It was a warm, sunny day that suddenly turned gloomy and morose in the snap of a football. The understudy watched in horror as the medical staff tended to the fallen player’s broken and dislocated leg. Then the staff gingerly loaded the star quarterback on to a stretcher and off to the hospital with sirens blaring.
When the players gathered in the huddle, they were still numb from the injury and he broke the ice by asking:
“All right, anyone know any dirty jokes?”
They all laughed at the back-up quarterback,...
Sunday’s 38-7 drubbing at the hands of the
almost-back-to-back-champion Seahawks made clear to most rational people what the cynics (like me) were already suspecting: The 2015 Vikings are probably not contenders. They are paper tigers. Purple pretenders.
It’s not that they lost. It’s that they were completely outclassed. At every aspect of football. For a full 60 minutes. At home.
In retrospect, after 12 games, it actually seems pretty...
Now that the Vikings are halfway through their season, I think it's poignant to have a midseason analysis of this 4-5 football team. Up until this point, despite their win in Week 9 over the Washington Red.... ugh, football team, this season has been quite deflating on many levels for those who bleed purple. The first week high, fostered by the destruction of the formidable St. Louis Rams, quickly evaporated with news of Adrian Peterson's situation and injuries to starting offensive players Brandon Fusco, Matt Cassel and Kyle Rudolph -- just like that, four starters, gone from the lineup.
In the following weeks, the team has been on a roller coaster of epic...
"Time heals all wounds," said a wise man once. With the sting of the Vikings Thursday night expedition to Wisconsin receding into the catastrophes gathering dust in Minnesota's collective memory, it is finally time to move on.
Things Worth Mentioning, but not Dissecting
- Christian Ponder, who played last week in Green Bay, did not have a good showing. Let's not beat up the guy for it. Maybe there is a team out there for him, maybe not. Let it go.
- The banged up and under-performing offensive line didn't look great against the Packers. Let's see a few more games before pushing...
The warm weekend served Minnesota football well. The Vikings have more to give this season than a good spot in next year's draft it seems; but few could dismiss the fact that all is still not well in Purple Nation.
First, here are the most savory statistics from the Vikings 41-28 deconstruction of the Atlanta Falcons:
- With 317 passing yards and 241 rushing yards, the Vikings are the only team in the NFL to have over 300 passing yards and 200 rushing yards in a game this season.
- Matt Asiata is the only player in the 2014 season to carry three rushing touchdowns in a single...
With eighteen seconds left in the game while fans were chanting “Teddy!” Vikings rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater capped a desperation drive with a two-yard touchdown pass on a right fade route to second-year wide receiver Rodney Smith to steal back a 30-28 victory from the Arizona Cardinals.
The Minnesota Vikings needed such a drive after an extremely strange ruling gave the Arizona Cardinals a touchdown on a scooped-up fumble with just over a minute left in the game.
Of course, in preseason matches, the score doesn’t matter so much, but the situations do.
"Teddy was calm. He was smart. That whole series...
I don't like Johnny Manziel.
Not at all.
He's far too arrogant and cocky for my taste. Here's a 21-year kid who has the world at his fingertips, and instead of being humble and grateful, he celebrates after throwing touchdown passes by pretending to count his money.
#growupkid #tacky
That said, as much as I like my athletes to be humble and
dignified, the NFL scoring system does not currently award any points for being a nice guy.
Moreover, big egos and
big mouths are aplenty in pro...
