Quotulatiousness

November 12, 2012

Vikings defence emerges from witness protection program to mug Detroit 34-24

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:24

All the early signs of team collapse were visible: top cornerback out for several weeks with a broken arm, top receiver out for at least a week with an ankle injury, team morale fading after two ugly losses… and in spite of all that, the Vikings managed to pull a quite convincing win out of the hat. The top performance for the Vikings was Adrian Peterson’s 171 yards on 27 carries, while Detroit’s Megatron (Calvin Johnson) tallied 207 yards receiving on 12 catches. The most pleasant surprise of the day was the very impressive debut of wide receiver Jarius Wright, whose first NFL reception went for 54 yards and his second reception was the first TD of the game.

Christopher Gates at the Daily Norseman:

Had I told you earlier on in the day that not only would the Minnesota Vikings not have Percy Harvin for their game this afternoon against the Detroit Lions, but they would complement that by allowing Calvin Johnson to go over 200 yards receiving and to get just his second touchdown reception of the year (and his first from Matthew Stafford) … how many points would you have told me the Vikings would lose by?

Well, it turns out that they didn’t lose at all. In fact, they won the game by ten points, with the Lions getting a touchdown towards the end of the game for purely cosmetic purposes. Sure, Stafford got over 300 yards passing, and Johnson went berzerk as I mentioned … but in the end, it didn’t matter. The Minnesota Vikings did what they had to do when they needed to do it, and they swept a divisional opponent for the first time since 2009 as a result. So how did it happen?

November 5, 2012

Vikings lose in Seattle, 30-20

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:40

The Vikings went in to Seattle as underdogs, and the odds-makers were actually a bit kinder to the team than the final score. Adrian Peterson had another great outing (182 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns), but there was no passing game to speak of (Ponder was 11 of 22 for only 63 yards and 1 INT). Perhaps fortunately, I didn’t get to watch this game, as it wasn’t carried on regular channels in the Toronto area.

September 10, 2012

Vikings beat Jaguars 26-23 in overtime

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:57

The first half of yesterday’s home opener had all the hallmarks of 2011: miscommunication, bad tackling, poor judgement, and an air of general ineptitude. The game matched up two remarkably similar teams: both led by second-year quarterbacks, both with franchise running backs returning to the game (one from injury, one from a contract dispute), and both desperate to improve on a very disappointing 2011 NFL season.

In spite of the miscues and mistakes, the Vikings kept the game close while the offense tried to get it together. Just before the end of the first half, things started to look positive for the purple, getting on the board with an Adrian Peterson TD (highlights here).

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July 9, 2012

Adrian Peterson on his arrest, sort of

Filed under: Football, Law, Liberty, Quotations, USA — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:06

The first word directly from Adrian Peterson after his arrest in Houston this weekend:

H/T to Christopher Gates at the Daily Norseman.

July 8, 2012

Apparently in Texas you can be arrested merely for “resisting arrest”

Filed under: Football, Law, Liberty, USA — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 09:09

In what must be the worst kind of news for Minnesota Vikings fans, star running back Adrian Peterson was arrested early Saturday morning for … resisting arrest. ProFootballTalk has the report:

A source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that the incident culminating in Peterson’s arrest was captured by one or more surveillance cameras. Multiple persons also witnessed the event.

According to the source, Peterson, his girlfriend, and some family members were at a nightclub in Houston. At closing time, a group of police officers entered the club, and they began instructing the remaining patrons to leave.

Peterson wanted to get some water before he left, but an officer told Peterson that he needed to leave. Some words apparently were exchanged, but Peterson eventually walked to the exit with one of the club’s bouncers.

It’s believed that one of the officers then jumped on Peterson’s back from behind and tried to take him down. (Key word: “tried.”) Other officers then joined the fray and completed the arrest.

Peterson was charged with resisting arrest, which implies he was being arrested for something else. He is charged for now with no other crime.

