it still stings

OUCH

Key Stats - New Orleans VS Vikes

Hmmm. Everyone is saying how evenly matched we are but are we?

ON paper, not at all. Sure they have lots of explosive play power, and they have a "rep" as a "ball hawking" defense... but why?

They are ranked high in interceptions, they had 26, they were 3rd in the NFL. They were avg. in sacks.. and very low in force fumbles/ fumbles recovered. (28th)

We led the league in sacks and forced fumbles, but were dreadful in interceptions. (Maybe because we get more sacks?)

Per passing attempt we got one Interception every 48 passing plays. (less then one a game!)

Saint's had a PICK every 23 plays ( very good)

Per passing play we got one sack every 11 plays (awesome)

Saints got one every 16 plays. (above average)

Plus Minus the Saints were +11, Vikes were +6.

Overall the VIKES are ranked 2nd in the NFC behind Green Bay, The Saints are ranked near the bottom ahead of Detroit and St. Louis. But I admit, these stats are slightly misleading as they're isn't much of a difference between teams over all. (55 yards total offense per game between Vikes and Saints)

But just by glancing at these facts, and comparing FAVREs incredibly LOW interception total, (7) the Vikes ability to rush the passer and create fumbles and the NEW ORLEANS very below avg. total defense you have to ask yourself. Which team is going to be able to stifle the other teams high scoring offense?

We just destroyed the 2nd best offense in the league. (Dallas) But we were at home and had the crowd noise as an advantage... New Orleans is the number one offense. WE are the number three offense. I don't like to crunch stats for anything more then fun, but common sense tells me that if we play half as good as we did against Dallas, we should be able to limit them to 14, 17, 21 points. How are they gonna stop us? They won't get any interceptions, I can tell you that... unless they are deflections etc or something like that. They better start scheming.

I am assuming that we will try to gash them with a real balanced run/pass attack early. Try to sustain long drives and "matriculate" it down the field. Keep our defense fresh, keep the bal out of BREES hands. I assume that we will have some success on the defensive end and of the two teams, we will cause the most turnovers. And we will, finally, have a rushing game again.

More stats...

DALLAS's defense is infinitely better then the SAINTS. Dallas is 4th against the run, the SAINTS are 22nd. The SAINTS give up 122 yards per game, and that's AVG. That's not VRS Adrian Peterson an company.

"Home field"

True, it's at their house, and crowd noise will be a nuisance, but I like our chances overall. I am not scared at all. "WHO DAT" all they want I think they're team will be exposed as just a high scoring no defense playing over rated side show. They won't be able to find a way to stop us when necessary and we will do a good job of slowing them down.

My take on Dallas match up...

Well, here are my keys to the game. Some are obvious, some not so much. We are both top ten teams in offense and defense... we both have great QBs, DEs and TEs and more then serviceable WRs. They have Austin who is a bigger threat then Berrian. But we trump them at RB easily. I think we have more "Explosive Play" capability but it's gonna come down to execution, not of the offenses, but of the defenses. Limiting those opportunities for the other team.

Scheming and Tackling!

People usually don't mention kickers but I will. We have a great one, theirs is real spotty. I know some of us are still traumatized by Gary Anderson's miss against the Dirty Birdies but I'm hoping those chokes are long gone. Let's not forget Romo blew it for the boys with his botched hold a few seasons ago!

Vikings nation is worried about "which VIKING team will show up" on Sunday. Common sense says they'll bring their A game. They all know what is at stake. In the back of their minds they're not looking forward to a bye week or an "easy game" with the Giants or Carolina. I think the sense of urgency will be there from the start and, even if we have a few hiccups holding off their defense at first, we will find a rhythm of sorts.

Now for some history... most of us have heard of the infamous Drew Pearson push off. Here is a great piece on it, which also bring ups some good points... the little things we forget.

the "push off"

game over

When we think of the '98 team, we all think of the aforementioned missed FG. We rarely mention how on the Falcons last drive to tie the game we dropped 2 easy interceptions that could have easily ended the game... this is the sort of thing that will make the biggest difference on Sunday. Not to be lazy and cliche, but it's gonna come down to "making plays." Unfortunately I was eerily accurate in my keys to the Philly playoff game last year. Hopefully in this equally fair match up, I won't be so accurate. OR at least, our negative worries won't come to fruition. ( we play like we did in Arizona, AP fumbles, Favre gets hurt etc)

Here they are, my keys. We need more YES answers then NO. I wrote it all from our perspective, keeping in mind our tendencies and what I've gathered about or club this season.

