Due to the season-ending knee injury by Cadilac Williams, Tampa Bay has contacted Minnesota about a possible trade for Mewelde. This is disheartening news for me - I hope it will not happen. If it does, Minnesota should persue one of their wide receivers.

In my mind, a Chester Taylor for Michael Clayton trade would be better for Minnesota. A change of scenery could spark Clayton's career to follow a path similar to that of Cris Carter's, perhaps.

Mewelde offers a lot of flexibility and should be used extensively as a third-down back or as a slot receiver in a 4-receiver set. Moore has great hands and in my opinion, more "make-you-miss" moves than Taylor.

On a different subject - our pass defense - at least Frazier is trying. The results haven't been there and my thought is maybe he is being too "reactive" instead of "proactive". Opposing offenses are spreading us out. Our philosophy is to not give up big plays but to keep the plays in front of us. The corners are giving up too much cushion allowing opponents to "take what we give them" and move down the field.

Perhaps we could approach these spread offenses like defenses did the "run-and-shoot". Defenses started overloading the pass blockers - sending more rushers then there were blockers to handle the. Sort of like the old Bears "46" defense.  When the QB starts getting hammered before he has time to set up and throw, soon the offense has to start bringing receivers back in to block - ergo flankers become TEs. At the same time you do this you have to play the corners up in press coverage so the QB has no quick dump-offs. I know Antoine Winfield can handle this. Maybe Marcus McCauley can grow into a cover corner.

Until next time, hoping someone in the Vikings org begins to apreciate Mewelde and tells Childress to take advantage of his skills.

The 23-16 loss to Green Bay brings Childress to a 7-13 record as a head coach.  A .350 batting average will win you a batting title but any team with a winning percentage of 35% sucks - plain and simple. Is it the players, the coaches, or the organization?

Mike Tice stumbled along at a .500 clip for three years. The belief was the Vikings had a lot of good players and poor coaching. He would have been fired midway through his last season except there was no other coaches on the staff worthy of taking over.

Each of the past three off-seasons the talent level has dropped as players were released or traded for lesser value. We have nothing to show for losing Moss, Culpepper, Michael Bennett, Napolean Harris, Fred Smoot, and even Brad Johnson. These players were replaced with a draft bust (Williamson), and average nobodies (Shiancoe, Wade, Circui, McMullen, etc.)

Now we have Adrian Petersen, a definite improvement over what we had before. Still, the overall talent level has decliined due to coaching and the front office. Once again Mewelde Moore was inactive this weekend - let's not utilize a playmaker in favor of a third blocking fullback who can play special teams. Good thinking there Childress!

Two years ago the Packers were horrible and a lot of experts thought Brett Farve should retire.  McCarthy is an impressive coach and their organization does an amazing job of evaluating talent. Sure, they can't run the ball and eventually that will hurt them. But they are 4-0 with 4 quality wins and they are playing consistently - and smartly. The Packers turned things around very quickly. Aaron Rogers looked pretty good in the pre-season so even when Farve hangs it up, the Packers will still be good.

Frazier is no Mike Tomlin - who should be our head coach. It was a bad day for Minnesota when Tomlin left.

Culpepper looked good yesterday, but I can't get over how small his hands are for such a large man. He sure threw a beautiful strike to Jerry Porter for the TD.

Tonight is a treat: New England at Cincinnatti on MNF. I have Man-love for Tom Brady, I'm not embarrassed to admit. The Pats have the trifecta of what it takes to have a great team: Great players, Great Organization, and Great Coaching.

Minnesota's Great Players: Adrian Petersen, Kevin WIlliams, Antoine Winfield, Mewelde Moore. 4 is not enough.

Future Great Player: Brian Robison - get this man signed long term while he's cheap!

P.S.: What's with Adrian rushing for 108 yards in the first half and 4 yards in the second? Good job there Bevel and Childress - use him as a decoy!

At least Childress didn't try to play his usual secret agent card - keeping it a secret until game time. Surprise only works if you have TWO GOOD options. When you are trying to fool another team into time spent preparing for this crappy quarterback or that crappy QB - it doesn't work.

They need to microwave the game balls on the sideline so Holcomb will not hold onto it for so long and take another dozen sacks. Speaking of which - Aaron Kampman versus Ryan Cook.....sheesh! Last December Kampman had 3 sacks against us. Will probably have to have Kleinsasser help him out - thus removing a potential receiver downfield.

Chester Taylor is expected to play. The vikes need some long drives - 14,15 plays that eat up the clock and keep Farve on the sidelines. This will throw off his rythym so when he gets in the game, he's in a big hurry and throws 3 interceptions which will tie him George Blanda at 277 for the most ever in history.

C'mon Vikes....you can do it. Line is Green Bay by 1 to 1 1/2.

I predict Minnesota 20, Green Bay 16.

Good for Zygi, he is a very quiet owner and I have wondered what his opinion was. I have to confess to watching "Dancing with the Stars" and enjoyed watched Mark Cuban give a 100% effort.

He's worth 1.8 billion and just coming off of hip-replacement surgery - whatever motivated him to do something like this with a huge risk of embarrassment versus meaningless reward to someone with 1.8 b? I admire the guy, he took it seriously and practiced with determination, even writing down steps and thoughts. You can see how he became such a success - he sets his mind on a goal and makes it happen. Whatever it takes that he has an ability to effect.

I would like someone like him to own the Vikings. Do whatever it took to make the team a champion - hold the coach accountable, get the best available players. If Mark Cuban owned the Vikings he would know the playbook as well has Childress.

The metrodome used to be a House of Horrors for Brett Favre until the last three seasons. Last year the Packers beat us at home easily - the long TD to Driver in front of Sharper just before halftime was a back-breaker. The Packers are better this year and have 3 quality wins. Looking at the schedule a month ago I expected this to be a game of two 3-0 teams.

Now I look at the rest of the season and it looks bleak. We have a real chance to go 0-8 on the road and finish 4-4 at home. What can Childress do to change course?

When you compare the Vikes offense to Philadelphia's, they aren't very similar. The Eagles run a lot of crossing routes 15-20 yards deep and McNabb frequently throws to wide open receivers. Against the Lions the Eagles went up top with huge results - Kevin Curtis had 204 yards receiving in the first half alone. McNabb finished with his first ever perfect passer rating of 158.3. Why does our offense look so conservative in comparison?

Maybe Childress and Bevel are just naturally more conservative than Andy Reid. They also don't have Donovan McNabb. I think the problem is they don't have the players to do what they want and instead of adjusting their system to fit the players they are running their system in a trimmed-down version hoping the players can make it work.

The immediate problem is the right side of the offensive line. Artis Hicks and Ryan Cook are average at best. The QB doesn't have time for deeper routs and Tarvaris can't handle blitzes so defenses are going to come hard. Bryant McKinnie has been disappointing too, since signing his huge contract last year. The Chiefs Jared Allen ate him up - although Allen is pretty good. Except for Hutchinson, our line don't look comfortable zone blocking but more suited to trap blocking.

With our personnel they need to move the pocket more - get away from some of the rush and allow time for receivers to run their patterns (similar to how Denver does). The way defenses are stacking against the run - a flea flicker might go. Even a flanker screen. I'd send Mewelde in motion to the slot then hit him with a screen. Any play that involved getting the ball to Adrian in open space - such as a pitch - is a good thing.

Just my two-cents.