ESPN is reporting that Brad Childress has received a contract extension through the 2013 season, which will pay him between $4 and $5 million per year.

In other words, barring any unforeseen changes in the team’s fortunes, Chillyball will be in effect long after Brett Favre is gone, and even after the Metrodome lease has expired, forcing the team to move to Los Angeles.

The obvious question now is:  Does Chilly deserve this extension?

On the basis of this season, the answer would have to be yes.  The Vikings are 8-1 largely thanks to Chilly begging Brett Favre to come out of retirement and save him from the quarterback fiasco he created by reaching to draft the clueless Tarvaris Jackson.  Plus, Chilly was responsible for drafting Percy Harvin, after paying a personal visit to Percy’s family to see if he was as big a potential turd as many supposed draft experts claimed he was.

Chilly also rolled the dice on the Jared Allen trade, bringing in the All-Pro defensive end at a time when he was one strike away from being suspended a season under the substance abuse policy.  Allen has kept his nose clean since then, while developing into a major media presence and an all-around crazy mofo.

And of course there was Chilly’s move to draft Adrian Peterson even though many thought him injury-prone.  In three seasons, Peterson already has over 4,000 yards, and has developed a reputation as one of the most irresistible forces in the NFL.

Did I mention that Chilly also drafted Sidney Rice, signed Bernard Berrian and plucked Visanthe Shiancoe out of obscurity to give him a starting job?

The point I’m making here is, a lot of Chilly’s success has come about because of personnel decisions which were not entirely his (Rick Spielman and Rob Brzezinski deserve props too, as do the Wilfs for opening their pocket books and leaving them open).  Chilly does apparently deserve most of the credit  for the biggest personnel decision of his entire career and potentially the entire history of the Vikings:  adding #4 to the mix.

Whether Chilly is as much an offensive and game-managing mastermind as he is an apparent talent-recognition guru remains an open question.  Some would argue that the team has won, at times, in spite of Chilly.  Others would probably say “Hey, you’ve hammered the guy for years for running a boring offense, now we have an awesome offense so give him his props.”

Maybe Chilly deserves those props.  The question here is, does he deserve them to the tune of $4-5 million per year for the next 4 seasons?

Like I said before, 2013 will carry Chilly well beyond Brett Favre’s retirement (unless Brett plans on playing till he’s 44).  The offense was mediocre before Favre, it has become explosive with Favre, and after Favre leaves?  Who knows.

Only thing I’m sure of is, when Chilly starts collecting on the new contract, his first move should be to cut Brett a check.  Cause without Favre here doing what he’s been doing, this extension would not have happened.

What’s better than Favre Cam?  How about Favre wearing a mic?  Favre slapping his teammates on the ass?  Favre playfully taunting defensive linemen?  Favre funning Sidney Rice for having 200 yards and no touchdowns?

The Vikings are having a great season, and some of the folks cheering them on are doing so from half a world away, in the middle of Iraq.

Thanks to the magic of satellite TV, Viking fans from the 34th Infantry Division got to enjoy Sunday’s victory over the Lions from the comfort of a tent on the Contingency Operating Base in Basra.  Give or take a few plays lost to satellite freeze.

To make the whole occasion more festive, Captain Dustin Snare whipped out his Nordic war horn and gave it a few blows.

At halftime, some soldiers were able to talk via satellite with family members who were themselves enjoying the hospitality of the Vikings on the field at the Metrodome.

And the best news?  The Vikings won.  Which made for a whole lot of happy Purple Fans, both here in the States and over in Basra.

A full account of the occasion has been written up by Spc. Samuel Soza and is posted on TheRedBulls.org, the official site of the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division.

10 points on the Vikings’ somewhat mistake-ridden victory over the Lions…

1.  The Vikings have not been dogged by penalties this year; in fact, they were one of the least-penalized teams going into Sunday’s game.  This was a somewhat stunning reversal from recent years when the team basically drove us nuts by getting called for dumb things (90% of which were Ryan Cook’s fault).  Against the Lions, they reverted to that previous infuriating form, getting hit with 13 flags for 91 yards.  When you draw that much laundry, the natural reaction is to think the refs were just overdoing it, but in this case, the Vikings deserved pretty much every one of those.  And I include the Ray Edwards helmet-to-helmet hit which, going by the rules as they presently exist, could not have been called any other way.  Booing the refs for that was silly; the league deserves the criticism for being overzealous in their efforts to protect the quarterback, the refs are just calling it the way they’re told.  That should’ve been a highlight defensive play for Edwards, but instead, it was a personal foul and probably a fine.

