Will Vikings have a problem with Houston?

You know what they say when the Vikings and the Texans collide...

Well, "they" don't really say anything, since the two teams have met only once before, with the Vikings winning the teams' 2004 meeting in Houston, 34-28. I'd say you shouldn't expect a similar score this year, but after following up a 12-10 win with a 48-41 loss, I really don't know what to expect from the Vikings this week. Toss in the fact that Houston is 3-4 after an 0-4 start (and should probably be 4-3, if not for Sage Rosenfels trying to imitate John Elway's helicopter spin), and this game could go either way, with virtually any score.

For now, at least, it doesn't appear that Pat Williams and Kevin Williams will be suspended for violating the league's banned-substance policy, which is some relief. On the down side, Brad Childress is still the head coach. Could the league suspend him, instead? Pretty please?

You know what I'd like to see? The Wildcat. I know, I know, it's a copycat league, but I actually had this idea last December, so maybe I'm ahead of the curve! Imagine Chester Taylor taking the snap, optioning to Adrian Peterson, and then maybe throwing it deep to -- well, obviously not Gus Frerotte, but hey, how about Tarvaris Jackson? If Joe Flacco can catch a 43-yard pass, why can't T-Jack? And Taylor's already got a TD pass this year. It would be innovative, unexpected, and exciting!

All of which probably guarantees Chilly won't do it.

On the bright side, despite giving up 48 points in the last game against the Bears, the defense really is playing pretty well. They're sixth in the league in yards allowed per game, and have only allowed one opponent to gain more than 327 yards (New Orleans, 375) and have held four of seven opponents under 300 total yards. On the down side, there's the special teams, which have given up way too many big returns and touchdowns, even if they have blocked a couple field goals. They're the reason the Vikings are averaging 23.9 points per game allowed (18th in the league). And hey, did we send our bribe to the officials this week? Because we obviously missed it last week.

One other thing to note about Houston's record is that the team's three wins have come at the expense of Miami, Detroit, and Cincinnati -- not exactly an elite schedule -- so they may be a little softer than first believed. But if the Vikings are good at any one thing, it's playing down to the competition, so expect this game to be contested until the final whistle.

Let's just hope someone keeps an eye on what the Williams boys put in their Gatorade.

TYA after week 8

With the Vikings' season about to go completely down the tubes (but here's some comedy if you need it), I decided to crunch some numbers to while away my sorrow. Remember this set of posts back in January?

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/JasonWinter/132522
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/JasonWinter/132892
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/JasonWinter/133335
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/JasonWinter/133744

No? Then go back and read them. Or, if you just want the Cliff's Notes version, they were my attempt to create a new quarterback rating system that took every aspect of a quarterback's play -- including rushing, sacks, and fumbles -- into account. Part of it was my desire to prove to everyone that Jon Kitna was an exceedingly mediocre quarterback, despite his throwing for 4,000 yards every season, because he threw a ton of times and took too many sacks. I was also trying to give Tarvaris Jackson as much credit as I could for his rushing prowess.

But in general, I wanted to create a system that accounted for every possible stat a quarterback could accumulate, because there was no other formula out there that did so. Passer rating completely ignores rushing and sacks, which are as much the offensive line's "fault" as it is the O-line's "credit" when a QB has all day to throw and nails a receiver 50 yards downfield. If one should count for the QB, shouldn't the other count against him? At least a little bit?

After that brief introduction, I won't go too much more into the methodology -- you can read the old posts if you want to learn more. In any case, here are the TYAs for every quarterback with at least 100 pass attempts in 2008:

