"Tweaking" the Offense

The Minnesota Vikings began the year suggesting that there was a new sheriff in town and that things would be run differently. For Vikings' fans who have lived through this sort of mess in the past--see circa Les Steckel, Denny Green, Mike Tice, Brad Childress--the promise seemed more hortatory than certain. But with so many holes to fill and so little pressure on the team to make the playoffs, there was at least a measure of promise that things would not be run to rote.Things did change for the Vikings in 2011, just not in any of the ways that Vikings' fans had hoped.In place of Bryant McKinnie at left tackle was a lesser version of Bryant McKinnie, in the form of Charlie Johnson; in place of an injured, undersized, and ineffective John Sullivan at center, was a healthy, undersized, and ineffective John Sullivan; in place of a very slowly improving Phil Loadholt at right tackle was Phil Loadholt, easily underperforming McKinnie's least productive days on his most prod...