Probably thanks to the “Brett Favre” factor, I’m having the opportunity to watch more Vikings games on TV this year than in almost any previous year. It almost makes me regret my earlier “stay retired, Brett” posts.
St. Louis self-destructed in this game, turning the ball over repeatedly within a few yards of the goal line, denying themselves great scoring opportunities. The Vikings defence looked very ordinary as the Rams moved up and down the field, but posted very few points (final score 38-10). Turnovers literally were the story in the game: the Rams fumbled, the Vikings didn’t.
As far as individual performances went, the usual names were there (Favre, Allen, Peterson), but some less familiar names got frequent mentions: Benny Sapp seemed to be in on every defensive play, Tyrell Johnson had an interception and a very athletic pass deflection, while Karl Paymah got victimized for the Rams’ only TD after he replaced Antoine Winfield. Adrian Peterson scored two TDs, but again didn’t have a lot of yards.
Update: Tim Olsen quotes “Eaten Purple People” about past Vikings teams:
Short week, road game, coming off of a big emotional win….hmmmmm.
In the Denny era this game was as good as pre-lost.
In the Tice era, the staff would be game planning for the Ravens game and starting the party planning for the bye week.
When TJack ran the show, you could count on as many fumbled snaps as were necessary to keep the Rams in it for the whole game.
In the early Chilly era, we would run a variety of plays designed to gain 3.33 yards if executed perfectly and then hope the measurement crew bailed us out.
But E.P.P. is here to tell you — not this year. We remember the 1998 Vikings that would win these games by 3-4 TD’s going away.