2.  There was no excuse earlier this season when Adrian Peterson got stripped by Clay Matthews who proceeded to run the fumble into the end zone for six, and there was no excuse yesterday when Phillip Buchanon caught him from behind and popped the ball out to prevent six.  Peterson can’t give up the ball there, period.  And yes, I know he’s been better this year about the fumbling, but he needs to get even better.  He needs to not assume he’s faster than everyone on the other team and can’t be caught from behind.  I give him a pass on the failed toss to Percy Harvin because that play never should’ve been called in the first place.

3.  Speaking of dumb playcalls:  A hand-off to Jeff Dugan on fourth-and-short when you know the strength of the Lions’ defense is right in the middle of their line?  Instead of just kicking the damn field goal?  Or at least running a play-action or handing off to Adrian Peterson?  Every week Chilly does something like this and gets hammered for it by the national media.  That’s why you’re not hearing his name being mentioned in Coach of the Year talk.  People think this guy is the beneficiary of great talent, and not some master orchestrator.  They think he’s just a lucky SOB (except for the hair thing).

4.  Sidney Rice is now one of the most dangerous deep threats in the league, right up there with Randy Moss.  You can tell Brett Favre has great confidence in him and is not afraid to throw it to him in any situation or against any coverage.  Favre now believes that he can throw it up there and Sidney will find a way to catch it.  Too bad we can’t find a way to use Sidney more in the red zone and get him some touchdowns (he only has two; if he doesn’t pad that, it might keep him out of the Pro Bowl).

5.  Leslie Frazier dialed up some mean pressure yesterday and kept it going pretty much the whole game.  And I think that pressure really threw Matthew Stafford off and caused him to miss what could’ve been big passes as the game wore on.  Obviously, with a young QB like Stafford, the book says to blitz him, and the Vikings did.  Of course, their D-line got plenty of pressure itself, especially from Ray Edwards who played like a man possessed.  And it helped that Calvin Johnson looks like he really doesn’t enjoy playing football right now and would prefer that Stafford throw it to someone else.

6.  Starting to wonder if the main problem with the Vikings’ running game isn’t a lack of blocking from tight ends and receivers.  Seems like when Adrian gets stuffed it’s mostly on the plays that are designed to go around the edge.  His big runs tend to happen when the play goes inside and he breaks a tackle or otherwise makes someone miss.

7.  Despite all the stumbling and mistakes, there were plenty of offensive highlights.  My favorite was not one of Sidney Rice’s three ridiculous long catches (one of which should’ve resulted in a pass interference penalty on Rice) or one of Adrian’s runs – it was Percy Harvin’s big play where he bounced off the guy – I think it was Jason Hunter but I forget now – and kept running.  Clearly, Percy is a guy you have to wrap up securely.

8.  Which of yesterday’s myriad penalties was the most infuriating?  The Ray Edwards one was bad because it negated such an awesomely athletic play, and the Brian Robison offsides on the punt was worse because it gave the Lions a first down, but the one that got under my skin the most was an offsides by Cedric Griffin on an extra-point that let the Lions kick off from five yards further up, allowing Jason Hanson to kick it through the end zone and thereby rob Percy Harvin of a shot at a return.  Jumping offsides on a punt is stupid and unforgivable, but going offsides on a freaking extra point?  Did Griffin have ants in his saggy pants or something?

9.  Kudos to Brian Robison for fielding a punt and not trying to run with it like he did with that kick against the Packers where he fumbled and gave them a chance to get back in the game.  Who says a knucklehead can’t learn?

10.  I don’t want to say the NFC North race is over, but, we lead the Packers by 3 games and it’s actually 4 because we have every tiebreaker over them, and we lead the Bears by 4 with two to play against them and they’re in such disarray that I can’t see them getting better than a split.  So, yeah, I guess I’m saying the NFC North race is over.

Not AD’s most shining moment.  I guess he didn’t think anyone could catch him and relaxed his hold on the ball.

The Vikings ended up winning handily against the Lions, but that doesn’t mean things went according to plan.

Unless the plan included getting called for 13 penalties for 91 yards, seeing Adrian Peterson fumble twice and having the one-win Lions stay in the game until the early fourth quarter.

Luckily for the Vikings, every time it looked like things were about to head south for them, somebody stepped up and made a play.  And most of the time, that somebody was Sidney Rice.

The Vikings’ now-undisputed #1 receiver failed to crack the end zone, but did go over 200 yards on 7 catches, including a trio of huge bombs, the last of which set up the touchdown that put the game away for the Vikes.

AD came up big too, despite the two fumbles, running for 133 yards and two scores.

And Brett Favre didn’t have himself a bad game either, throwing for 344 yards and 1 TD, and posting a 120.5 passer rating.

