Week 9 vs. Washington Commanders – Manchester Meet (6 November 2022)

About a year ago to the day, I got on the train in Leeds to go to Manchester for my first UK and Ireland Minnesota Vikings Fan Club meet. I’d been a Vikings fan since the 90s, a Club member for a couple of years and I already been to a Club Zoom meet, but this was the first time ever I was going to watch a game with other Vikings fans, real actual Vikings fans.

We lost that game, in overtime, despite being up by 14. Usually that would leave a bad impression, but honestly, that was one of the most memorable and enjoyable sporting events I’d been to. It started great friendships and brought me closer to the team. I finally felt like a real Vikings fan.

Roll on a year and I was about to make the same trip across the Pennines. This was a different team now, a new GM, a new coach and a new philosophy and culture. After all, we were 6-1! So why did I still feel so nervous!

Here’s how the day went.

 

07:30

“Wake up Daddy, it’s morning time”

I have my own little organic alarm clock. It picks its own time to go off and picks its own volume. He’s called Billy and he’s 4.

My alarm can be met with a wide range of emotions, depending on the day, time and what we did the previous day, but Sunday morning it was met with a smile. Today was game day, away at Washington and I was excited.

The date had been written on the calendar on the fridge for weeks, it wasn’t just another season game. It was the Club meet in Manchester and with a young family it needs some planning. What I didn’t know is that we would have won in London and be 6-1, so I was really looking forwards to meeting up with the guys again and hopefully seeing us go 7-1.

08:00

There are certain things you need to do to get enough brownie points so you can leave your wife with 2 young children and ‘swan off ‘ to another city to watch a 3-hour game of football, and that started by letting her sleep in whilst I did breakfast. 2 fed children later and first points were banked.

09:00

Another opportunity to earn points was to do the cleaning. This works for everyone as the kids can play in a different room, supervised by mummy and I can do the cleaning whilst watching the pregame and checking my fantasy teams.

This year’s fantasy wasn’t going so well so it was good to get the team set up, but I was more interested in the pregame. Who was injured, who was playing, any other team news. Dalvin Tomlinson was going to be a loss, but I was happy that was the only major injury concern we had.

I’m a big Irv Smith fan and was gutted he got injured last week but everything I had read about Hockenson was pointing to him being a major asset to the team. He even looked cheap when taking the trades into account, so it was another reason to be excited. Another real threat on the offence and someone who could break the double and triple coverage on
Justin Jefferson (JJ).

13:00

Speaking of JJ, my new Jersey arrived this week and I had to go for the Jefferson Alternate Vapor Limited Jersey. Amazing quality and added not only a JJ to my collection, but also a bit of colour.

But it also brought with it a problem, which Jersey to wear. I had been wearing my Cook shirt and we had been winning. Do I break that tradition and potentially bring bad luck to the team? Or do I bring JJ some luck after not seeing the end zone since Week 1! I was leaving soon so a decision had to be made.

 

I went with JJ, after all what Jersey I wear wasn’t going to make a difference right?

14:00

I said bye to the kids, told them to be good and look after Mummy and headed for the train station. I’m only a short ride from Leeds and I had planned on getting the train to Manchester. However, fortunately I met two other Club members, Will Day and Andy Vickers, at the Leeds meet in Week 1 and we decided to all travel together.

Will offered to drive (thanks Will) so we planned to meet at the train station. How I managed to miss the car with the Vikings jersey and Skol flag hung in the window I will never know! A bit of shouting to get my attention and off we went. Destination Manchester – The Brotherhood.

16:30

We arrived in a dreary Manchester, having talked about the game, the team, and our lives for the hour journey in the car. It was great to get to know the guys better and it’s amazing how quickly you bond over a love of a sports team that hasn’t won the big game ever. Will had recently been to the U.S. Bank Stadium to watch the Bears game and travelled down to Miami to watch the Dolphins game. After he’d been to watch the Saints game in London, we were going to chip in for a season ticket for him as he’s clearly our good luck charm. He had some great stories and it only made me want to make the pilgrimage to Bank Stadium more.

We parked, got to the bar, and started to set up. Carl Whittingham (Club North UK Lead and all round great guy) was already there and had the Skol flag up and his Harrison Smith jersey pinned to the wall. Excitement levels were rising and with the Liverpool game on in the background I was ready to watch some sport.

 

 

We had suggested people arrive from 17:00 and they did not disappoint. It was great to see such a great turnout and we were all set to cheer on the Vikes together. One big UK and Ireland Vikings family.

