Week 1: Villainizing the Saints, or, Cooking Up Trouble in Prime Time!

I promised myself that I would not go off the rails and predict a Vikings Super Bowl win in the one we host next February.  If the Vikings have a good year, we will hear enough steam on the subject from other people.

With that said, Monday’s season-opening game against the Saints was a lot of fun to watch.  At long last, the Vikings got some measure of revenge on the team that Bountygated the crap out of Brett Favre seven years ago.  Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs shredded admittedly one of the worst defenses in the NFL.  The really important part was that the Vikings kept one of the best offenses in the league from scoring the usual boatload of points they are known for.  Seriously, if the Saints had a defense that could rival a small college, watch out.  Considering they allegedly cheated to get their one and only Super Bowl, the fact that they have languished since 2014 despite an embarrassment of riches on offense is probably karma.

Many people would tell Vikings fans to slow their roll because playing such a horrendous defense is part of the reason 1-0 came surprisingly easy.  However, I say just enjoy the moment.  The Vikings are not known as the team that does the butt-kicking in prime time games, though they are 5-3 in such games since the loss to Arizona on Thursday Night Football in 2015.  Plus, for those who now hate Adrian Peterson, Monday’s game had to be especially satisfying as a certain rookie completely showed him up.

The true test comes against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, who will have a much better defense chasing after Sam Bradford, Dalvin Cook, and the previously mentioned Thielen and Diggs.  Minnesota should know where its beloved warriors stand after Week 2.  All in all, if the offensive line can actually block all season, this offense should be fine. 

Week 7-8 reaction: The spookiest Halloween in some time. Are the Vikings on the decline?

As a Vikings fan, I have been conditioned to brace for certain things.  I'm always waiting around for Cinderella's coach (no pun intended) to turn back into a pumpkin.  How fitting, considering I'm writing this on October 31.

Teddy Bridgewater was supposed to have his breakout season to establish himself as at least a solid quarterback in the NFL.  His passes in the preseason were precise, and even his deep ball showed improvement, which was sure to get the loud minority of fans unsatisfied with his play off of his case.

Then, Teddy got hurt in perhaps the most Vikings way possible (yes, an even flukier way than Taylor Heinicke), and suddenly the 2016 season, as well as the entire future of the team was in doubt.  

Vikings fans know better than anybody (except maybe Browns fans) that it is not easy to find a franchise quarterback, no matter how simple everyone else makes it look.  The Packers can go out and get Favre and Rodgers, the Falcons can get Matt Ryan, the Colts can get Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck, and so on and so forth.

Teams like the Vikings have to wade through 20 guys before finally finding someone who might fit the bill. 

It was supposed to be Teddy.  The hope is that he can play again, at some point.

In came Sam Bradford, and through a combination of him and Shaun Hill, the Vikings went 2-0 including a very satisfying win over the Packers after months of their fans boasting about a ruined homecoming in shiny, new UsBank Stadium.

Then, the Vikings beat a Carolina Panthers team fresh off of losing to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50.  Awesome, this might work out after all.  Wins against the Giants in prime time; this time with Odell Beckham in tow (shut down by Xavier “Road’s Closed” Rhodes) and Texans followed.

5-0 into the bye week.  Nothing’s gonna stop us now, copyright 1987 by Jefferson Starship, right?

Something’s gone wrong in the happy-go-lucky world of the Minnesota Vikings.

As Carson Wentz broke out, I looked to the matchup against the Eagles as a potential first loss.  Oh, it happened.  Injuries finally caught up to the Vikings, and Mike Zimmer’s “next man up” philosophy could only go so far before Sam Bradford’s offensive line made Philadelphia look like the 1985 Chicago Bears.

Oh well, we said.  We shrugged it off.  One loss to a team on the rise isn’t the end of the world, right?  After all, the Vikings were in the same position as the Eagles with Teddy two seasons ago, just trying to put some good games together and sell some hope for the future.  Though, Philly might actually make some noise this year.

