Quotulatiousness

September 30, 2019

Minnesota Vikings unable to handle the Chicago Bears at Soldier field, losing 16-6

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The visiting Minnesota Vikings wore their usual purple uniforms, as the Bears broke out one of their (many possible) throwback uniforms for Sunday’s NFC North match-up at Soldier Field. The inactive lists for both teams included valuable players not available for the game — starting right guard Josh Kline for the Vikings and defensive tackle Akiem Hicks and linebacker Roquan Smith for the Bears, who missed the game for personal reasons. Despite missing starters, the Chicago defence kept the Vikings off-balance and away from the end zone until a garbage time touchdown by Dalvin Cook saved Minnesota from their first shut-out in more than a decade. The Vikings offensive line couldn’t keep quarterback Kirk Cousins clean and he was sacked six times.

Chris Tomasson:

The Vikings’ running game disappeared Sunday at Soldier Field, and so did the rest of their offense.

The Chicago Bears, despite being down five starters to start the game and then losing quarterback Mitchell Trubisky on the first series, easily defeated Minnesota 16-6.

The Vikings got a 2-yard touchdown run by Dalvin Cook with 2:58 left to avoid their first shutout since losing 34-0 at Green Bay on Nov. 11, 2007.

The Vikings have had plenty of struggles in Chicago, but few have been worse than this one. The Bears, with backup quarterback Chase Daniel and a rugged defense leading the way, outgained Minnesota 249 yards to 64 in first three quarters. The Vikings piled up some late yards to make the final margin 269-222.

The Vikings, who entered the game second in the NFL with an average of 193.7 yards rushing, were held to just 40 yards on the ground. Cook, who came in leading the NFL with 375 yards rushing, was held to just 35 yards on 14 carries.

The Vikings dropped to 2-2, denying them a chance to tie Green Bay (3-1) for the NFC North lead. Instead, the Bears (3-1) have moved into a tie for the lead.

On the game’s sixth play, Trubisky was knocked out of the game with a left shoulder injury after he was sacked by Danielle Hunter and lost a fumble that was recovered by Minnesota’s Everson Griffen. However, the turnover was wiped out because of defensive holding on Vikings safety Anthony Harris.

Judd Zulgad:

No one who is employed by the Minnesota Vikings, or a fan of the team, should put any stock in the team’s two victories this season. Atlanta and Oakland are bad football teams that fell apart in the din of U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings’ two losses? Those have been very instructive when it comes to judging this team and right now the judgment of Mike Zimmer’s collection is not kind.

Two weeks after blowing a road game that the Green Bay Packers begged them to take, the Vikings traveled to Soldier Field on Sunday for another NFC North game with a chance to make a statement about themselves. They departed with a 16-6 defeat that came with Chicago missing three key players on defense and quarterback Mitch Tribusky having left on the sixth play of the day because of an injury to his left shoulder.

It was both an underwhelming and sorry-looking performance that will leave many wondering if general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer will be allowed to stick around after this season and also might call for Zimmer to do some of his best work since he took over as the Vikings coach in 2014.

We aren’t talking about the on-the-field stuff either. If it hasn’t started to happen already, Zimmer is about to be faced with a room full of very competitive guys wondering why the Vikings aren’t winning very-winnable games and why they aren’t being used in a more constructive fashion.

Ted Glover‘s Buy and Sell recommendations from his post-game Stock Market Report:

Buy: Everson Griffen fumble recovery on Chicago’s initial drive. The Vikings needed to start out fast today, and on the first drive of the game it looked like they might do just that. Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky rolled out to his left, got caught from behind by Danielle Hunter, who sacked Trubisky while causing him to fumble. Everson Griffen picked it up and was forced out of bounds at the Bears 32. Trubisky was helped off the field, and was knocked out of the game.

Sell: Defensive holding that negated the Everson Griffen fumble recovery. But it was all for naught. Anthony harris was called for defensive holding, giving the bears an automatic first down. So instead of the Vikings knocking out the starting QB and getting the ball in Bears territory, Chicago goes on a 14 play, 75 yard touchdown drive that eats up over 8 minutes of the first quarter, engineered by backup QB Chase Daniel. The drive ended with a Daniel to Tarik Cohen touchdown.

Buy: The theory of deferring. If you win the toss and defer, you are playing the odds of putting our stronger unit out on the field first, hopefully getting a lead at halftime, and then getting the ball to open the second half. If you have a strong defense, it’s a good theory.

