The Viking Ship

The Vikings somehow managed to reach 6-0

The Vikings started out hot, and looked like they were going to completely bulldoze the Baltimore Ravens early, but the Minnesota offense sputtered, the defense looked lost, the Ravens gained steam, and it became quite a game. The Ravens had a chance to win the game with a 44 yard field goal with time running out, but luckily for the Vikings, the field goal was missed, and the Vikings held on to win.

I was glad to see that my Madden Simulation Predictions for this week were incorrect. When the Ravens started to come back, I was getting a little worried.

Favre did it again… again.

For the 41st time in his career, and the second time in the 6 weeks he’s been a Viking, Brett Favre lead his team on a 4th quarter scoring drive to put them in the lead. He happened to leave a little too much time on the clock, but since the Ravens couldn’t capitalize, we’ll still give him credit for the drive.

Favre had another solid game. He threw for 278 yards, 3 TDs, and no interceptions. After 6 games, Favre already has the same number of TD passes that 2008 starter Gus Frerotte had in 11 games, and he has the same number of TD passes that the entire 2007 Minnesota Vikings team had all year. He only has 1 fewer TD pass than the 2006 Vikings team had.

Adrian Peterson has a big game.

People have been worried about Adrian Peterson’s production, so he stepped up and put a lot of those worries to rest. Mr. All Day ran for 143 yards on 22 carries against a very tough Ravens defense. He currently sits at the top of the NFL with 624 yards. The #2 guy on the list sits 28 yards behind him. Of course, that guy is Chris Johnson, and his team happens to be 0-6, compared to Adrian Peterson’s 6-0… but that’s just a side point.

I think, though, that the worry behind Peterson’s running is a little unwarranted. Before this game, Peterson had 481 yards. After 5 games last year, he had 452. People were talking about his smaller gains, when he was actually ahead of his pace from a year ago (when he finished with 1,760 yards).

After 6 games last year, Peterson had 563 total rushing yards. He’s currently 61 yards ahead of his pace from last year.

Now, I know this might not stand all season long, but after 6 games, Adrian Peterson is averaging 10 more yards per game than he was after 6 last year. If he could just keep up that average, he would finish the season with 160 extra yards. That pace puts him at 1,920 yards on the year.

I’d say 2,000 yards is still a perfectly attainable goal.

That is, as long as he isn’t hurt.

It was a scary moment to see him have his ankle rolled over after a catch. He did come back onto the field after that play, though, which is a good sign for him and for Vikings fans.

Sidney Rice is the receiver we all hoped he’d be

Sidney Rice has developed into an amazing possession receiver.  I don’t know if it’s simply maturity from playing in the league for 3 years, or if it’s because he worked out with Larry Fitzgerald in the offseason, or maybe just because he clicked with Favre the quickest… it’s likely a combination of the three… but he has turned into a great receiver.

He had a HUGE game against the Ravens, making 6 catches for 176 yards.

Rice has turned into a reliable receiver who catches everything, runs great routes, and has great leaping ability.

That’s going to continue to come in handy throughout the season.

The Defense had it’s ups and downs.

The Minnesota defense is a bit worrisome so far.  Against the Ravens, they had 3 sacks to bring their total to a league leading 21 overall, but they gave up a lot of big plays and big yards.  Yet another quarterback was able to pile the yards on at the end of the game on the pass defense.

To their credit, it obviously didn’t help when Antoine Winfield left the game hurt, and Benny Sapp was banged up, so for many plays, instead of having our #1 and #2 corners on the field, we had our #2 and #4 guys out there.  But no matter what the reason, the Vikings need to find a way to patch the holes in their defense.

The Vikings currently have the #18 overall defense as far as yards per game goes, but they are #24 in pass defense, and surprisingly enough, all the way down to #9 in rush defense.  If they can at least tighten up the rush defense to the standard of the past 3 years, that would do wonders.

The Vikings defense had no answer to Ray Rice, which almost cost Minnesota the game.  Rice had 77 yards rushing and 117 yards receiving, but he had several big plays at key times.

If Minnesota’s defense can improve, the team will really be tough to handle.

Hopefully injuries don’t cost us too much

Antoine Winfield sprained his foot in the 2nd quarter this week.  At this time, the team doesn’t know if that will cost him to miss the next game or not.  If so, he will be very much missed.

Benny Sapp and Adrian Peterson were both shaken up during the game.  It looks like they should both be okay.  Sapp has been playing extremely well from the Nickel position.  The next two games are against very tough QBs who can rack up the yardage quick (Roethlisburger and Rogers).  It would be nice to have our secondary at full strength against those guy.

Percy Harvin went down hard after leaving last week’s game early and missing some practice this week.  I haven’t heard a report on him yet.