NFL

[Kapitan]

An '80s Vikings favorite (and favorite villain, Vikings fans being quick to hop on and off of bandwagons with every slight shift in the winds) Tommy Kramer announced that he, too, has dementia. He says Brett Favre's announcement inspired him to speak up, too. He says his doctors have told him he probably has 2-10 years to live.

www.startribune.com/minnesota-vikings-tommy-kramer-dementia-brett-favre-parkinsons-qb/601151705

[Kapitan]

Through 3 games, the Vikings are a surprising 3-0 and are getting strong, mostly mistake-free football from Sam Darnold, the former high 1st round pick who has been considered a bust up until now. He was signed on 1-year stopgap deal to hold down the fort until (now injured) rookie JJ McCarthy was deemed ready to take over.

Darnold has completed 67.9% of his passes for 657 yards, 8 TD and 2 INT, with a 117.3 rating. His career has him completing 60.1% of his passes, about 184 yards/game (so that would translate to 553 yards so far this season), just over 1 TD per game (so 3 TDs would be avg) and .84 INT/g (which would put him at 2.5 INTs), with a 79.9 rating.

What's funny is the local media are in a quandary: is he an All-Pro type QB, or is he a bust just waiting to revert to form?

But what nobody seems to even hint at as a possibility is ... we don't know, and it doesn't have to be either of those two options! He's not ANYTHING until he's been that thing. How will his season go? We'll know after the season. He is playing well, he seems to have improved, but that doesn't mean we have to coronate him as some sort of MVP candidate.

Media and fans can be funny that way.

[kds]

Sept 26, 2024 12:14:05 GMT Kapitan said:

Through 3 games, the Vikings are a surprising 3-0 and are getting strong, mostly mistake-free football from Sam Darnold, the former high 1st round pick who has been considered a bust up until now. He was signed on 1-year stopgap deal to hold down the fort until (now injured) rookie JJ McCarthy was deemed ready to take over.

Darnold has completed 67.9% of his passes for 657 yards, 8 TD and 2 INT, with a 117.3 rating. His career has him completing 60.1% of his passes, about 184 yards/game (so that would translate to 553 yards so far this season), just over 1 TD per game (so 3 TDs would be avg) and .84 INT/g (which would put him at 2.5 INTs), with a 79.9 rating.

What's funny is the local media are in a quandary: is he an All-Pro type QB, or is he a bust just waiting to revert to form?

But what nobody seems to even hint at as a possibility is ... we don't know, and it doesn't have to be either of those two options! He's not ANYTHING until he's been that thing. How will his season go? We'll know after the season. He is playing well, he seems to have improved, but that doesn't mean we have to coronate him as some sort of MVP candidate.

Media and fans can be funny that way.

I think it's been magnified in the modern age of constant information, the internet, social media, etc etc, but there's an urgency that didn't use to exist before.  

Different sport, but here in Baltimore, #1 baseball prospect Jackson Holliday is playing his first MLB season this year.   In two stints with the Orioles, he's shown some flashes, but overall, hasn't been that good.   So, predictably, and stupidly, we have fans and some members of the local media already calling him a "bust."  The guy's not even old enough to drink yet, and has yet to collect his 200th MLB at bat.   

[Kapitan]

It's a big game today, with the 3-0 Vikings in Green Bay to face the 2-1 Packers, our biggest rival.

The Vikings are still without starting TE TJ Hockensen (who has yet to play this year) and are missing LB Ivan Pace, but return #2 WR Jordan Addison after he missed a couple of weeks. The Packers have both star QB Jordan Love and CB Jaire Alexander questionable.

I'm glad it's a noon game! It seems Vikings/Packers often ends up a night game, which never feels right to me. Sundays at noon, that's NFL football for me, and always will be!

[kds]

Sept 29, 2024 13:07:14 GMT Kapitan said:

It's a big game today, with the 3-0 Vikings in Green Bay to face the 2-1 Packers, our biggest rival.

The Vikings are still without starting TE TJ Hockensen (who has yet to play this year) and are missing LB Ivan Pace, but return #2 WR Jordan Addison after he missed a couple of weeks. The Packers have both star QB Jordan Love and CB Jaire Alexander questionable.

I'm glad it's a noon game! It seems Vikings/Packers often ends up a night game, which never feels right to me. Sundays at noon, that's NFL football for me, and always will be!

I agree, though it's 1pm in my time zone.   But, thanks to the oversaturation of prime time football, the Ravens often play about 25% of the schedule at night.   Of our four games, two have been in prime time.  

Last night, we wound up on the winning side.   I'm not overly shocked that the Ravens beat the Bills, but I am pretty shocked at how easily they did so, winning 35-10.  

[Kapitan]

Yesterday the Vikings won their big game to end (almost ... stupid 17-game season!) the first quarter of the season at 4-0. But as dominant as they were in the first half, it was almost like they did their best to blow it in the second half: 28-0 late in the first half ended up 31-29 to end the game. If you ignore the turnovers forced (3 INTs, 1 fumble recovered), the defense was terrible. (Granted, you shouldn't ignore the turnovers, because that's a big part of defense.) We gave up 465 yards, including 4.5 ypc and 6.3 yards per play overall. Ouch.

