Monday Open Thread: September 21, 2020

“Happy” Monday, everyone,

So, most of you are aware that I love Mondays. I love the start of a new work week, let go of the bad things from the previous week, build on the good, etc. Well, the team managed to make my Monday less enjoyable by putting up their second s*** show of the season, and they’ve accomplished that “feat” by the second game of the year. Most of the time, 2 for 2 is a good thing; in this case, it’s not. It was not fun to watch, it was not fun to listen to, it was not fun to know that the game even existed. It was crap.

I won’t waste a lot of time with analysis, because analysis is a tool that you use to see what you did right and what you did wrong, and then build on the right and try to eliminate the wrong. Well, yesterday was pretty much all wrong. Maybe being that the game is only several hours in the past as of this writing, but I can not think of any positives to build on, so we’ll just begin and end this analysis by saying “look at yesterday, and don’t do it again”. Good grief.

Okay, so I can’t help myself, I have to add a very brief synopsis of my thoughts. Everything was not good yesterday, the team looked horrible. The offense was garbage, with the exception of the first drive. After that, garbage. I’ve given Cousins credit after games when he’s done well, and I’ve been critical of him after games when he’s played poorly. Yesterday was not poor, it was pathetic. He not only played poorly, he didn’t fight back after making mistakes. He played worse and worse, and as the game wore on (for FOREVER), he slowly withered. Guys like Favre throw 3 interceptions in a game, but they’re still out there fighting and trying to win the game, and oftentimes, they manage to do so, or at least mount an offense. We saw nothing close to an offense yesterday, or last Sunday (with the exception of garbage time points). This can’t continue. Given the dollar amount he commanded with his contract (and the amount we errantly chose to pay him in said contact) he (and our GM) should be criticized. You give a player a significant % of your salary cap space when that player can justify the expense by making plays that only the best at his position can make, by leading his group to accomplish the impossible, and by being all-around good enough to cover up the deficiencies that his contract is bound to create. Well, Cousins hasn’t done anything to cause me to believe that he adds enough value to the team to justify his contract. Not even close. Is there a solution? Cousins’ dead cap hits ($60+ million this year, $41 million next year) mean he’s staying in Minnesota. So, the only solution is for him, and for the offense, to start playing football. I’m not giving the defense a pass here, they have played poorly, too, but the offense has managed to be so much worse, that I feel that they should be singled out for yesterday, and for this season. 10 non-garbage points in week one, and 3 yesterday, and that’s against two defenses who are not elite (not ragging on either team’s defense, just saying that they aren’t elite). This can’t continue.

I went fishing with the family after the game, and I look back and wish we would have been on the water during kickoff, because that s*** wasn’t worth watching. By the way, the boat is running friggin fabulously, and the trailer looks awesome. Here are some pictures, before and after. I wish I would have gotten better ‘after’ pictures before I had the boat on it. This project was a very long, and very labor-intensive project, but I’m loving the final result, and it’s nearly all original from 1979.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Chris is not mad, just disappointed. Chris echoes my feelings re: yesterday’s “game”, and the Vikings’ season thus far. Let’s hope they reverse course.

The Vikings added Josh Metellus and waived Nate Meadors over the weekend.

Other Vikings/NFL news, and..........nothing else. There won’t be much, I get a bit moody after a game like that and it’s best that I keep it to a minimum until I get over it.

Here are the NFL Week 2 scores, courtesy of NFL.com.

We come to today’s media selection:

I’m trying to think of a mellow tune to play for today to mellow everyone out, and this is the mellowest of the mellow that I can think of. This is Mazzy Star, 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. You’ll want to sit outside and have your drink, though. The smell from the last two games is so bad that the Board of Health has ordered us to move services outside, and there’s talk of making us burn the place down. We thought we’d be safe here out in the country, but they said they’re getting complaints from the hog farm that’s a mile or two down the road.