Thursday, August 23, 2012

More Vikes


So you might be sick of the Vikings posts already, but hey, fans need to be excited about something.  Who knows how this season will turn out.  My observations from the last pre-season game against the Bills were that we improved tremendously, especially Christian Ponder and our defensive secondary.  I'm becoming more of a fan of cornerback Josh Robinson after a quiet training camp.  He's finally starting to show his high draft potential.  Rookie Harrison Smith showed that he deserves the starting spot at the safety position.  Ponder showed poise and good pocket awareness, but he needs to continue that trend and not regress next game.  

I'm absolutely in favor of sitting Adrian Peterson the rest of the pre-season.  In fact I would limit his snaps as much as possible during the first part of the regular season, especially the first two games against the Jaguars, and the Colts.  If we can't beat those two teams without AP, than this season is lost anyways.  I'm of the firm belief that the life of a running back in the NFL is all about the number of hits they take and not necessarily how old they get.  Let's face it, odds are the Vikings won't make the playoffs this year, so why put AP out there if there's even a chance he could re-injure the knee?  I'm not a medical expert so it will be up to the Vikings medical and coaching staff to determine when that is, but why not prolong AP's career as much as possible by reducing the number of hits he takes this year?  

Now for my bold prediction #2.  Harrison Smith will be the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year.  I love how the kid plays…. Hard and fast.  He will be a good player for the Vikings for a long time.  For the third pre-season game against the Chargers Friday night, I look for Ponder to continue to improve and I'd like to see him go deep a few more times to stretch the field.  Since Jerome Simpson is out the first three games, I'd like to see Ponder develop a good chemistry with Percy Harvin and/or another WR that we can develop into a starter.  With Philip Rivers quarterbacking the Chargers passing attack, this will be a good test for our secondary and line backers.  I'll look for them to give a "bend but don't break" attempt at stopping Rivers, and hopefully an interception or two.  

There you have it.  See you after the next game.

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