Archive for January, 2009

Mike Smith of the Falcons has been named the Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, beating Miami‘s Tony Sparano by one vote.  Smith took over Atlanta after a tumultuous 2007 season that included the incarceration of former franchise quarterback Michael Vick and the mid-year defection of coach Bobby Petrino, and led them into the playoffs with a rookie playing behind center – an accomplishment that deserves plenty of kudos.  Of course, what Sparano did was no mean feat either – he took a team that finished 1-15, installed a completely new offense with a new quarterback, and went [...]

The Vikings will go into today’s game very thin on the defensive line.  We already knew Ray Edwards was going to be out with an injured knee he suffered last week, and now it’s been announced that Pat Williams will not be able to go either because of his injured shoulder.  Fred Evans will start at defensive tackle and Brian Robison, who’s had his own knee issues, will take Edwards’ place at left defensive end.  Dontarrious Thomas, Marcus Johnson, Darius Reynaud and Letroy Guion are the other Vikings inactives.  The Eagles will have to go without guard Shawn Andrews and [...]

The tickets are sold, the blackout has been averted, now we can forget about all that silly drama and concentrate on the game – the first playoff game in the Metrodome since January 6, 2001 when the Vikings knocked off the New Orleans Saints 34-16 to advance to the NFC Championship Game (where they would be destroyed by the Giants 41-0).  The Eagles come into town as the favorite (which may not be much of a blessing given the way road favorites handled their business yesterday), leaving the Vikings as underdogs once again.  This home dog status, it seems to [...]

The Cardinals team that showed up against the Falcons this afternoon was not the one we saw a few weeks ago in Arizona.  This Cardinals team actually ran the ball – fairly successfully too – and its defense covered and tackled and, most importantly, its offensive line prevented Kurt Warner from being turned into a walking couple hundred pounds of ground beef.  The Falcons, meanwhile…well, Matt Ryan didn’t look all that great against us either, but we kept turning the ball over and that allowed Atlanta to win the game.  It was a great season for Ryan, who many thought [...]

I honestly thought I had a better chance of seeing Michael Bennett stocking shelves at a Home Depot than ever playing in an NFL game again, but I’ll be darned, there he was tonight running the ball for the San Diego Chargers as they took on the Indianapolis Colts in first-round playoff action.  Bennett, it’s widely believed, was only signed by San Diego to keep him away from Denver, the running back-challenged team the Chargers had to beat to clinch the AFC West.  However, an injury to LaDainian Tomlinson (it’s playoff time so you know LT will be on the [...]

The Vikings announced that they have sold the last 3,100 tickets they needed to sell to keep the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area from suffering a TV blackout.  So all you folks who were planning to drop in on friends or perhaps find a bar in Duluth (where the game was going to be televised no matter what) – you can stay home now.  Good thing too because we’re having a blizzard up here in the Northern Minnesota/Northern Wisconsin area.  Our power will probably go out tomorrow so we’ll be screwed instead.

Sportz Assassin of AOL’s Fanhouse was nice enough to invite me to participate in a Behind Enemy Lines segment previewing tomorrow’s playoff tilt between the Vikings and the Eagles.  I’m having a hard time deciding which of my insights is most brilliant…maybe this one about what advantage I think the Vikes have over Philly: I think the Vikings have much more of a grinding, never-say-die attitude than the Eagles. You look at the way the season went for Philly, there were games where they just didn’t show up at all, and you sort of scratch your head. The Vikes had [...]

The latest update has the Vikings needing to sell 3,100 more tickets before 3:30 pm CT tomorrow or have the Eagles game be blacked out in the Twin Cities.  The original deadline was 3:30 pm CT today but, obviously, the NFL offered an extension.  As of yesterday there were 8,000 tickets left so I guess there’s still a chance those last 3,100 could sell in the next 24 hours.  All indications are there will be no big corporate ticket-buy so those seats will have to go legitimately. Plenty of possible explanations for why this fiasco happened in the first place [...]

Judd Zulgad reports in Access Vikings that Pat Williams worked out with the third team during the media portion of practice today, and says it’s looking “more and more like [Williams] will sit out for a third consecutive game because of a broken right shoulder blade.”  Well, maybe.  Or, maybe Brad Childress had Williams working out with the third team for the media portion because he wants the Eagles to think he’s not going to play, then – presto, whammo – Pat comes out starting on Sunday all raring to go and the Eagles are totally flabbergasted.  That’s why Chilly [...]

A story a fellow FSB writer discovered on a forum about the kind of stuff people are encountering while attempting to purchase tickets to the Eagles game (which remains in danger of being blacked out): …anyway, here’s what happened today. My friend and I GOT PLAYOFF TICKETS!!!! WHOOOO!!!! So I go down to the Metrodome with my dad to buy the tickets, and call the Vikings ticket office. They tell me to go to gate B. You don’t have to know the dome, just imagine a stadium. I go there, and it’s closed, we have to go to gate D. [...]