Then again, anyone that saw him play in 2010 or has read this site at all during this off-season already knows that.

Yes, over at Pro Football Focus, they make the case that Minnesota's own Antoine Winfield is the best and most complete corner in the National Football League. The case is a very convincing one, to be certain.

According to PFF's numbers, Winfield was one of only two corners in the National Football League in 2010 to play more than 1,000 snaps without being penalized once. (By the way, one of the NFC North's supposedly "elite" corners led the NFL in penalties for cornerbacks. I won't ruin it for you by telling you who it is. . .you'll have to read the story.) The longest reception he allowed in 2010 was only 27 yards, and he didn't allow a touchdown reception all season. The 7.8 yards per reception he allowed was bettered only by Asante Samuel of the Philadelphia Eagles.

However, as the PFF article points out, Samuel was pulled from games in 2010 because of his inability to make simple tackles against the run. . .which, as anybody that's watched Winfield knows, isn't a problem for him.

Even more impressive is the fact that it appears that Winfield is getting better despite being at an age when most cornerbacks see their performance drop off. He turned 34 last month, and by this time most corners are looking at a move to safety or not getting onto the field at all.

The first sentence of PFF's story asks the question that we all pretty much know the answer to.

How often do you hear Antoine Winfield’s name mentioned in the discussion of top cornerbacks in the league?

Outside of this website, you don't hear it very often at all. Why? Well, outside of the team he suits up for and the uniform he wears on Sundays, there really doesn't appear to be a good reason. At least, I certainly can't seem to find one.

We've pointed out on several occasions just how stupid and non-sensical the NFL Network's "Top 100" list is, so this one should be filed under the heading of "even a blind squirrel occasionally finds an acorn."

The list is finally down to its top ten, and will be airing in two episodes this coming Sunday. . .numbers 10 through 6 will be named from 7 to 8 PM Central time, and the top five will be done in an hour-long show after that.

From all accounts, these are the ten players that will be mentioned during those two shows.

-Minnesota Vikings' running back Adrian Peterson
-Houston Texans' wide receiver Andre Johnson
-New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady
-Indianapolis Colts' quarterback Peyton Manning
-New Orleans Saints' quarterback Drew Brees
-Chicago Bears' defensive end Julius Peppers
-New York Jets' cornerback Darrelle Revis
-Baltimore Ravens' safety Ed Reed
-Pittsburgh Steelers' safety Troy Polamalu
-Baltimore Ravens' linebacker Ray Lewis

So, the countdown that managed to declare Donovan McNabb one of the 100 best players of 2010, managed to declare that Tony Romo was a better player in 2010 than Jared Allen, and other things that lack all logic and common sense, did manage to get a couple things right. Specifically that Adrian Peterson is the best running back in the National Football League and that Adrian Peterson is the best offensive football player in the NFC North.

It could very well be that Peterson will end up being declared the best non-quarterback in the NFL (since I think it would be a monumental upset if anybody but Tom Brady wound up as #1 on this list), and the best offensive player in the entire NFC, quarterback or otherwise.

Then again, it's taken this list this long to get this much right. . .don't think I'm going to hold my breath expecting too much more.

We talked a little while back about how proficient the Minnesota Vikings' defense was at tackling opposing ball carriers. It turns out that the folks from Football Outsiders have figured out that the Vikings are pretty good at breaking tackles, too.

According to Football Outsiders, out of the 983 offensive plays that the Minnesota Vikings ran in 2010, 59 of them involved a broken tackle, meaning that it happened on around six percent of the Vikings' plays. That gives them the highest such mark in the NFC North.

There are two reasons that the Vikings rank so high in the category of broken tackles. . .running back Adrian Peterson and wide receiver Percy Harvin, two of the NFL's best open-field runners. Peterson ranked eighth in the entire National Football League in broken tackles in 2010, according to FO. In 320 touches last year, Peterson was credited with 35 broken tackles, giving him a broken tackle on nearly 11% of his runs. Yeah, I know, it seemed like a lot more, but it was apparently only 10.9% of the time.

Harvin, on the other hand, led all NFL wide receivers in broken tackles with 13 broken tackles in 89 touches. His 14.6% broken tackle percentage wasn't the highest in the league, but he did have the highest number of broken tackles.

