Archive for December, 2011

TVA is tired of writing negative blog posts in this lost season. It’s really been an awful one, yet football is a sport that is meant to be celebrated with the highs of winning being so much stronger than the lows of losing. So with what’s left of the last three weeks we’ll try our best to be positive and hope that things improved. One positive thing that’s not gone unnoticed is how tight end Kyle Rudolph has two folks talking whose opinion matters in the grand scheme of things. This past week wide receiver Percy Harvin said on Rudolph, [...]

The Vikings rotating door of wide receivers is spinning again. Today the Vikings moved Stephen Burton to injured reserve ending his season and promoted Emmanuel Arceneaux from the practice squad. Burton was a 7th round pick that was active the last two weeks. His most memorable play was actually in the preseason where he batted down a Hail Mary. Oh and in the regular season he caught 2 balls for 38 yards when the season was already lost. The Vikings also tinkered with his spot waiving him in November then brought him back once Michael Jenkins was moved to injured [...]

It’s safe to say Cedric Griffin was not happy about being yanked from Sunday’s game. After watching Cedric fail to execute proper Cover-2 technique on Titus Young’s 57-yard TD catch, Leslie Frazier decided it was time for his veteran CB to take a seat. Cedric never got back in the game. Afterward Griffin had some pretty strong words about Frazier’s decision and his (at this point certainly non-existent) future with the team. “I’m not too worried about it. My skills are what they are right now,” Griffin said. “That’s what [Frazier] felt he needed to do. I’m going to keep [...]

Part of being a professional quarterback and the leader of a team is answering tough questions. Christian Ponder had plenty of such questions to field after being benched Sunday for being too loose with the ball, and the rookie proved that he knows the right things to say after that kind of debacle. He took responsibility for his poor play and didn’t use his injured hip as an alibi. “I wasn’t playing well enough,” Ponder told reporters in the wake of the Vikings’ 34-28 defeat. “I was hurting the team instead of helping the team. I was excited to see [...]

The Vikings may be losers but at least they’re entertaining losers. For the second straight week they hung with a playoff team and had a chance to win it late, only to watch a turnover end their hopes for a thrilling upset. Things got crazy for the Vikings in the second half, starting with Christian Ponder being benched (maybe to protect his injured hip, maybe to protect Leslie Frazier from having to watch him throw any more interceptions). Enter Joe Webb, who promptly ran for a 66-yard touchdown. The Lions’ offense should’ve come out after that and shut the door [...]

31-14 looks bad but…okay it was bad. But it wasn’t all bad. The Vikings did put together a couple of nice-looking TD drives and had a chance for a third until Christian Ponder missed a couple of deep balls to Devin Aromashodu. Ponder looked snappy orchestrating those two scoring drives. Unfortunately he also threw two picks and lost a fumble. One of the picks was for six points and the fumble was also returned for a TD. The Lions also torched the Vikings secondary for an early score, leading to Cedric Griffin’s (long overdue) benching. The Vikings were able to [...]

The Vikings will have to try and stop their 4 game losing streak without their best offensive player. Per Will Carroll of Sports Illustrated, running back Adrian Peterson has been ruled out. Toby Gerhart will obviously start in his place. Also per Chris Mortensen of ESPN, quarterback Christian Ponder did “not look comfortable” trying to move around during pre-game warm-ups. The good news for Ponder is that he is trying to give it a go and will earn the respect of his teammates. The bad news is he tends to rely on scrambling and throwing on the move and it [...]

Is there a single sane, rational adult who thinks the Vikings have a shot against Detroit today? I mean besides the players. Of course they think they have a shot, but that’s just the never-say-die athlete mentality. Regular non-willfully-delusional humans all pretty much agree: the Vikings are in for an ass-whupping against Detroit. Writing a game preview when you know your team has no chance and you yourself have emotionally checked out on the whole thing is somewhat difficult but I will press on. Okay, so how can the Vikings beat Detroit? Well I suppose Adrian Peterson could pull a [...]

Controversial comments? What controversial comments? Jared Allen and Gunther Cunningham are just having some fun. Jared said on KFAN that if he lived in Detroit he’d drown himself, and Gunther responded by saying Jared isn’t tough enough for Detroit. Then Gunther assured everyone he loves Jared (they were together in Kansas City after all). But he warned Jared that if he does take a wrong turn while driving around Detroit…look out, cowboy. Gunther talks Jared starting at around 1:55 of the video. We await comment from members of the Saints coaching staff on Jared’s remarks about New Orleans being like [...]

Christian Ponder is back on the practice field despite his injured hip, but this is no guarantee the rookie QB will start Sunday against Detroit. Joe Webb will still likely get the nod from Leslie Frazier who is in full “protect my stars” mode. If the Vikes decide to deactivate Ponder, Sage Rosenfels would get his long-awaited promotion to #2 QB. Sage Rosenfels one injury away from finally taking a snap in a regular season game for the Vikings? Who says there’s nothing left to look forward to this season? The news on Ponder returning to practice is good and [...]