The Hallowed LCL and Negativity Despite the "W"

And in the Third Game...
The Purple Jesus' rehab assignment is going very well so far. He hasn't been ruled out for the Giants game yet (though he should be, as he should not play without practicing for a whole week), but he could be running on land by Wednesday. As of today, Peterson should be back by the game against da Bears in Week 15. That would give him three more games to add to the 1081 yards he's run for so far. His closest competitor for the NFL rushing title, Willie Parker, is still more than 100 yards behind him (Parker has 925 yards). He's still got a shot at the title if he's able to come back by the Lions or Niners game. If he's not back until Week 15, he'll need to have a few Purple Jesus type games to make a run at the crown

The Failure on Third Down
The Vikings went 1/7 on third down yesterday. They're now 1/15 over the last two games and are now 36/118 on third down. That's 30.5%. If you're looking for an indictment of the offensive play calling, that stat says it all. The Vikings aren't able to convert in third and long situations and aren't able to get into third and short plays. They either get a first down on first or second down, or they punt, a situation all the more confusing because the Purple have a strong running game and run an offense that focuses on short passes.

Getting Torched
The Vikings secondary looked awful against the Raiders. And when I say awful, I mean "gave up 344 passing yards to a quarterback that had gotten benched for Josh McCown earlier this year" awful. And it's not like the Raiders gave up on the run, as they only passed 60% of their plays, a percentage that wasn't that high, considering the Vikings were ahead for most of the game.

I know it was Daunte making those throws, but lets be honest here--this isn't the Daunte we remember from the Vikings. This Daunte has had one, maybe two, good games since leaving the Vikings and had his knee shredded. Antoine Winfield had to leave early because of his hamstring injury, but that doesn't really explain why the Vikings' secondary were leaving people so wide open. Cedric Griffin has regressed and Marcus McCauley isn't playing up to his potential. To be honest, I think it has to do with the scheme and with the coaches, because the problem last year wasn't the secondary-it was the inability to get to the quarterback combined with the fact that teams did not even try to run the ball against the Purple, something that wasn't a problem on Sunday.

20,000
At some point between 8am and 9am today, the Ragnarok received its 20,000th visitor. As someone who writes because I need an outlet to talk Purple while surrounded by NFC East fans, I never really thought I'd hit that mark (Never really thought I'd hit 10,000, actually). So, just a word of thanks to everyone whose stopped by and Skol Vikings!

[I'll be traveling for the Holiday starting tomorrow. Not sure if I'll be able to post much over the Holiday, but I should be back by Monday at the latest. I'll be visiting family, so odds are I'll want to get away-it's just a matter of whether I can. Make sure to check back and see throughout the week.]