Acrobatics Lead To Win Over Vikes

We've now been in this position twice this season, thankfully we beat the Minnesota Vikings 23 to 16, but that means nothing if we can't build upon it. There's no more room for error, we can't afford to not put together back to back winning games now, and the challenge in that? Now we have to face the Dallas Cowboys.

The hiccups on offense, not capitalizing in the redzone, were not nonexistent against the Vikings but they were at least minimized. The fact that we were able to put up two touchdowns (both coming from Brian Westbrook, one on a shovel pass and the other on a leaping run), showed a lot of promise that we can put the ball in the endzone.

Donovan had a very productive today putting up 333 yards and 1 touchdown and two guys that truly aided in that effort were Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis.

Against the Jets two weeks ago we saw Reggie finally break onto the scene when he had 6 grabs for 89 yards, beating his cumulative yards to the season prior to that game. But Brown kicked things up a notch against the Vikings once again and with 8 grabs for 105 yards he showed that he can be a reliable outlet for Donovan to throw the ball.

Being able to cash in on some big plays paid dividends as both Reggie and Kevin Curtis (3 for 76 yards on the day) had highlight reel style receptions during the game. Brown's came on a 3rd and 12 where Donovan scrambled to buy some time and then hit him along the right sideline for a toe pointing truly unbelievable reception. The same level of talent was shown later in the game from Kevin Curtis when he leaped in the air to prevent the pass from being intercepted by Cedric Griffin and made a one handed catch which eventually led to a David Akers field goal.

Once again the defense held pretty stout as Trent Cole seemed to continually wreak havoc upon the Vikings offensive line. Finishing the day with 2 sacks as well as a team leading 7 tackles Cole was the focal point of a group of defensive ends including Juqua Thomas and Jevon Kearse, who all had sacks on the day. One of the hits that Kelly Holcomb had to endure came combined from Juqua Thomas and Trent Cole and knocked him out of the game with a neck injury, putting 3rd string QB Brooks Bollinger in try and get things going for the Vikings.

Overall the defense did a very nice job in handling rookie running back Adrian Peterson, a phenomenal player to say the least, holding him to 70 yards on 20 carries was an accomplishment.

Far from perfect but an improvement, with L.J. Smith back on the field from injury we need to get him involved in the offense, as he was held to zero catches. Along with that, there were still points left on the field, especially considering despite putting up 2 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter, we had to settle for 2 field goals in the entire 2nd half. When you are facing a competitive opponent, which we will be on Sunday night against Dallas, there is no way you are going to win if you don't continually put points on the board to maintain a lead.

Obviously I am looking to Sunday night already, T.O. is going to be in town and being able to defeat the 6-1 Cowboys on a national stage in Philadelphia to bring our record to 4-4, would be season saving. Right now we are appreciative that we finally could get this one win, but this needs to kick off a stretch and with our next 2 opponents being divisional opponents (Dallas then Washington) they are necessary if we want to be in the playoff hunt.