Blog Posts For Tag: Vikings

The NFL is entering a new era when quarterbacks have more fantasy value than running backs, home field is not that big of a deal (the home team only wins 54 percent of the time this season), and parity has dissipated as nine of the 32 teams in the league have either no losses or no wins. Yes this is a new age in the league and there are seven football seals that have been broken this season to put an end to everything we knew about football.

Is it too early to use Halloween sayings in September? Well, five pound bags of candy imaginable have been out on the shelves since August so I guess not, especially when that simple turn of phrase so perfectly embodies the NFL preseason. Should fans expect what transpires on the field in the four-game preseason to become any sort of a reality during the long 16-game regular season? Is this a trick or a treat? What are we supposed to expect from these preseason trends?

After four weeks of meaningless preseason games and 17 weeks of football that twisted and turned, beginning with an injury that cost the Patriots NFL Playoff tickets and gave every team a chance to fill the void in the Super Bowl, the wild card round of the postseason finally began.

New Years Day kicked off 2009 with a familiar tradition, a Big Ten team showing up a lame duck to the Rose Bowl. This time it was Penn State lost badly to USC by a score of 38-24. The halftime score was 31-7, so the final score really did Penn State more justice than they really deserve. The chatter was that this was the game that would decide whether the Big Ten was a major joke or a major conference. At 1-5 so far, with one game left the Big Ten is officially an invalid of a conference.

The one and done feature after 17 weeks of jarring hits, needless holding calls, and general professional football drama is set to start this weekend. It is almost fitting that the second chapter of the NFL should begin the first week of the New Year. The only thing that matters from the 16 previous regular season games and the pointless four preseason contests only matter in the respect that they got these 12 teams here.

This is the final week of the NFL regular season and there are still several games that are actually worth watching if you are not from that city or have become an indentured fan thanks to your family lineage.

Without the question, the biggest game this week has to be the New York Giants-Carolina Panthers game on Sunday night. It has the two top tiered teams, it has something worth playing for (the number one spot in the NFC side of the postseason), and it has a big market team playing (the Giants).