Welcome back! I very much missed the ongoing hilarity exhibited in all the open threads on Thursday, Sunday and Monday. Let’s do it again, as Steely Dan has said.

Turgid Tidbits:

-Human cliche-spewer/accumulator Aaron Rodgers blessed us with a few in a recent IG post. Such triteness as, “Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers” (WHO SAYS THAT???) and “The night is darkest before the dawn” were committed to the screen. He wasn’t done-“And I shall rise again” was another meaningless banality that was shared with numerous Roganites.

-In another news snippet that doesn’t get me all riled up, Joe Exotic has reached out from beyond the bars. Now Joe Burrow is on the record as not liking the nickname Tiger King but that hasn’t stopped the noted Carole Baskin hater from trying to get Burrow to help him raise some money for a down payment on a lawyer. Doing this would be ‘paying it forward’ (not really how that works) and he might just be back in the Super Bowl if he follows through.

-If you’re somehow not feeling the NFL tonight (hey, it happens) but are into the helpless slaughter of innocents, I just might have a game for you. You see, Bethune-Cookman and Miami are playing tonight and the latter is favored by 51.5.

To The Game!

Vikes/Eagles:

-Out for Philly are Gainwell, cb Bradberry and safety Blankenship.

-Hockey had a 22% target share last week and I expect that to rise tonight. The theory being that Cousins will struggle with pressure and Hockey works closer to the line of scrimmage.

-In “The Other Tight End” news, Dallas Goedert had all of one(!) target last week. This is something I don’t get-with the massive amount of info being exchanged between the coaching staffs and players during the game, how does this happen to a top ten guy? I doubt he was being ‘schemed out of the game’ by Belichick. I’ll bet he gets a few early looks.

-Upping The Pressure: When these two teams met last year the (very passive) Minny D blitzed 15% of the time. Last week new DC Brian Flores brought the heat 55.3% of the time. I’ll bet yeahright is happy to see them not playing on their heels.

-You Know What They Say: “If somebody by the name of Trey Palmer can score a TD vs this D, sure as hell Smith and Brown are gonna feast”.

-A Mess, Huh?: Last week rb’s Swift and Scott had a combined 25 snaps between them. And now Rashaad Penny (a healthy scratch) dons a jersey this evening to further muddy the waters.

Enjoy the evening.