Last weekend, the Minnesota Vikings used their solid defense to give Carolina their first defeat of the season. This weekend, the Vikings travel to Tennessee to face another undefeated team. Do they have a chance? Yes, they do.

No, the Vikings will not score a lot of points but their defense has the potential to shut anyone down. I don't think Winfield can get a sack, fumble, and touchdown every week (that's a fantasy trifecta right there), but the Vikings don't need the home run with every at bat. Sorry for the baseball reference but I have baseball on the brain. Can you blame me? I think the Vikings have a chance Sunday but better yet, they have a chance all year. And isn't that what you really want as a fan?

While You're Thinking Purple, Meet Some Purple
This weekend I see some ex-Vikings (Purple 4 Life?) will be making an appearance Saturday with the Minnesota Cheerleaders. Here's the details I saw:

Who: Bob Lurtsema, Joey Browner, and the Minnesota Viking Cheerleaders
When: Saturday, 27 September from 1 PM to 3 PM
Where: South metro, Burnsville - Aurora Village Block Party at the intersection of County Road 42 and County Road 5 in the LA Fitness parking lot.
It looks like fun. Check it out.

Bleed on,
Don

Labels: Bob Lurtsema, Cheerleaders, Joey Browner, Minnesota Vikings

As Peter King pointed out, Ohio and Missouri (Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis and Kansas City) are 0-12. I'm glad we're not in that bunch.

Carolina is one of those teams it's hard to measure against. We've had games where we make their QB look like a hall-of-famer. Luckily, this time we generated a little pressure and came up with a few big plays. A few parts of our defense are starting to generate serious results. I'm happy to see:

• Allen earning his pay,
• Winfield bringing the excitement and,
• Henderson like just the way his high school (or college) coach described him, the cheetah making his attack on the unsuspecting giraffe from a National Geographic special. "Sadly, there can be but one outcome..."

Skol Vikes!

Labels: carolina, eternal optimism

It's official, the Jackson train has derailed again. ESPN reports that Frerotte is in at QB.

Childress has said that Frerotte is "the starter for the remainder of the season." The season? Well, I'd call that optimistic. Healthy QBs are a commodity. I'd like to make that Frerotte is "the named the starter for the remainder of HIS season".

This is a great move. Frerotte has an arm that can extend the field and has a calm, collected demeanor. I like this move because it can turn around the Vikings season. I do not believe the Vikings are out at 0-2 but they are being tested.

This is a move that can fire up the team and can especially motivate the Vikings receivers. The Vikings are led by Adrian Peterson's 5 catches. That's in two games! Ouch! Now, there has been good distribution - 11 Vikings have caught the ball in two games but 5 catches. I checked NFL.com and 5 catches ranks you as tied for 74th in the NFL in receptions. Double ouch! After all, ex-Vikings Nate Burleson has 5 catches and he was out of the second game!

Give Credit to the Vikings:
It's great that this is possible. Signing Gus Frerotte was a key to the Vikings offseason. QB was a position that needed to be addressed. With the drafting of John David Booty and Frerotte, the Vikings were thinking about today and tomorrow.

Purple Shout Out: I'd like to give a purple shout out to Paul the Viking fan & his crash dummies. We talked purple last night. Skol, Paul!

Labels: Gus Frerotte, John David Booty, Minnesota Vikings, quarterback, Tavaris Jackson

The negatives from this game are well-publicized and seem obvious to those who watched the game. The positives are the focus here, today.

• Winfield. This dude brings it. Over the last several years, he may be the single most important acquisition.
• Allen. Exciting to see this dude on the other side of the line of scrimmage. Our defensive line will make our pass defense *much* better this year and number 69 will be a big part of that.
• Peterson. Not much else to say about this monster. It seems like he *thrives* when they put 8 or 9 in the box and it appears that he actually enjoys the challenge. Wicked.

Skol!

Jim

Labels: colts, eternal optimism

So having our team engaged in the season opener at Lambeau Field on a crisp Monday Night, with...

• Udeze out for the year, battling his cancerous foe, and leaving a significant deficit on the defensive right end,
• Farwell out for the year, taking a special teams leader and MVP out of the picture,
• Madieu Williams out for a few weeks, nursing a mysterious neck injury, replacing a significant off-season upgrade with rookies,
• McKinnie being McKinnie, replacing a 370-pound dude that our quarterback was getting use to with a carousel of backups

We still came within one minute and one touchdown from knocking off the 13-3 division champs at *their* home, for the first time since November 2005.

I can live with that.

Labels: 2008, eternal optimism, opener, packers, september, week one