Vikings win Super Bowl? Dr. Z hammered?

Ok – here is another Vikings Super Bowl prediction, but this time, not from within. As he properly reveals Dr. Z picked New Orleans last year to win the Super Bowl…they finished 7-9. So he should definitely be viewed skeptically when it comes to prognosticating. (In the interest of full disclosure, last year Packergeeks predicted the Cowboys would be the NFC Super Bowl team – not bad).  Dr. Z makes an OK argument for why the Vikes may be good, but it’s a lot of the same stuff you’ve already heard (revamped O-Line, solid run D, Peterson, T Jackson improving and Berrian/Allen additions). Listen, I don’t think the Vikes will be too bad this year. And part of the reason for claiming this is that I think Jackson may be set for a quality year at QB. But they’re not going to the Super Bowl.

So I’m surprised that for the first time in a while, there even IS a Vikings bandwagon. One thing Dr. Z is not giving proper attention to is Coach Childress. Maybe he’ll open things up and prove me wrong this year, but he seems like a dead-end type coach to me. Similar to Mike Sherman, I find his playcalling somewhat predictable and going into this year, it’s quite obvious to me that the running game will be heavily featured. So, just stop their run (like the Pack did last year). I just can’t see Childress leading the Vikings effectively to anything more than maybe one playoff victory at best. Also, while they do have some OK players on defense (Winfield – great, Allen, Greenway, Henderson, Williams guys) the rest of their D is questionable (and no, Sharper is not that good anymore). They have half an O-line, questions still at QB (even though I think he’s good), and as I’ve written before, a terrible passing game. I’m telling you, Berrian won’t bring anything, maybe Rice will be OK, but other than those two and Peterson, Jackson will have nobody to throw to.

Now, as for Dr. Z, he is a sportsillustrated.com columnist who writes periodic stories, makes weekly picks and does a power ranking. He is not that good of a writer and his predictions are questionable at best. He tries to be funny and fails. Not sure how this guy has a job frankly.