Are you read for some football?

This begins a semi-live blogcast of the Vikings season opener.

T-minus 35 min to kickoff - ESPN Monday Night Countdown is reporting that starting safety Dwight Smith is inactive for tonights game. Smith is NOT injured and one can only assume that this is a disciplinary action stemming from Smith's stairwell adventure at Block E.

T-minus 30 min to kickoff - time to go put together my favorite Purple Kool-Aid mix. Maybe in the offseason I'll share some of my favorite recipes with you, but now is not the time. And hey, is that the Kool-Aid playing tricks or are Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes at the game? Where is the Unicorn Princess of the 5th Dimension, Suri?

T-minus 2 min to kickoff - Boomer and Tom Jackson pick the Vikes to win. Irvin is an idiot and Steve Young is only slightly less of an idiot.

6-0, 10:05 1st Qtr - Chester Taylor 5 yd TD run! Opening drive 10 plays 80 yds (70 passing and 10 rushing). Fantasy owners pick up Troy Williamson 2 big catches on 3rd and long. Very good opening drive!
**excellent hold job by P Kris Kluwe, failed PAT**

6-3, 1:55 1st Qtr - EJ Henderson closes on Portis and makes a nice tackle on 3rd and 5. WAS kicks a FG seconds after our first Tony Kornheiser jab to Joe Theisman, they may actually fight before this one is over.

END OF 1st QTR - Vikes are 4/4 on 3rd down and the offense looks to be efficient. WonderBrad has looked good and Chester Taylor has run well on his limited carries. The defense was OK on the Skins first drive. Napo overpursued Brunell on a blitz that led to a QB scramble on 3rd down, but nothing to be overly concerned about yet.

6-3, 14:45 2nd Qtr - um, nevermind...don't pick up Troy Williamson. WAS blitzed to the left side, picked up by the OLine and RBs, WonderBrad goes deep to Williamson 1-on-1 down the sideline...perfect pass that went right through Troy's hands.

6-10, 8:04 2nd Qtr - Skins score helped by a long run by Betts compounded by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Kevin Williams. Vikes D zigged as the Skins O zagged on this drive. Portis takes it into the end zone.

6:31 2nd Qtr - Williamson drops another pass that hits him in the numbers on 3rd down. 3 and out for the Vikes offense.

2:43 2nd Qtr - Williamson finally catches a 3rd down conversion but it is called back because of the Vikings 7th penalty of the game. It will be interesting to see if Childress can get his team focused and back in rhythm.

6-13, 1:09 2nd Qtr - The D-line makes 2 solid plays in the backfield then Sharper makes a ball jarring hit in the endzone to force a FG. Defense needs to make adjustments at half time.
** And WTF is Sharper doing in that hyberbalic chamber? I think he drank too much of the paint thinner while in Green Bay.

9-13, HALFTIME thoughts - penalties, penalties, penalties. If this is the mark of the Childress Era why did we bother getting rid of Tice? The offense has looked OK outside of a couple dropped passes by Williamson. The defense is underperforming imo. The D-line needs to get more pressure and action in the backfield to take pressure off the rest of the D. EJ Henderson has made a couple of nice plays but Napo appears to be nowhere near the play each and every time. We'll see what kind of adjustments we make as the game is still anybody's to win.

16-13, 9:38 3rd Qtr - WonderBrad was converting 3rd down after 3rd down and hit Marcus Robinson on 3rd and 5 from around the 25 for another TD. Chester Taylor was taken down easily but the passing game looks sharp.

16-16, END OF 3rd QTR - Brad has really led the offense and they've been sharp. The defense had one 3 and out then made 1 red zone stop. Better than the 2nd qtr. Tied into the 4th, can't ask for much more on the road against a playoff caliber team.

19-16, 1:04 4th Qtr - Longwell 26 yd go ahead FG. Excellent drive of power MidwestCoast Offense football. Hutch and Chester proved to be worth their contracts when it counted tonight.

19:-16, FINAL - John Hall missed a 47 yd FG with 0:16 left, WonderBrad knealed and our prayers were answered.

Vikings win Childress's first game, on the road against a 2005 10 win, playoff winning team. The offense was efficient, especially on 3rd down (9 of 17) and the running game came through in the 4th qtr. Defense was OK, I would hope for better if we are going to make the playoffs.

2 Keys to the win...

• 3rd down conversions. Brad was cool and made the right throw most of the time. 9 of 17 and should have been 11 of 17 without 2 drops by Williamson.

• Half time adjustments - especially reduction of penalties. James had a stupid roughing the passer but other than that the Skin's penalties in the 2nd half were much more costly than the Viking's. Portis was held to 39 total yards which is a win for the Vikes.