appy Hump Day everyone, and welcome to Skoloholics, your home for Minnesota Vikings Discussion. Everyday you can join us for Minnesota Vikings news, Minnesota Vikings talk, NFL news and updates, and all of those other things that you have on your mind. At Skoloholics, the real action is in the comments, so if you haven’t checked out the comments section yet, sign up and join the conversation.
I’m really looking forward to Sunday’s game. The Vikings have a legit shot at beating the Packers on their home turf, which always makes one feel warm and fuzzy inside. It won’t be easy, winning at Lambeau never is, but from what we’ve seen in the first three games, this Vikings team can contend with anyone. We’ll find out in a few days, SKOL!!!!!!!!
Vikings/NFL News and Updates:
NFL week 4 power rankings are out, for what they’re worth, which isn’t much. CBS Sports has the Vikings in the top 3, and so does ESPN, and NFL.com did as well. Sports Illustrated has the Vikings in the top 5, behind both the Lions and Packers. Whatever, it’s just power rankings. I dunno, hearing praise for the Vikings from the media makes me feel kinda yucky.
NFL.com brings us up to speed with news from around the league in their NFL roundup.
Our old pal Brett Favre announced that he has Parkinson’s Disease, according to FoxNews. That’s sad.
The Panthers placed WR Adam Thielen on IR with a hamstring injury, according to ESPN.
Media Selection:
Here’s a cool story about Carson Steele, the Chiefs RB who is filling in during Pacheco’s injury/absence. I have Steele on my fantasy team, not that it matters.
Thread Guidelines
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- Twitter sized version: be cool to one another.
Greenard named NFC Defensive Player of the week.
1st time in his career so good on him.
Kwesi’s free agency moves were on point last off-season. He’s improved annually.
Well he had no where to go but up after the first year.
2nd was not much to brag about either.
I do agree that he seems to have nailed it this year.
He actually had some cap space this offseason
DNP:
Pace
Bradbury
Jay Ward (no biggie)
LP:
Addison
Bullard
Turner
KGH
Oliver
Full Participant:
SAM DARNOLD
Perfect and good are the enemies of great. One doesn’t exist, the other is easier to obtain.
I always say great is the enemy of good. You get a biopsy needle in a good position, don’t push your luck, cuz that’s when things go downhill fast.
Collins describes it better in his follow on book Good To Great. It’s not so much that good per se is the enemy, but ‘complacency’ with being good.
JM reporting for training camp, 1986, Platteville…
I felt about him how I felt about Favre, I really liked them and enjoyed watching them play but hated when he was a bear and Favre a ftp
Agree 100%, I have 1 brother that is a FTP fan and owner, and 2 brothers that are Bears fans.
I read his autobiography, it’s pretty good.
Some things in football never change. If you have a stout defense, you’re in every game. If you have a weak defense, almost no lead is safe.
Having both a stout Defense and a good Offense will take some getting used to.
Not complaining though.
And a run game let’s you dictate the game on offense. If you can stop the run you can dictate the game on defense. You OL and DL cannot be over-valued.
Ha! Good catch.
And with a run game too, you’re running time off the clock while moving the chains, and letting your defense just sit and watch.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/aaron-jones-nfl-minnesota-vikings-green-bay-packers
Classy dude…. Glad we got him
Same, I know we should just enjoy for now but do we keep him? He’s gonna want more money than he’s worth at his age and a long contract…
Never get involved in a land war in Asia…and never pay big-money for an RB…
Solid advice haha.
Classy guy.
Still……FTP!
i would expect a heavy dose of preparing for Love on Sunday and if they last minute throw Willis out there…..Flores gonna be licking his chops
I’m trying not to freak out cuz I love you man but oh my goodness how long have you been a fan of this team and by chance have you ever seen them get sliced up by some backup in a game we are expected to win?
No, they can’t hurt us anymore! This is where the healing begins…
Not when we have a defense like the one we have now.
i’m fully on board with the demons of past seasons being exorcised this year. and i think the exact moment that happened was the 58yard FG that hit the upright AND WENT IN…
it was at that moment the demon’s have been exorcised
That’s literally never happened… Wait… the opposite of what I said.
Last week I predicted at least a two score win over the Texans. Guess what? Predicting the same thing this week over the Packers, despite the fact the game is being played at Lambeau.
Good man.
