenged deep. If Falcons defensive coordinator Rich Brooks uses a lot of safety support on the wide receivers, expect the Vikings to use either the flea flicker deep to Cris Carter or to open up tight end Andrew Glover and isolate him to keep the safties honest. Stopping the Viking receivers is out of the question. Slowing them down is possible. I've been talking up the Vikings since I saw them in training camp. And after last Sunday's win over the Cardinals, Carter said, "Our whole team believes we are a team destined to go the Super Bowl." I agree. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Be Like Randy? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) -- On the day Michael Jordan left the NBA with a gaping hole atop its superstar hierarchy, Randy Moss was asked to ponder his own future in MJ-sized proportions. Does Moss believe, as some do, that he might have a similar impact on his sport? "Man, that's hard to say," Moss said Wednesday as a pack of nearly 100 media members descended on Vikings headquarters in anticipation of this weekend's NFC title game against Atlanta. "Basketball and football are different sports. "Michael's his own man. Very talented. And with me being in that category, I don't think I'm ready to accept that now. I'm just a rookie, but later on in life I might accept that." The toughest part to accept, Moss said, would be the avalanche of attention, something he has struggled to cope with during his rookie season even though it's been nowhere near Jordanesque proportions. "All the notoriety, stuff like that," he said. "I think that I'll grow into it throughout the years. But right now I think I'm too young to try and let all that dwell in my head right now." Still, it's all pretty heady stuff for a guy who less than a year ago was passed over by more than half the teams in the league because of a reputation for trouble. Since the Vikings drafted him last April, Moss has been as trouble-free off the field as he has been troublesome for defenses on it. "Before the draft they talked about me negatively," Moss said. "Now that I'm up there they want to 'jock' me. So I let them hang onto my jock right now." That brash, confident side of Moss, part of what makes him so tough to stop as a receiver, has started to come out more as the season has progressed. He gave another glimpse of that when asked how he got to be so good so soon. "I think God flew me down on a cloud with a little halo around me," he said, smiling as he twirled a finger around his head. "I really don't know. I think it was a lot of hard work and practice that I had to prepare for this type of situation." | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Green Quietly Nears Another Milestone | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) -- Dennis Green is one win away from becoming the first black coach to lead his team into the Super Bowl. He already is the first to make it to the NFC title game. | Neither subject was an issue this week as the Minnesota Vikings prepared for Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons, and Green saw that as progress. "Absolutely, because what everybody is talking about is the team, and that's the way it should be," he said. Breaking barriers is nothing new for Green. He was the first black coach in the Big Ten when Northwestern hired him in 1981, and he was only the second black coach in modern NFL history when the Vikings hired him in 1992. "What I just try to stand for is somebody who's always tried to do a good job," Green said. "A lot of people write, a lot of people call and talk about the significance of [being the first black coach in the Super Bowl]. That's the breakthrough we're going through right now. It was a breakthrough when I went into Northwestern and I accepted it. I think it's great." Green's tenure hasn't always been smooth, but it has been successful. He has made the playoffs every season except 1995, and this season went 15-1 to boost his regular-season winning percentage to .634, surpassing Bud Grant for the best in team history. Now he has a chance to bring the Vikings their first conference title since the 1976 season and the first Super Bowl championship in their 38-year history. Still, his job security was an issue as recently as August, a mixture of the team's postseason failures (1-5 under Green before this season), off-field turmoil that included allegations of sexual harassment in 1995 and what Green often has described as an undertone of racism. This season's success has allowed him to rise above the rancor that had started to define his tenure. "I think they look at Denny Green as a coach now, as being able to make his players perform at the highest level," defensive end Derrick Alexander said. "In the past, I don't think they've looked at him that way. "I think he's been judged as a black head coach because, he's been to the playoffs every year but one since he's been here but his job's in jeopardy. ... I think because of his skin color he was under that microscope even more his first couple years. But I'm glad he's fought his way through it to put himself in this position." Green has endured the tough times to become the NFL's longest-tenured head coach with the same team, edging Pittsburgh's Bill Cowher by 11 days for that distinction following Marty Schottenheimer's resignation at Kansas City this week. He got a three-year contract extension from new owner Red McCombs on the eve of the season-opener against Tampa Bay late last summer, and his wife, Marie, gave birth to their second child in November. Green finally seems to have found peace in Minnesota. He has become a leading advocate in trying to help other black coaches break through the same barrier he did seven years ago. There currently are three black coaches in the league, all in the NFC Central: Green, Ray Rhodes at Green Bay and Tony Dungy at Tampa Bay. Green sees progress in Green Bay's decision to hire Rhodes to replace Mike Holmgren, along with the handful of black assistants still being considered for top jobs. "And with Ray hiring Emmitt Thomas [as Green Bay's defensive coordinator], I think those are both great signs for the future," Green said. If the Vikings beat Atlanta on Sunday -- they are favored by 11 points -- Randall Cunningham also will become only the second black quarterback to start in the Super Bowl. Doug Williams was the MVP of Washington's championship victory after the 1987 season. A chance to be there if Green becomes the first black coach in the Super Bowl would be a proud moment for the Vikings. "In a situation when we are going into the next millennium and I'm on a team with an African-American head coach, it's a testament to how far we've come," cornerback Jimmy Hitchcock said. "I think it'll make it a lot easier for African-American head coaches to get jobs. "It's like people say: the guys who the owners saw winning Super Bowls in those days when they were kids were white. We have a situation where the young kids of today will see an African-American head coach go to the Super Bowl, so that's going to be huge."
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