Vikings, weather and fans all come out Sunday was winners

The Minnesota Vikings (0-1) played host to the Detroit Lions (0-1) Sunday September 20^th at noon. The winner goes 1-1 and even better would be 1-0 in the NFC North. The Vikings were embarrassed on Monday night football against the 49ers while Detroit blew a huge lead last week on the road in San Diego.

The question is which team will come out meaner and hungrier after a tough week 1? The pregame was a great start to a hopeful winning Sunday as former Purple People Eater, Alan Page blew the Gjlarhorn to sound the Vikings were coming.

We also had a military theme as four parachuters  came down on TCF Bank Stadium field with the last one ended up sliding into the Detroit Lions sideline which could have been a major catastrophe but thankfully no one was hurt.

Minnesota’s offense and defense took a beat down Monday night so I was anxious to see the first Minnesota drive and see just how they would respond.

The first drive ends up 11 plays and a touchdown for the exclamation point on a touchdown pass from Bridgewater to Rudolph. I had just told my wife that I predict a pass to Rudolph and there it was. Finally Kyle is used in the red zone and it made the sellout crowd come to their feet.

The defense was up next and just as I hoped the defense came through and Lions are forced to punt. These 2 drives were all I needed to see to get the feeling this just might be our day.

Three plays that really stood out to me that would make a big difference in again a hopeful win were 1) The Bridgewater roll out and put the ball perfectly to Jarius Wright along the sidelines was huge and allowed the drive to continue.

The 2^nd was Bridgewaters’ handoff to Adrian who in turn flips it back to Jarius Wright who I thought was going for 6 but it didn’t but still a great chunk of yardage gained.

The third was what I thought the Lions had Teddy for a sack and the next thing we see is an unbelievable risky shuffle to Peterson and there goes Adrian for 40 yards. I know Adrian can be fast but it seemed like he ran out of gas towards the end but still an unbelievable play on both Teddy and Adrian.

Adrian had 70 yards in the first quarter alone was another great sign of things to change in Week 2 at home.

I absolutely loved the defensive effort on the run stopping all day. You look at Monday the team gave up over 230 yards rushing and on Sunday the team allowed 38 yards total lead by Quarterback, Matthew Stafford. You know it’s a great defensive effort when the quarterback is running for his life.

The defensive line really stepped up being led by the ends, Brian Robison and Everson Griffen who I thought had monster games. The interior guys, Shariff Floyd and Linval Joseph played their butts off as well.

I felt Xaxier Rhodes played a great game as well back in the secondary going much of the game vs Calvin Johnson. I don’t believe you can stop him but slowdown was exactly what they did to Johnson. He got his catches and 83 yards but no yards after the catch were monstrous.

Andrew Sendejo 2 weeks in a row was Johnny on the spot with the blocked field goal last Monday and on Sunday he picks up the fumble and comes close to taking it back.

There were so many guys that stepped up Sunday as I add Terrance Newman who made a breakup pass of what I thought was a for sure touchdown to Golden Tate in the first half.

Marcus Sherels who never stops surprising me had a heck of a game in the punt return game. The one he got to the Vikings sideline and somehow stayed in bounds for a few extra yards.

The game Adrian had running the ball was so nice to see but the concern like any other Vikings fan had Sunday was putting the ball way to many times on the turf.

The kicking of Blair Walsh is still concerning going 2-2 in field goal attempts but missed an extra point. I had a fan yell out as Blair was coming on “please don’t send him out he gives me stress when Walsh was about to come in for a field goal attempt.

Overall, the weather was beautiful the crowd was into the game and in the end the team looked way better and as the result gets the much needed win. Yes, I know it’s far from perfect but the positives were way easier to see today

As we were leaving the gates Sunday with people in such a good mood Jimmy John’s was there to hand out what seemed to be thousands of mini subs. It was a unexpected treat and was appreciated by my wife and myself.

There are 14 games and plenty of football left but this Sunday it is one where we can smile and go to bed a lot easier than Monday night tough loss.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick