Vikings@ Bears

Before I even begin my rant about the Lions game, I must express my deep sadness at the horrible illness contracted by their running back Reggie Bush. You have to admire his courage – being out there and battling for his team despite having such an awful and contagious disease. Also surprising is that there has been NO news coverage about his illness. I have heard NOTHING mentioned in the press about this. Yet, it is apparent he has something horrible and contagious. It was apparent for all of us to see on Sunday. That’s the only explanation for the Vikings defense being so completely unwilling to even touch the guy. They didn’t even seem to be willing to get too close to him. Sad.

But on to the rest of that game. Since Time Reilly has urged me to be more optimistic, let’s start with the bright spots for the Vikings. If we look at the Vikings offensive line, … ok scratch that. So, what about our defense. You could say … hmmm … ummm … Moving on to special teams, our rookie punter had a … ummm … well … okay. I guess this was a bad idea. But I tried? The best part of the Vikings game last Sunday was the fact that the Lions tried so desperately hard to lose the game. They felt so sorry for the pathetic Vikings that they even gave back FOUR touchdowns, refusing to take credit for marching up and down the field at will.

Coach Leslie Frazier at least had this incisive and carefully-thought-out analysis of how we are going to fix the problems and win this season: “We all need to play better.” Nice plan. That makes me very optimistic for the season. If only he hadn’t already said that after the three losses in the preseason, it may be a little easier to take him seriously. I’m sure Bill Musgrave is hard at work designing clever plays that involve Ponder rolling to the left and throwing across his body, running Adrian up the middle on first, second, third, AND fourth down, designing an awesome two yard dump-pass play for third-and-eight situations, etc. So, we’ll be okay. Or at least, we’ll be back to normal for this coaching staff. Is that optimistic enough, Tim?

The game will be on. Come for the beer and company. The 0-2 start will at least dampen any enthusiasm the fans have for this season. So, any silly win against a mediocre team can be celebrated for the rest of this year. Let the fun begin!