inSTAALed

This kid looked great on the last drive of the first half in the Oakland vs. Minnesota game.

Showed good knowledge of the game and great clock management, as well as some fancy footwork on a scramble.

Jurgy25

Yea I saw him play too. Thought he looked very good and poised. Looks like a good quarterback. The announcers were also fond of him, commenting on his style and game. Lets see what he can do next week.

inSTAALed

I'll be watching for sure.

kokotai

He looked good but he has to keep it up. One thing I'm noticing already is the player slacking off. He needs to stay in there and bring it every time, if he does he will do well.

bEaRsFaNaTiC

the keyword is "preseason." It was preseason.....I'm all for him developing and being great.....but it was preseason. Let's see it on gameday.

inSTAALed

Yeah, I posted that in the first week of the preseason.

Thanks for noticing

bEaRsFaNaTiC

sorry bout that but I just joined...so i figured I would comment

inSTAALed

No problem, welcome to the boards!

JCD

Honest Critique...

He is lucky so far. He does go through reads and shows athleticism, but shows a Kordell-esque penchant for forcing throws to late reads under pressure. He has gotten away with this in the pre-season against lesser talents, but those mistakes will get you cremated against the top-end guys. He has A LOT to learn before being an effective NFL starter and I have not confidence of leading the Vikes to more than 5 or 6 wins should he run the show.

At this point, he has shown more ability than know-how or performance. He may never gain the later as he has never shown those traits against quality competition.

katzenboyer

exactly, he's not seeing 2 main factors, #1 Def. and the complete defensive playcalling. just a watered down basic version.

KINGZZKEITH

I think it's cool that we have Brad back and that he salvaged our season last year, but Tarvaris is going to be special. I'm not for anyone getting hurt, but I would love to see T J get a shot at starting some games, or even coming in for a few plays (like they are doing with Vince Young in Tennesee).

JCD

To be fair, Johnson didn't salvage our season so much as he stepped in when we faced weaker opponents. He still got his butt kicked whenever he faced decent competition. We lost to ever play-off caliber team we faced last year, no matter who was the QB. The only exceptions are when the Bears played their back-ups and the fluke Giants win.

KINGZZKEITH

I would have to say, though, that Brad probably won more games than what we would have ended up winning w/ Daunte. That was my point. He managed us to end up having a respectable season. Daunte just did not have it for the games he played in last season.

JCD

I would disagree. Lots more changed than just Johnson at QB when we started winning.
1) We actually ran the ball more than 5 times per game
2) The defense started to do it's job
3) We shuffled the offensive line (Fowler in for Withrow; Johnson out to RT)
4) James was activated for games
5) We played non-play-off caliber teams

Daunte had some impressive games last year (NO, GB), but they were forgotten compared to his miserable performances in other games. There are a couple games where Daunte gets an undue share of the blame as well (Bengals when the Defense does show up; TB when players bubble TD passes into INTs and we can't stop Cadillac from breaking off a huge run late in the fourth). By my count, Daunte had 2 great performances, 2 bad performances, 2 games he was hung out to dry and one incomplete.

Put Johnson in for Daunte and I don't think our W-L changes. Only exception is perhaps the Bear's game, but that was the week of the Love Boat so who knows.

The games Johnson won last year were against weakling opponents: Green Bay, Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, B-Team Bears and the Giants. Dautne shredded the weakling opponents he faced, I see no reason to think he wouldn't do the same against the others. The Giants game was a record-setting fluke in which the offense contributed virtually nothing for the win. All three TDs were special teams or defense.

Had Johnson started all year for us last season, I doubt we have any more wins. Honestly, we may have less because Daunte was the reason we won against the Saints and Packers. I very much doubt Johnson could have replicated Culpepper's performance in those games.

SDK_06_CHAMP

the vikings didnt beat carolina carolina beat themselves. and its not like they destroyed washington. this team will lose the horseshoe in there "you know what" sooner than later and thats when they have to hit the love boat again!!!