The first great game of the season in numbers

by KC Viking on Sep 28, 2009 11:12 AM CDT

In the first 2 weeks, we saw the Vikings struggle and come from behind against some bad teams. Few thought of the 49ers as a powerhouse going into week 3, and after doing everything they could to lose this one, the Vikings came from behind again, but this time in such a miraculous fashion that my dad and probably thousands of others had already shut off the teevee in disgust. The numbers suggest that this win was not only because of one pass...

3: This is the number of times the Vikings have trailed at halftime in as many games.

2/8 + 2: Favre threw at least one deep pass per quarter, five by halftime, and of course that miracle winner to Greg Lewis to end it all. Favre had also thrown an incomplete deep pass to Shank which resulted in a 5-yd penalty and first down and another to Sidney Rice which was ruled an illegal forward pass. These 10 deep passes resulted in 1 first down, 2 TD, 1 INT, 62 yards and a win. This game had more deep passing attempts than in the first 2 games combined.

1: It seems like Childress-coached Vikings teams have a tradition of allowing at least one opponent per year the luxury of turning a blocked punt or FG into a touchdown for them. Let's hope that that tradition has been satisfied and that we'll see no more of these throughout the year. This effectively nullified Percy Harvin's spectacular 101-yard kickoff return. Let us never speak of such things again.

1.53: AP's average gain on the 15 carries that didn't go for 7-35 yards.

2: The number of times that an opponent WR has run the wrong route and given Cedric Griffin a fairly easy INT.

27: The Vikings have scored at least that many points in all 3 games so far. In 2008, that only happened 7x. In 2007, only 6x. In 2006, only 3x.

94.6: Shaun Hill's passer rating vs. the Vikings' defense. His rating for the season and for his career are around 90.

96: The number of yards gained by TE Vernon Davis for a career high. His 2 TD passes were another career high, and he has only caught 7 passes in 1 game on 1 other occasion.

ELEVENTY: The number of drops that Bernard Berrian seemed to have.

Poll

Who will have the better game next Monday night?

Brett Favre

31 votes

Aaron Rodgers

10 votes

41 votes | Poll has closed

This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.

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Comments

What is your definition of a better game?

The win? Or stats?

Cause Brett Favre should get the win, so imo he will have the “better game”

But A. Rodgers will have more yards, so stat wise he will probably have a “better game”

1.53 ypc? I really don’t care if he got .000025 ypc on half his runs. Peterson is a homerun hitter. He is one of the elite backs that has a chance to go the distance every time he touches the ball.
All I care about is the final stats for him, which turned out to be:
19 carries, 85 yards, 4.5ypc.
Even more importantly, for the season, Peterson has: 59 attempts, 357 yards, 6.1 ypc (he is the league leader through 3 games.)

by PurplePeopleEaters09 on Sep 28, 2009 2:25 PM CDT reply actions

+1

by midnightwonder on Sep 28, 2009 2:36 PM CDT up reply actions

I left it open-ended because I don't want to dictate what constitutes a better game.

The poll question is what it is because right or wrong, it’s going to be billed as a standoff between the old gunslinger from Cheesehead City vs. the new sheriff in town. Although the Packers may have the best secondary that the Vikings will have faced by then this year, their 3-4 may or may not provide the pass rush required to matter, especially if the Vikings mix up runs and passes.

Less than 2 yards per carry on 15 out of 19 runs matters unless there are 3-5 TDs mixed in there. Barry Sanders was not stopped for so many losses (a difference of less than /-1.5 ypc with or without the negative runs), and some say that his being caught in the backfield for 1,100 yards over his career made the Lions a choking team. What if Favre had been sacked 0.482193 seconds earlier and that last play had never happened? Would Favre have been blamed or AP? I think it would have been AP, and I’m glad that nobody really needs to worry about that.

I’m glad he’s leading the league, but 2/3 of his games were against creampuffs so far, too.

by KC Viking on Sep 28, 2009 3:22 PM CDT up reply actions