The Holidays

As we officaly embark on the Holiday Season, I thought it only fitting to write a holiday themed post, and here it is.

Thanksgiving : Five things the Vikings are thankful for.

1. Brett Favre. Has thrown 24 touchdowns now and only 3 interceptions.

2. Our record. 10-1, best since '98. Has Ryan Longwell missed a field goal this year? Please tell me he has.

3. Chester Taylor. An extremely good back up, scored two touchdowns today, and we know we can count on him if AP can't get control of his fumbles.

4. Our schedule. Has to be one of the softest in the league. Out of our 11 games so far, probably only one or two of those teams will make the playoffs. The three potentials are Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and Baltimore. It's entirely possible that all three of those teams will not make the playoffs this year.

5. That we didn't trade for Jay Cutler. He has thrown for 15 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

Christmas Wish List : Five things I hope will happen.

1. Favre most valuable player, and Harvin rookie of the year. After today, this is looking as possible as ever.

2. That Favre would give in to his old school ways and wear a tight on the shoulder pads jersey, so it doesn't seem like he's so old. At least just for one game, so we can see if it would work for him or if it would just look odd.

3. That Darius Reynaud would fair catch punts that are going to land on the 20, instead of not catching them, and then scrambling to appear that he cares and look like he will maybe pick the ball up, but in the end doing nothing as it rolls to the two yard line.

4. No more AP fumbles. He now has 15 since 2008, and 9 of them have been lost. Both of those stats are the most in the NFL for current running backs. His fumbles are usually easy to overlook due to all the amazing plays he makes, but that is a horrible stat, and it's depressing to see.

5. That we could get the #1 seed in the NFC. This will start to look much more plausible after tomorrow night when New England beats down the Saints by 10 points or more.

The Childress Extension

The Vikings have signed an extension to keep Brad Childress as our head coach through the 2013 season.  That’s good, I suppose.  My feelings about him are probably at an all time high right now, with let’s say an approval rating of around 75%, but previous to this year I would have mainly only had negative things to say, with an approval rating of about 20%.

Here is one thing that I have a hard time dealing with.  Why can’t the coach of an NFL team be held accountable to the job he’s doing in the same way any other position on the team is?  If an assistant coach has an unbelievable season, and impresses with his coaching ability to the point that most believe he would be better than the current head coach, why couldn’t the owner simply slide that coach into the “starting” role, and move the previous head coach into a smaller role or off the team?  Why is that not an option???

I’m really just pondering this because I wish Mike Tomlin was our head coach.  Tomlin, who was our defensive coordinator in 2006, guided us to having the eighth best defense in the league that season and our first season as the league’s best rush defense.  The following season he was hired by the Pittsburg Steelers and has since coached them to a 10-6 record and a playoff berth, followed by a 12-4 record and a Super Bowl victory last season.  He has proven he has a gift for coaching, but besides that, he looks about ten times more cool than Childress and having him as our coach would instill feelings of pride when our coach is shown on TV as opposed to feelings of semi-embarrassment.  Look at the pictures of these two.  Is there really any question which one you would rather see on the sideline guiding your team?

 

 

But Childress is who we have, so we must attempt to support him.  We will focus on the positives.  After his first season, in which we went 6-10, we have improved each season.  We went 8-8 in 2007 and 10-6 last year, making the playoffs for the first time under Childress.

He has done a wonderful job of drafting. 

In 2007 we drafted Adrian Peterson, Sidney Rice, and Brian Robison.

In 2008 we drafted Tyrell Johnson, John Sullivan, and Jaymar Johnson

In 2009 we drafted Percy Harvin and Phil Loadholt.

In three years, we drafted six consistent starters, two significant role players, one superstar (AP), one budding superstar (Harvin), and one “player who isn’t a star but is capable of making a huge impact” (Rice).

As long as Childress keeps drafting top notch talent, and as long as we keep winning at least two more games every year, and as long as he never, and I mean NEVER, goes back to his mustache, than I guess he’s ok with me.  (There isn't a person out there who would trust a child with the man in that picture.) 

Also, here’s an interesting article on Percy Harvin.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?page=hotread10/Percy%20Harvin

Four Points and some Videos

1. We ended up with the easy win, 27-10. At times it seemed like we were doing all we could to give the Lions a chance to stay in the game. They couldn't catch up though, partially thanks to good defense, partially thanks to the Lions general lack of football skills. We ended up with 13 penalties during the game for 91 yards. I guess we can use the "rusty" excuse, coming off the bye week, and expect the penalty issue to get corrected before next week's game with Seattle.

2. Adrian Peterson had an awesome game, yet not a very good game at the same time. He racked up 133 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carriers, but lost two fumbles in disappointing fashion. First, he made a terrible pitch to Percy Harvin on an attempted reverse, pitching it well behind Harvin. Then, after a great run, busting his way through traffic, he was in the open field galloping towards the end zone before being caught from behind and stripped of the football. We lost both fumbles. Sidney Rice could have saved AP with a decent effort on the second fumble, which he could have recovered in the end zone for a touchdown. Unfortunately Rice's coordination for recovering fumbles doesn't quite match his coordination for catching passes. It was kind of pathetic to watch.

