The last quarter of the Minnesota Vikings 2013 season starts today at Baltimore. When the schedule came out in the spring, I saw the final four games at Baltimore, Cincinnati, at Philadelphia, Detroit as a tough gauntlet to run as the Vikings powered to a return to the playoffs. Instead the Vikings are fighting to avoid a second three win season in the last three years. The playoffs are still a mathematical possibility. The Vikings have to win their remaining four games and too many teams to count have to lose.
Matt Cassel gets the start at quarterback for the Vikings. Christian Ponder failed to pass the required concussion protocols.
Vikings middle linebacker Audie Cole is starting his third consecutive game. He's pretty much taken the job from Erin Henderson. Cole had an opportunity when Henderson was inactive two weeks ago. The overall performance of the defense improved. In that short span of time the defense has been the league's best at getting their opponents off of the field on third down. They had been pathetic at the task all season.
The Vikings have played two consecutive overtime games. For health reasons (mine), I hope that there is not a third.
"He can skedaddle pretty good."
- Chiefs coach Andy Reid on facing Robert Griffin III
I love coach-speak.
Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon has exploded the last two weeks. An NFL record two consecutive 200-yard receiving games. 14 catches for 237 yards and a touchdown against Pittsburgh. 10 catches for 261 and two touchdowns against Jacksonville. 24 catches for 498 yards and three touchdowns over two weeks is ridiculous. He's done this despite catching passes from a parade of concussed quarterbacks in Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden. Gordon has always had the physical skills to excel. 6'3" and 225 lbs with 4.4 speed. His on-field performance is fast approaching those skills. His off-field errors nearly kept him from reaching his potential. Marijuana got him kicked off of the Baylor football team. Can anyone imagine Robert Griffin III throwing passes to Kendall Wright, Terrance Williams, and Gordon? The mistakes in college forced Gordon to take the Supplemental Draft route to the NFL. He's now making the most of his opportunity.
I highly recommend Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback site. His recent series on a week in the life of an officiating crew is excellent.
Kabam Field!
Cal and Kabam, Inc. have come to a 15-year, $18 million agreement on naming rights for the football field inside the beautiful Memorial Stadium. It will be Kabam Field at Memorial Stadium. I like it. Kabam sounds exciting. High scoring. Hopefully, higher scoring for Cal than this season. The name will be seen on the field at both 25-yard lines. It will also be seen on midfield signage above the Cal team bench. Kabam is the western world leader for free-to-play mobile games for traditional players. Three of the four co-founders and nearly 10% of the company's employees are Cal alums. Kabam!
The end to last week's Alabama-Auburn game was incredible. Seeing a missed field goal returned for a touchdown is a rare event. Seeing it end a game is even more rare. In the last week I've heard a few talking heads saying that we'll never see it again. That's a bit quick. We were even in a position to see it the very next day. Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould attempted a 66-yard potentially game-winning field goal at the end of their game against the Vikings. Cordarrelle Patterson returned the short attempt but only managed the 31-yard line. Patterson is always a threat to take the ball a very long way so the potential was there. He was slow to come up field perhaps due to his inexperience dealing with the field goal team rather than his usual return blockers. Never say never in football.
In the first quarter of the Alabama-Auburn game, Auburn had a 3rd and 18. Quarterback Nick Marshall completed a pass for about twenty yards and moved the chains. Auburn right tackle Avery Young bought Marshall some time with some blatant facemask/holding on Alabama linebacker Denzel Devall. I don't know how an official misses a pass rusher's head and upper body being twisted like that. Instead of a very challenging 3rd and about 35, Auburn had a first down and momentum. It led to Marshall's 45-yard touchdown and an early 7-0 lead. You can always point to game-changing instances in a game decided on the last play and this missed penalty was one of them.
Last week, San Jose St.(526 yards) and Fresno St.(469 yards) combined for 1,006 yards in the first half of their game. The Spartans took a 42-21 lead into halftime. They went on to win a scorcher, 62-52. The two teams combined for 376 yards and 31 points in the second half. The defenses really picked up their game in that second half.
I watched a little of the Rice-Marshall Conference USA Championship game. I noticed that Rice had sons of a couple NFL coaches on their team. Corey Frazier is the son of Vikings coach Leslie Frazier. Klein Kubiak is the son of Texans coach Gary Kubiak. Seeing as the elder Kubiak was fired on Friday this little bit of trivia was no longer true yesterday. Many yahoos in the media feel that the elder Frazier will face a similar fate in about one month. Personally, I don't think that is so sure to happen.
Auburn's first touchdown against Missouri in the SEC Championship game contained some nice sleight of hand by quarterback Nick Marshall. The play ended with a beautiful 38-yard touchdown pass to Sammie Coates. I like this Nick Marshall kid.
I get a kick out of the cards that Auburn uses to signal their offensive plays. I recognized the Hulk, Iron Man, Puss-in-Boots, and someone that looked a lot like Mr. T.
Auburn running back Tre Mason was a beast against Missouri. 46 carries for 304 yards and four touchdowns.
Missouri had 233 rushing yards. That's a pretty nice ground game. It's meager when Auburn runs for 543 yards in the same game.
Florida St. quarterback Jameis Winston has been fantastic all year. His receivers have made a lot of plays for him. Kelvin Benjamin is huge. Kenny Shaw makes tough catches in every game that I've seen. Winston doesn't have to be perfect to be successful. Benjamin, Shaw, and Rashad Greene should all go over 1,000 yards receiving on the season.
Ohio St. lost for the first time in two years. Michigan St.'s terrific defense knocked the Buckeyes out of the BCS Championship game.
Unless there's something truly screwy in the BCS rankings, which is always a possibility, it looks like Auburn-Florida St for the championship. Ohio St.'s loss makes it possible for an SEC team to an eighth straight national title.
There was an interesting shuffling of coaches in the Pac-12. Washington coach Steve Sakisian bailed on the school that gave him his first head coaching shot. He left for USC. I was hoping that Ed Orgeron would have the interim title removed and get the full time job for USC. Sarkisian follows Lane Kiffin as former USC assistant coaches that ditched head coaching jobs to return to Los Angeles. I hope that Sarkisian has as much success as Kiffin. Washington then went out and improved their lot by stealing Chris Petersen from Boise St. Petersen's departure from Boise St. was inevitable. He'd taken the program about as far as he could.
The Pac-12 has a terrific mix of proven and promising coaches. David Shaw, Jim Mora, Todd Graham, Rich Rodriguez, Mike Riley, Mike Leach, Kyle Whittingham, Steve Sarkisian, Mark Helfrich, and now Chris Petersen. Colorado's Mike MacIntyre and Cal's Sonny Dykes probably have the most to prove as both had rough rookie seasons in the Pac-12. Each has shown that he can turn a program around in his first head coaching job. MacIntyre at San Jose St. Dykes at Louisiana Tech. So, the potential for success is there in a rapidly improving Pac-12.
Congratulations to David Shaw and the Stanford Cardinal on winning the Pac-12 Championship game. They will return to the Rose Bowl.
Stanford-Michigan St. Rose Bowl sounds pretty nice. The sideline reporter was mentioning that it's been 26 years since Michigan St. was last in the Rose Bowl. Wow. That's really something. It's only been 55 years since Cal was last in the Rose Bowl. Go Bears!
Go Vikings!
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