The defense was led by Ray Edwards, who notched 2 sacks and 3 tackles for loss, and would’ve made the biggest defensive play of the game, vaulting a would-be blocker to hit Matthew Stafford and force a fumble, had he not struck Stafford’s helmet in the process, drawing a penalty.

The overall storyline was simple to sum up:  The Vikings kept shooting themselves in the foot, but the Lions were not good enough to capitalize, allowing the Vikings’ playmakers to bail them out, and ultimately deliver the victory.

The Vikings dominated the first half vs. the Lions, at least on the statsheet.  That domination might have extended to the scoreboard had the team not committed a series of boneheaded gaffes.

It started early, with Jim Kleinsasser getting called for a false start that cost the team a chance to punch the ball into the end zone.  They would settle for a field goal and a 3-0 lead.

Things could’ve really turned around then for the Lions, who were given a gift first down when Brian Robison went offsides on a punt.  Jason Hanson, however, missed on a 48-yard field goal attempt, leaving the score at 3-0.

Penalties weren’t the Vikings’ only enemies; they had killing turnovers too.  Adrian Peterson was charged with a fumble when an attempted toss to Percy Harvin on a reverse play went awry.  Then, after breaking a tackle and apparently busting through for a long touchdown sprint, Peterson was caught from behind by Phillip Buchanon who punched the ball out, leading to a touchback for Detroit.

Thankfully for the Vikings, Brett Favre was able to complete a couple of long passes to Sidney Rice in amongst the Keystone Kops crap, and Peterson managed to hold onto the ball for one touchdown scamper.

It looked like the Vikes might escape the first half without surrendering a point to Detroit, but the Lions got their offense together for the final drive of the second quarter – mostly by throwing it to Calvin Johnson – and cut the score to 10-3.

The Vikings had better clean up the sloppiness or the Lions just might jump up and bite them in the second half.

When last we saw the Vikings on the field, they were fending off the scrappy but overmatched Packers to sweep that particular season series and bump their record to 7-1.

Since then, the Bears and Packers have both suffered more embarrassing losses and fallen further behind.  As we roll into Week 10, the NFC North race is on the verge of becoming a rout.

The Vikings can take another step toward putting away a second straight division crown with a victory today over the Lions.  In the teams’ first meeting, back in Week 2, Detroit took an early 10-0 lead, only to watch the Vikings score 27 unanswered on their way to an easy 27-13 win.

Since then, the Lions have managed to win but a single game – still one more than they won all last season – while the Vikings have asserted themselves as one of the powers of the NFL.

Detroit will face a different Minnesota team than the one they saw in Ford Field 8 weeks ago.  That Vikings squad was still feeling its way with Brett Favre as quarterback.  Now, The Favre has settled in to the offense, and developed a rapport with his receivers.  The inconsistent attack of the early season has been replaced by a prolific one.

This spells trouble for a Detroit defense that has surrendered nearly 30 points/game, and languishes near the bottom of all the statistical rankings.

Of course, conventional wisdom says that the Lions always play the Vikings tough, even in the Metrodome.  If ever there was a time to throw out conventional wisdom, however, this would be it.

Everything – and I mean everything – sets up for the Vikings to rout the Lions.  Minnesota is coming off a bye week rested and rejuvenated.  Brett Favre, despite myriad little nagging physical complaints, looks like he’s at the top of his game; and remember that Favre has thrown more TD passes against the Lions than any other team.

Defensively, the Vikes will once again be without star cornerback Antoine Winfield, but that might not matter against the Lions’ rookie QB Matthew Stafford, who threw five picks in his last game, and today will have to contend with a ferocious – and well-rested – Vikings pass rush (that, thanks to the development of Ray Edwards, now comes from more than just Jared Allen’s direction).

And then there’s Adrian Peterson.

It was a slightly frustrating first half for AD, who broke 100 yards only twice, and had but a single truly dominant performance, all the way back in Week 1 against the Browns.  In the first game vs. the Lions, Peterson ran for 92 yards on just 15 carries, and scored a 27 yard TD in the middle of the 3rd to give the Vikings the lead.

Still, despite the “disappointment” of the first half, Peterson’s per-carry average remains exactly where it was at the end of 2008 – 4.8 yards/run – and he is 3rd in the league in touchdowns with 9.  This week, a sure-to-be-frisky AD faces a Lions defense that will be without starting linebacker Ernie Sims, may be missing a second starting linebacker in Larry Foote, and has been banged up on the line all season.

As if the Lions didn’t have enough bad news, this week Darrell Bevell said Steve Hutchinson is feeling better after being nagged by a bad back since preseason.   A fully functioning Hutch should mean slightly bigger holes for Peterson, who hasn’t always had the benefit of a dominating offensive line in ‘09.

