The Vikings and Seahawks could have made history last week, if Seattle would have converted on its two-point attempt in the fourth quarter. There's never been a 35-11 game in NFL history. Instead, we'll have to settle for being in the seventh 35-9 game ever. Yawn. Had the Vikings kicked one more field goal, it would have been the ninth 38-9 game in history and, amazingly, the fifth such contest in Seahawks history.
Yes, I love the Game Score Finder on PFR, couldn't you tell?
Showing posts with label SeattleSeahawks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SeattleSeahawks. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Brett Favre might be good
Now that's the convincing win over a subpar team that everyone was looking for...
Even the most die-hard Brett Favre-backers couldn't have predicted this kind of season. 21 touchdowns versus 3 interceptions and a 112.1 passer rating makes folks like me look pretty silly for dissing him early in the season. And after seeing Tarvaris Jackson play for a quarter-plus and look like the Division 1-AA quarterback that he is, it's pretty clear that Favre's not only an MVP candidate for the league as a whole, but he's probably the most valuable player on the Vikings. I could live with Chester Taylor for a while if Adrian Peterson went down, and Ray Edwards has stepped it up enough to make me feel good if the team lost Jared Allen, and the defense has weathered the loss of Antoine Winfield for the last month or so. But right now, Favre is playing as well as he ever has in his career and Tarvaris Jackson (not to mention Sage Rosenfels) would be a huge step down.
It doesn't hurt that Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin are both also looking like stars, and Visanthe Shiancoe has quietly become one of the better pass-catching tight ends in the league. The only negative in the passing game is the looking-like-a-bust Bernard Berrian, who's a distant fourth option in the passing game. I'm also a little concerned at the lack of explosive plays from Adrian Peterson, but I think that's more the fault of the offensive line, which rarely seems to open up holes these days, and some iffy playcalling -- could we please stop calling that stretch play? I'd rather we passed to Naufahu Tahi, that's at least a guaranteed three yards.
One down, six to go. Remember the "poison pill" contracts the Vikings and Seahawks exchanged four years ago? The Vikings' offer to Steve Hutchinson required the Seahawks to make him the highest paid offensive lineman in the league if they retained him. In retaliation, the Seahawks offer to Nate Burleson -- a seven-year, $49 million deal -- would only pay out the full amount if Burleson played seven games in Minnesota during the length of the contract. This was his first game in Minnesota, so if he can manage six more games there over the next three-plus years...
(Really, not that I'd want it to happen, but I sort of hoped that, if the Vikings did move then the Seahawks would move to Minnesota and Burleson's contract would be paid out. I know, they'd release him first, but it would have been cute.)
Next week is the third of the Vikings' three post-bye home games. As I laid out a little while back, the Vikings can practically wrap up their division with a win against Chicago next week. If Chicago beats Philadelphia tonight to go to 5-5 and the Packers win next week against Detroit to go to 7-4, then a Vikings win next week would make them 10-1 with five games to go and in control of all tiebreakers in the division. Chicago would be 5-6 and effectively six games back, putting them out of contention, while Green Bay would be essentially four games back, meaning they'd have to go 5-0 while the Vikings go 1-4 (or worse) or go 4-1 while the Vikings go 0-5. I like our chances.
Of course, if the Bears beat the Vikings, that changes things a bit, but let's not dwell on that...
Even the most die-hard Brett Favre-backers couldn't have predicted this kind of season. 21 touchdowns versus 3 interceptions and a 112.1 passer rating makes folks like me look pretty silly for dissing him early in the season. And after seeing Tarvaris Jackson play for a quarter-plus and look like the Division 1-AA quarterback that he is, it's pretty clear that Favre's not only an MVP candidate for the league as a whole, but he's probably the most valuable player on the Vikings. I could live with Chester Taylor for a while if Adrian Peterson went down, and Ray Edwards has stepped it up enough to make me feel good if the team lost Jared Allen, and the defense has weathered the loss of Antoine Winfield for the last month or so. But right now, Favre is playing as well as he ever has in his career and Tarvaris Jackson (not to mention Sage Rosenfels) would be a huge step down.
