Predictions revisited

I was curious how my predictions that I did after Week 9 turned out so I checked. I did much better in the NFC than the AFC. I got five out of six in the NFC. The only one I missed was picking the Bucs instead of the Falcons. I even hit three of the final records exactly (Giants, Panthers, and Cardinals). Most importantly though was the correct pick of the Vikes as winners of the NFC North. Look forward to seeing you in the playoffs at 4:30 next Sunday guys.

As far as the AFC, I was only 3 of 6. One of the three I missed being the Colts, who also extended their 12 win streak to six seasons, quite impressive! If should be interesting to see what happens on Saturday night in San Diego since they are hot as well.

Can we get a little help around here?

The Vikings remind me of an infant. They need help to do about anything. The Cheesecurds could have provided that help last night but they were incapable of doing so. Therefore the Vikes are left to fend for themselves on Sunday against the Giants. Coughlin has dodged the questions so far on how he is going to play it, but you gotta think that the Giants aren't going to go 100% on the road when they have nothing to gain, other than spoiling the Vikes season. I hope I am right. I can't handle another offseason of what could have been.

First Round Bye

What a game yesterday by the Vikes. When was the last time they jumped out an opponent like that and won comfortably. I dare to say it, but are they rounding into form for the playoffs? Looking at the playoff scenarios, the Vikes could conceivably get a first round bye if things shake out right. Carolina plays at the Giants on Sunday night so whoever loses that game would have four losses. If it's the Giants who lose (who looked terrible against Dallas yesterday) the Vikes would simply have to win the finale against them and by virtue of the tiebreaker would have the #2 seed and the bye. Say Carolina loses, they play their finale at New Orleans which would not be a cupcake game by any stretch. The Vikes also hold the tiebreaker over them as well. Definitely optimistic given that P. Williams is going to miss the last two games but hopefully they can still win, get the bye, and have him back for the first playoff game.

Way to go Dogs

The picture says it all. Hard nosed, opportunistic defense and just enough offense to hold on for a 21-14 win. It was neat getting to see UMD on ESPN2. The only other time I can remember them being on the national stage was when they made the Frozen Four in 2004. This time the result was a lot more favorable. Good work boys! Way to make all the alumni out there proud.

New coach, same as the old coach

I'm so glad that McHale first Randy Wittman and decided to replace him with......himself??? I'm sure that will work. The silver lining to this that I can see is that since McHale gave up his VP of Basketball Operations role and will probably completely flop as the coach, they will go in a different direction next season. I don't see how they can't. Who in the world would pay to see them right now? I am a huge Timberwolf fan but there are about 127,325 things I would rather do then watch the T-Pups right now.

I'm sure this will be said 1,000 times, but bring back Flip. The chances are extremely slim, I know, but that would at least wake up some of the dormant fan base and excite some of the players since he is a players coach. It may also make a free agent or us want to play for us since he has had success elsewhere. Look at it this way, the T-Wolves had never even had another coach come within 10 games of leading them into the playoffs, besides Flip. Who are they going to get that has better credentials?

Jerry vs. Marion

Does Jerry Jones ever wonder why people don't like him and the Cowboys? How can he call out Marion Barber for not playing yesterday against the Steelers. That was the first game that Barber has missed in over three years. He is the toughest runner in the league and is giving up his long-term health for Jones's team. If he was hurt and not 100% why play and weaken the team.

One more win

After that impressive victory by the Vikes over the Lions yesterday (queue the eye roll) they are in perfect position to win the NFC North with one more win (how sweet is it that the Cheese Curds are 5-8). In fact if the Bears lose to the Saints on Thursday and the Vikes win at the Cardinals Sunday they can clinch it. Even if the Vikes don't beat the Cardinals, as long as they beat the Falcons and the Bears lose at least one of their last three, they will win it. The Vikes hold all of the tiebreakers.

Did anyone find it ironic that Gus got hurt yesterday making a tackle on an interception? It will be interesting to see if he can fight off that lower back bruise and play on Sunday.

