The Vikings got punished in Arizona last night by the Cardinals.  Brett Favre actually looked human last night as the completed 30 of 45 passes for 275 yards with 2 TD passes and 2 INTs.  Adrian Peterson had his worst game of the year rushing for 19 yards on 13 carries (1.5 ypc) but he also added 6 catches for 46 yards (7.7 avg).  Chester Taylor carried the ball 5 times for 21 yards (4.2 ypc) and he also caught 4 passes for 28 yards (7.0 avg) yesterday.  Percy Harvin had another good game for the Vikings last night as he caught 6 passes for 79 yards (13.2 avg) with a TD grab and he also carried the ball 2 times for 22 yards (11.0 ypc).  Sidney Rice pitched in with 7 catches for 72 yards (10.3 avg) last night.  Visanthe Shiancoe only caught 2 passes for 14 yards (7.0 avg) but one of them went for a TD.  The Vikings finished up with 315 total yards in this game (62 rushing, 253 passing).

The Vikings were awful defensively last night and it showed on the scoreboard.  LB E.J. Henderson led the way for the Vikings last night with 10 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss and 1 QB hit.  Safety Tyrell Johnson pitched in with 3 tackles, 1 fumble recovery and 1 interception.  The Cardinals finished up with 398 total yards (113 rushing, 285 passing) in this game.  The Vikings are still in great shape with a 10-2 record on the year.

This will be a fantastic game to watch if Kurt Warner can play.  If not, this game could get ugly quickly for the Cardinals.  The Cardinals have 32 sacks this season and they must put pressure on Brett Favre or he will slice them apart on Sunday Night.  The hard thing about blitzing Favre a lot as he has been throwing to his backs and TEs a lot when the pressure comes.  Blitzing is also playing with fire against the Vikings because of Adrian Peterson’s ability to go the distance as soon as he gets past the second level of the D.  The Cardinals are giving up 4.5 yards per carry and 108.6 yards rushing so far this season for Peterson should find a lot of running room against them.  If the Cardinals get pulled up closer to the line, Brett Favre will go over the top to Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice against a Cards’ D that is allowing 258.3 yards passing per game this year.

No matter who is playing QB for the Cardinals the O-Line will have to keep DE Jared Allen away from them as he has 12.5 sacks already this year.  He not only sacks the QB, he loves taking the football away from them.  Cardinals’ WRs will have to pay the price by catching short passes to negate the Vikings’ pass rush.  The good thing about that for the Cards is that Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston are all good runners after the catch.  The Vikings are allowing 221.9 yards passing per game so the Cardinals should have some success throwing the ball as long as the QB has time to toss it.  The Cardinals have to also mix in some runs with Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower which would also help to slow the pass rush of the Vikings.

PREDICTION:  With Warner starting for the Cards:  VIKINGS 30, CARDINALS 27    With Leinart starting:  VIKINGS 35, CARDINALS 13

30-year old Chester Taylor could start for some teams in the NFL right now but he is stuck behind Adrian Peterson in Minnesota.  But, he’s making the most of his time on the field mostly on third downs.  Taylor has played 11 games for the Vikings this season and he has carried the ball 67 times for 245 yards (3.7 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He has also caught 33 passes for 279 yards (8.5 avg) with 1 TD grab this season.  Taylor is more than capable of being the main man if something were to happen to Peterson so the Vikings are in great shape at RB.