Aug

26

My Rant: Tarvaris Jackson haters

Posted by The Jazzy One

August 26, 2008 |

Every year I seem to get more and more into football.  Every year I seem to spend more time scouring the internet looking for articles on the Vikings, reading forums and newsgroups, talking to NFL fans.  More and more I figure out that most people look at generic stat lines and think they know a team inside and out.

This year I think the biggest evidence of that is how the media, and as a result, fans look at Tarvaris Jackson.  When you read about Jackson, people talk about how inaccurate he is, and how he’s going to be the big hole that stops the Vikings from making it to the Super Bowl.

First of all, let’s take a look at Jackson’s accuracy “problem”.

Let’s be honest, Jackson started out last season in a bad bad way.  In his first 5 games he played terrible football, completing a DISMAL 47% of his passes while throwing 2 TDs and 5 interceptions.  He threw 101 passes in these 5 games, which means he averaged a touchdown every 50.5 passes, and averaged an interception every 20.2 passes.  He made poor decisions, and simply was not ready to be an NFL quarterback.

In America’s mind, Jackson’s reputation had been set.

Despite the fact that when Jackson was set to come back from his last injury coaches told us as fans that he had been making breakthroughs, and he had been gaining confidence.  In America’s mind, Jackson’s reputation had been set.

In Jackson’s last 7 games of 2007, he threw for 7 TDs and 6 interceptions.  Not great, but not nearly as bad as the first 5 games.  The amazing turn around was that he  completed over 65% of his passes in these last 7 games.  In 184 passes, he averaged a touchdown every 26.3 passes, and an interception every 30.7 passes.  That’s a big improvement in both categories.

But, in America’s mind, Jackson’s reputation had been set.

When the Vikings played Denver in the last game of the season in 2007, they entered the 4th quarter behind.  They needed Tarvaris Jackson to take charge of the team.  Probably for the first time in his career, he was turned loose.

He lead the team to 2 fourth quarter touchdown drives, and capped off both of them by running in 2 point conversions himself.  He showed that he had the leadership and poise to do what a team leader needed to do.

But in America’s mind, Jackson’s reputation had been set.

So far this year in the preseason Tarvaris Jackson has went 15-22 (68%) for 200 yards, 2 TDs, and no interceptions in 2 quarters of play.  If you average that to a whole game (I know that’s not exactly how it works), Jackson would throw for 400 yards with 4 touchdowns and no picks.  He’s played extremely well in the time that he’s been allowed on the field, and he looks like he’s going to have a great season.

But in America’s mind, Jackson’s reputation had been set.

I can understand why the fans and the media would think that Brett Favre would’ve been a great fit for Minnesota’s offense this year.  Favre isn’t just a QB… he’s a future hall-of-famer and an NFL legend that is coming off a fantastic year. There are exactly 2 teams (The Colts and the Patriots) that would have no interest in Favre playing for their team if everyone was honest.

But when Pennington became a free agent, everyone assumed that he’d make the Vikings so much better.  Wow.  I’d take Tarvaris Jackson in a heartbeat before I’d take Pennington.  But most of the people saying that were looking at the Jackson from his first 5 games in 2007.

In America’s mind, Jackson’s reputation had been set.

Now that Pennington is in Miami, I’m already reading articles about how Tarvaris is going to be the downfall in Minnesota this year.

I am looking forward to watching him prove everyone wrong!

Until next time

-The Jazzy One


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. Nate Thompson on August 26, 2008 9:50 pm

    I hate it when people say really dumb things about a team when they don’t have any facts to back it up. Jackson started back because he was nervous and not confident. Jackson is not a bad QB but not a great one either. I would much rather have Jackson rather than Pennington. Jackson has time to get used to being a starting NFL QB but Pennington has not proven that he can be a winning QB for any team. Jackson will not be the downfall of the Vikings and if you think that then you really need to watch the Vikings a little more often.

  2. Paul on August 28, 2008 1:13 pm

    Bravo! Finally someone who makes sense. I am so tired of the TJ bashers. For all intents and purposes, last year was his rookie season and he just got better and better as the year went on. Capping it off with the near comeback win in Denver. If it wasn’t for “fumblefingers Williamson”, we’d have won that game. That guy couldn’t catch a ball handed to him, what a complete bust.

    Anyhow, now that we have Berrian as a legitimate deep threat who can actually catch the ball, along with Rice and Allison, we should punish defenses for stacking the box against AD and CT. I’d love to see more two-back formations where AD will swing out and catch the ball or they fake handoff to him and hand off to CT instead, we’d keep defenses guessing and honest.

    Hopefully the coaching staff have thought up new and inventive ways to get them both on the field at the same time. Thanks for the real article detailing what TJ has been doing, and for all the doofuses out there that slam TJ, get a frickin clue about football and grow up.

  3. The Jazzy One on August 28, 2008 3:03 pm

    Paul, I think you brought up some more great points. Besides TJ showing constant improvements throughout the year, he did it with a ROOKIE Sidney Rice (who had a good year, but he was still a rookie), a receiver in Williamson who could get open, but it didn’t really matter because he wouldn’t catch the ball, and a receiver in Wade that is meant to be an excellent third receiver, but we forced him to be a first receiver.

    This year we’ll have that talent that TJ has been refining, along with Berrian, an improved and matured Sidney Rice, and Wade playing to his strength. The passing game is not going to hold the Vikings back this year.

    And yes, I’m excited to see two back sets with both AD and Chester Taylor. That will be good stuff.

    Thanks for the comments!

  4. bill on September 9, 2008 12:50 pm

    You guys are such morons. Every one last year was touting him as the 2nd coming of Elway. He fell flat on his face. Peole talk about his \awesome\ record of 8-4 (now 8-5) as a starter but the problem is 1/2 his wins he got credit for as a starter came when he got knocked out and a back up QB would come in and win it for him. He’s terrible, hopefully ziggy will come to his senses and see that childress is no NFL level coach and tarface is not an NFL QB.

  5. The Jazzy One on September 10, 2008 9:46 am

    You might want to do a little fact checking before you start slinging around the 3rd grade name calling. Otherwise it might make you look bad.

    “1/2 his wins he got credit for as a starter came when he got knocked out and a back up QB would come in and win it for him.”

    Really? So this happened 4 times, huh?

    Well, actually, he got “knocked out” of 3 games last year… the Detroit game, which we lost when a backup QB came in, the Dallas game, which we lost when a backup QB came in, and the San Diego game, which we did win, but I think had a little more to do with a certain running back breaking NFL records than it did with a backup QB coming in and saving the game.

    So, you know, if 1 is “half” of 8, I guess you could say you were right.

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