Los Angeles next!
This is getting better every week. We are less than 100 days from Super Bowl Sunday and the opportunity of a lifetime to host the Super Bowl and actually play in it.
Quarterback Case Keenum threw for 304 yards and four touchdown passes in the Vikings’ 38-30 win Sunday over Washington. Receiver Adam Thielen had eight catches for 166 yards. Thielen is peaking and has 793 yards this year, including two games over 150 yards.
Just like that, the Vikings have reeled off five wins in a row. Remember, I must caution you, the cliché is “It’s not how you start but how you finish.” The Vikings had to play Sunday without Everson Griffin, NFC defensive player of the year in the first half of the season with 10 sacks. He has a foot injury.
The Vikings have never won the big one — no championship banners since arriving in Bloomington, Minnesota in 1961. Four Super Bowl appearances became four painful reminders. That’s why, since I started covering this team in 1978, it’s been a goal of mine, not to mention a goal of you fans, to cover a Super Bowl from which the Vikings emerge as champions.
Philadelphia is 8-1; they are in the catbird seat with the best record in the NFL. Then comes New Orleans, Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, and the Vikings all at 7-2.
Now we have a long way to go with seven games left, but remember, the Vikings have not been in this position since 1998. They were 15-1 with Dennis Green, and in 2009 Brad Childress and the Vikings were 12-4. Both lost the NFC Championship games both years in overtime. OUCH!
Los Angeles is here Sunday, and they are rolling along also at 7-2. They are the highest scoring team in the NFL, averaging 32 points a game, and their points-a-game margin scoring and allowing is number one in the league at +134. So the Vikings can’t blink now, because they will be tested big-time Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
This is no time to blink. These Rams are rugged. Four of the next six games are on the road, including three in a row at Detroit on Thanksgiving, at Atlanta, and at Carolina.
Congrats to Bill Belichick, head coach of the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots. Sunday’s 41-16 win at Denver was his career win number 270, and he ties with Hall of Famer Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys for number three on the all-time NFL coaches win list.
And congrats to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady who, since serving his four-game suspension at the beginning of last season, has thrown 47 touchdown passes and just two interceptions.
Congrats as well to Arizona Cardinals Pro Bowler Larry Fitzgerald, Jr. He grabbed 10 passes for 113 yards in Thursday’s 22-16 loss to Seattle. Fitzgerald, 34, became the second-youngest ever and only the sixth player in NFL history with over 15,000 career yards.
Fitzgerald has 15,066 career yards. Jerry Rice is number one with 22,825, Terrell Owens number two with15,934, Randy Moss number three with 15,292, Isaac Bruce number four with15,208, and Tony Gonzalez number five with 15,127.
Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:25 am, on WDGY-AM 740 Monday-Friday at 12:17 pm and 4:17 pm, and at www.Gamedaygold.com. He also commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2). Follow him on Twitter at FitzBeatSr. Larry welcomes reader responses to info@larry-fitzgerald.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.