On a side note, I hope the Lions don't go winless just for the sake of Duante. You can say what you want about the guy but he had some good years with the Vikes, always competed, and was entertaining to watch. It would actually be perfect if they went into the last game at Lambeau at 0-15 and then beat the Cheese Muffins.

First Place

I can't think of any words to describe this other than....awesome. Keep making plays like this Vikes and Childress might keep his job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWWbvh_eLWo&feature=related

Go Dogs!!

I just got an email about the UMD Bulldogs (my alma mator) being in the Div. II National Semis in football. Who knew?? Apparently the game is on ESPN Classic at Noon EST on Saturday. It looks like it's a road game so I'm sure it will be a test. Obviously I can't get into any in depth scouting on the team they are playing or about UMD for that matter, but go take home the title guys!

Gophers running game

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/35106959.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUjc8LDyiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

Interesting move by Brewster to bring in what he is calling a running game coordinator. It definitely can't hurt since the Gophers run offense and red zone offense were completely futile. The spread offense does not work in the Big Ten, at least not with the players the Gophers currently have, so making adjustments to it seems logical. We'll see if any of the changes are noticeable in Detroit against Ball State on December 26th.

Speaking of Detroit, wow are the Lions abysmally bad. I was worried about the Vikings game against them next week since that is only winnable game they have left, but how in the world could anyone (including the Vikings) lose to them. Thanks for the two free wins Matt Millen.

106-80???

Did I see that right? The T-Wolves beat Detroit on the road by 26 points?!?! The Vikes win by 18 in an outdoor road game. The Goofs lose by 55 in a shutout on senior day in a quazi home game. Quite a weekend. What next, is the Dow going to erase it's losses for the year?

Must Win

Why is it that the Vikes always get themselves into must-win situations throughout the season if they want to make the playoffs? It probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are perpetually a mediocre team.

They have another must-win scenario tomorrow against Jacksonville since they already have five losses and they will not win at Arizona and win probably not win the final game at home against the Giants. Sadly in the last few years the Vikes have wet the bed in games that they need to win. Even though the game is in Jacksonville (whose fans are about as passionate as T-Wolf fans) they should be able to take care of business since the Jags come into the game with a 1-4 record at home. However, we have said that before.

Goodbye Metrodome

I saw this article on startribune.com ranking the top 5 losses in Gophers history while at the Metrodome since the game Saturday against Iowa will be the last game the Gophers will play there. Check it out:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/34813109.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUjc8LDyiUiacyKUU

Notice that you will not find the top five wins. It's also interesting that all of the heartbreaking losses have been in the last eight years. I suppose it was hard to find a heartbreaking loss in the late 80's and 90's when you were blown out every time. Hopefully, the Golden Goofs can close it out in style.

Another Disappointing Day

Unfortunately a football game is four quarters long. If they just played two the Gophers would have improved to 8-3, instead they find themselves at 7-4 in the midst of a three-game slide. I have never coached football so this is easy for me to say but the Gophers play with very little discipline and mental toughness which always seems to cost them in close games. Is that a result of the coaching or just lack of judgment by the players? They also have a horrible track record when they fall behind in games. Bad things happen to them and then they snowball, which is what happened to them again in Madison today.

To be perfectly honest, I was shocked that they almost pulled off the win, even if Wisconsin is far from an impressive team. Our offensive line once again didn't show up and made if difficult for the Gophers to move the ball consistently. That is the strange this about this Gophers team, the O-line is usually their biggest strength (and for a lot of previous teams their only strength). As this season has wore on the O-line has proven to be their biggest liability.

Hopefully they can play a complete game against Iowa and get to 8-4 and thus avoid having to go to the Motor City Bowl where Ball State or Central Michigan will be salivating to beat another Big Ten team (if you count IU as a Big Ten team).

In other positive news, the T-Wolves managed to blow another game when taking a lead into the 4th quarter for the fourth time this season to drop to 1-7 overall. At least Brandon Roy only outscored Randy Foye 24-10.

