Summer of Stun = Summer of Done

Tuesday night's loss to the hated south-siders really hurts right now due to the way it went down at U.S. Cellular. The following are my reasons for being really upset right now....

• Nick Blackburn - surprisingly in my opinion turned in a great outing and allowed 1 ER over 6.1 innings in a hostile environment. That really should've been enough. The offense lost this game, not the pitching. His one mistake with a high changeup out and over the plate essentially sealed the Twins' season.
• M&M Boys - how depressing that our two superstarts (who essentially are as unemotional as they get) went 0 for 6 and looked confused against John Danks whom both of them had previously had success again. Think about Morneau's last 30 trips to the plate this season. He went 3 for his last 30 (an avg. of .100). That isn't deserving of even being in the MVP consideration. Even though his line finishing at .302 w/ 23 HRs and 129 RBI will get him some votes. I pin some of the blame on Morneau. If you play well - the team is in the playoffs and you have a shot at the MVP. Conversly - you played horrible and as a team leader you now deserve some blame.
• Developing Reliever - It would've been fun to see how Jose Mijarles would've progressed in the postseason. Many set-up relievers became huge stars and essentially arrived on the scene kind of like Mijarles did this season. September call-up that essentially rips it up and helps lead a team to a World Series. Mariano Riveria and Francisco Rodriquez would be the most recent examples
• Plate Discipline - In this huge game the Twins hitters at times appeared to be very aggressive, free-swinging (like some of them have been all year), and most importantly lacked patience. They lacked working the count and making Danks work hard as the game progressed. The most annoying example had to be Delmon Young not even really looking at any pitches during the game. Ummmm, Delmon the scouting report is out....throw you hard fastballs to get you down in the count - then throw you junk and you'll swing.

MLB Coin Flip????
This game should've been played in the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Peter Gammons on Baseball Tonight explained this very well. The Twins went 10-8 against the White Sox this year and had a better record against the Sox head to head. What frustrated Gammons was the fact that for example in the AL East this year if the two teams were tied at the end of the season and one would be the division champs and the other would be the wild card it wouldn't even come down to a playoff game....it would come down to head-to-head to determine the winner. Gammons argued that if head-to-head records are being used - let them be used in this situation as well - to determine where to host the game - not come down to a stupid coin flip. The White Sox did not deserve to host this game. This is pretty much what we can come to expect from Selig who also down the stretch took the Hurricane escaped Houston Astros and made them play a neutral site game in Milwaukee? - an hour away from Chicago - to which a Cubs fan in my church calls "Wriggly North"? I guess this stupid coin flip thing just goes along with boneheadedness that Bud Selig has developed over the years (also, calling an All-Star game a tie? - who does that?)

The Royals
The Royals are slowly starting to look like the next Tampa Bay Rays. I mean they are loaded with number one picks in their farm system and once some of these guys start to get experience they are going to be competitive. The Twins really lost this season when they couldn't pony up and take 2 out of 3 from the Royals.

Vikings Week 4: Shooting Thy Self In Thee Foot Hurts!

In my week 3 analysis I mentioned that this week's game will be very competitive and the Vikes will have a chance to win the game down in humid Nashville. That is exactly what happened on Sunday. With that said I believe the Vikes blew a huge opportunity on Sunday to even their record and go 2-2. Instead we are still in a stinky situation at 1-3. The NFC North hasn't exactly been stellar here in the early going and the Vikings remain 1 game back in the division. I listened to this game live while driving and reviewed it on my DVR when returning home. The following is my analysis that at times is painful to think about again.

Positives - you kind of have to look hard here, but I have some

• Maurice Hicks - the return of our kick return specialist did show some hope for some big plays the rest of the year. It actually was nice starting drives at the 32 yd. line oppossed to the 18-20 yard line. Hicks averaged around 28 yds. per return which was in my opinion an improvement.
  
• Bobby Wade - Wade is quietly establishing himself as a very good possession receiver that can move the chains. Wade caught 7 balls for 75 yards on Sunday against his former team.
• Chad Greenway - Greenway had 11 tackles and in my opinion was a leader for the defense during E.J.'s up and down afternoon.

Negatives - Straight Pain Writing This

• Turnovers and more Turnovers. The Vikings turned the ball over 4 times. There was absolutely no excuse for this many. Maybe one or two, but 4! The Titans turned the ball over 1 time. To put this in perspective think about the fact that the Vikings outgained the Titans in total yardage (333 to 275) against a stingy D. The Vikings gained more yards through the passing game (253 to 199) and the running game (80 to 76). The Time of Possession was relatively even with the Vikings holding the ball for roughly 29 minutes and the Titans holding it for 31 minutes.
  
