Now that the Vikings have been officially eliminated from postseason play (not that there’d been much doubt for the last few games, but mathematically they were still alive), it’s less likely that I’ll be able to watch another Vikings game this season. Yesterday’s game which would normally have been carried on the Winnipeg CTV station was replaced by a game with actual playoff implications. I can’t really object to this, but it would have been nice to watch Minnesota dominate the Philadelphia Eagles.
Greg Jennings finally had the kind of game we’d hoped he’d be having all season, finally going over 100 yards receiving and scoring a TD. Cordarrelle Patterson had an impact on the game from the start, as Philadelphia avoided kicking to him as much as they could, which gave the Vikings better field position after every kick. Running back Matt Asiata, filling in for the injured Adrian Peterson and Toby Gerhart, had his first, second, and third career touchdowns, while Matt Cassel had the best outing of any Minnesota quarterback all season (and one of the best games of his career: 26 of 35 for 382 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT and a 116.6 passer rating).
The Daily Norseman‘s Ted Glover clearly enjoyed the game:
On a day when the Minnesota Vikings celebrated the ‘All Mall of America Field’ team, it was fitting, in many ways, that almost 50 points would be put on the board. After all, an all time team that has Daunte Culpepper, Robert Smith, Adrian Peterson, Anthony Carter, Cris Carter, and Randy Moss on it could hang 50 on damn near anyone.
The thing is, if you told me somebody was going to score almost 50 Sunday, the last team I would’ve picked would have been the Walking Wounded version of the Vikings. Adrian Peterson was out, Toby Gerhart was out, Kyle Rudolph and John Carlson were out. And that was just the offense. On defense, it was almost as bad, and what the Vikings fielded on Sunday was an amalgamation of second stringers, practice squad refugees, and NFL journeymen. It was a game that felt like the Vikings had virtually no chance to win.
Yet, they cruised 48-30. The NFL, go figure. It was the most gratifying win in almost a year, since the last game of the regular season last year. And for one day, at least, the most high powered offense in the NFL belongs to the Minnesota Vikings. Instead of the Eagles flying high, it was the Vikings. Flying like the Eagles. To the sea. DO YOU SEE WHAT I JUST DID THERE STEVE MILLER?
Update: At the Star Tribune, Jim Souhan says that this game may end up upending a few “foregone conclusions” about the Vikings after this season:
Foregone conclusion No. 1: Frazier will be fired.
Sure, that’s possible, maybe even likely. Frazier went 3-13 in his first full season and is 4-9-1 this year. The suggestion he’ll be fired as he nears the end of his contract is logical.
But is it wise? Last year, the Vikings won their close games and made the playoffs. This year, they’ve lost a half-dozen close games and will miss the playoffs. Their losses this season have been caused by bad quarterback play and late-game defensive collapses.
[…]
The Vikings have been so desperate to develop their own franchise quarterback for so many decades that, in the 2011 draft, they chose Christian Ponder in the first round because he shared some of the same attributes as elite quarterbacks, such as breathing oxygen and speaking in complete sentences.
It turns out that the Vikings would have been better off signing another Jeff George or Warren Moon than wasting a first-round pick on a quarterback.
This year, the Vikings are 2-2 when Cassel starts, with victories over Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. They are 2-7-1 when Cassel doesn’t start, including the game against the Bears when he rallied the Vikings to victory over Chicago when Ponder suffered a concussion late in the second quarter. Cassel is not a franchise quarterback, but he could save the franchise from making a rash decision in the draft.
Cassel is no Lamborghini. He’s a taxicab sitting in front of a bar at 2 a.m. You don’t pick him for the thrills; you pick him to avoid making a big mistake.
