Yes, I know exactly what you're thinking, because I thought it for a while last night myself.

Nine months of preparation. . .millions of dollars spent. . .an off-season of lies perpetuated by the Green Bay front office and placed at our doorstep. . .and the Vikings go out and put up a performance like THAT!?

But there are some important things to remember here.  By the end of last night's game, the Vikings were down to their third-string left tackle.  When you get down to the #3 guy on the depth chart at any position, the result is usually going to be less than optimal, but I thought that Marcus Johnson actually held up pretty well at a spot that, I'm assuming, he hasn't gotten a heck of a lot of snaps at.  I'm not sure how severe the injury to Artis Hicks' elbow is, but whoever starts at LT this coming Sunday is going to have to deal with Dwight Freeney, so this is something that needs to be resolved sooner rather than later.

The most important thing to keep in mind here is that this is, still, just one game.  Yes, it hurts worse and sucks more because it was a loss to Green Bay.  But there are still 15 more of these to go this season, and I have a feeling that things will be getting better the rest of the way.  Having my theory proven true hinges on the abilities of one man.

Brad Childress.

As of this moment, I've given up trying to figure out how Brad Childress constructs his offensive game plans.  The first half of last night's game was one of the single worst first halves of football I've ever seen.  Tarvaris Jackson had 7. . .yes, SEVEN. . .pass attempts in the entire first half, and only completed two for 16 yards.  Yes, we have Adrian Peterson at our disposal, and he was his usual God-like self last night, given the circumstances. . .but during the pre-season, we saw an improvement in Jackson's play.  Brad Childress told us all off-season about how Jackson had improved and was going to be a big surprise this year.

And then you go out in the first half and give him, basically, zero opportunities to make plays.

When I posted the injury report on Friday, I suggested that the Vikings would be wise to get Peterson and Chester Taylor out on the edges, as well as roll out Tarvaris Jackson frequently in an effort to get Green Bay's ailing defensive line to chase him around and wear themselves out.  Did we run a single time to the outside last night?  Was there a toss or a sweep play to be found anywhere?  If there was, I don't recall it.  When you have Steve Hutchinson and Matt Birk, two of the premiere "pulling" players at their positions, at your disposal, you should be running towards the edges a lot. . .and, for some reason, the Vikings seem to be content to just keep slamming people into the middle of the line repeatedly.

The offensive game plan simply MUST be more creative from this point forward if the Vikings are to reach the potential that we all know they have.  Granted, the absence of Bryant McKinnie plays a big part in that, but even with Hicks or Johnson out there at the LT spot, the Vikings need to start doing some different things with Jackson and with the best RB combo in football.

And yet, despite all of that and despite Brad Childress' terrible first half playcalling, the Minnesota offense outscored Green Bay's offense.  They actually outgained the Packers in net yardage, 355-317.  The Vikings had more first downs than Green Bay did (21-15).  Both teams were right around 40% on third-down conversions.  Tarvaris Jackson and Aaron Rodgers both had 178 passing yards and 1 passing TD.  (Granted, Rodgers looked far more efficient in doing so.)  It was truly a tale of two halves for Minnesota.  After letting the Packers win the time of possession battle in the first half, the Vikings had possession for a longer time in the third quarter than they did in the entire first half (12:08 TOP for the Vikings in the first half, 12:42 TOP in the third quarter).  There was a point in the second half where the Vikings had run 29 offensive plays to Green Bay's 3.

As is the case in the National Football League, one or two plays made the difference in this football game.  A few examples of such plays?

How's about back in the first quarter where the Packers' faced 3rd and 13 and ran a draw play to Brandon Jackson.  Jackson fumbled the ball forward, and it looked like numerous Vikings had a shot at recovering the football. . .but at the end of the play, Greg Jennings recovered for Green Bay on the other side of the first-down line, and the Packers kept possession.  A recovery there for Minnesota would have set them up at around the Packers' 30-yard line, and they likely could have gotten at least a field goal out of something like that.

