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John_Viveiros wrote: As Bill Parcells would say "You are what your record says you are". We are 5 games over .500. That's pretty sweet. And we are there because we fully deserve to be there.

Obviously I don't have the football mind that Bill Parcells has, but if you'll allow me to be so bold I would amend that to "Your record says what you have been". I'm proud of 7-2, but no Super Bowl champion has finished with a record of 7-2. Lets enjoy what we have, but lets not also forget that 7-2 is not the destination. We need to do more if we want more - and trough that lens, some of the less satisfied members of the board might be a bit easier to understand.

With half the season gone the Vikes have a solid top-5 defense and a solid top-15, knocking on the top-10 door, offense. They have shown they can win on the road. They have shown they can close the door on teams. They have shown they can play consistently and win in all 3 phases of the game.

Are they a dominant team? I don't think they've shown that they are, but dominant teams are rare and even dominant teams can and do fall down, often at the worst possible moments. So, all things considered, I'd say that while the remainder of this season could still play out in a way that reminds us all of the pain and suffering of being a Vikings fan, I'm actually optimistic about this year's team, perhaps more so than even the 2009 squad. I just haven't seen a terrible game from them yet. Individual phases have faltered and they've had some close games on both the winning and losing side, but the team overall has remained remarkably consistent and, further, the players really seem to be enjoying themselves. Their TD celebrations are probably the most fun I've seen a group of pro players having in quite a while. Heck, they seem to have rehearsed many of them. Keenum, Griffen and others repeatedly have talked about how much fun they're having and how great the team chemistry is.

As Dory would say, "Just keep winning, just keep winning..."

That'll take care of it...

DK Sweets wrote: Obviously I don't have the football mind that Bill Parcells has, but if you'll allow me to be so bold I would amend that to "Your record says what you have been". I'm proud of 7-2, but no Super Bowl champion has finished with a record of 7-2. Lets enjoy what we have, but lets not also forget that 7-2 is not the destination. We need to do more if we want more - and trough that lens, some of the less satisfied members of the board might be a bit easier to understand.

*The Redskins won the Superbowl with an 8-1 record in the regular season in 1982. It was a strike season. So we're pretty close to invalidating your assertion!

I'm not disagreeing with your other points. We're about halfway there. Obviously, ten wins would get us all the way to the Championship, but it's also likely that we'd get there with eight more wins this year - five in the regular season, and three in the postseason. Maybe even seven wins gets us there, as an 11-5 record is sometimes good enough for a first round bye, and then the three wins gets us the trophy. In theory, it's seven wins down and seven to go in that scenario (although the NFC is stronger, so it will almost certainly require 12 or 13 wins to get that bye).

But part of what I was saying is that none of the games felt very "fluky" to me. We won the games we were favored in, generally by more points than the spread. For the most part, we have looked like the better team in each of the games we have won, with the exception of the first half of the Bears game, for obvious reasons.

The only game that came out as fluky to me was the Detroit loss. The Dalvin Cook injury, turnover, and subsequent TD and two point conversion was the difference between a win and a loss there. That, and the fluky fact that the ball hit the ground four times during the game, and Detroit recovered every one (history shows that fumble recoveries are just a coin toss, and a team that seems "good" at recovering fumbles one year regresses to the mean and is much less successful in the following year). Recovering half those probably flips the score.

VikingLord wrote: I'm actually optimistic about this year's team, perhaps more so than even the 2009 squad. I just haven't seen a terrible game from them yet.

I think this is one of the things that has made the season enjoyable for me. No real stinkers. Not like the 2016 Colts game - that one came out of nowhere for me.

John_Viveiros wrote: I think this is one of the things that has made the season enjoyable for me. No real stinkers. Not like the 2016 Colts game - that one came out of nowhere for me.

My theory. Adrian's comeback game. The team was relying on Peterson to carry the offense. Playcalling assumed Peterson would be able to run effectively. He didn't. I think the team just felt deflated because of this. Defense played poorly. Lots of missed tackles. Joseph's jump over the center on what looked to be a great defensive stand turned a FG try to a TD. Peterson fumbling deep in the redzone seemed to be the turning point.

John_Viveiros wrote: I think this is one of the things that has made the season enjoyable for me. No real stinkers. Not like the 2016 Colts game - that one came out of nowhere for me.

They didn't have a bad game on 2009 until late in the season either... Wasn't it after Thanksgiving at ARZ or CAR?

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PurpleMustReign wrote:They didn't have a bad game on 2009 until late in the season either... Wasn't it after Thanksgiving at ARZ or CAR?

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It was the Arizona game that year and yeah, it was later in the season.

That Pittsburg game was pretty bad, pretty ugly to watch. Mostly on the offensive side. Defense not as much. Gave up a lot of points but mostly cause the offense couldn't stay on the field. Granted the team as a whole was pretty deflated by Bradford ghost injury. So maybe we got that one funk game out already.

I think Keenum also didn't have a full week of practice leading into that game.

The one that concerned me was the loss to DET at home. That shouldn't happen if we are deep playoff team. A big reason why winning next Thursday is important.

mansquatch wrote:I think Keenum also didn't have a full week of practice leading into that game.

The one that concerned me was the loss to DET at home. That shouldn't happen if we are deep playoff team. A big reason why winning next Thursday is important.

Agreed. Bradford took a lot of reps that week. I think if we play Pitt now we run with them for sure. Our D played well against them its just Keenum put us in some bad positions.

Detroit does scare me. I dont know what it is but Stafford and their defense have our number. Turnovers killed us and honestly, Cooks fumble was the turning point in that game. But you cant fault the guy for the fumble.

DK Sweets wrote: Obviously I don't have the football mind that Bill Parcells has, but if you'll allow me to be so bold I would amend that to "Your record says what you have been". I'm proud of 7-2, but no Super Bowl champion has finished with a record of 7-2. Lets enjoy what we have, but lets not also forget that 7-2 is not the destination. We need to do more if we want more - and trough that lens, some of the less satisfied members of the board might be a bit easier to understand.

Please don't think I am satisfied and there is nothing left to play for or accomplish. I was making a point about the knit-picking after a road win in a roundabout way.

CbusVikesFan wrote: Please don't think I am satisfied and there is nothing left to play for or accomplish. I was making a point about the knit-picking after a road win in a roundabout way.

I apologize if I didn't word my post well. I know that we all know that we want more, but my main point is that some of us (myself included, usually!) sit back and enjoy what has already happened, and some people focus more on what needs to happen for it to continue. Just two different ways of enjoying the fan experience!

DK Sweets wrote:I apologize if I didn't word my post well. I know that we all know that we want more, but my main point is that some of us (myself included, usually!) sit back and enjoy what has already happened, and some people focus more on what needs to happen for it to continue. Just two different ways of enjoying the fan experience!

No worries. I was just happy that the Vikings are winning most of their games they should. Hoping that continues the rest of the way.