Alright Kids, so with 11 games down and predicted, these Vikings are sitting at an imaginary 5-6 record. Things are not looking great, but with a big game or two against some of our tougher opponents by someone like Donovan McNabb, Purple Jesus, Percy, the defense or any combination of the 4, we could be sitting at 7-4 or better. With an underwhelming performance or two (which we might be more accustomed to), we might be sitting at 3-8 or worse and in competition for the Andrew Luck sweepstakes (woo-hoo! right after the year we FINALLY drafted a 1st round QB!).
The final five games of the season give us a great chance to finish strong. We have 3 opponents that finished with worse or equal records to us and two other games against teams that were only wild-cards, both of which are at home.
In our 12th game of the season we have the Denver Broncos. Outside of grabbing Von Miller in the draft at number 2 this past year, they will return Elvis Dumervil who was a sack machine in 2009 before missing the entire 2010 season due to injury as well as Jamal Williams who, though injury prone, is considered one of the better nose tackles in the league when healthy. Their secondary is aging, to put it nicely. As great as Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins have been in their careers, they've got to start dropping off someday, and last season I believe was the beginning for them both. Their receivers aren't really much to sneeze at and their best running back (Knowshon Moreno) is hardly ever healthy. This should be a W for us.
Next up, we have Detroit which has already been hit with quite a few injuries in the preseason. We will be visiting the Kitties in this game, and the Vikings have taken 15 of their past 17 in Detroit. These Lions have been a darling of the media in the off season, further strengthening their already formidable defensive line with a player in Nick Fairley who was at one point expected to go in the top 3 picks of the draft. They added a power back in Leshoure, but he is already lost for the season. Stafford has played about 1/3 of the games he's had a chance to, and Megatron has not always been a model of perfect health, either. Their secondary is also especially weak. I expect a close game and an improved Lions squad, but history should ultimately repeat itself as it tends to do. Put another W on the board.
The following week the Saints roll into town with these imaginary Vikings on a two game winning streak. Last year, we came awfully close to beating this team in the Superdome and in my opinion should have won. I think that the addition of Mark Ingram should prove to be a good one for the Saints, but I also believe that this team is aging in a lot of areas. I'm very happy to not see Reggie Bush on the roster for this game as he has always given the Vikings fits when we are matched up against him. Percy Harvin has come into this year 15 pounds lighter and claims to be quite a bit faster (How?! Don't ask me). I look forward to seeing him burn the aging Darren Sharper ( DA haaaahdest hittin' safety in da leeeague). Breesus may pick us apart, but if our secondary is still healthy with Ced Griffin and Winfield (maybe even a half-decent performance from former early round picks Asher Allen or Chris Cook?), I think we can weather the storm enough to take this one down as well. Now we're rollin' with a three game winning streak.
In the second to last game of the season, we have our new QB coming back to his stomping ground of last year at the Washington Redskins. Unless you believe what Peter King is writing about John Beck, the 30 year old fifth-year pro from BYU (don't), we might be matching up at this point in the year with one of the worst, if not the worst team in the league. I believe this to be more than likely true, as their starting running back will either be Tim Hightower or Ryan Torain and best wideout will STILL be Santana Moss. You probably can't name another receiver on this team, and neither can I. Their offensive line will be below average, their defensive line is average at best, and outside of London Fletcher and Brian Orakpo, they don't have much more than a few overrated players on defense. If this is the case, they will more than likely have completely given up at this point in the season and we should take this game. McNabb (assuming he hasn't tanked and given the reins over to CP7) will also be coming back to the town where he got benched for Rex Grossman. That must still burn, given that Rex Grossman is basically an abortion in a jersey. This should add some extra motivation for Mr. Chunky Soup himself. Barring a miracle, the Vikes definitely take this game convincingly.
