September 10, 2023

A Disappointing Season Opener with the Minnesota Vikings

 

A Disappointing Season Opener with the Minnesota Vikings

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for September 10, 2023


We had a pleasant visit this week with my sister Tammy and her daughter, Lindsay.  They came up from Dallas and spent a few nights with us and my mom.


They were only here for a couple of days, but we tried to fill them with as many activities as we could.  Tammy really wanted to see a bald eagle while she was here so we made several water stops to try to find one.  We did get lucky enough to see one from the car, but unfortunately didn't get any close-up opportunities like we were hoping.  Next time.


Tammy spent many years in Minnesota before heading south to Texas.  We tried to hit as many of her favorite spots that we could including Fongs in Prior Lake.  Technically her favorite spot was D Fongs in Savage, but we did our best to convince her that it was the same thing.


We used to go to the Apple Orchards a lot in the fall so we did that on Saturday morning.  We were never really big on actually picking apples, but it's fun to be around them and eat apple pie and apple cider and other apple things.


We then headed over to Avery and Abby's new apartment.  None of us have seen it since they had it fully furnished so it was nice to see how much work they've done on it over the past few weeks.  Tammy had never met Abby before so they spent a lot of time getting to know each other.


We spent the afternoon at the Mall of America.  That's just something you do when you're in Minnesota and people come to town for a visit.

Sunday was the home opener for the Minnesota Vikings.  We were thrilled to see the home team begin another dominant season.  We could hardly contain our excitement waiting for the game to start.


A fun thing about going to the Vikings game is getting to see old friends who come to town.  Steve Carew was a buddy from high school as well as my college roommate.  He was there with his daughter so we had to stop by and say Hello.


The game started and we were pumped!  The Vikings hadn't played any of their starters in the preseason so we were anxious to see what the team was going to be all about this season.


The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were in town.  Tom Brady retired last year so we figured we'd definitely get a victory with Baker Mayfield directing the offense.


I've seen teams have throwback uniforms on in a game, but this was the first time I'd seen the Cheerleaders wearing throwbacks.  Can't say I'm a fan.


The game ended up being a bust.  We had a lot of offense, but three first half turnovers didn't help.  Although the defense seemed to be better at times, they collapsed at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second and the Bucs scored touchdowns both times.  We just couldn't seem to get it going again and ended up losing the game by a score of 20-17.


We're hoping they can get things turned around when they visit the Eagles on Thursday night.  If not, this has the potential to be a very long season.

No comments:

Post a Comment