We were running a game day competition and raffle, so I collected all the answers and raffle entries before the game. The competition questions were
1. Guess the total Vikings offence yardage (+-15)
2. Guess the total Vikings game sacks (+-1)
3. Guess the first Vikings touchdown scorer

With a Salute to Service jersey up for grabs it’s always worth getting to a meet and entering the competition. The raffle was £10 a ticket and we had a signed Danielle Hunter mini speed helmet to win. The raffles are important to the club. They help us generate funds to run events and promote the club wider so, again great to get involved.

18:00

Kick off. I like us to get the ball first, some will disagree, but I think it sets a tone for the game. Get the offence on the field and attack the opponent. And that’s exactly what we did. A couple of stand out, plays on the drive from our new Tight End and JJ and we were in the red zone. A snap saw Kirk Cousins go through targets and float a beauty over the top to JJ in the corner. The Commanders had good coverage, but to quote the commentary team, even when he’s covered, he’s uncovered.

A first drive touchdown, JJ in the end zone and the room was rockin! A couple of griddies were even popped out. Did it have anything to do with my new JJ jersey? I guess we will never know. Good to see the extra point sail over and we were ready for more action.

After that the game was slightly less exciting. The defence was doing their job, Hunter making a sack had the guys in the room counting for the competition prize and Kirk was getting Hockenson into the game, but we couldn’t quite put more points on the board. The Commanders were limited to just 3 points for the half, and it looked like it was going to be another tight one. We never make things easy but when we got the ball again with just 30
odd seconds to go in the half, we put a quick drive together. Starting with that man Hockenson, then Thielen gets us close and with 14 seconds to go, the receivers are let loose, and Kirk throws a cannon into the end zone. JJ goes up, it bounces out of his arms and the Commanders make an interception. An exciting way to end the half but the points would have been nice.

19:30

Half time came and it was time to get some refreshments, order some food and draw the raffle. We set the spinner off and fate was to decide. Previous Fan of the Week Jonah was the lucky person and went home with the signed mini helmet. A fine memento of a great game so far.

 

 

Half time also allowed me to get round the room and speak to everyone that came to watch. Patrick was there for his first meet. Lucian brought his son for their first meet up. Michael and Christina had a great time with Christina winning a Vikings scarf for getting the first touchdown scorer correct (the only person to pick JJ, shocking)!

I can’t stress how welcoming everyone is at the meets the Club runs. It really is like one big family and its great to have so many people turn out, from all over the place as well.

19:45

Time for the second half and the 3rd quarter nerves were kicking in. Unfortunately, we were right to be nervous. A great kick off reception from the Commanders set up a scoring opening drive for the opponents as a late draft saw the official run interference on Bynum which would have been an easy reception. Instead, the Commanders receive the ball and roll over the line for a touchdown. I thought we got a touch, but we were 10-7 down and it felt like our luck might be coming to an end.

A bit of back and forth later, including a great stop by the Vikings defence when the Commanders went for it on 4th and 1 and we went into the 4th quarter still 3 points down. Things didn’t get better as the first play of the quarter ended in a Commanders touchdown and we were 17-7 down. A few plays later we got a field goal back to make it 17-10 but we looked flat and couldn’t quite make it happen.

We needed a spark and who better to deliver it than Smith. With his 3rd interception in as many games we get the ball back and go on the attack. I must say I’ve been impressed with our new look offence, much more diverse and only getting better. But I never expected Cook to make a catch in the corner to add more points. A play that almost defines our season so far. Find a way to make it happen.

We kick the extra point, go level and the room is all set for the final 7 minutes.

We get the ball back after another sack and with 5 minutes left, we go on a drive. Just after the 2-minute warning we fail to punch it in and go for a field goal. The right decision leaves the Commanders with decent time to make a score or take us into overtime.

It couldn’t be a repeat of last season’s game against the Ravens, could it?

We kick the FG; the room celebrates and then we see the yellow flash. A flag. With all the penalties last season cost us, it was great to see this one go our way. We get another set of downs and can run down the clock. We get it down to 14 seconds, kick a FG (thanks Greg Joseph, never doubted you) and then we get the defence on to try to see out the game.

We know there was only 14 seconds left but you wouldn’t be a Vikings fan if you weren’t still nervous. But we did it, on a rainy Sunday night in Manchester, we beat the Commanders in their own backyard and went 7-1. Read that again 7-1!

Lots of high fives rained around the room and everyone could finally breathe out. A great game, with great people. What a great day.

Richard Dawson

Edited by: Thomas Beauchene and Jacqui Melrose