Well, the future is now.  The Vikings next lined up to play the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, which is always a struggle.  But hey, the Bears were 1-6, right?  Easy money.  6-1, then on to Detroit for 7-1.  Winnable games.  Winnable games everywhere.

*whack*

I wake up from my unplanned nap and notice that the other shoe has fallen.  As usual, I say to myself.  After covering up several flaws for five weeks, the Vikings have gone 0-2 due to a laundry list of problems.  Unfortunately, there is no “quick fix” for what just happened.  For Halloween, the Vikings broke out the 1984 version of themselves and made the 1-6 Bears look like, you guessed it, the ’85 Bears.  In front of the entire nation.  Happy bleeping Halloween.

Again, through my years of watching Vikings football, I have been conditioned to expect such turns of events.  Mike Zimmer’s reputation as a great coach may have taken a hit tonight.  We can only hope that the play of the team improves from here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this team lays another rotten egg at home against the Lions.  Detroit has just become a scary team. 

If the Ed Thorpe curse is real, it must be ending soon, because the Vikings are really getting punched in the mouth right now.  

Then again, if you had told me that this team would be 5-2 without Teddy, Adrian, or an offensive line worth a dollar, I still think I would have taken that; though I would have swapped out this awful loss to Chicago with a loss to a better team, because that was dishearteningly ugly.

Week 5: We Could Have Something Big Here. Also, winning tickets in random BWW drawings rules!

We are through a quarter of a season and the Vikings have a perfect record of 4-0. 

If you have been paying close attention to Vikings football over the past few seasons (and I’m sure you have if you’ve seeked out this blog to kill time before the noon kickoff against the Texans), by now I’m sure you have noticed some key differences from teams of the recent past; namely that this defense is really, really good.

I can say, with a sour taste in my mouth coming back from watching the 2013 Vikings defense, that the defense of that season (pre-Zimmer) would have allowed Sterling Shepard, Victor Cruz and Odell Beckham Jr. to all get loose for a huge combined game in either a close or blowout loss, because that’s what that Vikings team did in prime time.

The Vikings of 2016: nada.  Those three got about a hundred yards total and caught zero touchdowns.  Rhodes closed indeed.  This Vikings teams is 2-0 under the lights with two more games scheduled barring any sudden flexes as the season rolls on.  Moreover, they finally snapped an ugly Monday Night Football losing streak that dated back to 2009.

Aside from the defense, the offense did something that was rare for a Vikings team pre-Zimmer; they responded to the Giants scoring with a nice long drive and put one on the scoreboard to make the lead 14 points again.  How many times have we seen that old, familiar story of “Vikings play well, but can’t dagger the other team, and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as a result?”  Not this team. Not Monday night.

Next up: another home game against Houston.  The Vikings have faced Houston three times and have never lost to them.  The last game took place in 2012 (you know, the year Adrian Peterson went super saiyan), and the Vikes won 23-6.  In 2004 and 2008, the Vikings won by a touchdown.  2004 might be the most famous game of the bunch, as it saw the Vikings get up 21-0 only to need overtime to win.

This feels like another win for the Vikings.  They proved last week that they didn’t have to sack Eli Manning 10 times to get a victory.  All of the moving parts just need to work together, as they have in the first four games.  I’m feeling a couple of turnovers lead to points, but I’m wondering how long the Vikes can sustain the current no-offensive-turnovers run of 16 quarters.

All I know is I’m looking forward to doing the new “Skol” chant at the game.  And as always…

Fear the Zim Reapers.

Week Four: Cutting the Giants Down to Size, or: What? It's Week Four already???

Yes, yes, I know.

The season is already three weeks old.  This will return as a weekly blog starting right now.

Without further ado, here we go.

The 2016 NFL season has so far proven the old adage that you can’t script September. 

Oh, that’s not a thing?  Well it should be.

Just days before the NFL season was set to begin, Teddy Bridgewater collapsed at practice in extreme pain.  We didn’t know if Teddy had suffered some kind of freak bodily injury that could have either killed him or ended his career, but we did know it wasn’t good.

Enter Sam Bradford; former 1^st overall pick of the St. Louis Rams in 2010.  Some people panicked and declared the Vikings’ season to be over before it started, as they had when Teddy got hurt.

