They Suckered Me In

I haven't talked about football much since the Red Sox are having such a wonderful season, and heading towards the ALDS.

I really had high hopes for the Minnesota Vikings this season. They ended 2012 very strong, with four straight wins and a playoff berth. I liked the draft they had (although you can't judge a draft on any level until a full season has been played), and made some nice free agent acquisitions (I especially liked them getting Greg Jennings from rival Green Bay).

I thought this club had made the move to the next level, and might very well be a Super Bowl contender.

Silly me.

An 0-3 start. A dreadful loss to one of the NFL's worst teams in their home opener (Cleveland). Two losses in the final minute due a very porous defense. And now their starting quarterback, the much maligned Christian Ponder, takes a seat this Sunday in London due to a rib injury. It looks like Matt Cassel, signed over the summer from Kansas City, will get the QB start.

The defense has been simply putrid, allowing 96 points in the first three games. Only the Giants and Redskins have allowed more in the first three weeks.

Somehow, I don't think this is the way Leslie Frazier and his staff drew up the start of this season. After the Vikings started 0-2, I heard about the long odds of any team making the postseason with that record (although the Giants won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago starting out 0-2). And it seemed to most folks that beating the Cleveland Browns was a lock, but that lock fell apart, as the Browns scored a TD in the final 51 seconds to hand the Vikings a 31-27 loss.

Very few teams have made the playoffs starting out 0-3, the last being the 1998 Buffalo Bills. The Vikings right now are across the pond and will play the equally-inept Pittsburgh Steelers at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. To say this is a must-win game goes without saying.

I always check out The Daily Norseman for Vikings news.

And I'll be checking it out on NFL RedZone on Sunday. Hoping for the best, and expecting the worst.

At least the MLB postseason is about to begin.