Week 2 Thoughts

The Minnesota Vikings haven't had much success within their division the past couple of seasons. That makes it real hard to have any sort of success. They took care of their first division game of this season with a 26-16 win over the Detroit Lions yesterday. They are now 1-1. The Lions are 0-2.

The Vikings opened the 2015 NFL season in horrible fashion last week. They were horrible in all phases of the game against the San Francisco 49ers. Actually they made a couple of plays on special teams. Other than that they were horrible. They played more like they should yesterday.

It was interesting to see Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater under center for nearly all of the game. He was in the shotgun for every snap of the 49ers game. Running back Adrian Peterson wasn't comfortable with that alignment. He didn't look comfortable in it. He said that he wasn't comfortable in it. The Vikings put Bridgewater under center for the Lions and everything looked better. Especially Peterson. He gained more yards on the Vikings opening drive than had the entire 49ers game. He finished with 134 yards on 29 carries. He added another 58 yards on two receptions.

One of those two receptions was an improvisational pitch from Bridgewater that Peterson took for nearly half the football field. It was Peterson's missed block that forced Bridgewater to improvise.

On the downside for Peterson were three fumbles. He has to stop that. The Vikings were fortunate to lose only one of them. The first blew a scoring chance inside the 10-yard line. The second was negated thanks to a Lions penalty. Peterson was alert enough to recover the third. He still might not be used to play against real contact.

Bridgewater's game stats didn't dazzle but he played great. He only attempted 18 passes. Completing 14 for 153 yards. He threw for a touchdown and ran for a touchdown. His best throw was a 22-yard dart between two defenders to Mike Wallace to convert a third down.

It might not have been scripted for Bridgewater to run six times but he did for 21 yards.

As a team, the Vikings ran the ball 42 times for 199 yards.

Bridgewater was sacked only once but he was hassled often. Peterson met resistance before he hit the line on a majority of his carries. The Lions have a very good defensive line but the Vikings offensive line has some work to do. The center and entire right side is new so it might take a few games to get things settled.

The Vikings offense was efficient. The defense was better than that. They made the Lions run game nonexistent. 16 carries for 38 yards. The Lions had to lean on their passing.

Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford completed 32 of 53 passes for 286 yards. He really had to work for every single one of those yards. The Vikings only sacked him once but hit him a bunch. He was on the ground after nearly every throw and was often slow to his feet. It seemed like the punishment took a toll. He was much less accurate at the end of the game than he was at the start.

Lions all-everything receiver Calvin Johnson was targeted 17 times. He caught 10 but only gained 83 yards. Johnson usually puts up about twice as many yards when he has 10 catches. He did catch an 11-yard touchdown.

Golden Tate is an excellent compliment to Johnson. He had six catches for 80 yards. He is an explosive playmaker. I still can't shake his "first defender never gets me to the ground" comment. He breaks some tackles but I've seen him tackled by the first defender far more often than not.

It was great to see Vikings defenders Harrison Smith and Captain Munnerlyn slap/strip the ball out of the hands of ball carriers. I've watched other teams like the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks do this for years. It's great to finally see Vikings players do it.

The Vikings defense forced three turnovers. They scored a grand total of three points off of those turnovers. All three set the Vikings offense up with terrific field position. One even set them up inside the 10-yard line. They didn't even score that time. Three points! The Vikings did several very good things yesterday. Taking advantage of turnovers wasn't one of them.

In at least a couple of the Lions passing situations the Vikings kept three linebackers on the field and took a lineman off. They had a front of Everson Griffen-Linval Joseph-Brian Robison with Gerald Hodges, Eric Kendricks, and Anthony Barr at linebacker. Their three quickest and most athletic athletic linebackers. I wondered if they might employ such a lineup. In my scenario Barr was on the line rushing the passer. In reality Barr was just about in the secondary. It's a very intriguing combination of players. I like it. I like it a lot.

The Lions final scoring drive took an incredible 18 plays. Those 18 plays took over four minutes. Those are very strange numbers for a team that had to score two touchdowns and two 2-point conversions to tie the game.

The New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills played an entertaining game. It's entertaining any time you put Rex Ryan and the Patriots in the same building.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw the ball 59 times. He completed 38 of those passes for 466 yards and three touchdowns. Sparkling numbers.

It looked the Patriots had the Bills buried at the end of the third quarter when they had a 37-13 lead. The Bills started scoring in the final quarter. 19 unanswered point. It could have been a few more points but they failed on two 2-point conversions. Still, they were suddenly within a single score. The Patriots added a field goal and Logan Ryan's interception with about a minute to go sealed the 40-32 win.

At the other end of the spectrum was the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. They played an ugly game. The Cowboys won 20-10. No offensive touchdowns were scored until the fourth quarter.

The Eagles had seven yards rushing! 0.4 yards per carry. Very sad. Especially for a team that spent a lot of money in the offseason on their running backs.

Chip Kelly's explosive offense hasn't been very explosive.

The Cowboys won the game but they lost another offensive playmaker. They lost receiver Dez Bryant last week to a broken foot. They lost quarterback Tony Romo to a broken left clavicle. He's expected to miss eight weeks. The Cowboys are 2-0 but they can't be feeling very good right now.

Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota was excellent in his debut last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Things didn't go as smoothly for him this week. He wasn't bad against the Cleveland Browns yesterday but he couldn't get the Titans on the scoreboard until the third quarter was nearly done. He added a fourth quarter touchdown but it wasn't nearly enough.

The other top rookie quarterback is Jameis Winston. He had a rough week in his debut last week against Mariota's Titans. Winston had a better week this week. He led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to his first career win in a win over the New Orleans Saints. 26-19.

Some people pegged the Baltimore Ravens for a Super Bowl appearance this year. The Oakland Raiders put the Ravens in a tough spot with a surprising 37-33 win. The Ravens are now 0-2.

It's kinda stunning that the St. Louis Rams can upset the Seattle Seahawks in week one and lose to the Washington Redskins in week two. They did. The Redskins stifled the Rams offense. 24-10 Redskins.

The San Francisco 49ers were pretty happy with themselves after their Monday night win over the Vikings. They fell back to earth yesterday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. 43-18. 15 of the 49ers points were scored in the fourth quarter.

I might have to watch the Vikings-Lions game again. I can't get the thought of that Cowboys-Eagles game out of my head.

The Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers game was a much better end to the second Football Sunday.

It might not have avenged their meltdown in last year's NFC Championship game but it must have felt good for the Packers to knock off the Seahawks.

The Seahawks came out of halftime on fire. Quarterback Russell Wilson was at his running, throwing best in leading two touchdown drives. The Seahawks had a 17-13 lead and control of the game. That control didn't last long.

The Packers defense was the better defense on the field last night. I don't think that I've ever seen a defense stop Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch behind the line of scrimmage so often.

The Packers lost receiver Jordy Nelson for the season in the preseason. They lost running back Eddie Lacy to an ankle injury early in the game last night.

The Packers brought back receiver James Jones before the season to help make up for the loss of Nelson. He beat Seahawks corner Richard Sherman for an early touchdown last night. It was his third score on the season. Rookie receiver Ty Montgomery made some big plays late in the game. Anyone that watched Montgomery when he was healthy at Stanford knows that he could be a big play receiver in the Packers offense. The Packers just keep on plugging in players.

Even with that Cowboys-Eagles game it was a great day of NFL football.