Day at the Vikings and Other Week 3 thoughts

So I went to the Vikings for the first time in 3 years with my buddy Matt on Sunday. It was a pretty good game. It looked very ugly at the start, but it was all Minnesota after the defensive touchdown that tied it up before the half.

Now so much is being made of Gus Ferrotte's performace. Admittedly he looked better than Jackson has in either of his first two starts, but not by much. Ferrotte was only 16 for 28 and threw 1 int (though it bounced off his reciever so probably not his fault). Ferrotte let himself get sacked on consecutive plays in the 3rd quarter, which gave great field position to the Panthers and a chance to get back in the game.

So Ferrotte was far from perfect, and shouldn't be looked at as the huge hero he's being made out to be. That said he did a couple things that distinguished himself from TJack.

1) He completed 2 big passes beyond 10 yards, including the touchdown on the first drive of the 2nd half.

2) He took a lot of the easier underneath passes and didn't force too many balls deep (the type of the throws Jackson was missing by 5 yards last week).

But as big as Ferrotte was, it was as important that Chester Taylor played a huge game to pick up the extra load from the vikings limiting Adrian Peterson's touches (though AP did make good most of the time when he got the ball, despite his injury).

But this game was won by the "D" and I think the local media would be very critical of Ferrotte if the vikes had lost 21-20 for the things I mentioned. Also for how undiciplined the Vikings played with all their brainless penalties in the 1st Quarter, and how poor the tackling was on kick and punt coverage. Carolina probably should've won given the field position they had until the Vikes engineered that beautiful 11 minute drive that put them up 2 scores. But after looking soft on the Panthers first two drives, the "D" stepped up huge, and getting that touchdown at the end of the 1st half gave the Vikes the confidence they needed to hand the Panthers they're first loss.

So praise the "D" (maybe I'm just extra excited cause I'm crushing him on all fantasy points the Vikes "D" got me this week), and be happy the vikings beat a decent team to avoid what would be a devistating 0-3 start. The Vikes will have to play much better next week to beat 3-0 Tenesee. The Vikes got dumped on schedule-wise for the first 4 weeks, after that it gets much easier.

As for going live the Vikings are 3-0 when I attend. (They beat Detroit in '05, and Miami in '94).

After hitting the concourse at Halftime and how insanly crowed it was I am ready to give Zygi Wilf his $1 billion dollars for his new stadium (jk, but still whenever or however we get the new building, wider concourses!)

Non-viking thoughts

I didn't really think the New England Patriots we're going undefeated again this year. But I didn't think their long regular season losing streak would fall at the hands of last years 1-15 doormat Miami, and by a 3 TD margin. Quite shocking...

If you need further proof that Detroit really sucks again look at this

(lowly) San Francisco 31, Detroit 13.

Yes the Pathetic 49ers ran it up on Detroit. The Lions will be welcome when they appear at the Metrodome in two weeks.

"Community Organizer"

Since the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate it's been a couple bad weeks for the Democrats to say the least. I mean really bad. Obama finds himself trailing in polls he seemingly had an insurmountable lead in. The left's biggest allies (NBC, CBS, and ABC, etc...) have been exposed for giving Obama a pass on all the things on which they want to challenge Palin (experience, etc...). And everyone that attack Palin is looking really bad in the process and as they resort to more desparate attacks they make the Dems looks bad, whether or not the actual candidates (Sens. Obama and Biden) are making the attacks themselves or not. And many democratic supporters (both men and women mind you) are starting to jump ship.

But that's not what this blog is really going to be about. I just wanted to establish the fact that on some level I really feel bad for the Dems, and I think I'd like to help them out and offer some free advice (though I know full well they won't take it).

One of the latest attacks that has been made of the GOP is their ridiculing Obama's experience as a "community organizer." And this seems to have really struck a nerve with the Dems and has them all in a tizzy. And they're attacking Palin's experience as a mayor of a town of 9000 (and usually ignoring her experience of being a governor of a state of 600,000, albiet for only 2 years, kind of like Obama's term in the Senate). This attack is blowing up in their faces, yet they still seem desparate to make this woman look bad. So I'm going to offer the Dems the solution that would make Sarah Palin, Rudy Guiliani, and everyone else that makes fun of the title "community organizer" look really bad.

Obama, needs to explain...what exactly... he did... as a "community organizer."

Does a "community organizer" help old ladies across busy Chicago streets?
Does a "community organizer" help plant community gardens?
Does a "community organizer" help scrape winos out of the gutter? (oh I just had a vision of the lanky Barak Obama trying to lift Patrick Warburton out of a subway station for all you fans of "Newsradio" season 5).
Does a "community organizer" get people to paint over graffti?

As the name implies I think it's a perfectly fair question to ask "In what way does a 'community organizer' organize a community to make it a better place.

If Obama or anyone in his campaign could explain a "yes" answer to any of the above questions, or any number of other ways people improve their community, I think Sarah Palin and Rudy Guliani would come off as really mean-spirited for their speeches at the convention. They could run ads with the footage from the conventions side-by-side with Obama's accomplishments. Provided there's any significat accomplishments there.

But the truth is, I don't this they're is. Instead they choose to play the race card, saying the way the GOP used the phrase "community organizer" is a code word for "black person" as if the GOP convention were a KKK meeting (For the record the only former KKK member in the senate is Robert Byrd, D-WV and he was not invited to the convention, though I would love to see that old man try and pick up a newspaper box and throw it through a Macy's window in protest, but again I digress).

The point is the DNC can simply make this mockery of Obama's expereince go away if anyone in the campaign could tell us why being a "community organizer" is significant. This would be a great way for the left to "get Palin" as they seem so intent on doing, and it's so obvious. But, consisent with the hallmark of the Obama campaign, they prefer not to define what exactly this is to let their "open-minded" voters fill in the blank for themselves without knowing what Sen Obama means (see the word "change").