Sell: Deferring. This theory sucks for the Vikings, at least against good teams. Against the Packers, Green Bay went 75 yards in a mere four plays. Against the Bears, Chicago … using their second string QB, mind you … went 75 yards in 15 plays, eating up more than half the time off the clock in the first quarter. Their second drive went 16 plays, for 72 yards, and the Bears kicked a field goal. Half over. But, wait, the Vikes get the ball to start the third quarter, and a good drive that ends in a TD to open the half, and we have a brand new ballgame. Yeah, Cousins fumbled on the first play, the Bears recovered, and the game was essentially over.

Buy: CJ Ham. I really like C.J. Ham. I think he’s a good fullback, and does his job well.

Sell: CJ Ham as primary targeted receiver over Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. I don’t like him as the main guy targeted by the quarterback while meaningful football is being played, though. Call me crazy that way.

August 13, 2019

Vikings trade for P/K Kaare Vedvik, release LS Kevin McDermott

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

It had been an uncharacteristically quiet training camp for the Minnesota Vikings so far this year, with very little in the way of drama or even news. Until Sunday, when the team sent their 2020 5th-round draft pick to Baltimore to acquire punter/kicker Kaare Vedvik and then released their veteran long snapper Kevin McDermott.

I’ll be honest, I rarely glance at news for those 31 other, less-important NFL teams, so Vedvik was a total unknown to me, but apparently he’s already been annointed as the saviour for the Chicago Bears, according to his Wikipedia entry:

It’s not clear whether Vedvik will be competing for the role of kicker (against Dan Bailey) or punter (against Matt Wile) or even both. The moves make sense financially for the Vikings, as they’re one of the worst-off teams against the salary cap this season: they gain $119,742 in cap space for releasing Kevin McDermott (with $200,000 “dead” money). Rookie Austin Cutting will earn $513,644 for the season.

And while I’m looking at Vikings coverage, I’ll include Ted Glover’s Buy/Sell ratings from his belated Stock Market Report on the New Orleans game:

Buy: Sean Mannion has the inside track for the backup QB job. Mannion had a nice night, and didn’t play himself out of the backup job, like a lot of us felt Trevor Siemian did last year. His TD to Johnson was a bit underthrown, but he stood tall in the pocket and delivered the ball right as he was getting hit. He did make at least one throw that should or could have been picked, but overall it was a respectable night for Mannion.

Sell: Kyle Sloter has lost the backup QB battle. His first drive in the second half was impressive. He made two great throws to Conklin and Khari Blasingame for over 40 yards, and hit Blasingame for a two yard TD pass to cap the drive. Sloter just looks like a guy that could be the backup, and if nothing else, I’d like to at least see him get some work with the second team.

Buy: There was some encouraging play from the rookie class. I gotta say, there’s a lot to like from this draft class so far, at least in the somewhat limited action. Garrett Bradbury looked very much like the real deal in his only drive, and we’ve already talked about Mattison, Smith, Blasingame, and Johnson.

Sell: It was all unicorns and rainbows for the rookie class. Still, it was and up and down night for these guys. Smith had the untimely penalty, Mattison never really got it going on the ground, and other than the two catches Johnson had in the second quarter, he didn’t do anything else. Fourth round pick Dru Samia had a holding penalty called on him and graded out very poorly per PFF, but I don’t recall any horrible missed blocks or assignments, though.

Buy: Nate Meadors pick six. Heck of an effort by Meadors to pick the bobbled ball out of mid air and take it to the house. It was a tough adjustment on the bobble, and a really nice play.

Sell: Nate Meadors made the roster with that play. I still don’t know that was enough to get him ahead of a guy like Kris Boyd or Holton Hill and his doghouse on the back end of the roster, though. I mean let’s face it, if the Saints tight end holds on to the ball, it’s a seven or 8 yard gain, more than likely, and a very routine play.

Buy: Preseason games are inherently sloppy. Young players are trying to learn the game at the NFL level, veterans haven’t played in seven months, and with all the substitutions constantly going in and out it and at times, it almost looks like a hockey game when lines are shifting. Both teams were bumbling and stumbling, and the referees are throwing more flags as they are wanting to highlight what the league is emphasizing in terms of fouls this year.

