Tuesday Open Thread: September 19, 2017

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Hey, a million thanks to just_rob for saving the morning yesterday, it was going to be a while before I got to the thread & rob got it taken care of. Much appreciated. As many of you know, our husky is getting up there in years age, & when I got up yesterday morning, he was not doing well at all and I knew it was “time”. Pharaoh was, by far, the best dog I’ve ever had, he’ll be missed. Again, thanks to rob for covering, not sure when/if I would have gotten to it.

Rest in peace, ol’ pal, it’s been a long ride.

As far as Sunday’s game goes, even an optimist like me didn’t expect a whole lot once it was announced that Bradford wasn’t active. Keenum may keep the boat from running into an island, but that’s pretty much the extent of it. The team needed the QB to go get the victory, and Keenum just isn’t quite good enough to do that against the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Hopefully, Sam or Teddy will be ready to man the ship if we meet the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

My initial thoughts are that the O-line did a decent job against a very stout front 7. Cook & McKinnon looked good, our WR corps did a nice job of fighting to get open, and the defense held up okay against a very good offense at home, considering the amount of time they were on the field (34:22 vs. 25:38, ouch). At least 17 of the Steelers’ points were helped by penalty-sustaining drives, so I can’t dog on the defense TOO much. Our weakest link was obviously Keenum, which isn’t shocking, a backup QB will often be the weakest link when he’s on the field. Let’s hope Sam is back sooner rather than later.......like, practicing tomorrow would be quite okay.

Vikings news from other sources:

Ted looks at some of the long-term ramifications of Bradford’s latest knee injury.

Chris wonders whether we can kick it. I assume this is a different type of “kick it” than the Beastie Boys were referring to.

Ted shared the report that Bradford’s knee injury is a ‘one week injury’. Not sure if ‘one week injury’ is a legit medical term or not.

Eric looks at five game-changing plays from the Vikings-Steelers game.

Chris shared the latest on Bradford’s injury, that it is a bone bruise. I’m just hoping he’s okay and can continue building on his success here. Even if he doesn’t finish his career here, I appreciate what he’s been able to do under less-than-ideal circumstances.

From the Strib, Coach Zimmer has ‘no crystal ball’ to see when Bradford will return. Until then, it looks like Keenum will be guiding the ship on offense. God help us.

From Vikings.com, John Randle, Robert Smith, and others share some tales and insight about Randy Moss, Coach Zimmer addressed the media yesterday, and there are a lot of other videos in the media vault.

News from around the rest of the NFL:

From the Sporting News, the Giants got pounded by the Lions last night. Their O line is very bad, like, with a dozen injuries, they could rival the Vikes’ 2016 O-line.

Here are the rest of your week 2 scores, stats, & highlights from NFL.com.

We come to our media selection.

I’ll pick up with Don Williams week, as he passed away last week. This is another one of my many favorites of his, perfect tune to get the morning off on the right track. Lots of simple wisdom in this one.

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 vulgar language to a minimum, using spoiler tags if you must
-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 blood sausage.