• Will the Vikes come out with an aggressive and quick passing attack?
• Will the Vikes play up to the standard they've set on special teams- coverage / returns?
• Will AP not fumble?
• Will Berrian have a break out game, and contribute?
• Will our O LINE provide protection?
• Will we intercept those balls we keep dropping? Knock downs aren't good enough!
• Will AP take it all the way instead of get tackled by their "last defender" in the red zone thus it's a FG instead of 7?
• Will we force ROMO into quick throws? sacks don't matter as much as disruption! Can we jam their WRs and get to him?
• Will we slow down or eliminate WITTEN as a primary target?
• Will we manage to keep Austin from torching us?
• Will we throw some curves or gadgets? we've been sitting on them all year. We've had so many "no gain" runs.. we're do for a flea flicker!
• Will their kicker choke on an XP or FG?
• Will Shiancoe, Rice, Harvin and company simply "do their jobs?
• Will we not get behind forcing Favre into his "I gotta force a play " mode?
• Will Winfield not get burnt?

Well... that's my take. I am gonna be a nervous wreck the first quarter. I hope we have scored at least 10 by half if not 17 but that's asking a lot against their defense which is a leader in Pts allowed. I just don't want us to have any bad turnovers or give up any big plays ( see New England vs Ravens) but that's football and that's why we play these games, to win. "Hello?!" =D

I hope they watch this kid before the game!

Come on AP! Release the Kracken!!

Skol Vikes.

Week 14 Pre-View Vikes -Bengals

Here are some comparison stats Shft Command 4'd from the NFL site.

As you can see, it's quite an even match up. Very even. Each team has playmakers on both sides of the ball. I think we will be able to frustrate them more then their previous opponents, forcing more three and outs, and making more big plays on offense. I predict it will come down to who makes fewer mistakes, turn overs naturally and who makes the big play. A punt return, a long pass. Something like that. I think we are gonna bring it hard and so will they, we both could clinch our divisions and we're both fighting for playoff positions.

I just hope we bring our A game and show ourselves something! Here's the team leaders.

Here is the link to see the NFL crew discuss the match ups

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2009121307/2009/REG14/bengals@vikings#tab:watch

enjoy!

week 13 - Desert Beat Down

Ugh!

That was painful. Everyone except HARVIN had a bad game.

The fun part of a game like that is seeing how it affects the morale.

The TEAM said what they're supposed to, players took the blame on themselves, CHILLY blamed himself for not preparing them etc. I just think it was a combination of everything happening al at once. weird temporary injuries. poor tackling on big plays, blown coverages on big plays. We gave up 3 TDs basically on three plays over 30 yards (i'm counting the punt return to our 1 as a TD) and that put them comfortably ahead. Also, on FAVRE's bad picks, we held them to only FGs which was respectable.

FAN wise I saw a huge surge of the "oh no here we go's" where people start worrying that we're gonna drop 3 in a row, maybe not even win the division, or we will have to face the Packers in the playoffs and we'll lose etc. It's funny to me because people start second guessing and freaking out. Then you look at the opposite kind of fans, the New England fans and the Pittsburgh fans, who see their teams choke and underachieve but sit their cocky and calm just expecting (naively) for their teams to make a push and make the playoffs.

Who really knows, common sense tells me we will lose one or two more games and finish with 12 or 3 victories. Very Nice. Sucks if the Saints have more but you never know, they have a porous defense and face some familiar division opponents.

I read an interesting thing in the Strib, it said that we were the worst team as far as how many runs for no yards or for a loss, and we were 2nd in the league with number of runs over 10 yards. Feast or Famine indeed as AP says.. we really are backwards, using the pass to set up our run these days. Just how the other teams manipulate us. I bet CINCI will take away AP as well. It'll be fun to see if we pass a lot or enforce our will and run anyways, they have a great run defense, 2nd in the league. That will be a big key to the game.

I don't even wanna talk about losing EJ Henderson, I feel so bad for him. I'd rather have lost anyone else just so he could at least finish the season and enjoy his come back.

Everyone is saying this is our "big game" and it's true, though ARIZONA was supposed to be too. I can accept a loss so long as we play great. But I am hoping and even betting on a win. I think if we're a championship caliber team, we will be the "angry giant" next week... And i really feel sorry for whomever has to tackle AP next week. He is gonna smash people. And Favre is gonna play a perfect game i bet management wise and frustrate the stripes off of them. (let's hope)

Lots of injury questions for the game.. IDK who is gonna be suiting up and sitting out.. I anticipate most of our starters in. And let's hope that EJ's fill in has a solid start! He's athletic I know that much.

We shall see.

Week 12 Vikes - Cubs (Inter-league play)

ROUTE

You all saw it.

The bears are who we thought they were.