Sell: The amount of penalties can be excused because it was preseason. Eric Wilson had a nice TFL erased, Ifeadi Odenigbo had a sack that was almost a strip sack nullified, the first team defense had a penalty on a third and goal that gave the Saints a fresh set of downs … and that was all in the first half. The Vikings had 13 penalties for 176 yards, which is unacceptable for any game, preseason or otherwise. That has GOT to be cleaned up, as no team in the NFL can overcome that many mistakes and win consistently.

December 31, 2018

Vikings’ playoff hopes end in dismal performance at US Bank Stadium

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

As a life-long Vikings fan, I had little faith in the “win-and-in” situation the Vikings found themselves in coming into Sunday afternoon’s game against the Chicago Bears … I’ve seen it happen all too often, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to have it happen yet again. The Vikings came into the game looking less-than-convinced, and the peformance on the field was less-than-convincing. The final score of 24-10 was just about right, although shading to flatter the Vikings a tiny bit more than they deserved. Even had they somehow managed to pull out a win late against Chicago’s backups, they didn’t look like they’d be more than one-and-done in the wildcard round anyway.

Lessons learned? Better offensive line players are required to get any significant benefit out of an $84 million quarterback, and you can never have too many good cornerbacks (but that’s always true in today’s NFL). Despite the disappointing finish, I don’t expect any significant changes in the front office, but I do expect a renewed emphasis on the offensive line during free agency and the draft. Despite Sunday’s underwhelming effort, this is still a team that can go deep in the playoffs if they fix the OL, and maintain the depth on defence.

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January 1, 2018

Chicago Bears end season on losing note at Minnesota, 23-10

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

On Sunday afternoon, the Vikings had already locked up a playoff berth, but could clinch the number two seed (and get a week off to prepare) with a win. The Bears were out of the playoff race weeks ago, but had been showing marked improvement over their early-season form, and were likely to offer the Vikings at the least a good test for the post-season. It took some trickery, but the Bears at least forced the Vikings to keep their starters in for the whole game, before getting stuffed at the goal line inside the final three minutes and turning the ball over on downs to end their hopes.

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October 10, 2017

Vikings hang on to beat Bears 20-17

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 10:11

Perhaps fortunately for my blood pressure, the telecast of this game was pre-empted in my area by an NHL game between Toronto and the Chicago Blackhawks, which went into overtime, so I didn’t see more than the last few minutes of the first half. Vikings starting quarterback Sam Bradford had been ineffective through most of that time, and Vikings Twitter was ablaze with demands to sit Bradford and get Case Keenum out on the field. Despite having taken most of the first-team snaps in practice last week, Bradford was clearly not healthy enough to play, and it’s disturbing that the team allowed him to make the start. By the time he left the field, he’d thrown 11 times with only five receptions for 36 yards, and he’d been sacked four times, including one for a safety.

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May 12, 2017

Pride of Detroit! Delete your account now!

Filed under: Football, Humour — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

The Detroit Lions fan site Pride of Detroit wondered if it was possible to enrage the fans of all four NFC North teams with one simple post. They had to come up with something instantly offensive, but uniform … there we go: change the uniform colours … naw, too much work. How about just change the logo colours? That’d rile up the rubes in no time! They more than accomplished their nefarious end:


January 2, 2017

Vikings win final regular season game against Chicago, 38-10

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 11:13

Sensibly, the Canadian TV schedules omitted this game as having no bearing on the playoff standings and chose to broadcast games that still mattered. Neither the Chicago Bears nor the Minnesota Vikings had anything left to play for, aside from pride and perhaps a minor shift in final draft standings for 2017. The Vikings finally played the kind of game fans had been waiting for since week six of the season, producing the season’s highest score (with some significant help from the defence).

Sam Bradford set a few records during the game: the NFL record for completion rate at 71.6%, and the Vikings single-season record for completed passes (395, beating Daunte Culpepper’s 379 in 2004) and lowest interception percentage (0.9%, beating Brett Favre’s 1.32% in 2009).

Also setting records was Kyle Rudolph who moved into first place in team history with his 29th touchdown reception by a tight end, previously held by Steve Jordan. Overall, he also passed Joe Senser for most catches by a tight end with 83 for the season.

