Wednesday Open Thread: October 10, 2018

A very merry hump day to you all!

We’re half-way through the week, and if you’re anything like me, you’re eager to see the Vikes get back on the field. I hope to see them build off of Sunday’s win, and see the defenses continue to come around and be a dominant force once again. The run game showed a faint pulse on Sunday, but there is a lot of room for them to improve. Getting Dalvin Cook back to 100% will be huge, but the O line has to step up and create some gaps for the running backs to hit. Play one game at a time, improve every week, and then get REALLY hot going into the playoffs.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Ted brought us our latest installment of Zim Tzu, and Zim is ruffling some feathers this week. Coincidentally, I hope to be ruffling some pheasant feathers this weekend.

Chris has your Minnesota Vikings Power Rankings Roundup for week five.

The team drew inspiration from a local source prior to leaving for Sunday’s game in Philly, per Chris.

Chris shared a next-gen stat on Linval Joseph’s touchdown, and it’s pretty dang impressive. I really wish someone would have been in front of him and tried to tackle him, just to see what would happen. They’d probably be still trying to dig the poor guy out of the ground......or turf.....or whatever they use in that stadium.

Vikings news from other sources and news from around the rest of the NFL:

At Vikings.com, see Wobby open the Pick Six Mailbag, check out Beyond the Gridiron as they look back at the 1987 Vikings, and there’s plenty more traffic to sift through in the media vault.

FoxSports has the snap counts form Sunday, and Mike Hughes didn’t miss a defensive snap.

Antonio Brown is good at catching footballs, he’s also good at throwing........furniture.......and other household items..........off of a balcony. Unlike catching footballs, he isn’t being paid for throwing the items, he’s being sued for doing so , per NFL.com. I’d go back to catching and being paid, instead of throwing and being sued, but that’s just me.

They say everyone likes to get flowers. Well, they’re wrong. The Giants don’t, they released Flowers, and that was after getting him in the first round in 2015, to the dismay of Giants fans, per the Sporting News. Cue the ‘pick ‘em up!’ gif.

We come to today’s media selection:

This song popped in my head yesterday afternoon as kiddo and I were building cool things with legos. It wouldn’t get out of my head, which annoyed me, so I sang the song, which annoyed kiddo, and now I’ll play it, so it can annoy you. 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 and tie one on. Don’t forget to tip your waitress, and try the head cheese.