Cooler heads reminded everyone else that Sam Bradford, injury-prone underachiever he might be, was entering the greatest situation of his life; plenty of weapons at his disposal and a defense that makes grown men cry for mommy.

So far, cooler heads have prevailed and Bradford has done everything asked of him as part of a 3-0 start that hasn’t quite come the way Vikings fans may have expected, but we will certainly take it.  A little bit of national credit (and I do mean little...the excuse computer has been working overdrive) after being the Doomsday to Cam Newton’s Superman?  That was fun to watch.    

Of course, shutting up all of the Packer fans who told us for months that they would ruin our homecoming was pretty sweet, too.  Oh, and also getting a respectable game out of Shaun Hill in week one.

There are flaws in the Vikings’ offensive game, but if this team can still get better, this season could be a lot of fun.

Next up is the Giants on Monday Night Football.  Normally, I would dread such a game, but the Vikings have started a new streak: 3-0 in prime time games.  It is entirely possible that “the moment” under the lights is not a weakness to this team anymore.  One difference this season is that unless he does something stupid in the next few days, Odell Beckham Jr. will actually get to play this time.  The Giants also have a rejuvenated Victor Cruz and a rookie in Sterling Shepard who is contributing right away.  Trying to contain three talented wideouts could be a challenge.  Then again, don't most good NFL teams have at least two?  Hopefully, the Zim Reapers will be up to the task.

One of the stranger themes in the NFL over the past several years is that the Vikings defense loves to play Eli Manning…and most of that success was when the defense was not that great.  Last year was another example of why Eli must hate us by now.  After bludgeoning Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton in back-to-back weeks, what does Zim have planned for Eli?  I guess we’ll have to find out.

In Zim we trust.  Enjoy the season, Vikings fans.  It should be a fun one with games on Halloween, Christmas Eve and Thanksgiving, among others.

Fear the Zim Reapers!

Hello, Vikings fans.  This is a bonus post for this week.  Expect the main post later this week. 

After dismantling Cam Newton and making him look like a rookie, people began to praise the Vikings defense calling them the “Purple People Eaters.” 

You may remember this as the nickname the Vikings defense acquired in the 1970s when they were really, really good.  Drawing comparisons to the past is never a bad thing, but I also feel like that name belongs to Alan Page, Jim Marshall, Paul Krause, and the rest of that team that served as the heyday of the Vikings when we were good enough to at least appear in Super Bowls.

It’s a new era in Vikings football with a new stadium and expectations for the near future are as high as they have been in some time.  Mike Zimmer is doing his best to put the Vikings in a position to succeed for years.      

Not to mention, the defense is really, really good again.    I will always respect Bud Grant and his legacy of putting this team in the national consciousness, but taking the nickname he and his players earned just wouldn’t be right.  We need a new nickname to pay tribute to the monster Zimmer has created.

This blog cannot take credit for creating this name, but we really like it and think it best sums up what the Vikings defense does and will hopefully continue to do.

“The Zim Reapers.”  

Right away, it leaps out at you.  “The Zim Reapers are knocking at your door!”  “Fear the Zim Reapers” could very well be the slogan of the 2016 Minnesota Vikings.  I can foresee some kind of chant involving the Zim Reapers being invented in the future.  Cam and Aaron will be seeing Harrison Smith, Everson Griffen and others in their nightmares for the next month.

I love this name and I heartily endorse it for the nickname of the Zimmer defense that is finally starting to catch the attention of the nation.

Fear the Zim Reapers.

Mid-season bonus post: Flexing our muscles? How two "flex" games cost the Vikings everything.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

The Vikings are off to a fast start, or they have successfully rebounded from a slow start to put themselves in the playoff hunt.  A seemingly ordinary game awaits them at noon against an opponent they should beat if they can just take care of business the way they have during this recent run of success.

That is, until the NFL, though no fault of its own, decides that a game between teams that seem evenly matched on paper and have similar, relevant records is the game that everyone wants to see.  The Vikings go into the game and are blinded by the lights, and get trounced in front of the entire nation; an outcome that might not have occurred had the game stayed at its original time.

