A Free-Reprint Article Written by: Ryan Hogan Article Title: For Vikings and Eagles The Time is Now
See TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article. Article Description: The Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles start their respective preseason schedules with one thing in common, high expectations. Yet in order to achieve success both teams must overcome a completely different impediment. Additional Article Information: =============================== 1095 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line Distribution Date and Time: 2009-08-28 13:36:00 Written By: Ryan Hogan Copyright: 2009 Contact Email: mailto:[email protected] For more free-reprint articles by Ryan Hogan, please visit: http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/ryan-hogan.html ============================================= Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters: ============================================= HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of Article Are Available at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/h/vikings-and-eagles-time.shtml#get_code --------------------------------------------------------------------- For Vikings and Eagles The Time is Now Copyright (c) 2009 Ryan Hogan Click It Ticket http://www.clickitticket.com/ The Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles start their respective preseason schedules with one thing in common, high expectations. Yet in order to achieve success both teams must overcome a completely different impediment. For the Vikings, their 2009 campaign is about getting production from the quarterback position. For the Eagles, their season rests on the performance of a defense sans Jim Johnson and Brain Dawkins. For the Chargers, they're dependent on the return of one superstar from injury, linebacker Shawn Merriman, and another from his 30th birthday party, running back LaDainian Tomlinson. Other than their glaring uncertainties these are three fairly complete teams, especially for the parity laden NFL. The Vikes, Eagles and Chargers all made the playoffs last season and there's no reason to think they won't return. However, the window for these franchises to win it all is quickly closing. If they don't get it done this year there may not be a "wait until next year." This past summer you couldn't visit a sports website or turn on a sports channel without hearing a story about the Vikings trying to coax Brett Favre out of retirement. That in itself reveals just about everything you need to know about the Vikings, they need a quarterback. In fact, some think the Vikings are just a quarterback away from the Super Bowl. With Favre electing to stay retired, the Vikings look back to their fourth-year pro Tarvaris Jackson. The second round pick out Alabama State has a cannon for arm and tons of athletic ability-more than enough to play the position. It's the accuracy, decision making and intangibles that he struggles with. Jackson finished the season strong before imploding in a 26-14 loss to the Eagles in the NFC wildcard game. Quarterbacks are judged by what they do in postseason so that's not a good sign. The irony of the situation is head coach Brad Childress is known as a quarterback guru. If he wants this season to end better than last he'll need to do a lot of "guru-ing" to Jackson. The Vikes have a world class running attack with back Adrian Peterson (1760 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2008) and one of the league's best offensive lines anchored by Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson and tackle Bryant McKinnie. The Vikings defense is stellar with end Jared Allen, middle linebacker E.J. Henderson (who was sidelined most of 2008 with a toe injury) and Pro Bowl corner back Antoine Winfield. Minnesota was the stingiest defense against the run in 2008. While you're keeping an eye on Tarvaris, keep a couple more on defensive tackles Kevin and Pat Williams. They could miss some time at the start of the year for violating the league's anti-doping policy. The duo is waiting for a federal court to hand down a decision. If they do have to sit out the Vikings run defense will definitely take a step backwards. With Peterson's ability to dominate a game, and a defense as good as the Vikings, the team doesn't need a lot from Jackson, but they need something. The good news for the quarterback, Minnesota has some pretty easy road games-Cleveland, Detroit, and St. Louis. Potentially their two toughest opponents, the Ravens and the Giants, come to Minneapolis. A huge test for Jackson comes October 25th when the Vikings travel to Pittsburgh, a team generally not kind to quarterbacks. If Jackson is the exactly the same as he was last year Vikings fans can expect the team to win the division but not much more. If fans want to see the Vikings go the Super Bowl Jackson needs to take a giant step forward. With Peterson's youth, the Vikings probably have more time to get it done than either the Eagles or the Chargers. Regardless, if Minnesota fails to make it deep in the postseason Childress could be looking for a job at season's end. The Eagles lost longtime defensive coordinator Jim Johnson to cancer in early August. His death is a blow to both the franchise and the NFL. Johnson can't be replaced but the team has given his job to Sean McDermott who's been with the team for 11 seasons. The 35-year old is a worthy successor and he knows the Eagles defense. McDermott's squad will look a lot different than the one Johnson coached last year. Stalwart safety Brian Dawkins left Philadelphia for the Denver Broncos. The veteran may have lost a step but his leadership and experience will be missed. The Eagles "D" also lost middle linebacker Stewart Bradley to a season-ending injury. How this defense reacts to McDermott's tutelage and loss of key personnel is crucial to the Eagles 2009 season. Despite being three minutes away from returning to the Super Bowl, the Eagles finished last season 9-6-1, quarterback Donovan McNabb's play was inconsistent (remember he was benched at one point) and the team backed into the playoffs only after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chicago Bears faltered. A steady "D" will take some pressure off McNabb and running back Brian Westbrook, one of NFL's most versatile and injury prone players, to try and do too much. The Eagles' offensive line is one of the league's best and their receiver corps is finally starting to scare people. In addition to all that, the Eagles signed quarterback Michael Vick. While he won't be eligible to play until October 18th, his athleticism could be another weapon for coach Andy Reid. As members of the NFC East, the Eagles have a brutal schedule including one stretch that goes at Redskins, Giants, Cowboys, at Chargers, at Bears, Redskins, at Atlanta and at Giants. If that wasn't bad enough they finish the season at Dallas. If you look at the turmoil surrounding this team last season you could make the case that the franchise won't be in the postseason. However, if you focus on the end result-that this team almost went to the Super Bowl-then you have to believe the Eagles can win another NFC championship. The Eagles are a veteran team that has gotten close but never sealed the deal. Not only is youth running out for the team but their fan's patience is fleeting. Philadelphia needs to win it all this year. If these two nearly-complete teams can navigate over, through or around their respective obstacles they may find themselves holding some exclusive hardware at the end of the season. For the Vikings and the Eagles the time to win is now. These franchises may not be this good again for a very long time. Copyright 2009 ClickitTicket.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryan Hogan is a sports writer for ClickitTicket, an NFL tickets website that offers affordable Vikings tickets and Eagles tickets. And ClickitTicket has a vibrant entertainment blog (http://www.clickitticket.com/blog/) that has numerous writers who contribute original articles on a regular basis. --- END ARTICLE --- Get HTML or TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/h/vikings-and-eagles-time.shtml#get_code ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: May 11, 2006) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. Clean links should point to the Author's links without redirects having been inserted into the copy. * You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks must be retained with articles. You can change where the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do. * Email Distribution of this article Must be done through Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email. * You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for proper display of the article in your website or in your ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests within the article. * You may not use sentences from this article as an input for any software that steals sentences from others in order to build an article with software. The copyright on this article applies to the "WHOLE" article. *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Ryan Hogan can be reached at: [email protected] *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: mailto:[email protected] ..................................... If you need help converting this text article for proper hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl ***************************************************************** * * This email is being delivered directly to members of the group: * * [email protected] * ***************************************************************** ===================================================================== ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION http://thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com are owned and operated by: Bill Platt 3010 E Raintree Stillwater, Oklahoma USA 74074 Learn more about our article distribution services by visiting: http://thephantomwriters.com/x.pl/tpw/info/article-distribution/index.html The content of this article is solely the property and opinion of its author, Ryan Hogan http://www.clickitticket.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ---------------------------------------------------------------------
