Buccaneers vs. Vikings, Week 8: Vikings bloggers celebrate 5-3 start to season, downplay 36-17 loss

The Minnesota Vikings played a terrible game on Thursday night and consequently got blown out at home by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 36-17, but Vikings bloggers are urging fans to keep the loss in a proper perspective.

After a miserable 3-13 season in 2011, the fact that Minnesota has hit the half waypoint of the current season at 5-3 is nothing short of a miracle -- even if the most recent memory of Vikings football is now a bit tainted.

Christopher Gates of SB Nation's Vikings blog Daily Norseman doesn't want to dwell on the three crushing turnovers or the uneven 19-of-35 passing performance from Christian Ponder. He is just excited that the Vikings have outperformed even the most optimistic expectations:

"[C]onsidering that many "experts" had this team finishing a 16-game schedule with no more than three or four victories, I'm outright ecstatic over being 5-3 at the midway point of the season. I'm not sure how many of us were expecting the Vikings to make the playoffs this year anyway."

Perhaps the biggest success story of 2012 has been star running back Adrian Peterson, who rushed for 123 yards with an electric 64-yard touchdown on just 15 carries --good for an 8.2 yards-per-carry average. Gates makes sure to reinforce the message that AP has returned to form after undergoing major surgery less than 12 months ago: "Adrian Peterson is back, and is back to being every bit the beast that he was prior to his knee injury," Gates says.

The Vikings should be toiling away in a rebuilding effort, but instead own the second-best record in the NFC North and the fourth-best record in the conference. That's something worth celebrating.

In Week 9, Minnesota will travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks.