Vikings dominate Bills; Favre hurt
By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 12/09/2010
Since the firing of Brad Childress, the Vikings have won two straight for Interim Head Coach Leslie Frazier. Sunday’s 38-14 rout over the Bills gave Viking fans back-to-back wins for the first time all season.
It’s was also the 5-7 Vikings’ first win against an AFC team this year. Buffalo (2-10) and Minnesota have the humbling distinction of both being 0-4 in Super Bowls all-time.
The Vikings played without four starters on Sunday: Ray Edwards, Percy Harvin, Chad Hutchinson and Anthony Herrera. That would be five counting Brett Favre, who started his 297th consecutive game. He was injured on the Vikings’ third offensive play and did not return.
Favre suffered a blindside hit, hurting his right shoulder near the collarbone. The Vikings will do an MRI on Monday to gauge the injury. Frazier said if Favre is OK, he will start against the Giants.
The Vikings still won convincingly. Backup quarterback Tarvaris Jackson came in and, after throwing an interception for a Bills’ touchdown to Drayton Florence spotting the Bills a 7-0 lead, he then drove the Vikings up and down the field against the Bills.
Jackson threw two TD passes to Sidney Rice, and Adrian Peterson ran for 107 yards and three touchdowns. Again the Vikings dominated up front, running for 210 yards, and showed great balance offensively.
Defensively, the Vikings forced five turnovers, again winning the turnover ratio in the sloppily played game. Frazier has really gotten Kevin Williams and Jared Allen to raise their games lately, and when those two guys are playing at a high level, the whole defense plays better.
The Vikings are still alive mathematically for the playoffs. They have not yet beaten a team with a winning record, and to make the playoffs they will have to beat the New York Giants, Chicago and Philadelphia all in succession, and then go beat Detroit.
If all that happens, then they will need a lot of help. The Vikings have not had a general manager since the ’70s when Jim Finks built the great Vikings teams. If Frazier — who was interviewed seven times for NFL head coaching vacancies prior to accepting the interim Vikings job — keeps winning, that won’t change.
Fitz Notes & Quotes
The University of Minnesota did it again: Athletic Director Joel Maturi has hired Jerry Kill to a five-year contract to replace Tim Brewster. Last year, Kill led Northern Illinois to a 10-2 record. He was 23-16 in three years at NIU. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Southern Illinois and was successful there.
Maturi, however, promised he was going to hire a Tubby Smith-type football coach. Kill has never won a National Championship and has no BCS head-coaching experience, which makes it two straight hires by Maturi with no BCS previous head-coaching experience.
Twenty-two years ago I said the University of Minnesota Gophers football program would not go to the Rose Bowl in my lifetime. During that period, Wisconsin and Iowa have gone six times.
Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:25 am, and on WDGY-AM 740 Monday-Friday at 12:17 pm and 4:17 pm; he also commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2). Larry welcomes reader responses to info@larry-fitzgerald.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.
