Well, this has gone well so far, hasn't it?
A couple of outstanding drives by the Minnesota Vikings have given them a halftime lead over the heavily-favored San Francisco 49ers at halftime in Minneapolis.
Minnesota started the game with an incredibly impressive 16-play, 81-yard drive that resulted in a 1-yard touchdown pass from Christian Ponder to Kyle Rudolph for an early 7-0 lead. Then, in the second quarter, an 11-play, 8-yard drive concluded with the play you see above, with Ponder taking it in from 23 yards out for a touchdown that moved the Vikings' lead to 14-3. (The Niners got a 29-yard field goal from David Akers in-between.)
Dan Wiederer of the Star-Tribune put it best on Twitter just a little bit ago. . .if you're not impressed by Christian Ponder at this point, you're simply looking for reasons not to be.
Things got better for the Vikings, as an attempted David Akers field goal was blocked by Letroy Guion, and the Vikings took over for the final drive of the half. Minnesota got into position for Blair Walsh, and the rookie drilled one home from 52 yards out to make the score 17-3 going into the locker room. Walsh is now the first kicker in Minnesota Vikings history to hit a field goal of 50 yards or longer in three consecutive games, so congratulations to him on that.
You couldn't have scripted a much better first half of football than this for Minnesota. Can they sustain it in the second half? Heck, they've already scored more points than either Ted, Eric, or myself predicted they'd get today, so why not?
The second half is going to get underway here shortly. Join us for all the action!