I was under the vague impression that to be charged with “resisting arrest” you’d have to already be wanted by the police for doing something that warranted arrest. Based on the initial reports, it doesn’t sound like Peterson did anything before he was arrested to justify arresting him … unless it’s a case of a police officer deciding that he’d been disrespected. We’ll have to wait until more of the information becomes available.

Update: Contrasting with the initial report, Dan Zinski of The Viking Age says Peterson was “heavily intoxicated” at the time:

More on Adrian’s incident, and this isn’t flattering. The general manager of the club where Adrian Peterson was arrested after allegedly pushing an off-duty cop has told website TMZ that the running back was “heavily intoxicated” at the time of the incident. A police report says Peterson became belligerent after he and his companions were told the leave the bar, and ended up being subdued by three officers.

Live at Bayou Place general manager Daniel Maher says Peterson tried to order one last drink after being told to leave, and after being denied, tried to intimidate the bartender into giving him the drink anyway. It was at this point that Maher himself intervened, but Peterson refused to listen to him. The off-duty cop then broke in and was shoved by Peterson, leading to the Viking being hauled in for a misdemeanor A count of resisting arrest.

Update the second: At Viking Update, John Holler provides a bit of background (which may or may not be relevant to this particular case, but is interesting anyway):

The interesting aspect of the Peterson incident is that the only charge he was hit with was resisting arrest. He wasn’t charged with assaulting an officer. Had he actually shoved a policeman to the point that he “stumbled,” it would seem logical that charges of assaulting of an officer would also have been leveled. Therein lies the need to hear both sides of the story.

I come from a different perspective than most on this type of subject. I have been involved with “bouncer dust-ups” on the wrong side. Yet, three of my best friends are or were cops. I could accurately be accused of being “cop-friendly.” Of the numbers saved in my phone, a half-dozen of them are cops. When they’re “moonlighting,” it’s a night off for them. The odds of them getting shot as the result of a meth-addled domestic abuse call are out of the question. In those situations, they are truly “in charge.” And they like it that way.

When a bouncer (cop or otherwise) is working “his turf,” he can be aggressive. Very aggressive. As tenuous as life is in the NFL, the reality is that “hired muscle” at a nightclub can’t lose if he gets in a dust-up with a drunken patron. Whether an off-duty policeman, a local college football player or just a big guy who casts an imposing shadow, “security” at a big-time nightclub is expected to quell all problems — exceptions not allowed.

In order to do so, off-duty cops (trust me when I tell you that they’re never truly off-duty) aren’t going to take any guff from anyone. They have the experience. They have the sobriety advantage.

If the Peterson matter actually goes to court — the smart money would say that only a hard-core prosecutor would push the case — it will be destroyed by competent legal representation on Peterson’s behalf.

December 25, 2011

Vikings win yesterday was bittersweet: they won the game, but lost Adrian Peterson

Filed under: Football, History, Military — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 14:00

The game at Washington was never going to change much in the playoff picture: neither team is going to the post-season this year, but both teams were playing for pride. In the end, the Vikings won despite losing their starting quarterback and all-world running back on sequential plays. The win was a bit of a palliative for a doomed season, but the injury to Adrian Peterson sets next season into question.

Christopher Gates dips into his history texts to find the best way to describe yesterday’s game:

Pyrrhic victory (PIR-ik VIK-tuh-ree) n. A victory that is offset by staggering losses

The term “phyrric victory” is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who did battle with the Romans in the Battle of Heraclea in 280 B.C. and the Battle of Asculum in 279 B.C. In both battles, the Romans suffered greater casualties than Pyrrhus’ army did. . .however, the Romans had a significantly larger base from which to draw troops. So, in essence, Pyrrhus’ victories came at too high a price, as he even went so far as to say that another such victory would be his undoing.

That’s pretty much what we saw today at FedEx Field in Washington, D.C., as the Minnesota Vikings fought like hell when it would have been easy to roll over, and got themselves a 33-26 victory over the Washington Redskins. The victory guarantees that they will a) not be the single-worst team in Minnesota Vikings’ history in terms of win-loss record, and b) no longer eligible for the top overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.

