The Minnesota Vikings won a barn burner against the Seattle Seahawks 20-7 at CenturyLink Field on Saturday night after holding off a furious comeback attempt led by the Clipboard, soon to be Touchdown Jesus himself, Charlie Whitehurst.
Before Whitehurst's 'miraculous' play had even begun though, the Vikings had managed to build a bit of a lead for themselves despite the Hawks complete and total offensive domination of the first quarter (except for the score). The Hawks controlled the time of possession thirteen minutes to Minnesota's two. Two measly minutes of ball possession, ...scoff. Pathetic. The Hawks had 103 yards of total offense to the Vikings 3. THREE. Embarrassing. That's 3 yards of offense in the first quarter and the Vikings came out leading 7-0 thanks to a pick-six by Marcus Sherels off of a Golden Tate tipped pass.
So how did this happen? Seattle's special teams had forced a turnover on a punt return when Jeron Johnson managed to punch the ball free to Aaron Curry, who picked up the loose ball and was home free for a fumble recovery touchdown. Naturally though, the referees had called the play dead, claiming it was not a fumble. Even though it WAS a fumble. Assholes.
They were wrong, and the play was reversed by replay. So let's recap: the Seahawks' certain touchdown was eliminated and then a few plays later the Vikings picked off Jackson for a touchdown. It's the preseason, but that still pisses me right off.
The Vikings controlled the second quarter for the most part but the Seahawks' defense managed to keep them out of the endzone. Minnesota's Ryan Longwell, who happens to have the most appropriate last name ever (unless you count the oldschool names that represented what you did in life, like "Archer" or "Thatcher" or whatever... those were pretty appropriate too) hit field goals of 36 and 47 yards to put the Vikings up 13-0 at the Half.
Tarvaris Jackson finished the first half with 11/21 passing for 75 yards and an interception. He also ran for 12 yards on 2 attempts. He was running for his life most of the time behind a porous offensive line and the running game never really caught any footing.
The 3rd Quarter and early part of the 4th belonged to Charlie Whitehurst as he glamorously led the Seahawks on a 16-play, 89 yard touchdown drive capped off by a 3-yard pass to TE Anthony McCoy in the back of the endzone. On that drive, Charlie went 10 for 11 for 79 yards and looked very impressive in the pocket -- poised, confident, authoritative, and ballsy. It's all but guaranteed that, among fans anyway, a quarterback controversy is brewing. It's not fair to Tarvaris Jackson of course, but this is football, and us fans know better than any coaches or front offices could ever know.
One thing of note was that Pete Carroll kept Charlie in the game until late in the fourth quarter as the Seahawks were threatening on a drive late in the quarter while trailing 13-7. Apparently Big Balls Pete wanted to give Charlie a chance to cement his place in the Hall of Fame by completing the comeback but that storyline sadly went unwritten as the Seahawks' efforts were stonewalled by two key drops on 2nd and 4th down. On the ensuing Vikings possession, running back Tristan Davis broke open a 35-yard touchdown run to seal put Minnesota up 20-7, and seal the victory with 2:39 left in the game. Charlie's night was over at that point, and rookie Josh Portis came in to finish it up.
Portis can run fast. The Seahawks lost the game. No one got injured, and that's what's most important.
What did you guys think?!
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