• Penalties - I have decided after last week's analysis of too many penalties (9 for 100 yards) that this weeks poor showing in this department has to be blamed on COACHING. The Vikes had 7 penalties for 50 yards on Sunday. Initially, this may seem like not too many, but the timing and boneheadedness of most of them was too much to handle. Note: Bobby Wade's holding call on a 12 yard run by AP was bogus. Why do I say coaching. Coaching is also about discipline and teaching. Clearly this is not happening like it should. Marcus Johnson came in for 1 play for Artis Hicks and basically tackled Kyle Vandenbosh for a terrible holding penalty. Jared Allen's first half offsides call was huge as the Vikes held on a 3rd and 8. The Titans then converted on the following 3rd and 3 play and went on to score a TD and grab a 10-0 lead. This all followed a terrible fumble by Tahi.
• LET'S ESCAPE DELAY OF GAME - What a great game within a game that the Vikings had with trying to escape Delay of Game calls. This I believe can also be blamed on COACHING. On two separate occassions the Vikes came out to start drives (1 of them after a long TV timeout) and proceeded to waste timeouts to escape Delay of Game penalties. We even wasted a timeout when a delay of game would've cost a whole 1 yd. in the fourth quarter. There actually is no excuse for this. What is going on on the sidelines that we can't get to huddle, proceed to the line, snap the ball, and play football?
• Big Play - B Berrian! - Bernard you need to catch that ball in the second quarter. Gus put it right on his fingertips and what a beautiful double move - that would've been a TD and could've turned around the game. Berrian did make up for it with a spectacular one handed catch in the fourth, but with the kind of cash Zygi is dishing out - that ball needs to be caught.
• T Jack showed that he should and can continue to handle warming the bench. He came in and hit B. Wade for 8 yards. He then proceeded to be sacked badly 2 times...and turned 2nd and 2 into 4th and 13 very quickly. On 2nd and 2 he proceeded to miss a wide open Visanthe Shiancoe who was open for a first down and a gain of about 6-8 yards. Instead T Jack pulled the ball back and tried to scramble....which lead to something I've seen before.
  

Next week we travel to New Orleans for a Monday Night Showdown with the Saints. We need E.J. to come back and be effective. I think this game will actually be a Vikings win. Our backs are pretty much up against the wall. If we lose this game, I think the Childress era may be in danger. I will be watching MNF from another country in Canada....so I will try to get analysis done ASAP next week.

Driscoll on Piper

Tomorrow, my wife and I and others from our church will head out to Minneapolis for the weekend to enjoy some fantastic teaching and worship at the Desiring God National Conference. Two of my greatest influences as a young pastor have to be John Piper (I own 17 books either written or edited by him) and Mark Driscoll (I own all 8 books written by Mark and another 2 that he contributed to). Piper and Driscoll will both be speaking at this weekends conference and I am praying that God would give them words, clarity, and passion as they speak about words and language. Recently Driscoll blogged about why he loves John Piper....read that blog post here. I will provide a full wrap of the conference next week after returning. I love blogging, but live blogging is a little too much for me.

Chris Tomlin Song Rearranged

Last year Chris Tomlin released a song called "God of This City" which he found in Ireland. The song was originally written by the band Bluetree. Bluetree's recording was pretty cool and sounds like something that would come out of Europe. Tomlin's version is essentially an adult contemporary version that sounds right at home on K-LOVE and other Christian Radio. Recently Ex Nihilo in Seattle arranged another version of the song that I enjoy. For the record I enjoy all three versions of the song.
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Premeire Week and The Glory of God

While a large percentage of my TV viewing is dedicated to Sports and Fox News, I also watch a couple of shows/sitcoms. The past couple of weeks mark the premiere of several TV shows that I will tune in for. Among them are House, CSI: Miami, and Raising The Bar. 6 months ago I saw a Facebook group started that was counting down the days until Sept. 25th - the Season Premiere of The Office.

