Sunday 15 October 2017 17:57, UK
Minnesota Vikings' tight end Kyle Rudolph is penning a weekly blog during the 2017 NFL season. In his latest offering, he explains his duck, duck, goose celebration, talks up the 'gifted' Jerick McKinnon and prepares for the Green Bay Packers...
We had a timeout on the field right before Case Keenum came and called the play in the huddle - I confidently said to the guys, 'after we score here, whoever gets the touchdown, you're the duck and everyone else is the goose'.
I just happened to be the one that got the ball.
It was a great feeling! We just wanted to have some fun, obviously playing on Monday Night Football with the whole world watching.
Hopefully it will happen a few more times this Sunday against the Green Bay Packers - I hear you've got my former team-mate Corey Wootton in the studio to cover the game, so maybe a Corey-style robot?
Or, maybe we'll save that one for London, when we play at Twickenham in a couple of weeks? It may need some WD-40 treatment first.
It was big win for us over the Chicago Bears. It's never easy to go to Soldier Field and come away with a victory - we'd only won two of our past 15 trips there.
We were aware of that record and knew it was something that we had to take care of. But, the first half didn't go very well - we gave up a safety, we didn't move the ball on offence. You could have looked at that, given in and thought, 'here we go again, we're laying another egg at Soldier Field', but that was never the case.
The guys really bought in to getting things going. Going in at half-time, everyone was just as confident as before - we knew we just had to settle down and play our game, stop getting in our own way.
We came back out in the second half and started with back-to-back touchdown drives, one a huge 58-yard touchdown run from Jerick McKinnon, which was a big spark for us.
Jerick is as gifted a player as I've ever been around. Although he's not a big guy, he is incredibly strong and fast, a physical runner.
We have seen him make big plays over the last three years here. Obviously Dalvin Cook came in and got off to a great start before his injury, and he will have a great career in this league, but we had no worries at all about bringing Jerick into the game and that he would pick up the slack.
This week we've got our third divisional game in a row, playing the Packers.
For the fans, it doesn't get any bigger! Minnesota and Wisconsin are bordering states, so the close proximity of fan bases and the great history of both, means the rivalry is intense.
Plus, Brett Favre switched from the Packers to the Vikings a few years ago, wanting specifically to play against Green Bay, so that added some spice to things.
For us, it's an even bigger game than usual. It's a good marker for us. The Packers are always right there at the end of the year - they're the defending NFC North champs, knocking us off top spot last year, and I think they've been to the playoffs eight years in a row.
We want to be right there with them, battling come late December, so we have to hold court against them this Sunday and win at home.
In Aaron Rodgers they've got one of the best quarterbacks in our game! But, any time you play a future Hall of Fame QB as an offence, it's important you stay on the field, keep Aaron on the sideline with a baseball hat on - that's the best way to stop him.
Look at last week, the Dallas Cowboys did well to keep him quiet for most of the game, but then the give the ball back to him late and he somehow just finds a way to win..
Hopefully we can keep that from happening come Sunday.
Week Six continues on Sunday with three live games on Sky Sports Action, starting with Green Bay Packers @ Minnesota Vikings, from 5.30pm.