It doesn't hurt that Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin are both also looking like stars, and Visanthe Shiancoe has quietly become one of the better pass-catching tight ends in the league. The only negative in the passing game is the looking-like-a-bust Bernard Berrian, who's a distant fourth option in the passing game. I'm also a little concerned at the lack of explosive plays from Adrian Peterson, but I think that's more the fault of the offensive line, which rarely seems to open up holes these days, and some iffy playcalling -- could we please stop calling that stretch play? I'd rather we passed to Naufahu Tahi, that's at least a guaranteed three yards.
One down, six to go. Remember the "poison pill" contracts the Vikings and Seahawks exchanged four years ago? The Vikings' offer to Steve Hutchinson required the Seahawks to make him the highest paid offensive lineman in the league if they retained him. In retaliation, the Seahawks offer to Nate Burleson -- a seven-year, $49 million deal -- would only pay out the full amount if Burleson played seven games in Minnesota during the length of the contract. This was his first game in Minnesota, so if he can manage six more games there over the next three-plus years...
(Really, not that I'd want it to happen, but I sort of hoped that, if the Vikings did move then the Seahawks would move to Minnesota and Burleson's contract would be paid out. I know, they'd release him first, but it would have been cute.)
Next week is the third of the Vikings' three post-bye home games. As I laid out a little while back, the Vikings can practically wrap up their division with a win against Chicago next week. If Chicago beats Philadelphia tonight to go to 5-5 and the Packers win next week against Detroit to go to 7-4, then a Vikings win next week would make them 10-1 with five games to go and in control of all tiebreakers in the division. Chicago would be 5-6 and effectively six games back, putting them out of contention, while Green Bay would be essentially four games back, meaning they'd have to go 5-0 while the Vikings go 1-4 (or worse) or go 4-1 while the Vikings go 0-5. I like our chances.
Of course, if the Bears beat the Vikings, that changes things a bit, but let's not dwell on that...
Saturday, August 9, 2008
At least it's only preseason
The plan was that I'd go over to a friend's house Friday night, watch the Steelers (his team) vs. Eagles game on NFL Network followed by the Vikings/Seahawks game afterwards, which we thought would begin at 10:30 Eastern.
Well, Vikings/Seahawks didn't start up until some time afterwards, and this was after I saw both the score and highlights from the game. It was already getting late, and I didn't really think I'd want to stick around to see the team get hammered 34-17, so my analysis, such as it is, will be based on those few highlights I saw and the written description and box score of the game. The evening wasn't a complete waste, though...how about those opening ceremonies?
With 2/3 of the defense's Williams -- Pat and Madeiu -- taking the night off, Seattle had little trouble with the Vikings defense. Matt Hasselbeck only missed once on eight passes, and the first-team Seahawk offense drove down the field and scored twice, a touchdown and a field goal. You don't want to read too much into the first game of pre-season, so I'm not too panicky about the result, but even without Pat Williams, it's disappointing to see Maurice Morris average over 10 yards per carry. I think one of the least-talked-about Viking losses of the offseason was interior lineman Spencer Johnson moving to Buffalo. He provided quality depth at defensive tackle but clearly wasn't going to get a chance to start, so it was probably good move for him to seek employment elsewhere, but the Vikings will need to address its depth concerns along the line, especially considering Pat Williams' age (36 in October), weight, and recent injury issues.
Adrian Peterson sat the game out and Chester Taylor had just four carries, so it was up to the passing game to carry the offense. Surprisingly, it did quite well. Most of the Vikings highlights I saw centered around Bernard Berrian, who looked impressive on his two catches, and Tarvaris Jackson showed some zing in getting him the ball. Vikings QBs as a whole finished with 22/38 passing for 246 yards, one TD (Jackson to Thomas Tapeh) and one interception (John David Booty). Brooks Bollinger only attempted two passes, though it looks like he might have lost playing time to two lost fumbles early in third-quarter drives. In any case, he still looks to be the odd man out in the quarterback carousel.