I am debating changing the name of the blog to Fire Wittman Now, but then everyone would stop reading it, including myself.

Tubby Keeps At It

National signing day in college b'ball was today and Tubby was able to get the another solid recruiting class to come to the U. The experts like the four guys that signed, Scout.com has the class ranked #11 (2nd in the Big Ten behind IU) and Rivals has it ranked #22 (3rd in the Big Ten behind IU and Illinois). Two of the recruits are ranked in the top 100, Royce White (#54-Scout and #19-Rivals) and Rodney Williams (#32-Scout and #95-Rivals). What is impressive about that is they are both from Minnesota. You know that is all because of Tubby. Monson would not have gotten either of those guys.

The Gophers are shaping up to be solid next year since the only two seniors on this year's team are role players, Jamal Abu-Shamala and Jonathan Williams. While it is still way too early to make predictions, they should be able compete for a Big Ten title.

It will be interesting to see how this year's recruiting class (ranked #23 by Rivals and #27 by Scout) fares in the Big Ten. The two Juco transfers, Paul Carter and Devron Bostick, look pretty solid as well as the kid from Canada, Devoe Joseph. The two big guys, Ralph Sampson III and Colton Iverson, are a little raw but will get experience in a hurry since Williams is out for 4-6 weeks. Hopefully they can make a run at a tourney berth but you know they will have RPI issues since the 2nd best nonconference opponent on the schedule is an Ivy league team (Cornell).

MN Sports Weekend

The Minnesota sports scene was about three feet away from having an absolutely abysmal weekend. To recap:

The Gophers got completely embarrassed on ESPN with a no show performance against a 2-7 Michigan team. To top it off, Penn St. got beat so the Big Ten will only get one BCS team, meaning that the Gophers have a 0% chance of going to a January bowl game. However I do hear that Detroit is beautiful at the end of December.

The T'Wolves got blown out by a bad Sacromento team then lost another game after taking a lead into the 4th quarter against Portland, dropping their record to 1-5 to start the season and further solidify their status as NBA also-ran. It's sad when the opposition can sleepwalk through the first three quarters, wake up in the fourth, and still get an easy win.

The Wild also got shutout on Saturday night to drop their record to 2-4 in the last six games (I put that in for dramatic effect) so that brought us to the Vikes/Cheeseheads game on Sunday.

In true Vikings fashion they were in complete control of the game, but in the time it takes to go to the bathroom and clean up lunch they found themselves down by four and Childress looked like his puppy had ran away. However despite themselves they defied all logic and pulled back ahead riding the back of the aptly name superhero AD. Of course they tried to still give the game away by letting the Pack get to the 40 on the kickoff and subsequently into their territory. Then Mike McCarthy decided that they didn't need to get any closer for what would have been the winning field goal and waved the white flag (Crosby's field goal would have been good from anything less than about 45 yards). All Viking fans can only say thanks Mike, you kept the season alive, at least for another week. As fans that's all we ask for.

Little Brown Jug

A conversation heard on the field after the Michigan/Minnesota game on Saturday between the equipment managers after the players gave it back to them.

'Where do we put this thing now?' Equipment Manager #1

'I don't know, I suppose we'll just put it back in the same place it always is.' Equipment Manager #2

Remember what I said last week about the Gophers being overly reliant on Eric Decker to move the ball. Do you think we saw that today?

NFL Midseason Predictions (NFC)

Okay here we go with the NFC.

NFC East: Giants (12-4). The top three teams in this division, Cowboys excluded, all have a chance to win it since they all still play each other at least once before the season is over - the Giants and Eagles still have both of their games. I think there will be a tie for 2nd between the Eagles and Redskins and the Cowboys will finish in last even though they will probably have a winning record.

