Archive for December, 2011

Series: Vikings lead 66-32-2 Last Meeting(s): The Lions beat Minnesota in overtime in Week 3, 26-23. The Vikings led 20-0 at halftime but managed only three more points. Detroit ran for just 20 yards but Matt Stafford threw for 378 yards and two touchdowns, both to Calvin Johnson. Minnesota’s Jared Allen and Brian Robison combined for five sacks while Detroit had four of their own.

Just when you think the Vikings season couldn’t get any worse, another piece of discouragement comes along. Per Jeremy Fowler of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Percy Harvin suffered another migraine headache on Saturday before having a monster game versus the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Percy’s bouts with migraines go back, as he put it, “since kindergarten”. The Vikings knew this when drafting him out of the University of Florida and he has had the occasional bout as a professional with them. The two most publicized of the bunch was during his rookie season in 2009 where he had no [...]

With Adrian Peterson out, Percy Harvin has stepped up for the Vikings to become their home run threat. But now Harvin himself is dealing with an injury, having suffered a torn ligament in his pinky during practice on Wednesday. Of course Harvin is not expected to miss Sunday’s game. It’s going to take a lot more than a torn finger ligament to derail Percy Harvin. The news isn’t so good for Christian Ponder. The Vikings QB missed his second day of practice Thursday with a bruised hip, and it’s looking more and more like Joe Webb will start vs. Detroit. [...]

It’s too early to jump into the NFL Draft with both feet considering it’s only December… Please, we’ll reserve that for the months of February, March and April when the season is officially over. That being said, when big news comes along we’ll subtly work it into our blog. According to Rob Rang of CBS Sports, who is one of the most respected NFL draft gurus in the business, USC left tackle Matt Kalil is “set to return” to school. Kalil is widely considered one of the best offensive lineman prospects not just in this year’s class, but of the [...]

Zac Snyder of SideLion Report helps us catch up with the Motor City Kitties… TVA: Ndamukong Suh is out for this week because of his suspension plus he has that weird car accident thing hanging over his head. Do you worry that this kind of stuff could derail his career, or do you think he’ll outgrow this nonsense? SLR: “Weird” is probably the perfect word to describe this season for Ndamukong Suh. The weirdest part of it all is that it seems out of character to those of us that have had the pleasure of meeting him in person. He’s [...]

Christian Ponder gimped around for most of the game Sunday after taking a blitzing defender’s helmet straight to the hip. This did not prevent the tough young man from throwing for a Vikings rookie record 381 yards. Tough as Ponder may be however, he isn’t Superman. The hip pointer he suffered in the game caused all sorts of swelling, forcing the QB to sit out practice on Wednesday. Don’t worry though fans, Ponder should be fine. His sense of humor is certainly no worse for the wear as demonstrated by the way he joked around in his weekly presser. When [...]

The Ole Gunslinger won’t be back in an NFL uniform for the 2012 season. That’s right… Brett Favre is staying retired. After reports yesterday from Michael C Wright of ESPN Chicago that a current in-shape Favre would indeed listen to the Chicago Bears if they’d call him, reports have came out that the Bears are not interested. Then later tonight Favre released a statement saying “Inspite of reports about playing with various teams, I’m enjoying retirement with my family and have no plans to play football.” Was there really a substance behind this story? Was Michael C Wright correct in [...]

Kyle Rudolph doesn’t get a chance to catch a ton of balls but the ones he does get tend to be highlight reel worthy. His TD grab against Denver was possibly his best so far. Not only did he reach over the defender to make the grab, he also had to hold onto the ball with one hand long enough to complete the process, with a defender trying to slap it away. Brilliant effort all around. Thanks to guys like Rudolph, Percy Harvin and Christian Ponder, the Vikings’ offense seems to be headed in the right direction. Like The Viking [...]

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more. It took a couple of weeks but Jared Allen finally addressed the Ray Edwards junk-punch incident (immortalized by TVA in GIF form). Turns out Jared told Ray before the snap that if Ray blew him up he was going to retaliate by punching him “square in his wiener.” Well Ray indeed blew him up, and Jared, true to his word, gave Ray the pop, though he insists it was only a warning punch. And I’ve now spent two posts talking about a man punching another man in the ‘nads. [...]

A raging debate has broken out over Christian Ponder. On one side are those who think all his errors should be chalked up to inexperience and essentially discounted, and on the other side are those who think that despite his being a rookie he should be assessed honestly and with some eye toward a minimum standard of performance. This debate it seems to me hinges on one major question: How exactly does one go about quantifying the performance of a relatively raw quarterback who any way you slice it is dealing with a situation that is not 100% conducive to [...]