Tuesday, December 20, 2022

December 17th,2022 will be a day I will never forget

 

I have been sked by so many people what was being at US Bank Stadium like watching the historical comeback.

Yes it’s been a few days since but the game still is fresh In my mind and may stay like that for quite some time,

I start with offering my pregame thinking as I know the Vikings are 4.5 point favorite and know the Vikings are 9-0 when favored.

I tell you I walked in US Bank with the best feeling as I know a win and I will get to see the NFC North champions and see the hat and T-shirt.

Yes, I was pumped with really no fear of a letdown and I was just plain excited. The excitement pregame was even high for me as I see Tommy Kramer and Ahmad Rashad walking up to the Gjallahorn to sound it and lead the SKOL chant.

The crowd stands as one as the Vikings kick it off and there is the boom as Paul Allen says. I watched in disbelief as the Colt return man just sliced up the Vikings special teams on his way to a long return setting up the Colts in great field position.

It seemed that was the trend the rest of the first half with so many things going right for the Colts and wrong for my favorite team.

I was at the Dallas Cowboy debacle and thought that was horrible but somehow this first half seemed worse. My wife leans over to me and says this is the worst football I have ever seen and you know I couldn’t disagree.

The first half was so much booing by the fans and yet once in a while I heard cheers. I thought what on earth can people be cheering for? Here I find out the paper airplanes people made and tossed the cheers were for the plane making the field. It wasn’t too much longer and I saw security up in the upper levels looking for the offenders.

It was finally halftime and all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. I came in so confident it hurt to see this awful performance. Yes fans let the team know just what they thought by thousands of boos.

The halftime was Mascots vs youth football which was interesting watching mascots stiff arm kids to the ground. I guess I am not too much of a fan of this yearly halftime but that’s only my opinion.

The second half was about to start and I thought if we can get one touchdown not a field goal it would be a good start I guess an obvious statement.

I am thinking to myself the Dallas- Indianapolis game where Dallas scored 33 points in the 4th quarter so I guess anything is possible.

I really thought seeing the first couple drives the Vikings offense looked like they would not be stopped. The thing is could the 32nd ranked Vikings defense make not one stop but every Colts drive would have to be a stop.

I really thought the Vikings D looked as good as they have in a long time as I actually saw several blitzes and penetration by the Vikings defensive line.

The Vikings made it 36-21 and I really thought we had a chance but wondered when Vikings Coach KOC would go for two.

I am not going to go into all the missed calls by the refs as that has been beaten into the ground. I will say the one fumble return I jumped out of my seat and yelled watching the Vikings score. My wife grabs my jersey and says um the play was called dead. “WHAT?” You have to be kidding.

I will say one of the missed fumble returns for a TD drew a crowd reaction where I don’t know if I have ever seen. I saw many beer cans thrown onto the west end zone that’s how upset people were. There were no players in that end so security hustled to pick everything up.

I really don’t believe the Colts were trying to not score the Vikings D just finally made plays.

The screen pass from Kirk Cousins to Dalvin Cook was as good as I have ever seen as once again I am out my chair going crazy yelling as if Dalvin could hear me.

I know it’s a little over two minutes and the time is now to go for two to tie, I watch Kirk drop back survey the field and find TJ Hockenson and we are tie. You can only jump so high at your chair but I am sure I jumped max high.

The game goes to OT and win the coin toss. My confidence we were going to win was maxed out but then the disappointment of having to punt.

The Colts just didn’t scare me but somehow we still needed to make a stop and they did. The story goes like this as I have seen this before.

Yes we drive to set up the game winning field goal on the last play of OT. I had my phone turned to video pushed record and stepped back so my phone would not go anywhere except my hands. It was tough as my hands were soaked in sweat as how many times has my heart been broken with a missed kick or the other team kick a field goal to win.

I was at the 1998 NFC Championship game and watched the Falcons break my heart and I was the 2010 NFC Championship game and watched the Saints break my heart.

Yes, Saturday December 17th, 2022 it was the Vikings turn. Yes. I know it’s not the playoffs but still needed to see a game winner in huge pressure.

What a day seeing the Minnesota Vikings make history with the biggest comeback in NFL history. The Vikings now have 10 wins of 8 points or less which is tied for most in NFL history.

I am 57 going on 58 and hope my heart can keep on taking this because it sure is a fun ride!!!!

SKOL

The Vikings host the New York Giants Christmas Eve in a whiteout. I will not predict a score just know it’s going to be one exciting Saturday afternoon. It’s the last regular season home game so the outcome has to be in favor of the good guys.

Purplestick

 

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