The Bright Side Is the Vikings' Playoff Hopes Collapsed Weeks Ago

The joke going around the NFL is that the weather gods are smiling on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre to the point of helping him to preserve his consecutive-games-started streak. On Sunday, a snow storm so vicious that it was able to collapse in an inflatable roof (think a large balloon, but slightly bigger; presumably slughtly tougher as well), forced the Vikings game against the New York Giants to be postponed one day. We prefer to take the more direct point of view out there and say that, if there are indeed weather gods, they were just doing their best at preventing the world from bearing witness to Minnesota shamelessly trying to put together a half-decent game of football. Considering the game will be played in Detroit, with the Vikings assuming the role of the home team, it could also be their subtle way of pointing out who the league's next Lions are.

Favre's streak is at 297 games currently. The Vikings' streak of suckiness meanwhile ran out two games ago, but their current run of mediocrity is at least 12 games old.

What Goes Around Comes Around: Samuel Hit with Monster Fine following Monster Hit

Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel laid out New York Giants wide-receiver Derek Hagan on Sunday with a helmet-to-helmet hit and now he's been hit with a $40,000 fine by the league. For an Eagle, he certainly struts like a cock of the walk right afterwards, as if he thought he actually did a good thing. Didn't he know anything short of decapitation is frowned upon???

If only no One Could See the Cowboys Play Every Week...

Let the record show that while the lights went out at New Meadowlands Stadium on Sunday night during the Dallas Cowboys' 33-20 win over the New York Giants, the Cowboys themselves were not lights out. In fact, they were the beneficiaries of one especially tragic Eli Manning pass that, had it not been intercepted, possible could have changed the outcome of the game.

However, it is important to give credit where credit is due and cornerback Brian McCann did set a record for a 101-yard interception return on the play. And even though running back Felix Jones did score a mere 40 seconds after the lights initially went off like a thief in the night, delivering the fatal blow to the giants as they slept, it's important that the Cowboys do get full marks for showing up one week too late to save their ex-head coach Wade Phillips. What must he be thinking, reading the paper this morning? Probably the furthest thing from: "good for them", and more likely containing one or two expletives bookending "those sons of...".

While in an earlier post we said it would be a miracle if interim head coach Jason Garrett was able to get his team to win a second game, we must admit our mistake, not necessarily for giving the Cowboys not enough credit, but for not accounting for the fact that coaching changes tend to have short-term positive effects on teams' performances. It remains to be seen just how long they can keep this up. While the Detroit Lions, the Cowboys' next opponents on Sunday are also 2-7, one thing Dallas may not have counted on is that the game will be played at noon, in the daylight with no chance of a solar eclipse. Of course, if the retractable roof at Cowboys stadium is conveniently closed next weekend, we'll all know why.