Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Vikings @ Lions - Week 2
So I read Kevin Seifert's NFC North blog at ESPN.com about the lack of "explosion" from guys not named Adrian Peterson in the Vikings' offense, and one guy in particular. This is a good point he brings up, however the Vikings are 2-0 with a quarterback who quite clearly doesn’t have a firm grasp of the nuances of their offense. Favre is tossing to his checkdown receivers and making other high-efficiency throws at a historic rate relative to his career, essentially using the Vikings’ soft early schedule to catch up on a nonexistent offseason.
Now that Favre has essentially played his pre-season when you consider his two actual pre-season games and his two efforts against Cleveland and Detroit to start the regular season, you would think that the offense might now start opening up a little bit, especially with the Vikings finally getting to head to the Metrodome for their next two contests.
It's a bit arrogant to say. . . or even imply. . . that a team has looked at a couple of regular season opponents as "tune-up" games before they really get into the swing of things, but the more I think about it, the more it becomes pretty clear that that's how Brad Childress looked at the games against the Browns and the Lions. The Vikings have come out sluggish in both of their contests thus far in 2009, having gone into the locker room against Cleveland trailing 13-10 and trailing Detroit 10-7. Against the Browns, they came out in the second half and scored 24 unanswered points before allowing a garbage-time touchdown in a 34-20 victory. Against the Lions, they scored the last seven points of the first half and the first 20 points of the second half en route to winning 27-13. That gives them a margin of 44-10 in the second half of the first two contests. . . and, frankly, that's what good football teams do. They come out of the locker room at halftime, make the necessary adjustments, and destroy the team on the other side of the line from them.
And, yes, I just used the phrase "make the necessary adjustments" to describe a team coached by Brad Childress. Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are.
As of now, Brett Favre is on pace to throw a mere 384 passes at his current rate of 24 attempts/game. That would be, by far, the lowest total of his NFL career. Adrian Peterson is also on pace thus far to only rack up 320 carries. Then again, if he were to somehow keep up at his current pace. . . not likely, but work with me here. . . he'd rush for 2,176 yards and 32 touchdowns this season, both of which I think we could handle.
Is the Vikings' offense full of flash at this point? Outside of Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin, it is not. But right now we have a quarterback that's clearly still learning this offense, yet still went out on Sunday and completed an astonishing 85% of his passes (and is at a 77% clip on the season thus far). They have the best player in football lining up in the backfield, and a serious Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate lining up wherever the Vikings want to put him. They still have the steady inside presence of Visanthe Shiancoe, they still have the deep speed of Bernard Berrian, and they still have the outstanding athletic ability of Sidney Rice.
Is the Vikings offense going to continue along the path it is now? It's hard to imagine that it will. It's going to get a heck of a lot better before things are all said and done.
Now that Favre has essentially played his pre-season when you consider his two actual pre-season games and his two efforts against Cleveland and Detroit to start the regular season, you would think that the offense might now start opening up a little bit, especially with the Vikings finally getting to head to the Metrodome for their next two contests.
It's a bit arrogant to say. . . or even imply. . . that a team has looked at a couple of regular season opponents as "tune-up" games before they really get into the swing of things, but the more I think about it, the more it becomes pretty clear that that's how Brad Childress looked at the games against the Browns and the Lions. The Vikings have come out sluggish in both of their contests thus far in 2009, having gone into the locker room against Cleveland trailing 13-10 and trailing Detroit 10-7. Against the Browns, they came out in the second half and scored 24 unanswered points before allowing a garbage-time touchdown in a 34-20 victory. Against the Lions, they scored the last seven points of the first half and the first 20 points of the second half en route to winning 27-13. That gives them a margin of 44-10 in the second half of the first two contests. . . and, frankly, that's what good football teams do. They come out of the locker room at halftime, make the necessary adjustments, and destroy the team on the other side of the line from them.
And, yes, I just used the phrase "make the necessary adjustments" to describe a team coached by Brad Childress. Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are.
