Clouds of Heaven

Vikings-Bills Box Score

Some bullet-point reactions.

• When you're watching a December football game between two teams that aren't making the playoffs, you want it to be entertaining: lots of points, lots of big plays, lots of turnovers, lots of stuff happening. If you're a Viking fan, that game was entertaining.
• Sidney Rice showed he's still got it: he was making spectacular downfield catches in tight coverage, and making them look nearly effortless. He reminds me of the old Randy Moss in some ways: when covered downfield, he can still make a play without it looking like an extraordinary effort. He's smooth timing and leaping for the ball. He's really a key player to keep on the team going forward: he can make a QB look good.
• Tarvaris Jackson made me feel like old times. He is what he is: capable of some really exciting, spectacular plays, but also capable of frequent inaccuracy and terrible decision making. The inaccurate passes and bad decisions are, I think most of us are convinced, too frequent with Jackson for him to be a successful regular starting QB.
• Adrian freaking Peterson!
• Defensively, this was like old times: ferocious pass rush forcing turnovers, stifling run defense, big plays from the likes of Antoine Winfield and Jared Allen. The Bills aren't good, but it's still fun to watch a defense be disruptive at every level of the game.
• Our 0-4 Super Bowl soul-cousins do have a couple of AFL championships from back in 1964 and 1965. Bills fans, you have that over us.

Skol.

(note for non-weekend readers who missed it to check out "Brett Favre as King Lear" below, if you'd be interested in that sort of thing).