Week 15 Thoughts

Minnesota Vikings 36
St Louis Rams 22

Ha! Terry Bradshaw, during the Fox pregame show, said that the Rams were going to end Adrian Peterson's streak of seven consecutive 100-yard rushing games. Well, Peterson didn't stop at 100. He rushed for 212 yards with an 82-yard TD. He now has a career high of 1812 yards on the season. With games at Houston and at home against Green Bay he's 294 yards from Eric Dickerson's NFL record of 2105. 147 yds/game. Considering that his he's gained 296 yards in a single game before, that record is in reach.

Here's Peterson's yardage breakdown by quarter:

1st   8 carries for 8 yards
2nd  5 carries for 111 yards
3rd  6 carries for 23 yards
4th   5 carries for 70 yards

Over the past eight games, Peterson has rushed for 1,313 yards, the most over any eight-game span in a single season in NFL history. Amazing football player.

More important than Adrian Peterson's record quest, the Vikings have to keep winning. They're at 8-6 now. If they keep winning, they're in the playoffs. The Texans and the Packers are about as challenging as any team in the league. The Vikings face each one to close the season.

People will likely complain about Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder's 131-yard passing day. He completed 17 of his 24 passes. He spread the ball around to seven different receivers. He didn't turn the ball over. He also showed a lot of fight when he broke through a likely sack on his 5-yard touchdown run to open the scoring. I'd love to see more passing yards but Ponder helped the Vikings get a very important win yesterday. The Vikings offensive statistics resemble those of teams decades ago. Just because they don't fit the picture that fans expect these days doesn't mean that something is broken. All that matters are wins and the Vikings got one.

Peterson's running was the big story in the win but nearly as important was the kicking of rookie Blair Walsh. In a fourteen point win, Walsh made 5 field goals. He scored 18 of the Vikings 36 points. He might set all the team kicking records in his first season. Not really but he's setting a bunch. He set the team touchback record earlier in the season. He broke Ryan Longwell's record of six 50-yard field goals in a season. With three 50+ yarders yesterday, he's tied the NFL season record of eight. With a lot of rookies playing big roles for the Vikings, Walsh's impact has been one of the biggest.

Rookie tackle Matt Kalil has proven all season that he was worthy of the fourth pick in the draft. He's had an excellent season. One thing that has really impressed has been his downfield hustle. He's routinely looking to send little defensive backs flying on long Peterson runs. Everything about Kalil's game has been impressive.

Defensive end Everson Griffen scored on a pick-6 when he dropped into coverage. It's unfortunate that it took an injury to starting end Brian Robison for Griffen to see more playing time. Griffen can do a lot of things that most defensive linemen can't do. He's an extremely versatile, game changing football player.

Robison's shoulder injury doesn't look good right now. Hopefully, the MRI will show something better. If he's out for a while it's fortunate that the Vikings have a player as talented as Griffen to step up. Losing Robison would be a significant blow to the defense and especially the line rotation.

The Vikings defense played great until the Rams rallied late in the game. The line got decent pressure on Rams quarterback Sam Bradford. Especially during a stretch in the second quarter when the Vikings put up 17 points real quick. They had Bradford rattled. Unfortunately, he started gaining yards in chunks late in the game. Fortunately, the Vikings had built a decent lead but Bradford made it tense at the end. Some of that was due to corner Antoine Winfield being taken out to rest his balky ankle. Marcus Sherels, while feisty, doesn't provide the kind of presence that Winfield does. Against the Texans and Packers, with Matt Schaub and Aaron Rodgers, in the coming weeks the coverage has to tighten. Hopefully, corner Chris Cook, who has been out for several weeks with a broken wrist, will be back for those games.

The Vikings caught a break when Bradford missed a wide open Givens at the end of the first half. That misfire gave the Vikings an opportunity to get points of their own before the half. Unfortunately, hacked up time management led to a field goal rather than a possible touchdown.

I love it when Vikings owner Zygi Wilf gives his tie to a player with a standout game. Adrian Peterson got the the purple tie yesterday. It was a fine looking tie.

It seems like it was only yesterday that Bradford had no decent receivers to catch his passes. Now, he has a bunch of extremely promising pass catchers. Danny Amendola, Austin Pettis and Brandon Gibson are nice targets. Rookies Brian Quick and Chris Givens make this a group that will keep Bradford happy for a long time. Quick and Givens were receivers that I really liked in the past Draft.

I like Amendola but it was a horeshit move to spike the ball into the camera crew after his touchdown. The ball bounced right into the face of a guy simply doing his job.

Rams corner Cortland Finnegan is a nasty football player. Perhaps more than any other player in the league Finnegan is a player that you love if he's on your team and hate if he isn't. He and rookie Janoris Jenkins are an excellent corner combo.

Rams running back Steven Jackson still runs great. He's a load to tackle. Terrific catching the ball too. Congratulations Steven Jackson on going over 10,000 career rushing yards.

I think that the Atlanta Falcons got a little tired of people questioning their worth as one of the top teams in the league. At 11-2 going into this week you'd expect more respect. Maybe they'll get it after taking apart the New York Giants 34-0.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were also shut out. No one could stop them from scoring about a month ago. The Saints did yesterday.

The play of rookie quarterbacks has been outstanding this year. Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III have received a ton of deserved attention. Fellow Redskins rookie quarterback Kirk Cousins filled in nicely for Griffin yesterday in a win over Cleveland. Brandon Weeden and Ryan Tannehill have been terrific as well. Russell Wilson has often played as well as any of them. He looks nothing like a rookie. It's at least fifteen years too early to compare this group to the quarterback class of 1983 but they still bring up memories of Hall of Famers John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly.

Bills receiver Stevie Johnson had one of the best catches I've seen since Cris Carter did it all the time. I say check it out. Fantastic catch.

Pretty lame move by Seahawks coach Pete Carroll in running a fake punt with a thirty point lead against the Buffalo Bills. Carroll just makes it easier and easier to hate the Seahawks. I guess that the clown just wanted to get a second consecutive 50-point game. Nice.

The Bills played the Seahawks in a home game in Toronto. I'm not so sure that the Bills will be allowed back in the states. They were horrible. Dropped passes. Turnovers. Every single decent play seemed to be followed by a breakdown.

The Dallas Cowboys keep finding ways to win. If they can keep doing that to a playoff spot, they'll be dangerous in January.

New England Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork says that if things got desperate at quarterback for his team, he'd get the call. If Tom Brady and Ryan Mallett went down, he'd be under center. Now, that's something that I'd like to see. Not to see the actual quarterbacks get hurt but to see a 350 lb quarterback.

The San Francisco 49ers played like a Super Bowl contender. The New England Patriots played like one too in the second half. That turned into a terrific game. I wouldn't be surprised if these two teams played again.

I like Fox's broadcast team of Charles Davis and Gus Johnson. I was quite pleased to see that they had the call of the Vikings-Rams game.

Next week is bad news for the Texans.