In two years with Minnesota, Jared Allen has been selected to the Pro Bowl 2 times.
Allen has completely changed the amount of pressure that Minnesota is able to get on opposing quarterbacks since he’s been on the team. Not only does Allen get his fair share of sacks (he finished 2nd in the league this year), but his presence on the team frees up the rest of his fellow linemen. During Allen’s first year as a Viking he drew a lot of double-teams, which led to Kevin Williams having a big year rushing the passer. This year teams tried to find a way to double team Williams with linemen while putting a tight end or running back to help out with Allen… so Ray Edwards reaped the benefits by having a good year.
But besides his amazing ability to rush the passer, Jared also brings a lot of energy to the Vikings defense. If you’ve ever been to a game in Minneapolis you know that before nearly every defensive play Allen acts like a cheerleader on the field, motioning for the crowd to make noise. Before he gets down in his stance, he often points forward with his hand, indicating that the Vikings are going to drive back the other team.
Allen is also an insanely hard worker. His backup Brian Robison, who is a pretty good pass rusher himself, jokes that he never gets to play because Allen refuses to take a play off.
This year Allen finished with 43 tackles, 8 assisted tackles, 14.5 sacks, 1 safety, 4 passes defended, 1 interception, and 5 forced fumbles.
Antoine Winfield was named to his 2nd consecutive Pro Bowl
Today the NFL announced that Antoine Winfield was selected to the Pro Bowl after an injury to a player in front of him. This is the second straight year that Winfield was selected to the NFL’s all star game, and after the late addition of Percy Harvin, it makes Winfield the 10th Viking selected.
The Vikings that were selected to this year’s Pro Bowl are:
Brett Favre
Adrian Peterson
Sidney Rice
Steve Hutchinson
Bryant McKinnie
Jared Allen
Kevin Williams
Heath Farwell
Percy Harvin
Antoine Winfield
The Vikings lead the NFL in the number of Pro Bowlers, but the big problem with all of this is that the NFL has moved the game to the week before the Super Bowl this year. I’m sure the NFL is thinking football interest is at an all time high right before the big game, so they’re hoping that the ratings for the game go up, but the Vikings are still in the running to play for the championship this year. If they beat the Saints this coming Sunday, the NFL will lose 10 players from a 46-man team. That’s almost 25% of the players that are supposed to be playing on a Pro Bowl team that won’t be able to play.
In my opinion, that really takes away from the impact of the game.
Can you imagine watching a Pro Bowl this year that doesn’t include Adrian Peterson, Brett Favre, Sidney Rice, Jared Allen, or Percy Harvin?
What if the Colts make it to the Super Bowl, too. No Payton Manning, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, or Dwight Freeney?
In my opinion the NFL dropped the ball when they planned this one.
The Minnesota Vikings had their first Playoffs win since 2004.
The Vikings dominated the Cowboys on all sides of the ball Sunday as they defeated them 34-3. Now the Vikings will continue on to the NFC Championship game to play the New Orleans Saints at the Superdome.
The Vikings are sending a message!
In the first half of their week 16 matchup against Chicago, the Vikings were terrible. Then something happened at halftime, and they became a different team.
In the second half of the Chicago game they gave up 14 points and scored 30 points. (they gave up another 6 points in overtime)
The next week vs New York in the dome, the Vikings scored 44 points and gave up 7.
Sunday against the Cowboys, the Vikings scored 34 points and gave up 3.
Since halftime of that Chicago game, the Vikings have scored 108 points and given up 30. They are a team that is ready to put up a lot of points, and not give up many. They are ready to play football.
Sidney Rice is a beast.
6 catches, 141 yards, 3 touchdowns. Big players make big plays in big games. Sidney Rice showed that he’s a big player. All three of his touchdown catches were nothing short of amazing.
On his first catch, he was covered tight by the Dallas defender, but Sidney did his best Randy Moss impression by not moving his hands until the ball was right there, keeping the defender from knowing that the pass was coming his way. Just as amazing on the play was the pinpoint accuracy by a certain 40 year old quarterback, but that takes nothing away from the great catch by Rice.
