Geoffrey H Wood

 Last night the Minnesota Vikings lost the NFC championship in overtime to the New Orleans Saints. Thus end what has been a more enjoyable season that many of us Vikes fans could have imagined back in August.

The loss is certainly disappointing and it personally ranks in between the 1998 NFC championship (played in January 1999) loss and the 2000 NFC championship loss. The 1998 loss will live in infamy amongst fans, as the 15-1 team that both set scoring records and was flawless from the kicking perspective all season long(1) until a missed 38 yarder left the Vikings on the low side of the 30-27 final score. It was so bad that it made it's way into a subplot on the CBS Show "How I Met Your Mother" in 2008 (see image below). The 2000 game was a debacle with a less talented Vikings team losing 41-0 on the road at the New York Giants, which was embarrassing but not gut wrenching like the 1998 and 2009 losses.


Brett Favre
The big story line for the Vikes this year was obviously Brett Favre, the hero of the rival Packers who upset them last year when he tried to become a Viking but instead wound up a Jet and infuriated them this year when he did become a Viking (and was damn good at it, perhaps having his best season ever).

As a fan, I wasn’t sold on Favre at first. I had trouble getting excited to root for a guy that I always hated as a Packer(2) and Favre was one guy in particular that I disliked for the attention that he received from the commentators and media. Having no other choice (he is our quarterback, after all) I finally bought in the San Francisco game in Week 3 where, for the first time as a Viking, he lead one of his famous come-from-behind 2 minute drives ending with a touchdown to a receiver that no one even knew was on the roster(3).

Loss to Saints
As I mentioned before, the overtime 31-28 loss to the Saints last night was gut-wrenching. The Saints had been the number one team in the NFC all season long and the sports prognosticators that I listen to(4) gave the Vikings no chance. The venue, the Louisiana Superdome, was supposedly the toughest place to play and the Vikes had not looked good on the road in hostile atmospheres outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

However, the Vikes looked pretty darn good. I’m a homer but it certainly felt like the Vikings outplayed the Saints – only they kept turning the ball over which was ultimately the deciding factor. In fact, they turned it over 5 times! And the Saints gameplan was obviously to take Favre out (which they almost did) which was legal but felt dirty. The Saints racked up 3 unsportsmanlike penalties and a few others that looked like they should have been called.

Many people will blame Favre for this loss, who had two interceptions including one with 15 seconds to play while the Vikes were in position for a long (very long) field goal to win the game.

Personally, I have trouble with that thinking, I’m more frustrated with Pro-Bowl running back Adrian Peterson who has fumbled all year long and did so when the Vikes were in a position to score just before half.

I’m not exactly sure why I don’t blame Favre for last night’s loss. It could be that after this weekend I’m emotionally numb on the sports front(5 ) or more likely it’s the fact that the gritty, old man known for his Wrangler jeans and inability to make a decision has actually won me over. I knew that for all the good that came with Favre, so came the bad and that terribly inopportune pick was just part of the bad and we need to game plan around it (we did not) or to put it another way: live by the Favre, die by the Favre.

(1)Vikes kicker Gary Anderson converted all 35 of his field goal attempts and all 59 of his extra point attempts becoming the first kicker in NFL history with a 100% conversion rate in a season. (2) And vice versa, when Vikings that I love, such as Randy Moss, go to other teams I still want them to do well – even when I hate their team, like I do the Patriots. (3) Greg Lewis, a free agent signed a few weeks earlier and was active in his first game. (4)Bill Simmons, ESPN’s Sports Guy & his ilk (5)I sat through Cyclones loss to Kansas on Saturday which ended with that stupid Rock-Chalk chant reverberating inside our gym.

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Just saw this Sportscenter ad the other day and found it amusing - if Ragnar could've found a way to keep the ball in Adrian's hands and we'd be in the playoffs.

As the Colts game winds down, I have officially conducted what may be the worst coaching job in fantasy football, ever.

Sunday morning started oddly when I awoke and looked across the room to the other bed to notice that Nick was missing. However, there was an odd stain on top of the still-made comforter and Nick was huddled in the corner of the room with the fake blanket that nice hotels tend to leave at the foot of the bed. I'll leave it up to you to decide what happened but Nick blames on the fact that he was awake for 20+ hours with all the travel and the late night, eh, "festivities" the day before.

From Washington DC 2008

From Washington DC 2008

From Washington DC 2008

In continuing a tradition that has lasted my entire life, the Minnesota Vikings did not choose to participate in the biggest sporting event of the year.

The two teams that did participate were of little interest to me but did cap off an interesting cultural phenomenon.

You see last year, the hometown Colts won out over the Chicago Bears from up the road. Throughout the playoffs, Super Bowl week, and post win, the Circle City was abuzz with Colts fervor. People all over town hosted mega-Super Bowl fiestas, people stood out in the cold for hours waiting for an anti-climatic parade/pep rally, and even I wound up with a team "Super Bowl Champs" team photo.

This year, eh, nothing. No real excitement, no anticipation, nary even a Super Bowl party amongst our friends.

It's really interesting to observe both the high and low points of a city around such an event, especially having grown up in a State with no pro teams.

I struggled with which team to cheer for. I tried but I couldn't come up with a worthwhile connection/reason to cheer for the Giants. However, other than the D'Amico family, the famed Tea Party and two specific players(1), I have a general distaste for all things Boston. Eh.

As far as looking ahead to the next year, I think the Vikings have a lot to build upon. To start, Adrian Peterson won rookie of the year and probably should have received the top rusher award, too. He's the face of the franchise and a great player to build around (we could probably do with a WR or two...and maybe a better a QB). Secondly, the Vikings beat the crap out of the Super Bowl champs! In late November, a couple weeks after the debacle against Green Bay, the Vikings went into New Jersey(2) and took the would-be champs to the woodshed 41-17.

(1) Randy Moss and Ellis Hobbs (2)It's weird they play in New Jersey

Just a quick follow up to this:

"I'm not sure the exact timing, probably shortly after half, but the "calm" watching of the game left me - because of Brett Favre. I was able to ignore most of the Favre superlatives until the old man takes off on a run and decides to slide at the last second (while two Viking defenders are on top of him). Immediately the officials throw a couple flags and the replay shows that the defenders barely touched Favre. It certainly wasn't helmet-to-helmet or anything vicious. Result? 15 yard penalty on the Vikings for unsportsman-like conduct. Sweet. Does this happen so automatically with any other QB? No (despite what Packer fans or the NFL will proclaim)."

I thought the penalty was overboard but the NFL decided to exacerbate it a bit and fined the Vikings defender involved in the play, one Kenechi Udeze, $7,500 for his involvement. Geesh.

Kenechi appears surprised, too:

“That wasn’t a dirty play and I thought that wasn’t one that was looked at from my point of view because in no way or shape or form was I trying to go after him or hit him on the head,” Udeze explained. “What happened was Brett didn’t see me coming. He was kind of scouting out the play action and Chad [Greenway] had cut off his angle.

“He turned into me and he didn’t see me. All I can do as a defensive player is try to avoid him because I saw him going down at the last second. … So he went down and I was trying to jump over and avoid him. When I did it, my hand went over his head and hit him. It’s funny because two plays later he was smiling at me.”

He's appealed the fine, as he should. Let's see if the NFL can get this one right on "replay."