Well, folks, I wish I could make tomorrow's game out to be something exciting, but there are only two main story lines. The first one, which we've pretty much run into the ground here, is the absence of Adrian Peterson from the Vikings' lineup. That means the return of Chester Taylor, who basically WAS the Vikings' offense in 2006, as the starting tailback.
Now, we all know that Taylor isn't nearly as explosive as AP is. . .if only because NO back in the NFL is as explosive as AP is. But behind our offensive line, and against an Oakland defense that really isn't terribly good, Taylor should be able to run the football without a whole lot of trouble. The big question will be whether or not the passing game can do ANYTHING to support the run game a little bit.
The other major story line for tomorrow's game is the return of the Prodigal to the Metrodome. With Josh McCown being injured, Daunte Culpepper. . .whose Fathead still graces my wall and whose jersey still hangs in my closet. . .will be getting the start at quarterback for the Raiders.
Now, we can argue until the cows come home about whether or not trading Daunte Culpepper was the best thing for the Vikings to do when they kicked off the Brad Childress era. We can argue ad nauseum about his rehab or his e-mails or whatever else. But there are a few things that really can't be argued. Those things are that
-Whether it was smart to deal DC or not, the draft pick we got for him, to this point, was completely and utterly wasted.
-Dealing an actual starting-caliber NFL quarterback and attempting to replace him with a combination of Brad Johnson, Mike McMahon, Tarvaris Jackson, Brooks Bollinger, Kelly Holcomb, Tyler Thigpen, Koy Detmer, and maybe Jeff George was a really, really stupid idea.
-If it really came down to choosing between Brad Childress and Daunte Culpepper. . .quite frankly, it looks to me like we made the wrong decision. DC would definitely be an upgrade at the QB position in Minnesota to this point. . .which current NFL head coach would Brad Childress be considered an upgrade over?
This time tomorrow night, we'll be neck deep into looking at what looked against Oakland and what didn't work. Hopefully there will be much more of the former than there is of the latter. . .but with the way the season has gone to this point, I'm not exactly anticipating that.
Be sure to check out SBNation's outstanding Raiders site, Silver and Black Pride for the Raider fan perspective on tomorrow's game.