The Steve and TJ Bowl

Well the Vikings play the Seahawks this week.  Lets just say the anticipation isn't exactly building amongst the fan base for this one.  In fact I think this is the least anticipated game of the season.  I mean after all the Seahawks aren't very good and they aren't a divisional rival.  Although they are a conference opponent and we can't lose to a conference rival.

There are, however, some back stories with this game.  For starters Steve Hutchinson.  He was a Pro Bowler and an excellent lineman on the Seattle Seahawks.  Four years ago he was on the brink of free agency and Seattle basically was trying to low ball him.  They were only offering him 6 million a year, about a million off what he wanted or expected.  After he rejected their offer he hit free agency and signed with the Minnesota Vikings at the tune of 7 years 49 million dollars.  Hutch later said, " The truth of the matter is that I wanted to have a contract extension done before last season, and certainly before the tag deadline. The Seahawks were either unwilling or unwanting to give me that contract, and Minnesota stepped up to the plate and offered it to me."  This topic is still the source of sour grapes in the pacific northwest.

The other backstory to this game is TJ Housmensada.  During free agency this off season TJ flirted heavily with the Vikings.  He came to the land of 10,000 lakes and met with Vikings braintrust.  All indications were that he was coming to the Vikings.  However, in what would become known as the "swoosh of Housh" (adimittedly not very many people call it that but I think it sounds cool) TJ landed in the land of 10,000 Starbucks.  Gone just like that.  

Obviously at first that looked real bad for Minnesota, however since that happened Minnesota's arrow has noticeably pointed upward.  Without TJ we needed another receiver.  Well as luck would have it in the draft we would find our receiver in Percy Harvin.  Right now I think you'd be hard pressed to find a Minnesota fan who would rather have TJ than Percy.  Percy is younger, faster, cheaper, more explosive and a game changer.  TJ is an expensive, slow, aging, possession receiver who would never be confused for a dynamic game changer.

TJ was on record saying that Minnesota's quarterback situation was what ultimately lead to him signing with Seattle to play with a pro bowl quarterback in Matt Hasslebeck.  That was before the Vikings secured the services of one Brett Favre.  Now, the Seahawks are 3-6 and the Vikings under Favre are 8-1 and have realistic Super Bowl aspirations.  I'm sure TJ is kicking himself for his decision.  From what I hear he's been pretty vocal with his displeasure in Seattle.  I am not sure why he thought going to a bad team over a team that won the division last year was a good decision.  He said that the quarterback situation here wasn't very good and that's engine that drives receivers.  Too me that sounds like he was worried about his stats dropping here and less concerned about victories.

I want to state that I feel no sympathy for athletes who I feel value dollars and stats over W's.  Too me that seems selfish and there's no room on this Viking's Ship for me-first selfish players.  TJ has never elevated a team with his play, in fact the Bengals got better once he left.  I want team first guys here in Minnesota and part of the reason that watching this edition ( and pretty much every edition under Childress) of the Vikings so enjoyable is that I feel like they are all sold on the team first concept.  

Chilly has done a great job coming into Minnesota and changing the free wheeling anything goes me-first culture to a team oriented business first culture.  He has done a good job of bringing in play makers, and not just play makers but the right kind.  The kind that are unselfish and are more interested in doing what it takes to win than padding stats.  This has improved each year.  Childress as a coach has improved each year.  Our wins have improved each year and are on pace to improve this year too.  Chilly is on the brink of clinching back to back division championships.  You don't fear any "Loveboat" incidents taking place under his leadership.  These are all reasons Chilly gets my seal of approval and I am fine with an extension taking place.

Oh yeah, there's a game this weekend.  On offense I think we should continue the trend of balance that we started last week.  AP (finally) had the big game I had been harping about for weeks now.  I would like to see that continue.  We limited Favre to under 30 passes, that's a good thing I would like to see that continue.  Oh, and more Rice please!  Talk about a play maker huh, that guy went off last week.  While I am not predicting another 200 yards I do believe he has become Favre's go to guy.  I also want to see more Percy.  Percy sort of feels like the go to guy on third down.  I don't care if it's first, second, third, or fourth down Percy needs to have the ball in his hands.  With the ball in his hands magic happens.  That guy was the steal of the draft.  Even if he would have been taken first overall he's still a steal.  Instant impact.  Good job Chilly.

On defense we need to get after Hasslebeck.  The 'Hawks are lacking on offensive line and we need to exploit that.  They don't have much of a running game to speak of and their biggest receiving threat is their tightend John Carlson.  Cover Carlson and pressure Hasslebeck equates to good things.  Hasslebeck will never be confused with Michael Vick, if you get after him he can't escape.

If we win this game it moves another step closer to clinching the division and if we win next week we officially eliminate the Bears from contention.  Also if the Packers could lose these next two (not likely) and we win our next two we would clinch the division officially.  So the Vikings have a lot at stake here, we need to keep winning to keep pace with the Saints, mark my words they will lose at least one game this season.  We can only hope it's against a NFC team because as long as we keep winning that will give us the tiebreaker over them.  We need to stay focused.  And when I say "we" I mean the Vikings they can't have another performance like last week.  We are better than the Seahawks in all three facets of the game so we should play like it.

Well that's all for now.  I'll be back on Monday or Tuesday to recap this game and hand out my weekly Gunslinger Award.  So until them if drink don't drive, if you drive don't drink.

Skol Vikings.