Luft’s Locker Room

Archive for October, 2009

Sunday, 18 October 2009, will be the return of Matt Birk to the Metrodome to play his former team the Minnesota Vikings. The Baltimore Ravens will be making the trip. across country into a den of just absolute roaring bedlam. Their young quarterback Joe Flacco, we’ll have to deal with noise levels he has never seen before, and they can get underneath a quarterbacks skin in a heartbeat. I like to call this noise thunder from Thor’s hammer.

It seems that Joe Flacco is experiencing the normal sophomore year slump, is still ranked 12th among quarterbacks with a 90.2 passer rating. Not bad for the young man. I would also suspect that lining up behind Matt Birk and seeking all that wisdom that Matt has will do nothing but improve his play over the upcoming years. However, I also see playing against the Four Norsemen of the Apocalypse (Ray Edwards, Pat Williams, Kevin Williams, and Jared Allen) this weekend also adding to his education and his maturity the hard way. Today he has been sacked seven times, and I would anticipate at least two more this Sunday.

Speaking of offense in line and defensive line match ups, Ravens left offensive tackle Jared Gaither has missed his second straight day of practice with a neck injury. If Gaither cannot make the start on Sunday, rookie offensive tackle Michael Oher will move over from the right to left side and start against Jared Allen. I can see Jared Allen licking his chops now and Ray Edwards sharpening his cutlery.

One of the more intriguing matchups I look forward to reading about this weekend is that of Pat Williams versus Matt Birk. The two men practiced against each other for a good three years with Pat normally talking his little smack on the field and Matt mostly silently, giving Pat all he can handle. Both of them were Pro Bowlers and both benefited from each other’s work ethic and tenacity.  This matchup has been focused upon all week and though both players have been good sports about it, it is starting to annoy on Pat Williams.  “Everyone’s trying to make it a Birk thing, a Pat thing. But I don’t care,” Williams told Sean Jensen of the Pioneer Press. “We don’t miss him around here. We don’t care about no [expletive] Baltimore or nothing. We’re on a mission. We’re worried about the Minnesota Vikings. That’s it.”

Questions arise as whether Adrian Peterson breaks his own record of 4 games without 100 yards, especially with Brett Favre finding favorable pitch and catch buddies.  Brett’s aerial assault keeps growing and will with defenses still loading up the box with 8 or 9 players.  Don’t expect that defensive approach to stop anytime soon either.  D-coordinators know this is a run first and often team and will aim at stopping that and take their chances on the pass defense side of equation.  The once dominant defense of the Ravens has a critical flaw that will be the difference in the game;  their corners are not known for their run support ability.  There is no one in the league at getting out to and turning the corner than Adrian Peterson.  Add to that their tendency to play back off the line of scrimmage and AD should be busting steady gains in the 6 yard or better range.  That will be the death of a defense that was second against the run only to the Vikings.

This will be the first game this season you will have to watch for me, for the end of the quest is upon this writer.  The longboat is ready to set sail for the trip across the pond and to the desert.  I’ll check the final score upon landing in Kuwait.  Can the Vikes be 6-0 at the end of the day?  Odin and Thor assure that will happen.  Skol, my friends and…

GO VIKINGS!

Mutton sure is tastes good!

Sunday at noon, the modern day Norseman will meet destruction upon the throwback wearing Rams.  The rams hope to gather some of the mojo they once had wearing royal blue and bright yellow.  “They look great. Hopefully, we’ll be able to bring back some of that throwback energy” said Rams cornerback Ron Bartell.  They will need it because the Rams (0-4) have been feeble offensively, mistake-prone and their 14-game losing streak is the longest in the NFL.  On top of it, the weather has changed.

A wet and now cold wind has moved into the St Louis area.  Three days of storms, wind and water everywhere and now near freezing conditions have been brought by the men of the North.  As Vikings players sleep and dream of long voyages across bitterly cold and ferocious seas, journeys that would exhibit their strength and ferocity as warriors and build their legends, the same feeling has wafted down on the first major cold front of the season and the locals are anxiously awaiting the bad things the feeling brings.

