Friday – 10 September 2010
Good morning, Baltimore… um… “Salt Lake City!”

It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday.

Today is also the first day of Eid.
And… it is also Purple Friday.

Here’s a little DJ Kool to get your day moving (thanks to my man, Beckley, for the idea):

Last night marked the opening of the 2010 NFL Season. *genuflect*
The opening game featured the Minnesota Vikings taking on the New Orleans Saints:

Minnesota Vikings at New Orleans Saints
9 – 14
This was a game for which I had great expectations…

…and was ultimately let down. It wasn’t the game I expected, nor was it a really memorable game. And that’s kind of sad, given that this game was, effectively, a rematch of last season’s NFC title game.

The Saints, after a great opening drive, sputtered their way through the next couple of quarters, but managed to get more things “right” than the Vikings. Drew Brees threw for over 230 yards, but there wasn’t really much of a run game until Pierre Thomas found some holes in the defense in the second quarter.

Speaking of the Vikings, they just couldn’t seem to pull it together. The offense’s timing was off. WAY off in some cases. QB Brett Favre couldn’t synch up with his receivers in the way you’d expect. The running game, while not completely stopped, was definitely stunted. This wasn’t the team that I expected to see taking the field.

And the refs didn’t seem to help the Vikings’ cause at all; Minnesota couldn’t buy a good call. My boss messaged me after the game:

How did you like the four-hour long NFL tribute to the Saints? Refs and all.

And I can’t really say that his assessment was off.

It will be interesting to see how both teams fare as the season progresses.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.