Thorsday Open Thread: December 14, 2017

Merry Thirsty Thorsday, everyone!

We’re inching ever closer to the next game for the purple & gold, as they get ready to take on the Bengals in one of two remaining home games on the schedule. The team should be able to handle this one, but it’s not one to be taken for granted.

The Bengals offense has been.......less than stellar, especially the run game. The Vikings defense SHOULD be able to shut them down if they do what they’re supposed to do.

The Bengals defense is a bit of a mixed bag, The pass defense seems to be holding its own, while the run D has been dead last in the league, yardage-wise. Their D has had more success in the points allowed department, so the Vikings offense will have to do better in the red zone this week than they did against Carolina. One out of four isn’t going to cut it going forward, especially once the playoffs start. We have to be able to get 6 instead of 3 (even 3 is far from guaranteed at this point).

I hope we see a healthy Murray-McKinnon tandem (as healthy as you can expect to be at this point in the season, anyway) heading into Sunday. If so, I could see us pounding out a lot of yards on the ground, I wouldn’t mind seeing them use Ham more in the red zone and catching the ball out of the backfield at times. I think they have some options in the run game, so I hope Shurmur mixes it up a bit to kick start the run game, if necessary. I’m hoping for a solid showing by the good guys, hopefully some fans will come down off the ledge........hopefully. A win brings the NFC North crown back to its rightful home, let’s do it.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Ted shared the relieving news that the Vikings O-line should be close to full-strength. I’m thankful for that, I was having flashbacks to last year when the injuries started piling up on Sunday.

That being said, Chris reminds us that one O-lineman’s status remains unknown, and it’s easily the most important piece of the line.

Ted and Di posted Roughing the Podcast EP 41: It’s Kind Of Up And Down.

Vikings news from other sources:

At Vikings.com, watch Vikings legend, NFL Hall-Of-Famer, and my son’s favorite guy, John Randle, share some thoughts about the current team, trash talking, and other topics. Catch Coach Zimmer’s Wednesday media address, see Keenum’s thoughts on the how the team will learn from last game and keep the eye on the goal, and there’s lots more for you to sift through in the media vault.

Sorry folks, not a whole lot of other news out there about the good guys, we’re still in stealth mode, flying just under the radar.

News from around the rest of the league:

From NFL.com, Carson Wentz had surgery on his torn ACL yesterday. Now the recovery period begins. Sucks to see that happen when he was having such a great year. I don’t like it when bad things happen to good people.

Over at Reuters, Bruce Arians is unsure if Adrian Peterson will play again this season. The 32 year-old running back has missed the past two games with a neck injury.

We come to today’s media selection.

Lots of talk about John Randle the past couple days, and this is one of my son’s favorite you tube videos. He refers to Randle as “that crazy guy”. “Hey dad, can we watch that crazy guy again?”. We probably watch this every couple weeks or so, enjoy.

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

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-This isn't a male version of The View, so leave the gender hatred at the door
-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 get someone fired or in serious trouble with their employer
-If you can't disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go away
-While navigating the open thread, just assume it's sarcasm

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 tiger meat.