3. Favre and Rice get an A+ for the day, even with Rice's aforementioned klutzy effort on the AP fumble. Favre threw for 344 yards and one touchdown, with no interceptions. Favre's current total for interceptions this season is three. The fewest he has ever thrown in a season before this year is 17. Gunslinger? Maybe not anymore, or if so, at least an accurate gunslinger. Rice had seven catches for 201 yards. Seven catches of a total of nine passes that were thrown to him. Not a bad average.

4. I sincerely hope that we don't give up on using creative play calling after the AP to Harvin botched pitch on the reverse. I was secretly hoping all bye week that Childress had intentions of refining a Wildcat option with Harvin taking some snaps for the second half of the season. There wouldn't be a scarier combo in the backfield in all of the NFL than Harvin and AP. Both are capable of busting one at any time. For example, when Harvin bounced off a major hit against the Lions and took off for a 40 yard gain.

To see a number of Favre and Rice's highlights, check out this video. (skip to the 2:25 mark of the video to see Harvin's sweet play)

http://www.nfl.com/videos/minnesota-vikings/09000d5d814356b8/WK-10-Brett-Favre-highlights

For a sweet Ray Edwards highlight, involving him flying through the air, not touching Mathew Stafford at all, then getting a 15 yard penalty for a helmet to helmet hit on the quarterback, check out this clip. It looks awesome though. It's at the 1:50 mark.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/minnesota-vikings/09000d5d81436652/NFL-Scoreboard-Lions-Vikings-highlights

Gotta Love Playing Detroit

With the Vikings on their bye week, I decided to take a bye week myself.  Hopefully both of us are now ready to come back in full force.  Well, hopefully the Vikings are at least. 

We are all glad to hear that Adrian Peterson made if safely back from his weeklong trip to Alaska during the bye week.  He spent the week there wrestling grizzly bears.

Same for Jared Allen, who spent the week off in 1984, taking fashion tips from the people of the time.  Kevin and Pat Williams went to Vegas for the week, to take part in the Martorano's Masters Meatball Eating Championship being held there.  Suffice it to say, all Vikings players used their bye week wisely and we are now more ready than ever to dominate the rest of our NFL season. 

Before moving on to this weeks game, let’s not forget what happened two weeks ago at Green Bay.  Favre walked into Lambeau for the first time as an opposing player and dropped a 4 touchdown, 244 hard, 128.6 passer rating bomb on all his old fans there.  As a Vikings fan, you couldn’t help but smile watching the footage of Favre walking on to the field amidst a roar of boos from the crowd.  It was another scintillating performance from Percy Harvin, who had five catches for 84 yards and a touchdown, as well as 175 yards on five kick returns.  It was an all around good day, other than our defense in the 3^rd quarter, which could be described as lousy, or uninspired, or even just crappy.  We gave up 17 points in the 3^rd quarter, and it looked like things might be going the way of the Ravens game, but then Percy Harvin had a 48 yard return to the Green Bay 38 yard line, we drove for a touchdown, and that was that.

Let’s move on to the present.  Word is that Antoine Winfield is going to be missing his 3^rd straight game with his ankle injury.  He is a very key piece in our chance to wreak some havoc during the remainder of this season.  Thankfully, the next two teams we play, Detroit and Seattle, have a combined record of 4-12 right now.  Our defense should be able to scrape by without him for at least the next two weeks if need be. 

There is nothing really to say about the game against Detroit.  We better win it, and we better win it easily.  Anything less than an easy victory will be a disappointment.  They have ONE victory in the past two seasons.

Speaking of Detroit though, it reminds me of a game against Detroit back in 2007 that, as far as my memory serves me, is the most entertaining NFL game I have ever watched.  That whole season was insane.  It was AP’s rookie year, and he was dominating, yet Childress refused to make him the starter until something like the 12^th week of the season.  (I never doubt Childress’ impeccable judgment for our team.)  We oscillated back and forth between being an offensive force, and being an offensive stink bomb.  Of the eight games we won, we scored 27 or more points in six of them, scoring 24 and 20 in the other two.  Of the 8 games we lost, our average score was 14.13 points.  You never knew what you were going to get with that team.  We started three different quarterbacks that season, T-Jack, Holcomb, and Bollinger.  All this randomness came together for one perfect storm against Detroit, and we blew them out in entertaining fashion.  There were so many highlights during that game it could have filled a 10 minute slot on SportsCenter.  We had AP throwing a nasty juke on some unfortunate Lion leaving him grasping air, Andre Allison with a great kickoff return, a slow motion interception return, and a fake field goal. 

