Minnesota Vikings

It’s time to take a look at the All-NFC North team for 2011. As ever, we’e being a little creative with the formations to try and get the best possible players on the field and, in this instance, that leaves us with a truly destructive looking offense.

The “Black and Blue” division doesn’t let us down when it comes to defense either, with only safety being a notable weak point on a side stacked with stud players. No team in the division has fewer than five players selected to this team which shows that despite some teams struggling (well, the Vikings), there is talent all over, and no one team is in power all the way through.

So let’s take a look at the rundown. Read the rest of this entry »

The final regular season week of the 2011 season saw the Chicago Bears travel to face the Minnesota Vikings in a divisional game that meant…nothing. This was precisely the kind of game the NFL had hoped to avoid by moving divisional games to the end of the season, and in truth, it worked in this game.

Two teams with nothing more than draft position to play for found themselves fighting tooth and nail for the win, and characteristically it was the mistakes, rather than the impressive play, that wound up being decisive. The Vikings were in danger of landing a torpedo into the side of their draft position until the final drive ended with a badly overthrown pass from Joe Webb, in for the injured Christian Ponder once more.

For Chicago the game seemed to center around thrusting Jared Allen towards Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record, and then doing everything humanly possible to prevent him getting one more to break it. In the end he fell just a half sack short of the record.

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An NFC North encounter to round off the season features both sides finding themselves with nothing to play for. The Bears were firmly in the thick of the playoff hunt until an injury cost them their star quarterback, Jay Cutler, and since that point the injuries have only been mounting, with Matt Forte the latest major piece to go down for the year. Minnesota on the other hand was never at the races this season and languish with a 3-12 record heading into their final game.

The Vikings took themselves out of the running for the number one overall pick in the next draft last week when they beat Washington, and a final win this week could drop them to as far as the sixth overall pick, which would be little short of a disaster for a team with so many holes to fill. Losing Adrian Peterson forces them to lean on the shoulders of Toby Gerhart as their main bellcow in the run game, and their rookie quarterback Christian Ponder returns to the starting lineup this week, after being sidelined with concussion. Chicago are playing for pride and little else, but that may well be enough. Here are three matchups that will heavily influence the outcome.

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Nobody except diehard fans of both teams and fantasy football owners watched this Christmas Eve showdown at FedEx Field between the two win Minnesota Vikings and the five win Washington Redskins.

The Vikings were able to pull a victory out of this shootout, which saw their starting QB Christian Ponder and starting RB Adrian Peterson get injured on consecutive plays. Despite the win, one of their worst seasons in franchise history continues with the news that Peterson tore an ACL and MCL and his availability for the start of next season is in doubt. They can at least fall back on great performances from backups Toby Gerhart and QB Joe Webb.

The Redskins, dealing with injuries and still missing their starting LT and TE coming into this game, continued their good offensive streak, but once again Rex Grossman’s turnovers (a pick and a fumble) helped seal their fate. The story of the game though was the complete inability of their defense to adjust to Webb stepping into the starting lineup.

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With only seven wins between these teams, if you’re watching this game on Sunday, it’s clearly not because of any playoff implications. Of course, teams playing solely for pride have accomplished some monumental upsets late in the season in the past. Perhaps these two teams can provide a more compelling game than their talent and production thus far would indicate.

With the Colts victory last week, the Vikings are inching closer and closer to consideration for worst team in the league. If they want to avoid that distinction, they’ll have to figure out their problems on defense against an offense that doesn’t intimidate much. Minnesota has held an opponent to less than 20 points only once this season, and that was against a Cardinals team that was much worse in Week 5 than it is now. Their deteriorating secondary is only making matters worse and their opponents have scored at least 34 points in each of the last three games. Read the rest of this entry »

Considering the end result was one of the most one-sided games played this year, the Saints’ 42-20 thrashing of the Vikings was actually pretty competitive into the second quarter. If a few plays had gone the other way, Minnesota may have even been able to claim a halftime lead. New Orleans made plenty of early mistakes to allow the Vikings a chance to pull off the upset. With the Saints owning a paltry 4-3 road record with a couple embarrassing road losses on their 2011 résumé, the opportunity was there for Minnesota.

