Monday Open Thread: December 28, 2020

Merry Monday, everyone!

I hope the weekend was good to all of you, with the exception of that thing that they put on TV on Friday, that was brutal to watch. Hopefully Santa brought all of you everything you asked for, and more importantly, that you were able to spend time with your families. I hung out with my wife’s family in Billings, good times. I still didn’t get my flamethrower, I’ve been asking for one every year since sometime in my teens, still waiting. Hopefully soon.

As for the game, I think we all expected to see a subpar performance by the defense, as a lot of the starting positions are filled by the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th string options. Still, I thought they’d at least be able to tackle. That was not fun to watch, and now the postseason is officially out of the question, so we can start looking toward the draft and the 4 billion conversations about Cousins, the cap, and other issues that are sure to come in the offseason. It was an odd year, and it didn’t turn out how we wanted, but I do see some bright spots in the young players the Vikings have on the roster. Let’s hope they can create some cap space somehow, because the draft isn’t going to be enough to fill all of the areas of need on the team if they plan to contend next year.

Oh, and if you notice that your comments aren’t posting, please shoot Rob or I an email and we’ll fix it.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Chris shared a report that states that the NFL will expand to a 17-game regular season next year. I honestly don’t see the point of it.

MarkSP18 looks at which college players are future Vikings.

Chris shared the week 16 Daily Norseman staff NFL picks. That reminds me, I think I forgot to submit mine..........ever since week one. Oops.

cka2nd posted Tracking PFF’s 2020 Player Season Grades: Game 15, Dec. 25, 2020, at New Orleans. Fast Times at Ridgemont High comes to mind, and that scene where Mr. Hand walks around handing papers back to the students saying “F, F, F, F, F, F” with a disgusted look on his face.

Wludford explains Why The Vikings Should Fire... Nobody Important.

Other Vikings/NFL news and random oddities and annoyances:

Here are all of your NFL week 16 scores, along with highlights, courtesy of ESPN.

In a game that will decide the NFC East “Champion”, the Eagles will play the Team With No Name on Sunday Night Football, per NFL.com. They could call it the toilet bowl.

We come to today’s media selection:

Here’s a great tune from one of the all-time country greats, it’s Waylon with Luckenbach Texas. Enjoy!

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

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-Take the gender hatred elsewhere, it won’t be tolerated
-Keep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)
-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 (from a minimum of six feet away, of course), and try the season, it’ll leave a bad taste in your mouth.