Monday Open Thread: November 7, 2016

Happy Monday, everyone. Well, another loss by our favorite team has many throwing in the towel. I really don't think it's as bad as it seems right now. I'll elaborate.

The Good:

The Vikings offense looked better. It seems some adjustments have hidden some of our O line weaknesses, and Sam Bradford may live through the season, the two sacks he took yesterday seemed to be due to Bradford holding the ball too long. I think we may have found a little bit of a spark in the running game with Hillman, and he may give us some hope for a semblance of a running game until AD returns. Our passing game, with the luxury of actually being able to throw the ball without having a defender draped on the QB, looked good yesterday. We moved the ball well, and the time of possession was almost even. Bradford finished the game with over a 75% completion percentage and over 250 yards. We still  have one of the best defenses in football, and we'll never be out of a game.

The bad:

We lost to a division rival at home, and that always sucks. The Vikings have plenty of issues to work on, including O line, and injuries are piling up. We still ran the ball poorly, averaging just over 3 YPC, which is very poor. Our red zone offense was bad yesterday, we got the ball handed to us on the 18 after a Chad Greenway interception, and we wound up punting. That's bad, and it's not the only drive where we were in the red zone and didn't score. Then there's Blair Walsh........yeah.

Summary:

We're 5-3 and sitting atop the NFC North. I think we have a team that can finish strong, if they can pull it together. I still have high hopes for this team, and I still say we can go all the way this year. Oh, and hey, the Packers got beat by the Colts at home, so it wasn't all bad yesterday.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Arif posted Norse Code Podcast Episode 158: Beyond the Norv.

Chris has your post-game summary.

Ted posted the Stock Market Report: Lions.

Vikings news from elsewhere:

Yahoo Sports wasn't impressed with our favorite team yesterday.

From Vikings.com:

Wobby opened the Monday Morning Mailbag.

Stefon Diggs set a team reception record yesterday.

Coach Zimmer addressed the media after the game.

Sam Bradford also addressed the media.

Around the NFL:

NFL.com has all the scores from week 9.

ESPN has the big story for every NFL team.

It looks like Bowles is going to stick with Fitzpatrick, per NFL.com.

We come to today's media selection.

Again, we all know the rules, but in case someone is new:

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-Keep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)
-Speaking of which, if discussing a newer show or movie, please use spoiler tags 
-No pictures that could potentially get someone fired or in serious trouble at their place of employment
-If you can't disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go away
-While navigating the open thread, just assume it's sarcasm
-This isn't a male version of The View, so leave the gender hatred at the door

With that, the beer light is down and the bar is open. Belly up & tie one on. Don't forget to tip your waitress, & try the headcheese.