I like it. Really feeling our defense right now. I expect
blitz early and often to test Love’s knee. Wondering if FTP tries to go run heavy early to protect him.
Hope you are as correct as last week.
Obligatory #nojinx
That is not an unreasonable take.
As long as we protect the ball, we should be fine. Aaron Jones will be motivated to run wild on them, guys will be fired up to support him. If GB has to focus on that, Darold and JJ will eviscerate them.
Then it is just a matter of the defense doing adequate.
Sam ‘Darold’ Darnold
This is my brother Darold, and this is my other brother Darold…
Greenard had 3 sacks on Sunday.
He also had 3 TFL..
do sacks count as TFL?
Not the same thing. TFL was on running plays..
dang, so greenard had himself quite a day
He did. 25 IDP points in fantasy – I started him. I’ll likely start Van Ginkel this week….
is your theory with starting Van Ginkle because long blonde linebackers usually play well at lambeau?
I just think Van Ginkel is playing really good, instinctive football right now. Had one pick 6 in week 1 and by my count has had 2 others that were close. He’s been good off the edge but also effective at challenging WR Screens/Swinging gate plays.
haha i was teasing.
he seems to always be around almost every play and he has GREAT instincts.
it was interesting listening to the break down of his pick 6 and how when he saw what the offense lined up as, there was basically only 1 option (the wr screen) they were going to run, based on the tape he watched and the personel and bunch formation etc, so he jumped the route.
smart man
I’m in the series in fantasy baseball this week. Smoked my opponent in the regular season matchups so I just need to play for 5 categories to get the ship….
ohhhhhh nice! good luck.
i quit all fantasy sports. this was my first year not playing fantasy baseball. i missed it a little but survived
It’s a grind. Fantasy football is great because it’s short – Baseball is 6 months. Hard to stay interested. This is my 12th year and if I win I’ll defend next year and then I’m done….
that’s why i liked fantasy baseball more than football…
football is way too fluky. baseball, you have multiple games to make up for a fluky performance
Now you are smoking your opponents too? You may need to cut back.
Motivated by facing his old team.
When they tried to block him with a rookie TE he bulldozed that guy and got the sack. He mentioned the ‘lack of respect’ after the game.
yeah…..whatever play the Texans drew up that they thought a TE was good enough to block ANY DE, was insane…
It may have worked with Jim Kleinsasser.
I wonder how big Kliensasser is at this stage. If he went back home to ND, we’d never know. He could be out on the prairie, the size of a mountain and growing every day…
he’s the only mountain in ND
Well since ND doesn’t really have mountains I suspect he would stick out.
If he was only the size of a butte he might be able to blend in.
I’d like to see his butte if you know what I mean…
TMI
But/Butte if that is your thing no kink shaming.
I heard he’s living in or near Carrington, ice fishes a lot.
I’ve been following some of the Titan sub hearings and after seeing lots of images, I really dislike the design of the tail cone. It’s just ugly. It should be a symmetrical taper, like a plane nose cone. But maybe it had to be that shape to house the internals.
I personally dislike the carbon fiber hull of the main compartment that failed but, sure aesthetically is was ugly too.
That could also be slightly on the unappealing side…
‘really dislike the design of the tail’
So you are more a caboose man than a ‘cow catcher’ type?
Affirmative.
Suppose to get into the 90s here today, thought we were done with that this year.
I did put out Sun Tea so I have that going for me, which is nice.
90’s here AND preparing for the hurricane. Lots of fun, at least back home.
90 degrees with a side of hurricane?
Sounds humid.
After multiple stints at Ft McClellan and several years at Ft Hood I swore off the humid south.
I learned I can survive it but not a choice I would volunteer to make.
Since it’s always pretty humid here until mid October or so I’m used to that. Wind is picking up, and since we’re mid state, we’ll likely get rain and wind. NLV, where I believe he lives, will get it much worse.
From my Army days at Ft Polk, thought that was worse.
Ft Polk?
I always heard that if they had to give the Army an enema that is where they would stick it.
Never been there so I have no idea how true that might be. Of the places I have been I would nominate Ft Bliss.
An enema is an appropriate term.
Watching our main man at the QB school on Darnold again. I tend to agree with him. Darnold is obviously not perfect, he has brain farts every game, and so far they have not cost us. He’s running within the system and doing quite well. His production is sustainable, but the turn overs are bound to go up, which I think should be expected. But with the defense we have we should be able to withstand it. Fun stuff.