	Name	TYA
1	Philip Rivers	7.41
2	Chad Pennington	7.40
3	Drew Brees	6.95
4	Tony Romo	6.70
5	Jason Campbell	6.67
6	Donovan McNabb	6.43
7	Aaron Rodgers	6.42
8	Jay Cutler	6.36
9	Eli Manning	6.27
10	Kyle Orton	6.06
11	Jake Delhomme	6.04
12	Kurt Warner	6.01
13	Trent Edwards	5.92
14	Matt Ryan	5.84
15	David Garrard	5.61
16	Jeff Garcia	5.42
17	Matt Schaub	5.38
18	Kerry Collins	5.31
19	Peyton Manning	5.15
20	Dan Orlovsky	4.87
21	Matt Cassel	4.49
22	Gus Frerotte	4.42
23	Marc Bulger	4.32
24	JaMarcus Russell	4.28
25	Ben Roethlisberger	3.98
26	Brett Favre	3.89
27	Matt Hasselbeck	3.84
28	Derek Anderson	3.67
29	Joe Flacco	3.61
30	Carson Palmer	3.51
31	J.T. O'Sullivan	3.51
32	Tyler Thigpen	3.42
33	Brian Griese	3.40
34	Jon Kitna	3.24
35	Ryan Fitzpatrick	1.84

The average for these 35 quarterbacks is 5.25. (Recall that I can't figure a league average without looking at every QB's rushing numbers, which aren't available in handy tabular form.)

Phillip Rivers, who also leads the league in passer rating, just barely edges out Chad Pennington, of all people, as the top performer so far this year. Pennington's only thrown three picks and fumbled once this year, helping him beat out MVP candidate Drew Brees, who's tossed seven picks and coughed it up six times. Meanwhile, the Dan Orlovsky/Jon Kitna debate doesn't look like much of a choice here, though neither answer is good.

Ben Roethlisberger, notorious for taking too many sacks, takes a big hit when those are taken into account. Granted, he's currently the #18 quarterback in passer rating, so maybe being knocked down to #25 here isn't such a Humpty-Dumpty-esque fall. The league leader in sacks allowed, J.T. O'Sullivan (32) is helped by exceptional rushing numbers (29 carries for 146 yards), though he's still awful. Meanwhile, Kerry Collins, who has still remarkably only been sacked once in 171 dropbacks is just barely above average (5.31) but still shockingly better than Peyton Manning (5.15). And you think the Bengals miss Carson Palmer? Imagine how bad Ryan Fitzpatrick would look if he hadn't rushed for 121 yards on 21 carries?

For Vikings fans, Gus Frerotte clocks in solidly below average (4.42), right between Matt Cassel and Marc Bulger. Tarvaris Jackson, with 76 "touches" (passes + sacks + rushes) is virtually the same, at 4.37. There's really no right answer to the Vikings' quarterback situation. Hey, Kerry Collins is a free agent next year! (Yes, I'm kidding.)

Not good news

Don't have time for a long post this morning, but reading this should make you vomit up your corn flakes.

Williams almost back? And more notes

It's a bye week for the Vikings, which means things are pretty quiet, though things are looking up for one of the Vikings' big off-season free-agent acquisitions.

* S Madeiu Williams finally looks ready to make his regular-season Vikings debut after suffering a neck injury in preseason that has kept him sidelined for nine weeks. Rookie Tyrell Johnson has started in his place and hasn't done much of anything to slow down other team's passing attacks, so Williams should be a welcome addition to a typically soft secondary.

* In other transaction news, the Vikings cut LB Erin Henderson, promoting LB Rufus Alexander from the practice squad, and then re-signed Henderson two days later, cutting Alexander. Bizarre.

* Speaking for guys who were cut and re-signed by the same team (and former Bengals, like Williams), it's a good thing Cincinnati re-acquired WR Chris Henry in the off-season, with owner Mike Brown essentially forcing him on head coach Marvin Lewis. No other multiply arrested, dumb-as-a-rock third receiver on an 0-7 team could have managed four catches in three games (Henry was suspended for the first four games of the season). Maybe when Lewis is inevitably fired after this season, he might be worth a look by the Vikings; I'd be interested to see what he can do when he doesn't have to babysit felons.

* Speaking of wide receivers who shouldn't be in the NFL, Troy Williamson -- who, as usual looked great in training camp and had many Jags fans thinking he was a "steal" -- still officially has just two catches for 11 yards with the Jaguars. The next time someone tells you that Usain Bolt would make a great wide receiver (and boy, did ESPN hammer that into our skulls for about two weeks), remind them that being fast doesn't automatically make you a good receiver.