Those two guys account for 48 of the Vikings' 65 recorded broken tackles during the 2010 season. Every offense needs a couple of guys that can keep fighting and keep the chains moving, and Minnesota is lucky enough to have two of the very best in the league in that department. Hopefully they can help the Vikings' offense start their way down a more prominent path in 2011.

You know, I hate to keep hammering on the series that Pro Football Focus is doing on pass blocking, but it flies so directly in the face of what I and so many others said about the Minnesota offensive line during the course of the season that I can't help but do it. It's got a Rosemary's Baby sort of appeal. . .I just can't look away from it.

Today the folks at PFF have started getting into individual pass blocking numbers, starting with offensive tackles. Now, I know what you're thinking. . ."Okay, how awful were Bryant McKinnie and Phil Loadholt, exactly?" The answer is "not nearly as bad as we all think they were."

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A couple of days ago, we took a look at some numbers from the folks at Pro Football Focus that talked about where the Vikings were allowing pressure to come from on plays where their quarterback was pressured. . .specifically, how much of the blame fell on the offensive line, how much on the skill position players that were asked to block, and how much on the quarterbacks themselves.

Well, as part of their look at pass protection in the NFL in 2010, Pro Football Focus threw a couple more categories in the mix. They looked at what percentage of pressures from opposing defenses wound up turning into sacks, and how many blockers teams had a tendency to leave in on each play. Those three categories together combined to give PFF their 2010 Team Pass Protection Rankings.

In what's going to come as a surprise to many. . .and I know it surprised the hell out of me. . .the Minnesota Vikings are in the top half of the league in these rankings, clocking in at thirteenth overall (actually, they're tied for eleventh with the New Orleans Saints and the Miami Dolphins, but PFF puts them at thirteen. . .I'm sure they have their reasons). They're even the second-best team in the NFC North in this category, according to Pro Football Focus. . .and the top team in the division isn't who you probably think it is.

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Well, that's not the official name that they used for it, but anybody that watched that particular game. . .and you already know which one I'm talking about. . .already knows exactly what happened.

I mean, really. . .when the official league website is using language like this:

The ironic thing is, Shiancoe did catch that ball. The replay was clear. Making matters worse, the score should've probably been 21-7 or 21-10, as the Packers were gift-wrapped a touchdown on a sketchy "completion" earlier in the game.

Yeah. . .we all know what happened that night.

On the bright side, a couple of good things came out of this whole thing. . .the NFL passed a new rule that all scoring plays would automatically be reviewed, thereby putting a stop to the sort of plays like the "gift-wrapped touchdown" mentioned above.

The second is that the Minnesota Vikings were able to add to their all-time NFL lead in the category of "apologies received from the National Football League offices because our officials are too stupid and too incompetent to do their jobs properly," a category in which the Vikings have lapped the rest of the NFL field several times.

Oh, well. . .I guess the integrity of the game has to take a back seat sometimes. Primarily when it involves a Vikings loss.

Well, the one thing that pretty much none of us wanted to see happen. . .has happened. We got the big, disgusting cherry on top of the manure sundae that the Vikings' 2010 season turned into.

I'm not going to sit here and praise the Green Bay Packers, or tell you how much respect I have for them or their players or their coaches or their fans. Why? Because if I were to say those things, there's not a damn one of you that would believe me anyway, and with good reason. My saying those things would be a straight-up, bald-faced lie, and I have too much respect for my fellow fans of the Minnesota Vikings to sit here and lie to you. I still don't have any respect for them or their players or their coaches or the overwhelming majority of their fans, and wouldn't if they won the next twenty Super Bowls. Why? Because they're a rival. . .and if people don't understand that, that really isn't my problem.

Don't get me wrong. . .I do have respect for some of the Green Bay fans out there. Being from a state like North Dakota that doesn't have its own professional sports, we get a pretty decent cross-section of rooting interests. There are fans of that team that can support their team without being completely arrogant, self-righteous douchebags. . .they're very few and very far between, but they're out there. Tonight, I'm happy for those folks. Everyone else? Not so much.

So, rather than showering false praise and all of those sorts of things, it's time to talk about us. Because, on this website, we Viking fans are the only people that matter.

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