Hopefully, Sammy keeps slinging.
i’m very nervous excited for the game on sunday.
I think it’s going to be tight, like usual.
i’m sure it will.
thankfully, i believe in our defense and it’s been a while since we could say that
Eventually, teams will figure it out.
I’m glad the pukers have inexperienced QB’s so hopefully they will get confused and eff up. A lot.
i mean maybe they will figure it out.
or maybe they won’t. remember the year the vikings defense were KINGS on 3rd down? if we got a team to 3rd down, it was over. and it seemed almost the entire year…
i think the way Flo disguises things, it won’t be something that a team “figures out”
Teams may figure it out, but if the talent we have on defense holds up and stays healthy, it may not matter. Only so much you can do, and there is a counter for everything, but talent wins out.
That plus luck.
Yes, talent is crucial. Everyone knew what the 2000 Ravens were going to do, and they did it anyway.
I am just hoping for that. Defense can be properly diagnosed, but if Van Ginkel and Cashman run over O Linemen, who cares?
Yes, talent usually wins out in long run. Seems for us hard to figure is it talent, scheme, or some of both. How much are we dependent upon the blitz versus straight up to stop offenses?
I think last week was the first time we tried blitzing heavily at all this year. We were rushing 4 most of the time against NY and SF. So, id say we arent dependent on the blitz at all.
I tend to agree, but I am hoping for an absolute butt kicking. It would be glorious to see the “owners” have a complete melt down.
Absolutely.
Owners suck.
Billionaire ones or clueless morons.
VikingPhilip,
Great news about your grandson! I bet it was fun having a little knucklehead in the house.
I answered your question about church stuff (what I think you were asking) in yesterday’s thread just now, but here’s a screenshot for your convenience:
ppskinflute alert!
Benjammin alert!
Thanks pete
Hey Pete, great to see you again!
Hi GF!
Sucks about Favre having Parkinson’s
Yeah, my dad has that. It’s a strange thing to watch your childhood hero deteriorate.
i’m sorry to hear that. That’s does have to be really tough to watch happen.
Thanks Freeze
My father has dementia. Probably going to see him in a few days, since I have not seen him in months. He has no idea who I am, but I wanna say goodbye while he is still able to laugh.
how old is he?
he is 85. was diagnosed at 78 and told nobody. Work finally forced him out at 80 years old. when he turned 82 his wife (that helped hide the diagnosis) had a stroke, and he went missing twice in a week. Alcohol played a huge roll in his case. Multiple bottles of wine per day for 20+ years prior to finally completely pickling his brain.
It sucks, and the only good thing to come out of this, is that I drink less often and lower quantities to avoid turning out the same. Even though pfas and other fun things could still ruin me.
oh wow i’m really sorry to hear that.
Hope you have a really good time with him and can share a few laughs.
Man, that’s a really rough one. Sorry man.
My dad does too. Agreed. My dad is pushing almost a decade into his diagnosis and clearly had it well before. Luckily he isn’t getting worse at a faster pace. The real shitty part is he has gotten more and more sedentary which Parkinson’s one of the best things for it is staying active. I also can’t get him to use medical Mary Jane.
That sucks, sorry to hear
Thanks Ben
My sister has it.
So far, it’s been controlled with meds.
Hopefully Favre can manage it.
Sorry to hear that DE
Thanks.
It’s been a couple of years since her diagnosis.
Still pretty active though. Way too young though at 61.
Agreed. My dad is 75 and has had a full and successful life, so I’m grateful for that.
I am hearing that the right meds can slow down the progression. How old is your sister?
61.
Hopefully that’s the case.
She gave up driving and just uses uber/rideshare.
Still working and all.
So far, she’s mostly normal.
There are no current neuroprotective regimens that can delay or prevent disease progression.
My grandmother had it for like 30 years, managed well for 20 then things started getting difficult she still lived to 90
Awful.
Last two years in the nursing home were, she’s still the most honest decent loving person I’ve ever known, rip grandma Phyl
Darnold hasn’t sucked so far, which is awesome and surprising to me
i wonder if he will suck at some point.
i don’t think they are asking too much of him, so if he does suck, maybe it will be less than expected
I am not surprised, I will be surprised if he is able to not suck all year. When he went to Carolina, he had a stretch where he was pretty good, but then fell off the cliff and lost the starting position.
