The Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons get ready to play each other in the season opener in Minneapolis at the Metrodome. This will be the 24th meeting between these two teams, in which the Vikings lead the overall series 15-9. Kick off time is 12:00 Noon on Sunday.Atlanta is holding a current two game win streak over the Vikings, winning in 2003, 36-26, and 2005, 30-10. The Falcons however will be with out veteran all star quarterback Michael Vick. Instead, Atlanta will be going with another veteran quarterback in Joey Harrington, formerly of the Detroit Lions. Harrington has not had much success against the Vikings in the past, but hopes to change things around now that he is with the Falcons.
The Vikings on the other hand, are looking to keep their success going against Harrington. In 2006, Joey Harrington threw for 267 yards, completing 61% of his passes, and throwing only one touchdown in two games. Overall last season, Harrington threw for 12 touchdowns, 15 interceptions, and 2,236 yards. Minnesota will look to keep pressure on Harrington, and hope to make him rush his passes, and turnover the ball.
Minnesota will be turning to rookie upstart Tarvaris Jackson to lead this offense. Jackson is in his first full season as a starter, as he was the back up to Brad Johnson in 2006. Last year, jackson played in four games for the Vikings, and threw 81 passes. He completed 41 passes for 475 yards. Jackson threw two touchdowns, and 4 interceptions, and was sacked 8 times. Tarvaris is looking to improve on last years stats, and is looking to get this team some wins. In preseason play this year, Tarvaris completed 20 of 38 passes for 225 yards, throwing no interceptions and no touchdowns.
The Vikings also upgraded their backfield with rookie running back Adrian Peterson. Peterson, a first round draft pick (7th overall) last year, has done quite well this preseason, and looks to hold a bright future. Peterson had 38 rushing attempts for 146 yards, on an average of 4.9 yards per carry. Peterson also ran in 1 touchdown. Adrian will be splitting time with last year's "work horse" Chester Taylor.
In perseason play, Taylor ran for 73 yards on 13 carries, for an average of 5.6 yards per carry. Taylor had no touchdowns. Although Adrian Peterson had twice as many carries and Chester Taylor did in the preseason, look for Brad Childress to split their time a little more equally throughout the season.
As far as Minnesota's receiving core goes, keep your eye on Bobby Wade and Sydney Rice. Wade and Rice look to be the "go to guys" in the home opener, a little more than Troy Williamson. Williamson, a first round draft pick in 2005, has been a bit of a disappointment. He was drafted mostly for his speed, as the Vikings knew he had some problems in catching the ball. With that said, Vikings coaches felt they could teach Williamson how to catch, and would work on his depth perception. But that has been a failure thus far.
This should be a very exciting game Viking fans. The Falcons were projected to have a rough season with Michael Vick, and now without him, should fall even worse. Hopefully the Vikings defense can pick apart Joey Harrington, as they have done in the past, and our offense, led by Tarvaris Jackson and Adrian Peterson, can put up some points, in a total team effort to beat the Atlanta Falcons.
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Til Game day
SKOL Vikings!!!!!!!
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