Brad Johnson

[nofishfisherman]

I think that if culpepper was playing right now we would have the same exact record.

And I belive if Johnson was QB all year we would have the same record.

No QB could have won those early games, no defense, no o-line, no-running game what do you expect.

All I have been trying to prove through all of this is that culpepper can't take all of the blame like people want. He was put into a no win situation.

If you exclude the QB spot the team under Pep and the team under Johnson are totally different and very little of that is becuase of the QB, it is for a thousand other reasons but not beacsue of the QB.

Thats all I am trying to say.

[milnortech]

THe beginning of this thread was A hatefull attack on brad johnson. Mostly we are trying to say brad is doing a good job.

[nofishfisherman]

I don't think Brad is doing a horrible job, but he isn't exactly lights out either.

1 TD in 10 quarters isn't going to win you the MVP or a playoff game but he is just getting by. If the Defense has a bad game we are not going to win the game and thats just the way it is.

[soldoncass]

Ever come up to a stop sign behind 1 other vehicle and they are waiting to go until there are NO cars in sight? they wait and wait and wait...........! That's the same feeling I get watching Culpepper- he waits and waits and waits.....NOT THE O LINES FAULT!!!!!!

I like Johnson's approach... step back ,view and fire an easy to catch ball where the receiver is going to be. The O line did their job and the qb did his in a reasonable time. That's my kind of football!! I don't think it's a coincidence that the win's are coming either. Go VIKES!!!

[76k20]

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I think that if culpepper was playing right now we would have the same exact record.

And I belive if Johnson was QB all year we would have the same record.

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I have to disagree, duante's leadership is questionable at best and in my opinion that roll on to the next red zone fumble or interception bit he does after hooking up a td is just dumb.

should spend less time thinking of a videogame highlight move and more time working on ball control

B johnson in my opinion does a better job of sighting the open recievers and spreading the ball around instead of forcing into double coverage and turning over or taking a sack waiting for 1 guy to break his coverage.

I am in no way saying the johnson is our dream qb but I dont think dc would have turned the season he ran down the tubes around.

[Bobby Bass]

Hmmm 17-23 256 yds 2 sacks no int's no fumbles 2 tds and win #5........fantasy OB numbers. an 80 yard scoring strike!! ok Brad is god...he can do no wrong let's start talking SUPERBOWL baby !!! hahahahahhah ya right I know..

[milnortech]

139 qb rating 110 qb rating last week .Hes horrible throw him out.

[nofishfisherman]

Thankfully he has played alot better the last 2 weeks as well as the rest of the offense.I don't think they would do much if the offense stayed as poor as it was his first 3 games.

Now if the D slips they still have a chance.

[Bobby Bass]

Pretty quiet on this thread about Brad, where is all the talk of him being killed by the sack by the first game, weak arm, no legs. Washed up... Guess winning takes care of whinnying..He is not going to run the table but I am sure glad he is playing cuz I don't ice fish and there is nothing else to do on Sunday afternoon but work and that is out of the question..

[nofishfisherman]

Haven't read much negative about Brad in the last several posts atleast. I have never said he was week armed. I did question if he would get hit alot and he did the first several games but the line has tightened things up from a pass blocking perspective at least.

I am just glad that the enitre team is playing better. Everyone out there played horrible through the first 7 games. The last 5 weeks people seem to be getting it.

Just remember not one person on a team is responisble for a loss, and not one person is responsible for a win.

If you just look at the last 5 games the defense is ranked #2 in the league behind the bears. And overall they went from #28 to #15 in the last 5 weeks. I think that is the biggest stat of all.

[Bobby Bass]

With today's defense and 6 turnovers even DC could have won today....congrats to the D game ball and welcome to MR Robinson neighborhood.. Randy who? Nice job Brad couple of nice drives no turn overs and another win, Big test next week against Pit we will then see how far the team has come, need to keep winning..

[milnortech]

The offensive line was colapsing with all the blitzing and no intersepetions no fumbles. tell me culpeper would have done that.

[eyepatrol]

BB-

I agree. Pit will be a good test for the team on both sides of the ball. I think the sports reporters have said it best in that Johnson has brought some stability to the team. The O-line hasn't helped much, there really isn't much questioning that. But even though the O-line has been a colapsable one, Johnson at least isn't turning the ball over. And, as we've seen the past few games with our defense, turnovers play a key role in winning or losing. Brad is getting nearly the same amount of pressure in the pocket as Pepper did earlier in the season, but Brad is making better decisions....either take the sack or throw the ball away. Pepper seemed to try and force the issue and would throw into coverage which would end up as an interception, or he'd try running without the ball secure in his arm and would fumble.

Turnovers are momentum changers. Eliminate the turnovers and you reduce the amount of momentum, and more importantly, the number of opportunities, the other team has to score.

These past 3 or 4 games Johnson hasn't been turning the ball over. As a result, the defense has more time to rest on the sidelines....keeping them fresher for the game. I think we're seeing what kind of affect that has on our defense. They're fresher, making more plays, getting interceptions and so on.

I'm still a bit displeased with the lack of "power" the offense seems to show. Too many 3-and-outs or 6-and-outs. Too many punts. Would like to see them capitalize on more possessions. So far though, everything seems to be working. The defense has really helped the offense, and vice-versa.

Pittsburgh will be a good challenge though for the Vikes. I think this weekends game against the Steelers will show really where the Vikings are at and what we can expect to see from them the rest of the season, and, if they make it, the playoffs.

