Friday's football post

Vikings – Rams

Let’s keep this short.

The St. Louis Rams are terrible. It will be a good season for them if they manage to win two games. They’re averaging six (six!) points per game and have been shut out twice. It’s not much better defensively, where the Rams have given up an average of 27 points per game this season. It’s so bad in St. Louis, Russ Limbaugh has put in an offer to buy the team. Rams fans have to feel good about the prospect of that.

For the Rams to win this one, two things will have to happen: running back Steven Jackson will have to have a big game and the Vikings must self-destruct with special teams gaffes and multiple turnovers on offence that lead to easy Rams scores.

Could it happen? Yes. Do I expect it to happen? No.

Vikings 35 – Rams 10 (with the Rams touchdown coming in garbage time.)

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good
How great is it to have the Vikings first three road games come against teams that are a combined 1-11 this season?

The Vikings after four games
What’s been the most encouraging development of the young Viking season?

One could point to how comfortable Percy Harvin has looked in the pro game or the emergence of a dangerous Vikings return game. But for me, it’s the rapport Brett Favre is developing with third-year wide receiver Sidney Rice.

I’ve liked Rice’s skill set ever since I saw him first play. And I felt with an actual NFL quarterback throwing to him, he could be an effective number #2 or possibly number #1(a) receiving threat the Vikings have needed since Randy Moss was traded away.

I wouldn’t say he’s there yet. But Rice’s stats have been solid the past couple of games and with his hands, his size and his leaping ability, plus the fact Favre obviously likes to throw to him, I think Rice is getting there. This is great news for the Vikings passing game and great news for the Vikings offence.

Turf talk
I know the Vikings might only be playing at the Metrodome for another couple of seasons, but after watching Green Bay cornerback Wil Blackmon crumple to the turf almost untouched, sustaining a season-ending ACL injury, I wonder if the Vikings and the group who runs the Metrodome should look at getting new turf in there ASAP?

I think I read a couple of years ago in a survey of NFL players, that the players ranked the Metrodome field turf as the worst in the NFL. This is terribly anecdotal, but it seems to me too many players have been lost to serious knee injuries in incidents similar to Blackmon's of late. It happened to the Packers Nick Barnett last year and Heath Farwell also. It happened to Chad Greenway in 2006.

So is the Metrodome turf just that much worse than others in the NFL?

I don’t know. But with the Vikings having a certain franchise player who makes the kind of violent cuts that can sometimes lead to these kinds of serious knee injuries, if I were Zygi Wilf, I’d be pestering the sports commission that runs the Metrodome to find a playing surface that is statistically proven to reduce knee injuries. I’m betting the Metrodome turf isn’t one of them.

Now if you will excuse me, I've got to find some wood to knock on.