On the second touchdown catch, Rice threw himself to the ground to make a block on a blitzing defender, managed to get himself to his feet when he noticed an open spot in the field, and he caught the ball and rolled into the endzone for the score.
He was so wide open on his third catch that he literally stopped running and WALKED into the endzone for the touchdown.
It’s true that Sidney Rice has benefited by having a quarterback like Brett Favre, but I think it’s also safe to say that Brett Favre has benefited from having a wide receiver like Sidney Rice.
The Vikings got Romo off his game.
I have to wonder if Jared Allen and Ray Edwards were offended by all the attention that Ware and Spencer were getting throughout the week. If they were, they managed to take out all of their frustration on Tony Romo. Romo spent most of the game running for his life. He was sacked 6 times and hit 10 more times. He fumbled 3 times (lost two of them), and threw a terrible pass that was picked off by Ben Leber. By the fourth quarter Romo had decided that his best chance and surviving the game was throwing ugly shovel passes at his backs.
Brett Favre is certainly not too old to play
Every week I read comments from NFL fans that say “this will be the week” that Favre gets hurt, or throws 5 interceptions, or costs the Vikings the game…
So far, none of the games have been “the week”.
Sunday was no different. Favre went 15 for 24 (62.5%) for 234 yards, 4 touchdowns, and no interceptions, and he did it against a pass rush that sacked him 3 times and hit him quite a few more times.
Favre was calm under pressure, and he kept doing what he’s been doing all year long… leading the Vikings to victory.
Oh, and what about that last TD pass?
Yeah, I suppose I should talk about that, huh?
Actually, I have an opinion on that that I definitely want to share, but I think it’ll be it’s own post. Look for it tomorrow!
The Minnesota Vikings will host this week’s playoff matchup against the Dallas Cowboys
The Vikings will be playing in their first playoff game this year after getting a bye for the first round. They’ll be hosting the Dallas Cowboys, who seemingly every sports analyst in the world seems to think is unstoppable after coming off their first playoff win in 13 years.
Are the Cowboys really that much better than the Vikings?
Wow, it seems like nearly every article I read, every sports talk radio show I listen to, and every segment I want on TV points to the Cowboys being too much to handle for the Vikings. So I started to try to analyze what everyone was saying.
“The Cowboys are the hottest team in the NFC”
That’s one of the things I’ve been hearing a lot lately… the Cowboys are hot, and the Vikings were slumping. The line I’ve been hearing over and over is “The Vikings lost 3 of their last 5 games!”
While that’s very true, the point that they’re leaving out is that the Cowboys lost two of their last five games. They lost in week 13 to the Giants, and in week 14 to the Chargers.
They say the Dallas offense has been playing well in those games, while the Minnesota offense has struggled.
In the final 5 games of the regular season, Dallas scored an average of 21.2 pionts per game. In the final 5 games of the season, the Vikings scored 25.6 points per game.
Minnesota somehow seemed to figure things out at halftime of the Bears game in week 16. In the final 6 quarters of the regular season, the Vikings have scored 74 points. In that same time frame, the Cowboys scored 24 points.
How is Dallas so much “hotter” than the Vikings right now?
The Vikings are losing to “bad” teams
I’ve also heard that Minnesota is at a disadvantage because they lost to weak teams like the Panthers and the Bears.
Okay, let’s look at that for a minute.
Minnesota lost to a weak divisional opponent when they lost to the Chicago Bears in week 16. The Bears weren’t good enough to make the playoffs.
Dallas, though, also lost to a weak divisional opponent when they lost to the New York Giants. The Giants weren’t good enough to make the playoffs. The difference is, the Cowboys lost to them TWICE.
Minnesota lost to a weak team in Carolina in Week 15. Carolina, though, was surging at the end of the year. Since replacing Jake Delhomme with Matt Moore the week before, they played decently against New England in a loss, and after the Minnesota game went on to crush the Giants, and beat the New Orleans Saints. As bad as people say the Panthers are, they finished with a record of 8-8.
The Cowboys played the Washington Redskins in week 11, and had to score a 4th quarter TD with less than 5 minutes to play in order to beat Washington 7-6. Washington went on to lose 5 of their next 6 games and finished with a record of 4-12.