NFC North: I see a three-way tie for first at 9-7. I sized up all the matchups and it keeps coming up that way. Of course that is contingent upon the Vikes beating both the Pack and the Bears at home. Going through the tiebreakers, the head to heads would be 1-1 for all three, 4- 2 divsion record for all three, and 8-6 record against common opponents for all three. It would then come down to conference record, which I predict the Vikes to be on top of at 7-5, where the Pack and Bears would be 6-6 (Vikes 2-2 against the AFC, Bears and Pack 3-1). Did you get all of that? Of course the Vikes will let me down, probably as early as this weekend. In reality they are actually better off missing the playoffs again since then they could turn the page on the BChill era.

NFC South: Panthers (12-4). This is another divsion where all four teams could potentially have winning records or at least all four teams could have eight wins. These strong division are cancelled out by divisions like the....

NFC West: Arizona (9-7), in reality they really only need to win about one more game to capture the division since they are currently 5-3.

Wild Cards: There will be a three-way tie at 11-5 between the Eagles, Redskins, and the Bucs. The tiebreakers are too complicating to figure out without spending half a day on it and I have a wife, a kid, and a job so I will just say the Eagles and Bucs because I don't like the Redskins.

We'll see how I do, hopefully I get at least three teams right in each conference. Arizona and Tennessee are locks so I'm off to a good start.

NFL Midseason Predictions (AFC)

Nowadays everyone makes predictions on the NFL so I figured I might as well too. It usually makes for good discussion. I will pick a winner for each division and each conference's wild card with their projected record. I'll wait until right before the playoffs start to try and guess the Super Bowl matchup. I'll do the AFC today and the NFC tomorrow.

AFC East: Patriots (10-6) after the tiebreakers. I think both the Jets and Bill could finish 10-6 as well but the Patriots would finish on top because of tiebreakers. The Dolphins have a good chance of finishing over .500 as well.

AFC North: Steelers (12-4) easily. The only team with a shot of unseating them is the Ravens and at best they will finish 9-7.

AFC South: Titans (13-3) with the four-game lead they have now it would take a monumental collapse for them not to win it.

AFC West: Chargers (9-7). They have five home games remaining and they should be able to run the table on those and pick up a victory on the road along the way (at KC). Their only competitor, the Broncos, will probably only finish 7-9. However, they do play in San Diego the last week of the season so that could conceivably be a play-in game for the postseason since the Broncos have the tiebreaker due to Ed Hercules blowing that call when they played in week two.

Wild Cards: Jets (10-6) and Bills (10-6). I want to go against the Jets more than you can imagine for obvious reasons but they have a very winnable game at home against the Rams this weekend and their last five are all winnable. Sorry Colts fans but I think they will fall just short at 9-7 along with the Dolphins and Ravens.

If you couldn't tell, I didn't just randomly throw out numbers, I actually glanced at the remaining schedules, unlike the talking heads at ESPN. I'll still be wrong though.

Wide Open NFC North

With the ankle sprain of Kyle Orton keeping him out for a month and leaving the Bears QB job up to the one and only Rex Grossman, the NFC North is up for grabs between the Packers, Bears, and Vikings. Even if Orton was still in there the division title will come down to the finish.

Looking at the Bears and Packers upcoming schedules, 10-6 should be enough to get Vikes their first NFC North division title. Since there are eight games left I divide the remainder of the schedule up into two- four games stretches. The Vikes need to shoot for 3-1 in each stretch would get them the requisite 10 wins.

The first stretch: vs. Pack, @ Tampa, @ Jacksonville, and vs. Bears. Breaking this down, the games against the Pack and the Bears are must wins. They can't afford to go 0-2 against either one of them since they already lost to both on the road so in essence they have to find a way to win either at Jacksonville or at Tampa.

The second stretch: @ Detroit, @ Arizona, vs. Atlanta, vs. NY Giants. The game @ Arizona is going to be tough so you figure the Vikes will have to win the other three to get to double figures in wins. The game vs. Atlanta was one you could circle as an automatic win at the start of the season but that is no longer the case. That would be a nice one to get for tiebreaker purposes since the Falcons have already beat the Bears and Pack. It could come down to the last game against the Giants, who could very well be playing for home field throughout the NFC playoffs.