As much fun as it is to see the Vikings getting on the right track and maybe even getting taken seriously again, the recent trend of “flexing” games into primetime (that have gained importance based on the week-to-week happenings of the NFL season) has not been tremendously kind to our favorite team.  For the sake of this post, I’m only considering games that got flexed to Sunday night.  I don’t really consider moving a noon game to 3:25 to be a “flex.”  (The Giants-Vikings MNF game in Detroit was not really a “flex,” either, but more of a necessity move, so it won’t be detailed here).

In 2007, the Vikings had an 8-6 record and suddenly saw a meaningful game against the Washington Redskins get thrust under the bright lights of Sunday Night Football on NBC (in just the second year of SNF on NBC).  The result: 22-0 Redskins at halftime and a 32-21 victory for Washington, whose players and coaches (and fans) were mourning the murder of Sean Taylor at the time.  This game cost the Vikings a playoff berth because all the Skins had to do was win in Week 17 to get in thanks to the tiebreaker over Minnesota.

The 2009 season, for all the good it brought Vikings fans, featured one of these as well.  The Vikes faced Arizona, a team that had blossomed under veteran QB Kurt Warner (nearly winning Super Bowl 43, the most recent at the time).  The Cardinals steadily built a 30-10 lead and won 30-17.  It was just the second loss of the season (10-2), but the Vikings won just two more games in the regular season to get the #2 seed. 

And we all know how that turned out.

The most recent Vikings game to get this treatment was the Philadelphia game in 2010.  There was nothing remotely compelling about this game; The Eagles were good and we were trash.  Brett Favre had been injured against the Bears, a Monday Night game, and this game has the distinction of marking the end of his legendary games-started streak.  Apparently the game was flexed to Sunday night, but moved to Tuesday night because of a major snowstorm on the east coast.  It remains one of the few Tuesday night football games in NFL history.  

Fondly remembered as the Joe Webb game, a fun bright spot in an otherwise dismal season, the Vikings managed to get a late-season win over an Eagles team that would qualify for the playoffs the following week. 

I guess in the long run, 1-2 in “flex” games isn’t so bad…but the fact remains that national television stumbles are a big part of Vikings lore.  The diehard fans behind Vikings Cavalcade hope that the Zimmer era can change that.

Although I personally don’t consider it a “flex,” earlier this week it was announced that the Vikings-Packers game in Week 11 is now “America’s Game of the Week” on Fox.  If the Vikings play their cards right, they’ll be 7-2 (best case scenario).  The Packers could be 8-1 (also best case scenario).  

This will be, without a doubt, the most meaningful Vikings-Packers clash since Week 17 of 2012, regardless of record.

But I’ll save any more words about that game for Week 11.  The big question I have is this; can the Vikings shed this label of “eternal national stage fright?”  

2015 Minnesota Vikings: The STILL Not Ready for Prime Time Players

Honestly, I’m not sure how to gauge Monday night’s game. 

The Vikings were obviously bad, yes, but the Vikings have been bad in prime time for a number of years now.  Monday’s loss was the sixth consecutive MNF defeat for the Vikings.  Not ready for prime time, indeed.

I looked back on some history, and even the memorable and quite good 2009 Vikings lost two out of three prime time games (beating Green Bay on Monday Night Football, which is one of my favorite Favre memories).  Three out of four if you count that Montreal Screwjob crap at the Superdome (that’s a wrestling reference, look it up if you want).  ’09 was the GOOD Favre year, mind you.  The team went 12-4 in the regular season, as I’m sure we all remember.

The Vikings have paraded several mediocre teams on to the field in the last 15 years. That’s probably where this whole thing started.  Monday night looked like a potential turning point. You can imagine how upset I was at the realization that this simply wasn’t the case, which is exactly why I waited a few days to say anything on the subject that wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction immediately following the game. 