3 of Minnesota’s regular season losses came against teams that didn’t make the playoffs. (Pittsburgh, Carolina, and Chicago). That doesn’t look good on Minnesota’s record.
… But the same thing can be said about Dallas. They also lost 3 games this year against teams that didn’t make the playoffs (2 against the Giants and 1 against Denver).
Only 4 of Minnesota’s wins this year came against Playoff teams (Baltimore, Cincinnati, and 2 against Green Bay)
… But only 3 of Dallas’ regular season wins came against Playoff teams (New Orleans, and 2 against Philly).
Let’s let statistics and facts talk for a few minutes
If you read this blog often, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of stats and figures and history, and all that jazz. So let’s take a look at the 2009 Dallas Cowboys and see how the Vikings compare to them.
-The Dallas Cowboys had a record of 11-5 this season
-The Vikings had a record of 12-4
-Dallas is 2nd in the league in total offense with 399.4 yards per game.
-Minnesota is less than 20 yards behind them at 379.6 yards per game (#5 in the league)
-Dallas is #14 in the league in points scored, averaging 22.6 points per game
-Minnesota is #2 in the league with 29.4 points per game
-Of the 4 teams left in the NFC, Dallas ranks last in points per game
-Minnesota ranks second.
-Of the 8 teams left in the NFL, Dallas ranks 7th in scoring
-Minnesota ranks second.
-Dallas finished 14th in the league at 3rd down conversion percentage with 41% (6th best of the 8 teams left)
-Minnesota finished #5 with 45% (2nd best of the 8 teams left)
-Dallas has a redzone scoring percentage of 51.8%. They finished #15 in the league
-Minnesota finished at #4 with 62.3%
-Both teams gave up 34 sacks this year
-However, 7 of the sacks given up by Minnesota came in the first 2 weeks of the season, when they were learning a new QB’s counts and dealing with 2 first time starters on their o-line. Dallas gave up 1 sack in those 2 games.
-The Cowboys defense was ranked #9 overall in yards per game giving up 315.9
-Minnesota was #6, giving up 305.5
-The Dallas defense only gives up 35% of 3rd down conversions to their opponents (#5 in the league)
-Minnesota gives up 34% (#3 in the league)
-Dallas sacked the opposing QB 42 times this year. That put them #7 in the league
-Minnesota was #1 with 48 sacks
-The Dallas defense was tied for #11 in the NFL in forced fumbles with 17.
-Minnesota was tied for #1, forcing 23 fumbles.
-The Dallas defense was tied for #16 in the league for recovering 10 fumbles by the opponents.
-The Vikings were tied for #5 recovering 13.
-Dallas’s opponents only score 57.6% of the times they get into the redzone.
-Minnesota’s opponents only score 45% of the time
-The Cowboys finished the sason +2 in the turnover ratio.
-Minnesota finished +6
-Tony Romo had a good year, throwing for 26 touchdowns (tied for 10th in the league)
-Brett Favre threw for 33 (2nd in the league, 1 TD behind the leader)
-Tony Romo had an excellent year, throwing only 9 interceptions. (1 in every 61 passes)
-Brett Favre only threw 7 (1 in every 75 passes)
-Tony Romo was #8 in the NFL with a passer rating of 97.6
-Brett Favre was #2 with a rating of 107.2
-Dallas has a feared pass rushing duo of Anthony Spencer and DeMarcus Ware. They have 17 sacks total.
-Jared Allen and Ray Edwards have 23 sacks total.
-Dallas kicker Nick Folk makes 64% of his field goals (18 out of 28)
-Ryan Longwell makes 93% of his (26 out of 28)
*It’s been pointed out to me that Dallas got rid of Nick Folk
Their new kicker Shaun Suisham finished the season at 66.7%
-Dallas gives up 56.2 penalty yards per game
-Minnesota only gives up 47.3
Let’s get even a little more specific
Okay, so those are the general stats between the two teams, but we’re forgetting something pretty huge. In the playoffs, home field advantage can be a huge issue. Let’s take a look at a few of those same stats taking into account that the Vikings will be playing at home and the Cowboys will be playing on the road.