All great things, and there were two more I couldn’t even find highlights of that I specifically remember from that game.  One was a heads up/major bush league play by Cedric Griffin where a Lion receiver had fallen to the ground and it was disputable whether it had been caused by a Viking or if he had just tripped, so Griffin intentionally side-stepped out of the way to avoid touching him, then picked up the ball, which the receiver had just let go of and it was sitting on the field, and ran it back for a touchdown.  This was reviewed and eventually the receiver was ruled down by contact.  Later on in the game, there was another review, for what I can’t remember, and this review felt like it lasted about 20 minutes.  And in that time, we had shot after shot of all the players just standing around the field and talking to each other like they were having coffee with an old friend.  There were little clusters all over the field of players, not segregated by teams, taking advantage of the break to catch up with each other.  I specifically remember seeing John Kitna over and over again talking away, looking like he was explaining something in detail.  It was funny to watch.

Hopefully today’s game can be as entertaining.  Here are the videos I found from the 2007 game.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/minnesota-vikings/09000d5d804bed8d/NFL-GameDay-Lions-vs-Vikings-highlights

http://www.nfl.com/videos/minnesota-vikings/09000d5d804c2c7d/Chris-Kluwe-Highlight-WK-13-vs-Lions-2007

Moving On

Lingering thoughts on the loss to Pittsburgh:

-The Steelers did not outplay us. We didn't outplay them either, but it was an even game that could have gone either way. If Dugan doesn't have that tripping call go against him, which was a brutal call, we score on that play and they don't have the fumble recovery for a touchdown. That play put us in a big hole, but we charged back and probably still would have won the game if Chester Taylor makes that screen play catch, which he makes nine times out of ten. So yes, Pittsburgh got the win, but if the Vikings were to play them again, I'd bet on the Vikings.

-Players stepped up in this game. Adrian Peterson, who any Vikings fan already loves, had a sweet game, going for 69 yards rushing, and another 60 receiving, including one amazing play where he steamrolled William Gay. Percy Harvin, who is looking more and more like he's going to be a permanent fixture as a stud on this team, went for 3 catches for 42 yards and one perfectly timed 88 yard kick off return touchdown that gave us a chance when it looked like there would be none. Sidney Rice has been on fire over the past two games. Coming off a six reception game for 176 yards against the Ravens, Rice put up ten receptions for 136 yards against the Steelers, including a drive saving first down where he he had to elevate, make the catch, and somehow manage to get both feet in bounds before being shoved out. Our playmakers are doing just that and it is fun to watch and making me want to go out and buy all their jerseys. Speaking of jerseys, you can tell if your team is any good by the variety of jerseys being worn by the fans. If the team is pretty sucky, then there is usually only one or maybe two decent jerseys that you will seen worn regularly from that team. But, if a team is good, like we are this year, you have all sorts of quality jerseys to wear proudly around. We've got AP, Favre, Harvin, Rice, and Allen all being worn with regularity.

-Favre got hit the most of any game so far. There is nothing really to say about this. He didn't get injured and he is fine to play, but it is nerve wracking to see him get hit a lot. He is our season. Our offense being successful revolves around him being healthy. Favre has been sacked 18 times so far. Guess how many times Peyton Manning has been sacked? Twice. This has to be a priority for us because we cannot afford to have Favre go down.

On to Green Bay:

First of all, this game matters for more reasons than just Favre squaring off against his old team and being back at Lambeau for the first time. This game is to secure our position as the front runners in the NFC North. If the Packers win they will draw within a half game of us and could tie us up during our bye week next week. Plus, things will look vastly different at 7-1 for us heading into our bye than at 6-2 working with a two game losing streak. We need to build some positive momentum back up.

This Green Bay game is coming at the right time for Jared Allen. Allen had a pretty brutal game last week, and was nearly totally ineffective as a pass rusher. He had two tackles for the game, no sacks, and one pass deflection. Last time against Green Bay though Allen was a monster, recording 4.5 sacks that game. We need him to be a force again in this game. Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback and will be able to pick us apart if we can't get pressure on him, especially since we have Winfield out for the second straight week.

Speaking of injuries, they are listing Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin, and Darius Reynaud as questionable for the Green Bay game. Harvin suffered from an illness this week, and Berrian and Reynaud both have hamstring issues. Harvin will play. He is tough, and there is no way being sick during the week is going to hold him back for this game. It is doubtful that Berrian or Reynaud will though, especially with the bye week coming up to really make sure they are at 100% before they do come back. Our passing game isn't quite at full force without Berrian, who with his speed is our best deep threat and can routinely turn quick passes at the line of scrimmage into five or ten yard gains. We are really missing Reynaud's playmaking ability on the punt returns, and the sooner he can come back the better. I used to be under the illusion that Reynaud and Jaymar Johnson were pretty much the same player, but Johnson has done little to nothing on the punt returns the past couple games and Reynaud looked like he was ready to break one for a touchdown just about every time he touched the ball on a return in his last game.

I expect Favre to have a big game today and for us to come out of Lambeau with a big win to go to 7-1 on the season. I think it is entirely possible that Favre will break Brady's record of five touchdown passes in a quarter, every quarter this game. Meaning, 6,7,8, and 9 touchdown passes, adding up to a total of 30 touchdown passes for Favre today. Throw in another 3 touchdown runs for Adrian, and we will probably win today with a final score of 231-24. Should be fun.