Bradford near-perfect day sets QB pace

John Gilbert

Duluth East’s Quinton Homstad made a diving interception, one of two picks he made as Duluth East beat Proctor 19-7. East’s Nick Swor also intercepted two Rails passes. Photo credit: John Gilbert
Duluth East’s Quinton Homstad made a diving interception, one of two picks he made as Duluth East beat Proctor 19-7. East’s Nick Swor also intercepted two Rails passes. Photo credit: John Gilbert
Tommy Kimball, who scored East’s second touchdown, eluded Proctor’s diving Matt Zupetz in Friday’s 19-7 East victory. Photo credit: John Gilbert
Tommy Kimball, who scored East’s second touchdown, eluded Proctor’s diving Matt Zupetz in Friday’s 19-7 East victory. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Sam Bradford might never again have a game like Monday night, when the Minnesota Vikings opened their NFL season with a whole bunch of question marks, and Bradford delivered a near-flawless performance that led the Vikings to a stunning 29-19 victory over the New Orleans Saints at U.S.Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

If a quarterback was going to have a perfect day, we had to figure it might be Drew Brees of the Saints, whose quarterback statistics are a close third behind a couple retired guys named Brett Favre and Payton Manning. It was the Vikings who also had huge question marks about their offensive line, which had never played a snap at full strength in the exhibition season, and at running back, where rookie Dalvin Cook didn’t fare well in comparison to Mark Ingram and Adrian Peterson, wearing Saints outfits.

Turns out, the Vikings defense was outstanding, holding Brees to 27-37 passing for one touchdown, and stifling Ingram for 17 yards and Peterson for 18. Meanwhile, Cook ran wild for 127 yards on 12 carries in his first NFL game. But the focal point was Sam Bradford, who not only was 27-32 for 346 yards and three touchdowns, but came up with repeated big plays to break the game.

Cynics are talking about how bad the Saints defense is, but more likely the credit should go to Bradford, who hit Adam Thielan nine times for 157 yards, and Stefon Diggs seven times for 93 yards, including two touchdowns, which came on amazing catches. The knock on the Vikings is that they can never complete a pass for more than five or six yards, but Bradford completed seven passes of 15 yards or more.

Can they do it again at Pittsburgh this next Sunday? Who knows. But we know what the team is capable of doing. Brees, by the way, threw a half dozen sensational passes that found their way through tangles of arms to be caught by well-covered receivers. The Saints will be a factor, but they have to rebound against New England.

Bradford’s fantastic performance was a welcome contrast to a few more regional performances that might have proven as exasperating to their coaches as to their fans.
There was an interesting performance by Duluth East, which met and conquered a strong Proctor team in a 19-6 game at East’s Ordean Field Friday night. East’s offense had not been sparkling, and there was some talk that coach Joe Hietala might be thinking of replacing quarrterback Luke Hietala, his hard-nosed senior son.

That’s a tough thing for both father and son, and after Luke Hietala started and the teams battled 0-0 through almost the whole first half, Hietala the coach sent in Justin Cone at QB. He played quite well, but nothing much was clicking. Near the end of the second quarter, Hietala the QB connected with Anthony Provinzino for a 35-yard gain on second and 15 from the East 39. On first and goal at the 5, Hietala the QB passed short to Tommy Kimball to reach the 2, and on third and 1, Hietala the QB plunged in on a sneak and East led 7-0 at halftime.

Hietala the coach spent most of the second half alternating his two quarterbacks, and both came through, but it was thanks to the Greyhound defense, which got two interceptions apiece from Nick Swor and Quinton Homstad to blunt Proctor’s hopes of coming back. Kimball ran for a touchdown and a 13-0 lead, and then it was Cone who slipped a short pass to Joshua Daniels-Hanbury for a 19-0 lead before Proctor scored.

This week, we’ll have to wait and see if the Greyhounds alternate quarterbacks or not.
Then there was UMD. The Bulldogs desperately needed to win, and hopefully win big, last Saturday at Upper Iowa after their opening loss to Sioux Falls. But things didn’t go well. Injuries, shake-ups, and misfires knocked out starter Mike Rybarczyk (2-10) and John Larson (5-9), and sophomore Ben Everhart came on as though out of the bullpen. Everhart led the Bulldogs back from a 21-17 deficit to score the final 16 points in the fourth quarter and lift UMD to a 33-21 victory.

Now the question is: Who starts at quarterback this Saturday, when Minnesota State-Mankato, ranked No. 8 in the country, comes to Malosky Stadium. We may have to wait and see, but the preseason predicament of too many evenly matched quarterbacks turned out to be not a predicament at all, and Wiese could go quarterback-by-committee.

As for more quarterbacking, how about Aaron Rodgers outduelling Russell Wilson to lead the Green Bay Packers to a 17-9 victory over Seattle? Wilson looked good bringing the Seahawks down the field right before halftime, for a field goal by Blair Walsh and a 3-0 lead. But the Packers kept Wilson to only a handful of brilliantly-thrown passes -- and no touchdowns -- in the second half and Rodgers was outstandng to pick apart the Seahawk defense.

The weekend started with the biggest upset imaginable, when Kansas City went to New England and carved up Tom Brady and the Patriots 42-27. Brady was 16-36 for 267 yards and no touchdowns, while Alex Smith was 28-35 for the Chiefs, for 368 yards and four touchdowns. The Chiefs got the only three touchdowns of the fourth quarter.

In Sunday’s other big game, Matthew Stafford lived up to the title of highest-paid player in the NFL by leading the Detroit Lions to a 35-23 victory over Arizona. Stafford was 29-41 with four touchdowns.
With Chicago losing 23-17 to Atlanta, that leaves the Vikings, Packers and Lions all looking like elite teams after Week 1.