-Minnesota was 8-0 at home this year.
-Dallas was 5-3 on the road.
-Minnesota scores an average of 32.75 points per game in the dome
-Dallas scores an average of 20.25 points on the road
-Minnesota gives up an average of 15.5 points per game at home -Dallas gives up an average of 25.5 points per game on the road *EDIT: Dallas gives up an average of 17.4 points per game on the road. I somehow miscalculated this the
first time. I apologize for that.
-Minnesota’s offense scores in 64.5% of their redzone appearances at home.
-Dallas scores in 43.5% of theirs on the road
-Minnesota’s defense gets slightly worse at home, letting their opponents score from the redzone 50% of the time
-Dallas’s defense let’s their opponents score from the redzone 75% of the time (worst in the league)
Again… someone explain to me why everyone is picking Dallas to win this game?!?
-Block DeMarcus Ware
Even though the stats above say that Minnesota should have a clear advantage in this game, they showed in the Carolina game that a pass rusher can disrupt their offensive rhythm. Against Carolina, the Vikings seemed unwilling to adjust to Julius Peppers. Hopefully they won’t make that mistake against DeMarcus Ware.
-Play tough against the run
In each of their big wins against Philly, Dallas had over 170 net yards rushing. Minnesota needs to make sure to take Choice, Jones, and Barber out of the game as much as possible.
-Cover Jason Witten
The Vikings have a tendency to let receiving Tight Ends chew them up, and Witten certainly has that ability. They need to make sure they keep an eye on him and prevent him from making any big plays.
-Let Favre do his thing
I’m not saying go out and throw the ball 55 times, but sometimes Childress gets TOO stuck on the running game. He needs to make sure this is one of those games that Favre has some freedom to mix it up when necessary.
My Prediction
I’ll admit that I think this could potentially be a tough game, but I’m actually a lot less scared now that I’ve looked at these stats than I was when I was listening to ESPN radio earlier in the week. I think the Vikings can win. I’m going to say that they win 31-24.
That’s still a great great record, but Sunday night the Vikings looked more like a team that should be 3-11 as they completely fell apart against the Carolina Panthers in a 33-7 loss on national TV.
Everything about this game looked terrible.
It was a painful experience.
The passing offense couldn’t move the ball when we needed to. The running game wasn’t happening. Players weren’t blocking. Receivers weren’t catching. Defenders weren’t tackling.
Ugh.
Whose idea was it to try to match up to Julius Peppers 1-on-1 all night?
I don’t know if it was Childress, or Bevell, or if some other coach draws up the blocking assignments, but it was ridiculous.
Whoever it is needs to take a cut in pay, because they didn’t show up for work last night.
Didn’t anyone on the team notice that Jared Allen always draws double teams? Doesn’t anyone on the team notice that teams plan their blocking around Jared Allen? Couldn’t the Vikings have tried something at least REMOTELY similar?
…And even if they went into the game with faith that Bryant McKinnie could slow him down, shouldn’t adjustments have been made when it was obvious that McKinnie couldn’t do it?
Okay, let’s be fair. The Vikings did try to make an adjustment.
They thought the solution to their blocking problem was to bench Bryant McKinnie and put in Artis Hicks.
Ugh.
Favre was getting knocked around all night long. He got sacked 4 times. I don’t know how many times he was hit when he was throwing, hit after the throw, hurried, and all that stuff… but I know it was a lot.
But then again, it didn’t really matter if Favre had time or not
Favre managed to complete 63% of his passes for 224 yards despite the fact that the Panthers defensive line spent more time in his face than they did on the bench.
But despite the fact that 7 different players managed to catch passes, Favre wasn’t really getting any help at all from his receivers.
Sidney Rice fumbled for the first time ever.
Adrian Peterson dropped dump off passes on TWO STRAIGHT PLAYS.
Harvin missed a catch.
Bernard Berrian was called for pass interference on a throw that was completed to Harvin.
And to top if off, on one of Favre’s better plays of the night, he avoided TWO sacks on third down and fired a perfect strike into the hands of Visanthe Shiancoe who decided to play like the Shiancoe of old and watch the ball bounce right off of his hands.