As of now, Brett Favre is on pace to throw a mere 384 passes at his current rate of 24 attempts/game. That would be, by far, the lowest total of his NFL career. Adrian Peterson is also on pace thus far to only rack up 320 carries. Then again, if he were to somehow keep up at his current pace. . . not likely, but work with me here. . . he'd rush for 2,176 yards and 32 touchdowns this season, both of which I think we could handle.
Is the Vikings' offense full of flash at this point? Outside of Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin, it is not. But right now we have a quarterback that's clearly still learning this offense, yet still went out on Sunday and completed an astonishing 85% of his passes (and is at a 77% clip on the season thus far). They have the best player in football lining up in the backfield, and a serious Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate lining up wherever the Vikings want to put him. They still have the steady inside presence of Visanthe Shiancoe, they still have the deep speed of Bernard Berrian, and they still have the outstanding athletic ability of Sidney Rice.
Is the Vikings offense going to continue along the path it is now? It's hard to imagine that it will. It's going to get a heck of a lot better before things are all said and done.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Favre 4 Life??
Thought this was interesting...This is a map that shows the most popular NFL jerseys sold by state. Do any of the states that are colored in as purple strike you as a bit funny? (Hint, the state directly east of Minnesota)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Browns @ Vikings - Week # 1
By halftime of yesterday's game, there weren't a lot of reasons to think that 2009 was going to be any different than 2008. Despite the presence of Brett Favre, the Vikings' passing game was limited to dinking and dunking down the field, Adrian Peterson was on the sidelines losing his lunch, and the punt coverage unit had given up another huge return for a touchdown to the highly dangerous Joshua Cribbs.
Then the second half started, and we got the first installment of Season Three of The Adrian Peterson Show.
The single best player in the entire NFL spent his halftime getting an IV after dealing with dehydration. The weather in Cleveland was a bit warmer than anticipated, and the dehydration caused him to only gain one yard in the second quarter of play and only 25 yards on 9 carries in the first half overall. However, he came back in the second half with a vengeance, and on 16 second half carries he gained 155 yards. His last carry was the most impressive, as he took a handoff and traveled left. As he got to the sidelines, he broke one tackle, and then hit Browns' cornerback Eric Wright with a pie-face, sending Wright about three yards into the sidelines. After a very nice assist from Sidney Rice, Peterson soon found himself in the end zone celebrating a 64-yard touchdown run that pretty much iced the game for the Beloved Purple.
So yeah.... #28 in purple is the single-best player in the National Football League, and you're going to have a hell of a time convincing me that it could possibly be anybody else.
The Vikings' defense was, quite frankly, suffocating yesterday afternoon. While Jared Allen spent most of his afternoon being pretty well handled by Browns OT Joe Thomas, the rest of the front seven had Brady Quinn running for his life all day long. The Vikings' defense brought Quinn down five times. While the run defense was uncharacteristically soft, ultimately allowing 4.5 yards a carry to the Browns, the pass defense did a fine job. . . and don't worry about Jared Allen. He doesn't have to go against Joe Thomas every week.
Cedric Griffin managed to notch an interception for the Vikings as well, as Brady Quinn hit him on a perfect fade route during the third quarter. The third quarter was the real turning point of today's game, as the Vikings held the ball for over 12 minutes.
Oh, what about that Favre fellow, you say? Well, he did what we want him to do. . . he completed a high percentage of passes (14/21 or 66.7%), he managed the game (zero turnovers), and he made plays when the Vikings needed him to. The two best examples of that came in that aforementioned third quarter. The first came on the Vikings' opening drive after halftime, facing a 3rd and 10 from the Cleveland 33 and facing a heavy blitz, Favre hung in. . .and hung in. . .until the very last second, where he released on a tight end screen to Visanthe Shiancoe, who picked up 11 yards and kept the drive going. The drive ultimately concluded with Peterson's second TD run of the day and gave Minnesota a lead they'd never relinquish.
The other came on the Vikings' next drive, which came after the Cedric Griffin interception. After a sack gave the Vikings a 2nd and 18 from the Minnesota 21, Favre took a shotgun snap, calmly stood in the pocket, and absolutely drilled a pass to Percy Harvin that turned into a 21-yard play and a first down for Minnesota. That drive concluded with Percy Harvin's first NFL touchdown, a six-yard pass from Favre to make the score 24-13. Guess sporting the Harvin jersey in Week 1 paid off.
