2061

So do I. In one of them, anyway.

2062

Tennis?!?

2063

I am a very complicated sports fan. I can chew tobacco at a football game one day, then enjoy a nice glass of wine at a tennis match the next day.

2064

Well that ended up being a surprisingly defensive oriented struggle. One thing it did seem to show it that the Vikes are paying a price for having Favre do nothing with his receivers from the end of last season until a few weeks ago. He might have gotten away with that had Rice not been injured, but not with him out.

2065

I thought it was interesting that it was ultimately the Saints’ running game and the Vikings relative lack thereof that made the difference in this game.

2066

The two halves were really night and day.

In the first half, the Vikings running game was doing a good job, whereas the Saints offense was going nowhere (first drive excepted, of course).

In the second half, the Saints started doing a great job of moving the ball with the running game. Interestingly, the Vikings stopped giving Peterson the ball; he had 22 touches in the first half vs. 7 in the second half. Part of that was undoubtedly the Vikings playing from behind for most of the half, but still.

2067

Aaaaaaand we’re still the champions :)

2068

Hard to tell what was going on, but Favre didn’t really look comfortable dropping back to pass. He might have felt a bit gunshy due to the beating he took in the NFC championship game from the Saints.

Close game. If they meet again in the playoffs it’s a pick’em. Neither team looked that much better than the other. Good to have the season start, and a nice game to launch it.

2069

Even after somewhat of a letdown by the Vikings last night, I think it’s obvious their defense is still one of the best in the league. I expect the Vikings offense to look a heck of a lot better against the terrible Lions defense, especially the secondary. As for the Bears, they might not be a great team, but they’re still probably better, overall, than the Lions. But even discounting them, I’d say four games again the Vikings and Packers is still a pretty formidable gauntlet.

As for the game last night: BO-RING! I wouldn’t have turned it off even if it had been 0-0 the whole time and I didn’t have any fantasy players going, but man, I expected more fireworks between these two NFC powerhouses. AP looked fairly pedestrian against the New Orleans defense and Favre looked like he couldn’t get the ball to go where he wanted it to go. I dunno if his arm strength is still building up or what, but he was looking his age last night. For their part the Vikings defense did all it could against the New Orleans attack, which didn’t look very potent at all. Of course it was the first game for both teams and probably would’ve been a better game all around in Week 6 or 8.

2070

(Obligatory fantasy whine post): I drafted Colston and Harvin as my two starting receivers. What a bad way to start the fantasy season. My curse will continue forevermore.

2071

I drafted both of those guys too!! I feel your pain.

2072

I had Colston as my #2 and Berrian as my #3. Waiting for Santonio Holmes to come off suspension to get in the game…

Pierre Thomas performed well though.

2073

I have Favre as my starter, so that didn’t go great for me at all.

2074

I have Peterson…thankfully the Vikings decided they didn’t want to use one of the best rushers in the game in the second half. Smart call, vikes!

2075

I don’t know why they got away from using him either. It seemed like he was having some success at softening up the Saints. Favre certainly wasn’t setting the world on fire, so why go away from AP?

2076

Favre looked like a 40-year old who missed training camp. Poor stamina, no timing with his receivers. If Childress had a do-over, I suspect AP would have a lot more rushes in the second half.

2077

Looked like NO was really trying to stuff the run on first down in the second half. Also, how many times did they have the ball in the second half? NO was eating the clock with a lot of running plays.

Kind of a boring game, even though it was close.

2078

They weren’t going to give AP 44 touches in Week 1…they overworked him early and didn’t have anyone to spell him, IMHO.

2079

I see Kevin Mawae retired today. Was he going to start for the Titans this year or was this more of a “if I’m a backup I might as well call it a career” move? I’m thinking I might adopt the Titans this year as my “fallback” team since the Seahawks are going to suck and it looks like my traditional fallback teams, the Browns and Bucs, are going to as well.

2080

He was a free agent, and no one signed him.