Ugh.
So frustrating.
The defense? Yeah, they sucked, too.
How many times this year are the Vikings going to try to roll through a fumble so they can keep running rather than fall on it and get it secured. Jared Allen made a great play on the quarterback, and Leber couldn’t just wrap up the ball? Come on!
Two weeks ago I said that the tackling during the Arizona game was the worst I had ever seen by a Leslie Frasier coached defense.
The defensive squad last night proved me wrong.
Antoine Winfield had one of the worst games I’ve ever watched him play… getting beat on coverage, not wrapping up runners.
Ugh.
Painful.
The bright side?
Well, if I have to look for a bright side, when was the last time that Vikings fans could walk away from a loss and say that the special teams was the only unit that played well?
So now what?
The Vikings are still a good team. These are the same players that beat Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Green Bay twice. They just have to step up the consistency. They need to figure out what the problem in with their run blocking, and they need to do it QUICKLY.
I would really like to see them come out swinging the next two weeks against bad teams, and build up enough of a lead to let their starters rest.
We can’t be inconsistent like this in the playoffs, or else we’ll be going home quickly.
This week the Vikings return to the road as they return to Sunday Night Football.
The Vikings will be traveling to Carolina this week to face the struggling Carolina Panthers.
Can they keep up the momentum?
Two weeks ago the Vikings fell apart against Arizona. They played their worst game of the season as a team. Last week they bounced back and played brilliantly against a very tough Cincinnati Bengals team. Can the Vikings keep up their momentum and roll through Carolina?
On paper this shouldn’t be much of a game. The Vikings are cruising through teams this year while the Panthers have struggled to a 5-8 season. The Panthers have recently benched QB Jake Delhomme in favor of young quarterback Matt Moore, and they have a league high 10 guys on the Injured Reserve list. They will be facing the NFL sack leaders in the Vikings, and they’ll be doing it without a couple of their starting offensive linemen.
Not only that, but the Panthers don’t have a lot to play for. At 5-8 they really don’t have a shot at the playoffs this year. The Vikings, on the other hand, are 1 win away from clinching their second straight NFC North crown, they’re still fighting for a first round bye, and with a little (unlikely) luck and some losses from New Orleans, there’s still an outside shot at home field advantage.
-Contain Julius Peppers
Julius Peppers is a beast. He might be the most dangerous pass rusher that the Vikings have faced so far. Chances are Bryant McKinnie won’t be able to contain Peppers himself, so the Vikings will probably throw a lot of tight ends and running backs at him, too.
If Peppers gets pressure on Favre, it could lead to sacks, or worse… bad throws. Favre is having a great year as far as interceptions goes, but while he still only has 6 on the season, 3 of those have come in the last 2 games. Don’t get me wrong… I’m not worried about Favre’s play, but I think teams have started to realize that they can’t watch for Peterson and only Peterson to beat them, and that they have to go after Favre as well.
-Continue to run the ball
Last week the offense was incredibly balanced… 36 run plays to 30 passing plays. With the way that the Vikings roster is built, that’s really the ticket to a good offense.
Having Percy Harvin back this week should make things a little easier, too. Hopefully the Vikings will get him mixed into the running game a bit, like they have in his last couple of games.
My Prediction
I predict the Vikings will win just about every week, but I expect this game to be along the lines of the Lions game or the Seahawks game. I give the win to Minnesota 35-17. I think Favre will have a good game with 2 TDs and no picks, and Jared Allen will get to the QB a couple of times.
Sunday night football, national TV… and the Vikings played terrible. The Vikings got beat 30-17 in Arizona in probably the worst game that the Vikings played all season. There was very little to cheer about for Vikings fans after the opening minutes. At first it looked like the Vikings were going to play sharp, forcing a fumble on the second play from scrimmage and turning it into 7 points a few plays later, but it all went downhill from there.
Worst tackling in the Leslie Frasier era
All of a sudden it looked like the Vikings, who are normally good open field tacklers, forgot how to wrap anyone up. It seemed like anytime that anyone in red touched the ball, three guys in purple bounced off of him before he was finally brought down. I’m not sure how that even happens to a team. It’s not like it was one guy who missed tackles. It’s not like it was just the safeties. It was the entire team.