Now, I enjoy TV shows. My wife and I have used our DVR extensively so that when we put the baby/toddler to bed we can stay up and enjoy our shows together. One area where I nonchalantly just seem to ignore is discernment in watching. Now, I am not saying here to shut your TV's off or become super legalistic and go and bash your TV like a computer in Office Space, but what I would like to encourage is discernment. How can I watch this show and at the same time glorify God? That, I believe, is a great question to ask yourself. Most of the time, I believe, I have said things such as, "I'm not using that language or speech, or I'm not committing adultery like that person on screen, so it's no big deal. I can still watch it and not be affected by it" I'm convinced that this is not a good level of discernment. In fact, I believe it is a pretty poor level of discernment if that is how I and maybe you think.

In the book Worliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World (Crossway, 2008, p.67) it says "We can watch TV and glorify God by it. To do so, we must be motivated by grace, and we must view selectively, proactively, accounatably, and gratefully.....For most of us, applying biblical discernment and viewing with discretion will mean watching less than we currently do. But that's no great loss. It means more time to interact with actual people - a date with your spouse, talk-time or play-time with your children, fellowship with friends, serving people in your church, or reaching out to non-believers. There's a world of things to do with the TV turned off."

Now, with that said - we still can watch TV - we may just have to readjust what we watch or how long/how much time we devote to it. I mean how many times does a dude really need to watch SportsCenter?

Vikings: Week 3 - We Win!

I have to be honest in saying I was not expecting the Vikings to win this past Sunday. Adrian Peterson was dinged up all week with a strained hamstring. We were starting a stinky old towel in Gus Frerotte. We had a coach in Brad Childress who was saying that these were "desperate times" that call for "desperate measures". Add all this up and throw into the equation that Carolina was 2-0 and had last minute wins at San Diego and defeated the stinky Bears at home. Plus, the Panthers welcomed back Steve Smith from suspension. I figured we Vikings fans would be in for another frustrating afternoon of head scratching. Turns out much of the first half was exactly that until A Winfield made a play and turned the game around.

Positives

• Vikings D - Does anyone remember the days of Denny Green when we absolutely could not stop anyone! I mean we'd have to score 28-30 points minimum to win games! On Sunday the Vikes D gave up 204 total yards. What was encouraging was the fact that gunslinger Jake Delhomme w/ Steve Smith, M Muhammed, and D.J. Hackett could only muster 157 yards through the air. Again our rushing D continues to be suberb allowing only 47 yards on the ground. The secondary looks a lot better when we have a pass rush that can make a difference. Getting 5 sacks was super encouraging. Kevin Williams and Jared Allen are starting to make a big difference.
• Gus, Gus, and more Gus - Next week Gus could get absolutely crushed by a great D-Line in Tennessee, but for one week at home in the dome it was very evident that the Vikings offense was different.
• Bernard Berrian - Finally we get to see what we paid so much for in this ex-Chicago Bear. Eight and Nine defenders in the box will not happen any longer if Berrian can make big catches down the field like the 48 yarder he had on Sunday.
• EJ Henderson - man is this guy just flat out good. 11 tackles again - a couple of them going for a loss - I especially enjoyed his superman dive over a block to drill the running back for a 3 yard loss.
  
• TOP - Time of Possession. The Vikes controlled the clock in the second half and ended with holding the ball almost ten minutes more than the Panthers. (Vikes - 34:18, Carolina - 25:42)

Negatives

• Penalties - The Vikings were terrible in this department. This usually costs a team a game when they have 9 penalties for 100 total yards. More discipline is needed in this department.
• Special Teams - I know I harp on this a lot, but the Vikes special teams are flat out terrible. We have absolutely zero threat unless we put AP back to return kick offs of anyone getting us half way decent field position. Our coverage as witnessed again on Sunday is terrible. Jonathen Stewart ran right by us a couple of times and for not a block in the back that was questionable the Vikes wouldve been in trouble when they were up 17-10. We also got lucky on a blocked field goal that the Panthers blocked when John Fox called timeout prior to the play. Vast improvement is needed in this area.
• Free Garrett Mills! - We need more Garrett Mills! Much like Twins blogger Aaron Gleeman's plee to free Jason Kubel - we need more of G Mills in the offense. Free this man up. Anyone who watched him in last years Denver game knows what this guy is capable of.

I expect the Vikings to be very competitive at Tennessee and have a chance to win this game. Can we continue to have a respectable passing game. The odds with Gus are much better than with TJack. I think that was made clear this past week.

New I-35W Bridge opens in Minneapolis

Apparently some of the dudes from Desiring God were pretty excited to go to work today and cross the new I-35W bridge that they made this video of their experience.