Your Thursday Night NFL Football Open Thread

I hope your status is “full” or “about to be full” at this stage of the day. Leave me some pumpkin pie please. It’s the only pumpkin-flavoured thing that I like although I’m not remotely a latte kind of guy.

Newsy Notes:

-Rams rb Henderson who was unceremoniously cut is now a Jag, which is also how the Rams viewed him. I guess it’s time for Tyren Williams to shine.

-Justin Fields revealed that he was a separated shoulder. Upon hearing this Qaron immediately held a press conference, saying, “Well, I have a broken thumb but I’m really cool about it.”

-Kyle Allen is back baby! I guess the Texans should be trying any and all talent-adjacent moves what with the likes of C.J. Stroud and his ilk looming on the horizon at next year’s draft.

To The Game!

Pats/Vikes:

-I’m always leery about New England being featured in a prime time game because of Old Bill’s ability to uglify a game because he happened to wake up on the wrong side of your mother. Last week’s game and the one vs the Bills where three passes were thrown by the Pats come to mind.

-Hey, Matthew Slater was a groomsman at O’Connell’s wedding, how about that? That won’t be yakked about at all during the broadcast.

-Minny’s D is having its share of struggles-of the 28 times teams have entered the red zone, they’ve scored 20 times. This comes as good news to the Pats because they’re 31st in red zone scoring rate.

-Is it any wonder that folks felt that Minny was a bit of a paper tiger? The underlying metrics certainly backed that argument-they give up 23 points per game (19th) and surrender 389 yards per tilt which is 29th.

-So how do they win? By scratching together 18 takeaways which allows Cousins, Cook and Jefferson extra scoring opportunities.

-And speaking of those opportunities, they remind me of the Giants in that they’ve made key plays at critical junctures that have translated directly to wins.

-Moving forward the Vikes have the 8th most difficult schedule while other playoff contenders like Dallas (12th easiest), Philly (3rd easiest) and the Niners (2nd easiest) have gotten the hard work out of the way already.

Type and sip that aperitif, won’t you.