The killer, of course, was Will Blackmon's 76-yard punt return in the third quarter.  That was a combination of a bad, line drive kick by Chris Kluwe and pretty terrible overall coverage by the Vikings' special teams.  Big returns will happen, of course, but usually Kluwe has significantly more hang time on his punts than he had one the one Blackmon took back.  Hopefully this won't become a trend over the course of the season.

Speaking of special teams, how much different could things have been had the Vikings recovered what was a perfectly acceptable onside kick by Ryan Longwell?  Granted, they got the ball back anyway, but if they could have set up shop in Green Bay territory (which is where they would have been, thanks to a dumb penalty on the Packers during the PAT after Adrian Peterson's TD run), they could have better capitalized on the momentum that they had built to that point.

Yes, last night's loss was disappointing, to say the least.  Yes, it's a game that the Vikings could have won.  Yes, Brad Childress is now 0-5 against Green Bay as the Vikings' head coach (and nobody is more infuriated with that than I am).  But it's only one game, and the time has come to move on and start looking forward to the home opener against Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon.  Hopefully things will take a much different path than they took on Monday night.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. . .just a little bit longer, and the Vikings and Packers will be kicking things off from Lambeau Field in Green Bay to get their 2008 NFL season started.

It's no secret that this is one of the more anticipated Vikings' seasons in recent memory, and undoubtedly the most anticipated of the Brad Childress era in Minnesota.  From all the off-season moves to the hopes of avenging last year's embarassing loss at Lambeau to the pre-season hype and expectations, all signs are pointing to this being a big year for the Beloved Purple.

And what better way to start things out than with a curb-stomping of the reigning division champions!

Actually, I shouldn't say that. . .I don't think either team is going to be blowing the other one out this time.  But, having said that, I do anticipate a Minnesota victory this evening.  The Vikings are a much healthier team than the Packers right now, and frankly have fewer question marks.

A lot of the focus is going to be on the quarterbacks in this game, and rightfully so.  After months of hyping this as a night where Brett Favre's number would be retired and the torch would officially be passed, Aaron Rodgers is now under as much pressure to start a season as any first-year starter has ever been under.  Couple that with the fact that he'll be seeing a lot of #69 and #93 in his face, and things will hopefully get ugly early for the Packers.

On the other side, Tarvaris Jackson showed a marked improvement in the pre-season prior to hurting his knee against Baltimore.  The Minnesota rush offense didn't look like its normal spectacular self in the pre-season, and that was largely because they were giving Jackson and the passing offense a chance to develop and shine. . .and they did exactly that.

Honestly, I think the Vikings have fewer questions at quarterback than the Packers do.  That will make a big difference tonight.  Tarvaris Jackson made his first ever start at Lambeau Field and, frankly, looked horrible back in December of '06.  He's certainly not the same quarterback he was then, no matter how much Green Bay fans will try to convince himself that he is.

I think the Vikings will get a hard-fought victory tonight, and take some serious momentum into their home opener next Sunday night against a suddenly vulnerable Indianapolis team.

Gonzo's Final Score Prediction:  Vikings 24, Packers 20

Discuss the entire game right here. . .at the best damn Vikings' website on the internet!  The comments will automatically refresh themselves, so it will be just like being in a chat room with all of your closest friends.

My delivery food should be arriving soon. . .the Mountain Dew is cold and getting colder. . .the big screen TV is fired up. . .and my hands are shaking like the proverbial leaf on a tree.

Let's do this thing, shall we?

SKOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL VIKINGS!!!!

Both the Vikings and the Packers released their final injury reports for Monday night's game yesterday, and things look a lot better for the Vikings on the injury front than they do for Green Bay, in my opinion.

Let's start with Green Bay's injuries first.

And now for the Beloved Purple:

As you can see, the Vikings will have almost their entire complement of players heading into Monday night's game, while the Packers are going to have some injury issues.

Take a look at all of the injuries that Green Bay has on the defensive side of the ball, particularly along the defensive line.  Ryan Pickett isn't on their injury list, but he's also been limited in his participation during the pre-season.  The injury report might say that he's recovered. . .and the Vikings would be well served to test that.