The first of those bad feelings comes with Brett Favre, the man who is looking to start his fourth decade on the planet with a win.  Brett Favre’s three touchdown performance against his former team last Monday Night earned him player of the week honors.  This week he is going against the 19^th rated Rams secondary who are averaging giving up 27 points a game and he knows since he has led the charge on the battlefield, Favre and his lieutenants rank 4^th in the league in point production with an average of 29.5 per game.

Sydney Rice is quickly becoming his favorite receiver to go along with Visanthe Shaincoe and Chester Taylor.  Bernard Berrian who now seems almost completely healed from an earlier hamstring tweak, also looks to get more action from that 40 years young arm that still throws lasers like the Viking long sword to the heart centuries ago.

This contest will feature two of the best running backs in the league, Steven Jackson for the Rams and Adrian Peterson for the Vikings.  If you ask who has the more 100 yard games and guess AD, you’d be wrong; Jackson has 2 and is really the only offensive weapon the Rams possess.  The last three weeks teams have forgone the Vikings passing game to their demise just to curtail Adrian’s forceful running.  Will the Rams defense, ranked 24^th against the run, try the same thing?  Will they have the same success as the better teams before them just to sacrifice the game to Favre’s arm?

Fearing  an offense that can slice on both sides of that battle axe,  Rams defensive coordinator Ken Flajole was asked how he was going to focus his attack.  Was he going to try and stop the run and let the Hall of Fame bound legend of Brett Favre pick apart a much depleted secondary or focus on stopping Adrian Peterson like the Packers did on Monday?  Flajole’s honest response was, “It is kind of a two-headed monster.  I am kind of hoping one of those guys misses the team charter.”

The Vikings lead the league with 16 sacks in their first 4 games, with Aaron Rodgers feeling the brunt of them last week.  The Rams promise to bring a young offensive line that has issues of its own and should have the Four Norsemen of the Apocalypse drooling puddles in the turf in anticipation of Kyle Boller on a spit.  Steven Jackson will just be a hors d’œuvre on the way to the succulent main course.

Asked about the Vikings defense and not just the front four, the Rams offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur seems to know what they will be up against.  “Their front seven is very, very dominant in some areas … obviously the two inside defensive tackles,” Shurmur said. “They’ve got great pass rush on the edges, their linebacking corps is solid, and their scheme is very good as well. Not to mention their secondary. Antoine Winfield is one of the finer corners in the league. All around, they are an excellent defense so we are going to have to play our A-game to get in the end zone.”

“A-game” from a team that has only averaged 6 points per game, seems to be a little wishful thinking from the kind and gentle folk of St Louis.

There have been some technical issues this week On Vikings Valhalla and elsewhere.  They have hopefully been completely rectified, but Greg the Greek wanted me to pass on his prediction for the men from the land of ice and snow.  “Vikes are -10.5 and the over/under is 41.  My prediction is [Vikings] 33-10 [over the Rams].  This is our year!”

Vikings Valhalla gets represented at home games every week; it will be at this away game as well.  A small crew of VV regulars vikechick, noroof, myself and family have ridden that same wind and will be in the Edwards Jones Dome cheering on our beloved Purple on every snap and with all the strength the of Vikings fans everywhere.

Skol and GO VIKINGS!

A feeling has washed over me, one that whispers of Vikings glory in battle centuries ago across northern Europe, or even over the last decades as men know for their ferocity and skill destroyed opponents on the green grid of turf that was their battlefield.  Like in the past, warriors prepare for conflict for reasons of honor, glory, fortune or revenge, and this anticipated meeting will be no different.   This contest will be taking place on Monday Night, when all of the 30 other teams are watching.  A time when prime time players show their skills and when All Day morphs into All Night.