It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops for the Beloved Purple. The one sore thumb from yesterday's game was the same one that stuck out for a better part of last year, and that was the special teams. It started out with a call I absolutely hated, as Ryan Longwell unleashed an awful onside kick on the opening kickoff that gave the Browns the ball at midfield. If you have a defense like Minnesota's, just blast the ball deep and go for the field position. The Browns' offense didn't do much today before garbage time, and giving an offense like that a short field is a recipe for disaster.
The other special teams failure can be largely pinned on punter Chris Kluwe, and it came towards the end of the first half. Kluwe's punt towards the dangerous Josh Cribbs was a low line drive that Cribbs fielded, made one move to his left, and went basically untouched for 67 yards and a touchdown that put Cleveland ahead going into the locker room. Not every team has a return man as dangerous as Josh Cribbs. Hopefully that play was more of a function of Cribbs being one of the NFL's most dangerous return man than it is of the Vikings' special teams relapsing from what they showed us last season.
All in all, it wasn't as smooth as most of us would have liked, but the Vikings went on the road and beat an opponent by 14 points. . . and it conceivably could have been 21, if not for the Vikings playing their second-string defense for most of the Browns' final drive. And I expected it. This is what the Vikings were supposed to do in this game. They've gotten themselves off on the right foot for 2009, and can start preparing next week for a divisional tussle against Detroit. Hopefully, with the rust having been shaken off, things will go more smoothly in Week 2 than they did in Week 1 and we won't have to sweat quite so much. Of course, we remember what happened in our two meetings with Detroit last year. . . and if you've forgotten, I'm sure we'll be reminded of it on a few occasions over the next seven days.
The Vikings are 1-0, ladies and gentlemen. Here's hoping that it's the start of something big.
Then the second half started, and we got the first installment of Season Three of The Adrian Peterson Show.
The single best player in the entire NFL spent his halftime getting an IV after dealing with dehydration. The weather in Cleveland was a bit warmer than anticipated, and the dehydration caused him to only gain one yard in the second quarter of play and only 25 yards on 9 carries in the first half overall. However, he came back in the second half with a vengeance, and on 16 second half carries he gained 155 yards. His last carry was the most impressive, as he took a handoff and traveled left. As he got to the sidelines, he broke one tackle, and then hit Browns' cornerback Eric Wright with a pie-face, sending Wright about three yards into the sidelines. After a very nice assist from Sidney Rice, Peterson soon found himself in the end zone celebrating a 64-yard touchdown run that pretty much iced the game for the Beloved Purple.
So yeah.... #28 in purple is the single-best player in the National Football League, and you're going to have a hell of a time convincing me that it could possibly be anybody else.
The Vikings' defense was, quite frankly, suffocating yesterday afternoon. While Jared Allen spent most of his afternoon being pretty well handled by Browns OT Joe Thomas, the rest of the front seven had Brady Quinn running for his life all day long. The Vikings' defense brought Quinn down five times. While the run defense was uncharacteristically soft, ultimately allowing 4.5 yards a carry to the Browns, the pass defense did a fine job. . . and don't worry about Jared Allen. He doesn't have to go against Joe Thomas every week.
Cedric Griffin managed to notch an interception for the Vikings as well, as Brady Quinn hit him on a perfect fade route during the third quarter. The third quarter was the real turning point of today's game, as the Vikings held the ball for over 12 minutes.
Oh, what about that Favre fellow, you say? Well, he did what we want him to do. . . he completed a high percentage of passes (14/21 or 66.7%), he managed the game (zero turnovers), and he made plays when the Vikings needed him to. The two best examples of that came in that aforementioned third quarter. The first came on the Vikings' opening drive after halftime, facing a 3rd and 10 from the Cleveland 33 and facing a heavy blitz, Favre hung in. . .and hung in. . .until the very last second, where he released on a tight end screen to Visanthe Shiancoe, who picked up 11 yards and kept the drive going. The drive ultimately concluded with Peterson's second TD run of the day and gave Minnesota a lead they'd never relinquish.