But a win is a win. And hopefully within the next few weeks, we'll get two more offensive starters back: G Dalton Risner and star TE TJ Hockensen.

[kds]

Here's a stray mini almost rant. I've posted before about my disdain for online sports fandom. I know a lot of the stuff posted on social media is just noise, because frankly, the majority of those fans are.....how do I say this diplomatically....idiots.

But, I've even noticed that "Eeyore" type of fandom with people I actually know. I have two older relatives. They might as well be Statler and Waldorf, and between then, it's rarely to be a positive post about anything. They're usually posting negative political posts or Eeyoring about local sports teams.

Last night, I skimmed Facebook at halftime of the Ravens game. We're up 21-3. Not a peep. The second half gets off to a not so great start, and suddenly its 21-10 in the third with Bills driving. Statler and Waldorf wake up. "I shoulda turned it off at half time." "Here we go again." "No adjustments at the half." "Here comes another blown lead." The Ravens force a turnover. They retake momentum, score and never look back. Again, crickets.

As a sports fan, that just confounds me. Even at my worst (and I was pretty bad in my 20s), I'd at least be happy about the good things.

[Kapitan]

I don't think anyone had high expectations for this year's Vikings, and I said here I didn't know what to expect, but was figuring mediocrity was probably the best-case scenario. 

Well, I'll take 5-0!

I didn't watch this morning's game--I don't get NFL Network--but see that while we didn't exactly put on a show, the defense must have really done the work. Three INTs (one for a TD, DE/LB Andrew Van Ginkel's second INT and TD), 3 sacks, only 36 rushing yards allowed. It made up for the fact that Sam Darnold had his worst game of the season (14-31 for 179 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT) and the team only rushed for 82 yards and a 2.7 ypc. Lots of penalties for both teams, pretty rough game all around ... but it counts!

5-0. I'm surprised and elated.

[kds]

The Ravens pulled out a W in a crazy, back and forth shoot out against the Bengals. Lamar Jackson threw for 4 TDs while Joe Burrow threw for 5, but the game ultimately came down to field goals. Justin Tucker, who had struggled this season with long attempts, tied the game with a 56 yarder. Then, after a Bengals miss, Tucker won the game on a chip shot.

After an 0-2 start, the Ravens find themselves tied with Pittsburgh atop the AFC North.

[Kapitan]

Oct 7, 2024 13:14:15 GMT kds said:

The Ravens pulled out a W in a crazy, back and forth shoot out against the Bengals. Lamar Jackson threw for 4 TDs while Joe Burrow threw for 5, but the game ultimately came down to field goals. Justin Tucker, who had struggled this season with long attempts, tied the game with a 56 yarder. Then, after a Bengals miss, Tucker won the game on a chip shot.

After an 0-2 start, the Ravens find themselves tied with Pittsburgh atop the AFC North.

I was glad to see Rashod Bateman with a few catches and a TD. I am really pulling for him, but he never seems to quite break through.

[kds]

Oct 7, 2024 13:21:40 GMT Kapitan said:

Oct 7, 2024 13:14:15 GMT kds said:

The Ravens pulled out a W in a crazy, back and forth shoot out against the Bengals. Lamar Jackson threw for 4 TDs while Joe Burrow threw for 5, but the game ultimately came down to field goals. Justin Tucker, who had struggled this season with long attempts, tied the game with a 56 yarder. Then, after a Bengals miss, Tucker won the game on a chip shot.

After an 0-2 start, the Ravens find themselves tied with Pittsburgh atop the AFC North.

I was glad to see Rashod Bateman with a few catches and a TD. I am really pulling for him, but he never seems to quite break through.

I was actually a little surprised the Ravens extended him.   He's shown some flashes, but hasn't really been consistent (or stayed on the field long enough to be consistent).  

[Kapitan]

Interesting tidbit in today's sports page: Vikings head coach has now coached his 40th game (both overall and as the Vikings head coach), and his 25-15 record is the best ever for a Vikings coach through 40 games. He beat Dennis Green's 24-16 start in the early '90s. 

He's been good, but I wouldn't have guessed he was the best ever. Then again, we're just talking the best 40-game start, and I suppose a coach's first few years aren't generally going to be that great, unless he's coming in to coach a good team (where the coach retired, perhaps) as opposed to the more common rebuilding situations. 

[Kapitan]

First loss of the season for the now 5-1 Vikings, unfortunately to the division rival Lions.

If there's a bright side to it, it's that I thought we played very poorly but still only lost by 2 pts to a really good team. Astounding that the two QBs combined to go 44-52 passing for 539 yards. That's 84.6% completions. It was like a video game at times. Our defense definitely missed the injured LB/DE Blake Cashman.

[kds]

The Ravens got off to a slow start last night in Tampa Bay, but they rebounded on the strength of dominant performances from Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry to win their fifth straight game 41-31.

After starting 0-2, the Ravens are now 5-2, and tied with the Steelers atop the AFC North. Now, three of our next four games will be against division foes.

[Kapitan]

How 'bout my guy Rashod Bateman?