Game Day Thoughts

It is fantastic to have the regular officials back.

The Minnesota Vikings end an eleven game losing streak against division foes in their 20-13 victory over the Detroit Lions. At 3-1, the Vikings equaled their win total of a year ago. In the fourth week of this season.

Nice start to a game. Percy Harvin takes the opening kickoff 105 yards for an immediate touchdown. Percy Harvin is a beast!

Then Marcus Sherels. Pesky, little backup corner took a punt back 77 yards for a touchdown the first time the Vikings touched the ball in the second half. Sherels has a nice little football story. Earned a training camp invite after an open tryout a few years ago. Earned a spot on the practice squad that year. Kept plugging away until he earned the punt return job last year. The Vikings keep looking for a more explosive player but no one can take the job from the steady Sherels. His extremely reliable hands and nifty little moves keep him in the lineup. He had yet to hit that big return until yesterday.

Also a beast, Adrian Peterson ran for 102 yards on 21 carries. He added another 20 yards on receptions. He was inches from running for a long ways on several occasions. His cuts and power are strong. There may still be some rust to shake off but Adrian Peterson is back. He kept the chains and the clock moving yesterday.

This win was on the defense. They were terrific all day against one of the most explosive offenses in the league. Until the late desperation touchdown, the Lions could only manage two field goals. The defensive line got sacks when they needed them. Keeping a quarterback like Matthew Stafford from even attempting a pass is the best way to stop a quarterback like Stafford. Defensive end Everson Griffen sacked Stafford on fourth down in the red zone to end the Lions first real scoring threat in the second half. It was tense at the end when the Lions had the last position in a seven point game. Griffen and Jared Allen kept Stafford from even attempting a Hail Mary with a sack. The defense preserved a lead the entire game and kept a high scoring team from coming back at the end. The defense is making strides every week.

With two touchdowns on returns, a strong defensive performance and productive running from Peterson, Toby Gerhart and even Harvin this game the Vikings were strikingly similar to some of the Chicago Bears teams of several years ago. Those Bears rode games like this into the Super Bowl in 2006. I could live with that.

Antoine Winfield played like he is 26 rather than 36. Maybe he can play corner as long as  Darrell Green.

Rookie safety Harrison Smith had some big plays on Detroit Lions All-Everything receiver Calvin Johnson. He broke up a sure touchdown with a well timed hit. The other was nearly an interception.

Fellow safety Jamarca Sanford made his presence felt with a forced fumble after a big run by Mikel LeShoure. He continued his big play ways by recovering that fumble.

It's been a very long time since Vikings highlights came from the safety position.

The Vikings safeties had 14 total passes defensed all of last season. Smith and Sanford had 6 yesterday.

I actually came into this game worried about Sanford. He's a tough, solid tackling defender. Excellent special teams player. He's just prone to some errors in the defensive backfield. The Lions can kill you if the slightest mistake is made. He was forced into a starting role when Mistral Raymond went down with an ankle injury last week. Raymond was playing well. Sanford responded with solid play yesterday. It's great to see this kind of performance at the back of the defense.

Welcome back Jerome Simpson.

"He was like a little kid on Mt. Dew."
     -Christian Ponder on Simpson's return to practice last week.

Simpson had 3 catches for about 50 yards. It doesn't show up in his stat sheet but he added about another 50 positive yards on a couple pass interference penalties. His speed presents a threat that the Vikings didn't have the first three weeks of the season.

Simpson's sheer joy on the football field is infectious. I love seeing football players really enjoy doing what they do.

Except for Peterson's running, the Vikings offense wasn't exactly prolific. Quarterback Christian Ponder played more of a game manager role. The Lions defensive line deserve much of the credit for disrupting passing lanes and applying decent pressure. Right tackle Phil Loadholt had some difficulties with end Cliff Avril. Ponder had to move a lot. The Lions did a great job of defending the short passing to Harvin and tight end Kyle Rudolph. The screens to Harvin that worked so well through three weeks were mostly a disaster yesterday.

This win against the Lions showed that each phase can be the difference in a game. Yesterday the special teams provided the points. The defense kept the Lions from doing pretty much anything. The offense did enough to keep the ball and control the clock. Most importantly, the Vikings are now 3-1.

The announcers of the Vikings-Lions game pointed out that the Lions are now 7-10 in thier last 17 games. That stretch followed a 5-0 start to the 2011 season. That's pretty poor for a team that some considered a Super Bowl ccontender. Just shows that play on the field should be more important than potential.

Congratulations to Drew Brees on his 47th consecutive game with a touchdown. Tying John Unitas' NFL record. Anytime that you are standing next to Unitas you are standing really tall. There was a time when some said that Unitas' record was one of those that would never be touched. In today's passing game I don't think that any passing record is out of reach. It's unfortunate that the tying touchdown should have been called pass interference on Marques Colston. Brees left little doubt with a couple of other touchdown passes.

Aaron Rodgers' touchdown throw to Greg Jennings was amazing. Being able to see Jennings through all that traffic was amazing. Getting the ball through all that traffic was even more amazing. Rodgers also had to dodge a bunch of unfriendly pressure in the backfield. Just a remarkable throw.

Rodgers had some difficulties last Monday night. Most was due to horrible protection in front of him.
His play yesterday was beautiful. My goodness, I wish that he didn't play for Green Bay. The way that he played in the first half I was real surprised that the Saints made it close.

The San Francisco 49ers bounced back nicely from their supposedly surprising loss to the Vikings last week. They dismantled the New York Jets 34-0.

It was great to see 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick get his first NFL touchdown. Not many NFL players have come from my hometown. Kaepernick certainly has his fans in Turlock.

It's really stupid to label any team as the best in the league in the early weeks of the season but everyone does. Me too. I've been saddling the San Francisco 49ers with that title as well as the Atlanta Falcons and the Houston Texans. Every team, no matter how strong, has a challenge every week. The 49ers faced one last week with the Vikings. The Falcons had their own difficulties with the Carolina Panthers yesterday. The 49ers lost. The Falcons had a remarkable comeback to disappoint a really frisky Panthers team. The Texans aren't having much difficulty with anybody.

I really don't understand the lack of attention paid to the Houston Texans. That defense is terrific. JJ Watt is probably the league's defensive MVP through the first quarter of the season.

So, the Green Bay Packers attempted a fake punt on their OWN 18-yard line. They succeeded. At home and playing a reeling New Orleans Saints team makes that gamble pretty appealing.

"I'm not sure if I've ever seen the Philadelphia Eagles play worse defense than they did on that drive."
     -broadcaster Cris Collinsworth during the Giants-Eagles Sunday Night game

This gave me a belly laugh. Cris Collinsworth has long been one of the best, if not the best, football broadcasters in the business. It's blunt statements like this that truly set him apart from all of the rest.

Next week is bad news for the Tennessee Titans.