While I still think Christian Ponder will develop into a good, dependable NFL quarterback, I’ve been a fan of Joe Webb since he was drafted. I’m delighted to see that he is getting the opportunity to showcase his diverse skill set, and I’d be even happier if the team can work him into games more regularly.

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October 31, 2011

Vikings hang on to defeat Panthers at home, 24-21

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:34

For what was billed as a team that couldn’t stop the run, Carolina certainly kept Adrian Peterson bottled up for much of the day — at least on the ground. Peterson didn’t break 100 yards of rushing, but he made up for that in receiving yards with 162 yards in total. Cam Newton did awful things to the Vikings’ secondary including a big completion on fourth-and-fourteen that kept the Panthers’ final drive alive. Christian Ponder put in a good performance at quarterback for the Vikings, making no serious mistakes and keeping the chains moving on third down, especially in the second half.

Carolina looked snake-bit early in the game, with several ugly plays that the Vikings failed to fully capitalize on. Their first possession lasted exactly one play as a strip-sack handed the ball over to the Vikings deep in Panther territory. Middle linebacker E.J. Henderson hit Newton forcing the ball out, and Jared Allen came up with the loose ball. Allen also had a sack later in the half, which also forced Newton to fumble. Allen set a new team record with a sack in ten consecutive games.

Percy Harvin, on the other hand, had a much more up-and-down game. He scored a rushing touchdown, but was also stripped of the ball deep in Panthers’ territory, and also drew a 15-yard penalty for what looked like a fistfight with Carolina’s Captain Munnerlyn well off the playing field (actually at the Panthers’ bench).

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October 10, 2011

Vikings finally keep a lead through an entire game

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 11:00

The 2011 Minnesota Vikings had developed a terrible habit of only playing well in the first half of games, allowing teams to beat them in the second half. Last week’s game didn’t fit the pattern, as the team played terribly in both the first and the second half. This week started to look like the pattern had been re-established as the Vikings played an excellent ground game and took advantage of turnovers to jump out to a 28-3 lead at the half (time of possession favoured the Cardinals 2:1 at this point).

Cynics among the fan base were wondering how Arizona was going to come back from that deep a deficit — not if, but how. Well the cynics were wrong: the Cardinals couldn’t come back from being that far down, so the Vikings finally win their first game of the season. The pattern did hold true, though, as Arizona did outscore the Vikings in the second half, just not by enough.

Christopher Gates of the Daily Norseman:

The Vikings were paced by a huge first quarter, in which they tied a franchise record by scoring 28 points in the game’s first fifteen minutes. The only other time they’ve accomplished that was in a blowout victory over the Green Bay Packers on September 28, 1986. The four touchdowns in that game were all touchdown passes by Tommy Kramer. . .the four touchdowns the Vikings got today all came via the ground, with three from Adrian Peterson (from 4, 24, and 14 yards) and a 4-yard run by Donovan McNabb.

The defense keyed the fast start as well, as they were dominant in the first quarter of play. The Cardinals’ first 13 offensive plays consisted of three three-and-outs, two turnovers, another fumble that went out of bounds, and one completed pass. Jared Allen and Brian Robison each had two sacks on the afternoon, and JaMarca Sanford intercepted two Kevin Kolb passes on the afternoon, with Asher Allen throwing in a third.

As several people have noted, Sanford’s two picks now give him the same number of catches on the season as our putative number one receiver, Bernard Berrian (who was deactivated for this game). The other player on the hotseat, quarterback Donovan McNabb, didn’t make a strong case for himself either, completing only 10-of-21 for 169 yards which moves his passer rating to a very mediocre 80 for the season.

Jeremy Fowler at the Vikings Now blog:

But the spotlight is still placed directly on the passing game, which has struggled with or without the inactive Bernard Berrian. Take away McNabb’s 60-yard gain to receiver Devin Aromashodu midway through the third quarter — an impressive across-the-middle throw, to be sure — and McNabb was 9-of 21 for 109 yards.

