and play-action, and thats where Turner will wa

For the second time this week, were here to talk about a teams chances after losing its starting quarterback to a serious injury. After Tony Romo went down for the Cowboys earlier this weekend, Vikings quarterback?Teddy Bridgewater?suffered a serious knee injury in practice Tuesday. It speaks to the severity of the early reports surrounding the injury that the eventual diagnosis of a season-ending torn ACL and dislocated knee was seen as a lucky break for Minnesota.It was Romo and the 2015 Cowboys who offered a perfect example of how a team can be felled quickly by an injury to their starting passer. Dallas went 12-4 during a banner 2014 campaign and started 2-0 last season, before Romo broke his collarbone. They then went 0-7, won Romos first game back, and after Romo broke his collarbone for a second time, went 1-5 the rest of the way. Theres at least a chance things go pear-shaped in the same way for the Vikings, too.My suspicion, though, is that the Vikings arent this years version of the Cowboys. Its hard to argue that they will be better without their starting quarterback, and I wont claim they will be. But there are reasons to believe the Vikings could be competitive in 2016 and not suffer the fate of last years Cowboys. Lets look at the post-Teddy roster and identify why the Vikings and their fans should still hold out hope:This defense could be really good ... and better than last year.Some might make the case that the Vikings were already great on defense last year by using traditional numbers. Mike Zimmers defense finished the year fifth in points allowed, but some of that comes out in the contextual wash. Minnesota faced only?170 meaningful possessions, the fourth-lowest total in the league, and its defense started its average drive with the fifth-best starting field position in football.As a result, the Vikings finished the season 14th in DVOA, just below the Colts, who arent exactly drawing attention as an up-and-coming defense. In a way, though, finishing 14th is better for their chances of improving on defense this season than finishing fifth, right? Minnesota has been steadily improving under Zimmer, too. After inheriting a defense that finished 27th in DVOA before his arrival in 2013, Zimmers charges finished 23rd as he reshaped the unit before jumping to 14th last season.Its a young defense in a lot of spots, too, even if the numbers are skewed a bit by some older starters. The Football Outsiders Almanac 2016 notes that the average Vikings defender in for a given snap last year was 27.5 years old, which was the fourth-oldest in the league. But those numbers include huge workloads with more than 80 percent of the defensive snaps for defensive end Brian Robison, who was 32 last year, and cornerback Terence Newman, who was 37. Outside linebacker Chad Greenway, also 32 last year, played 58.8 percent of the defensive snaps.Robison and Newman should shift further into defensive rotations this year and lose snaps to a pair of second-year defenders, defensive end Danielle Hunter and 2015 first-round pick Trae Waynes. Hunter, who had six sacks last year, is likely to be the teams starting end across from Everson Griffen by the end of the year. Waynes struggled at times as a rookie, but even future superstar cornerbacks often struggle as rookies. With Waynes and 2016 second-rounder Mackensie Alexander in reserve, the Vikings have options if Newman finally feels the effects of Father Time.Elsewhere, the Vikings have five above-average starters who are all first- or second-round picks from their last five draft classes, paced by star safety Harrison Smith. Smith and versatile linebacker Anthony Barr are already Pro Bowlers, and the other three are each capable of making another leap forward this year. Cornerback Xavier Rhodes has improved dramatically during his time in the league and needs only to cut down on his penalties to justify Pro Bowl consideration. Defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd might already be there if he could make it through a 16-game season, and middle linebacker Eric Kendricks shored up the teams perennial weak spot at middle linebacker after taking over as a starter in midseason. These guys are all already good and young enough to have a shot at becoming great.More than anything, theres just so much talent on this defense that there are bound to be guys who make plays on a weekly basis. Griffen had 10.5 sacks last year, which isnt bad by any means, but his 30 quarterback knockdowns suggest that hes likely to improve the sack total in 2016 if he stays healthy. Reserve interior pass-rusher Tom Johnson might be one of the most underrated players in all of football; for just over $2 million, the Vikings got 20 knockdowns out of Johnson last year, as many as the Dolphins got from Ndamukong Suh.Its not a guarantee the Minnesota defense improves in 2016. It was the leagues seventh-healthiest unit per Adjusted Games Lost last season and ranked second in red-zone defense in terms of points allowed per trip inside the 