Archive for October, 2010

The Vikings have a ton of guys listed on the injury report this week, but as things stand now, it appears safety Husain Abdullah, who suffered a concussion when his head went into Felix Jones‘ thigh during a tackle attempt on Sunday, is the only one who will be out for the Packer game. Chris Cook is expected to make his return after his second meniscus tear of the season.  Cook will not be starting though; instead, Asher Allen will get the start at right corner.  Cook is expected to be the nickelback, and not Lito Sheppard who sort of [...]

Players from all over the NFL are speaking out – sometimes passionately, sometimes profanely – against the controversial new illegal hit rules.  This includes Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who after viewing the league’s helpful training video about what is now legal and what is not, took to his popular @ChrisWarcraft Twitter account to offer his pointedly satiric take, presented in the form of a diagram.  Chris’ main objection apparently is that the league has no intention of protecting punters like it protects quarterbacks and wide receivers.  Fight the power, Kluwe. Follow FanSided on Facebook. Follow The Viking Age on Twitter.

Thanks to the guys at the Packers blog Ol’ Bag of Donuts for inviting me to participate in their Q&A for this week, and also for allowing me to hit them with five questions about the Packers.  Here’s what the Ol’ Bag of Donuts gang had to say about their favorite (soon to be 3-4) team… TVA: The Packers running game has become a big issue again since the injury to Ryan Grant.  Brandon Jackson did have one good game against Washington but people don’t seem sold on him.  Do you think the Packers should’ve addressed this issue via trade [...]

Aaron Rodgers is widely considered to be one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL, but you wouldn’t know it from the way he’s played at times in 2010.  Over the past two games especially, Rodgers has performed below expectations – and not coincidentally, the Packers lost both of those games. Week 5 at Washington, Rodgers completed only 27-of-46 passes, threw for just one touchdown and tossed the overtime interception that set up Washington’s game-winning field goal.  Last weekend against Miami, Rodgers connected on 18-of-33 for 313 yards, much of that coming on one huge play to Greg Jennings, [...]

A review of all the hits Brett Favre took during Sunday’s 24-21 Vikings win over the Cowboys. Hit 1:  12:26 of the first quarter.  1st and 10 on the Minnesota 29.  Vikings line up with Jeff Dugan at tight end left, Jim Kleinsasser at h-back left, Adrian Peterson in the backfield, Randy Moss split right and Percy Harvin left.  Favre under center.  The Cowboys rush five.  Dugan and Kleinsasser both go out in the pattern.  Peterson looks like he is running a route but it’s hard to tell because he trips getting through the line (it may have been a [...]

It appears that the Vikings have let the NFL trade deadline come and go without making a deal. This news should come as a surprise to no one after the Vikings made a splash two weeks ago bringing back someone by the name of Randy Moss. Checking other teams in the league, today was about as amusing as watching ice melt. A couple of weeks ago the only player I felt had a punchers chance of being moved was Tyrell Johnson. Johnson was last years starting strong safety and has fallen to third string slash occasionally being inactive status. Maybe [...]

With the Cowboys game in the rearview mirror and Packer week just getting cranked up, it’s time to take a second and address Brett Favre‘s little problem.  Today Favre is scheduled to meet with an NFL investigator at a secret location in the Twin Cities to discuss the inappropriate behavior he allegedly engaged in while a member of the Jets.  The prevailing wisdom seems to be that, since the women on the other side of the allegations don’t seem very willing to speak to the league themselves about what happened, this whole matter will be quickly dropped, allowing everyone to [...]

Randy Moss may not have been a huge factor on the field Sunday afternoon, but many on the Vikings are nonetheless crediting him with pushing the team to victory. It wasn’t anything Randy did between the white lines that has his teammates gushing.  Rather, it was what he said to them – or, more properly, screamed at them – during halftime. With the Vikings trailing 14-7 after another half of offensive ineptitude, Randy – a guy not exactly known for his leadership – reportedly took it upon himself to rally the troops.  Nobody seems to want to repeat exactly what [...]

While much is being made today of the Vikings back in the mix of the NFC North with the rest of the division losing, Percy Harvin’s kickoff return for a TD to start the 3rd quarter, Randy Moss revving up the team with a halftime speech & Brett Favre’s upcoming meeting with someone of the NFL’s front office on a certain activities involving his cell phone; the time has come to give credit to two guys who aren’t being talked about all too much but who’s contributions were every bit as important to our win today. And both of them [...]

The Vikings looked like they were headed for another disappointing loss…until Percy Harvin lit a fire under them with a 95-yard kick return touchdown to start the second half.  This was the second straight week that Harvin really came up huge in the second half for the Vikings. Follow FanSided on Facebook. Follow The Viking Age on Twitter.