He was 3-of-10 on third down for the day while routinely missing receivers short on short or intermediate routes — sometimes five or six yards short. Cardinals defenders dropped what should have been two easy interceptions. Percy Harvin, the Vikings’ top receiver, got two targets and caught one pass for 12 yards. “There is no go-to guy right now,” McNabb said. “We’re all still getting comfortable in this offense and working on each other’s timing and chemistry.”

Maybe Christian Ponder’s not ready, and that’s fine. But McNabb must improve the accuracy for the Vikings to survive the next two weeks entering the teeth of the NFC North schedule. Speaking of the schedule…

Dan Zinski at The Viking Age:

Much of the anxiety, expressed by Metrodome fans in the form of boos, was no doubt the lingering result of psychological trauma incurred during the previous three second half choke jobs – but a lot of it was due simply to the shaky play of McNabb. The quarterback once again showed a sometimes alarming lack of accuracy on his passes, and even his better passes were wobbly and not quite on-target. The big pass of the second half, a 60-yarder to Devin Aromashodu, looked like some kind of dying bird fluttering through the air before finally landing safely in the receiver’s hands. And even worse: an attempted short pass to Visanthe Shiancoe that landed five yards in front of the intended receiver, causing the fans to jeer, McNabb to laugh and Shiancoe to get into it with his quarterback on the sideline.

This week McNabb got away with his lame-duck passes, thanks to Adrian Peterson’s hard running and the defense’s uncharacteristic ball-hawking, but that doesn’t mean the McNabb problem has suddenly disappeared. Accuracy remains a big issue for this quarterback and I don’t see that reality changing any time soon. The Vikings were fortunate that this week they faced a quarterback, Kevin Kolb, who is possibly even worse than McNabb. The defense stepped up big and Peterson did his part – even though he once again found tough sledding in the second half – but you can’t expect that sort of performance every week. At some point you need your quarterback to contribute more than 169 yards on 48% passing. A win is great but it doesn’t erase the fact that the passing game is still not anywhere near effective enough for this team to compete consistently.

September 19, 2011

Vikings blow 17-point halftime lead, lose to Bucs

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:12

For the second week in a row, the Minnesota Vikings had the lead at halftime, then went on vacation for the second half of the game. Unlike last week, the Vikings lead after 30 minutes due primarily to their own efforts, with a strong running game and a passing game that gained more than 39 yards (last week’s total). It just wasn’t enough of a cushion to allow the team to check out for the second 30 minutes of play.

Mark Craig:

The Vikings blew a 10-point lead at San Diego, losing 24-17 in Week 1. But as bad as that was, the sequel was much worse considering the level to which the Vikings were dominating the league’s youngest team at home at halftime.

The Vikings led in total yards, 284-62; first downs, 17-3; rushing yards, 137-23; and, well, everything else.

“I’ve been playing a long time,” receiver Michael Jenkins said. “Eight years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game that different from one half to the next half.”

Obviously, a pattern has been established: The Vikings are a 30-minute team in a 60-minute league. And they trail the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions by two games in the NFC North heading into Sunday’s home game against a Lions team that has won six consecutive games and is coming off a 48-3 victory over Kansas City.

Jim Souhan:

The Vikings haven’t just begun the 2011 with two losses, they’ve blown two games with poisonous second-half performances that call into question the ability of their coaches to adapt during games, their offensive philosophy, their choice of veteran quarterbacks and their ability to fulfill the lofty expectations of ownership.

Since 1990, only 12.5 percent of NFL teams that have lost their first two games of the season have made the playoffs, and we can probably make a leap of logic and guess that an even smaller percentage made the playoffs after getting outscored 41-3 in the first two second halves of the year.

The Vikings have begun a season in which they proclaimed themselves contenders and during which they are seeking approval for a billion-dollar stadium by treating the second half the way your average downtown office worker treats Friday afternoon. They’ve taken off early.

The Christian Ponder era gets closer with each loss, but for Ponder’s sake, I hope he doesn’t need to step in this soon in his rookie season.

During the first half, Adrian Peterson went into the record books again, as he scored the first of two rushing touchdowns, moving him into first place in team history for rushing TDs.

