The 1997 Season

Note: 1997 was the first season that I wrote down thoughts the entire year. Therefore, the 1997 season summary will come in multiple additions to my blog. Today's 1997 entry will be Week 15, Detroit thoughts.

Week Fifteen: Detroit

There are terrible disasters in history, and there are always great catastrophes just waiting to happen.

But the most unbelievable one this year, the thing we’ve been holding our breath against, the capo de tutti capi of impending disasters, has happened to the Minnesota Vikings.

Like the Titanic steaming for its chunk of polar ice, like the Hindenberg looking for its Lakehurst, like the guy at Chernobyl wondering what that switch would do, it was inevitable, inexorable, a psychic juggernaut.

The once high-scoring Minnesota Vikings have not led in a game for sixteen straight quarters, not since winning against the Chicago Bears on November 9. Four straight games of trailing the opposition. Once tied atop the NFC Central division, they now are fighting for their playoff lives.

The latest NFL playoff possibilities show the Vikings can clinch a playoff berth with a win. Either beat the Detroit Lions or the Indianapolis Colts, and we are in the second season where everyone starts 0-0.

So why am I not leaping for joy? Look at the injury list alone: Cris Carter (broken finger and probable), Jeff Brady (neck and doubtful), Orlando Thomas (hamstring and probable), Brad Johnson (herniated disk and out), Jeff Christy (broken ankle and out), Scott Dill (back and doubtful), Todd Steussie (ankle and probable), Fernando Smith (various ailments and questionable) and Robert Smith (ankle and probable).

The Lions come to town this coming Sunday with an offense in full gear ready to take on a Viking defense that seems more adept at giving a tongue-lashing after plays than a good old butt-kicking during them.

The Colts arrive the following Sunday with a team that has nothing to lose and will let it all hang out, already having upset the team in green and yellow to the east and the New York Jets...at the Meadowlands no less.

So why have hope at all? Because with two Viking wins and one Tampa Bay loss, we are hosting a wildcard playoff game. And with the ankle injury that Buccaneer starting quarterback Trent Dilfer sustained Sunday coupled with an away game against the Jets (who Tuna WILL have ready to play) and a home game against the Bears (who have defeated the Bucs already this year), the odds seem good.

What can we do as fans? Put away the paper bags. Buy a ticket to the Lions or Colts game, and whenever the Viking defense is on the field, make as much noise as you may be able to generate short of a initiating a stroke. Let’s make those paper dragons into a fire-breathing, slashing, attacking force that will set up a playoff run reminiscent of the 1987-88 season.

One and we are in. Two and some help and we are at home to start.

Tailgate Jottings

Outside the Metrodome, early on during the Viking Underground Tailgate Party on a beautiful December day, Mindy Luczak of Fort Wayne, Ind., joined our festivities and immediately served up her famous Viking Venom drink.

Approximately four hours later, waking from a hallucinogenic-laced trip wherein I imagined the Viking defense playing their best game of the season, I looked up to the scoreboard to discover the Vikings had lost the game to the Detroit Lions, 14-13.

Special note to Mindy: Please break your vow of secrecy as to the recipe for this venomous drink. We all will have to do a lot more drinking before next Sunday just to keep our sanity and to keep track of the playoff possibilities for the Vikes which include the very real possibility of hosting a first-round game.

Also, send the recipe to the team. They need some venom in their game plan. The Vikings need to get back to their earlier state when the killer instinct was still very evident. If they had played like they did in Buffalo way back on Aug. 31, when they scored a touchdown while appearing to set up a field goal, they would have come away with a win yesterday, turning Eddie McDaniel’s fourth quarter interception into the play of the game. Instead, a missed Eddie Murray 37-yard field goal gave the Lions a second chance and the win.

So who do we blame? Was it the fans who started to leave after the McDaniel interception and thereby caused air currents to push the ball wide right as they left the Dome? Was it poor and questionable calling by the professional referees late in the game? Was it the decision to go into a prevent defense when pressure on All-Cafeteria Lion quarterback Scott Mitchell had him wishing he was downing cheeseburgers instead?

You can debate each of the above but it all boils down to a lack of killer instinct…no Viking Venom.

Mindy, I’ll expect that recipe soon so that I can personally deliver it to the front office and bring some bite back to the team.

Posted by maasx003 at October 30, 2004 12:16 PM