Overall, the Vikings fumbled five times, losing four, but that's not too great a concern, as only one starter -- the vastly overpaid Visanthe Shiancoe -- coughed it up. And after kicking Mewelde Moore out the door and picking up Maurice Hicks as his ostensible special teams replacement, five different Vikings returned a kick or punt in the game -- none of them by Hicks. You get the feeling that if this team had Deion Sanders and Devin Hester, they wouldn't use either of them on kick returns?
On the bright side, the team committed only three penalties, compared to Seattle's nine and Guitar Hero god Chris Kluwe averaged 53.3 yards per punt. It wasn't a great performance, but considering the personnel the team was missing on the field, I'm not too concerned. The team travels to Baltimore next Saturday and then everybody should get a chance to see the team, especially the first-team offensive and defensive units, hit the field in a nationally televised game against the Steelers on CBS on Saturday the 23rd. You can bet I'll be at my Steeler friend's house for that one.
Well, Vikings/Seahawks didn't start up until some time afterwards, and this was after I saw both the score and highlights from the game. It was already getting late, and I didn't really think I'd want to stick around to see the team get hammered 34-17, so my analysis, such as it is, will be based on those few highlights I saw and the written description and box score of the game. The evening wasn't a complete waste, though...how about those opening ceremonies?
With 2/3 of the defense's Williams -- Pat and Madeiu -- taking the night off, Seattle had little trouble with the Vikings defense. Matt Hasselbeck only missed once on eight passes, and the first-team Seahawk offense drove down the field and scored twice, a touchdown and a field goal. You don't want to read too much into the first game of pre-season, so I'm not too panicky about the result, but even without Pat Williams, it's disappointing to see Maurice Morris average over 10 yards per carry. I think one of the least-talked-about Viking losses of the offseason was interior lineman Spencer Johnson moving to Buffalo. He provided quality depth at defensive tackle but clearly wasn't going to get a chance to start, so it was probably good move for him to seek employment elsewhere, but the Vikings will need to address its depth concerns along the line, especially considering Pat Williams' age (36 in October), weight, and recent injury issues.
Adrian Peterson sat the game out and Chester Taylor had just four carries, so it was up to the passing game to carry the offense. Surprisingly, it did quite well. Most of the Vikings highlights I saw centered around Bernard Berrian, who looked impressive on his two catches, and Tarvaris Jackson showed some zing in getting him the ball. Vikings QBs as a whole finished with 22/38 passing for 246 yards, one TD (Jackson to Thomas Tapeh) and one interception (John David Booty). Brooks Bollinger only attempted two passes, though it looks like he might have lost playing time to two lost fumbles early in third-quarter drives. In any case, he still looks to be the odd man out in the quarterback carousel.
Overall, the Vikings fumbled five times, losing four, but that's not too great a concern, as only one starter -- the vastly overpaid Visanthe Shiancoe -- coughed it up. And after kicking Mewelde Moore out the door and picking up Maurice Hicks as his ostensible special teams replacement, five different Vikings returned a kick or punt in the game -- none of them by Hicks. You get the feeling that if this team had Deion Sanders and Devin Hester, they wouldn't use either of them on kick returns?
On the bright side, the team committed only three penalties, compared to Seattle's nine and Guitar Hero god Chris Kluwe averaged 53.3 yards per punt. It wasn't a great performance, but considering the personnel the team was missing on the field, I'm not too concerned. The team travels to Baltimore next Saturday and then everybody should get a chance to see the team, especially the first-team offensive and defensive units, hit the field in a nationally televised game against the Steelers on CBS on Saturday the 23rd. You can bet I'll be at my Steeler friend's house for that one.
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