Posted October 29th, 2009 by Paul Gantner
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After narrowly losing last week to the Pittsburgh Steelers the Minnesota Vikings have no time to rest. This week the Vikings play the Green Bay Packers for the second time this year. The game will be played at Lambeau Field. This game draws a lot of interest due to the fact the Brett Favre is playing at Lambeau Field for the first time since leaving the Packers. However, there are other more important reasons that the Vikings must come out of Green Bay with a win.
After week two of the 2009 NFL season was complete the Vikings were atop of the NFC North. Since that time they have not relinquished the division lead and remain at 6-1. They are undefeated in their division as well as being undefeated in the NFC. At this time the Chicago Bears are 3-3 and the Green Bay Packers are 4-2. Last week the Bears got crushed by the Bengals and are not looking as good as predicted. The Packers over the last two weeks easily handled the Browns and Lions and appear to be playing good football at this time. With the Vikings already having a victory against the Packers, a win this week will put them up by 2 ½ games going into the bye week. With the two victories over Green Bay it would also decide any tiebreaker scenario with the Packers.
After this week the Vikings go into their bye week. A victory against the Packers will put them at 7-1 with a well deserved week off. A victory will not only have them leading the NFC North, but psychologically give them an edge for the remainder of the season. A victory will instill a strong confidence into a team that may have a chance to make a Super Bowl run. Losing two straight games going into their by week will leave the Vikings psychologically damaged going into their week off.
A victory at Green Bay this week could go a long way for the Vikings. It will not only statistically give the Vikings an advantage but psychologically as well. After the bye the Vikings play the Lions, Seahawks, and Bears all at the Metrodome. With a victory at Green Bay the Vikings have a great shot at getting to 10-1. However, it all starts with a victory at Green Bay this week.
Paul Gantner
Posted October 23rd, 2009 by Paul Gantner
It is going to be a tough battle for the Minnesota Vikings this week at Pittsburgh. Even though the Vikings are 6-0 and the Steelers are 4-2 many are picking the Steelers to come out on top. There is no doubt that the Vikings have been playing good football as of late but there are a couple of areas that the Steelers may have the advantage.
First, the Vikings will be going up against a very strong Pittsburgh defense. This will be a big test for the Minnesota offense. The Pittsburgh defense is ranked third in the NFL in total yardage allowing a mere 275 yards per game. They are very strong at stopping the run allowing just 74 yards per game (2nd in the league) and have not allowed an 100 yard rusher in 24 games. The Steelers are 12th in the league against the pass and this might be a spot the Vikings can take advantage of. The Vikings have looked good on offense and have done a good job a mixing up the run and pass plus minimizing turnovers. The Vikings rank 2nd in points scored a game with an average of 31.5.
Secondly, the Vikings pass defense continues to look average or worse. The way the Ravens easily drove the both down the field last week came was the result of two problems. First, the Vikings are not a very good team in covering the pass. Secondly, the Vikings have have not tackled well. The Vikings allow 248 pass yards a game which ranks 24th in the NFL. To counter this the Steelers are averaging 296 pass yards on offense which is 2nd in the league. So we have a below average pass defense going up against a well above average pass offense. Ben Roethlisberger has been strong as of late and will most likely have plenty of open receivers to throw to. The Vikings at times this year have shown to be capable of putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks and will need to in order stop the Steelers passing attack.
The Vikings will be facing their toughest game of the year and will need to play solid in every area in order to get the win. If the Vikings pass defense doesn’t play a good game it could be a long afternoon for the Vikings. Lets hope that when the Vikings defense lines up against the Steelers offense Antoine Winfield is on the field.
Paul Gantner
Posted October 13th, 2009 by Paul Gantner
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The Minnesota Vikings November 1st game against the Green Bay Packers has been officially moved to 3:15pm, as reported by ProFootballTalk and many other sources. This will be the first time Brett Favre will be playing in Lambeau Field as a member of a team that is not the Packers.
Paul Gantner
Posted October 9th, 2009 by Paul Gantner
Ann Heisenfelt / Associated Press
The Minnesota Vikings were faced with a 3rd and 10 with 3:27 left in the game. The Vikings were ahead 30-20 and the Packers were without a timeout. The Vikings ran the first two downs forcing the Packers to use their last two timeouts. Instead of running the ball on this third down play the Vikings decided to throw the ball down the field. The pass was caught by Bernard Berrian but unfortunately he caught the ball out of bounds. The ruling was an incomplete pass, which was obviously the right call. This resulted in a 4th and 10 for the Vikings with the clock stopped at 3:21. When asked about the play call Brad Childress made the following comments.
“It was a shot to take a chance”, Childress said. “Thinking that they are playing the run and they had no timeouts at that point and time. We could have run it and taken more seconds off the clock and we had discussion on how to do that. We thought that we would get after that guy and we did in fact complete it. But unfortunately [it was] a long foul ball.”
So instead of the Packers getting the ball back with about 2:30 left in the game they got the ball back with 3:10 remaining. The Packers made a great attempt at coming back in this game. If it would have happended this would have been the play that would have been highlighted. If the Vikings would have ran the ball on third down and kept the clock running the Packers most likely would not have had a chance to comeback. Were the Packers really surprised that the Vikings attempted a pass since Favre was in the shotgun? A play action pass from behind center would be a more realistic chance at hitting something deep. A better scenario would have been for Favre to just fall down and take the sack if he did not have a wide open receiver. There is only one play call in this particular situation, you run the ball with two hands around it and stay in bounds. Childress called a good game and had a great game plan against the Green Bay Packers. But the 3rd and 10 call in this situation was just the wrong call.
Paul Gantner
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