The other came on the Vikings' next drive, which came after the Cedric Griffin interception. After a sack gave the Vikings a 2nd and 18 from the Minnesota 21, Favre took a shotgun snap, calmly stood in the pocket, and absolutely drilled a pass to Percy Harvin that turned into a 21-yard play and a first down for Minnesota. That drive concluded with Percy Harvin's first NFL touchdown, a six-yard pass from Favre to make the score 24-13. Guess sporting the Harvin jersey in Week 1 paid off.
It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops for the Beloved Purple. The one sore thumb from yesterday's game was the same one that stuck out for a better part of last year, and that was the special teams. It started out with a call I absolutely hated, as Ryan Longwell unleashed an awful onside kick on the opening kickoff that gave the Browns the ball at midfield. If you have a defense like Minnesota's, just blast the ball deep and go for the field position. The Browns' offense didn't do much today before garbage time, and giving an offense like that a short field is a recipe for disaster.
The other special teams failure can be largely pinned on punter Chris Kluwe, and it came towards the end of the first half. Kluwe's punt towards the dangerous Josh Cribbs was a low line drive that Cribbs fielded, made one move to his left, and went basically untouched for 67 yards and a touchdown that put Cleveland ahead going into the locker room. Not every team has a return man as dangerous as Josh Cribbs. Hopefully that play was more of a function of Cribbs being one of the NFL's most dangerous return man than it is of the Vikings' special teams relapsing from what they showed us last season.
All in all, it wasn't as smooth as most of us would have liked, but the Vikings went on the road and beat an opponent by 14 points. . . and it conceivably could have been 21, if not for the Vikings playing their second-string defense for most of the Browns' final drive. And I expected it. This is what the Vikings were supposed to do in this game. They've gotten themselves off on the right foot for 2009, and can start preparing next week for a divisional tussle against Detroit. Hopefully, with the rust having been shaken off, things will go more smoothly in Week 2 than they did in Week 1 and we won't have to sweat quite so much. Of course, we remember what happened in our two meetings with Detroit last year. . . and if you've forgotten, I'm sure we'll be reminded of it on a few occasions over the next seven days.
The Vikings are 1-0, ladies and gentlemen. Here's hoping that it's the start of something big.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
It happened......
Well, what an early birthday present for me, huh? In his dual role as savior and Anti-Christ, Brett Favre is officially a member of the Minnesota Vikings.
In all these years, I never, ever thought that those words would cross my keyboard, but there they are. Everyone that I've talked to about this since the story developed yesterday afternoon assumed I would have my reaction all sorted out and everything by this point. But that would be a wrong assumption.
To be honest, I thought I was prepared for this to take place, despite the fact that everybody thought the whole situation was over. However, when it comes to Favre, nothing is over until I guess he decides it is.
I wish I had something deeply profound to say about this whole thing. . . but, to be honest, I really don't at the moment. I have a lot of questions that are swirling around my head about this whole ordeal. But let me address the one thing that I know for sure as of right now.
Brad Childress and Zygi Wilf have, in poker terminology, gone all-in with this move. The 2009 season won't end in a middle-of-the-road fashion for the Minnesota Vikings. It's either going to end incredibly well. . . or incredibly bad. The Vikes are either going to the promised land, or Brad Childress is going to be looking for a job come next January and the Vikings will be looking to start the process of rebuilding the franchise around Adrian Peterson.
The Vikings are playing their 49th season of NFL football in 2009. Yours truly has been a fan for 21 of those seasons. I can't think of any season that started with more intrigue than this one, and it's all because of this one move. And, honestly, that's all my mind can come up with at the moment. Rest assured there will be more in the days to come, but for some reason it's taking me an inordinate amount of time to get my head wrapped around this.
In all these years, I never, ever thought that those words would cross my keyboard, but there they are. Everyone that I've talked to about this since the story developed yesterday afternoon assumed I would have my reaction all sorted out and everything by this point. But that would be a wrong assumption.
To be honest, I thought I was prepared for this to take place, despite the fact that everybody thought the whole situation was over. However, when it comes to Favre, nothing is over until I guess he decides it is.
