An Insanely Early Look at the Vikings' 2009 Schedule, Part Two

I’m trying to temper my expectations. In the first four games, I’m expecting one loss at most. The second four is going to be tough. Going 2-2 in those would be ideal. That would set the Vikings up to compete better throughout the rest of the schedule. I just hope the QB situation is figured out by then and the Vikings aren’t switching in and out.

at this point in the season is not unreasonable, but will require a fast start for once.

Is totally doable. I am actually happy that the toughest teams we’re playing are on the road for 2 reasons. One, if we’re gonna take our lumps, let’s lose in the hardest situation where no one gives us a chance to win in the first place. Two, as any true
Viking fan knows, our best victories always come when no one is expecting it. I’ve seen it since I’ve been old enough to watch. Beat a playoff team on the road………lose at home to the Lions…………VIKING FOOTBALL!!! Although I have to say our current defense has really helped us pull through on those days when we’re playing down to bad teams. They’ve been buying us just enough time.

I’ve been a Vikes fan since they were organized, and there is one thing that has stood out to me the whole time. They usually play very close to their oponents skill level no matter if they are better or worse than the Vikes. Thererfore I’m going to go out on a limb and say that they very easily could win over the Steelers. I agree with SpaceVike. Last season when they played the Lions the second time, I thought we might be the ones to let them win a game, but we got by them just barely. Anyway I think that 6-2 is a very reachable record for the first half.

but I also think you may be underestimating our chances in the game against the Ravens. This is a game I think we can win because we will be able to get to Flacco and it’s at the dome. We can beat ANYONE at the dome. Plus the Williams wall will be back and Flacco will have to drop back. Jared Allen and crew will have their ears pinned back. The Vikes will be 6-2 at this point.

Also, I am going to agree with you on the Steelers game… this is not like going into Arizona and winning a road game. We don’t have much chance in that one.

i dont agree with playing up or down.. the LIONS barely lost a ton of games. there is no way they will go 0-16 again, they could win 6 easily.

We played shitty against the saints. still one.
we owned jacksonville.
we owned the cards.
we played shite against the colts and barely lost

In fact, in all 16 games, we competed except for maybe one. And we shot ourselves (the players not the coaches or refs) in the foot in the few losses and in many games we did “what we had to do” in the end by getting a game winner or holding the other team.

So we were an underacheiving 10-6 team in my eyes…

Even the 98 vikings had their games they barely pulled out, 48 to 42 etc. they couldnt stop anyone and thats why we got owned by the rams twice and lost to the giants in ’00 and THATS why denny green sucked ass. Same goes for the TICE teams..

Only jerry burns’ team had that killer number one we can win it all defense. (and the purple people eaters)

we need to get THAT back. people aren’t scared of us on 3rd and long and it’s a damn shame

so in reality we showed a lot of character and grit…

they can’t score. then win games 10 to 3. 17 to 15.
all you need to do is score three times. the barely won a lot of games. they’re not totally dominant

Rams – Should be an easy win. While the Vikings can play down to their opponents level sometimes, I think this game will be a dominating effort.

Ravens – The more I think about it, the more I’m not too worried about the Ravens. Their D has always been the strong point, and they lost their most important piece in Rex Ryan. This year’s D is still gonna be good, but I don’t see it being as good as it has been recently. As far as their offense goes, I think the key to stopping them is shutting down their running game. If only we had a team who lead the league in run D 3 years straight. O wait… we do! hahaha. I think with the running game shut down, that will put too much on Flacco. While he can throw some decent passes, he cannot win games by himself.

Steelers – Superbowl champions. enough said

Packers – This game is gonna be in Green Bay, so I have to chalk this one up to a loss at first glance. But with them switching to the 3-4…. who knows.

As long as we’re having ourselves a temporal psychosis, let’s go 7-1 in the first half of the season! We are significantly unaware (prior to the draft and the trade deadlines and the summer camp and the preseason carnival) regarding exactly who will be throwing our football and who will be catching it; however, we strongly suspect in our heart of hearts that AD is running the thing for us. Who do our opponents have to match that? The stuff that we think that we know appears to be excellent; therefore, our prediction (were it to be made on the basis of whatever the heck we perceive facts to be) might be anticipated to foretell something akin to the nearest thing we have to knowledge. Otherwise, we owe the dear readers (as foolish as they may appear to be in light of their reading this crazy stuff rather that doing their spring cleaning now) some exposition of our philosophy (which might be some loony rationale that implies that we’ve all been doomed since before our births). Damn the bobbing torpedoes, Vikings! Let’s take our boats ashore and burn the suckers, as our namesakes did in days of yore! We’ll befuddle Matt Birk by changing our defensive scheme. We’ll astound Mike Tomlin and his Terrible Towel faithful by smashing THEM in the mouth FIRST. Our opponents are mere mortals here, folks. Sisyphus outwitted a team of gods with his persistence and devil-may-care attitude. Let’s strip ourselves bare of our poor attitude. Let’s respectfully take the stance that we don’t care how many times you’ve knocked that rock from our hands in the past and made it roll back to the bottom of the heap. History was then; this, my comrades, is tomorrow land! We can learn from history by then and attain escape velocity from its gravitational field. Let’s set our sights high. What good is insanity if you don’t even use it? Let’s be wholly insane: Let’s go 7-1 or even 8-0! To paraphrase the mighty philosopher Bradshaw (Terry), light thinks it’s so fast, but darkness always gets there first.

Yes, the Steeler defense is maybe the league’s best but if we can get just a serviceable passing game going the game should be fun to watch as Pittsburgh’s offense is nothing to write home about and their O-line really felt the loss of Alan Faneca last year. Roethlisberger was under heavy pressure all the time late last year and the Cards did the same in the Super Bowl although Big Ben’s toughness and ability to somehow get the ball out stood him in well.