The (5-2) Minnesota Vikings hosts the (2-4) Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Mall of America Field on Thursday Oct 25th, 2012. This game will go down in Vikings history as the 1st home NFL Network game.
This game will begin the second half of the home schedule after finishing 4-0 in the first half of the schedule.
The Vikings are 5-6 on Thursdays and 57-55 overall in primetime. The Vikings leads the series 31-21. The team is 18-8 at home vs Tampa Bay. The one troubling stat you just don’t’ usually see is the Vikings have not beat Tampa Bay at home since 2001. The Buccaneers have a 5 game winning streak in Minnesota. It was just last season when the Vikings had a big time lead over Tampa Bay only to watch the Bucs come back and win 24-20.
The halftime show will have Vikings fans in attendance watch former linebacker great, Matt Blair become the 20th Viking to be inducted into the Vikings Ring of Honor.
The NFL Network will broadcast with play by play man, Brad Nessler at the controls along with analyst Mike Mayock. Nessler is a native of St. Charles, Minnesota and also graduated from Minnesota State University. He was the voice of the Vikings in the 1988-89 season.
The two teams come in with a win for Minnesota over Arizona and Tampa Bay comes in after suffering a shocking loss to New Orleans Saints after being up 21-7.
The teams coming into 2012 season based on the 2011 opponents records had the Vikings tied for 8th toughest schedule while the Buccaneers had the 27th toughest.
The teams are also about as closing as scoring average as possible. Minnesota is averaging 23.9 a game while Tampa Bay is at 24.7.
In reading up on the game I found some neat connections. Tampa Bay General Manager Mark Dominik was born in St.Cloud, Minnesota. Minnesota linebacker coach Fred Pagac played tight end for Tampa Bay in 1976.Former Minnesota Gophers quarterback,Adam Weber is Tampa's third string quarterback.
Blair Walsh is now leading the NFL with 27 touchbacks. Percy Harvin is second in the NFL with 53 receptions.
Adrian Peterson tied Robert Smith’s team record of 29- 100 yard games on Sunday against Arizona. Lets’ hope the NFL world gets to see Peterson become number one in franchise history with a 100 yard performance topping off a Vikings victory Thursday.
There are no words that can describe what Peterson has overcome thus far. In looking at the rushing stats of AP he is at 652 which is tied for second in the NFL and good for third overall in the NFL.
Jared Allen got a sack Sunday against Arizona making for the 5th consecutive game in which he has a sack. Don’t look now but Allen is now tied for 5th in the NFL and 8th overall in the NFL.
A win by the Vikings would give Coach Frazier his first victory over Tampa Bay in his career.
Next up: A review of the first 4 at home
Thanks for reading
Purplestick
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