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November 1, 2016

Vikings drop embarrassing game to the Chicago Bears, 20-10

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 10:18

Nobody really expected the Vikings to go undefeated in 2016, but the loss last week to Philadelphia was supposed to be the exception, not the blueprint for following weeks. On Monday night, the Vikings looked like a struggling 1-5 team, not a 5-1 team that was briefly the last undefeated team in the NFL. There were a few good individual performances, but overall the team looked flat and uninvolved. The offensive line was its usual hot-mess self, demonstrating an inability to pass block (allowing five sacks and a multitude of hits on Sam Bradford) or run block, but perhaps the most shocking development was the ineffectiveness of the defensive line. The defensive line has been the bedrock strength of the team this year and they just didn’t get pressure on Jay Cutler. The best run defense in the league gave up nearly their average yards per game on a single early run by rookie running back Jordan Howard.

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December 21, 2015

Vikings beat the Chicago Bears 38-17 to go to 9-5 season record

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

Due to mundane concerns (starting to organize the household for a move), I didn’t get to watch the first half of Sunday’s game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears, but I got enough worries from the text messages as the first half wound down … with running back Adrian Peterson leaving the game during the first half with a leg injury, among other scary updates). This meant that an offensive plan built around Peterson would have to be re-tooled on the fly to work to the strengths of second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. I’m on record as believing in Bridgewater as Minnesota’s quarterback of the future, but it wasn’t clear whether the current personnel grouping would allow Teddy to carry the team in the absence of Peterson. I probably shouldn’t have worried about it, as Teddy put in his first career five touchdown game (four passing, one rushing, with no interceptions).

1500ESPN‘s Judd Zulgad, not known as a Bridgewater fanatic, put it quite well:

Three weeks ago, there was growing concern among Vikings fans that Teddy Bridgewater might not be this team’s quarterback of the future. On Sunday, that same quarterback had to call a timeout in the fourth quarter because the crowd at TCF Bank Stadium was chanting his name so loudly and wouldn’t keep quiet.

This is why it’s never a good idea to attempt to write off a second-year quarterback based on a bad game, or even a series of subpar performances.

Bridgewater probably isn’t as good as the guy who completed 17 of 20 passes for 231 yards with a career-high four touchdowns and no interceptions in the Vikings’ 38-17 victory over Chicago, and he certainly isn’t as bad as the guy who hit on only 17 of 28 passes for 118 yards with no touchdowns and an interception in a 38-7 loss to Seattle two weeks ago in the same stadium.

In what he acknowledged was the best game of his pro career, Bridgewater accounted for five touchdowns, including a 12-yard dart into the end zone during which he got spun in the air, and had a 154.4 passer rating. That rating is the second-best all-time for a Vikings QB in a single game, second to the 157.2 rating Gus Frerotte posted in a 35-7 victory over San Francisco on Sept. 28, 2003. A perfect passer rating is 158.3.

“These past two weeks I’ve seen a different look in his eyes,” Vikings running back Adrian Peterson said of Bridgewater.

Peterson wouldn’t be the only one who has noticed his quarterback has responded impressively since a poor performance against the Seahawks in which no element of the offense performed up to expectations.

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November 2, 2015

Vikings beat the Bears in Chicago for the first time since 2007

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

No matter how strong the Vikings may have appeared and how weak the Bears may have looked, when the Bears hosted the Vikings at Soldier Field, the outcome was always biased strongly in favour of the hosts. Since the 2000 NFL season, the Vikings had only won twice at Chicago, until yesterday. I didn’t get to watch this game, as Elizabeth and I were away for the weekend (but in an odd twist, Elizabeth watched a few minutes of the second quarter as the game was shown in the bistro in Trenton where we stopped for a late lunch).

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December 29, 2014

Vikings beat Chicago in lacklustre end-of-season game

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Unlike the later game between the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions, the early game between the Vikings and the Bears was only important for figuring out who’d end up in the NFC North basement (but also who’d get the better draft picks in 2015). It may have been for the best that the Winnipeg CTV affiliate chose not to show the Minnesota home game and instead opted for a game with some kind of playoff relevance. I can’t really blame them.

At 1500ESPN, Andrew Krammer gives us an overview of the game:

The Minnesota Vikings were just getting started, with a rookie quarterback and a first-time head coach.

Jay Cutler and the rest of the Chicago Bears played again like they were ready for the season to be over.
Teddy Bridgewater threw the go-ahead 44-yard touchdown pass to Adam Thielen in the third quarter, guiding the Vikings to a 13-9 victory on Sunday to put one more blemish on a forgettable year for the Bears.

Blair Walsh kicked two field goals, Audie Cole had 11 tackles in his first start of the season and the Vikings (7-9) ended coach Mike Zimmer’s first year on a winning note.

