The Minnesota Vikings visit the Buffalo Bills today. The Vikings are 2-4. The Bills are 3-3. After opening the season at 2-0, the Bills have lost three of the last four. Since Kyle Orton was inserted as the starting quarterback two weeks ago, the Bills are 1-1. A surprising win against the difficult Detroit Lions and a competitive loss to the surging New England Patriots. The Bills seem to be getting some things right with Orton leading the way. The Vikings haven't done a lot right the last two weeks. They scored 10 points in a terrible performance against the Green Bay Packers on a Thursday night in week 5. They scored 3 points against the Lions last week. The defense actually played well in that game. The offense did nothing against a fierce Lions pass rush. The offense hasn't done much since putting up 41 against Atlanta. The Vikings have to protect rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater better. The Bills defensive line is at least as good as that of the Lions.
If the Vikings line can give Bridgewater time, this could be a terrific game. If Bridgewater is treated like he was against the Lions last week, this could be a long game. The Bills are always tough at home.
This would be a great week for receiver Cordarrelle Patterson to be a big part of the Vikings game plan.
The great thing about the NFL is that every game can be a great game. The Thursday Night game is an example of that. The Patriots were supposed to destroy the Jets. The Jets are struggling. The Patriots are hitting their usual stride. None of that plays out. We get a terrific game. A game that the Jets could have won. It wasn't like the Patriots played poorly. The Jets just played well. Any team can pull out a win in this league. The Raiders gave the Chargers all that they could handle last week. That wasn't supposed to happen.
Some of the terrific games today:
New Orleans Saints at Detroit Lions
Carolina Panthers at Green Bay Packers
Cincinnati Bengals at Indianapolis Colts
New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys
San Francisco 49ers at Denver Broncos
Can the Cowboys continue their surprising start to the season?
The Panthers have the unusual record of 3-2-1.
It will be interesting to see how the Jets handle Percy Harvin. The Jets have been a tough out in nearly all of their games but a lot of things have to go perfectly to climb out of a 1-6 hole. Is the team playing out the season with a lame duck coaching staff? Will a new coaching staff even want to deal with an electrifying yet troublesome player that has already burned out his welcome with two teams?
College stuff:
Another disappointing for Cal. They lose 36-34 to UCLA. It was baby blue's first win in Berkeley since 1998. Very disappointing.
The game was basically clinched when the on-field and replay officials ruled that UCLA's Marcus Rios intercepted a Jared Goff pass at the 2-yard line with less than a minute to play. Rios still hasn't secured possession of that ball. Horrible call. But a team that missed as many tackles that Cal missed really doesn't deserve to win a football game. Cal's defense has been simply terrible all season. I've had to witness most of the games through radio so I haven't seen the attempted tackles. Cal's tackling simply sucks. UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley threw for 330 yards. Pretty much every single one of those yards came after the catch. Hundley and his receivers feasted on short passes and long runs. It's no wonder that Hundley's completion percentage is over 70%. All of his passes are within a yard of the line of scrimmage. UCLA ran for 237 yards. Nearly every one of those yards came after contact. Cal has to work on their tackling. It's a football basic. Along with blocking. Cal isn't too hot at that either.
UCLA linebacker Myles Jack is a very impressive running back. He'll be starting in the NFL soon. As a linebacker.
In the first half a penalty was called on UCLA receiver Jordan Payton. The official threw the flag right at Payton and he reached up and instinctively caught it near his helmet. The announcers, Matt Millen in particular, thought that it was humorous. I couldn't help but think of former Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens tackle Orlando Brown. In 1999, Brown was hit in the eye by a penalty flag thrown by Jeff Triplette. The injury to his eye forced Brown to miss the entire 2000 season. It also caused the NFL to change it's penalty flag throwing practices. Common sense would have forced college football to do the same. Apparently it didn't. The Cal-UCLA official was an idiot for throwing a flag right at a player's head.
When Cal quarterback Jared Goff gets in rhythm, he's a fantastic quarterback.
Alabama coach Nick Saban got a lot of media grief last week for beating Arkansas by a single point, 14-13. The media never fails to reveal their stupidity. A win is a win no matter the score. The SEC is a tough place to play. I wonder if defeating a ranked Texas A&M team yesterday by the score of 59-0 is enough for the idiots in the media.
That was a terrific game in Tallahassee last night. I didn't think that the Seminoles had it in them. I was very wrong. This Irish team is much better than one that played for the NCAA championship a few years ago.
I still like the Mississippi schools at the top of polls.
GO Vikings!
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