Vikings 33 - Saints 16

What? What? Who said that Dante would not throw for 300 yards, 3 Touchdowns, 0 Interceptions, 0 fumbles and a 75% completion percentage? It wasn't me, as far as I can remember, that is EXACTLY what I predicted. The only thing I didn't get right was the final score. I had Vikes winning 31-17.

Dante had his roll on within the first 13 seconds of the game as the Vikings jumped out to an early lead over the Saints. Following a fumbled Saints kick return, Dante threw a beautiful pass to Travis Taylor, who in turn dragged his feet to complete the quickest touchdown in Vikings histroy. The Vikings defense continued the hot start by forcing a 3 and out on the first Saints possession. Follow that with a 6 minute drive based primarly upon the rushing game and a 28 yard run by Moore, kick a field goal, Bam! Vikes up 10-0. The only fault one could find with the first two drives was the 3rd and 1 call in the red zone, where Dante throws a Cris Carter fade to Marcus Robinson. That play had a small chance of succeding, and was especially dumb since we needed only 1 yard to get a fresh set of downs. Maybe I was just a little blood thirsty at that point, but I would have liked to see some better play calling in the red zone.

The defense followed up with another 3 and out, and the Viking offense drove deep into Saints territory again, only to bounce a field goal off the right goal post. Follow that up with a Viking pick on 3rd down, a five play drive that culminates with another Tayol touchdown, kick the extra point, Vikings 17-0. Follow that up with a rookie bomb to Troy Williamson, Vikings 24-0. Essentially the game was over at this point. The Viking defense played thier hearts out this week. Interceptions by Newman and Winfield, and 2 recovered fumbles left the Saints shaking thier heads in disgust. Great blitiziing schemes by Cotrell confused Brooks all day as he completed just 12 of 32 passes and was sacked 3 times. Great individual coverage downfield allowed the line to force pressuere on Brooks, subsequently making him throw off balanced the entire game. The second half was a little bit of a let down for the defense as they seemed to become comfortable with the large lead. But the end result is ussually all that matters, and the defense played like warriors today. And lets not forget the great efforts of the special teams this week. They started the game with a bang, Kluwe punted the ball with a bang, and Owens hit people with a bang. Special teams have been our only consistent performers this year, they deserve a little pat on the back for holding strong today.

Dante! Was I right or was I right? 300 yards passing, dead-on accurate. 3 Touchdowns, dead-on accurate. 0 Interceptions, dead-on accurate. 0 Fumbles, dead-on accurate. 72.5% completion percentage, close. If Marcus Robinson would have held on to an easy catch in the 3rd quarter I would have been dead-on accurate. By far the most impressive thing I saw today was Culpepper's willingness to take the ball and run. We must remember that this guy 6'4" 265 lbs of pure muscle. If he wants to run, not many people will get in his way, at least not sane people. I've seen this guy lay out linebackers before. His size is a great asset and it adds another dimension to the Viking offense. In addition to the running, he was brilliant in his throw selections today. He saw the open reciever and got him the ball. He did make a few errent passes that could have resulted in more touchdowns, but he did not force anything this week. He looked calm, composed, breathing smoke and throwing fire. This is all despite the fact that the offensive line really let him down today. 7 sacks, yet he still looked like a Norse god. Dante rose above last week's humiliation and proved himself a man today.

Mr. Moore came out fire breathing today as he rushed for 101 yards on only 23 attempts. Numbers do not tell the true story though, Moore never gave up on any play. He fought for yards like Williams, he ran in the open field like Bennett, he showed the heart of Chris Walsh. This guy earned every yard he ran today. The offensive line did help out a little, but hte majority of his yards came from his own efforts. Bennett on the other hand, saw the ball very little today, did not benefit from great play calling, and did nothing with the ball once he got it. A very dissappointing day for Bennett. Considering the great performance we saw from Moore, I would not be suprised to see Bennett being floated around with some trade rumors. The Vikings seem like they just don't want him. I will be sorry to see the guy go anyhow. I always had faith in him.

All in all, a great game by the Vikings today in every aspect. Like I stated earlier this week, this was the most important game of the year for us. If we would have laid down, our season would have been essentially over. But we did not lay down, we stood up like the men we are, grabbed the Saints by the ears and slammed thier heads into the floor. We came out looking for babies to eat, old ladies to push to the floor, and little girls to punch in the face. The Vikings came out and proved they were a truly mean bunch today, definetly of Super Bowl caliber. Make your reservations to Detroit now, book your hotel rooms, and buy all the helga horns you can find. We the bandwagon comes to Minnesota, you need to be prepared.

GameDay Hero - Dante Culpepper, 300yds, 3 TD's 0 Int's 72.5% completion
GameDay Hero - Richard Ownes, great all around effort on Special teams
Game Day Hero - Fred Smoot, he did not have stats, but great one on one coverage.

GameDay Goat - Paul Edinger, while he may have made 4/5 field goals, one being 48 yars, serisously, he missed a 33 yarder . . . then had the balls to smile afterwards. Good performance today, but don't smile when you screw up something routine.

Skol Vikings Skol

Mr. Weatherstone