Didn't see my Minnesota Vikings lose 17-12 to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, but from the sounds of it the Brads (QB Johnson and head coach Childress) are going to be on the defensive this week, much more so than the actual Vikes defence.
Vikings War Cry has a pretty good synopsis of what was, for the Vikings Nation, a day best forgotten in western New York, where the wings are spicy, the beer is cold, the men are men (and so are most of the women, I'm told) and half of North Tonowanda is probably on fire at any given moment.
It's really, really bad since the Vikes (2-2) are now two games behind the Chicago Bears, who are 4-0 after administering a 37-6 spankin' to Seattle in the Sunday nighter. The unbeaten Bears' next four games are Buffalo at home, at Arizona, then home to San Fran and Miami. Cripes, George W. Bush has had heavier schedules.
Barring injuries, the Bears will be 7-1 at the midway point and will have left the Vikes sucking their wake on Lake Minnetonka.
There will be a lot of focus on the Vikings once again running a bad two-minute drill when a TD would have won the game in the dying moments. This week, Marcus Robinson beat out fellow wideout Troy Williamson for the Maxwell House Award again for being good to the last drop. Of course, as soon as the imaginary award was wrested away from Williamson, Robinson dropped it on the floor and it broke into a million pieces. (There. That runs that joke into the ground, don't you think?)
Anticipating trouble, yours truly skipped out on this one. (Would that such prescience applied to women and career choices.) Still, it sounds bad. The Vikes went pass-wacky -- if Johnson has to throw 44 times, they ain't gonna win -- and couldn't run the ball at all. Chester Taylor was held to 23 yards, and as noted after the Bears loss, it's a mystery why he and Mewelde Moore aren't splitting time. Maybe this week showed that Taylor just can't be effective as an every-down back.
Better yet, it's more of a mystery why that O-line with Bryant McKinnie, Steve Hutchinson and Matt Birk on the left side isn't blowing teams off the ball. Another O-lineman, Marcus Johnson, really hurt the team when he jumped offsides on a two-point play with three minutes left, pushing the Vikes back to the Buffalo 7-yard line, from where they predictably missed. Instead of trailing 17-14 and needing a field goal on the last drive, they had to score a touchdown.
Hey, no one said it would be easy, although it is the Detroit Lions at home next week. And that smart remark probably jinxed it for the Vikings.
Back with more later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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1 comment:
Don't give up on the Vikes yet. They are a good team and will hang around in that div. for a while.
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