Now it all starts for real

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 9/6/2002

Get ready for a great season of Vikings football

The NFL’s 2004 85th season starts this Thursday night, September 9, with a rematch of the AFC Championship game, defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots hosting the Indianapolis Colts.

Since 1996, four teams have made multiple trips to the Super Bowl over a three-year span — Green Bay, Denver, St. Louis and New England. The Patriots have won 15 straight games, and will attempt to make it 16 in the rematch against Indianapolis. A tradition begins this week with the defending champion Patriots being saluted.

Can Tom Brady and the Patriots make it three Super Bowls in four years? Time will tell. The Minnesota Vikings are primed to end a run of three missed playoffs when they open the season hosting the Dallas Cowboys Sunday at 3:15 at the Metrodome.

This could be the best Vikings team since 1998; they are the consensus favorites to win the NFC North, which has been owned by the Green Bay Packers since the NFL switched to the 32-team eight-division alignment three years ago.

If the Vikings are to return to the playoffs, they will have to do a much better job on the road away from the Metrodome. Last year, after starting the season 6-0, the Vikings blew the NFC North by losing seven of their last 10 games. That included five straight road losses, among them a 13-10 loss at Chicago and the unforgettable 18-17 heart-stopping last play of the season at Arizona.

The Vikings were 6-2 at the Metrodome and 3-5 on the road. Only two teams qualified for the playoffs last season, Baltimore and Seattle, that had losing records on the road. Mentally tough football teams have to take their show on the road.

Another key measuring stick for the Vikings this season will be discipline. It was clear that the team lacked discipline last season. In 16 games last season, the Vikings committed 127 penalties for 1,029 yards while their opponents were flagged only 90 times for 720 yards.

That’s a difference of 309 yards, three football fields of penalties more than your opponents. In close games over a 16-game season, that can make a big difference. The Vikings lost three games by a combined seven points. The difference between winning and losing in the NFL is razor thin.

It will be imperative that the Vikings improve in that area, because they have the talent. They start the season with two key players serving league-mandated substance abuse suspensions, defensive end Kenny Mixon and running back Onterrio Smith. Mixon’s suspension is for two games and Smith’s is for four.

Last year I predicted that the Vikings would finish 10-6 and make the playoffs; as you know, they were 9-7 and did not. Again this year, I predict the Vikings will finish 10-6. They have a difficult schedule with some tough tests on the road: Monday night, Sept 20, at Philadelphia; Monday night, November 8, at Indianapolis; Sunday, November 14, at Green Bay; and January 2 at Washington.

Their home games are no guarantees, either: Sunday against Dallas; October 24 vs. Tennessee; and, of course, the hated Green Bay Packers on Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24. Daunte Culpepper will match up at quarterback against the league’s best, NFL Co-MVP’s Steve McNair and Peyton Manning, plus Donovan McNabb, Byron Leftwich, and the great Brett Favre twice.

This is going to be a great NFL season; I can just feel it. Let’s get on with it!