The importance of winning this game cannot be stressed enough as all roads to the playoff run through victory in Minnesota. Gameday info is here and kickoff is set for 8:15PM Eastern. The world will be watching. Since I'm such an awesome weatherman: low is 6 degrees with snow approaching certainty at 70%. The sun will be going down around four hours before kickoff. But none of that matters, because the cowardly Vikings play in a dome.

Make sure to stop by: My blogging amigo at Daily Norseman and The Curly R (he has a 5 questions up with a Vikings blogger). Ever reliable, Lee Gibbons has up his FYI for the game. Gibbs is 8-1 against the Vikings. Childress has never lost to the Redskins. Something must give. Both teams come off impressive wins, us against the Giants 22-10, them against the Bears 20-13. Besides the margin, our victory is the more impressive since we beat a playoff caliber Giants on the road and they beat a snoozing Bears team at home.

How do we win this game? Force Jackson to beat us in the air. There needs to be a serious and adult attempt to stop Adrian Peterson, even if that is many parts futile. He is that offense, that team, and giving up an early lead to Peterson will make it very difficult for us to emerge victorious. Early scoring would go a long way towards forcing them to air the ball out more (though this is really pointless -- if I had Adrian Peterson I actually would use the run to catch up with opponents).

Injury Report: LaRon Landry is probable and necessary if we're going to prevent long, long, gone runs by Peterson. Keenan McCardell is probable but necessary for 1st downs. Mike Pucillo is out, which means if Casey Rabach goes down, the team is going to call me on my cell and demand I snap the ball to Todd Collins. Doubtful, Todd Yoder is. (Nerd alert!)

I want to wish all reader(s) a very Merry Christmas, unless that offends you, in which case happy holidays that's a tough break, for you. I'll be visiting family, friends, and loved ones for the next few days and will probably be away from this space for a short hiatus, though feel free to explore it at your leisure and I'll do my best to get diaries promoted to the front page to fill time (this is a plea to all Hogs Haven contributors to do the same, if possible). You guys have been outstanding. Once I get back home one lucky reader will be getting mailed free print of the Redskins Encylcopedia as promised.