Say my Name, Say my Name ...

or hell, just call my number, says Mr. Michael "I just got here Tuesday" Thomas, of Miami.
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Michael Thomas, a defensive back signed off San Francisco’s practice squad only five days earlier and pressed into his NFL debut amid a string of injuries, intercepted a Tom Brady pass in the end zone with seconds remaining to preserve the Dolphins’ 24-20 victory over the New England Patriots at Sun Life Stadium.
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Thomas, on how many snaps in practice he has taken with Miami’s defense: “Zero.” Terrific. He also didn’t play a single defensive snap until four minutes remained, which is when Brady feasts on defenses.

“I knew being the new guy, Tom Brady was going to come after me,” Thomas said.
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First, Thomas knocked a potential touchdown pass from the hands of Danny Amendola with 21 seconds left. Then, with seven seconds left, Thomas hauled in Brady’s fourth-down throw intended for Austin Collie.
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Dolphins offensive players wondered what they were watching. “I’m like, ‘Who is 31?’ ” left tackle Bryant McKinnie said. “We were actually talking about that on the sideline. ‘Who is that?’

“'And then he made the play at the end and I’m like, ‘Geez, 31 had a good game.’ Nobody knew his name. We just kept saying, ‘31.’ ”

Coach Joe Philbin: “I don’t know him that well.”

Coach, meet Michael Thomas: He is a 24-year-old, 5-foot-11, 196-pound undrafted defensive back from Stanford who said he wasn’t nervous when his number (certainly not his name) was called Sunday.

No, he didn’t know the defensive signals, so he and fellow DBs Reshad Jones and Clemons were screaming back and forth as Brady frantically drove the Patriots from their 20 to the Miami 14.

“If they didn’t think I got the call, they were screaming at me,” Thomas said. “And if I didn’t get it and it looked like Tom Brady was about to snap it, I’m screaming, ‘Hey, you.’ I’m trying to get their attention.”

Mission completed.
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Meanwhile, in Minn-e-sota,
the team finds ways to win in the absence of injured running back Adrian Peterson:

With Peterson and Toby Gerhart out, third-stringer Matt Asiata rushed for his first three career touchdowns. Greg Jennings caught a career-high 11 passes for 163 yards. The Vikings (4-9-1) produced quite the spoiler performance without their top two running backs, top two tight ends and top three cornerbacks.
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Asiata needed 30 attempts to total 51 yards, but he helped the Vikings control the clock after taking an early lead. Their time of possession was 36 minutes, 26 seconds.
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Matt Cassel completed 26 of 35 passes and improved to 2-2 as a starter. In two other games, he relieved an injured Christian Ponder and helped guide the Vikings to victory.

“He's not worried about what could've, should've, possibly or could've possibly been,” Jennings said. “He stays in the now. As a player, that's how we have to operate.”
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Cassel passed for two touchdowns and 382 yards, the most by a Minnesota quarterback since Brett Favre was here, and ran for another score to lead the injury-depleted Vikings to a 48-30 victory that snapped a five-game winning streak by the Eagles.
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“Got great camaraderie. Got good leadership. So as you can tell, nobody's letting down for anything,'” Cassel said.
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“I don't think you can ever count out our players. We've had some difficult moments this season, for sure, but I always believed,” coach Leslie Frazier said.

“Even early in the week I said, 'This game really doesn't have to be this close,' except for the fact that we were going with so many guys in backup roles.”
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“It says a lot about this team, just the fight in our backups and everything,” wide receiver Jerome Simpson said. “They could go to any other team and play, too.”