I will put another post out there in a few days on my predictions for all of the divisions in the NFL and who I think will get the wild cards.

So Much For That

Well, we saw the Gophers true colors today. Playing a glorified high school team in Northwestern in a game that on paper they should have won easily, the fighting Goofs found a way to find the loss column. Yes the same NW team, that was:

• without their starting QB,
• without their best offensive player - Tyrell Sutton (apparently they have no trust in their backup since the ball never left the QB's hands in the 4th quarter)
• only using about two offensive plays, QB option left and QB option right
• with about four defensive players that entered the game injured or were injured during the first half
• coming off a loss to the mighty IU Hoosiers.

This was not enough for the Gophers to find a way to win and keep alive at least one fans (me) Rose Bowl hopes.

I hate to question someone's heart and resolve but didn't you find it interesting that Eric Decker was still in the game at the end when he could barely walk and above that, Weber was still targeting him? It looked like a valient effort until he dropped the pass that turned into the winning interception. So much for the Arthur Ashe award.

When you take a step back though this isn't a huge shocker. The Gophers were 7-1 largely because they entered the game +16 in TO ratio and the score in this game was tied because of a pick six in the 1st half. It was only a matter of time before the law of averages was going to come back and bite them there. They also have absolutely no running game and as you saw at the end, they are incredibly overly-dependent on Eric Decker to move the chains (I know what else you are thinking, but I won't go there with the special teams).

Hopefully they can bounce back and win at least two of their next three and get to the Outback Bowl.

By the way, if you watched the end of the Wisconsin/Michigan St. game what was Bielema thinking calling TO when Michigan St. was scrambling to get their field goal unit on. Is he trying to get fired?

The Twin Cities Moves Into a Tie for 1st

There are 13 metropolitan areas (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Miami, New York, Philly, Phoenix, San Fran Bay Area, Twin Cities, and Washington D.C.) that have at least one team in the four major sports. After the Phillies win over the Rays last night to capture the World Series, the city of Philly's first title since 1983, the Twin Cities is now tied with D.C. as the metro area that has had the longest drought since their last championship - the Twins and Redskins in 1991.

It's ironic that a key part of the Phillies winning the World Series in five games was the bullpen work of former Twin J.C. (just call me John Wayne) Romero. He won Games 3 and 5 and even managed to do so without walking anyone, something he greatly struggled with as a Twin.

Anyway, I guess the question comes up, which MN team is going to step up and stop this depressing championship drought?

- Timberwolves: No chance

- Vikings: I can't see it until we get a different QB

- Twins: Decent chance if they can get a righthanded hitting third baseman and some bullpen help, however you have to think this year was a great opportunity with the Yankees being horrible and the Red Sox off their game a little bit. Both of those teams will reload and be in contention again and the Twins will have to overcome their ugly recent history against those two teams plus all the other contenders to get a championship.

- Wild: Also a decent chance. They have the ability to get to the postseason every year but their lack of explosive scorers and conservative style of play will probably hold them back from hoisting the Stanley Cup (how did you like that in depth hockey analysis - don't worry I won't mention anything about the sport again for a long time)

So there you have it. The four franchises that haven't won a championship since 1991. Sadly, only one of the four ever has. We'll give the Wild a pass since they have only been around since 2000 and the T'Wolves a pass since their first year was 1989 and their head personnel guy for the last 13.5 years has an IQ of 40.



The Vikes however don't get a pass. They have been around since 1961 so no excuse is going to hold its weight. Maybe we can turn the clock back to January 17, 1999 and replay the 4th quarter of the NFC Championship game......Please.





Sorry, but the picture correlates so well to the rest of the post

Here We Go Again

I almost forgot, and I will probably wish I forgot, but the T'Wolves open up their 20th season tomorrow. Let's hope the fans don't forget to show up and cheer them on. They definitely did last year. You can't blame them since they have excelled at the two b's for the last couple of years, bad and boring. They have that in common with the Pacers and about 25 other NBA teams for that matter.