20. Both of those factors are incredibly important and incredibly unlikely to occur on an annual basis. Even if the Vikings do play worse in the red zone and struggle more with injuries, though, theyre deep enough and talented enough on defense that a baseline level of play should get better. At the very least, theres a significant chance the Vikings are a better defense in 2016, which was unlikely for the Cowboys and their fluky league-leading takeaway rate this time last year.Theyre the most run-heavy offense in the league ... and Adrian Peterson is?still here.In one sense, the Vikings needed less out of their quarterback than any other team. They attempted just 454 passes last year, the fewest in all of football and a whopping 117 attempts below the NFL average. All but seven of those passes came from Bridgewater. Only the Rams averaged fewer passing yards per game than Minnesotas 183.0 yards per contest.This is a run-first football team. As I mentioned when writing about Bridgewater earlier this month, the Vikings ran the ball 66.5 percent of the time on first-and-10 when the game was within 14 points. That was the highest rate in football. A league-high 27.2 percent of Bridgewaters passes involved play-action. The Vikings pounded the ball as much as anybody in football and still finished eighth in DVOA, speaking to their rare combination of both volume and efficiency.Its also not crazy to imagine the running game being even better in 2015. They will lose Bridgewater, who has been a surprisingly efficient runner on designed draws and scrambles, and its always risky to believe that Peterson (or any back) will make it through a full 16-game season, as he did in 2015, without missing a week or two with injuries. The Vikings do have a wildly productive backup for Peterson in third-year man Jerick McKinnon, though, and were fourth in rushing DVOA in 2014 while Peterson sat on the exempt list for 15 of 16 games.Instead, the Vikings could be better running the football because of an improved offensive line. Minnesota spent all of 2015 without two starters up front, losing center John Sullivan and right tackle Phil Loadholt to season-ending injuries. Sullivan and Loadholt are gone; Loadholt retired, and Sullivan was released Tuesday. Joe Berger excelled in Sullivans absence at center, and Minnesota imported free agents?Andre Smith and Alex Boone, both of whom have been excellent run blockers when healthy. Minnesota also got a piece of now-forgotten good news when H-back Rhett Ellison returned to practice last week after tearing his patella in January.The Cowboys, meanwhile, couldnt have been as effective in 2015 as they were the previous year. They lost DeMarco Murray, who had produced a career year and stayed healthy for the first time as a pro in 2014. Their five starting offensive linemen started 75 of 80 games together in 2014, while guard Ronald Leary went down with a groin injury in the very first week of the season in 2015. He would have gotten his job back if it werent for the presence of freakish rookie guard Lael Collins, whom the Cowboys were lucky to see fall into undrafted free agency, but the point about the line struggling to be quite as healthy still stands. Dallas also never really had a healthy Dez Bryant in 2015, which dramatically impacted the passing attack, independent of their quarterback situation.The dropoff from Bridgewater to Shaun Hill isnt anywhere near as bad as the dropoff from Romo to Matt Cassel and Brandon Weeden.While Romo threw only 435 passes in 2014, he was incredibly efficient and effective on those passes, leading the league in completion percentage, yards per attempt, passer rating and QBR. His replacements did not threaten to lead the league in anything, at least not anything good. Bryants absence and limited ability didnt help matters, but going from Romos MVP-caliber season to Cassel learning the playbook in midseason is about as big of a swing as youll see at quarterback.Bridgewater and Hill have different styles, and Bridgewater obviously has more long-term upside than a 36-year-old backup, but their level of production as pros hasnt been that different. Since throwing his first professional pass in 2007, Hill has posted a QBR of 45.6. Bridgewater posted a 62.7 figure last year and is at 59.9 so far as a pro. The difference between Romo in 2014 (a QBR of 83.6) and the various Dallas passers in 2015 (39.8) was much larger.Lets put it in context another way. The pro-football-reference.com Index statistics adjust a quarterbacks statistics for the era in which he was performing and scale them so that 100 is league-average. Since Hill threw that first pass in 2007, he has posted an era-adjusted passer rating (Rate+) of 101, right in line with Eli Manning and Jay Cutler. In terms of adjusted net yards per attempt (ANY/A+), which is probably the best single-number quarterback metric using raw statistics, Hill has posted a mark of 98. Thats just below Joe Flacco (99) and good for 29th out of the 47 quarterbacks who have thrown 1,000 passes or more over that timeframe. Hills era-adjusted