A Win is a Win...but...

Winning ugly can be brutal but it's still a win. Another monkey off their backs. But of course there is much to work on. It sucked to see Sam like that. But from the presser it sounded like he was cleared to go. And the best thing was done for Sam was sitting him. The defense had some issues with tackling and gave up some underneath stuff. They bit on that ridiculous fake. The timing with the OL was off when Sam was in. Kudos to Jet on the run game he had. The offense got their groove with Case. And Harrison made a huge play. The sack by Everson and the fumble recovery by Linval. So some team screw ups but in the end a team win. 

@"Jor-El" said: The Bears are horrible, and a decent team would have blown them out. We kept them in the game with stupid penalties and mistakes like Sendejo tipping a pass up for a Bears TD. The Vikings hardly deserved to win.

Why the hell did the coaches have Bradford on the field?? He looked drugged. As a fan, I hoped he would play and perform like he did in week 1 - but I don't watch him in practice every day and hear his medical reports, like they do. Now his knee is probably aggravated. Did Zimmer just pull his macho, "You should toughen up and play through pain" act because he was so desperate to beat one of the worst teams in the league?? 

Find 5 more wins on the Vikings' schedule. Seriously - I'm not sure if there are 3. We can likely beat the Bears in the week 17 game for 3rd place NFCNorth, and should be favored against the Browns (though London games are unpredictable). Bengals at USB in week 15: Maybe, but Cincinatti has awakened from their bad start. Maybe the Rams cool down and we handle them. Beyond that? Not if we play like we have for the last 16 games and damn sure not if we play like last night.

Winning ugly can be brutal but it's still a win. Another monkey off their backs. But of course there is much to work on. It sucked to see Sam like that. But from the presser it sounded like he was cleared to go. And the best thing was done for Sam was sitting him. The defense had some issues with tackling and gave up some underneath stuff. They bit on that ridiculous fake. The timing with the OL was off when Sam was in. Kudos to Jet on the run game he had. The offense got their groove with Case. And Harrison made a huge play. The sack by Everson and the fumble recovery by Linval. So some team screw ups but in the end a team win. 

I'm a little more optimistic on the number of wins. If Keenum has a repeat performance like the Tampa Bay game against the Packers this Sunday, we can win with our defense at home. I think we can win the rest of our home games and beat Cleveland in London which would put us at 9 wins and in line for a wildcard spot. 

That was my same thought. See where Sam is at before the Green Bay game and assess from there. He was clearly tentative and not stepping into his throws. The whole team looked like they were in quicksand the first half. And Coach Zimmer said he reinjured the knee. Although there was a play that he landed weird on his other knee. But he was rusty and flat. No wondering about what's going on there. I am hoping for the best for Sam as always but he isn't ready. 

@"TBro" said: I'm a little more optimistic on the number of wins. If Keenum has a repeat performance like the Tampa Bay game against the Packers this Sunday, we can win with our defense at home. I think we can win the rest of our home games and beat Cleveland in London which would put us at 9 wins and in line for a wildcard spot. 

how quickly we forget the Keenum that played against the steelers and the lions.   I think Case is a likeable guy,  but he is way to inconsistent for me to have any confidence in him showing up and winning any game,  let alone one against one of the best offenses in the game.

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"TBro" said: I'm a little more optimistic on the number of wins. If Keenum has a repeat performance like the Tampa Bay game against the Packers this Sunday, we can win with our defense at home. I think we can win the rest of our home games and beat Cleveland in London which would put us at 9 wins and in line for a wildcard spot. 

how quickly we forget the Keenum that played against the steelers and the lions.   I think Case is a likeable guy,  but he is way to inconsistent for me to have any confidence in him showing up and winning any game,  let alone one against one of the best offenses in the game.

On the bright side that's TWO prime time wins....and thats something different for this franchise that usually folds under the bright lights of national TV

@"TBro" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"TBro" said: I'm a little more optimistic on the number of wins. If Keenum has a repeat performance like the Tampa Bay game against the Packers this Sunday, we can win with our defense at home. I think we can win the rest of our home games and beat Cleveland in London which would put us at 9 wins and in line for a wildcard spot. 

how quickly we forget the Keenum that played against the steelers and the lions.   I think Case is a likeable guy,  but he is way to inconsistent for me to have any confidence in him showing up and winning any game,  let alone one against one of the best offenses in the game.

