MINNESOTA VIKINGS (1-6)	WK 9	DALLAS COWBOYS (4-4)
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Here are the ground rules for the Game Threads:

-Thou shalt not link illegal feeds of today's game, or I shall kick thy arse to the curb until the game is over. Do not promote then, do not mention them, do not even hint at them. Thou hast been warned.

-Thou shalt make an attempt to keep the swearing to a minimum. Understandable that it will slip occasionally, but do try to limit it. If you really feel the need to curse, use the spoiler tags to keep it covered up. We'll get the sentiment.

-Thou shalt not feed the trolls. Rather, thou shall simply point them out, and they shall be banished to the fires of Mordor. Or Wisconsin. Whichever we feel is more harsh at the time.

-Thou shalt not engage in racist, sexist, or other such insulting rhetoric. Somebody disagreeing with you does not make them racist or sexist. It means they disagree with you. Talk it out like adults.

-Thou shalt not bait the fans of other teams into trolling.

-Basically, thou shalt not be a jackwagon in the game thread.

It's another Vikings' football Sunday, ladies and gentlemen, where we all gather to hope against hope for our favorite football team. As you can see from the odds there, it doesn't look terribly favorable for the boys in purple, but we'll be here cheering them on anyway.

So, what needs to happen for the Vikings to pull off a huge upset?

1) Try, I don't know, running the football, maybe - In the last three games, Minnesota Vikings' quarterbacks have attempted 118 passes. Meanwhile, Adrian Peterson has carried the football 36 times. That's absolutely, positively, mind-numbingly ridiculous. If the Vikings have an interest in actually winning football games from here on out, that's something that really needs to change. The Cowboys' run defense is much better than their pass defense in terms of yardage allowed, but the whole "passing" thing hasn't worked well for Minnesota over the past few weeks. Or, you know, since 2009.

2) Get off the field on third downs - The Vikings are allowing opponents to convert 51% of their third down opportunities so far this season. That puts them on track to be the first team since the 1995 Cleveland Browns to allow their opponents to be better than 50/50 in those situations. The Cowboys have actually been kind of bad on third down this season, converting just 36% of their opportunities thus far. If the Vikings can get a few stops on third down, they might be able to hang with the Cowboys.

3) Hope that Dez Bryant straight-up punches Tony Romo in the face or something - In all honesty, that's probably the best shot that the Vikings have of stopping, or even slowing down, the Dallas offense. Dallas is fourth in the NFL in scoring, and the Vikings are missing 3/4 of their starting secondary going into this one. Between Bryant, rookie Terrance Williams, and the ever-present Jason Witten, Romo is likely to have a field day in this one.

I won't lie to you, folks. . .I anticipate this one getting real ugly, real fast. But, just as we always have, we will be here for this one regardless of how things go. We hope that you'll be here with us for it. . .after all, we're pretty much to the point where the Game Threads are more entertaining than the actual games. So we have that going for us. . .which is nice.

SKOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL VIKINGS!!!!