[upnorth]

There are quarterbacks that can win football games and there are those that can't. Culpepper can't. The only stat that counts is the one in the W column, and he just can't seem to put them there. I know he ain't the whole team, but some people are just not leaders and a QB should be a leader.

[lawdog]

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Just remember not one person on a team is responisble for a loss, and not one person is responsible for a win.

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I think I agree with half of that post all the time, but the other half not all the time. One player CAN lose games for you, particularly if he's the QB and handling the ball every play. I don't think Brad is winning these games singlehandedly by any stretch of the imagination, but he isn't losing them for us either. Pep was losing some of them on his own and would have lost some of these I fear. He just doesn't take care of the ball and isn't smart enough with the reads...

[nofishfisherman]

Well I would have to say Brad Johnson lost the game for us yesterday if we follow Lawdogs logic.

2 bad interceptions and not much else.

[eyepatrol]

I thought the defense did a decent job overall...could have been a bit better defending the run in the second half though.

Brad had a bad day and the turnovers really hurt. The entire offense I thought performed under par. I don't think they were prepared enough to handle the pressure from the Steelers.

I thought it was a good match-up, but the Vikes offense just didn't show for this game. This is just my opinion, but I think we need one or two o-lineman and I'd like to see us get a good running back. Don't even ask me about the quarterback position, 'cause I'm undecided on that (to a certain extent).

[Stratosman]

Yeah not good 4 trips to red zone and 3 points... that loss might have cost us the playoffs.

[nofishfisherman]

Ok, we heard all of the complaints about Culpepper for games like this so lets hear the complaints about Johnson now. After all its only fair.

[Bobby Bass]

I am not down on Brad at all, not a great game but not a bad one either. The shovel pass interception hit the receiver. Not much you can do about that. For all the pressure that the Steelers brought every play I thought he did OK. Still 6-1 and we were into it till Chicago beat up on Atlanta Just a pride thing now. Sounds like Culpepper has lost 25# and is boasting that who ever he plays for next year he will be faster and stronger. Hmmm so why didn't he have that attitude for MN this year? Back to Brad two more games to play look for the swagger to return next week.

[PierBridge]

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I have never said he was week armed.

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Well you should have he has by far the worst/weakest arm in the NFL, it's always been a problem and it's why he was not a starter in college "lol" and it's the reason we have him now.

I do give him credit for realizing how bad he is not doing too many stupid things and riding the defenses emergence.

We finaly have a Defense now if we can shore up the O line maybe get a year or 2 out of Birk and pick up another good linemen along with getting Pep back the future looks good for the Purple.

[nofishfisherman]

So the pressure the QB faces is an excuse for brad to have a bad game but not for Culpepper. C-Pep got hit a ton, why isn't that a viable reason for some of his struggles?

And Brad had a bad game flat out, 2 ints and not even 200 yds passing and zero TD's. Thats a bad game he did nothing. Both his int's were bad decisions to, both into double coverage, what happened to him being smarter then that?

I think we are seeing that our record is a product of who we are playing. We beat only one decent team, that being the Giants and that was a fluke win if there ever was one. The rest of our wins are against the celler dwellers and many of those we barely won.

Like I have been saying Culpepper would have gotten the same results if he wasn't hurt.

[Fishin Beast]

Brad has only lost one game, and the Steelers are a very good football team. There is a reason we were underdogs even going 6 straight wins. I saw alot of opportunities for us to win the game. And the one interception wasn't his fault at all, if a ball hits a reciever they should be the ones responsible for it. How many fumbles did Brad have? How many stupid mistakes did he have? He actually didn't do that bad of a job with what the defense gave him to work with. He didn't help our cause but atleast he kept the us in the game and hoping all game long. Culpepper would have had our hopes lost within the first quarter.

Nofish you seem bitter alot of fm'ers pick Brad over Culpepper but the truth I really dont really care for Brad being quarterback either. But he is the best option for us right now and that is sad.

[nofishfisherman]

I am not bitter that Brad is QB. He is the best option we have. But if Culpepper wasn't hurt I would put him in over Johnson.

I just don't understand the logic of people saying Culpepper is terrible. He had 4 bad games, He won 2 and got hurt in the last at Carolina that I am not counting.

In those 5 loses he had no running game to help him, no offensive line to help him, no defense to help him, and a ify kicker at best. How could you expect him to have a great game under those conditions. What does annoy me is that people put 100% of the loss on him when all other 52 players that get paid millions let the team down as well.

Thats all I started out trying to prove and it basically turned into a pure defense of Culpepper. He did play poorly but there are reasons for it and a lack of talent is not the reason. It seems when he plays bad it is 100% his falut and when he plays well it is 100% becuase everyone else around him carried him. That just isn't true. It takes a team and unfourtunetly we don't really have much of a team. One guy can't be responsible for all the wins or all the losses.

[buzzsaw]

It seems like just about everything went wrong for the Vikes in the first part of the season and for that alot of people blame Culpepper. I guess he was also responsible for the team playing horrible defense... okay that was tongue in cheek! I won't forget how good he has been in recent Pro Bowl seasons... not to mention last years prolific year! I think he played very badly this year but wouldn't think twice about having him back as our starting QB when he is healthy again. I personally think this is a ridiculous debate.

But I give Johnson props for playing within his means and not forcing things, well atleast until this past week. maybe if he was playing in the Cincinnatti debacle he would have forced a few things as well to try and get his team back in the game.... or maybe not. Some of us will just have to agree to disagree.