Update: As Christopher Gates reminds us, the Vikings have to make a roster move this week to make room for Kevin Williams, who is returning after his two-week suspension in the StarCaps case. Who does he want to see get cut to clear space?

The first one would be Bernard Berrian. I said this last week, and I’ll say it again . . . this guy never should have been on the roster coming out of camp. He’s a speed receiver with no speed, and shows absolutely no will or desire when the ball is coming his way. In two games this season, he has one more reception than I do. [. . .] Or, if you’re going to cut a defensive player, look no further than Tyrell Johnson. Jamarca Sanford has clearly outplayed Johnson this season at the safety spot opposite of Husain Abdullah, and Johnson’s missed interception that could have, potentially, sealed the deal for the Vikings this afternoon is basically the last straw for me. If we’re going to try to work some young guys into the lineup this season, get Johnson the heck out of town and give Mistral Raymond some run in his place.

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September 12, 2011

Vikings drop season opener to Chargers, 24-17

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:20

Aside from an electrifying start, as Percy Harvin ran the opening kickoff all the way back for a TD, this game was forgettable for both teams.

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March 18, 2011

Adrian Peterson changes the tone, but not in a good way

Filed under: Football, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 13:01

Tom Powers thinks that Adrian Peterson has accomplished what many thought to have been impossible: improving the public view of the NFL owners.

With one slip of the tongue, Adrian Peterson irrevocably has altered public perception with regard to the NFL labor situation. A.P. has accomplished the seemingly impossible: He has made the bad guys look good. Or at least better.

Suddenly, NFL owners, the greediest group of cutthroat, self-indulgent operators since Al Capone’s gang ran roughshod over Chicago, stand in a more favorable public light. And they can wave a disapproving finger at the players and announce to the fans: “Now do you see what we’re dealing with here?”

The other day, Peterson called the owners’ treatment of the players “modern-day slavery.” He was making a lot of sense right up until he uttered those magic words. He had talked about the unmitigated greed of the owners and about how they were trying to wring more money from their employees. Then he made the slavery comparison. Since A.P. is due a base salary of close to $11 million next season, it’s not hard to imagine how all the working stiffs out there viewed those comments.

Because of the impasse, Powers now thinks the best solution is pretty drastic:

It’s too bad because, make no mistake about it, if NFL football goes missing this fall, it’s the owners’ doing and not the players.’ The players are the good guys in these negotiations.

Their careers are short. They get beat up more than any other athletes. They have lingering injuries that hamper them for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, the filthy-rich owners want a bigger percentage of the revenue pie. In fact, they want a big fat slice right off the top.

OK, what’s done is done. Now everybody looks bad. And just like the 1994 negotiations that almost killed baseball, both sides are so busy trying to gouge each other that they are displaying precious little regard for the cash customers who, in reality, fund the whole damn operation. They are the ones who buy the tickets and merchandise. They are the ones who send the TV ratings — and thus the advertising revenue — through the roof.

So now I think the best thing that could possibly happen is for the NFL to disappear for a year. I hope the labor negotiations reach an impasse and the season is canceled. Then maybe reality will set in for all concerned. The mighty need to be humbled. In a year, with luck, they’ll all realize that the sun doesn’t rise and set on their fannies. They’ll realize that everyone survived just fine without them. And then maybe they won’t take it all for granted anymore.

December 29, 2010

Vikings surprise Eagles in rare Tuesday game

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 12:56

The Minnesota Vikings were two-touchdown underdogs to the Philadelphia Eagles, and some said even that overstated how much of a mismatch this game was going to be. It was such a foregone conclusion that the game wasn’t even broadcast in my area.

As they say, however, the predictions are just guesses. The game certainly didn’t go the way it was expected to:

The victory was sparked by Adrian Peterson’s 118-yard rushing performance and an astute defensive game plan that put consistent pressure on Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. But it also was the result of a performance by a Philadelphia team that looked as if it had spent far too much time celebrating clinching the NFC East on Sunday, when the Packers beat the Giants.