He has about 2-3 boneheaded plays where he tries to do too much a game and so far they havent caught up to us. Those will happen. He’s 75% great though, and the way KOC schemes things up, Sam should be able to keep up the production, the turn overs will follow though. And thats Okay.
It’s like he starts getting comfortable in the system and starts taking chances.
Or maybe the opposite. Sam has played great and a couple of dicey throws are OK. But looking at Carolina and Jets, both bad teams, he was playing from behind a lot and then it puts a different pressure on a QB. Don’t believe he has played one minute from behind here. To me, real test of growth will be when we are behind in late fourth quarter.
I think the highest pressure was that last drive in the 49ers game with no JJ. We did still have the lead but it wasnt big and we NEEDED to score there.
And the offense delivered, led by Sam. Was very refreshing to see how they methodically went down the field, chewing up clock and scoring to secure the W. This team is really fun to watch so far.
#nojinx
That was a good test.
I’ve been pessimistic this season, so am expecting a fall from grace on Sunday to the tune of a pick six or two.
#nojinx
Remember Doug Henning? He was Canadian. That explains a lot.
I’ve never heard of him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Henning
It’s FTP week.
curious to see if the entire team is on the injury report this afternoon
Media selection: Needs a haircut – Wren
media selection: needs special sleeping underwear probably- Wren
I just want to hear more about MT going Commando.
can’t believe i missed such a spicy conversation about underwear yesterday
I should clarify that during those times in my life that I worked nights/call in hospital that I wore scrubs etc to bed. Going to bed at 3 am after being up for the last 18 hours taking care of complex problems is a setting where sleep trumps comfort, and you’re just gonna get yanked out of the sack in 45 minutes anyhow.
The longest I was ever up was about 44 hours while I was ‘playing Army’.
At the end of it I just remember I wasn’t good for very much.
Yeah, I can only imagine how fried I would be if I had to do The Crucible (USMC)…then there is the whole SEAL BUD/S or SAS selection and training. Mad respect for those guys.
The ‘no quit’ in those guys is off the charts.
Agree with the ‘Mad Respect’.
My last week of Basic Training, I got 1 hour of sleep. Lived on instant coffee grounds and No-Dose.
1 hr for the week is pretty impressive.
Seem like we were winding down the last week of our BCT, a few stressful moments but nothing that would keep us up all week.
We were in the field, the previous weekend. Set up our tents on chalky rock parking lot, and it down poured one of the nights. It was like a thin coating of cement on all of our equipment. We only had approximately 20 washing machines for 300 people to use, so me and a couple of buddies stayed up all night washing our gear and equipment, while everyone else was sleeping. We still had to do drills and everything during the day.
What’s weird, is all throughout training, when we were in the field and eating MRE’s, we would get everybody’s packets of instant coffee. By the last week, we had close to 100 packets of coffee. So, to stay awake we would just swallow the grounds dry, and get an instant boost of energy.
After graduation I rode home with my sister, who came for the ceremonies. It was a 24 hour drive, I fell asleep before we got off base and didn’t wake up until we were in Waseca MN.
When we were in the field I would work the night shift (12hrs) in the TOC.
Every few days they would ‘jump the TOC’ to a new location. Of course the night shift had to work, tearing down the TOC, tear down the sleep/support area, dive to the new location, set up TOC, set up sleep/support area, get something to eat, shit, wash/shave and then back to the TOC for the night shift. It made for a long 36hrs.
Best way to stay up was ‘chocolate covered coffee beans’. They would give you such a jolt that you could only eat them the first couple hours of the shift or you would be too wired to sleep at the end of your shift.
Fun times.
People wear underwear to bed? Sounds uncomfortable.
I was fine with his hair because I thought he was a woman. I’m enlightened that way.
Now that I realize he is a man, yes, someone, preferably a father figure, needs to have a sit down with him and scrap that drowned rat he calls a hairstyle off his scalp.
would you say the same for Van Hairkle?
Yes, and Hockenson. They are embarrassments. If I ran an NFL team, everyone would have crewcuts, from the coaches to the cheerleaders.
You loved when Johnny Damon went from the wild wild west Red Sox with his long flowing locks to the Yankees and a crew cut, didn’t you
I don’t know what any of those things are, but they sound baseball-y. I’d rather watch golf than baseball.
Although, playoff baseball can be watchable at times.
i’d rather nap to golf than baseball..
