Pompous Elitist
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MMQBing is nothing new or unique to us in the Gopherhole. Schnelker and Burns also faced criticism for underutilization of Herschel Walker. From 1989:
PRO FOOTBALL : Viking Offense Needs to Return to Basics
By BOB OATES
DEC. 6, 1989
12 AM
The Minnesota Vikings are not getting the most out of running back Herschel Walker these days, and it seems to be more their fault than his.
Walker is perhaps the NFL’s most misunderstood player. A fine athlete with raw speed, he was born without much talent for the game. That is, he has few of the skills you see in the great running backs.
Throughout his college and pro career as one of the fastest ballcarriers in football history, Walker, who weighs about 230 pounds, has consistently proved that he is as hard to stop as a freight train. He almost never makes a tackler miss, and almost never runs down tacklers. He gets much of his yardage dragging them along.
Still, he is a remarkably valuable football player. He can be an effective, major contributor to any offensive team that properly fits him in.
Unhappily for the Vikings, their offensive coaches, Jerry Burns and Bob Schnelker, continue to demonstrate that they don’t know how to incorporate Walker’s two great assets--his speed and his abilities as a pass receiver.
Incredibly, they have occasionally benched him on passing downs.
The problem is that Walker is incompatible with the system established in Minnesota, which, despite its talent, is tied with Green Bay at 8-5 atop the NFC Central Division after beating Chicago Sunday night.
Burns-Schnelker running plays, based on trap blocking, usually develop slowly, whereas Walker’s strength is hitting fast. On a running play, that’s his onlystrength, as the Vikings should have known when they traded for him. He can’t change--and the Vikings don’t want to.
But they did change on Walker’s first day in Minnesota two months ago, when he breezed in from Dallas and played after one day of practice. Almost the only ground plays that can be used without much practice are off-tackle runs, and that afternoon, capitalizing on a simplified blocking scheme, Walker repeatedly hit off tackle and ran up 148 yards in 18 carries to beat the Packers. He hasn’t come close to that total since.
Overall, the personnel that Mike Lynn has accumulated for the Vikings--as their $1-million-a-year general manager--is probably the NFL’s most gifted. It’s hard to see how any club could beat them out of the NFL championship if they would use their big back the way the Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins used John Riggins--pounding away with Walker 25 or 30 times each week and throwing 15 or 20 play-action passes after fake handoffs to Walker.
They have that kind of team with a runner who, in the right formations, is a threat to go 40 or 50 yards on any snap--run or pass.
www.latimes.com
PRO FOOTBALL : Viking Offense Needs to Return to Basics
By BOB OATES
DEC. 6, 1989
12 AM
The Minnesota Vikings are not getting the most out of running back Herschel Walker these days, and it seems to be more their fault than his.
Walker is perhaps the NFL’s most misunderstood player. A fine athlete with raw speed, he was born without much talent for the game. That is, he has few of the skills you see in the great running backs.
Throughout his college and pro career as one of the fastest ballcarriers in football history, Walker, who weighs about 230 pounds, has consistently proved that he is as hard to stop as a freight train. He almost never makes a tackler miss, and almost never runs down tacklers. He gets much of his yardage dragging them along.
Still, he is a remarkably valuable football player. He can be an effective, major contributor to any offensive team that properly fits him in.
Unhappily for the Vikings, their offensive coaches, Jerry Burns and Bob Schnelker, continue to demonstrate that they don’t know how to incorporate Walker’s two great assets--his speed and his abilities as a pass receiver.
Incredibly, they have occasionally benched him on passing downs.
The problem is that Walker is incompatible with the system established in Minnesota, which, despite its talent, is tied with Green Bay at 8-5 atop the NFC Central Division after beating Chicago Sunday night.
Burns-Schnelker running plays, based on trap blocking, usually develop slowly, whereas Walker’s strength is hitting fast. On a running play, that’s his onlystrength, as the Vikings should have known when they traded for him. He can’t change--and the Vikings don’t want to.
But they did change on Walker’s first day in Minnesota two months ago, when he breezed in from Dallas and played after one day of practice. Almost the only ground plays that can be used without much practice are off-tackle runs, and that afternoon, capitalizing on a simplified blocking scheme, Walker repeatedly hit off tackle and ran up 148 yards in 18 carries to beat the Packers. He hasn’t come close to that total since.
Overall, the personnel that Mike Lynn has accumulated for the Vikings--as their $1-million-a-year general manager--is probably the NFL’s most gifted. It’s hard to see how any club could beat them out of the NFL championship if they would use their big back the way the Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins used John Riggins--pounding away with Walker 25 or 30 times each week and throwing 15 or 20 play-action passes after fake handoffs to Walker.
They have that kind of team with a runner who, in the right formations, is a threat to go 40 or 50 yards on any snap--run or pass.
PRO FOOTBALL : Viking Offense Needs to Return to Basics
The Minnesota Vikings are not getting the most out of running back Herschel Walker these days, and it seems to be more their fault than his.
www.latimes.com
