MinnesotaSportsScene.com

The next six games will determine which team will advance to the playoffs and which two teams will be sitting at home in January, wishing. The Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears are all 5-5 after Sunday’s games, which saw the Packers disrupt the Bears, 37-3, while Minnesota lost a tough-fought game to Tampa Bay, 19-13.

Of the three teams in the hunt, Minnesota has the most challenging schedule ahead of them; their last six opponents combined for a 31-29 record, including a season finale against the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants, currently 9-1.

By contrast, Chicago’s last six opponents have a 24-36 record this season, and face Houston (3-7) in their final game, while Green Bay’s last six have a 25-35 record and the Pack will host Detroit (0-10) in their season-finale… at Lambeau Field.

Whichever of these three finish strongest will go on to the playoffs; it’s unlikely one of the wild card teams will come from a division with such mediocre records. So that’s the challenge for Purple Pride: win enough to take the division, or spend January at home.

Is that a strong enough pitch to land me some jobs in marketing? Probably not.

The Minnesota Vikings enjoyed a post-bye-week victory over the Houston Texans and gained a game on Green Bay in the NFC North race today, with a 28-21 win.

After a win streak apparently on a diet pill this season, the Nordic warriors needed a “W” after a disappointing but hard-fought loss to Chicago going into the bye.

The Vikings D came up big, knocking Matt Schaub out of the game with a bad knee and forcing the Texans to turn to Sage Rosenfels instead. For their part, the Vikings eked a solid offensive performance out of their signal-caller as Gus Frerotte threw for just under 200 yards, but earned three touchdowns off 11 completions.

But the highlight of the day was Adrian Peterson, who scored the first touchdown of the day and ran for 139 yards off 25 carries.

People were keeping a close eye on their Guess watches today as time ticked off the clock in the Bears-Vikings clash at Soldier Field in Chicago. It was a high-scoring affair that left each team counter-punching the other most of the way.

In the end, though, it was Gus Frerotte’s fourth interception, the fourteenth turnover of the day by the Vikings offense, that sealed the team’s fate in a 48-41 loss to the Bears. When a team can have 14 turnovers and only the last one takes away their ability to come back and win the game, you know it’s been a sloppy day on defense for both teams.

Adrian Peterson did his best, offering up 121 yard rushing and two scores in the game; Frerotte threw for just under 300 yards and scored two touchdowns despite the four interceptions. And the game was not an example of sterling offense for the Bears, as three of their scores came off special teams or defensive plays.

The Vikings definitely gave this one away. But with Childress going 2-1 over the past three games and entering the bye week with a record of 3-4, I believe he’s earned a reprieve. Let him finish out the season and avoid the chaos of a mid-season coaching change.

But make no mistake about it: he’s still a prime target for firing, once this season is over. Zygi should can him as quickly as possible after the season and open up the coffers wide enough to lure a quality head coach to this team.

Bill Cowher’s still out there, my friends. Ripe for the hiring.

Whether Brad Childress, whose tenure with the Vikings is on a pulse oximeter, gets to finish out this season as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, or becomes the next coach to be fired mid-season, is a tale that may be told over the next three games. Currently a very disappointing 1-3, the Vikings face crucial opponents, starting tonight.

First, on Monday Night Football tonight, the Vikes will have a showdown with the New Orleans Saints, a game they ought to win. After that, there will be key division match-ups against NFC North foes Detroit and Chicago.

If Childress secures all three wins, he’ll survive the season, at least, leading the Vikings into their bye week with a 4-3 record. He’ll probably survive if he drops one of those games.

However, if Childress loses two of the next three games, or worse, loses all three, we may see a coaching change going into the bye week. And it will be long overdue.

If owner Zygi Wilf does decide to release Childress during the bye, look for assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier to be named to the interim spot, with a strong chance to retain the job once the season’s over, if he can turn things around. If Frazier can’t turn things around, expect Wilf to clean house and start over fresh in January.

You heard it here first.

With success coming mostly on the ground and a powerful 1-2 punch at running back, most people from Minnesota would expect a game description like that to apply to a Vikings victory; but instead, it was the textbook description of how the Tennessee Titans dismantled the Vikes 30-17 on Sunday.

In a daytime game with no need for Maxim lighting, Titans RB Chris Johnson had two scores and his running back partner LedDale White had an additional score on the way to a dominating victory over the purple-and-gold.

Meanwhile, Adrian Peterson scored twice but could not create a win on his own for the Vikings, who are now 1-3 on the season and 0-1 in the NFC North Division.

Well, the Minnesota Vikings finally came up with their first win of the season, but it took until game three, and a QB change, to secure it. The win game against the acne treatments-needing, so-called “Cardiac Cats,” the Carolina Panthers, who the Vikes have done very well against over the years since Carolina entered the league.

The 20-10 victory may not seem like a lot to write home about, but at least it wasn’t a loss. MinnesotaSportsScene.com was among the first to question whether T-Jack had the drive to be a starting QB, and the answer, finally, seems to be, “Nope.” We don’t revel in being right, this time.