Nevertheless, it was only a few short years ago when the T'Wolves were my favorite team and they almost made all my years of faithful support towards their futility pay off with an NBA Championship. Those days are a long way off as the expert moves by McHale have come to fruition. At least they will be more competitive this year than the 22-win debacle from last season. Some of the things I am looking forward to for this season (trust me, I say looking forward to with little enthusiasm).

• Randy Foye healthy for a full season and seeing if he can become an upper echelon NBA point guard. He played okay last year when he actually got in the lineup. If he would have been healthy for the entire season we might have won 25-26 games!
• McHale's prodigy, Kevin Love, playing against NBA competition. My gut instinct is it could be ugly but at least we got Mike Miller out of the deal and finally got rid of Marko Jaric (I am still at a loss for words to describe my thoughts towards McHale on that trade)
• The development of Al Jefferson into an all-star caliber player. Someone has to lead this team. I don't think Jefferson has the mentality to do it, but no NBA team goes anywhere without at least one superstar player.
• Mark Madsen cheer leading. What a team player!
• Watching the unlucky person that has to sit behind McHale crane their neck to see around him. My advice - their will be plenty of empty seats so just move. Go sit by Jesse the Body, at least he will make the game halfway entertaining.

Sadly, that's about all I could think of. I won't try to guess a win total since I have no idea to be quite honest, hopefully they can at least get back into the 30's.

The Williams Boys

The bye week has come and gone for the Vikes, and in what has become the norm, they emerge as a team in disarray. According to Jay Glazer from Fox, Pat and Kevin Williams tested positive for water pills which are on the NFL's banned substance list. Water pills are on the list since they can potentially mask steroid use. If you ever seen the Williams boys, you know that steroids aren't something they take, or if they do they don't take them properly. All indications are that they take the pills to help them lose excess water weight since they are a diuretic.

The thing I find amazing about this, even if they didn't have malicious intent, is why did they take them if they were on the banned substance list. Surely, someone from the league or the team circulates this to them.

We'll see how this plays out but it looks like a four-game suspension is likely since a player from the Saints already served a suspension for a similar offense. Without them in the lineup, the biggest strength of the team, the ability to stop the run, will be neutralized. The Vikings margin for error is small enough the way it is, this makes it even smaller. At a minimum, from a W/L perspective, this will cost them a game and probably eliminates any slim chance we had at a playoff berth.

I just hope the NFL waits until after the game against the Cheeseheads on Nov. 9 to start the suspensions so they can at least stop the five-game Brad Childress-led losing streak the Vikes have against them.

Keep on winning

Some pearls of wisdom I heard while listening to the unbiased play-by-play of PU announcer Joe McConnell:

- 'This is the worst 6-1 ranked team I have ever seen.'
-'Besides the QB Weber, who is okay, and the receiver Decker, this team has nobody special.'

What a joy and pleasure it is to listen to the other teams radio call!

While that was far from an impressive performance (13 penalties?!?), it was another Big Ten road win to improve the Gophers to 3-0 on the season and 7-1 overall. You can't blame the Gophers for the Big Ten being terrible, just keep winning boys.

My advice for Joe and the PU fans, check us out on your couches on January 1st, see if we have improved at all. By the way, good luck with the new head coach. I hope you finish below IU every year.

Path to the Rose Bowl

Alright, here's how it breaks down for the Gophers to get the Pasadena. I will divide it into three categories in order of importance:

1) The Gophers have to win out over their last five games (at PU, vs. Northwestern, vs. Michigan, at Wisconsin, and vs. Iowa). If that doesn't happen this all becomes a mute point.

2) Penn State has to beat Ohio State this weekend and then either win the rest of their games to go undefeated and make it to the BCS Championship Game (Alabama or Texas would have to lose at least one for that to happen) or lose at least one of their final conference games (at Iowa, vs. IU, and vs. Michigan State).

