I'm not saying they ignored him or that they could just ride him to a comeback win on 35 carries. I'm saying they under-utilized him early and I think that contributed to stalled drives and a deficit and they got away from him too much in the second half when they didn't need to do so. A team can come back from a 30-10 deficit and still stick with their running game. They need to pass too, of course, but falling into the mentality that a 20 point deficit has to be erased with the pass is a trap. Peterson's 64 yard run is a perfect illustration of why it's a trap. Big plays and scoring plays can come out of the running game when you have an explosive runner. On the other hand, becoming one-dimensional when already struggling to protect a shaky QB is a recipe for failure. Time is the biggest factor when dealing with a substantial deficit and the Vikings had time in the first 3 quarters to make more of a commitment to their running game, which was working very well and might have at least enabled them to sustain drives, rest their defense a little more and perhaps put TB in bad field position more often. It might also have reduced the heat on Ponder.CalVike wrote:Good point on the 64-yarder. My point, the team was down way too many points for your argument to have any credibility. A team cannot come back from 30-10, 30-17, 36-17 with AD. And they certainly did not ignore him.
I'm not sure what you mean by the "AD strategy". Again, I'm not saying they could have just put the entire game on his back but the guy had well over 100 yards rushing on just 15 carries. Giving him another 10 might have led to 50+more and another score. When he was killing it early in the game, would it have been so bad to give him the ball on back-toback carries a little more? It might have steered the game in a very different direction.Without a consistent mid- and decent long passing game, more losses will become the norm. I am glad they tried to go beyond AD and throw long to Simpson. Relying more on AD would still have meant a loss. No matter how good AD is, he can not make up Ponder and WR shortcomings. Good defenses of which the Bucs are not one will crush the AD strategy.