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.
Skol on!
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