MVN: Most Valuable Network

In Sunday's game recap, we talked about the final offensive drive of the game for the Vikings -- the drive followed the missed Matt Bryant field goal and was representative of the entire game for the Vikes. It went like this: penalty for offensive pass interference, sack, lost fumble.

But if you look at the drive before that, things don't get any better.  On the first play, Bobby Wade made a reception and had some space in front of him -- but instead of heading upfield for the first down, he veered out of bounds.  Then, on three consecutive plays, Frerotte attempted three passes and only completed one for -1 yard.

There was plenty of time remaining, so obviously, Childress' bizarre unwillingness to turn to Peterson in that drive is a head-scratcher.

We've seen that before.  We've seen Chilly keep Peterson on the sidelines during key moments (with the obvious exception of last week's game against the Packers), and taking carries away from Chester Taylor has also been a theme of the last two years.  Taylor only had seven touches on Sunday, and the balance between Adrian's touches and Chester's needs to be a lot more even for the Vikings to execute a balanced offensive attack.

It was an embarrassing conclusion to the game for the Vikings, and it simply goes to show what a "strike early, fade late" team this is.  In their last four games, the Vikes have been outscored in the second half, and frankly, it isn't anything new to see this team go out with a whimper in the third and fourth quarters.

When you look at the years of the Childress regime, that inability to change on the fly and make adjustments is one of the biggest flaws of the coaching staff.  We've seen it time and time again: The Vikings come out of the game strong, but fade as the other side makes adjustments and Childress fails to respond.

Yes, the players need to execute -- and Frerotte failed to do so when he needed to make plays.  But there's no question about it: Childress isn't holding up his end of the bargain, either.