career numbers arent notably worse than Bridgewaters. In some cases, theyre actually better. Take a look:The problem, of course, is with aging curves. Bridgewater is 23 and was likely to continue improving with a young receiving corps and an improved offensive line. Hill is 36 and has just one season with meaningful action since the end of the 2010 season, when he was mediocre for the 2014 Rams and went 3-7 despite an excellent defense. That was with a porous offensive line and the infamously dull Brian Schottenheimer as offensive coordinator, though, and Hill should have more to work with as the regular in Minnesota this season.Hill might actually fit into Norv Turners scheme.Again, in looking back at the Bridgewater piece from earlier this month, I noted how Turner has really built a scheme around his offenses strengths and weaknesses. His offensive line wasnt great, so Turners running game was built more around timing and misdirection and slowing defenders down with threats of run-pass options from Bridgewater, who did an excellent job of handling the football before giving it to Peterson or attempting a pass.The other notable tendency with the offense has been attacking deep. Bridgewater made excellent throws downfield here and there, but overall as a pro he hasnt been an effective deep passer in terms of efficiency. Turner has also accounted for that in his playcalling and doesnt have Bridgewater throw downfield very often, which is out of character for an offensive coordinator who loved to have Philip Rivers chuck the ball downfield in San Diego.With Bridgewater out of the lineup, Turner will probably need to change his offense again. It will be impossible to rebuild the offense on the fly in the two weeks before the season starts, but with a healthier, more imposing offensive line, it wouldnt be a surprise to see him try to line up and overwhelm teams physically without resorting to the run-pass options. With Bridgewater out of the lineup, Turner might simplify his offense for Hill by removing those concepts from the playbook or going to them less frequently.And it wouldnt be a surprise to see Turner take more shots downfield with Hill in the lineup. The Vikings will still be relying heavily on their running game and play-action, and thats where Turner will want to challenge safeties creeping up to the line of scrimmage with throws to Stefon Diggs and the rest of the Vikings receiving corps. Hill, for what its worth, has been a totally reasonable downfield attacker during his pro career. ESPN credits him for a QBR of 84.3 on throws 20 or more yards downfield as a pro, against a league-average of 84.6 over that same timeframe.QBR tends to reward passers for their deep throws, because theyre so dependent upon quarterback skill. If we use passer rating instead, Hill has posted an 88.6 mark against a league-average of 86.6. Of Hills deep throws, 41.3 percent have been successful against a league-average rate of 41.6 percent. Hes basically been a league-average downfield passer. If age hasnt sapped Hills arm strength, that would be an upgrade for the Vikings, who could also be better at wide receiver this year, thanks to the draft and development.?The idea of being average isnt exciting, but for a team fresh off losing its star passer in a league in which quarterbacks mean everything, maybe it does matter. If Hill is the 35th-best quarterback in the league right now in a vacuum, that would be a very comfortable landing spot, given how far teams can fall when they lose their starting quarterback. The Vikings are a team built wisely upon solid coaching and above-average depth, trusting that its more important to have good pieces up and down the roster than a few stars who have to carry a few scrubs over the line. That philosophy will be tested with Bridgewater on the sideline in 2016, but dont expect what you saw in Dallas last year.Custom Brooklyn Nets Jerseys . Arsenal failed to take full advantage of its main rivals stumbles on Saturday as substitute Gerard Deulofeu levelled with a hard shot from a tight angle in the 84th minute to give Everton a deserved point. Ahead of a crucial fortnight that will see them play against Napoli in the Champions League, Manchester City and Chelsea, Arsenal leads by five points ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea. Theo Pinson Jersey . The Montreal Canadiens announced on Friday that the veteran forward will return to the teams line-up on Saturday night when the Habs visit the Nashville Predators. https://www.netsrookiesshop.com/Jarrett-Allen-City-Edition-Jersey/ .com) - Richie Incognito has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric care unit in Arizona. Caris LeVert Jersey . Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. Henry Ellenson Jersey .ca! Hi Kerry, Its another day and here we are looking at another dubious hit to the head. In this case Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky elbowed Saku Koivu in the head about a second after he dished off the puck to a teammate, knocking him unconscious.Michael Saunders grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, which is less than 100 miles from Seattle, home of the Mariners. Naturally, he rooted for the Blue Jays, who were 2,700 miles and three time zones away in Toronto.For me and my family, it was all Blue Jays, and for the friends I grew up with going to school, it was all Blue Jays too, the Toronto outfielder said. And obviously, the excitement during those two World Series was through the roof.Those two World Series were in 1992 and 1993, and the Blue Jays won each -- the first against Atlanta on Dave Winfields Game 6 11th-inning double, and the second against Philadelphia on Joe Carters Game 6 walk-off/dance-off home run. Their popularity went not only through the roof but also through the stratosphere. The Blue Jays led the league in attendance six years in a row, including 1993, when they averaged 50,000 fans per game.And then the team went into a sudden and surprising decline. After 11 consecutive winning seasons and almost constant contention, the Blue Jays began piling up losing seasons in 1994 and went 21 years without reaching a single postseason. Average attendance plummeted to as low as 19,173 by 2010. From 2008 to 13, they finished no higher than fourth in their division.Ive been here four years, and winning wasnt something that was synonymous with the Blue Jays, Toronto center fielder Kevin Pillar said. We were kind of the doormat of the AL East.And then things changed. After finishing last in 2013 and third in 2014, the Blue Jays won the division last year. This year, after beating Baltimore in the wild-card game and Texas in an AL Division Series, they will be playing for the AL pennant against Cleveland.Theyre also massively popular again, leading the league in attendance with an average of close to 42,000 per game. And that isnt counting the many fans who filled the stadium in Seattle for a series against the Mariners in September. Its almost like a West Coast Canadian holiday, Saunders said of the Blue Jays crowds in Seattle.As when Hall of Fame general manager Pat Gillicks Blue Jays added Roberto Alomar in 1991, Jack Morris in 1992 and Paul Molitor in 1993, acquiring new players has been a big factor in Torontos resurgence. As Pillar said, We went out and got some really, really good players and ultracompetitive guys, and that kind of changed the culture.One of those really, really good players was third baseman Josh Donaldson, whom the Blue Jays acquired via an offseason trade after the 2014 season. He was a significant boost for Toronto and immediately won the 2015 AL MVP. SSigning catcher and Canada native Russell Martin that same offseason was also important.ddddddddddddFor one thing, they brought some toughness to us, manager John Gibbons said. The previous couple of years, I didnt think we had enough of that. Id seen Josh from afar playing in Oakland, and I knew what he was about. We got him and it rubbed off on our guys. ... And Id seen Russ a little bit, but his reputation was the same way, a hard-nosed guy. And Russ is the backbone of this team.The two played key roles in completing the Jays division series sweep of the Rangers on Sunday, with Donaldson scoring the winning run from second base on Martins grounder. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, whom Toronto acquired in 2015, played a huge role as well, driving in five runs in the series.Tulowitzki is the same type of guy, Gibbons said. They made a big difference because you can have a ton of talent, but if you dont have some toughness, some gamers and some guys who are really motivated every day to win, you come up empty.Obviously, veterans Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista have been crucial, with Encarnacion hitting 42 home runs in the regular season and three this postseason, including his wild card-winning three-run blast.Torontos pitching also has been very good all season -- the Blue Jays had the leagues lowest ERA at 3.78 -- and the offense has been powerful, with 221 home runs. There was a slump in September, though, when the Jays averaged the fewest runs per game in the majors and nearly missed the playoffs.We rely on that home run ball. And when you run into a little drought, you come up empty a lot of nights, Gibbons said. It was a tough September. We battled. We really picked it up at the end just to get in, and since the month has turned over into October, it kind of looks like the old team.Indeed. The Jays homered eight times and scored 22 runs in the division series. They have hit 10 home runs in their four postseason games.Were pitching well, and were playing good defense, and right now, weve been able to hit the homer. And thats big, a big positive for our offense, Donaldson said. Because there are times when we rely on that, because we dont have a lot of guys in our lineup who are speed-oriented and that are going to take advantage of extra bases. Thats not how were built. Were built to hit the long ball.We definitely feel good where we are at right now.And their fans are feeling good as well, in Victoria and beyond. ' ' '