3) Even if Ohio State beats Penn State we are not dead in the water. The Gophs could still make it if Ohio State were to lose one of their last three conference games (at Northwestern, at Illinois, and vs. Michigan)

This is possible because in the event of a tie, the Big Ten first looks at overall record, which would throw out Ohio State since they lost to USC. Since the Gophers don't play Penn State this year the tiebreaker would then be the team that has not been to the Rose Bowl in the longest time. Hmm, could that be the Gophers? The U.S. was only eight months removed from putting our first man in space the last time we played in the Rose Bowl.

Obviously #1 is going to be the hardest to accomplish. Not because the Gophers schedule is that hard, but because they are the Gophers and to be quite honest they are not that good. A guy can dream though. Go Gophers!!

A streak coming to an end

All indications are that the Colts impressive streak of consecutive 12-win seasons is going to come to an end at five. They currently sit at 3-3 and with road contests at Tennessee (next Monday), Pittsburgh, and San Diego ahead, they looked poised for at least three more losses as well as games at Jacksonville and Cleveland that won't be pushovers. Add it up and 9-7 looks like an optimistic record, assuming they can go perfect at home the rest of the way.

Nevertheless, the Colts put together an unprecedented streak over the last five years under the tutelage of U of M alum Tony Dungy. I was shocked actually at the Colts overall record since they moved to Indianpolis in 1984. Being an out of market Vikings fan and knowing the moderate regular season success they have had, I was confident that since 1984 our record far surpassed that of the Colts. However, the Vikes only have 12 more wins (205-178) than the Colts (193-190) during that time. The spread has closed quickly during the Colts streak of the last five years since they are 63-17 and the Vikes are a kiss-your-sister 40-40.

The Colts do have the better playoff record than the Vikes since they came to Indy (not surprising to Vikes fans) 9-11 (aided by the 4-0 2006 postseason) vs. 8-12 since 1984 for the Vikes.

It's interesting that in the Vikings history they only posted a streak of 12-win seasons once (1969 & 1970, when the NFL only played 14 games regular season games). The point of all of this, hopefully the Vikes can pull their heads out of their butts and start to be respectable again.

Gophs in the Rankings

How about the Gopher football team?!? They didn't even play and they moved into the top 25! Who expected that at the beginning of the year. Let's hope they can keep the momentum going this weekend in W Lafayette. The point spread doesn't come out until tomorrow I believe but you know they will be favored. When was time they were favored in a Big Ten road game?

On a side note, did you see the game is going to be on ESPN Classic. Seriously. Does anyone actually get that channel? Why didn't ESPN just take a pass on the game and let the Big Ten Network televise it. I guess I will just have to try and catch some of PU homer call on the radio.

Thoughts on the Loss

Alright, I have had time to digest what happened at Soldier Field this Sunday. I could be negative about the special teams or lack therof, our middle LB situation, and the fact that Gus Frerotte is our QB. You know what, for all that went wrong we still could have won and we were on the road at Chicago, a place where we never play well.

I know going into the season there were Super Bowl expectations but those were extinguised by halftime of the Packers game to open the season (looking back the Super Bowl chances were extremely naive when we went to camp with T-Jack and Gus as our #1 and #2 QB's). Now you have to look at it from the proper perspective. This team will be very lucky to make the playoffs and this game proved it. However, I am trying to be positive because being negative is what everyone else does and it only leads to more frustration. All these other blogs just have trash on them. If you hate them so bad why do you watch them? It's October, go outside and enjoy the weather.

Couple things:
1) While the final score was ugly, going in did you really think the Vikes were going to win? At least they kept fighting until the end.
2) We now come to the bye week, followed by back-to-back winnable home games against the Texans and the Cheeseheads. They win those, they get above .500 then you never know, the division is not strong. I know the Pack just crushed the Colts but the Colts can't stop the run at all and they kept shooting themselves in the foot today with penalties and turnovers.
3) Finally, and if you have read this far you are obviously a Viking fan, they have been more entertaining to watch this year, which at the end of the day, isn't that all that matters? For as bad and old as Gus is, at least he can complete a pass to a WR. Hopefully, he is a little more accurate going forward then he was today.

