Bucs vs. Vikings

Bucs vs. Vikings

12pm Central

In the DOME.

The Bucs come back to town again after leaving the division a few years ago. Along for the ride, the Vikings will welcome back Chris Hovan, last years biggest disappointment. I was a big fan of Hovan and nearly purchased one of his jerseys, until he started to suck. But we will always have the memories of him and Favre, then Favre crying. Way to go Hovan.

Another reunion will be Brad Johnson and the Bucs. Brad Johnson, after leaving the Vikings, led the Bucs to thier only Super Bowl win against the Raiders a few years ago. Now he faces his former team with head set and play cards, pacing the sideline next to Tice. But it is still nice to know that we have him back on our sideline, he seems to be our good luck charm.

The Buccaneers - Vikings "rivalry" is renewed this weekend. I hesitate to call it a rivalry because the Bucs just plain stunk up the league when they were in our division. I dreaded playing them every year because it was like testing to see if a gun was loaded by sticking it to your head and pulling the trigger. Nothing good could come out of it, or it was a best pointless. The best you could hope for is what you expected, nothing. And this year seems to be no different, the Bucs are back up to thier losing ways again lately. All we can really do is hope that the gun is not loaded. There was never really a rivalry, the Bucs were just the red-headed step children of the NFC Central. No one hated them enough to notice them, but they stepped up and bitch slapped us every now and again. Hence the quotation marks around "rivalry."

The Vikings defense looks to solidify this week, or at least turn into some type of sticky liquid. Preseason proved that nothing has really changed all that much. We are still blowing a lot of hot gas around, and accomplishing nothing. Picked to be one the biggest improvements in the NFL in the offseason, the Vikes defense has yet to live up to even half of its promise.

But fear not, the Vikes offense seems to be on point once again this year. Culpepper is gearing up for an MVP season. His development over the past 2 years has been phenomanal. he is acurate, he's got the cannon, and he has become brilliant. For the first time since he came to this league, this team is his. Honestly, I could not be happier. He worked hard to get to this point and all his work shows every week with astronomical completion percentages, yards, and vision that Superman would envy. But what about the running game? Hopefully we can produce a little better than what preseason showed we could do. That may be a big factor in the passing game, if we can't run we may not be able to pass either.

PREDICTIONS

Score - Vikings 27 Bucs 17

Offensive performer - Dante Culpepper

Defensive performer - Williams (no, not Brian Williams)

Offensive goat - McKinney

Defensive goat - Brian Williams

Skol Vikings Skol