Where was the pass rush?
The Vikings went into the game leading the NFL in sacks. The Cardinals (wisely) turned their attention to stopping Jared Allen. Allen and the Vikings are used to that, and usually that leads to either Kevin Williams, Ray Edwards, or both picking up the slack until Allen starts getting freed up.
But nobody else on the defensive line seemed to be able to take advantage of the fact that the Cardinals were focusing all of their effort on Jared Allen. Allen was completely held back by the double and triple teaming that the Cardinals made him face… no sacks, tackles, or assisted tackles for Allen.
But there was no double teaming or chipping holding back Kevin Williams or Ray Edwards, who each had 1 tackle, 0 assisted tackles, and 0 sacks. Pat Williams had 4 tackles, but as is the norm, his production came mostly from the run defense.
Running game? What running game?
62 rushing yards on 20 attempts. Adrian Peterson had 19 yards on 13 carries. No holes. No intensity. No power. No speed. It didn’t look like the Vikings out there at all when it came to running the ball.
Injuries… bleh
Wow, for a team that didn’t deal with many injuries early this year, last night was hard to watch. Antoine Winfield was out again… at this point I’m starting to doubt that he even knows where his Vikings uniform is anymore. Herrera was out again, which means Hicks was starting. Then during the game, McKinnie and Loadholt got banged up (both returned later) which meant that at one point, our offensive line was made up of Artis Hicks, John Cooper, John Sullivan, Steve Hutchinson, and Ryan Cook. I’m surprised Favre is still alive.
Then we also watched Cedric Griffin get dinged up, Tyrell Johnson get a concussion, and of course, we (again) lost EJ Henderson for the year.
The EJ thing is frustrating. He had really been stepping up his game over the past few weeks. He finally seemed to be returning to the form of last year’s first 3 games.
What about Favre’s game?
Okay, here’s the point where I will look at the bright side a little more. It was certainly one of Favre’s worst games as a Viking, but looking at the stats, it wasn’t THAT bad. The two interceptions were painful to watch, and it was obvious that he wasn’t feeling as comfortable as he has been recently running the offense. He was forcing some throws that he hasn’t tried forcing much this year.
But, he completed 66% of his passes for 275 yards and 2 touchdown passes. Not his best outing, but certainly not terrible enough to panic as all Vikings fans seemed to be doing last night (myself included, to some extent). Favre has been spoiling us, but the fact is, he still has a 26:5 TD to INT ratio, he still has fewer interceptions than any starter in the league other than Vince Young (who has only started 6 games), and he is still the second highest rated QB in the league… pretty darn good.
So my hand isn’t reaching for the panic button just yet.
The worst part of last night’s game
When the score was 30-10 and there was less than 6 minutes in the game, why was Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson on the field? We were not going to make up a 20 point deficit (we were not even going to try, since we didn’t even attempt an onside kick). We had just watched the leader of our defense break his leg. We’re in position to make a run in the playoffs. Why were we risking our two best players?
I wouldn’t have been opposed to sitting even more guys… Rice? Harvin? Chester?
My Current Outlook
The game was frustrating to watch last night, but even great teams have bad games. If you want to be reminded of that fact, read THIS very good post at the Daily Norseman that talk about some recent great teams that have had really bad games.
Overall, 10-2 is great, and it’s been over 10 years since we’ve seen a Vikings team with that record. Realistically we’re not playing for home-field advantage anymore, but we still have a 2 game lead when it comes to the first round bye, and if we don’t have to worry about overtaking New Orleans, it actually takes a lot of pressure off the last few games of the season, which means we should be able to head into the playoffs with Favre, Peterson, and the rest of the starters being fairly fresh.
And speaking of Peterson… He’s almost 400 yards behind for the rushing title. It’s not going to happen this year unless Chris Johnson gets his foot ran over by the team bus.