Let me know your thoughts, if you want I can get cynical and start trashing them like everyone else.

NFC North

Big game this weekend for the Vikes in Chicago. If they can manage to pull out a W they will have sole possession of first place in the division, after the Colts beat the Pack. It would also set them up well if a potential tiebreaker comes up against the Bears, besides the obvious head-to-head win since the Vikes beat the Panthers while the Bears lost to them, as well as already losing to the Falcons (who the Vikes play at home on Dec. 21).

While I'm talking about the Bears, it's always funny how the so-called experts can be so wrong and how pointless preseason predictions are. Everybody picked the Bears to finish third or fourth in the division and, so far at least, they have been by far the best team, a couple of bounces away from 5-1. Orton can actually complete a forward pass, something the Bears have only done with limited success in their history, and Matt Forte looks like the real deal. It should be a good one, hopefully the Vikes can take advantage of the Bears injured secondary.

The only team I have yet to mention in the division is the lovable loser Lions. I'm actually kind of scared that their new GM Martin Mayhew may have a clue. Trading Roy Williams, who didn't want to be there and who couldn't catch, for a 1st, 3rd, and 6th round pick was a solid move. I've always said that if the Lions get someone who knows what he's doing they could be decent at some point. Big 'if' though.

The Brew Crew

I know they didn't play today but I would be remiss not to mention the astounding turnaround of the Gophers football team. There is actually reason to believe that Brewster may not be a terrible hire after all. Our 6-1 record could easily end up being 10-2 or 11-1, no joke. We only have two road games left, PU and Wisconsin, and they are both very winnable. Of course, the only ranked team we have played and will play (unless Northwestern can continue to win) is Ohio State since the Big Ten is terrible this year. That's all right the Gophers haven't played in a January bowl game since 1962 (which they won over UCLA in case you were wondering) so we'll take it any way we can get it. The three reasons, in my estimation, for the turnaround:

1) Improved athleticism on defense, namely through the Juco transfers: Tramaine Brock at safety, Traye Simmons shutting down one side of the field at DB, and Simoni Lawrence making plays at LB.

2) The existence of a pass rush led by Willie Van de Steeg with 6.5 sacks. This is the first time I ever remember the Gophers actually having one.

3) The emergence of Adam Weber in his sophomore year. He hasn't been spectacular but only 2 interceptions in seven games will always give you a chace to win.

Twins bullpen reappearance?

I watched about 10 minutes of the Rays/Sox game last night and saw the Rays increase their lead to 7-0. At that point, as I'm sure many people did, I shut it off. About an hour later, I put it back on the see if they were still celebrating - since the Rays are a pretty good story - and found the score tied at 7. My first thought was, man the Twins bullpen would be proud of blowing a lead like that. And even more coincidentally, the rally started with former Twin, Grant Balfour on the mound.

Hopefully, they rebound at home tomorrow night. I have a simple rule with sports, I don't cheer for any teams east of Ohio and north of North Carolina. So needless to say, I wouldn't spend a lot of time watching a Phillies/Red Sox world series.

Thomas Tapeh

Just saw that the Vikes cut loose Thomas Tapeh to sign Napolean Harris. That was quick and kind of harsh wasn't it? Oh well, it does make sense to bring in an experienced middle linebacker for E.J.

Getting Started

This is a great time of year to start a MN sports blog in my estimation. You have the Vikings and Gophers football in the heat of their seasons, the T'Wolves in preaseason with their opener just two weeks away, and midnight madness aka "Tubby's Tipoff" for the Gophers b'ball team right around the corner. I don't have a formal journalist background and I certainly don't have a strong athletic pedigree but I'm a passionate sports fan so I figure why not. I hope you find it relevant and interesting. Go ahead and leave some comments, that will help direct what I talk about.