I haven't forgotten, and you are absolutely right in being skeptical of him, but I think we need to roll with him the rest of the year and live with the outcome good or bad. If Bradford is out another 4 weeks or longer, why even bother bringing him in when he is healthy to return? By that time, we will know if we are still in the playoff race or not and if Keenum is performing well, why would you upset that chemistry just to force Bradford in the lineup? If we are playing poorly and are out of the playoff race, I would rather tank the season in a very deep QB draft for 2018 and let Bridewater's contract toll. With what we've seen from Bradford, and what we don't know yet about Teddy's abilities off of injury, I don't think we have much choice but to draft a QB in the first few rounds to hedge our bet. I love Sam's arm talent, but I'm not convinced that he can lead a team to a Super Bowl. Teddy has the leadership qualities to do it, but I'm skeptical that he has the arm talent a long with a bad knee to get us to a Super Bowl either. Without Cook on the field, I don't think we have enough offensive firepower to be a Super Bowl contender with our QB situation but I'm willing to let things ride with Case for the rest of the year and hope for the best. 

@"Jor-El" said: The Bears are horrible, and a decent team would have blown them out. We kept them in the game with stupid penalties and mistakes like Sendejo tipping a pass up for a Bears TD. The Vikings hardly deserved to win.

Why the hell did the coaches have Bradford on the field?? He looked drugged. As a fan, I hoped he would play and perform like he did in week 1 - but I don't watch him in practice every day and hear his medical reports, like they do. Now his knee is probably aggravated. Did Zimmer just pull his macho, "You should toughen up and play through pain" act because he was so desperate to beat one of the worst teams in the league?? 

Find 5 more wins on the Vikings' schedule. Seriously - I'm not sure if there are 3. We can likely beat the Bears in the week 17 game for 3rd place NFCNorth, and should be favored against the Browns (though London games are unpredictable). Bengals at USB in week 15: Maybe, but Cincinatti has awakened from their bad start. Maybe the Rams cool down and we handle them. Beyond that? Not if we play like we have for the last 16 games and damn sure not if we play like last night.

Actually, they're worse off than Minnesota since they actually lost in Chicago.

And Atlanta barely squeaked one out there too, IIRC. Stick a fork in those dirty birds.

Vikes won IN Chicago.. I'll take it.. they are NOT that bad of a team.. They should have beaten Atlanta. And the Vikes always have problems there. Sure it wasn't a route. but NFCN games rarely are. We won. I'm happy. 

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"TBro" said: I'm a little more optimistic on the number of wins. If Keenum has a repeat performance like the Tampa Bay game against the Packers this Sunday, we can win with our defense at home. I think we can win the rest of our home games and beat Cleveland in London which would put us at 9 wins and in line for a wildcard spot. 

how quickly we forget the Keenum that played against the steelers and the lions.   I think Case is a likeable guy,  but he is way to inconsistent for me to have any confidence in him showing up and winning any game,  let alone one against one of the best offenses in the game.

@"Mike Olson" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"TBro" said: I'm a little more optimistic on the number of wins. If Keenum has a repeat performance like the Tampa Bay game against the Packers this Sunday, we can win with our defense at home. I think we can win the rest of our home games and beat Cleveland in London which would put us at 9 wins and in line for a wildcard spot. 

how quickly we forget the Keenum that played against the steelers and the lions.   I think Case is a likeable guy,  but he is way to inconsistent for me to have any confidence in him showing up and winning any game,  let alone one against one of the best offenses in the game.

Well it's a good thing he doesn't play defense then. 

@"FSUVike" said:

@"Jor-El" said: The Bears are horrible, and a decent team would have blown them out. We kept them in the game with stupid penalties and mistakes like Sendejo tipping a pass up for a Bears TD. The Vikings hardly deserved to win.

Why the hell did the coaches have Bradford on the field?? He looked drugged. As a fan, I hoped he would play and perform like he did in week 1 - but I don't watch him in practice every day and hear his medical reports, like they do. Now his knee is probably aggravated. Did Zimmer just pull his macho, "You should toughen up and play through pain" act because he was so desperate to beat one of the worst teams in the league?? 

Find 5 more wins on the Vikings' schedule. Seriously - I'm not sure if there are 3. We can likely beat the Bears in the week 17 game for 3rd place NFCNorth, and should be favored against the Browns (though London games are unpredictable). Bengals at USB in week 15: Maybe, but Cincinatti has awakened from their bad start. Maybe the Rams cool down and we handle them. Beyond that? Not if we play like we have for the last 16 games and damn sure not if we play like last night.

So by this logic the Steelers are also done, right? 

Actually, they're worse off than Minnesota since they actually lost in Chicago.

And Atlanta barely squeaked one out there too, IIRC. Stick a fork in those dirty birds.

