Viking Triumph: Vikes 27 49ers 24

Vikes-49ers Boxscore

Coming into the game, many people expected it to be a ground game duel between Adrain Peterson and Frank Gore. Going into Week 3 Peterson was listed at top for total rushing yards and Gore was third in the NFL. After the first carry for Gore that was it for the game for him, he limped off the field with an ankle injury and did not return for the rest of the game. For the most part Peterson was held in check for most the game with 85 yard on 19 carries no journey to the end zone on this day. The 49ers did keep a close eye on Peterson for most of the game. With the Viking gained under 100 yards as a team in the game, so where Viking get all those points from?

Favre had a decent game, but when the Vikes needed him he came through. With 1:29 left in the game and Vikes were down 24-20. The drive started at the Viking 20 yard line and with zero timeouts left. Favre did something that Vikes are use to being done against them when he was a Packer.
Here is the drive play-by-play:

1. 1-10-MIN 20 (1:29) (Shotgun) 4-B.Favre pass short right to 81-V.Shiancoe to MIN 32 for 12 yards (22-N.Clements).
2. 1-10-MIN 32 (1:09) (Shotgun) 4-B.Favre pass short right to 18-S.Rice pushed ob at MIN 41 for 9 yards (22-N.Clements).
3. 2-1-MIN 41 (1:05) (Shotgun) 4-B.Favre pass incomplete deep middle to 81-V.Shiancoe.
4. 3-1-MIN 41 (1:00) (Shotgun) 4-B.Favre pass short right to 12-P.Harvin to MIN 46 for 5 yards.
5. 1-10-MIN 46 (1:00) 4-B.Favre spiked the ball to stop the clock.
6. 2-10-MIN 46 (:40) (Shotgun) 4-B.Favre pass incomplete deep right to 18-S.Rice.
7. 3-10-MIN 46 (:33) (Shotgun) 4-B.Favre pass short right to 12-P.Harvin to SF 39 for 15 yards (52-P.Willis).
8. 1-10-SF 39 (:33) 4-B.Favre spiked the ball to stop the clock.
9. 2-10-SF 39 (:16) 4-B.Favre pass short left to 87-B.Berrian to SF 32 for 7 yards (36-S.Spencer).
10. 3-3-SF 32 (:12) (Shotgun) 4-B.Favre pass deep right to 17-G.Lewis for 32 yards, TOUCHDOWN [99-M.Lawson]. The Replay Assistant challenged the runner was in bounds ruling, and the play was Upheld.

With the game Favre is the 1st QB to pass over 300 yards under the Brad Childress era. Favre also had another TD pass in the game to Sidney Rice in the first quarter.

Earlier in the week, Percy Harvin was complaining about headaches. Harvin was a headache to the 49ers on special teams.Harvin returned a 101 yard kickoff to the house for 6 points.He had been showing what he can do when he gets his hand on the ball scoring a TD in every game so far this season.

The Viking rush defense shutdown rushing attack, but it was against a backup running back with Gore going down early in the game.

The pass defense was okay at times, but the LBs did not do a good job whatsoever on covering Vernon Davis. It seemed like that he was open for most of the day and that gave QB Shaun Hill an easy target to throw to.

With the Vikes 3-0 to start off with favorable opponents to start off with.It is going to be interesting to see how the Vikes fare for the rest of the season. We the fans will see if the Vikes can play whole game or just enough to win.

Friday Preview: 49ers(2-0) @ Vikings(2-0)

The Vikings will host 49ers teams is build like the Vikings. I think that this will be a tough one for the Vikings all game. So this means that the Purple People will need to play well the entire game. So no playing subpar in the 1^st half and the 2^nd half play like the 2-0 team that they are.

With the Viking will need to keep their sight set on Frank Gore of the 49ers, so far this season he 237 yard, he had 200 yard rushing the last game. If the Viking can keep the 49ers out of their pounding the rock type of rushing attack, then the 49ers will be forced to pass the ball. Former Viking Shaun Hill has been decent this season, but will nothing like the Viking defense so far this season.

The offense will have to be crisp for the first home game of the season. Adrain Peterson has not practice much this week with back issues, but he has his sights set for the 49ers defense. The worse rushing game of his career came against San Fran his rookie season gain 3 yards on 13 carries. Now this is a different team from the one with a couple year back.

Now the Vikes have a good corps of receivers (Berrian,Rice and Harvin) and a QB in Brett Favre that is accurate(knock on wood) and able to make quick decisions.With many people wondering if Favre can still make the deep pass? Who know with the Chilly play calling.

This game is going to be a nail bitter til the end.

Viking 20

49ers 17

SKOL VIKINGS!!!