If it was up to me, I would play Peterson sparingly over the next 4 games. I don’t mean sit him, I mean split his reps evenly with Taylor. Don’t pound him up the middle much. Overall, keep him as fresh and healthy as possible. Maybe a little rest will rejuvenate him for the upcoming playoffs.
The Vikings have improved to 8-1 on the season and 4-0 in the NFC North.
Sunday afternoon the now 8-1 Vikings beat the now 1-8 Lions by a score of 27-10 at Mall of America Field in the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome (that’s a mouthful!) It wasn’t pretty, but what matters is the final score, and the Vikings won by 17.
The Vikings have now swept 2 of the 3 teams in their division this year, even though in a weird scheduling coincidence, they haven’t played the third team at all yet. (The first Vikings-Bears game of the year will come in 2 weeks)
The Vikings were not sharp in their win
Since the beginning of this year, the Vikings have been among league leaders in 3rd down conversions and in fewest penalty yards. Somehow, though, the team forgot how to accomplish these things during their week-long vacation.
The team went 3 for 11 (27%) on third down conversions, and had 13 penalties for 91 yards. Luckily, they were playing the Lions. If they were that bad against a good team, Minnesota would have a hard time winning.
Peterson needs to hold onto the ball.
I’m not going to completely blame the fumbled pitch on the reverse on Peterson. It was a bad pitch (Peterson’s fault), but it was still catchable (Harvin’s fault), and they were running a trick play when they probably didn’t really need to (Childress’s Fault). So I’ll give Peterson 1/3 of the blame for that.
On the other hand, the long run where he got the ball punched out of his hands was completely his fault. I don’t know if he thought that he had already outrun everyone or what, but he was not holding onto that ball well, and the defender knew it. The ball was punched out easily, and the Vikings lost out on 7 points because of it.
Ray Edwards is a beast
5 tackles, 2 sacks, who knows how many hits and hurries on Stafford, 1 forced fumble, 1 recovered fumble. The man was all over the place.
The Lions came into the game determined to stop Jared Allen. They were determined to stop Pat and/or Kevin Williams. Edwards reaped the benefits by facing lots of tight ends and fullbacks. He didn’t hesitate to take advantage of that. If it wasn’t for a few monstrous offensive performances, everyone in Minnesota would be talking about nothing but Ray Edwards today.
Adrian Peterson is a beast
133 yards, 2 more TDs. He had two big break away runs, including a 22 yard touchdown run where it looked like he was going to be stopped for a loss. Somehow he ducked under a defender, powered his way through the crowd, and took off for the score.
If it wasn’t for the fumble, he would’ve had another long touchdown run as well.
And he wasn’t used a lot in the passing game, but he did take one short catch and turn it into an 11 yard gain.
Brett Favre is a beast.
He continues to play smart, good football, but yet his stats keep anyone from labeling him as a “game manager”.
Sunday he threw for 344 yards and a touchdown. He completed 20 of 29 passes. He hit several long passes, including a 56 yard pass to Sidney Rice, and a 40 yard pass to Percy Harvin. He was only sacked 1 time, and he had a QB rating of 120.5. He threw for 1 touchdown and no interceptions. That brings his total for the year to 17 TDs and only 3 interceptions.
Speaking of interceptions, this is his best year of his career for keeping the picks under control. After 9 games, he has had 3 interceptions. Since he has been a full time starter (so not counting his first 2 years in the league), after 9 games he has averaged 10.7 interceptions per game. The only year he has been close to his numbers this year was in 2002 when he only had 4 interceptions after the first 9 games.
Sidney Rice is a Beast
7 Catches for 201 yards. Only 10 yards short of setting a Minnesota Vikings record. In fact, he knew that on his final route when Tarvaris Jackson threw him the ball, but he couldn’t come down with the pass.
Sidney Rice has turned into the ultimate reliable receiver. He’s the team’s leading receiver, but because so much attention in the passing game has to be put on Bernard Berrian and Percy Harvin, and even Adrian Peterson to some extent, teams have a hard time justifying a double team on Rice. I’m sure Sidney doesn’t mind.
His sure handedness has built up a lot of trust in him with Brett Favre, so Brett keeps delivering him the ball.
His play Sunday was unbelievable.
Overall?
