Monday, September 28, 2009

Trailing Clouds of Heaven: Vikings 27 - 49ers 24!

Okay, while Joe is away I have agreed to step in and post occasionally. Unfortunately my life reality is that I don't have cable TV nor do I have internet at home and that means that I don't get to watch Viking games. Instead I am relegated to my phone and constantly checking box scores on my NFL Mobile App.

That however does not change two facts about this game:

(1) Percy Harvin is the 2nd gamebreaker this team needed. Obviously I didn't get to see the kickoff return, but when a Vikings Special Team returns a kick it is time to celebrate. When I watched Harvin returning punts/kicks from the jug machine in Mankato he did not look great. He appeared to be moving his feet before he was getting the ball and that was leading to him slipping. He obviously worked things out and adds another dimension to this team instantly while continuing to develop as a WR.

(2) Brett Favre did exactly what we needed him to do and I don't know if either of our other QBs (pretty sure they couldn't) could have done that at the end of the game.

I will leave it up to you readers to post your observations and thoughts in the comment section.

Holy Hitter

17 comments:

  1. First: I'm giddy over the dramatic win and looking forward to the next game.

    That aside, I don't like that the Vikings barely beat a non-elite team at home despite the fact that SF was 0-11 on 3rd down. Yikes. Minnesota had that kick return and the game-winning touchdown pass, but toss those out and this is an ugly, depressing loss. (To be fair, SF's blocked fieldgoal TD and EJ's endzone INT being reversed are a couple of plays that prevent this from being an ugly, depressing loss for the 49ers)

    Pass protection was weak at times, Chester Taylor was the leading receiver, Berrian had a bad day (which, hopefully, is a one-time thing), and Minnesota committed at least 9 penalties (I stopped counting). Those are all big red flags.

    I believe the Vikings' pass rush can do enough to earn a win at home against the Packers this week, and they should be able to take care of business in St. Louis. We might not learn what we really want to know about this team until week 6 when the Matt Birk and the Ravens come to town. Get it together, Purple. Everything else is primed.

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  2. Anonymous12:52 PM

    No TV or internet? Where can you possibly live where you could not get TV, even without cable?

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  3. Anonymous3:03 PM

    I have chosen to not have internet and cable to save some money.

    (2) I don't have an antenna to receive digital signal, but in my location surrounded by bluffs in a river valley pretty much means no good signal.

    Thus no TV or net....it is fine all the time except when it is NFL time...then it hurts.

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  4. I think the Vikes were really lucky. SF's best player went down right away and they squeaked it out. MN has played arguable the two worst teams in the NFL and won, but were far from dominating victories. Hate to say it, but MN might be the worst 3-0 team in history. Let's see how they do against a real team.

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  5. Anonymous3:12 PM

    Whoa Robert...

    Don't forget that the Broncos are 3-0 and I will take the Vikings 99 times out of 100 in that matchup.

    Have they been dominating? No. Will we have a slightly better picture of who they are after the Packer game? Yes.

    I agree with Peter that the true measure will come when they take on Baltimore a team with a good D and a revamped and tough offense.

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  6. Peter3:13 PM

    Rob-

    The Vikings might be the worst 3-0 team in history??

    I don't think you could make an argument that they're the worst 3-0 team |this year|. Most would agree that's the Broncos.

    How about the Redskins' and Jaguars' most recent 3-0 starts? Those teams ended up pretty bad.

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  7. I don't want Vikes fans to get ahead of themselves. So much room for improvement. Don't discount the Broncos. They've done what the Vikes haven't - that is, dominate! They crushed the Browns (MN did not) and now Oakland... and even beat the Bengals, who are proving everyone wrong. Broncos are definitely above the Vikes in the pecking order.

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  8. Anonymous4:03 PM

    Robert-

    With all due respect I don't think the Vikings' fans here are getting "ahead of themselves" I for one am not claiming that we are Super Bowl bound or that we are even the best team in the NFC.

    The truth is with Favre we do have a better functioning offense. I don't know why you have to come here and bash the Vikings. I for one thought that the Packers might have been the best 6-10 team ever last year and expect them to really be challenging for the NFC North Crown, but you paint it as if the Vikings are one of the worst teams in the NFL.

    Seriously, the Broncos are not above the Vikings in the pecking order. I can be objective in this. The Vikings would beat the Broncos 99 out of 100 times (so would the Packers for that matter).

    Good luck to your Packers on Monday it should be a good game.

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  9. Anonymous4:17 PM

    Perhaps a bring a slightly more cynical viewpoint to the conversation but I am definitely not bashing the Vikes when I say there's room for improvement. The end results, Ws, have been great but if you dig deeper and stack the Broncos wins against MN's, the Broncos are the more-convincing team. One would think MN is better, but based on what we've seen SO FAR, not the case. But forget the Broncos, they're AFC and all boring and Ortoney and were only brought up for the comparison. Monday is the real test for both teams. I think we both agree it's likely between MN and GB for the division crown. Are you going to watch the game? (that was a joke) Cheers!

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  10. Anonymous4:38 PM

    I'd rather beat the Browns and Lions unconvincingly than lose to the Bengals and beat the Rams unconvincingly.

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  11. Anonymous5:33 PM

    How about we we recognize the fact SF is a good football team. At the end of the year they will be better than what everyone is giving them credit for. This is the NFL, not every bad team is the 0-16 Detroit Lions of '08. The Vikings won. They will all the way through December.

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  12. Anonymous12:00 AM

    the vikes seem to do bad at home games, not just based off of this season.. rice reminds me of randy moss for some reason and percy is gonna be rookie of the year if he keeps up the good work..
    adrian didn't get much running in and he's our golden ticket.. against other teams he will be running for more yards so we should b able to get more points.. on tv they noted that adrian's worst game was against the 49ers where he got only 3 yards the whole game..
    jordan

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  13. Anonymous12:14 AM

    oh and robert ur on crack with some of ur comments.. 49ers were lucky they blocked the 3pt attempt. that gave them 7 points they didnt work for on a drive, that doesnt happen often. worst 3-0 team in history? they have an amazing defense(no question), great qb, best rb, very good and capable wr's, consistent kickers(lol no one gives credit to the kickers) and special team.. i am a vikings fan but these are unbiased facts, which you wouldnt have with a bad team.
    Jordan

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  14. Holy Hitter- will you do a Vikings-Packers preview?

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  15. Anonymous2:45 PM

    Peter-

    Yeah I will be doing a preview.....it should be posted tomorrow afternoon (hopefully).

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  16. Peter3:14 PM

    Hooray! Thanks for taking up the mantle.

    I love this blog. Hope Joe gets what he needs during his sabbatical.

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  17. While a right to the end win is great for TV ratings and makes the game a nail-biter I really would like it if that is the last game that we put all of our hope in one player right at the end!
    http://vikingsfootballhome.blogspot.com/

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