Do Not Even Ask

The Twin and Vikings may have a conflict for the Monday Night Game, when the Vikes faceoff against the Packers at the Metrodome. With 13 games left of the regular season in baseball, the Twins trail the Tiger by 3 games. If the Twins and Tigers finish tied for first place, the Twins will host a tiebreaker game if they beat Detroit in the season series.
The NFL is not even considering the switch if this happens. MLB will have to play the game a different date or time, by the looks of it.

Viking Triumph: Vikings 27 Lions 13

Viking 27 Lions 13(Boxscore)

After two weeks of regular season play the Vikings have yet to put together a complete game. The same as last week, the Viking offense was comatose most of the first half. The only spark in the first half was a 10 play touchdown drive, where AD came out of the gates with a 22 yard gate and Favre was perfect passing with a 1 yard TD pass to Shanks.

The Viking offense took that drive and took to the second half and scoring 20 more point on the Lions. Peterson had a decent day at the office, with 15 rushes 92 yards and a 27 yard touchdown run also 4 snags for 24 yards. Favre went 23 of 27 for 155 yards and two touchdowns.

Chad Greenway was the spark on the defense on this day with 2 INTS, a fumble recovery forced by Jared Allen and an onside kick recovery. Greenway was all over the field on Sunday. The rushing defense was kind of wobbly on stopping Kevin Smith. Smith ran for 83 yards on the ground. With the Viking facing Frank Gore and 49ers better figure it out quit or it may be a long day on the ground for the Viking defense.

Preview Friday: Week 2

With the 1-0 Viking heading over Lake Michigan to take on the 0-1 Lions, this will for both teams’ 1^st NFC North game of the season. The Lion will try to win their first game since Week 16 of their ’07 season. It does not matter how good either is it is always a true blue and blue division game. Both teams pounding each other for the full 60 minutes of the game and the outcome lately has been in the Vikings favor.

Some Things to Watch For:

With the second start of young Matthew Stafford’s career is going to be coming against one of the best defensive units in the league. Stafford had a rough debut throwing 3 INTs against the Saints. The Vikings defense will be set to continue the painful start of Stafford’s NFL career. I hope to see Stafford on the turf more than he is under center come Sunday.

Calvin Johnson is a tall strong receiver and become the number one guy when the Lion traded away Roy E. Williams to the Cowboys. Antonio Winfield and Johnson will be locking horns all day long. Winfield is one of the most underrate cornerbacks in the league. It is going to be a good matchup to see all day long.

Will be Jared Allen be visible in the game?

With the way that he was shutdown by the Browns stud tackle Joe Thomas last week (1 assisted tackle for the game). He will be a raging bull for this game and will be out to put some hurt Stafford and running backs.

What will the Lion try to stop run or the pass?

I think that the Lion will TRY to stop the run; because that is the way the Chilly runs the offense. I think that the Vikes offense just has too much talent for the Lions to content with. Everyone knows what we have in Peterson, a running back that has the speed, strength and agility all in one package.Taylor that could start for most teams in the NFL. The receiving corps the Vikes have in:Berrian, Rice, and Harvin now talk about a need for speed. The Vikes have plenty of that to go around

What do Vikes need to do in this game to win it?

The Vikes will need to establish the passing game to keep the Lions defense honest against the run.

The Prediction:

Vikings 26

Lions 10

SKOL VIKINGS!!!

Wish He Was Still A Lion

With Week 2 coming up quickly, the Vikes will be traveling to Ford Field. This just seems like yesterday watching this play. Hope for more like this on Sunday.
SKOL VIKINGS!!!

Viking Triumph:Vikes 34 Browns 20

Viking and Browns Boxscore

With the Vikes offense looked flat a pancake in the 1st half, sure were make many of the Viking fans starting to wonder a bit. Being down to the Browns at halftime 10-13 and the Brown hold AD and the rushing attack in that half. Good thing the Viking rushing attack woke in the second half, or it may have been a closer game than many would have liked. The Vikes did outscore the Browns 24-7 in the second half.

In the game, AD punished defenders mostly in the seond half, Peterson had 180 yards on ground with 3 TDs on 25 carries. The highlight was his 64 yard scamper for a TD in the third quater to seal the game for the Vikings.

Percy"No Mercy" Harvin had a pretty good debut into the NFL, in my opinion. he is a natural play maker, just get him the ball someway, he will make something happen. Harvin had 2 rushes for 22 yard both were 11 yards each and 3 catches for 36 yards and 1 TD reception from Favre.

Speaking of Favre, he went 14-21 110 yards and no INTS and that Harvin TD. I was pleased that he did what he was asked no to throw the game away. He made the plays when he had to, like the 2nd and 18 and completing it for the 1st down. I reminded me of the day when he was picking apart the Vikings defense. Let us all hope that Favre does not mind being the game manager QB and not the playmaker as he was in Green Bay.