Our final game of the season comes against the Chicago Bears and in this imaginary world I have constructed (Inception'd!) we could very well be fighting for a wild-card spot at this point. We might even be fighting for it with these very Bears. What better way to end the regular season than sending these flunkies home crying (or if you're Jay Cutler, staring indifferently) and marching into the postseason on a five game winning streak? Answer: there isn't one, unless we could somehow simultaneously knock the Packers out of contention. A lot will be at stake, which is perfect against someone as averse to being clutch as Cutlerception himself. The Thunderdome will be blaring so loudly we might register on the Richter scale, and I see the Vikes coming through in the clutch this time and sending Cutler, Hester, and Chester Taylor and his 2.9 YPC average home for the winter. If 10-6 is enough to make the playoffs, which generally speaking it is, you're looking at a wild-card berth for the 2011 Vikings IMHO.
OK, holy shit have I done a lot of writing in the past 18 hours about these Vikings, but after getting that whole regular season outlook accomplished I feel good. All my potential readers have plenty to read here, so unless some big Vikings news goes down in the next few days, I think I've earned a little break.SKOL.
Showing posts with label regular season. Show all posts
Showing posts with label regular season. Show all posts
Monday, August 8, 2011
Regular Season Outlook Continued
Guess who's back... back again...
Alright folks I'm here to finish my regular season outlook for the Vikings and, with a little research, hopefully find some optimism in a year where a lot of talking heads and fans conditioned by our oft-underachieving squad are struggling to find any.
Last night I left off after our home match up against the Cardinals, which the Vikings have won the past 6 games at home against. Even the biggest pessimists should have us taking that game against an Arizona team with very few weapons outside of Larry Fitzgerald and a mostly unproven Kevin Kolb.
Our next game will be against the Bears, to whom we lost both games last year. I hate the Bears with a passion, even more so than the Packers. This may be a cardinal sin to some of you out there, but my reasoning is that the Bears never seem to be as good as they play against us or their record ends up being. They're just overachieving assholes. Last year, they won all 6 games that were decided by 5 points or less (albeit two of wins vs. the Lions were disputable to say the least and one should have DEFINITELY been a loss, but I digress...). As a big fan of the Miami Hurricanes, I can't hate on Devin Hester too much because he is a beast. He always seems to make huge plays in critical times against us. But Cutlerfucker has completed far too many passes off of his back foot falling onto his own ass for me to feel like they aren't lucky. They have added some decent but potentially over the hill talent in the off-season, have an aging but still elite defense as long as they are healthy. With the game at Soldier Field where we have struggled historically (other than the day AP decided to run for two bills and three touchdowns), I gotta hand this one to the Bears.
Next up are the defending champion Green Bay Packers and the most anticipated home game on our schedule. The Pack didn't lose much in the off-season outside of starting guard Darren Colledge, and unless there are some injuries, they should be very strong. Jermichael Finley, by all accounts, looked like a beast last year before getting knocked out for the season and he adds just another target for MVP candidate Aaron Rodgers. We usually play them pretty tough, but our secondary may be the weakest point of our team. That is not a good thing against a team that goes 4-wide more than Brad Childress liked to throw 1 yard passes to Nafahu Tahi. Advantage: Packers.
Carolina and number one pick Cam Newton will be rolling into town next to put us at the halfway point in the season, and barring a beast mode performance by Cam himself, I don't see us losing to what was the worst team in the league last year at home. We're also going into a bye week after this game and since the Denny Green era the Vikes have been very good on both ends of a bye week. With a realistic outlook, this probably puts us at 4-4 at midway through the year. It's also more likely we are sitting at 2-6 than we are 6-2, sadly.
After our bye week, we get our only Monday Night Football appearance of the season at the Packers. It's pretty tough to bet against the Super Bowl Champs still, and unless Ndamukong Suh decides to use Rodgers' head as a basketball again this year, it's not looking too promising.
Oakland at home should bring us a win as west-coast teams have struggled historically going on the road into other time zones and their main strength is their running game. They have a strong run defense with a few big men up front in Tommy Kelly and Richard Seymour, but their secondary was significantly downgraded with the loss of Nnamdi Asomugha. I think our run D can contain Run-DMC, and I also believe the currently underrated Donovan McNabb should have a good day against this below average pass D. Vikings win this one.
