MNF Madness: Saints-Vikings

Just an absurd game tonight in the Bayou.

In the first half, the hometown Saints outgained the Vikings by a 5 to 1 margin in the first half, only to be down 17-10. Credit Martin Grammatica for a hopelessly bad field goal attempt that was blocked and returned for a touchdown, as well as some breathtakingly bad moments from the skill position players.

In the second half, it got really freaking weird. The Vikings decided to punt to Reggie Bush, despite the fact that he took two of them (!) to the house, and might have had a third if he could have kept his feet. Gus Frerotte (!) then came back after nearly being decapitated to throw a long touchdown to Bernard Berrian, on a play where Berrian almost got killed by his own teammate on a simultaneous double post pattern. The Saints were penalized 17 times. Grammatica came back after the blocked kick to hit from 53 yards away. Despite the high score, both defenses were absolutely murderous with the hitting, with Antonio Winfield becoming the first guy to have a sack, blocked kick, fumble recovery touchdown and blocked kick return touchdown in the same game.

Was that all? Hell no. Brees should sue for non-support. I've always thought that interceptions shouldn't always be given to the QB. With three minutes left in the first half, Brees hit WR Lance Moore in the hand on a short out. Moore reacted to this by tapping the ball into the air and falling down, setting up the interception for the opportunistic Vikings defense. On another play, Bush fumbled after having his head nearly torn off on a facemask penalty that wasn't called, as the cursed Ed Hochuli found himself in the crosshairs Yet Again. (He also whiffed on an Adrian Peterson fumble call with 1:11 left. Seriously, Ed, give it up.)

As for the Saints, this counts as the second game where employing a Grammatica turned out to be, well, as dumb as employing a Grammtica. His bad miss with 2 minutes left opened the door for a Vikings team that really should have been too stupid to win a game -- honestly, you kicked it to Bush twice? -- but hey, the Saints DNA runs deep.

The Saints D actually played really well -- they held Adrian Peterson to less than 2 yards a career -- but they couldn't stop Berrian (6 catches for 110, and a clear pass interference that set up the winning field goal).

It was just craziness from end to end, from two teams that are just way too flawed -- and both of them are now 2-3 -- to be any meaningful kind of playoff threat... but what the heck, it's the NFL. No one knows anything, least of all the winning coach tonight. (Seriously, Brad Childress kicked it to Bush twice. He eats paste. Winningly, but still.)

Oh, and the winning QB (Frerotte) gave a post-game interview in which he talked about being mildly concussed, and on HD, you could see the large purple welt on his forehead. At least it went with his laundry color, and it's not like Gus doesn't have experience with Head Trauma. Matter of fact, after watching this game, I think *I* have head trauma...