The defense, did a good job holding down the Browns to a TD late in the 4th quarter in the second half. The unit also forced 2 turnover, a fumble recovery by Kevin Williams from a ball that "slipped" out of Brady's hand and an interception thrown right to Cedric Griffin. THe Vikes D was pressuring Quinn most of the game sacking him 5 times in the game.

It was a scary game in the beginning to watch, just thinking at halftime OH crap are the Vikes going to lose to the Browns. The Vikes finally started playing some ball. I want to see the next couple of week, is that Vikes to play a crisp game the entire game.

Preview Friday:Week 1

Now the time of the year is here, when you can actually sit down and watch an entire football game and not think it was a waste of your time. Yes that it right, it is opening weekend of the NFL. This is a time of the year MANY NFLers have been waiting for quite some time.
With the Vikes traveling to the Dawg Pound home of the Cleveland Browns for the 1st contest of the season.

Will Browns defense stop Peterson?
Probably not on this day, AP just has to much in the tool box to be stopped buy a defense that allowed over 150 yards a game last season. I can see Peterson have a good day run the ball on Sunday.


Is Favre ready for this?
I think that Favre is going to do okay as the Vikes QB, but as long as his shoulder does not give way this season as it did last season with the Jets. Here in Minnesota he will not be asked to throw in 30-40 times a game. All Favre needs to do is enough to not lose the game for the Beloved Purple.

The Wall of a situation?
The Williams Wall is suppose to find out the decision this week if the Court of Appeals sides with the NFL or Kevin and Pat Williams with possible suspension for taking a banned diuretic. Everyone know how fast the court is at making a decision, so I would be doubtful if there is a decision this week.

UPDATE:

This is good news for the Vikes and its fans. The Williams Wall will in fact be playing the whole 2009 season with no suspension coming from the StarCaps test results.
Quick notes:
Last week, Bobby Wade agreed to cut is contract for the team and this week the team thanked him by releasing him on Thursday. Brad Childress again went back to his root with the Eagles and Greg Lewis took Wade spot on the roster.

Blogging With The Enemy

This past week, I traded questions with Pete Grasso, who runs a Cleveland Browns blog In the Blawg Pound. This was a great experience, Pete reached out to me and was wondering if we would like to trade questions prior to the game. Here are the Questions that asked with his answer, I hope everyone enjoys.

1. In your opinion, who do you think that Browns would benefit from being the starting QB and why?

Brady Quinn. No question.

Derek Anderson had his chance. His "Pro Bowl season" was a fluke and. If you look the last half of 2007 and his performance in 2008, it shows that he's really not that good. People in the Derek camp say Brady is unproven. Well, sure, in the NFL Brady is unproven because he has yet to get a chance to play. But, I watched him play four years at Notre Dame. I watched him get better each year. His last two years at Notre Dame, he led the Irish to two of it's best seasons in decades and, believe me, there really wasn't a whole lot of talent on those teams. He may have lost the "big games," but the big picture is he won a lot of games and did a lot of great things with no offensive line, no real running game and no defense to back him up.

He played at Notre Dame, for crying out loud. He was recruited by Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan -- three of the top programs in the country. Most anti-Brady Quinn people are really just Notre Dame-haters. That's all.

Brady is the future of the Browns and the sooner he gets to take snaps full time with the first team, the sooner the Browns will benefit from his leadership.

2. How do you think the Browns will try to contain the pressures from the Williams Wall and Jared Allen from getting to the QB?

The Browns have had offensive line problems ever since their return in 1999. But, they drafted an excellent left tackle a couple of years ago in Joe Thomas. This year, they drafted Alex Mack to play center. They're young, but they're an improvement. We're still a couple years away from having an elite offensive line, but what we do have is pretty good.

Now, how they're going to do protecting the QB against a few modern day Purple People Eaters is a different question. I expect a lot of quick, screen passes to get the ball out of Brady's hands before Jared Allen can get to him (and, yes, I'm going to go ahead and assume our QB is Brady Quinn).

3. Looking at Edwards what type of season do you think he will have 2007 or 2008? Is their a

receiver that will step up so that he will have all the attention drawn to him every game?

Obviously, I hope he'll have a season like he did in 2007 as opposed to last year. The Browns had a couple of receivers last year that could have taken the pressure off him, but failed to use them. This year, it's a different story.

Winslow is gone. Jurevicius is gone. Stallworth is gone. Instead, we've got Josh Cribbs and a couple of rookies. Cribbs has looked pretty good playing the number two receiver though, so I'm hoping he can draw some attention away from Edwards. Of course, holding on to the ball when it comes his way is the bigger problem. I'm hoping he can at least do that.

4.Do you think that the Browns should try to shut Peterson and the running or focus more of the Vikes passing game to win the game?

