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Vikings QB
Jeff George
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EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Vikings WR Cris Carter could see it in training camp. He saw
the arm, the quick release ...
The opportunity.
"I wanted to work with Jeff," Carter said, "because I knew Jeff was
going to play. I knew that. And I knew that, for me, what I was witnessing was truly the
best arm I’d ever seen."
Carter could feel it long before George made his way into the Vikings’ starting
lineup this season. A kindred spirit, perhaps. A quarterback who saw the field the way he
saw it.
"I could tell when we were struggling (offensively), because I used to come off
the field to the sideline, and he’d be seeing the same things," Carter said.
"So I knew after a couple of games that he really knew what was going on."
It didn’t take George long to prove it once he got on the field, replacing Randall
Cunningham at halftime of the Vikings’ 25-23 loss at Detroit in Week Six. What
Vikings fans have seen since then is amazing.
In order:
- George has taken a struggling offense and has it producing near the level it was at last
year.
- In less than two months, George has gone a long way toward reshaping his image. He came
to the Vikings from Oakland as a backup at the bargain-basement price of $400,000 plus
incentives. He also carried a reputation as a man few teammates could love.
- Most importantly, George has saved a Vikings season that looked like it was sliding
headfirst into oblivion after six weeks of the season.
And, in atypical fashion, George credits everyone but himself.
"When you’re around a supporting cast like this one, it just makes things
easier," he said. "Offenses are so overrated. If you don’t have talent
around you or the guys who can learn an offense, it’s going to be hard. When
you’re around such a great group of guys, and there is so much talent, you can run
any offense. ... These guys can make plays."
They certainly did that during the five-game winning streak they took into their Week
13 Monday-night game at Tampa Bay. During that stretch, the Vikings averaged 389.8 yards,
30.4 points and 21.4 first downs per game. Compare that to last year’s record-setting
season, when the Vikings averaged 391.5 yards, 34.75 points and 20.9 first downs. After
just five starts, George had 17 TD passes, fourth-best in the NFC at the time.
The streak marked the first time in George’s career that he had won five straight
games as the starting quarterback.
Why the resurgence?
The easy answer is that George appears to have found his ideal situation. For the first
time in his career, he’s not being asked to carry a team but instead simply run an
offense. He doesn’t have to be a leader on an offense that already has several
veteran leaders, starting with Carter. The bottom line is that George isn’t expected
to be a savior the way he was in Indianapolis, Atlanta and Oakland, but rather a
quarterback, plain and simple.
And what a quarterback he has been.
"I think Jeff’s abilities fit what the Vikings are doing in terms of the
spread, three-wide offense," said Ravens head coach Brian Billick, who served as
Minnesota’s offensive coordinator last season. "His skills fit that style really
well, I think."
Billick is not alone. The Vikings’ offense is built around its wide receivers. But
in the first 5½ games of the season, the opposition was able to take them away enough to
make the Vikings’ offense struggle. Defenses did it with blitzes, which clearly
bothered Cunningham, and with coverages that took his primary receiver away, forcing
Cunningham to scan the field, not one of his strengths. Safeties learned that
Cunningham’s long, slow release made it easier to adjust on the fly.
George is, in so many ways, the opposite.
- He has a Dan Marino-like quick release that often neutralizes safeties. This was evident
in a victory over San Diego in Week 12, when George hit Carter for a 34-yard TD pass in
the right corner of the endzone. The safety was watching George all the way, but
George’s quick release and high-velocity fastball got to Carter before the safety
could get close enough to offer help.
- George’s deep ball is also more accurate than Cunningham’s. Last year WR Randy
Moss made a living coming back for underthrown deep balls, but this year teams countered.
They put a cornerback on Moss tight, and had the defender bump Moss and play underneath to
take away the underthrown ball. They also played a safety deep, but George’s deep
ball has put pressure on safeties.
"I think Jeff George has shown throughout his
career that he can throw the ball with anyone," said former Redskins GM Charley
Casserly. "He’s hot, and he’s given them two things. Number one, he’s
given them a spark and has uplifted the play of everyone around him. Number two, he’s
making plays downfield, and that’s what the team wasn’t doing early in the
season."
- Most importantly, George has the ability to read the field and hit the open man much
more so than Cunningham. Double Moss? Carter will kill you. Double Carter? Moss will kill
you.
Nowhere was this more visible than in the Vikings’ victory at Chicago in Week 10.
The Bears started the game loading up on Moss, and Carter responded with six catches for
131 yards and two TDs through three quarters. In the fourth quarter, the Bears responded
by doubling Carter. Moss then responded with six catches for 130 yards in the fourth
quarter.
Indeed, George has connected with Carter and Moss so well that they are constantly
changing plays and routes at the line of scrimmage with just a glance or a hand signal.
Carter has joked that he and George see things so much the same that they must have the
same blood type.
This has allowed the Vikings’ offense to instantly take advantage of shifts on the
defense. In Weeks 11 and 12, the offense gained 944 yards, and George had the first
back-to-back 300-yard passing games of his career.
Entering Week 13, George ranked first in the league in TD percentage and yards per
attempt. Still, even he can’t explain why he’s such a comfortable fit in
Minnesota.
"It’s a tough question to answer," George said. "I guess it just
comes with age and experience. This offense is best-suited for my style of play. It just
allows you to do so much. (Vikings head coach) Denny Green believing in his players and
listening to his players makes it easier."
Talk about rehabbing your reputation.
"I think Jeff and I are at a stage in our careers where the team’s success
supersedes anything individually," Carter said. "I think we’ve matured.
"There comes a time and point in every person’s life where they change. Some
people, they change after they’re out of the limelight. And with the tremendous
expectations for him since he was in high school, it has become a very difficult thing to
live up to." |
