The Buccos and the Vikes face off in what could be the second best Thursday Night game at the half-way point in the season.

Dustin: Vikings – We can lay to rest the whole “Will Adrian Peterson be the same player again?” debate, he’s back and he’s still running like his life is depending on it. He demolished the Cardinals last week and the Bucs defense he faces Thursday is nowhere near as stout, they gave up 28 points in about a quarter to the Saints. The real test will be for the Vikings D because the Tampa Bay offense has shown flashes of brilliance. Josh Freeman and Vincent Jackson went absolutely nuts last week and rookie RB Doug Martin had another solid outing and seems to be finding his footing in the league. The Vikings D and AP had to bail out a dismal Christian Ponder performance last week so if Ponder can bounce back from his 58 yard game last week, the Vikings could easily dominate all aspects of this game, but I think Freeman to Jackson makes the most competitive game of the Thursday Night Football season thus far. Vikings – 35, Bucs – 34.

Cameron: Buccaneers – The Vikings eked a rather close win against the sub-par Cardinals last week. If not for an interception returned for a touchdown that game possibly could’ve seen overtime or possibly even a tie. The whole game was atrocious and it only went to show that, A. the Vikings are a good-to-great defense that if put against an inept and impotent offense can probably pull out the victory (cough, cough, the Cardinals) , and B. They still rely heavily on Adrian Peterson and against a top-tier run-D in Tampa I don’t see that playing out accordingly. The Bucs come into this game though, with an offense that seemed to find it’s groove (much like Stella) against a streaking Saints team and a defense that stops the run at all costs.  Last week Christian Ponder was piss poor against the Cards and I fully expect him to lay an egg in this one too. Bucs – 23, Vikings 16.