Vikings looking to fill in their blanks

Without Pat Williams (94) and Kevin Williams, the Vikings defense will be vulnerable. David Sherman/Getty Images Steve Aschburner's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Steve. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

MINNEAPOLIS -- The way provincialism and partisanship grab hold of a situation such as the one in which the Minnesota Vikings found themselves in this week, you find yourself dealing with almost two versions of reality. There is the version as seen and vented over by those close enough to the team to either work for it or reside nearby in the Twin Cities. Then there is the take of folks in Chicago, Green Bay and other rival NFL cities, witnessing from afar the controversy over diuretics in the drug tests of two important Vikings players, defensive tackles Pat Williams and Kevin Williams, and their subsequent suspensions by and legal entanglements with the NFL.

It's almost as if news accounts should be written Mad-Libs style, tailored to the respective audiences or even fleshed out by them.

The Minnesota Vikings' two ________ [two adjectives] defensive tackles, Pat Williams and Kevin Williams, were ________ [adverb, past-tense verb] Tuesday by the NFL, the most ________ [adjective] league in pro sports, run ________ [adverb] by commissioner Roger Goodell. Because the two ________ [plural noun], known to their ________ [adverb, adjective] fans as The Willams Wall, were ________ [adverb, past-tense verb] by the ________ [adjective] commissioner and his ________ [noun] in New York, the ________ [adjective] Vikings understand that they have a ________ [two adjectives, noun] to reach the playoffs.

Here are the fill-in-the-blank answers of a typical Vikings fan: stellar and likable, wrongfully suspended, uptight, autocratically, Pro Bowl performers, relentlessly loyal, unfairly punished, domineering, bobos, plucky, difficult and noble quest.

And here's how a fan of the Bears or the Packers would plug those holes: fat and cheating, properly suspended, thorough, admirably, clods, blindly sycophantic, finally nabbed, tireless, task force, overrated, ridiculous and futile snowball's chance in Hell.

The beauty of this is, if you simply reverse the team colors of all involved -- from purple and white to green and gold or to navy and orange -- the answers switch instantly, like some sort of hidden iPhone feature. That at least is something I've been reminded of this week, as tunes by Mellencamp -- When the walls / come tumblin' down -- and Pink Floyd -- All in all, it's just a / 'nother brick in the wall -- moved in and refused to vacate the space between my ears.

These, meanwhile, are five things I've learned about the Vikings in recent days as they head into the final four weeks of their season:

1. The Williams Wall might brick themselves and their team into a corner. The Williamses were suspended for their use of StarCaps, the weight-loss pill containing the NFL-banned ingredient known as bumetanide, which can act as a masking agent for steroids. They flexed some home-field advantage Wednesday when their attorneys got Hennepin County District Judge Gary Larson -- coincidentally, the name of a fabled Purple People Eater lineman from Vikings lore -- to issue a temporary restraining order allowing them to return to practice. Their intent is to either fight and win in court, while continuing to play on the field, or at least delay the final verdict until the offseason.

But the NFL, not eager to have its authority questioned, immediately swooped in with the intention to move the legal action to federal court. The league also has some compelling arguments on its side: There's the "strict liability'' language of its anti-steroids policy, which puts responsibility on a player for any banned substance he uses, knowingly or not. Also, the disciplinary machinery was collectively bargained with and agreed to by the NFLPA. Typically, judges stay out of such matters, other than telling both sides to fix things at their next contract negotiations.

Now, consider if the legalese lasts through the weekend but gets quickly wrapped up next week. The two tackles could wind up playing against Detroit, a foe Minnesota is expected to beat anyway, and then have the meter on their four-game suspension start with the Dec. 14 game at Arizona. Count off four games from there and they could still be unavailable for a possible Vikings' playoff game.

2. It's all about the other 51 now. Or at least the other nine plus two. Backup Fred Evans likely will start at nose tackle while Ellis Wyms takes Kevin Williams' spot at tackle Sunday against the Lions. Evans was inactive for all but one game of his rookie season in 2006, and after signing with the Vikings in July 2007 was suspended for two games for incidents stemming from his season with the Dolphins. Though he has played in all 12 games this season, he never has started an NFL game.

Wyms also has participated all season, and is an eight-year veteran. "You don't stay in the NFL for eight years if you can't play,'' Wyms said in his own defense Wednesday, though this makes you wonder. (Wyms is the guy on the receiving end of the Packers player in the linked photo.)

Sorry, but there's no way these guys will plug the Katrina-sized leaks in The Williams Wall. Minnesota's run defense is the best in the league, No. 1 against inside rushes by a half-yard or more, thanks to the beef and brains of the Williamses. Worse, without them to attend to, multiple blockers can key on pass-rusher Jared Allen, remarkably effective so far given his aching right shoulder but suddenly the top priority of lines facing Minnesota. And without superior pressure, the Vikings' secondary is ordinary at best.

Vikings QB Gus Frerotte has thrown 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions this season. Al Tielemans/SI

3. Frerotte is getting it done. He's old, often wobbly and for a brief spell Sunday against Chicago, looked like Frank Gifford lying at Chuck Bednarik's feet. Or Liston at Ali's. After Frerotte got hit from behind -- late -- by the Bears' Adewale Ogunleye in the second quarter, he went down as if shot in what some cynics labeled Oscar-worthy acting. But he said he had been knocked out momentarily, though not so long that it prevented him from finding receiver Bernard Berrian a few minutes later for a game-turning, 99-yard touchdown pass.

Frerotte was supposed to be part of someone else's past, certainly not the Vikings' present or future, but since he took over as starting quarterback for failed experiment Tarvaris Jackson, he and the team are 7-3. For all the oohs and aahs generated by back Adrian Peterson (and rightly so), it has been the seven-team retread who has the NFC North title in the Vikings sights.

4. Don't take 0-13 for granted. If the folks around the Vikings' Winter Park practice facility thought the ultimate letdown of their 2008 season came Tuesday with word of the Williams' suspensions, they were being premature. Lose Sunday to the Lions, "spoiling'' Detroit's winless season, and the Purple might turn permanently red from embarrassment.

Don't forget, the Lions barely lost at the Metrodome on Oct. 12, due to quarterback Dan Orlovsky running out of the back of the end zone. Detroit runners did pick up 100 yards that day, better than the average yielded by Minnesota's defense, with both Williams in place.

There's the emotional droop from last week's Chicago game that seems inevitable, a sense among the Lions that this might be their last best chance to win a game and now the Daunte Culpepper angle, with the former Vikings quarterback facing his old club after spending just one month with the Lions.

5. From 8-5, 9-7 should be good enough. If the Vikings avoid embarrassing themselves prevail at Detroit, conventional wisdom says they would only need to win one of their final three games to clinch the NFC North. That won't be comfy but it might not be too tough. Either the Bears (to win outright at 10-6) or the Packers would need to win their final four games, and the Vikings are better positioned in tiebreakers. Also, the Cardinals aren't a great threat to Minnesota's more vulnerable run defense without The Williams Wall, and the Giants -- the Vikings' finale opponent -- might be resting up for the postseason by Dec. 28.