The Browns have not had the best luck in trying to shut down the running game, and asking them to shut down Peterson is a tall order. On the other hand, a veteran such as Favre could have a field day picking apart our young secondary. To answer your question, I say both.

5. What are your expectations from your Cleveland Browns for the game and the season?

At this point, I'm still trying to be optimistic. I'm expecting the Browns to come out in the field Sunday fired up. I expect them to come out and show they belong. I expect them to get the Dawg Pound fired up. I expect them to shock everyone and actually win this one. Are these realistic expectations? Maybe not, but it doesn't hurt to have a little hope this early in the season.

As for the rest of the season, I'm again trying to be optimistic. I'm not expecting playoffs or anything, but I do believe they'll be better than the 3-13 record The Sporting News predicted and certainly better than the 2-14 record Sports Illustrated predicted. If I had to go out on a limb, I'd say the Browns will win at least six games this year. Hopefully more.

You can view my answer and his question by going over to his site.

SKOL VIKINGS!!!!

Williams Wall Decision To Come...

With the Williams Wall awaiting to the decision of the US Court of Appeals about the potential decsion about their suspension. Kevin and Pat Williams could be suspended for 4 games if the Court of Appeals rules in favor of the NFL in the StarCaps case.
One thing is for sure, that is the Williams' will be playing for this Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. So this means the Williams Wall would miss the games against the Lions, 49ers, Packers and Rams.
I do have to say without the Williams I could see the Vikes going 3-1 with no problems whatsoever. The only game, I see a problem is against the dreaded Packers. We will soon see what happens with the case.

Vikes Announce Practice Squad

The Vikes announced their 8 man practice squad players:

• DB Colt Anderson
• QB John David Booty
• OT Chris Clark
• RB Ian Johnson
• DT Tremaine Johnson
• TE Garrett Mills
• WR Nick Moore
• OT Drew Radovich

Players Cut From 53 Man Roster

Here are the players that did not quite do enough to making the Vikes 53 man roster.

• DB Colt Anderson
• QB John David Booty
• FB Nehemiah Broughton
• DE Martail Burnett
• OL Chris Clark
• OL Brian Daniels
• OL Juan Garcia
• DE Otis Grigsby
• S De’von Hall
• LB David Herron
• DT Antoine Holmes
• RB Ian Johnson
• DT Tremaine Johnson
• OL Andy Kemp
• CB Marcus McCauley
• TE Garrett Mills
• WR Nick Moore
• TE Jake Nordin
• WR Vinny Perretta
• OL Drew Radovich
• DB Marcus Walker
• WR Bobby Williams

Notes on some of the casualties:

With John David Booty on the list. It has been the talk all week, is going to be Booty or Jackson all week long. I do have to say that Jackson had a far better and productive preseason compared to Booty. With this news, now begs the question who is the #2 quarterback Jackson or Sage.

Garrett Mills was cut as well not due to his play on the field. He was a decent pass catching tight end. his fault was staying healthy and staying on the football field to help the team.

Other than that there were no other surprises to whom the Vikes cut on this day of Axe Day.
More to come on who the Vikes claim off waives to the practice squad.

Why Get Rid Of Jackson

There has been rumors going around that the Vikings are looking to dispose of Tarvais Jackson by the final cut day before the regular season on Saturday. The Vikes have called trying the trade Jackson away and what they may receive for his services.
For the past 3 years, Jackson has been in and out of the lineup as the starting QB. he has shown that he would be a great backup QB, if not here some place else. The value that Jackson brings to the table would be with a 5th to 7th round draft pick. That sure is a kick for the Vikes trading up to acquire Jackson in the 2nd round.

If the Vikes are unable to trade find any bidders for Jackson. The Vikes will have to make the decision, to either cut the cord on Jackson and Chilly or cut lose John David Booty, but he could possibly clear waivers and become a practice squad member. Remember in recent past, that is what the Vikes tried with Tyler Thigpen.

It sure is going to be interesting what is going to be going through the minds of the coaching staff on judgment day.

Favre In The Spotlight

With all the talk of this will be the last look from Favre until Week 1 of the regular season. So he wanted to give the fans a good look at what to expect from him. I know it was against the Texans, but i think that Favre played well. Favre played the entire 1st half and the 1st drive in the second half.
Favre still does not look comfortable yet, but he has been a Viking a for two weeks. His numbers were 13-18 142 yards 1 TD(Taylor 28 yard screen). Favre did a good job managing the game well, in my opinion. He has also shown us that he still has mobility in his 40 year old legs with him scrambling around in the pocket to by some time as well as throwing blocks in wildcat formation.

It looks like that Vikes are on the verge of having an explosive offense this season with Peterson, Taylor Berrian and Havin to name a few. So if everything clicks in place it will be an exciting season.