Days ago, I set sail on a journey from what some have called Hell, a place where man’s inhumanity towards man has exhibited itself again and again over the millennia, that place departed was Baghdad, Iraq.  One of the reasons was to see a game, one that marks time, one that will transcend known emotion, myth, and history, one for all time!  That game, that local, national and for the fine men and women serving overseas, world-wide event that is the Minnesota Vikings with the ageless Brett Favre against the team for which his legend resurrected, the Green Bay Packers.

Today is that day, the one you can feel the blood pumping through your veins.  Brett Favre will face the team that thought he was washed up.  Don’t think for a minute this is not personal, because it is.  In an interview, Favre told Gruden, “I want to beat them.

“I’ve got a lot of friends on that team. The way things went down. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you. It was disappointing, for both sides. I still want to prove that I’m worthy and I think that’s human nature. Believe me, I want to win the game.”  That dear friends, is an understatement.  He wants Ted Thompson to regret ever even thinking about trying to run Brett out of town.

“He’s an emotional guy [Favre],” Vikings coach Brad Childress said. “I’m sure he’ll be a wave of emotion before the game and hopefully (have) a cold kind of serial-killer mentality when the game starts.”

…and proceed to eat their hearts as the green and gold oozes from the dying carcass of a mercilessly slaughtered stinky cheese smelling team, setting up a dysfunctional reaction that will prevent them from winning for decades.

- I just thought that I would finish Brad’s quote for him.
Packers fans feel it.

Jeff Margolis said he doesn’t mind Favre playing for another team. He minds greatly that Favre chose to play for the Vikings.

“It’s still so bizarre to see him wearing purple,” Margolis [a typical Packers fan] said. “I almost can’t believe what I’m going to see.

“He showed last week that he’s still got it, and Vikings fans were giving me a hard time on Monday. I just said, ‘See what you missed the last 16 years?’ Because it was a pleasure watching him. It was a treat. And to see him wearing purple….”

Margolis finished that thought with words inappropriate for polite company, words that will echo around the Metrodome tonight when Favre finally, officially, switches sides.

I have one word for you: ‘SCHADENFREUDE’.

But this game doesn’t completely revolve around Brett Favre, or even Adrian Peterson against a soft run defense of the Packers, or of Percy Harvin and the cast of offensive talent playing in prime time.  It is also and more importantly about a defense that will take this game over.

MLB E.J. Henderson is back from injury last year and leads an absolutely talented bunch of Berserker-like hungry “wild warriors” of Norse legend.

“He’s come back and is playing very well,” an offensive assistant for a recent Vikings’ opponent said. “Sure tackler. He can be a mismatch on your backs in pass protection. They do a nice job keeping blockers off him. He’s relentless. He, 94 (Pat Williams), 93 (Kevin Williams), 69 (Jared Allen) and 26 (Antoine Winfield) are their really good players.” Playing every snap, Henderson leads the team in tackles with 22, 10 more than anyone else. “That’s the bell cow of that defense,” one scout said.

The Green Bay Press Gazette reported today that Packers left tackle Chad Clifton will not play Monday night.

Clifton did not practice today, according to the paper. He’s listed as questionable on the injury report.
The report that he won’t play isn’t surprising because Clifton hadn’t practiced all week. Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Friday that Clifton would be a game-time decision, at best.

The news means that Vikings defensive end Jared Allen will match up against Daryn Colledge, who has struggled at times.

I sense that there will be lots of salivating on the part of Jared Allen and the rest of the defensive line as they envision Aaron Rodgers slowly roasting in the heated glare of EJ Henderson’s stare. As drippings melt from his body an aroma will fill their nostrils forcing them into a bone crushing, life threatening, feeding and sack frenzy like piranhas on a poor unsuspecting swimmer that just happens to have a small open cut. Daryn Colledge will just be the appetizer on what should be a feast of mammoth proportions.

Can you feel it? This isn’t any regular game day.

“Oh Lord, save us from the rage of the Nordic people” — Common prayer in the French churches during the Viking Age and today from Packers fans everywhere.