And Some Other Stuff.....

Here are a few other "non-Twins" things that have been going on lately:

1. Wilco Concert. I took my oldest son to his first concert ever - Wilco at St. Paul's Roy Wilkins Auditorium. I wanted him to be able to say his first concert ever was a cool one compared to my first-ever concert at the Met Center in Bloomington in 1978 - The Village People. Yes, that is correct. When I was in 5th grade, I forced my father (then Captain of the Eau Claire Police) to take me to see the Village People. Can you imagine what must have been going through his mind during that show?

But I digress. My son, along with CR and Tito Jackson and their daughters got to see a fantastic show. As I have stated before, if you have never seen Wilco in concert, you owe it to yourself to experience them live. They were on stage for two hours and forty-five minutes and played a nice mix of new and old material. Here is a nice review from the Star Tribune and another from Freealonzo. I'm proud that my son got a chance to see a great show for his first-ever concert. It was even better than the Village People!

2. Vikes Beat Pack. Possibly the most hyped Monday Night Football game ever, this match-up was billed as Brett Favre vs. Aaron Rodgers. However, I predicted before the game that the outcome would be determined by the play of the Vikings defensive line vs. the Packers offensive line and by how the Vikings running game performs. I was right about one of those things. The Vikings defensive line dominated the patchwork offensive line of the Packers and sacked Aaron Rodgers 8 times, including 4 1/2 by Jared Allen alone. The Vikings running game, however, was another story. The Packers held Adrian Peterson in check with only 55 yards on 25 carries. If you would have told me that stat before the game, I would have said the Packers win by 14.

I didn't think the Vikings would win if Adrian Peterson was taken out of the game and had to rely on Brett Favre's passing. This isn't 1997, for Cliff's sake. But I'll tell you what - Favre was in 1997 form. He was incredible. The 39-year-old QB completed 24 of 31 passes for 271 yards and 3 touchdowns. And most importantly he had no turnovers and was never sacked. Favre basically had all the time in the world, compliments of his offensive line. He responded to the immense pressure of playing his former team before the most-viewed cable telecast in history (21.8 million viewers) better than I could have ever imagined.

Aaron Rodgers also showed that he is a legitimate NFL Quarterback with a nice future ahead of him. The Packers did not lose this game because of Aaron Rodgers - they lost because of their offensive line. Packer fans should not be mad at Ted Thompson about how he handled their quarterback situation, they should be mad at him for consistently being way under the salary cap and not surrounding Rodgers with better offensive line protection.

So there.

Jeff