If I was Brad Childress, I'd take my Tarvaris Jackson. . .provided he has his full mobility. . .and get him to the edge on rollouts, sprintouts, and so forth.  Make Green Bay's big uglies run around a little bit.  Between the injuries and the lack of depth on the interior of the Green Bay d-line, it would help the Vikings later on in the game, in my opinion.  Get Peterson and Taylor out on the edges, too, on tosses and swing passes.  Hopefully we'll see that early and often on Monday night.

More on the game as the weekend wears on, folks. . .I'm going to go back to tracking Hurricane Ike.  Yes, ANOTHER freaking hurricane.  Hurricane season has to stop eventually, doesn't it?

Alright. . .it's nice to take a second to not run from tropical storms and hurricanes and all sorts of other weather-related goodness and get back to what we do best around here. . .talking about the Beloved Purple.  Let's take a good look around at what's going on in Viking land this evening.

 The Vikings have released their first injury report for Monday's game against Green Bay.  It only has four players listed on it as of right now:

QB Tarvaris Jackson (knee)
HB Maurice Hicks (foot)
WR Robert Ferguson (ankle)
S Madieu Williams (neck)

Of those four, I believe that Williams is the only one that is set to miss Monday night's opener.  Jackson has repeatedly said that he's going to play, and I've not seen anything that indicates otherwise as of yet.  Ferguson was on the field for individual drills on Tuesday (according to Access Vikings).  I haven't heard anything else about Hicks' injury, but this is the first I've heard about it, which leads me to believe that it isn't terribly serious.

Green Bay's injury list is significantly longer at this point, as they've listed the following players with injuries:

S Atari Bigby (ankle)
T Chad Clifton (knees/chest)
DE Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (knee)
RB Ryan Grant (hamstring)
LB A.J. Hawk (chest)
WR James Jones (knee)
S Charlie Peprah (hamstring)
G Josh Sitton (knee)
DE Jeremy Thompson (groin)
C Scott Wells (back)
LB Tracy White (ankle)

Players don't need to be listed as out, doubtful, questionable, or probable until the final injury reports come out on Friday.  I'll attempt to dig up more about the extent of those injuries throughout the evening and into tomorrow.

Over at SI.com, Dr. Z continues the warm, fuzzy Purple love by putting Minnesota at #4 in his first Power Rankings of the season, behind only New England, San Diego, and Dallas.

I'll tell you what. . .I'm not used to all of this pre-season warm fuzziness by any means, but I think that it's something I COULD get used to.  I don't like the fact that Dr. Z has decided that we made a "big push" for Brett Favre in the off-season. . .you know, considering that we didn't make ANY push for Brett Favre. . .but we'll take what we can get at this point, I think.

Apparently the love is, indeed, spreading over at SI, as out of nine writers polled, eight of them have chosen the Vikings to win the NFC North.  Three of them. . .Dr. Z, Peter King, and someone called Dominic Bonvissuto. . .have chosen the Vikings to get all the way to the NFC title game, only to fall one step short of the Super Bowl.  King and Bonvissuto have them losing to Dallas, while Dr. Z has Philadelphia ending Minnesota's season.

 If you want some entertainment, I went onto a BetUS Radio Podcast along with Brandon, the head blogger over at Acme Packing Company.  It was a lot of fun, as Brandon is a rare breed. . .a Packer fan that's not completely detestible.  Anyway, it's entertaining, and it leads into an interview with K.C. Joyner, who I happen to be a big fan of, so go ahead and check it out.

That's all for tonight, folks. . .we'll get some more taken care of tomorrow night.  For now, I'm going back to channel surfing a few different things and keeping an eye on the Atlantic.  Hurricane Ike is already a Category 3 storm. . .and we all know that if anyone or anything is capable of kicking someone's ass, it's something named Ike.  Heck, it's a good thing that there isn't a Hurricane Tina anywhere to be found out there anyplace.

With that, I'll take my leave for the evening.  Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday night, and we'll see you back here tomorrow. . .hopefully with details for this year's Daily Norseman Pick 'Em Pool.