A win is a win...

My weekend is complete. As I sat on a stool in Buffalo Wild Wings watching four great NFL games come down to the wire, with each TV screen lined up right next to the other, I couldn't help but think about how good a day it was for me as a football fan. My Iowa Hawkeyes finally ended their three-game losing streak with a 45-9 win over Indiana. Iowa State lost although that's more for those diehards that hate the Cyclones. And the Vikings and Bears were fighting for a victory in the closing minutes to set the stage for their showdown at Soldier Field next weekend.

The end result? I watched Houston come back in the closing seconds to knock off Miami 29-28, St. Louis making one spectacular play after another in route to a stunning 19-17 win over the Redskins in Washington thanks to the first of three game-winning field goals, Chicago take the lead over Atlanta late and then in two plays lose it thanks to a Jason Elam game-winner, and of course the Vikings who overcame terrible offensive execution to beat the Detroit Lions 12-10 on another game-winner by Ryan Longwell.

I missed the whole first half of the Vikings-Lions game thanks to FOX deciding to broadcast that amazing Bears-Flacons game, but if it was anything like the second half then it wasn't pretty.

The Vikings trailed at halftime 3-2 after a 50-yard run by Kevin Smith set up a Detroit 40-yard field goal with 1:56 to go in the 2nd qtr. Minnesota got on the board first when the defense forced backup QB Dan Orlovsky out of the back of the endzone for a safety in the first quarter. Orlovsky was starting for the injured John Kitna (back).

Things looked even worse for Minnesota when Calvin Johnson, first caught a 37-yard deep ball on 3rd and 19, and then caught a 12-yard touchdown pass to give Detroit a 10-2 lead.

But then the Vikings caught lightning in a bottle. After forcing a three-and-out on Detroit's next possession, the first play the Vikings ran was a slant route in which Gus Frerotte hit Bernard Berrian, who broke a few tackles and raced down the field for an 86-yard touchdown to make it 10-9.

The Vikings had the momentum back. However, penalities and turnovers killed scoring opportunities for much of the remainder of the game for Minnesota. They just couldn't capitalize. Even Ryan Longwell, who was 13-of-15 on field goals coming in, had a kick blocked by former Hawkeye Jared DeVries (who ended the game with 6 tackles and a sack).
It just looked like it wasn't meant to be for Minnesota yet again.

Then with 2:22 left to go in the 4th, and the Vikings with the ball needing to get it down the field in a hurry, Frerotte went deep to Aundrae Allison. Allison stretched out for the ball, but it looked as if he was slightly pushed from behind by Lions DB Leigh Bodden causing him to lose his balance. The play drew a pass interference penalty and Bodden was quite upset with the call. Even the announcers were unsure about the legitimacy of the call. From my perspective it looked like he pushed off on Allison and the contact kept him from being able to make the play. Call it ticky-tack (I will), but it was not a horribly incorrect call in my opinion.

That set up Minnesota at the 32 with 2:15 to go and of course here I am thinking they will try and punch it in or at least take some shots. Well they get to about the 15 yard-line and low and behold they go run-run-run taking a page right out of Mr. Conservative's play book. The good news is that they had enough faith in Longwell to give him the opportunity for a game-winner after they ran the clock down to 12 seconds on a 4th and 4 from the Detroit 9.
Longwell had hit 13 game-winners is his career. This 26-yard attempt would be number 14. The kick gave Minnesota a 12-10 win and moved them back to a .500 record (3-3).
But my what a terrible game.

- It's sad that when the Vikings accumulated 392 yards of total offense you could nitpick about the poorness of their offensive showing. Gus Frerotte threw for 296 yards and a touchdown. Adrian Peterson carried 25 times for 111 yards. Bernard Berrian had 131 yards receiving and become the first player since Nate Burleson in 2004 to have back-to-back 100 yard games for Minnesota.
But against one of the worst defenses in the National Football League...they should've done more.
Adrian Peterson had the quietest 100 yard rushing performance I had ever seen. This was mostly due to the two fumbles he lost in the game, both on potential scoring drives for Minnesota (although the first later resulted in a safety). For whatever reason, All Day is not finding the same success he had last year when he won Rookie of the Year. The holes aren't there as much anymore and he has already lost 3 fumbles this year, which is 3 more than you would like your running back to have. He is trying too hard to run people over and is missing opportunities to cut outside for bigger gains.
I realize that defenses are keying much more on stopping Minnesota' run game, but for arguably one of the best offensive lines in the league you should expect better. The O-line also gave up 5 sacks today.

- The defense did their part aside from a few miscues here and there. Some examples would be on that 3rd and 19 when Orlovsky hit a WIDE OPEN Calvin Johnson, Kevin Smith's 50-yard run, and Rudi Johnson ripping off 6-7 yards at a time setting up the Lions with more manageable downs. Detroit's offensive line is not good, so to allow 100 yards of rushing from the Lions has obviously gotta leave the defense with a bad taste in their mouth.
Nonetheless, in the second half the stout D-line was the determining factor in keeping Detroit out of the endzone. The Williams Brothers (Pat and Kevin- no relation) were in the face of Orlovsky the whole game. Defensive tackle Kevin Williams had an exceptional game recording 8 tackles and 4 sacks. Despite giving up the touchdown early on, the Vikings defense played with a certain tenacity for he rest of the game and really put the hurt on Detroit's offense.

- Gus Frerotte didn't do too bad a job. But for more on him stay tuned as I will be discussing Frerotte in an upcoming post.

- And finally....just who the heck is Dan Orlovksy? The guy was 12-of-21 for 150 yards and a TD and almost led Detroit to an upset win over Minnesota. There were times where the Vikings were letting this guy look like Tom Brady. But thankfully the Vikings D stepped up and got in his face in the second half.
Oh and in case you really were wondering who Orlovsky is: click here.

Thanks to the Atlanta Falcons, the Vikings are now in a three-way tie atop the North division with the Bears and Packers. Next week's showdown with Chicago is going to be a big time matchup to establish some early separation in this division race. Despite the Bears loss, Minnesota is going to need Adrian Peterson to repeat the performance he put on a year ago - (224 yards rushing, 3 TDs, 128 KR yards) - in Soldier Field if the Vikings have any hope of taking them down.