Overall it was a sloppy game for the Vikings, but they were still impressive. Hopefully they’ll work the rust out of their system before next week when they host the Seattle Seahawks.
The Bye Week is finally over, and we can now get back to preparing for more Minnesota Vikings games! This week the Vikings will host their division rivals, the Detroit Lions. It will be the Vikings chance to sweep a division series for the second time this year.
The Lions have a lot of things working against them this game.
The Vikings have only lost 1 game this year
The Lions have only won 1 game this year
The Vikings have beat the Lions in 4 straight games
The Vikings are 14-1 in their last 15 games with the Lions
The Vikings have beaten the Lions 11 straight times at home
Overall, the Vikings have only lost to the Vikings at home 12 times in 47 matchups, many of them coming in the Vikings early years in the league
The Minnesota Vikings are +5 in turnovers.
The Detroit Lions are -7 in turnovers
The Vikings lead the NFL with 31 sacks
Only 4 teams have given up more sacks than the Detroit Lions
Only 1 team scores more points per game than the Minnesota Vikings this year
Only 6 teams score less points per game than the Detroit Lions this year
No team in the NFL has thrown fewer interceptions than the Minnesota Vikings this year
Only 1 team has thrown more interceptions than the Lions this year
The Minnesota Vikings are ranked 3rd in 3rd down percentage
The Detroit Lions are ranked 17th in 3rd down percentage
Only 1 team has fewer penalty yards than the Vikings this year
Only 6 teams have more penalty yards than the Lions this year
The Vikings leading rusher has 784 yards
The Lions leading rusher has 460 yards
The Vikings quarterback has 16 touchdowns and 3 interceptions
The Lions quarterback has 5 touchdowns and 12 interceptions
The Vikings leading receiver has 585 yards
The Vikings second leading receiver has 389 yards
The Lions leading receiver has 352 yards
The Vikings leading scorer (not counting kicks) has 9 TDs
The Lions leading scorer (not counting kicks) has 3 TDs
Things do not look good for the Detroit Lions. The Vikings are 16.5 point favorites over Detroit, which I will admit seems a bit much, but the fact remains, this should be Minnesota’s game. If they don’t completely blow it, they’ll win.
Antoine Winfield is sitting out
Winfield has been taking a limited part in practice this week, but he says that his foot still hurts when he cuts, so he’ll be sitting out this game. He hopes to be back for week 12 against the Seahawks.
I personally like this move. I think Paymah and Allen leave a lot to be desired when compared to Winfield, but I think they can hold their own against the Lions. If the defensive line puts pressure on Stafford, it shouldn’t matter much anyway.
The Viking Ship Keys To Victory:
-The Vikings Need To Pressure Stafford
Jared Allen is leading the league in sacks with 10.5. The Vikings are leading the league in sacks with 31. They need to keep up that momentum and make sure they’re putting Stafford under pressure. Stafford has thrown 12 picks this year, and he has given the league reminders that he’s still a rookie quarterback trying to learn the game. If the Vikings can keep him from getting into any kind of rhythm, they’ll be fine.
-The Vikings Need To Flex Their Offensive Muscles
In Week 2 the Vikings beat the Lions by 14 points despite the fact that Favre had under 200 yards throwing and Peterson had under 100 yards rushing. The Vikings offense is much more dynamic these days, but they have a tendency to score in spurts, but not stay consistent through the whole game. Even though they’re playing a weaker team, I’d like to see the Vikings move with consistency, and not stall at any point in the game.
-The Vikings Need To Not Blow It
Let’s face it: This is the Vikings game to win or lose. The Lions don’t control much of Sunday’s destiny. The Vikings are better than the Lions at every aspect of the game. If the Vikings don’t play dumb, they’ll be just fine
My Prediction?
Pain. (for the Lions fans, that is) The Vikes are gonna hurt ‘em, they’re gonna crucify ‘em… real bad.
Even though the point spread seems like a lot, I’m going to give it to the Vikings. I think they’ll win this one 42-14. I think Favre will have 3 TDs, Peterson will have 140 yards, and we’ll see T-Jack in the 4th quarter.
Brett Favre is a beast.