I'm predicting a loss at Atlanta with new OC and former Falcons QB coach Bill Musgrave's first game against his old team. With the addition of Julio Jones which the likes of Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez have been raving about, their 5th ranked scoring offense in 2010 should only prove to be that much tougher. Our linebackers can stay with Tony, but I think we have trouble with their power run game and two big, fast wideouts on the outside.
This here's the point where I think I'll break this post off and start a new one in the interest of readability. See ya again soon.
Alright folks I'm here to finish my regular season outlook for the Vikings and, with a little research, hopefully find some optimism in a year where a lot of talking heads and fans conditioned by our oft-underachieving squad are struggling to find any.
Last night I left off after our home match up against the Cardinals, which the Vikings have won the past 6 games at home against. Even the biggest pessimists should have us taking that game against an Arizona team with very few weapons outside of Larry Fitzgerald and a mostly unproven Kevin Kolb.
Our next game will be against the Bears, to whom we lost both games last year. I hate the Bears with a passion, even more so than the Packers. This may be a cardinal sin to some of you out there, but my reasoning is that the Bears never seem to be as good as they play against us or their record ends up being. They're just overachieving assholes. Last year, they won all 6 games that were decided by 5 points or less (albeit two of wins vs. the Lions were disputable to say the least and one should have DEFINITELY been a loss, but I digress...). As a big fan of the Miami Hurricanes, I can't hate on Devin Hester too much because he is a beast. He always seems to make huge plays in critical times against us. But Cutlerfucker has completed far too many passes off of his back foot falling onto his own ass for me to feel like they aren't lucky. They have added some decent but potentially over the hill talent in the off-season, have an aging but still elite defense as long as they are healthy. With the game at Soldier Field where we have struggled historically (other than the day AP decided to run for two bills and three touchdowns), I gotta hand this one to the Bears.
Next up are the defending champion Green Bay Packers and the most anticipated home game on our schedule. The Pack didn't lose much in the off-season outside of starting guard Darren Colledge, and unless there are some injuries, they should be very strong. Jermichael Finley, by all accounts, looked like a beast last year before getting knocked out for the season and he adds just another target for MVP candidate Aaron Rodgers. We usually play them pretty tough, but our secondary may be the weakest point of our team. That is not a good thing against a team that goes 4-wide more than Brad Childress liked to throw 1 yard passes to Nafahu Tahi. Advantage: Packers.
Carolina and number one pick Cam Newton will be rolling into town next to put us at the halfway point in the season, and barring a beast mode performance by Cam himself, I don't see us losing to what was the worst team in the league last year at home. We're also going into a bye week after this game and since the Denny Green era the Vikes have been very good on both ends of a bye week. With a realistic outlook, this probably puts us at 4-4 at midway through the year. It's also more likely we are sitting at 2-6 than we are 6-2, sadly.
After our bye week, we get our only Monday Night Football appearance of the season at the Packers. It's pretty tough to bet against the Super Bowl Champs still, and unless Ndamukong Suh decides to use Rodgers' head as a basketball again this year, it's not looking too promising.
Oakland at home should bring us a win as west-coast teams have struggled historically going on the road into other time zones and their main strength is their running game. They have a strong run defense with a few big men up front in Tommy Kelly and Richard Seymour, but their secondary was significantly downgraded with the loss of Nnamdi Asomugha. I think our run D can contain Run-DMC, and I also believe the currently underrated Donovan McNabb should have a good day against this below average pass D. Vikings win this one.
I'm predicting a loss at Atlanta with new OC and former Falcons QB coach Bill Musgrave's first game against his old team. With the addition of Julio Jones which the likes of Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez have been raving about, their 5th ranked scoring offense in 2010 should only prove to be that much tougher. Our linebackers can stay with Tony, but I think we have trouble with their power run game and two big, fast wideouts on the outside.
This here's the point where I think I'll break this post off and start a new one in the interest of readability. See ya again soon.
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