Stop the pain

Vikings – Cardinals

It’s been a shitty week. It will get shittier if the Vikings lose at home against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.

That’s a distinct possibility, by the way. Even with the Cardinals going back to Derek Anderson and his 53.5 completion percentage as their starting quarterback. Even with the Cardinals giving up 143 yards rushing per game – 28th in the league – and facing the NFL’s leading rusher.

That’s because the Cardinals still have Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston. The pair combined for 14 catches, 219 yards and two touchdowns in last week’s 38-35 loss at Tampa Bay. And you might have noticed the Vikings aren’t getting much pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

So even though Anderson’s inaccurate and mistake-prone (seven interceptions in limited playing time this season), he’ll probably get enough time to find Fitzgerald and Breaston for some big plays that will hurt the Vikings. And nobody on the Vikings defence knows how to pick off a pass anyway.

Are there any reasons to be optimistic the Vikings will win this one?

Sure. We’ve got Adrian Peterson. Brett Favre actually played pretty well last week. Maybe he’s coming around. And just like the Vikings, the Cardinals are a terrible road team. They’re 1-3 away from home and their losses have been by 12 points, 31 points and 34 points.

But this week has been so chaotic, and this season has gone so sour for the Vikings, I only see misery in store for them for the rest of 2010.

It continues this Sunday.

Cardinals 28 – Vikings 17


Rumors of Jared Allen’s demise are not greatly exaggerated

I don’t know what’s more depressing, the Vikings 2-5 record, the way the Moss thing turned out, or as Football Outsiders Doug Farrar writes, that Jared Allen may be on a very swift decline.

The article makes for interesting reading if you’re a football fan. But it’s painful reading if you’re a Vikings fan.

However, when I finished reading Farrar’s article, I almost immediately started thinking about Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora.

Last year around this time, football writers were saying Umenyiora was done. You could run on him at will. He couldn’t get to the quarterback. He wasn’t even an every-down player.

This year, Umenyiora has eight sacks and seven forced fumbles. He’s playing well, and he’s the same age as Allen – 28.

So I think Allen is just going through a bad stretch here, like almost all of the Vikings are.