Quotulatiousness

September 24, 2010

You know your football season is in trouble when . . .

Filed under: Football, Media — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 10:24

. . . even the funny guys are picking Detroit to beat you:

Detroit (plus 10.5) at Minnesota

Feschuk: Did you get a good look at Brett Favre last week? He looked as utterly dazed and defeated as Frodo climbing Mount Doom or Robert DeNiro suddenly realizing he was starring in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. I haven’t seen anyone regret a decision so intensely since the last eight women to marry Larry King. Conventional wisdom holds that the Vikes will turn it all around this week. But the Lions have 10 sacks in their first two games and — just as important — a talent for scoring late, otherwise inconsequential touchdowns that result in a cover. Pick: Detroit.

Reid: According to a new book, evidence has recently been uncovered that it was a crew member who mistakenly steered the Titanic into the iceberg, guaranteeing its doom. Any resemblance to Brett Favre is coincidental. Brad Childress? That resemblance is better described as entirely accurate. Pick: Detroit.

Okay, to be fair, they’re just picking Detroit to do better than lose by 10.5 point, but still . . .

If Detroit’s new defensive line is as good as they’ve been in the first two games, Brett Favre will not have fun in this game. Better ensure that Tarvaris Jackson (and even Joe Webb) get properly warmed up.

September 23, 2010

Chargers don’t get sweet enough offer for Vincent Jackson

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:23

The Minnesota Vikings still don’t have an answer for their wide receiver woes: the San Diego Chargers decided not to accept any of the offers for their disgruntled-but-talented Vincent Jackson. The NFL had set a deadline of 3pm yesterday for a deal to be struck, but San Diego didn’t get what they wanted from the Vikings or other teams, so Jackson will have to serve the full six game suspension and may not play at all this year.

As Judd Zulgad points out, this leaves the Vikings even thinner going in to this weekend’s matchup with the improving Detroit Lions:

The Vikings were hoping to end Wednesday with Pro Bowl wide receiver Vincent Jackson in tow. Instead, their receiver situation became even more unsettled as Jackson remained a holdout in San Diego and injury issues continued to mount.

Percy Harvin, already battling a hip strain, missed practice after another recurrence of migraines, and Bernard Berrian was limited because of an issue with his knee.

[. . .]

Jackson would not have been an immediate help to the Vikings, but he could have been on the field as early as Oct. 17 against Dallas, if a trade could have been worked out. Coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons, Jackson was considered a potential short-term replacement for the injured Sidney Rice.

Jackson, who is 6-5, would have given Favre the type of big target that he’s lacking, with the 6-4 Rice expected to miss half the season after having hip surgery.

The Vikings reportedly had agreed to a one-year deal with Jackson’s agents that would have been worth more than $6 million for 12 games of work. There also was believed to be a potential option year in the contract. However, the Vikings, and other teams, were unable to reach an agreement on trade terms with the Chargers by a 3 p.m. deadline Wednesday.

I’m in two minds about the deal: the Vikings are getting desperate enough at wide receiver to suit up Brad Childress or perhaps give Pat Williams a chance, but the Jackson situation had the potential to bring as much trouble to the team off the field as his play might have helped on the field.

With so many of their talented players coming up on the end of their contracts, it would send a terrible signal to reward a player like Jackson for his behaviour. I have to assume that’s why the Vikings didn’t pony up the kind of offer San Diego was looking for, and in the long term, I think it was the right decision. Brett Favre may have a different opinion, however.

April 23, 2010

Vikings trade draft picks with Detroit Lions

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 10:17

As I noted in an update to yesterday’s post, the Vikings traded away their first-round pick to the Detroit Lions, who chose a running back with that selection. The source I was using for the update information didn’t completely clarify what the details of the trade were, so I mistakenly assumed that Detroit had given up more than they really did:

The Vikings’ quarterback of the future was sitting right there for the taking as the clock wound down to the 30th pick in the first round of Thursday night’s NFL draft.

Jimmy Clausen nearly had fallen out of the first round and now the Vikings had the opportunity to fulfill what had been predicted in so many mock drafts.

Only in real life, the Vikings didn’t pull the trigger.

Instead, they dealt their first-round pick to NFC North rival Detroit, along with a fourth-round selection (128th overall), for the Lions’ second- (34th overall), fourth- (100th overall) and seventh-round picks (214th overall).

With the Vikings’ first-rounder, the Lions took California running back Jahvid Best.

What little I’d heard about Clausen made me apprehensive that the Vikings might be bringing in a player who would not be a good fit, so I thought the trade made good sense. I thought that they might have drafted Tim Tebow, but he was already off the board by the time the Vikings selection came up.

Of course, with the 2nd pick in the 2nd round, the Vikings can be relatively certain that the Rams won’t pick another quarterback, having taken Sam Bradford with the 1st pick . . . but they could trade that pick to someone who does want to draft Clausen. We’ll find out tonight, I guess.

Update: Jim Souhan also thinks Clausen would be a bad fit for the team:

The Vikings were right to trade their first-round draft pick.

They were right to avoid Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen, a bratty kid who would have been a lousy fit in the Vikings’ veteran, professional lockerroom.

They were lucky they weren’t forced to consider Tim Tebow, who will be one of the great draft busts in NFL history.

