Viking Defense Crushes Manning

The Minnesota Vikings defense was superb in yesterday's game and Tarvaris Jackson had another good outing, as the Minnesota Vikings crushed the New York Giants 41-17 at Giants Stadium in New York.

The Minnesota Vikings have now won two in a row for the first time this season. The Vikings have yet to manage winning more than one game before losing, but won yesterday in convincing fashion. The Viking defense intercepted Eli Manning four times and returned three for touchdowns. Minnesota's Darren Sharper returned the first interception of the game for a 20 yard touchdown to give the Vikings a 14-7 lead. Then Dwight Smith picked off Manning in the second quarter, which set up a Chester Taylor eight yard run to give Minnesota a 21-7 lead just nine seconds in the second quarter. A Ryan Longwell field goal with 4:47 left in the second quarter, gave Minnesota a 24-7 halftime lead.

In the beginning of the third quarter Minnesota kicked off to the Giants. New York took the ball down field in 10 plays and 48 yards for a field goal. The Vikings then responded with a field goal of their own, and the third quarter ended with a 27-10 Minnesota lead. Then came the Manning collapse.

Although Manning was not putting up good numbers, he then fell apart altogether. Dwight Smith picked off Manning with 13:41 left in the game and ran it back 93 yards for a touchdown and a 34-14 Viking lead. Then just 42 seconds later, Chad Greenway made his first career interception for a touchdown, as he scampered 37 yards and a 41-10 Viking lead. Chad Greenway entered last season as a rookie with a lot of hype. He was subsequently hurt in the first play of the pre-season, and out for the year. This season Chad has lived up to that hype, playing in all 11 of Minnesota's games as the starter, and recorded 70 tackles, one forced fumble, two interceptions, and one touchdown. Of Chad's 70 tackles, 53 are solo and 17 are assisted. The Viking defense had four interceptions ran back for three touchdowns and 154 returned yards. An amazing feet by any defense in the NFL.

Minnesota's offense was pretty good as well yesterday. They took the first play from the line of scrimmage, and converted it into a 60 yard touchdown pass from Tarvaris Jackson to Sydney Rice. This is the second week in a row that Rice has made a big play. Last week against the Oakland Raiders, Rice threw a 79 yard pass to Visanthe Shiancoe which set up a 10 yard Chester Taylor touchdown run on their first possession of the game. Yesterday, Rice caught three passes for 82 yards and a touchdown, while Bobby Wade caught two passes for 14 yards and Visanthe Shiancoe had one reception for 13 yards. In the backfield, Chester Taylor carried the ball 31 times for 77 yards and one touchdown. Taylor also had two reception for 12 yards on the day. Mewelde Moore (MeMo) carried the ball three times for 12 yards. Minnesota's backfield was absent rookie star Adrian Peterson again this week who is out with a torn LCL in his knee. Peterson is looking to return next week against the Detroit Lions.

Quarterback Tarvaris Jackson had another good day. Jackson was an amazing 10 for 12 on his pass completion ratio, and threw for 129 yards and one touchdown. Again these numbers would indicate a poor performance in the NFL, but for the struggling Jackson who only started in two games all last season and was out for four games with injuries this season, this is a good day. Jackson has struggled with his passing game as would any new quarterback in the league. Until last week, Jackson's best game was in week one where he completed a dismal 56.6% of his passes. Last week against the Raiders, Jackson was 17 for 22 passing, for a 77.3 percent pass completion ratio, and received a passer rating of 79.9 percent. His best week by far all season. This week Tarvaris completed 10 of 12 passes for 129 yards and a pass completion ratio of 83.3 percent. A new high for the struggling young quarterback. In addition to his passing game yesterday, Tarvaris Jackson ran the ball 5 times for 38 yards and an average of 7.6 yards per carry. Jackson is a mobile quarterback with good size and speed. Jackson also does not mind taking a hit. Tarvaris's marked improvement is hopefully a sign of good things to come.

Our Minnesota Vikings have struggled offensively all season long. Jackson has been less than good this year up until the past two weeks. With his improvement and regained confidence, I hope to see more of the same from Tarvaris in the next few weeks. Jackson will get his second crack at Detroit, a team that intercepted him five times and put him out for two weeks early in the season. Look for Jackson to come out throwing and continue to use his mobility. The Vikings pass defense has also struggled all season long. Ranked 32nd in the league almost all season, they have showed great signs of life in the past three weeks. Although Brett Favre seemed to pick them apart miserably two weeks ago, the Vikings pass defense dominated San Diego a month ago, fared well against the Oakland Raiders last week, and crushed New York yesterday. This improvement will hold well for them next week against division rival Detroit.

The Vikings will need to do more of the same at the Metrodome this Sunday against the Lions. Minnesota must defeat the Lions for there to be any hope of making the playoffs. The Vikings are now at 5-6, and need a win to reach .500 for the first time since week two of this season. Minnesota remains tied with Chicago for third place, and faces them on December 17th on Monday Night Football. A win against the Lions and the Bears, and a Lions loss to the Bears, will give Minnesota a slight edge in the Wild Card race over the division rivals, and a final division record of 3-3.

SKOL VIKINGS!!!!