The Williams Wall might not play the biggest role in this week’s game, largely because the Cardinals can’t run the ball anyway. Pat Williams might not end up being much of a factor, but Kevin Williams could be, since he might be the best pass-rushing DT in the league.

The Vikings’ secondary can’t match up with Boldin, Breaston, and Fitzgerald. . .hell, I’m not sure if any secondary in the league can. But I think the Vikings’ defensive line can get pressure on Kurt Warner, and Warner is prone to making some brain-dead decisions when he’s pressured.

I think it’s pretty simple. . .if the Vikings get pressure on Kurt Warner, they win this ball game. If they don’t, Warner will shred them and the Cardinals will win.

The Vikings’ offense has been averaging about 25 or 26 points a game since the bye week, so at this point I’m not worried about their ability to score, necessarily. The only defense that’s held them down since the bye week is Tampa and. . .well, the Cardinals’ defense isn’t the Bucs’ defense. I’m not saying they’re awful, mind you, but I think most will agree that they’re not on the same level.

How balanced our attack is going to be is going to depend on how much Brad Childress opens up the playbook after the quarterback switch. (I’ll address that more in the next question.) I have no doubt that Adrian Peterson is going to get his, and Chester Taylor is going to get his. It’s what the rest of the offense does that I’m worried about.

I think Allen has definitely been worth it. The way I see it is similar to the Steve Hutchinson thing for the Vikings. When the Vikings signed Hutchinson to his 7-year, $49 million contract before 2006, he was the undisputed best player at his position and deserving of that sort of money. In the 2007 off-season, there were three other guards that received the exact same contracts in terms of years and dollars. . .Leonard Davis, Derrick Dockery, and one that slips my mind at the moment. . .and none of them had even been to a Pro Bowl, let along been considered at Hutch’s level. So yeah, the deal they signed Allen to looks and sounds like a lot of money NOW, but it will be a bargain in a couple of years. Getting one of the NFL’s best pass rushers (if not the absolute best) at the age of 26 was worth the sacrifice of the rights to select three guys that may or may not have panned out. Jared Allen is the genuine article, and I’m happy as hell to have him here. He and Kevin Williams should be raising hell along the d-line for years to come.

As far as Jackson, these next three games will be our chance to find out. I think Jackson has all the physical ability in the world, but he was one of those guys that probably needed two seasons on the bench before being handed a starting job, and he didn’t get it. If Jackson performs well in these next three games and gets the Vikings to the post-season, he’s probably the guy. If he plays like crap, well, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and draft a Sam Bradford/Tim Tebow/Mark Sanchez/Matt Stafford in the first round to build around.

As far as our receivers, I like the potential of the guys we have. There’s Berrian, of course, who’s been the deep threat he was advertised to be, but Sidney Rice is a guy people are going to have to keep an eye on (if he can stay healthy for more than five consecutive minutes). He’s got great size, great leaping ability, and soft hands. Bobby Wade is a nice third guy, and Aundrae Allison has shown some promise, too. I don’t think it’s a position that the Vikings need to spend a first-day pick on or anything, but maybe a later pick for depth would be nice.

I’m of the believe that Jackson never should have been benched to start with. He wasn’t terrible in Minnesota’s first couple of games or anything. . .but for whatever reason, Brad Childress refused to open up the entire playbook and went with game plans that were so conservative they were being attacked by Democrats in political ads.

In my own personal opinion, Gus Frerotte hasn’t brought us anything that Jackson couldn’t have done in the last 11 games. The difference is that we know what Gus Frerotte’s ceiling is. . .we don’t have that same idea with Tarvaris Jackson. I personally hope that Childress opens up the playbook and lets him sink or swim, because as noted above, we need to know what we have for the future in #7.

I was over at Rhein Main AB, Germany, watching that game on AFN while it was on. I was following the Packers/Broncos debacle on NFL.com as well, and figured out about five minutes in that the Broncos were just laying down for Green Bay.

We have the game on this big projector in the main office, and the whole time I watched, I absolutely couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The perfect storm of events that took place leading up to it. . .the Cardinals not getting the two-point conversion after the previous score, one Viking knocking the onside kick out of another’s hands, and everything up to 4th and a million for the touchdown.

And, sadly, after 25 years of being a Vikings fan, the shock wore off after about two minutes. Sure, I listened to Packer fans hoot and holler for a while. . .but then we went out the next season and destroyed them in the playoffs at Lambeau Field. The silence was wonderful.

So no, no residual bitterness or angst or anything like that.