Of Vikings saviors and ugly uniforms

Mostly because it seems like I have done a disservice by writing a lengthy dissertation on a small hometown newspaper, I feel as though I should rebound with some hot, hot NFL review action. Shall we review, then? You may want a glass of water if it gets too hot, hot for you

After disparaging the Vikings for about a year straight, I have to say something nice about them. Swell job on drafting Adrian Peterson. With the offensive line, running game, and defense they have, they are like last years Bears, only with a much worse passing game, if that’s possible. Oh, and their running game is better. And their defense is a little worse. But other than that, just like the Bears. If they had any talent at receiver/quarterback, and a coach with a 3rd grade reading level (or higher) they would be a legitimately the best team in the NFC and about the 8th best team in the NFL. (If anyone was wondering, the Pacifist Viking is mildly excited about AP’s development. Although I join him in the quest to not call him Purple Jesus. Pretty soon, we’d have to call Steve Hutchinson the Purple John the Baptist and Chester Taylor the Purple Judas Iscariot.)

Since we are contractually obligated to a Fox game, we were left with the Browns-Seahawks game that was on opposite the other game on for the afternoon. I’m sure I was the only one who noticed, but the game was surprisingly watchable. Quarterbacks are always labeled as the reason for a teams recovery, and as such Derek Anderson has been tagged as the reason for the Browns excellent season. This is not the case. The whole team is performing now. Their defense is playing better. They have a ground game. The past few drafts have brought in Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards, who are having breakout years as well. The Browns are good.

The important thing that we learned from the Colts-Patriots game was how to beat the Pats. The issue hasn’t been scoring on their defense, it’s been stopping the offense, and the Colts did the best job at that all season. The key is to come after Tom Brady and hit him a couple times. The second step, the part that the Colts didn’t do, is keep it up for all 60 minutes. They just kind of relaxed at the end of the game. I think we were all taught a very valuable lesson. The Giants look like the team that could finally beat the Patriots. For the record, The Colts would have won if they had their Hall of Fame receiver Marvin Harrison playing, as well as their stud rookie at tackle in Tony Ugoh to make sure Peyton Manning had a little more time. They will at the end of the year, and the playoffs should be thrilling.

It’s good that Dallas is back as a top team, because I’m not sure John Madden knew who’s ass to kiss anymore. In any event, after talking up Tony Romo for most of the 5 minutes I caught after switching over from the Amazing Race (I really can’t stand the NFC East) Romo threw one of the ugliest passes I’ve ever seen. It was a duck if I’ve ever seen one. Of course, the Eagles are terrible, so they squandered that opportunity en route to getting blown out.

I don’t really have a lot to say about the Monday night game, because there wasn’t a whole lot to say. The Steelers are much better than the Ravens, simple as that. But have you ever heard anyone say that they thought the Steelers had ugly uniforms? No. Of course not. So why do they go with the alternate uniforms/retro uniforms that make me want to take Liquid Plumr to my eyes? I don’t understand.

Steve will likely have some power rankings up soon, making this a big three post day at the times. 3 posts!