* Pacifist Viking posts a great assessment of the 2008 Vikings and his (and, to a large extent) my feelings on their chance for success. Meanwhile, Brad Childress is up two points and is finally second in overall votes cast -- to a guy who was fired.

* Finally, after insisting that he didn't want to "wait for one of my fellow quarterbacks to suffer a serious injury," and retiring in September, Daunte Culpepper has taken the Brett Favre approach to retirement and is apparently looking for work again. Because, you know, teams need depth at the QB position because...wait for it...guys are getting hurt. Or in the case of Kansas City, who was apparently inquiring about Daunte's availability before signing Quinn Gray, all their quarterbacks are just awful.

The Vikings' first round picks in 1999 were Culpepper and Demetrious Underwood, who suffered from depression and tried to commit suicide. I'm starting to wonder which of the two was the bigger head case.

An 8,000-word post

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, and I've got 2 pictures (and 3 videos, which I rate at 2,000 words each) below. And that's not even counting the words I'm typing now. Or these ones. Or these ones. Or these ones. Or these ones...

First off, one of the best hits you'll see in college football this year, and it wasn't even by a player:



Can an official call a penalty on himself?

The video on this page won't embed, but I'm still counting it in my total above. It's probably also a fake, but it's still disturbingly fun.


Next up: A 15-pound hamburger (20+ with bun and condiments) and the man who ate it.



Hold the fries.

Finally, the funniest video you'll see all week of a Major League Baseball player inadvertantly making a gay sex comment:



Thanks, Matt Stairs!

41 not quite enough

Well, at least you can't blame that one on the coaching.

Notable for its high scoring and surprisingly good play-calling from Brad Childress, the Vikings lost to the Bears 48-41 yesterday in a game riddled with miscues and gaffes in all three phases of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. And when you lose out in all three of those categories, it's awfully tough to win.

Yet even behind by 17 early in the fourth quarter, I had a feeling the Vikings could still pull this one out, and they nearly did. But this game was sabotaged by a number of fluke plays and bad decisions by the players, rather than the coaching staff:

* Gus Frerotte threw four interceptions, and three of them were Tarvaris-Jackson-ugly. The fourth, a long pass down the sideline that was a bit underthrown, wasn't the worst thing you could do, but in the end four picks are four picks.

* Poor Chris Kluwe. Two weeks after being publicly ripped by his head coach, he botched the snap and then (illegally) kicked it straight to the Bears' Garrett Wolfe, who scampered 24 yards for the touchdown. It was Kluwe's first blocked punt ever in the NFL.

* Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of the Charles Gordon play. On the one hand, you always see punt returners try to block off opposing players after the fair catch signal so they can't down the ball. On the other hand, the punt was near enough to the sideline that it probably wouldn't have mattered one way or the other. On the third hand, it was ridiculously unlucky that the bouncing ball should hit Gordon's outstretched arm. On the fourth hand (we're getting into Indian goddess territory here), when you plan not to catch the punt, you should run to the next county if you have to. I'm really just willing to chalk this one up to awful, awful luck.

* The Marty Booker 51-yard touchdown was unconscionable. You can't let a guy run through your whole defense like that.

* When the Bears did try to hand us an opportunity, we couldn't cash in. We recovered a Kyle Orton fumble around midfield but failed to convert on the opportunity. And that Desmond Clark fumble at the goal line could have either rolled out of bounds through the end zone or been recovered by a Viking. Instead, a Bear player jumped on it for the six points.

Yet even for all that went wrong in the game, a fair number of things went well.

* I commented on the play calling earlier, and was amazed that, in almost every situation when I said, "Well, they should do X here, but they probably won't" -- where "X" was "go for it on fourth down" or "kick a field goal" or "run the ball" -- they made the seemingly right call. My only beef was with not kicking off deep to Devin Hester (when he was still in the game). Instead, they gave the Bears good field position several times, and they converted that advantage into points. The one time they did kick deep to Hester, before he left the game with an injury, he managed just a mediocre 20-yard return.