They were right to abide by an NFL truism, that picks at the end of the first round aren’t much different than picks in the second round.

November 16, 2009

Vikings beat Lions in spite of outbreak of penalty-itis

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 08:38

Not a great game by Minnesota yesterday, but fortunately for them they were playing against Detroit, so the penalties didn’t sink them (13 penalties for 91 yards, a season-worst). Coming out of their bye week, the Vikings looked anything but dominant in the first half, giving up far too much ground for a team with hopes of going deep into the playoffs. Of course, a lot of that was due to penalties. Kevin Seifert runs down the good and bad of the game:

Indeed, the Vikings overmatched the Lions in every way Sunday and ultimately overwhelmed them. They are 8-1 and have a three-game lead in the NFC North. This season is rapidly shaping up as a once-in-a-generation combination of opportunity and chance, putting the Vikings on a pretty short list of candidates to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

But lest anyone get too convinced of that destiny, remember this: If Adrian Peterson can get caught from behind, anything can happen.

“He just made a great play,” Peterson said. “Those guys on the other side of the ball, sometimes those guys are fast, too.”

But the second lesson/reminder of Sunday was that Minnesota has the offensive firepower to overcome even a series of similar occurrences. (It helped to be matched against the Lions’ horrid pass defense, which has allowed quarterbacks to complete 71 percent of their passes on the way to a 107.8 rating.)

Minnesota gashed the Lions for 492 total yards, an average of 7.8 yards per play. Five of them went for 40 or more yards. Quarterback Brett Favre passed for 344 yards, receiver Sidney Rice totaled 201 receiving yards and Peterson finished with 133 rushing yards.

I understand the Vikings won’t be playing the Lions’ defense every week, and certainly not in any postseason game. But as they continue to compile elite offensive numbers, the confidence of the players surrounding Favre will only improve.

One of the good things coming out of this game was that the Vikings didn’t suffer any serious injuries, unlike Detroit — it looked like the head coach was going to have to suit up to play in the defensive secondary by the middle of the third quarter. Lions players were dropping all over the field.

Favre continued to spread the ball around, making it much tougher for the defenders to key in on the most likely receiver. Peterson had a good outing, although the highlight reel footage you’ll likely see is him being caught from behind on what would have been a great touchdown run (Detroit’s Phillip Buchanon punched the ball out, which rolled into the endzone for a touchback).

September 28, 2009

Random links of possible interest

Filed under: Health, Law, USA — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 07:38
  • More on the ongoing ammunition shortage in the US, as manufacturers are still unable to produce enough to satisfy demand.
  • Police at G20 take trophy photo including arrested protester handcuffed and kneeling in front of the group. H/T to Radley Balko.
  • Voyeurs rejoice! What sounds like a report from the Journal of Spike TV reveals that a mere 10 minutes of ogling well-endowed women provides as much benefit to men as 30 minutes in the gym, as far as heart disease, high blood pressure and stress are concerned. H/T to Ghost of a Flea.
  • New Zealand bans in-vehicle GPS navigation systems . . . but only if they’re running on a mobile phone. Non-phone based systems apparently don’t distract you with directions the way phone-based ones do. Or something.
  • Detroit Lions fans love the Washington Redskins.

September 21, 2009

Vikings go to 2-0 with win over Detroit

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 07:46

Every team that plays Detroit has a nagging fear that they’re going to be the ones to end the Lions’ losing streak. Detroit played the Vikings well in the first half, getting to a 10-0 lead during the first half, before Minnesota could get their act together:

The Vikings left Ford Field on Sunday atop the NFC North with a 2-0 record. Both victories have come on the road, they have outscored opponents by 28 points and Brett Favre has yet to throw an interception.

So all is going according to plan in the land of Purple, right?

Not exactly.

Favre made that very clear after the Vikings rallied for a 27-13 victory over a Detroit Lions team that has lost 19 in a row, second-most in NFL history.

“To think that we can continue to win games that way, is not going to happen,” Favre said. “Detroit played hard, played well. I was worried.”

August 17, 2009

Reducing the NFL pre-season

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

Mark Craig thinks the NFL preseason is too long (and it’s hard not to agree):

Let’s hope the commish steps up his goal of reducing the number of preseason games soon. VERY soon.

There’s never been another sport that’s so good in the regular season, great in the postseason and so completely awful and unwatchable in the preseason.

It’s bad for business, insulting to fans who have to buy full-price tickets to this garbage as part of season-ticket deals and pretty much useless for judging what’s going to happen next month.

For example, the Lions beat Atlanta 27-26 Saturday night. Way to go Lions. Way to start the Jim Schwartz Era. Restore the Roar, baby!

Oh, wait. The Lions were 4-0 in the preseason last year. That makes their preseason winning streak five and keeps their regular season losing streak at 17.

And that doesn’t cover the risks to starting players, as there always seems to be higher risk of injury during preseason games than regular season ones (this is not something I’ve seen stats on, and may just be a mistaken impression based on news coverage).

There’s much to be said about coaches needing a chance to see what players can do in game situations — there are some who look like superstars in practice but who can’t rise up to average in real games, and others who excel in games, but don’t look like much in practice. Talent is only part of what makes a good football player, and without some opportunity to play against real opposition, you really don’t know which category any given rookie player may be in.

« Newer Posts

Powered by WordPress