Twins in a downward spiral. I have been a Baldelli fan, but I think his time is up. I know the biggest issue is ownership not wanting to win championships with the pocket book.
Spreadsheet Rocco has plenty of blame as well. His pinch hitting and BP usage has always been suspect.
I agree, seems like the team doesn’t care anymore, ownership sucks ass too
It has been amazing watching their downward spiral as a “non fan” of the Twins. Jays fell out of the race week 1 so not like my team is gonna take the Series.
I was wondering if the Twins catcher was tipping pitches to the Miami hitters in the 2nd when Ober gave up 4 runs.
It is not like anyone in the Twins Organization ever did that before.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/twins/2024/09/13/twins-release-minor-leaguer-derek-bender-for-tipping-pitches/75205057007/#:~:text=Minnesota%20Twins%20release%20minor%20league%20catcher%20Derek%20Bender%20for%20tipping%20pitches%20to%20opponents&text=The%20Minnesota%20Twins%20released%20minor,confirmed%20to%20USA%20TODAY%20Sports.
GM!
FTP!
SKOL!
Happy Hump Day!
Skoloholics Pick ‘Em League Week #3
It was another exciting week in the Skoloholics Pick ‘Em League. The highlight was probably the streaker that appeared during the Monday Night Game in my living room, which was, of course, me.
But not all is so rosy-cheeked. Alas, Little Fish’ and Rick Vice become the first victims of attrition. They did not get their picks in and sunk all the way to the bottom of the standings. Part of success is consistency. They can still get back into it with clever picking and hoping someone else succumbs to the grind of a full season.
In 7-10 place, JacksonVike, Bleeding Purple ‘N Gold, DE Viking and NoDakRube are battling like crazy to hold each other at bay and/or get on top of one another in a purely platonic way. Only four points separate them.
Likewise, 5-6 are also in a tight-race. That would be me and I’d rather be fishing. Fortunately, neither of us can really lose in the great scheme of things due to our incredible good looks.
Surly Viking is lurking just outside the first podium position. He is only six points behind BowBunch, who currently set aside his bow to hold on tightly to the bronze medal, or loosely, if you are a .38 Special fan.
And Mr. Consistency himself, Freezeface remains in second place. He has had that position locked in like an Alabama tick on a broke-dick dog since the first week. How does he do it? No one should be able to display that level of pick ’em prowess. I am beginning to wonder if Roger Goddell is a regular guest at Freezy’s lake house.
Meanwhile, Kirk is still good has shot to the top of the rankings with a dominating week three performance. He cleared Freezy by a full 10 points.
Dogs of the Week: Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, San Francisco and the Bengals burned every player. We all picked those teams to win, and they all failed.
On the flip side, everyone got Buffalo, KC and Seattle right.
Terrible pick awards go to Bleeding Purple N’ Gold for being the only player to pick New England in the Jets/Patriots matchup. Also netting the award are myself, JacksonVike and Surly Viking for picking Dallas in the Ravens/Cowboys matchup. What were we all thinking? I was mostly thinking about streaking. I don’t know what others were thinking.
There were no exceptional picks in evidence where a few got it right and most got it wrong. But those will come…
GET YOUR PICKS IN BEFORE THE THURSDAY NIGHT GAME, KIDS. IF YOU DON’T…
I had Baltimore up to the five minutes before the game. Stupid… stupid… stupid!!!
Cowboys are such a schitzo team. I never know what to do with them.
If you pick them every time, you’re bound to win 50% of the time. I’m just going to have them as a 1 for confidence points every week from here on out.
I picked them this week. If the Cowboys can’t beat the Giants, they should be moved to an arena in Des Moines.
division game = unpredictable
Hmm…valid point. Now I question my decisions again.
I’m going Gnats, since it is a home game.
I’ll stick with the Cowboys. Then we got it covered! One of us has to be right…unless they tie.
I’m going Cowboys.
I have zero confidence in Jones and the Giants.
Wouldn’t mind seeing the Cowboys lose on national TV though.
Home game and short week. Also picking Gnats.
It’s a tortoise versus hare type race.
I like to sneak up on people.
I’m going to try something new this week. Instead of worrying about the distribution of confidence points, why don’t I just pick every game right, and the confidence points will take care of themselves!?
Happy Hump Day!
Also, First
FTP & FT*
SKOL!
Good morning, SKOL!
FTP!