Jay Cutler returned from a one-game benching with 172 yards on 23-for-36 passing without a fumble or an interception, but he rarely threw long and the offense was off all afternoon with a series of unforced errors.
The Bears (5-11) finished with their worst record in 10 years, perhaps the last game for coach Marc Trestman.

After the Vikings drove 61 yards to the 3, Matt Asiata was stuffed for no gain on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 to give Cutler and the Bears one last opportunity with 2:53 left and a four-point deficit.

They bungled it, metaphorically for this mess of a season. Three penalties, including two false starts, plus an incompletion doomed the drive.

With the regular season out of the way, and no post-season games in sight, some of the Vikings fanbase are already talking free agency and the rookie draft next year. While the Vikings appear to finally have their answers at head coach and quarterback, there are other roster positions that could (and should) be upgraded before training camp opens in 2015. There were players on the roster this year that more than earned their salaries (Bridgewater, Barr, McKinnon, Floyd, Rhodes, Smith, and Asiata, to name a few), and there were others who may not be with the team next year due to either salary concerns (Jennings, Peterson, Greenway, Robison) or performance issues (Munnerlyn, Patterson, Charlie Johnson, Robinson). Every team faces roster turn-over every off-season — it’s a cliché that it’s just business, but it’s a cliché for a good reason.

Earlier this week, Dan Zinski made the case that the team wasn’t sold on Munnerlyn as the answer to their backfield woes:

You could maybe forgive some of Munnerlyn’s struggles early in the season when he was still getting used to the scheme, but as the year has worn on, the cornerback has continued to blow assignments and hurt the team. Week after week, when confusion reigns in the Vikings’ secondary, it always seems Munnerlyn is the one being barked at by his teammates and coaches.

The veteran player you brought in specifically to bring stability to a young secondary is not supposed to be the one still getting lost in week 16.

When he’s not losing track of where he’s supposed to be, Munnerlyn is often flat out getting physically dominated. Captain is a smaller corner but, like Antoine Winfield, he came to the Vikings with a reputation for playing bigger than his size. We haven’t seen much evidence of that thus far in Minnesota, and the comparisons to Winfield now seem ridiculous.

[…]

If it’s Mike Zimmer’s intention to create a good secondary filled with players who play smart and play hard, I don’t see how Munnerlyn can be part of the plan. When Rick Spielman, Mike Zimmer and the rest of the brain trust sit down to grade personnel and make decisions about the future, they should absolutely consider moving on from Captain Munnerlyn.

Contract-wise, cutting loose from Munnerlyn would not be difficult at all. The three-year deal Munnerlyn signed before the season was structured so that very little dead money would be left after the first season. Per Over the Cap, dumping Munnerlyn would save the Vikings $3.1 million in 2015 and $4.25 million in 2015.

The Vikings clearly had their doubts about Munnerlyn and constructed a contract that would give them the option to move on after one year with only a small penalty.

Update: PFF grades the best Viking performers in yesterday’s game.

Audie Cole, LB: +7.8

Breakdown: Chad Greenway has been a fantastic servant to the Minnesota Vikings, but Audie Cole’s performance in this game suggested that maybe it is time to move on. Cole was all over the field, making tackles in the run game, pass game, breaking up passes and even intercepting one that was nullified because of a defensive offside flag.

Signature Stat: Cole’s grade in this game is a better figure than Greenway has ever achieved. The last game Greenway has even had in that ballpark was in Week 11 of the 2008 season.

Teddy Bridgewater, QB: +4.0

Breakdown: The numbers might not be as pretty as a week ago, but this was another extremely accomplished performance from the Vikings’ rookie. His accuracy was on point most of the game and deserved better production but for a couple of passes bouncing the wrong way once they reached their intended targets. For the second week in a row he ended up with an interception that hit his receiver in the hands.

Signature Stat: With five dropped passes, one batted at the line and one thrown away, Bridgewater only actually missed on one ‘aimed’ pass all game. An Accuracy Percentage of 95.7%, best of the week.

Cordarrelle Patterson, WR: -1.2

Breakdown: How far has Patterson’s star fallen this season? From a player tipped to have a huge year, he ends the season playing just six snaps on offense, and causing an interception by dropping the ball the only time he was targeted. With teams routinely kicking away from him on kickoffs too, his potential impact there has been almost entirely negated.

Signature Stat: Over the last five games Patterson has played just 28 snaps, 20 fewer than he played in the season opener.

