Week 8 Thoughts

The Minnesota Vikings finally won a game in Chicago.

The Vikings defeated the Bears on a 36-yard Blair Walsh field goal as time expired. 23-20.

The Vikings offense didn't do a lot until the final two minutes. They scored 10 of the 23 points in the final 1:49.

Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater had some accuracy issues for most of the game. He finished with 17 completions in 30 attempts for 187 yards. He completed six of seven for 106 yards on the Vikings final two possessions. He also added a 19-yard run on 2nd and 17 to get the first of those last two drive going.

Vikings rookie receiver Stefon Diggs has played in four NFL games. In that time he's become the team's top pass-catching threat. Bridgewater looks for him early and often. Diggs had six catches for 95 yards. His 40-yard touchdown with 1:49 to play tied the game. at 20-20. He made a Lions defensive back miss at about the 30 and was off for the endzone. The final couple of yards were a battle. He won. Diggs as put up yardage totals of 87, 129, 108, and now 95 in his four games. The feeling here is that he's just warming up.

Diggs' hot start was made possible when the Vikings had some injury issues among the receivers four weeks ago. Charles Johnson was one of those injured receivers. His 35-yard catch over Bears safety Antrell Rolle set the Vikings up for Walsh's game-winning kick. Welcome back Charles Johnson.

The Vikings really need receivers other Diggs to step up as they move forward. Bridgewater targeted Mike Wallace four times. He had no catches. Jarius Wright had one catch for 8 yards. Johnson had the one big catch. Huge catch. Other than that it was all Diggs among the receivers.

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson looked like he was going to have a huge day. 75 yards in the first half. He got to the second level of the Bears defense on several occasion. He had only 28 yards in the second half. That drop in production was due more to the Bears offense than their defense.

The score was 10-10 at the half. The Bears controlled the second half. Except for those final two minutes. They opened the second half with a 12 play 68-yard drive that took up 6:32. It ended with a field goal and 13-10 lead. Vikings punted. The Bears responded with a drive of about 3:30 that ended with a missed field goal. Vikings got a field goal. The Bears responded with another time-consuming drive. 14 plays, 74 yards and the kept the ball for 8:34. The only Bears possession that didn't get the Vikings on their heels was their last one. A three-and-out. The Vikings needed to get the ball back. And the defense got the ball back quickly. The Vikings benefited from two of the three plays being incomplete passes. That preserved their timeouts. The Vikings greatly benefited when Jeremy Langford dropped the third down pass. He had the first down and should've had the catch. That drop made the Vikings game-winning drive possible.

The Bears did a fantastic job of keeping the ball away from the Vikings offense in the second half. And they did it without outstanding running back Matt Forte for most of it. He suffered a knee injury at the end of their first drive of the second half. He didn't return to the game. Langford played well in his place. 12 carries for 46 yards. But that one drop takes off some of the shine.

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler can be very frustrating defense. When he's not being a downer he's a terrific quarterback and he often seems to be a terrific quarterback against the Vikings. He led a very effective, ball control offense in that second half.

Cutler even ran for a touchdown.

Alshon Jeffery looks healthy. He missed several games at the start of the season. He's back. The Vikings really had no answer for him. He caught passes against Xavier Rhodes. He caught passes against Terrence Newman. He scored their lone touchdown in the first half. He moved the chains in the second half. He finished with 10 catches for 116 yards. Other players made some plays but the Bears offense ran through Cutler and Jeffery. Especially after Forte left the game with the knee injury.

Cutler's touchdown toss to Jeffery was the 137th of his Bears career. That ties him with Sid Luckman for most touchdown tosses in franchise history. In today's pass-crazy NFL it's astonishing that a franchise touchdown tossing record dates back to a player that played in the 1940s.

Bears second-year corner Kyle Fuller is a keeper. He shut down Diggs in the first half. Aqib Talib and Chris Harris of the Broncos couldn't do that. Sean Smith and Marcus Peters of the Chiefs couldn't do that. Rashean Mathis of the Lions couldn't do that. Fuller got an interception in the second quarter when Bridgewater tried to force a throw into Diggs. It was a terrible decision and Fuller took advantage of it. That set up the Bears first half touchdown.

Each team's first half touchdown was set up by the special teams (Vikings) or defense (Bears).

Vikings punt returner Marcus Sherels returned a Bears punt 65 yards for their first half touchdown.

Every NFL game is a struggle. Road games against division foes are struggles. This was a game in which many people, especially fans, felt that the Vikings should easily win. It's always a struggle. The Vikings haven't won in Chicago in a long time. This was a big win even if it wasn't a pretty win. Pretty doesn't impact the standings.

The Vikings are on a three-game win streak. A streak of that length hasn't happened for a while.

Sid Luckman
Adrian Burk
George Blanda
Y.A. Tittle
Joe Kapp
Peyton Manning
Nick Foles

It's always cool to hear mention of Sid Luckman these days. His named popped up twice yesterday. The above is a list of quarterbacks that have thrown 7 touchdowns in an NFL game (AFL in the case of Blanda). Drew Brees joined that list yesterday.