Silencing the Roar

I’m willing to throw all of it out the window if the Vikings can just pull it together and defeat the Lions in the final home opener before we move into our fancy new stadium in 2016.  If it wasn’t already obvious, I’m ignoring Monday night because of Minnesota’s tendency to turn their white pants yellow under the lights.  Strangely enough, most Minnesota teams share the same problem (except for the Lynx; playoff bound again and playing the night I’m writing this…go get ‘em ladies!).

The Lions defense appears to be weaker than usual with the departure of a boy named Suh (what’s his name again? Donkey Kong, or something like that?).  If only by virtue of not playing in the national spotlight, I think the Vikings do better this week.  The offensive line play has to be better, there’s no question about that.  Aaron Rodgers himself would have had a bad game by his standards behind our line Monday night.

By no means am I yet comparing Teddy to a solid veteran QB like Phillip Rivers, but if the line gives him time, he should be able to have a much better game in week 2.  The Lions secondary got lit up by Rivers.  If Adrian Peterson can get going to make the Lions respect the ground game, I would expect Teddy to guide the team to a 1-1 record.  Any kind of win this week would make up for another huge, embarrassing failure in prime time.

As this is just week 2, let me say this; keep calm and Skol on.

Dawn of the Cavalcade: and so it begins...

Hello, Vikings fans, and welcome to the all-new Vikings Cavalcade website and blog!

The preseason has come and gone, and what a relief it is.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching any kind of NFL football, but this preseason seemed to go on forever!  With every game that passed, we saw some key players go down for the season.  The Vikings had five games this past month, and fans surely sweat a little whenever the first teamers, primarily Teddy Bridgewater, went through their reps.

The only thing Phil Loadholt, Kelvin Benjamin and Matt Elam have in common is that they will miss the entire upcoming season.  The Bears lost highly-touted rookie prospect Kevin White, and the Packers lost star receiver Jordy Nelson (whom I spent significant money to draft in my first-ever auction league).

I think it’s safe to say we’re all glad the preseason is over.  There is truly nothing worse than losing a player to an injury in a game that matters as much in the long run as you beating your buddy in a game of Madden.

Preseason Review

The Vikings looked solid in all of the right places this preseason.  Thanks to having five games, Teddy Bridgewater was never in play for too long and both offensive coordinator Norv Turner and defensive coordinator George Edwards were able to run several players through their respective game plans and get a solid look at whomever they wanted.

Teddy looked about as crisp as any Vikings quarterback I’ve ever seen in the preseason and he should make good strides this year.  If the Vikings can protect him on pass plays, I see the returns proving to be huge because of how poised he continues to look in the pocket.  With Adrian Peterson returning, the defense will have to respect the running game, which could help Bridgewater immensely.  Our QB has nothing to lose and everything to gain with one of the best in the game lining up behind him.

The first team defense looked very efficient through four games.  There were some big plays given up, but nothing made me panic and declare the 2015 Vikings a three-win team.  Mike Zimmer and George Edwards continue to shape the defense into their ultimate image, which might just someday emulate the Purple People Eaters of old.

San Francisco

What a thrill it is to open the season on Monday Night Football.  This is a chance for Touchdown Teddy to begin writing his legend.  It makes me think of other great Monday night moments for the Vikes, such as when Randy Moss silenced Lambeau Field in his rookie year.  Will he dazzle a nation watching with a long strike to Mike Wallace?  Will Cordarrelle Patterson finally show signs of returning to the player he was the second half of his rookie year?  And, what will AP do to redeem himself?

It’s hard to place a prediction for the purple and gold this season.  If everything goes according to plan, the Vikings should have an improved year under Zimmer in season #2.  However, these things hardly go the way we want in Minnesota.  Still, count me in the camp of hoping for the best.  There is no doubt the Vikings are on the rise.

I don’t really do score predictions, but I feel like if the 49ers are as bad as people have said, the Vikes should have no problem dispatching them on the road.  They have a rookie head coach and lost several players in the offseason, but the lights of prime time have not been kind to the Vikings lately.

In spite of what I just said, I think the Vikings win and return to TCF Bank Stadium 1-0 when the Lions come to town a week from Sunday. Oh, one more thing...

Skol Vikings!