November 17, 2014

Vikings lose to Bears, 21-13

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 07:36

By the end of the first quarter, you could understand why Fox Sports had “flexed” out of covering this game … it was anything but rivetting TV. The Vikings looked rusty, as if they’d been off for several weeks rather than just the one week bye. The highlight of the game was a fake punt that caught the Bears totally by surprise as Andrew Sendejo took the ball 48 yards (a Vikings record). Aside from that, the offense couldn’t manage very much production and forced the defence to go back on the field far too quickly — the time of possession was very lopsided, as the Bears held the ball for over 38 minutes, leaving under 22 minutes for the Vikings.

Former Viking Jared Allen had by far his best game of the season, treating former Pro Bowl left tackle Matt Kalil like a turnstyle and pressuring Teddy Bridgewater several times and sacking him once. The Viking defensive line was held in check all day, recording no sacks and relatively few hits. Cornerback Josh Robinson was Cutler’s favourite target … as a shorter player, he was at a disadvantage against the Bears’ tall wide receivers, and Cutler completed a lot of passes to whoever he was covering on the play. Brian Hall has the details:

The Vikings knew all about the size disadvantage coming in. The Bears have Brandon Marshall (6-foot-5) and Alshon Jeffery (6-foot-3) on the outside. Minnesota has 5-foot-9 cornerback Captain Munnerlyn starting in the base defense and 5-foot-10 Josh Robinson to go with 6-foot-1 Xavier Rhodes on the outside in the nickel defense.

Chicago knew where Josh Robinson was and targeted him often with the tall receivers. Bears quarterback Jay Cutler just threw the ball up and let Marshall and Jeffery use their length. Jeffery was targeted 17 times and had 11 receptions for 135 yards and a touchdown against Robinson. Marshall had 10 targets leading to seven catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns against Robinson.

Robinson wasn’t out of position in many of the cases, but Marshall and Jeffery used their size to make plays. Cutler was 31-of-43 passing — with 27 attempts to Marshall and Jeffery — for 330 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Minnesota, particularly Robinson, just had no chance against Marshall and Jeffery.

Joe Oberle says the game was actually worse than the score might indicate:

It’s difficult to determine which unit was more culpable for the loss, so we will start with the offense. They say numbers don’t always tell the whole story, but in the case of this game they tell enough. The Vikings had 243 total yards on offense (with 48 of them coming on a fake punt and a bunch more in what turned out to be garbage/prevent time).

Teddy Bridgewater was 18 of 28 for 158 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He was inaccurate when throwing past five yards down field. He was sacked twice and hit five times, which shows once again that the offensive line that struggled to protect him. It was well into the game before Bridgewater targeted a wide receiver, as either he didn’t have time to see them or they were not getting open. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

These atrocious numbers came against the 26th ranked defense in the league coming in—a defense that had given up 106 points in their past two games. Were it not for the fake punt that set up the only touchdown, the final score would have been worse. Bridgewater and the offense took a step backwards against a team that had been demoralized. This game for the Vikings was actually worse than the score indicated.

November 16, 2014

The Vikings are always snakebit in Chicago … any hope of this changing soon?

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 00:02

The Minnesota Vikings don’t win too often in Chicago — their last win at Soldier Field was back in 2007 and they’ve only beaten the Bears at home three times since 2000 (despite the Vikings leading the all-time series 54-50-2). Sunday’s game may finally change Minnesota’s luck in Chicago, as the Vikings (4-5) are riding a rare two-game winning streak while the Bears (3-6) are in danger of melting down altogether.

In spite of the potential signs of a Vikings win, talk of any kind of playoff push is very premature … and despite that the Daily Norseman‘s Ted Glover dares to hope:

@Chicago: We’ve laid out what the Vikings need to do to beat Chicago, and this is their best opportunity to escape the Windy City with a win since 2009…and they couldn’t get it done then. And let’s face it, the Vikings have to beat the Bears to keep any chance at the post season alive. A loss puts them at 4-6, and no realistic shot.

Green Bay: The Vikings have been on the short end of the stick more often than not against Green Bay and Chicago in recent seasons, but I don’t know if I was ever more dis-spirited than after the Thursday night debacle in Lambeau. In the wake of that disaster, the Vikings defense actually played a decent game, until the three and outs piled up by the offense just got to be too much. This is going to be one of the two toughest remaining opponents the Vikings face, and a win here would be huge. Can they do it? With Teddy Bridgewater, at home, I think they can.

