Vikings-Bills Notes

It was rough having to wait 39 hours to finally watch the Minnesota Vikings-Buffalo Bills preseason game. Fox Sports North had their rebroadcast Saturday night. For reasons lost to all, Directv saw fit to blackout the game. How does anyone blackout a rebroadcast? The game was played Friday at 4pm PST. I saw it Sunday at 7am PST. Thankfully, NFL Network eventually airs every preseason game.

Unfortunately, the Buffalo Bills announcers had this rebroadcast. I can often handle the most biased of announcers. It's often sickening but I can handle it. I can mute the game if gets really bad. I can't handle announcing and production idiots. Several times the Bills TV clowns showed a Vikings coach on the sideline that they acknowledged to be head coach Leslie Frazier. Every time that coach was quarterbacks coach Craig Johnson. You'd think that someone at some point would catch this ridiculous mistake. Each time that they didn't simply made it worse.

Oh, the Bills won this game by a score of 20-16.

The worst thing about waiting 39 hours to watch the Vikings lose a preseason game is having to listen to fans crying about the disaster of the Vikings losing a preseason game before I can see the game. A preseason game. Hearing about how quarterback Christian Ponder is a disaster. The line sucks. In game adjustments by the coaching staff are a train wreck. The sky in Minnesota is simply falling. Then, I finally watch the game and see little of the disaster that so many others seem to see. It's as if all these fans have to see midseason efficiency in August or the season is lost. The Vikings play certainly wasn't perfect but there's still nearly a month before the games actually matter.

Adrian Peterson was a sideline spectator. When he's on the field, things change.

Every team approaches preseason games differently. It's apparent that rookie Bills coach Doug Marrone is putting more emphasis on winning than Leslie Frazier (or, for the Bills TV team, Craig Johnson). He blew out the Indianapolis Colts in the first week. The Bills dialed up blitzes all night long against the Vikings. Those blitzes were were mostly effective against a vanilla Vikings offense with vanilla blocking schemes. It's a nice learning experience for the line and Ponder in the preseason but it's mostly handled with the game planning that goes into a regular season game. Preseason games are never as good as a great win or as bad as a disappointing loss.

The Vikings starting defense shut out the Bills starting offense. That's something.

The Vikings third down conversion rate was terrible even for a preseason game. 3-16 is just sad. 2-3 on fourth down helps a bit but the offense has to be far more efficient than that.

Rookie Jeff Locke punted seven times. It's nice that he averaged nearly 50 yards but no one should see the punter on the field seven times.

I think that the Vikings keep six receivers. One more than they've kept in recent years. Right now, I see these six:
Greg Jennings
Jerome Simpson
Jarius Wright
Cordarrelle Patterson
Stephen Burton
Joe Webb
At 6'5", Chris Summers and Rodney Smith are the big body receiver that none of those six are. Summers and Smith also made some nice catches against the Bills. The receiver cuts that the Vikings decision makers will have to make are going to be tough.

Defensive back cuts are going to be tough too. Bobby Felder (not Feldman, Bills TV clowns!) made a statement to be one of those final defensive backs with his play on special teams. He downed two punts inside the 5-yard line and had some nice returns.

The Bills got some criticism when they selected Florida St. quarterback EJ Manuel in the first round. Most draft criticism comes from media hacks that really know far less than any critic should so I doubt that the Bills lost any sleep over it. Manuel looks like he belongs. I really liked the Bills 2013 draft class. I thought that Robert Woods was one of the most polished and ready receivers in the draft. Linebacker Kiko Alonso and safety Duke Williams were nice additions to the defense. I think that the Bills are heading in the right decision. Everybody in the AFC East looks up at the New England Patriots. As long as Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady are there that will be the case. The Bills future looks promising. The Miami Dolphins have made some bold moves. The AFC East really isn't a one-team division anymore.

Next week the Vikings travel to San Francisco for the third game of the preseason. The best thing about this game is that it's televised nationally. I won't have to wait 39 hours to see it.