And we gave them three right hooks

Week 11 Seahawk Stompdown

Whoa. Four rushing yards? That's crazy. Our rushing defense should climb a few nothces this week! We didn't even really score in the first quarter.... so it's not like they were down 21 right away. Hats off to the defense. Favre was insanely good as usual... I hope he can just keep it going!

People might glance at APs stats and think we had an "ok" rushing day, and that he was held to a low avg. per carry. (3.8 yards) But in reality, he and Chester combined for 35 carries for 155 yards, and that includes many 4th quarter time running "give up" plays.

We had ourselves a good old fashioned blow out and it was nice to see T Jack get some reps. He started out rusty but then got it together. I'd like to see us use him more on third and 4, 3rd and 6 in some kind of single back spread offense or wild cat. Similar to how Philly uses VICK. I think you can't go wrong getting everyone involved and he has those good legs to run with. At least near the goal line it would be nice though I know we are doing very well in the red zone and Favre is awesome at those quick 3 step drop plays.

Where were the sacks? We had two, not so hot considering how many passing plays they had. I am glad we didn't have any turnovers... we played a solid game in that regard. I'd be quite scared of us if I looked at film, it's not like Seattle was leaving us wide open, they were in on every play very quickly and often had "good coverages"

Here are my snaps for the game

week ten

Good, solid win. No complaints. Props to RICE for having a career day. I wish he had separation speed but, again, I am not complaining. It's just that you often see some receiver make a big play and get tackled on the 3 yard line... then you can't get it into the end zone.

I am playing catch up on my blog again... it's hard enough to find anything interesting about a Lion's game. It's worse then watching bye week =D

Here are a couple snaps from the game.

Shotgun, pre snap

.4 seconds later. Story of Stafford's Day!

Coaches best friend, the red flag

Rice, doing "on demand" push ups after he dropped a pass in the fourth quarter!

What's worse then bye week??

Playing the Lions!

"I'm not too impressed" <--- LINK

Mid season here is where we stand, though I didn't foresee our defense being so average overall, I didn't anticipate being so high in scoring either.

Defensive Ranking Mid-Season

Offensive Ranking Mid-Season

Hopefully we can make adjustments and become more of a disruptive team that can "finish them" and step on their throats.

And now back to the lions...

Let's hope we have a fruitful, smooth, injury free game and that our back-ups get some time.

Let's hope we beat them soundly by the end of the third quarter. (And don't let them closer)

I don't think it will be like the last few games we played against them because they still have a rookie at Qb, they can't blitz us like they did last year, nor put 9 men in the box for AP. Well, they can but Favre will abuse them.

This year week 2 they tried to fight and were up 10 to 7 at half. But we scored 20 unanswered points in the 2nd half and won. I recall Greenway had a couple picks and Favre was still playing with 17 plays and didn't know his receivers well yet. All of us were still unsure of our new look Vikings. (And then we had the San Fran Favre Magic TD... then we beat the Pack and we were rollin!)

This time it should be different. Now that we've gelled I anticipate us airing it out against them if they stop our run, which they could try to scheme. They have a good defensive line still.

Week 8 - Favregeddon part deux

Yes! That was nice. I am pleased as punch. A solid win.

I know we have some work do do in our secondary... and now I am suspicious from Darren Sharper's commentary "that our system wasn't working for him" last year, seeing him having a pro bowl year in New Orleans. I wonder if we should play a more man on man pressure bump and run ball hawking style. We still aren't getting the interceptions yet. I am tired of the safe let them up and down between the twenties don't give up the big play defensive style.

( Didn't do us any good against the ravens!)

Our numbers are good. Favre looks great and is on pace for the pro-bowl. AP is getting his numbers. Our receivers and Tight Ends are producing. We're getting decent sacks. I still want to be more disruptive. I want our defense to SCORE more. I hope we pull out a few tricks in the second half of the season. I don't expect much in the next couple games, we really have a cream puff schedule and i anticipate some simple football. I also wonder if T Jack will get more clock? Will he run any wild cat offense? Will we rest Favre when we are up 21 points?

Time will tell! I am not gonna talk about the usual stuff people talk about any more. I hope we see more "complete games" where all three segments of the team perform. We had the offense give up 2 defensive touchdowns on the day our defense played great vs PITT. We had our defense get abused by the Ravens in the 2nd half and squeaked by them even though our offense scored a lot of points.

Anyways here are some game snaps for the Packers game. I loved sweeping them as you all did.

NFL game mix is nice during commercials

First Ever Favre only cam online. Was fun during commercial breaks

A La Moss 11 years ago! Great block by AP at end too

Solid game ending drive!

"1000 words"