* The run-pass balance was good, despite the team attempting 42 passes to 32 runs. Going into the fourth quarter, the mix was 27 runs to 21 passes, but when you're down by 17, you have to air out out.

* The ugly 48 on the opposing scoreboard might not indicate it, but the defense played surprisingly well, giving up just 327 yards. Only two of the Bears' touchdown drives went for longer than 55 yards, and three of their six touchdowns on the day were the result of special teams plays and a six-yard "drive" following a Gus Frerotte interception.

* Another blocked field goal? Cool, but couldn't you have deflected this one to Antoine Winfield like the last time? I know, picky, picky, picky...

When all is said and done, I really don't have any choice but to chalk this one up to a series of fluke plays that, nine times out of 10, don't happen. Then again, considering how we "stole" our last two wins, it seemed inevitable that we would lose a crazy one. I won't be voting down Chilly this week -- I'll abstain instead and see if he can head into the bye week with a game plan that is similar to the blueprint he used against the Bears, minus the crazy mistakes.

But hey, if we could score 41 when our offense commits five turnovers and has a blocked punt returned for a TD, imagine what we could do without those?

Vikings notes 10/16

To help shore up the linebacking corps, which will miss E.J. Henderson for the rest of the year and might be without his replacement David Herron, who suffered a hip injury in Sunday's game against the Lions, the Vikings signed former a pair of former Viking linebackers this week.

Napoleon Harris is best known in the Twin Cities as the player obtained from the Raiders in the Randy Moss deal in 2005, along with a first-round draft pick that produced Troy Williamson. Also returning to the fold was Dontarrious Thomas, a second-round pick by the team in 2004, who was cut after the 2007 season. Harris, cut by Kansas City earlier this week, spent a little more than one full season as a starting linebacker with the Vikings, while Thomas only racked up 10 starts in his four years with the team.

Obviously, neither will provide the presence that Henderson, or probably even Herron, did over the middle of the defense. While the run defense up the middle is stout, with the Williams boys jamming it up inside, look for teams to run more short passes over the middle against the Vikings to take advantage of their weakness at middle linebacker. As if teams needed another reason to pass on us....

* Speaking of Troy Williamson, I caught a little bit of the Jaguars/Broncos game on Sunday, enough to see him haul in a spectacular 50+ yard reception...which was then promptly negated by a holding penalty on Jacksonville. Even when it goes right for Troy -- which isn't often (officially, he has two catches for 11 yards this season) -- it goes wrong.

* If Tony Romo can't go for the Cowboys, Dallas will start Brad Johnson, who will be backed up by Brooks Bollinger. Is this the 2008 Cowboys or the 2006 Vikings?

* Speaking of the Cowboys, this is the rare week when Minnesota and Dallas play at the same time on Sunday, so Adrian Peterson fans in Oklahoma will be forced to watch the Cowboys/Rams instead of Vikings/Bears at noon local time. I think watching the Rams this year is a form of cruel and unusual punishment, but at least they won't be subject to Detroit/Houston (which occupies only a tiny area of the map), which could have been an epic clash of winless teams if the Texans hadn't ruined it by pulling out a win last week against Miami.

* Former Golden Gopher and Philadelphia Eagle fullback Thomas Tapeh, who signed a free-agent deal to come to Minnesota in the offseason, hasn't even seen the field in 2008. Now it turns out that Tapeh had surgery on his knee just before signing his free-agent deal and the team might be looking to void his contract based on his injury status.

Which is really too bad, because I've been running the Vikings in franchise mode in my Madden '09 and that guy is a great safety valve out of the backfield. Then again, in that third year, Tarvaris Jackson is up to a 96 overall QB, so maybe it's not the most accurate judge of player's abilities.

* 9% and nearly twice as many votes as the second-most guy.

* So it was the Packers who were the front-runners to get TE Tony Gonzalez from Kansas City. Welcome to the world of having to deal with Chiefs GM Carl Peterson. Jared Allen says "Hi."

* Finally, Beverly Hills Chihuahua is the #1 movie in the nation? Really?