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Mike Olson" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"TBro" said: I'm a little more optimistic on the number of wins. If Keenum has a repeat performance like the Tampa Bay game against the Packers this Sunday, we can win with our defense at home. I think we can win the rest of our home games and beat Cleveland in London which would put us at 9 wins and in line for a wildcard spot. 

how quickly we forget the Keenum that played against the steelers and the lions.   I think Case is a likeable guy,  but he is way to inconsistent for me to have any confidence in him showing up and winning any game,  let alone one against one of the best offenses in the game.

Well it's a good thing he doesn't play defense then. 

meaning what?

@"Wetlander" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Mike Olson" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"TBro" said: I'm a little more optimistic on the number of wins. If Keenum has a repeat performance like the Tampa Bay game against the Packers this Sunday, we can win with our defense at home. I think we can win the rest of our home games and beat Cleveland in London which would put us at 9 wins and in line for a wildcard spot. 

how quickly we forget the Keenum that played against the steelers and the lions.   I think Case is a likeable guy,  but he is way to inconsistent for me to have any confidence in him showing up and winning any game,  let alone one against one of the best offenses in the game.

Well it's a good thing he doesn't play defense then. 

meaning what?

Read your earlier post again...  Mike is just having some fun with you.  See if you can catch it...

@"FSUVike" said:

@"Jor-El" said: The Bears are horrible, and a decent team would have blown them out. We kept them in the game with stupid penalties and mistakes like Sendejo tipping a pass up for a Bears TD. The Vikings hardly deserved to win.

Why the hell did the coaches have Bradford on the field?? He looked drugged. As a fan, I hoped he would play and perform like he did in week 1 - but I don't watch him in practice every day and hear his medical reports, like they do. Now his knee is probably aggravated. Did Zimmer just pull his macho, "You should toughen up and play through pain" act because he was so desperate to beat one of the worst teams in the league?? 

Find 5 more wins on the Vikings' schedule. Seriously - I'm not sure if there are 3. We can likely beat the Bears in the week 17 game for 3rd place NFCNorth, and should be favored against the Browns (though London games are unpredictable). Bengals at USB in week 15: Maybe, but Cincinatti has awakened from their bad start. Maybe the Rams cool down and we handle them. Beyond that? Not if we play like we have for the last 16 games and damn sure not if we play like last night.

So by this logic the Steelers are also done, right? 

Actually, they're worse off than Minnesota since they actually lost in Chicago.

And Atlanta barely squeaked one out there too, IIRC. Stick a fork in those dirty birds.

@"Jor-El" said:

@"FSUVike" said:

@"Jor-El" said: The Bears are horrible, and a decent team would have blown them out. We kept them in the game with stupid penalties and mistakes like Sendejo tipping a pass up for a Bears TD. The Vikings hardly deserved to win.

Why the hell did the coaches have Bradford on the field?? He looked drugged. As a fan, I hoped he would play and perform like he did in week 1 - but I don't watch him in practice every day and hear his medical reports, like they do. Now his knee is probably aggravated. Did Zimmer just pull his macho, "You should toughen up and play through pain" act because he was so desperate to beat one of the worst teams in the league?? 

Find 5 more wins on the Vikings' schedule. Seriously - I'm not sure if there are 3. We can likely beat the Bears in the week 17 game for 3rd place NFCNorth, and should be favored against the Browns (though London games are unpredictable). Bengals at USB in week 15: Maybe, but Cincinatti has awakened from their bad start. Maybe the Rams cool down and we handle them. Beyond that? Not if we play like we have for the last 16 games and damn sure not if we play like last night.

So by this logic the Steelers are also done, right? 

Actually, they're worse off than Minnesota since they actually lost in Chicago.

And Atlanta barely squeaked one out there too, IIRC. Stick a fork in those dirty birds.

I'm not commenting on the Bears' past performance or playing any kind of "A beat B who beat C who beat A so B should have beat A" game. I'm commenting on what I saw opposing the Vikings last night: a team that had no decent WRs, massive injury gaps on their OL and back 7, a rookie QB who was starting only his 14th game since High School, and made a ton of mistakes. LAST NIGHT, the Bears were playing crap football and a good football team should have handled them easily, but the Vikings needed to go to the last minute of the game and hope that Forbath wouldn't blow another kick. 

Here's why I retain some optimism, though I spent the first half formulating new profanity:

as mentioned above, we have two prime-time wins...and the most recent was in a place that's been a likely loss for us, regardless the teams' records;

even with Diggs down, Floyd was immediately better than Treadwell and Jet stepped up...Rudolph reappeared...while Thielen is still Thielen.

Yes, that was a "definitely should win" kinda game, and it was won ugly...but that's hardly an unknown in divisional games.

I agree, a win is a win, which is why I can never bring myself to whine and bitch after we get one.

The team isn't going anywhere with Keenum at QB. They'll win one, lose 2, rinse and repeat for the remainder of the season. He's limited.