I wish I had something deeply profound to say about this whole thing. . . but, to be honest, I really don't at the moment. I have a lot of questions that are swirling around my head about this whole ordeal. But let me address the one thing that I know for sure as of right now.
Brad Childress and Zygi Wilf have, in poker terminology, gone all-in with this move. The 2009 season won't end in a middle-of-the-road fashion for the Minnesota Vikings. It's either going to end incredibly well. . . or incredibly bad. The Vikes are either going to the promised land, or Brad Childress is going to be looking for a job come next January and the Vikings will be looking to start the process of rebuilding the franchise around Adrian Peterson.
The Vikings are playing their 49th season of NFL football in 2009. Yours truly has been a fan for 21 of those seasons. I can't think of any season that started with more intrigue than this one, and it's all because of this one move. And, honestly, that's all my mind can come up with at the moment. Rest assured there will be more in the days to come, but for some reason it's taking me an inordinate amount of time to get my head wrapped around this.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Put this "Dog" to sleep
Note to NASCAR: It is time to scrap the Lucky Dog. The Free Pass. The I-just-happened-to-be-in-front-of-Tony Stewart-when-the-caution-flew award. Whatever. Just get rid of it.
I know NASCAR has threatened to put the rule on the chopping block before. After the 2004 season they said they would consider killing it off. But yet it lives and creates just as much confusion as it did when it was instituted.
It is not unheard of for a lap-down car to come back and win or have a great finish, and great drivers certainly don't need a glorified Mickey Mouse rule to make it happen. The rule was created to help discourage racing back to the yellow, but the rule has done nothing but create confusion between drivers, fans and even NASCAR's broadcasters, who refuse to use a standard name for the rule.
Sure, the rule has helped NASCAR's safety initiative, but NASCAR also has the ability to score drivers multiple times per lap. Why have a rule that is designed to prevent racing back to the caution, yet it only affects a solitary car?
Jimmie Johnson may not want to do away with the Lucky Dog. At Pocono yesterday, he was THREE laps down more than halfway through the race, yet since it was a 2.5 mile track and nobody else was a lap down, he was able to get the Lucky Dog each time a caution came out and eventually was able to finish 13th on the lead lap, ahead of 20 other drivers that actually ran all 200 laps, not 197 of them.
With NASCAR's various scoring loops, is the rule even needed?
Even if NASCAR refuses to do away with the rule, can you at least give it a better name than the Free Pass or the Lucky Dog?
To me those two names just mean a gift that was not earned, which is exactly what the rule has represented in the last several years. We get it. The rule stops drivers from racing back to the caution flag. But that very concern was more realistic years ago. Drivers' habits have changed since then. The rule can afford to die without it compromising safety.
I know NASCAR has threatened to put the rule on the chopping block before. After the 2004 season they said they would consider killing it off. But yet it lives and creates just as much confusion as it did when it was instituted.
It is not unheard of for a lap-down car to come back and win or have a great finish, and great drivers certainly don't need a glorified Mickey Mouse rule to make it happen. The rule was created to help discourage racing back to the yellow, but the rule has done nothing but create confusion between drivers, fans and even NASCAR's broadcasters, who refuse to use a standard name for the rule.
Sure, the rule has helped NASCAR's safety initiative, but NASCAR also has the ability to score drivers multiple times per lap. Why have a rule that is designed to prevent racing back to the caution, yet it only affects a solitary car?
Jimmie Johnson may not want to do away with the Lucky Dog. At Pocono yesterday, he was THREE laps down more than halfway through the race, yet since it was a 2.5 mile track and nobody else was a lap down, he was able to get the Lucky Dog each time a caution came out and eventually was able to finish 13th on the lead lap, ahead of 20 other drivers that actually ran all 200 laps, not 197 of them.
With NASCAR's various scoring loops, is the rule even needed?
Even if NASCAR refuses to do away with the rule, can you at least give it a better name than the Free Pass or the Lucky Dog?
To me those two names just mean a gift that was not earned, which is exactly what the rule has represented in the last several years. We get it. The rule stops drivers from racing back to the caution flag. But that very concern was more realistic years ago. Drivers' habits have changed since then. The rule can afford to die without it compromising safety.
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