The Eagles were called for 12 penalties as they lost to the Vikings for the first time since the 1997 season, ending a five-game winning streak. The Vikings had not won at Philadelphia since 1985. Philadelphia’s performance was reminiscent of the Arizona Cardinals’ effort in 2008 after they clinched the NFC West and then lost to the Vikings 35-14.

“It was an absolutely pathetic job on my part of getting my team ready to play,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said. “We didn’t coach well and we didn’t play well. It was a complete tail-whipping right there.”

Normally, as Gregg Easterbrook constantly points out, the team that blitzes too much gets burned by the quarterback throwing to his “hot read” (who is uncovered because the defender is blitzing). That wasn’t the case last night:

A game plan designed by Frazier, who had been defensive coordinator before taking over for the fired Brad Childress on Nov. 22, and interim defensive coordinator Fred Pagac made sure Vick was never was able to get comfortable because he faced a variety of looks and was consistently pursued by Antoine Winfield, who blitzed both from the corner and inside.

Vick was sacked six times and finished with an interception and two lost fumbles, including a crucial one late in the second quarter when Winfield stripped the ball from him on a sack, then picked it up and raced 45 yards for a touchdown that tied the score 7-7. Winfield finished with two sacks.

I had been looking forward to watching the game particularly to see how Joe Webb handled his first NFL start at quarterback. He seems to have done well enough:

Webb, meanwhile, got better as the game went along in his first career start, completing eight of 11 passes for 124 yards in the second half. He led the Vikings on scoring drives in their first two series of the third quarter, the first ending with a 30-yard field goal by Ryan Longwell and the second with a 9-yard touchdown run by the raw quarterback, who didn’t see open tight end Visanthe Shiancoe on the play.

Brett Favre is still the starter, if he’s healthy, so there isn’t a quarterback controversy. Whether he’ll be healthy for the final game at Detroit’s Ford Field on Sunday is still unknown.

December 6, 2010

Vikings win in Turnover Bowl

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:26

Yesterday’s game in Minneapolis wasn’t expected to be very entertaining: a 2-9 team visiting an out-of-conference 4-7 team isn’t quite ratings gold. The turnovers started early in the game, as Brett Favre went down to a backside hit while throwing, putting the ball up for grabs. Buffalo got the ball and, at least for a few minutes, the momentum.

Favre was injured and Tarvaris Jackson came in to start the next series. Jackson threw an interception that Buffalo ran back for the first score of the game.

After that, it got entertaining — if you were a Vikings fan, anyway.

A month ago, the play that transpired with 4 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first quarter Sunday would have led to the Vikings’ undoing.

Tarvaris Jackson, in place of injured Brett Favre, threw a pass that Buffalo cornerback Drayton Florence stepped in front of and returned 40 yards for a touchdown and a seven-point lead. Under Brad Childress, that would have been a “here we go again” moment.

But under interim coach Leslie Frazier, Florence’s touchdown ended up as a footnote following the Vikings’ 38-14 demolition of a Bills team that looked every bit a bad as its 2-10 record at Mall of America Field.

Favre’s injury was reported as a sprained sternoclavicular joint and he’ll undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the damage. Interim head coach Leslie Frazier said that if Favre could play next week, he’d play — that is, there’s no quarterback controversy here.

Rookie Chris DeGeare made his first start, replacing Steve Hutchinson, and only got mentioned for a false start penalty. That’s good: when you don’t hear the names of your offensive linemen, that usually means that they’re doing a good job. Also on the injury list were Percy Harvin and Ray Edwards. Adrian Peterson was a game-time decision with his sprained ankle from last week (he played, gained 107 yards and scored 3 touchdowns).

Sidney Rice played a great game — he’s finally back in 2009 form, going over 100 yards receiving and scoring two TDs. He clearly was the missing element in the first half of the season.

Joe Webb, the Vikings’ third string quarterback was on the active roster for the first time this season, as a receiver/kick returner, but injured his hamstring and left the game. Running back Toby Gerhart was the replacement KR (replacing Webb, who was playing in place of Harvin). This might have created a problem if Jackson had been injured, as neither Favre nor Webb could go back into the game. Luckily, the issue didn’t arise.

