Check Out Our Minnesota Twins Blog!
Most of the time it’s been difficult for me to pick a player of the game. So far the team has really been playing well as a unit, and there hasn’t been guys that have really stood high above the rest. Even when someone has stuck out a little, it seems like more than one person did, and I had to try to choose between those people. One week it was so close, I couldn’t even choose… I had to have two players-of-the-game.
This week, assuming I wasn’t going to name Baltimore Kicker Steven Hauschka the player of the game (since his miss did win the game for the Vikings), my choice was much easier.
My Minnesota Vikings week 6 player of the game: Sidney Rice.
Sidney Rice has been a player I’ve expected to play well since the day he was drafted. He has the size, the hands, and the route running ability to be a very solid receiver in this league. Possibly even Pro-Bowl level some day.
In his first two years in the league, injuries and the lack of a good quarterback have held him down.
So far this year, he hasn’t faced any of those hurdles.
In Sunday’s game against Baltimore, Sidney Rice caught 6 passes for 176 yards. He didn’t have any touchdowns, but he had some huge catches, including a 63 yard catch that set up the game winning field goal. Despite the fact that Favre went to 7 different receivers in the game, Rice accounted for 63% of Favre’s passing yards, meaning he had more yards than the other 6 Minnesota pass catchers combined. Rice’s 176 yards actually led the NFL in week 6.
Sidney has really stepped up his game. I’m sure it helps that he’s one of Favre’s favorite targets, but the flip side of that is that I’m sure he’s one of Favre’s favorite targets because he’s really become a great receiver. He currently leads the team in catches with 23 (one above Berrian at 22), he leads the team in receiving yards with 409 (Harvin is 2nd with 243) he’s second on the team in yards-per-catch with 17.8 (the only person above him is Greg Lewis, who has only caught 1 pass for 32 yards), he currently has the longest catch of the year with a 63 yard catch, and he’s tied for 2nd in touchdown receptions with 2 (tied with Berrian and Harvin, Shiancoe leads with an amazing 5 touchdowns after 6 games).
Sidney Rice already has more yards after 6 games this year than he had in either of his first two seasons. In fact, Rice had more yards this past Sunday than he did all of last year. As soon as he gets another 128 yards this season, he’ll have more yards than his first two years combined. He had 8 career touchdowns coming into this season, with 4 in each year. If he catches 3 more over the course of the next 10 games, he’ll have a career high year in touchdown catches as well. If he catches 6 more over the next 10 games, he’ll have doubled his career touchdowns.
Related posts:
