‘Just Win, Baby’

There is nothing better in the world of professional sports to cure any kind of hurt feelings or acrimony or ill will than winning. As the late Al Davis, former owner of the Oakland Raiders, once said, “just win baby.”

And it’s never been truer for your Minnesota Vikings than the past two games – winning convincingly over Detroit and San Diego. Are those teams the Patriots or the Packers? No. But, they do possess what has seemed to be better than average passing attacks and adequate defenses – two teams in the Lions and Chargers who have made decent noise in the past several years and who also have some great players in the likes of Megatron and Keenan Allen.

So while I would not consider the Vikings to be world beaters yet, you have to give them their due, certainly.

Perhaps on Sunday against Denver, in Denver, will be a better indication of the where this team finds itself – either on the verge of cracking the top 10 in a power ranking or on the wrong side of 15 and selling out an opportunity to win now and win big.

And that brings this eternal optimist, and often times, pessimist, to a few important things to watch the remainder of the season.

Adrian Peterson
Dude doesn’t look like he has taken time off, does he? And we’re talking basically a full year. And he doesn’t look like a 30-year-old running back just a few years from a torn ACL either, does he? I honestly believe we are witnessing a running back, and have all along but never truly appreciated it, who is not your normal running back from years past. He refuses to let “average” determine his destiny and above all, he refuses to let “age” play a factor in how he performs. He is hell-bent on being the best ever and will “will” this team to victory single-handedly if that’s what it takes.

And in his case, with all that happened in the past year and how he reacted, how the Vikings reacted and how the fans reacted, this is definitely a situation where all is forgotten and forgiven as the Vikings keep winning.

Teddy Bridgewater
He has to play better. This year won’t be a repeat of the Ponder year when the Vikings went 10-6, AP rushed for over 2,000 yards, and they beat the Packers in the last game to reach the playoffs. The box will start stacking soon and Teddy will be forced to play a bigger role in the offense. I think the next few games will not only be pivotal for his progress, but also for the outcome of the Vikings season. He has to step up and take pressure off of AP. That also means his receivers need to step up.

One way he can do this is to do everything he can within the pocket to extend drives, including using his legs. Competitiveness is the operative word here. He needs not only have a little Fran Tarkenton in him, but he also a little Joe Kapp. Find a way to win. Keep your team in the hunt.

If that happens, everyone benefits – especially AP. Teddy’s play and the play of his receivers will be the key to the remainder of the season. Stats will prove as much.

Defense
Not sure the d-line has been better since perhaps the days of John Randle and Keith Millard and Henry Thomas and Chris Doleman. They’re jelling and then when you mix in an Anthony Barr blitz, you really have the makings for a difference-making scheme for opposing offenses. If we can stay away from injuries and Rhodes heals up to play next weekend – this unit can easily be top 10 the remainder of the season. And it needs to be. The offense may not find itself greased on all fronts until the middle of the season. That means the defense needs to provide opportunities for wins without scoring a ton offensively. This group is capable of that – and it also provides the opportunity for a team to have even more confidence if it knows its starting pitcher can pitch a shutout every once in a while.

Intangible
Can this team play well enough to win away from TCF Stadium? Better yet, can it play well enough on a grass surface to win? Six games left on the season, including Sunday at Denver, are on grass surfaces, and some of those surfaces can be a bit gnarly. This team, as with other past Vikings teams, in my opinion, is built for fast artificial turf surfaces like TCF and like the new U.S. Bank Stadium will provide next year. It showed in San Fran. If there is one underlying intangible this team needs to get beyond, how it performs on grass playing surfaces might prove to be the one.