Thursday Open Thread: September 29, 2016

Happy National Coffee Day, DN faithful! This is one of the best days of the year, if you ask me. Well, week 4 officially kicks off tonight as the Bengals play the Dolphins on Thursday Night Football. Personally, I'd do away with all non-Thanksgiving Thursday football, but no one asked me.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

The Vikings have some interesting stats so far this season, per wludford.

Eric took a brief look at Vikings-Giants history.

Everson Griffen was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week.

Wludford looks at what makes the Vikings defense so tough.

Ted takes a look at the Vikings' defensive numbers.

Vikings news from other sources:

T.J. Clemmings is quietly making strides, per the Strib.

From Vikings.com:

Mike Priefer talks about the role of the special teams in the Panthers game.

Eric Smith has 10 Vikings-Giants numbers of note.

Sirles was helped by mentorship from Alex Boone in his first major action with the Vikings.

Around the rest of the league:

From the USA Today, Tim Tebow hit a home run in his first professional at bat. Go get 'em, Tim!

Dez Bryant was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his knee, per NFL.com.

ESPN looks at the biggest injury questions for week 4.

From NFL.com, the Dolphins waived former second-round pick, Justin Hunter.

Twins update:

The Twins, once again, gave Santana no run support, and they continued to dig further into the hole, "achieved" loss number 102 last night, as they fell to the Royals again, 2-5. I'm trying to find a bright spot, but I'm not really finding one. I guess they only struck out 10 times, which just might be an improvement, sadly. The Royals are officially out of the playoffs this year.

We come to today's media selection. It appears that Hehr Goodell is not pleased with the Patriots' win over the Texans last week.

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 on and the bar is open. Belly up & tie one on. Don't forget to tip your waitress, & try the hakarl (thanks, kauabunga!).