The New York Giants and New Orleans Saints took part in a video football game. The Saints scored the most in the 52-49 contest. Crazy games like this usually come down to the team that has the ball last. The Saints had it last. They won.

This game was ridiculous. Brees had nearly as many touchdown passes as incomplete passes. 7 touchdowns vs. 10 incompletions. He completed 40 of 50 passes for 511 yards and those record-tying seven touchdowns. Video game stats. He had 300 yards passing at the half. The 511 total passing yards was one of the top passing totals in league history.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning also had crazy statistics. That tends to happen when the score is 52-49. He completed 30 of 41 passes for 350 yards and six touchdowns.

The 13 total touchdowns between the two quarterbacks must be a record.

Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. caught half of Manning's touchdowns.

Beckham had 8 catches for 130 yards and three scores. Sometimes he makes football look way too easy.

The room for those that have thrown seven touchdowns in a game is getting crowded. Three have come since 2013 (Manning, Foles, and Brees). 44 years passed between Kapp and Manning. It's difficult to say whether it will ever be broken. If it ever is I think that it will happen in a game like this crazy Giants-Saints game. A game in which both teams are scoring at a video game pace. A seven touchdown game usually comes in a blowout. Quarterbacks are too important to a team to chance leaving them in a game simply to get a record. The next game is always more important than individual records to coaches. Yesterday's game was easily the closest game among the games that held tossers of 7 scores. Tittle's game was the next closest game. A 49-34 affair.

The NFL had another early London game. The Kansas City Chiefs "hosted" the Detroit Lions. The game started at 6:30 on the west coast of the U.S. The supposed home team Chiefs thrashed the Lions. 45-10.

Nearly all of these London games are terrible games. The travel and logistic hassles simply aren't conducive to smoothly played games by both teams. These exported games aren't going away as the NFL has agreed to an extension of them into the next decade. If anything we'll see more of them. I guess that the league is set on "expanding the shield" with a shitty product. It's a damn shame.

Someone had to win in the San Diego Chargers-Baltimore Ravens game. It turned out to be the Ravens. 29-26. Both talented teams have been having a helluva time getting wins. The Ravens have been in every single game right to the end of them.

It was terrible to see Steve Smith Sr. go down with an Achilles injury. He's already announced that this is his final season. It's terrible to see it end like this. He's not only of the best receivers of this generation. He's been one of the most entertaining football players the game has ever seen. He'll be missed. Already is.

The Arizona Cardinals defeated the Cleveland Browns by a couple of scores. 34-20. The Cardinals were supposed to defeat the Browns by at least a couple of scores. The final score doesn't show the fight that the Browns gave the Cardinals. The Browns were up 20-7 at one point. Then the Cardinals got down to business. 24-0 in the second half.

The Cincinnati Bengals welcomed the Ben Roethlisberger back with a 16-10 win. This game was more like the AFC North defensive battles of old rather than the offensive fireworks that we expect from these two explosive offenses.

Todd Gurley is good. His St. Louis Rams team handled the San Francisco 49ers 27-6

The Vikings have to slow Gurley next week.

The Oakland Raiders look good too. They handled the New York Jets 34-20.

The Vikings have to slow the Raiders in two weeks.

The Jets lost starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to a thumb injury when the game was a young 0-0.

Geno Smith replaced Fitzpatrick and he often looked like he wasn't sure what sport he was playing.

The Seattle Seahawks outlasted the Dallas Cowboys in a 13-12 scorcher.

The Cowboys got receiver Dez Bryant back from a broken foot. He wasn't much of a factor, except as a decoy, with two catches for 12 yards.

The Seahawks still don't look like the team that played in the last two Super Bowls.

The Denver Broncos defense have been playing great defense season. That defense is the reason for their lack of a single loss. They played their best game of the season last night against the equally undefeated Green Bay Packers. The Packers aren't undefeated anymore. Broncos won 29-10. It really wasn't that close.

The Broncos offense probably had their best game of the season because Peyton Manning had his best game. And they were able to run the ball effectively. The offense gained over 500 yards.

The Broncos defense held Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to a stat line of 14 completions in 22 attempts for 77 yards. He was sacked three times and hassled many more. Simply suffocating stuff there.

The Packers at 6-1 lead the Vikings at 5-2 in the NFC North. They meet for the first time this season in three weeks.

I am so sick of the idiotic FanDuel and Draft Kings commercials. There were two FanDuel commercials in a single commercial break. It's the most redundant, excessive commercial campaign that I've ever seen. How much is enough?

Speaking of commercials, the McDonald's "Game Time Gold" campaign is difficult to handle. Seeing Mike Ditka in Packers garb and Jerry Rice in Cowboys garb just looks wrong. So wrong. I'd rather see about a thousand of those commercials before I see another commercial from those fantasy football idiots.