I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to put this game on NFL Network at midnight, but beatings should be administered for this sort of judgment.  I'm not sure if the game will be on NFLN again between now and the Vikings' final pre-season game, but if I find out that it is, I'll certainly put the time up here for everyone.

But, at this point, here's what I saw as I lapsed in and out of consciousness between midnight and 3 AM Central.

-While the fumbled snap on the first play of the game was a bad sign, I thought Tarvaris Jackson recovered rather nicely.  The Seahawks brought some decent pressure, including a number of blitzes, but Jackson never took a sack, got the ball out quickly, and only made a couple of bad decisions.  I thought he played well, all things considered. . .I'm sure there are some that will disagree with me, but I'm certainly not displeased with what we saw from #7 last night, overall.

-Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor deserve to be mentioned with Bush/McAlister and Tomlinson/Turner as one of the top RB tandems in football.  I know it's destiny that Peterson will be THE guy and stuff here before too long, but Taylor's no slouch.  What I love about both of them is that when they get tackled, they're not getting pushed back. . .they constantly fall forward and pick up that extra yard or two.  Peterson, in particular, showed us that on a couple of occasions last night.

-Bobby Wade is better than people want to give him credit for, I think.  Seriously, who can judge a guy's talent based on what he did in the Bears' offense in 2003 and 2004?  Did you see the Bears' offense in 2003 and 2004?  Yeah, neither did anyone else.  To boot, he's a more accurate passer than Brooks Bollinger.

-Speaking of Brooks. . .can we get a real backup quarterback in here, please?  Bollinger's 2007 pre-season is starting to make Mike McMahon's 2006 pre-season look downright prolific.  People (including myself) wondered if the gap between Jackson and Bollinger was significant or not.  Well, let me assure you. . .it is.

I can't help but think that Kelly Holcomb is going to be a Viking before the season opener.  Of course, the Eagles will wait until the last minute to cut him or see if someone will give up a draft pick for him, but I think he's going to end up in Minnesota somehow.

-Dear Ryan Cook. . .STOP MOVING BEFORE THE FRIGGIN' BALL IS SNAPPED, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!! Five Viking penalties last night, and 3 of them were false starts on our alleged starting RT. Not a good sign at all.

-The defense, as usual, was pretty good for the most part.  They had some lapses between the 20s, but when the Seahawks got into the red zone, they spent most of their night settling for field goals.  They were put in tough positions after the fumble on the opening snap and the big Burleson punt return, but responded nicely in both situations.  I have no reason not to think that this will be remedied by 9 September.

-To be as charitable as possible, the special teams last night were freaking awful.  We've got Kluwe launching 20-yard punts off the side of his foot, we've got guys returning punts for 50+ yards, we've got Longwell missing what should be (for him) a chip-shot from inside of 40 yards. . .ugly, ugly, terrible, and horrible, all wrapped up in one smelly package.

-For everyone that's asked me what's up with Troy Williamson, here's my answer:  I don't know.  Dude was totally invisible last night.  I saw one long pass to him that was either slightly overthrown or just flat-out missed by Troy, but other than that I'm not sure if his name was even called all night.  Quite disheartening, to say the least.  On the other hand, Sidney Rice looked improved, Wade looked good, and Robert Ferguson even got in on the act by catching a slant for 11 yards and a first down.

All in all, not a great performance for the beloved Purple, but not enough to dampen my enthusiasm, either.  When the season starts, the running game will be there (it's here already) and the defense will be there.  If the offense can catch up. . .and they showed some signs of doing that last night. . .then this team will be fine.