Oh my - that was an eventful game against the Packers last week with Erin Rogers going down with broken collarbone, which resulted in some creative fella coming up with the first line to a joke - so Erin Rogers walks into A. Barr. I guess it's not much of joke if you are a Packers fan or worse yet, have Erin as your QB for your fantasy league. I don't get the fantasy thing, but that might be due to a lack of imagination on my part, anyhow, I digress. There has been a bunch of hubbub this week about the hit. Some calling it dirty, Packer's coach saying unnecessary and some delusional nut jobs saying that's what Barr meant to do. Seriously? You nut jobs really think Barr was sitting there and said - hey if I chase him down and tackle him I will break his collarbone? Wow - that's beyond rational but it does take all types to make the world spin.
The fact that there was no flag and the fact the NFL did not fine Barr tells one all you need to know on whether it was dirty or illegal. Now for the unnecessary comment, well yes he probably could have let up but anyone that understands the game knows if you put a good hit on the QB early on the game as he waits for a receiver to open, that the next time he will probably get rid of the ball quicker to avoid the hit. There it is, plain and simple, those hits are designed to make the QB get rid of the ball quicker than he wants to. Nothing more, nothing less and as Barr so eloquently stated, if Erin wasn't hurt on the play no one would be talking about it. That's spot on and quite insightful for a UCLA grad. BTW - my sources in Green Bay are telling me Kleenex sales there are brisk and some stores reportedly out of stock and the Milwaukee breweries are all running at full capacity. (It's always good to keep the in-state breweries busy, with that said, make sure you get some Schells Oktoberfest before its all gone!) Oh, and one more thing, I think the bit about Barr being concussed was bologna, I believe that to be made up so he didn't have to answer 20 questions after the game as those in concussion protocol are not available to the media - yes I believe in conspiracies.
Now to the game at hand, the Baltimore Ravens. The line is at 5.5 which seems high for a team with it's starting RB out for the year and the starting QB out for a while, plus the starting G and 2 WRs out for this game. I don't see it as an easy win and if Flacko gets hot, it will be a long day for the Vikings defense. The Ravens have a very good defensive backfield, maybe one of the best in the NFL and if Suggs comes to play, he can almost control the game himself, especially with Kasey Kasesum at QB, still not convinced Kasey is all that good. Then there is the Vikings KR, that guy looks like he is scared to death. Maybe they will find someone else to throw back there. Should be interesting to see some of the other WRs on the field and maybe LaQueen can have another decent game to build some confidence. SKOL!
