There was a huge slate of NFL preseason games last night. I watched the Atlanta/Cincinnati game for about 30 seconds and realized I didn''t care yet. It'll be easier to watch the Vikings first half tonight, and maybe even more depending on if Joe Webb and Matt Cassel both get significant playing time.
I'm actually pretty pumped about the upcoming season. They shouldn't be WORSE than last season. Their draft was solid. Adrian Peterson is 100% and in his prime. And Christian Ponder was allowed to bootleg and rollout rather than just stand in the pocket in his last few games this past season.
Add to that a great kicking game (though Walsh is still getting some mixed reports from media people) and we actually could contend for the division title.
But this is football. All sorts of weird things happen every single week and officials have been known to miss obvious calls. And I'm still not convinced that Frazier and his coaching staff know how to call a good game.
Going in, I say the Vikes should be 10-6 this year easy. If Ponder throws a few too many INTs early in the season, or if Walsh starts missing easy field goals, we could very well find ourselves out of the playoff race just a few games into. That's football.
The problem with judging this season is that we don't have enough history with the major players on offense to figure out what might happen.
And we still have to find out if Greg Jennings hands are as good as his mouth.
Pumped but guarded in my expectations, that's the only way to look forward to the Minnesota brand of professional football.
Regarding Walsh's performance during practice. We have to remember that he has a new holder (Locke). Every kicker prefers a certain hold. Maybe Locke and Walsh just need more time together to get everything down just right.
ReplyDeleteAs for Locke's punting. His kicks are higher and farther than I've ever seen in training camp. Booming is a good way to describe what I was seeing.
I really like Patterson. I hope he turns out to be as good as I think he is. He seems like a very good guy. He was very approachable for the kids to get autographs and he's always smiling like he's having the time of his life. As Mrs. Observer put it "That's how it's supposed to be."