Earlier this week I felt like this was a huge game for the Patriots to prove that they are indeed in the conversation of Super Bowl contenders. Sure, they’ve beaten two very good teams since the bye week, but it’s been the old school brand of Patriots football that we were more accustomed to in the early part of the decade. Playing solid football, capitalizing on the other teams mistakes, and most of all not beating themselves. But we have yet to see an all around dominating performance in all phases of the game.
You don’t really know what you’re getting with the Vikings this week. I remember being similarly nervous before the 2006 game against them, and that ended up being, in the words of Brad Childress “a surgical procedure”. What do the Patriots have to do to get the Vikings back on the operating table this weekend after the jump.