Still, when a 37-year-old journeyman signal caller like Gus Frerotte can outperform you, something’s wrong. And that’s what happened Sunday as Frerotte led Minnesota to a long-awaited first win of the season.

Star RB Adrian Peterson carried only 17 times for 77 yards, but it was enough to help the passing game while Peterson doesn’t overwork his ailing hammy. The important thing, again, is it was a win.

On Monday night, I took in the Vikings-Packers game at Joe Senser’s Sports Pub in Bloomington, and the atmosphere was nearly perfect, except for a number of obnoxious Packers fans who couldn’t win gracefully. There were plenty of promotional products available for the game, and my only real complaint is the waitress who didn’t want to give us the Monday Night Football special at 6:30 PM, even though the game was already underway.

As for the game itself, it was nice to see the Viking keep it close on a road game, during the first game of the season, but there were several worrisome signs. Most importantly was the one-dimensional nature of the offense.

OK, we all know T-Jack is playing hobbled; but if he can’t throw at all right now, sit him down until he heals and let our backups do the job for a game or two. What I saw was a quarterback who was hurried (thanks to O-line deficiencies), and started throwing dumb passes.

Also, we went away from the running game too soon in the second half and, considering that it’s the only facet of our offense that works right now, that worries me. It’s a bit too early in the season to start calling for the heads of T-Jack and B-Chill on a platter, but this is a team that could easily start 0-2 now, and that would be a shot in the tender bits for the rest of the season.

Either T-Jack needs to find his rhythm and get on track, or he needs to sit until he’s healed enough to play well. And if Brad Childress finishes this season still winless against the Pack, you can bet MinnesotaSportsScene.com will be leading the call for a new head coach. Three seasons of pointlessness is more than enough - if that’s what this becomes.

Even the best diet pill in the world won’t be enough to keep the purple and gold at bay tonight in Green Bay; with the early season match-up, there really is no weather advantage for the Packers tonight.

So unless there’s a huge windstorm or rain or something, tonight will be a match-up of talent, pure and simple. While Green Bay may have an edge on linebackers and receivers, it’s hard to imagine the Vikings not having the edge at every other position, or close to it.

All X-factors being equal, I’d say tonight the Vikings will win, but it’ll be close. Look for it to be in the neighborhood of a 31-27 Vikings win.

I’m itching for the start of the Vikings-Packers game tonight and one of the biggest questions on my mind is whether Adrian Peterson can be great again this year. Certainly, despite missing four games last season, he has already established himself as possibly one of the best runners ever to wear the purple and gold.

The question is, can he avoid the sophomore slump? Can he improve on what he did last season? With the healing that’s gone on in his knee in the off-season, I’d venture to say it’s possible, even plausible. Only time will tell and kickoff’s in about 12 hours. No time left for those Caribbean cruises. It’s football time, baby!

Cancel the reservations for Las Vegas hotels, the party this Monday Night is on the gridiron! The Minnesota Vikings will open their season tonight against the Green Bay Packers, and for the first time in 16 seasons, the Pack will be without Brett Favre under center.

Since the Vikings have a refurbished pass rush threat with NFL sack leader Jared Allen on the same D-line as the Williams Wall, the purple certainly aren’t going to make the debut of Favre’s successor, Aaron Rodgers, an easy night.

Right now, Tavaris Jackson has more game experience and more wins on his belt that Rodgers as a pro, and with Adrian Peterson in the backfield for the Vikes, and Bernard Berrian competently catching passes, it’s our hope that tonight’s game will be a blow-out favoring the purple.

Of course, historically the series has usually been close; but we’re entering a new era, and on paper, the Vikes look solid for the win. Of course, the X-Factor in all of this is the Green Bay defense, which tried to end Adrian Peterson’s career last season and will likely be cheap-shot artists again tonight, which is why we chose our nickname for them: Murderer’s Row.

Somehow, though, I have a feeling the Green Bay Assassins will miss their target tonight.

Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback Tavaris Jackson suffered a sprained right knee against the Baltimore Ravens in pre-season action on Saturday. The injury is to the medial collateral ligament and is expected to keep the signal-called out of action for the remainder of the pre-season.

The Vikings are eying a return in time for the regular season debut against Green Bay on September 8. That takes golf balls! While the wound is not expected to be serious, you can bet opposing defenses will be looking to test Jackson’s knee throughout the season.

It’s only the first pre-season game - the kind that aren’t supposed to count for much except evaluating talent of those who are not obvious starters. Just the same, the Vikings lost to Seattle on Friday 17-34, and to add insult to injury, the team lost two players for the season, LB Heath Farwell and DE Jayme Mitchell.

Both injuries happened early in the game and so both are players who were likely to make the Vikings roster this fall; the Vikes have indicated that Farwell will be replaced from among those players already in camp, while Mitchell’s replacement may require the Vikes to go scouting the cut lists of other teams in the league as the preseason moves forward.

Although the Vikings traded for last year’s NFL sack leader, Jared Allen, in the offseason, depth behind him and on the other side of the D-line is questionable, so Mitchell’s injury status is particularly unwelcome news. Kind of like someone telling you that instead of a prime rib dinner, they’re serving you a round of diet pills.