This game certainly had an enormous swing of momentum from beginning to end, and over the course of four quarters the pendulum swung from the Vikings to the Ravens... ending up far away from nowhere, on its own like Tarzan Boy. In the first act of this rather tense drama, the Vikings struck quickly on the opening kick-off when Favre found tight end Visanthe Shiancoe slipping away from Ravens defenders, living in the open all alone like Tarzan boy. I always love the moment when the Vikings first score: a native beat that carries on, burning bright, a fire blows a signal to the sky as the crowd roars beneath the glow of fireworks shooting up the goalposts. After the defense stopped the Ravens cold, Favre connected with Sidney Rice emerging briefly from heavy coverage, a game of hide and seek while rushing across the forest, to put the Vikings up 14-0 just a few minutes into the game... monkey business on a sunny afternoon. Since Favre brought his leadership and gunslinger confidence to the Vikings, asking his teammates to "Take a chance, leave everything behind you, come and join me, won't be sorry, it's easy to survive," the difference in the offense is remarkable.
As the game went on, the second and third quarters turned into much more of a stalemate as neither offense could put together a scoring drive, and the Vikings defense would make good plays but seemingly inevitably follow them up with a breakdown that led to an easy Ravens first down. It went back and forth like this for a long time, both teams trading the ball back and forth night to night, gimme the other gimme the other, from one end of the field to the other, far from the end zone but also far away from nothing (don't worry, you won't miss home) each notching a couple of scores without changing the direction of the game.
Eventually the inevitable happened. After being exposed for too long, the defense started to crumble a bit and the Ravens began to break open the game in the 4th quarter. And also inevitably I had to admit that Tarzan Boy is far too meaningless and repetitive a song for any kind of borrowed wordplay. Even more tragically as the Vikings offense blew what looked like their last shot to kill the clock and put away the Ravens, Chris Kluwe shanked a punt deep in Vikings territory leading to a quick Ravens TD that gave them their first lead of the day. All was not lost, as the Vikings had plenty of time for another drive that if it ended in a touchdown could drain the last few minutes from the clock and leave the Ravens in a desperate situation. Sadly, it sputtered into a field goal that allowed the Vikings to regain a scant 2-point lead, and poor coverage on the squib kick that followed left the Ravens with a short field and close to two minutes to get into field goal range against a battered Vikings defense that was completely failing to cover the pass. The Ravens inched closer and closer, until with two seconds remaining Flacco spiked the ball well inside the Vikings 30 yard line. A 43-yard field goal isn't automatic, but inside the 30 an NFL team has to be counting the 3 points. And yet somehow guided by the spirits of Gary Anderson, Darrin Nelson, Nate Wright and Viking Superbowl dreams past (and probably a lineman's hand)... IT MISSED.
I wasn't sure what to make of this game, whether they choked away a dominating performance until dumb luck snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, or if they had a couple fluke plays at the beginning mask an inability to move the ball consistently or more frighteningly, run the ball and move the chains at crunch time. Looking at the stats, the 3-3 Ravens initially didn't appear to be a powerful defensive team, but if you remove today's game, the Ravens suddenly become the league's 4th rated rushing defense (and 7th rated pass defense). The Vikings really did put up a lot of offense and hold the Ravens through three quarters, never letting the game get out of reach of Favre's famous last-minute heroics that I came to know all too well when he played for the Packers. And nobody gets lucky six times, not even the 6-0 Vikings, even though this loss almost certainly leaves the Baltimore Ravens a bad taste in their mouths... and I'm betting it's the taste of cool mint Listerine.
No comments:
Post a Comment