I can’t emphasize how big two division wins would be for the Vikings here. Not only for playoff positioning, but as a ‘stand up and take notice that we’re here to stay for awhile’ kind of statement. We all want to beat the Packers, but if the Vikings are going to start their climb to the top of the NFC North and stay there, they have to start beating them. Starting that climb here would be fantastic.

After that, the Vikings should beat Carolina and the Jets, then they face the Lions in Detroit which is likely a loss, then two winnable games against the Dolphins and the Bears (who might be playing for an interim coach if Trestman can’t turn the Bears around). A 10-6 finish would be fantastic for the Vikings after their horrific start to the 2014 season (and it’d be two games better than I expected … and I didn’t foresee Adrian Peterson being out for most of the year when I made that guess).

March 27, 2014

Jared Allen signs with Chicago, Vikings fanbase in denial

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 07:19

We all knew that Jared Allen’s time as a Viking had come to a close, as he was at the end of a massive contract and the team had already designated Everson Griffen to take his spot on the defensive line (and given him a big contract). He’d been rumoured to have offers or outlines of offers from several teams and we all expected to see him playing for Seattle or Denver this year. Seattle was the obvious choice for Allen, and not just because of the unwritten NFL rule that says all former Vikings must sign with Seattle, so yesterday’s announcement took everyone by surprise. Arif Hasan, who is making a strong case to take Tom Pelissero’s place as the top writer in Vikings coverage, was uncharacteristically dour:

Someone named Jared Allen signed with the Chicago Bears today to a four-year deal, worth $32,000,000. The structure of the deal is of course important with a player at Allen’s age (31), and it can be voided to a three-year, $24,000,000 deal. $15,500,000 is fully guaranteed — which comes from a base salary guaranteed fully in the first two years and a roster bonus he will receive next March.

On a per-year basis, this is a lower deal than the one he “missed out on” with the Denver Broncos when they offered him and DeMarcus Ware identical, $30,000,000 deals over three years, but it is similar amount of guaranteed money.

This of course means that Allen will play against the Vikings twice a year, an interesting set of circumstances that sees him paired up against his practice sparring partner, Matt Kalil.

This could also imply that Allen’s desire to play was balanced against his desire to go to a contender, as he had choice offers from the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys as well, the first of whom could give him a much better shot at a ring, but less playing time. The Cowboys, short on cap space, were likely in a much more difficult spot in terms of the type of contract they could offer him and the flexibility they had to give him a good deal.


Jared Allen #69 of the Minnesota Vikings looks on before the game against the Detroit Lions on December 29, 2013 at Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

December 20, 2013

The NFC North and the inexplicable Detroit Lions

Filed under: Football, Humour — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 00:02

Remember that highly accurate cartoon Draw Play Dave Rappoccio drew a few weeks ago, showing the true state of the NFC North:

DrawPlayDave - The NFC North

He’s got an expanded version of that up at his site as a full strip, and provides this additional information:

The NFC North is like wacko world these days. The Bears lose Jay Cutler, have a terrible Defense, and then Josh McCown opens up the McOWN ZONE and suddenly the Bears are on top. The Packers lose Aaron Rodgers for the year, tie with Minnesota, have a terrible defense, trot out the likes of Scott Tolzein and Matt “around the league in 80 games” Flynn and they have managed second place and have a chance for the division. The Vikings are a pile of trash with an aging defense and no good option at QB. Yet they just blew out the Eagles. And AP wasn’t even playing. Not even Toby Gerhart was playing.

But the biggest WTF has been the Lions. When Rodgers and Cutler both went down and the Vikings being bad and the Lions in first place, it was like the football gods visited Detroit and said “Here. I’m sick of those cheese mongers in Green Bay. Chicago is overrated. Nobody wants to live in Minnesota. Here Detroit. You never have nice things. have the division. On us. Silver Platter. All you gotta do is win a few games”

And Detroit was like “Nah, I’m good”, then took a big steaming dump and started rolling around in it. They were basically handed the division and are now in third with 2 games left. How can a team with as much talent as the Lions have just crap the bed like this? I know, I know, “Lol lions, lol Detroit” but step back and look at them. They have the best WR in the game. They have a very competent though not elite QB in Stafford, who has stayed healthy. Their defensive line is absurd. Reggie Bush has been doing things. How did this happen?

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