Predictions are not my bag, but I’m willing to throw one out there this week and say that Adrian will top 150 and score at least 2 touchdowns.  Like I said before, forget about that “the Lions always play the Vikings tough” refrain.  It doesn’t matter this week.

This week, the Vikings are one of the best in the NFL and the Lions are one of the worst, and it will show on the field.  At minimum, we can expect a three touchdown runaway for the Vikings.  And if the Lions turn the ball over a couple of times, the Vikes could creep over the 4o point mark for the first time this season.

Is there any feeling more wonderful than mid-season cockiness?

When Fran Tarkenton criticizes quarterbacks, people listen, and often get very angry.

This summer, after Fran made negative remarks about Brett Favre, saying he could never accept the former Packer legend as a Viking, certain (unthinking and ungrateful) members of Purple Nation made Tarkenton numero uno on their crazy Kool-Aid drinker shit-list, calling him all sorts of names from “crazy old man” to “bitter jealous hater.”

Since then, Favre has played brilliantly enough to shut up all his critics, including Tarkenton.  Meaning Fran has had to find a different NFC North quarterback to train his bitter, hating, jealous, demented sights on.

Luckily for Fran, there is an NFC North quarterback who is both high profile enough to be worthy of his scorn, and is playing badly enough to deserve plenty of bashing.  And that quarterback currently plays for the Chicago Bears, a team Fran can rip without fear of Viking fan backlash.

Speaking on ESPN 1000 in Chicago, Fran went off on Mr. Cutler, who leads the league with 17 interceptions (14 more than Mr. Favre).

“I really question whether he can play,” Tarkenton raved. “Quarterbacks need to make their team better. If it’s a bad team, they can even make a bad team better. Somebody may say well, even Peyton Manning couldn’t help the Bears. Yes, he could. Tom Brady could, too. They might not win the championship or get to the playoffs, but they would make that team better. Those wide receivers who are struggling would be better because they would make them better.”

“Great quarterbacks, good quarterbacks, make plays,” Tarkenton continued. “Mechanics is overwrought. Whether they’re strong-armed, weak-armed, throw sidearm, throw overhead, they’re fast, they’re quick, I don’t care. I just want someone to make plays. Peyton Manning doesn’t look beautiful back there.

“Jay Cutler had every opportunity to make plays for his team [Thursday against the 49ers] and every opportunity he didn’t. That’s how I judge a quarterback: Either you make plays or you don’t. I don’t even want to talk about mechanics.”

Tarkenton then said something that probably has every coach and offensive coordinator in the league wanting to strangle him:

“If Jay Cutler is not comfortable with the offense or the way they are calling the plays, he ought to go in there and tell that coach [expletive].  Dan Fouts came into the league and for the first couple of years he was struggling. He said, ‘What do you do?’ I said, ‘Dan, if you’re not willing to go tell your head coach or your coordinator to kiss off, then you can’t play quarterback in this league.’

“I don’t think that will solve the problems of the Chicago Bears. The Chicago Bears need to start over. But for Jay Cutler to be a quarterback and make plays, he’s got to take charge.”

So, basically, Fran’s solution to the Bears’ problems is for Cutler to start screaming at Ron Turner and Lovie Smith.

Maybe the people who called him old and out of it had a point after all.  Or, maybe this is all part of some master scheme of Fran’s to further sink the Bears’ ship by fomenting discord between Cutler and the coaching staff.

Luckily for the Bears, though people like me and the Favre-suckers listen to Fran, I doubt Cutler does.

Antoine Winfield got back onto the practice field this week, for the first time since injuring his foot early in the Vikings‘ win over the Ravens.

Mostly Winfield was just testing the foot to see how it felt, and did not participate in any drills.  This should’ve been the first hint that he was not seriously targeting this Sunday’s game vs. the Lions as the date of his return.  And, in fact, today Winfield made it official, by announcing he will not suit up against Detroit.

“I’m close,” Winfield explained. “I’ve been working the last, what, four weeks, three weeks trying to get this injury [healed]. … I feel like next week. I’ve been out the last couple of days running on it, testing it. It’s good going forward but I still have a little problem cutting. But I would say next week I should be OK.”

Next week, the Vikings play the Seahawks, who have a veteran quarterback in Matt Hasselbeck and some legitimate receivers in Nate Burleson and the disgruntled T.J. Houshmandzadeh.  This week they play the Lions who have a green rookie quarterback in Matthew Stafford, one good receiver in Calvin Johnson and…not a hell of a lot else.

In other words, the Vikings should be able to handle Detroit without Winfield.

Resting him one more week is the prudent and sensible decision, and we know that Brad Childress is nothing if not prudent and sensible (except when he gets his hands on a tube of lipstick).