It seemed like a good idea, but Webb’s day ended in the first quarter when he suffered a pulled right hamstring while playing on a punt return.

“I was expecting a lot” of action at receiver, Webb said. “The coaches told me during the week. We had a couple of banged-up guys and they were going to need me to lineup there. I just had my chance to do a couple of things. My [hamstring] just gave out on me but it’ll be all right.”

Frazier acknowledged the Vikings had a “package” of plays for Webb.

Webb’s athletic ability is such that the Vikings decided to give him his first-ever reps on kickoff returns Friday and then trusted him enough to have him return Sunday’s first kick. Webb took the ball 30 yards to the Vikings 35.

“I was trying to pop it out,” he said. “That was my first time ever running a kickoff return. Now that I’ve got a chance to see it and know how I can read it up, I’m sure the next one will be a lot different.”

November 29, 2010

Vikings get first road win since November 2009

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:47

It was the second-longest losing streak on the road, after Detroit, and now it’s broken. The Vikings won in Washington yesterday, 17-13, without the services of Adrian Peterson who was injured in the first half and did not return to the game. Peterson was replaced in the lineup by rookie Toby Gerhart, who did a good job on the ground (22 runs for 76 yards and a touchdown).

Three other factors were a change from the rest of the season: it was into the fourth quarter before the Vikings had a penalty assessed against them, they had zero turnovers, and they scored on their first drive of each half. Even with all of that, they were lucky to get a Redskins special teams TD called back on a block-in-the-back penalty.

Judd Zulgad wrote:

Frazier indicated there would be tweaks in the offense and defense in the week leading to his first game as an NFL head coach. Quarterback Brett Favre appeared to roll out more often, and Fred Pagac, who is serving as de facto defensive coordinator, called more blitzes than Frazier had when he was coordinating that unit. McNabb was sacked four times.

Favre passed for only 172 yards, but one of his most important plays came with his feet late in the game. That’s right: A 41-year-old playing with a stress fracture in his left ankle, another fracture in his heel and a head and chest cold he speculated might be pneumonia took off on a 10-yard scramble that produced a first down at the Redskins 14 with two minutes left and effectively secured the game.

“That’s always the best play in the playbook,” Favre said after taking a knee three times to run out the clock. “It felt good to be able do that. [We] did that a lot last year. This year we haven’t played with the lead. We had the lead most of the game, but it didn’t really seem like it. We were up, but we’re just missing that knockout punch. Once again we hung in there [and] collectively each and every guy had a part in it.”

October 11, 2010

Let’s hope it’s 1975 all over again

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 11:17

I find it hard to believe it, but that’s the only time the Vikings have ever beaten the Jets:

With WR Randy Moss expected to play, the Vikings now have the vertical outside threat they need to allow Percy Harvin to play the slot, where his versatility is put to better use. And stretching the defense will only make RB Adrian Peterson more explosive as the Jets will have to pick their poison. Moss will likely be shadowed by CB Darrelle Revis (hamstring), who returns after missing a game and last week said Moss didn’t always play 100 percent during their Week 2 matchup against New England.

Jets QB Mark Sanchez has thrown eight touchdown passes over the past three games and gets WR Santonio Holmes back from suspension to add another downfield weapon. Sanchez’s ability to keep moving the offense will be key as the Vikings allow just 3.6 yards per carry and back quarterbacks into consistent third-and-long situations. Minnesota’s pass defense has improved with the returns of CB Cedric Griffin.

[. . .]

– The Vikings’ only victory over the Jets came on Oct. 12, 1975, when they beat New York, 29-21, at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minn.
– The Vikings will be happy to be playing in the New Meadowlands. They never beat the Jets in their former home, going 0-4 at the Meadowlands against them.
– The Vikings have played the second fewest games out of any NFL team against the Jets, only having met them eight times since 1970.

[. . .]

SERIES HISTORY: 9th regular-season meeting. Jets lead series, 7-1. York has won six in a row dating to the 1979 season. The Vikings’ only win in the series was in 1975.

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