Friday 6 October 2017 18:24, UK
Minnesota Vikings' tight end Kyle Rudolph is penning a weekly blog during the 2017 NFL season. In his latest offering, he celebrates his twin daughters' first birthday, tells us who on the team loves the camera, and reacts to Dalvin Cook's season-ending injury...
We're back on prime time this week!
Well, prime time in the US, at least. Monday Night Football!
I grew up as a kid watching Monday Night Football; it was always a treat to be able to stay up late, past bedtime, on a school night, to watch it.
I love it. You're the only game on. Everyone in the country is watching, gets home from work after a long day and they tune in. It's not quite a playoff atmosphere, but certainly the closest thing to it in the regular season.
Keep an eye on Stefon Diggs. If we had a 'primetime' on our team, it would definitely be him. He always seems to find the cameras, loves the cameras.
It's a big game for us against the Chicago Bears, the second of three divisional games in a row - it's crucial we don't lose two out of the first three of those.
Last week's loss to the Detroit Lions was a tough one to take. We fought hard, played physical but, unfortunately on offence, we just gave the ball away too many times - three fumbles.
Defensively we played really well, holding a very good offence to just 14 points, and we even had the chance to tie late in the game, down inside their five-yard line, but turned it over again, this time on downs.
Anytime you turn the ball over four times, and the other team has zero against their name, it's hard to win in this league.
The loss of Dalvin Cook to injury for the year is a big blow for us. You hate to see it anytime a guy goes down, especially as he was playing really well, but injuries are a part of our game - we have to move on.
It helps to have a Pro Bowler waiting in the wings to take his spot - Latavius Murray is more than capable of coming in and getting it done, plus Jerick McKinnon has also had a good grounding in this league for a few years now.
I'm certain both of those guys can step up and fill the void left by Dalvin. But it's not just down to them - everyone will have to elevate their game to make up for what we've lost.
I have every confidence in our guys that we'll do that. One of the best qualities of our team is we're built to handle adversity.
There's nothing that we've not been through over the last year and a bit - we've had countless injuries to the offensive line, lost our starting quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater last year and Sam Bradford since Week One of this one, a future Hall of Fame running back in Adrian Peterson, and even our head coach Mike Zimmer had to miss a game.
Though the result didn't go our way against Detroit, I did have some cause for celebration over the weekend - my two twin girls Andersyn and Finley turned one.
It's crazy that they're a year old already! We had some family in town last week and celebrated their birthday on Saturday before I headed off for the game.
My wife went all out - she had all the decorations up, sorted a unicorn birthday cake, cookies, nice outfits for them both. We've set the bar high! They probably got more presents for their first birthday than my entire family get for Christmas!
It's a shame I couldn't quite come home with the 'W' on Sunday night, but I'm hoping to return from Chicago with one this weekend.
Historically we've struggled at Soldier Field - I think we've only won two of our last 15 trips there.
It's going to be a crazy atmosphere. They're starting their rookie quarterback Mitch Trubisky, the No 2 overall pick in the draft, a guy who everybody wants to see in action.
The defence will be keen to get after him. But, as an offence, we can also make it really hard on him by not turning the ball over. If we don't do that, he has to go the length of the field against our defence - and they're pretty good!
When we give those guys the opportunity to rush the passer and get after the quarterback, they're hard to go against.
We know what we're getting ourselves into but, like I said, we understand the extra importance of this week for our season.