The Saints fumbled the ball away on their third offensive play, had a 40-yard touchdown negated by a Jed Collins holding penalty, and turned the ball over deep in their own territory when Brian De La Puente (-3.0) snapped the ball right by Drew Brees (+9.0) while the quarterback was still changing the play. Those miscues all occurred in the first half, but despite giving the Vikings the ball in Saints’ territory twice, New Orleans still led 21-13 at the half. Read the rest of this entry »

At first glance, a game played by two teams with eight wins separating their records may not hold much appeal. For those without the means to watch whatever game they choose, it’s one of those games you hope isn’t going to be shown in your area. However, there are always intriguing storylines before every game and this one is no different.

Perhaps the matchup isn’t as one-sided as it appears. The Saints are 4-3 on the road and have only one road victory by a touchdown or more, indicating that they usually keep games close against any competition on the road. They’ve lost games to teams like Tampa Bay and St. Louis on the road and scored 30 or more points only twice. By comparison, the Saints have won all six of their home games by a touchdown or more and scored 30 or more points in five of them. Simply put, this team just isn’t the same away from the Superdome. If the Buccaneers and Rams can play a competitive game against the Saints, the Vikings may be able to as well. Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to divisional games, especially in the NFC North, records rarely matter. A great example occured this weekend with Minnesota travelling to Detroit. Despite a terrible start, the Vikings had a chance to snatch an upset win in the dying moments of the game. It was a night to forget for Christian Ponder whose replacement, the electric Joe Webb, almost engineered an amazing comeback. It wasn’t at all pretty as he remains a less than a polished passer but he made enough plays to give the Vikings a chance.

It was a surprisingly good day for a Detroit secondary that went into the game without Chris Houston and Louis Delmas due to knee injuries. The Lions also saw both Aaron Berry and Eric Wright miss significant time during the game. Webb’s ability to keep plays alive was what really hurt them late in the game but their lead eventually proved insurmountable leaving the Lions’ playoff hopes very much alive.

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Perhaps the yellow in their opponents’ uniforms will remind the Lions to avoid forcing the flags to rain down on the field. At the least, they need to make sure they don’t add to the four post-play penalties they’ve committed in the past two games. Head Coach Jim Schwartz has promised that offending players will lose playing time if those continue.

It’s not hard to figure out why the Lions have been whistled for a penalty 22 times in the last two games or why their frustration has brought them on. They’re a young team with few players having playoff experience. After starting 5-0 and becoming media darlings, a 2-5 stretch has made them less relevant and seems to have had an effect. If they’re going to make the postseason this year, Detroit needs to focus on getting the wins, not venting their frustration with undisciplined play. An experienced team doesn’t dwell on a bad stretch and allow it to affect their performance for the rest of the year. They simply move on and play their best football in December. Read the rest of this entry »

He has been the story of the second half of the season so far; a quarterback willing his team to win without contributing as a passer. It has purists furious that a quarterback who can’t consistently hit simple throws is being seen as revolutionary player, while many neutral fans are simply enjoying the ride as Tim Tebow defies what many see as logic and continues to win.

That was until this week, as against the Minnesota Vikings he was held in check as a runner and forced to make the difference as a passer.

The Vikings made a concerted effort to curtail Tebow’s running threat and it worked; he only carried the ball on one designed run outside of his kneel-down ahead of the game-winning field goal. What this heavy run defense effort opened up, though, was deep passing against man coverage and a single-high safety. When teams choose to clamp down on Tebow the runner, these are the throws that are likely to be presented to Tebow the passer. The question has always been: can he make the throws? Read the rest of this entry »