There's your play of the week, Vikings fans. Jared Allen's 52-yard touchdown, made possible by an oncoming Kevin Williams causing Kyle Boller to wet himself and cough up the football. It's the first defensive touchdown of Allen's career, but more importantly, it set the tone for the afternoon. Turnovers would continue coming at opportune moments for the Vikings, as the Rams offense simply couldn't protect the ball when it counted.
Not only was Jared responsible for the play of the game, but he also uttered the quote of the afternoon:
"We think we're a good football team," Allen said. "The worst we can finish now is 5-11."
When Paul Allen confused Jared for Heath Farwell in his call of the above play, I initially only thought of it as the type of goof that happens to every announcer. But it displays something more than that: You can easily confuse Jared for a linebacker because the dude is really fast. Very rarely do we get to see Jared running at full speed in the open field, but when he gets the opportunity to do so like he did in this week's game, his quickness has gotta impress you.
After Allen's phenomenal performance last week against the Packers, we've been hearing his name and "MVP" thrown around in the same sentence. And we're talking at the league level -- not just MVP of the team. Hell, Brad Childress is in the early-season discussion for coach of the year, and Brett's name is being thrown out there for offensive MVP. I wouldn't advocate taking this talk too seriously, especially since we're only five weeks into the year and there are more important matters at hand than individual awards. But it does underscore the changing culture at Winter Park. I'm with Mark Craig -- this hardly feels like a team heading toward a late-season meltdown.