Archive for October, 2011

The Bears team the Vikings face Sunday night at Soldier Field won’t be the same one that got soundly beaten on Monday night in Detroit. In the wake of that dismal performance the Bears have elected to shake up their line-up, benching right tackle Frank Omiyale and safeties Brandon Meriweather and Chris Harris. There’s also a good chance they will be without noted Viking-tormentor Julius Peppers who sprained his MCL against the Lions. Lovie Smith will replace Omiyale with Lance Louis, a seventh round pick who has started 4 games in his career. Chris Conte and Major Wright will step [...]

Bill Musgrave is slowly winning us over this week. Last night a post was written on how we should be patient with him and tonight his comments suggest that we’ll be seeing more of a wide receiver that has thrived when being given the chance. When Musgrave was asked on Devin Aromashodu today he said, “He’s given us a spark, for sure. The emergence of Devin has helped us achieve some chunks and we’re always looking for chunks of yardage… Devin’s had two the last two games and we’d love to build on that and keep featuring him as often [...]

It’s been a long time coming for Phil Loadholt, but the massive offensive tackle is finally beginning to fulfill the promise he showed when the Vikings drafted him in the second round out of Oklahoma. Thrown into the fray as a rookie in 2009, Loadholt held his own, helping protect Brett Favre on his way to one of his best statistical years. Things went backward in 2010 however, not just for Loadholt but the entire offensive line. 2011 looked like it would be a much better campaign for Loadholt, especially after he showed up in camp in the best shape [...]

We’ve bashed Bill Musgrave intensely on TVA. Everything from not pushing the ball downfield to suspect play calling to poor pass protection to relying too heavily on Adrian Peterson to not relying on our All World running back enough. But while this is not a blog post to say Musgrave should immediately be crowned as a Head Coach in waiting like we once had with Brian Billick… He certainly has done better in 2011 than a once hot candidate who interviewed for the job. Josh McDaniels (otherwise known as Baby Hoodie from his days serving under Bill Belichick in New [...]

Nils: Bernard Berrian is back at practice with the Vikings and Leslie Frazier says he’s still an important member of the wide receiver corps. Did I ever tell you the story about my cousin Hjalmar who used to think he could make sticks start on fire just by staring at them? Never once did Hjalmar succeed in actually pulling off this miracle but nevertheless he went to his grave believing if he just concentrated hard enough he could make flames leap from that darned stick. Leslie Frazier is starting to remind me of cousin Hjalmar. In the end everyone just [...]

Bernard Berrian has nothing to say about his benching on Sunday. Nothing to say about the two meetings he reportedly missed on Saturday. Nothing to say about Devin Aromashodu catching as many balls in one game as Berrian himself has all year. When asked on Wednesday about the benching Berrian replied, “That’s old news, I’m already over it. That’s already past. Can’t do nothing about it now.” When asked about the missed meetings Berrian responded, “Frazier already described that and already talked about that.” When asked if he still thinks he can contribute to the team Berrian said, “Yes, I’m [...]

Endless questions about his performance are starting to put Donovan McNabb in a foul mood. The Vikings quarterback, who is at the bottom of the heap in most statistical categories so far in 2011, is especially sick of reporters grilling him about that certain word that starts with “m.” “This whole mechanics thing is getting out of hand,” McNabb shot back when the subject came up against during Wednesday’s presser. ”Somebody says something about mechanics — everybody works on your mechanics, no matter what position you play. You watch the film and you try to work on different techniques. This whole [...]

Great Day in the morning! The Honolulu Blues look as strong as ever. They have won their last 9 regular season games in a row going back to last season. This past Monday was the first time Detroit had hosted a MNF game in 10 years and the Mo City Kitties did not disappoint. For most of the season I thought the Kitties were trying to emulate the Green, Yellow, and Hunter Orange from Wisconsin. Last season the Pack only ran the ball to appease the fans. After all those RBs can’t be getting all that jack and not do [...]

The sports media world is abuzz this morning with the news of Tim Tebow’s promotion to starting quarterback in Denver. John Fox stuck with Kyle Orton as long as he could, but a 1-4 start forced his hand. Now the second-year man Tebow will finally get a chance to prove his doubters wrong. Whatever happens, you can bet the media will be all over this story like teenage girls on Justin Bieber. For whatever reason, Tebow just attracts that kind of attention. It was clearly never John Fox’s intention to give Tebow this chance at this time. In a perfect [...]

Very few football writers are as well connected as Sports Illustrated’s Jim Trotter. He’s been in the business for over 25 years, used to cover the San Diego Chargers for the Union-Tribune and has built up a national following the point he has over 40,000 followers on Twitter. When Trotter speaks, other writers listen and oftentimes formulate their own stories. So when Trotter took to Twitter today he stated several revealing things on where Donovan McNabb is in his career. Those tweets went as followed… @SI_JimTrotter some thoughts on donovan mcnabb as i leave minneapolis … @SI_JimTrotter 1) spoke to [...]