News

Catching Witten in the Act

By Judd Zulgad, Star Tribune January 13, 2010


The Vikings don't need to be reminded that they have had issues slowing quality, pass-catching tight ends this season.

San Francisco's Vernon Davis had seven receptions for 96 yards and two touchdowns in Week 3. Green Bay's Jermichael Finley had six catches for 128 yards and a touchdown the following week. The Bears' Greg Olsen had a team-leading seven receptions for 45 yards in late November and then combined with Desmond Clark to catch eight balls for 86 yards and two touchdowns in Week 16.

So it isn't exactly good news for the Vikings that they will be facing one of the NFL's top receiving tight ends Sunday, when they go against Dallas' Jason Witten in a divisional playoff game at the Metrodome.

Statistically, Witten will be the top tight end the Vikings have faced this season. The top target of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, Witten finished ninth in the NFL and led the Cowboys with 94 receptions, good for 1,030 yards and two touchdowns.

Only the Colts' Dallas Clark (100 catches) had more receptions among tight ends in the league. By comparison, the Vikings' Visanthe Shiancoe, who had an excellent season, finished with 56 catches for 566 yards and 11 touchdowns.

"I've played again him several times and he's a guy that you have to concentrate on and be aware of," Vikings linebacker Ben Leber said of Witten. "He can stretch you vertically, take the short passes and turn them into long gains. So he's a great all-around tight end."

The Vikings have seen Witten's act before and they did not fare too well. Witten, who has good size (6-5, 263 pounds) to go with his excellent hands, caught 10 passes for 86 yards in the Cowboys' 24-14 victory over the Vikings in October 2007.

Witten finished 2007 with a career-high 96 catches for 1,145 yards and seven touchdowns. In his seventh season, Witten has not caught fewer than 64 passes in a year since 2004.

Sunday's matchup figures to be all the more difficult because the Vikings will be starting a rookie, Jasper Brinkley, at middle linebacker. Brinkley took over for E.J. Henderson with four games left in the regular season after he suffered a broken leg.
 
Brinkley is strong in run support but is still getting comfortable against the pass. In the nickel defense, Brinkley will continue to come out and Leber will slide into the middle and remain on the field with Chad Greenway.
 
"He definitely can pose a threat, a vertical threat, but we've got great linebackers," said Brinkley, a fifth-round pick last April. "It's nothing that I'm worried about. We're going to go out and play our game."
 
But it's not only the linebackers who are going to need to help against Witten. Safeties Tyrell Johnson and Madieu Williams -- and perhaps rookie Jamarca Sanford, if he again shares playing time with Johnson -- also will be instrumental.
 
The good news for the Vikings is that they have had more than a week to put together a game plan to attempt to neutralize certain elements of the Dallas attack. Included in their study has been Witten's four-catch performance in the Cowboys' 34-14 victory over the Eagles in their first-round playoff game on Saturday.
 
"Witten's a good player," Vikings defensive end Jared Allen said. "They tend to move him around a little bit to try to get him out in the routes and stuff. ... But every team has got good players. So as much as we have to prepare for them, they have to prepare for us and we'll see how it turns out on Sunday."