Rod's Monday Thoughts

Are the Minnesota Vikings the beneficiary of a weak schedule? Lets take a look at the first 9 games. Cleveland has a record of 1-7 going into their game tonight with Baltimore, another Vikings opponent who they beat thanks to a last second field goal being no good and are .500 at 4-4. Detroit is 1-8 and Minnesota beat them twice. St. Louis is 1-8. That's three 1 win teams the Vikings played and to their credit beat. Only two teams of the first nine are above the .500 mark so far on the season. Green Bay is 5-4 and Pittsburgh is 6-3. San Francisco, which the Vikings beat on the second to last play of the game is 4-5 or 1 game under .500. Cumulative record of the opponents in the first 9 games, 22 wins and 39 losses. Not an impressive statistic, but as the pundits say, you can only play the schedule you are given. Let’s take a look at the rest of the schedule which consist of Seattle 3-6-0, Chicago(twice) 4-5-0, Arizona 6-3-0, Cincinnati 7-2-0, Carolina 4-5-0 and the New York Giants 5-4-0. 3 teams are above .500 and the other two are below .500 with a cumulative record of 25 wins and 27 losses. The Vikings will beat Seattle this Sunday. They will beat Chicago in Minneapolis. And it is starting already yesterday when Paul “Homer” (have you heard him announce a Vikings game? No doubt who he is employed by) Allen already was lamenting that the Vikings have just one home game in December. A game they could very well lose to a good Cincinnati Bengals team. They might win at Arizona although history shows they don’t very often. Wins at Carolina and at Chicago in late December are iffy at best and you never know which Eli Manning will show up with the Giants for the last game of the season. So are the Vikings as good as that 8-1 record? Fans should pray every night that Brett Favre-ulous stays healthy!