Vikings – Page 104 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

What Vikes’ First Division Win Means

Posted on October 20, 2019October 21, 2019 by David Shama

The Vikings defeated the Lions 42-30 today in Detroit and won their first NFC North Division game after earlier road losses to division rivals Green Bay and Chicago. Although nine games remain on the regular season schedule, a loss to the mediocre Lions might well have diminished chances of winning the division.

The 5-2 Vikings are chasing the 6-1 Packers who have benefitted from a favorable schedule to start the season. Minnesota has won three consecutive games after a 2-2 start, and perhaps the Vikings can duplicate the success of two years ago when that team won eight straight after splitting the first four games of the season.

Thursday night the Vikings are at home against 1-6 Washington, but then Minnesota has consecutive road games against difficult opposition, Kansas City and Dallas. Assuming a win in the next game, Vikings fans could stay optimistic with a split versus the Chiefs and Cowboys. With the Lions win today, even two losses wouldn’t be devastating to playoff aspirations.

After the game Vikings coach Mike Zimmer told KFAN Radio he gave game balls to the entire offense and quarterback Kirk Cousins. The offensive line, labeled a liability earlier in the season, has become impressive at run and pass blocking as the Vikings have scored 80 points in the last two games.

Cousins threw four touchdown passes for the second consecutive week. “Kirk made some unbelievable throws,” Zimmer said.

Minnesota’s secondary was less than impressive against the Lions including on Detroit’s first touchdown when pass interference calls were made against Xavier Rhodes and Trae Waynes, who also missed a tackle allowing wide receiver Marvin Jones to score. For the day Rhodes was beaten twice by Jones on touchdown catches.

The Lions, though, a dysfunctional franchise that hasn’t been great since Elvis Presley was first gyrating across America, lost to the Vikings for the fourth straight time.

Worth Noting

The 7-0 Golden Gophers, ranked No. 20 last week in two national polls, are now No. 16 in the Coaches Poll and No. 17 in the Associated Press Poll. Minnesota has won nine straight games dating back to last season and has the fourth longest winning streak in the country.

Host school St. Thomas and classic rival St. John’s drew a Division III record football crowd of 37,355 two years ago at Target Field and a capacity attendance of 19,508 in the first football game at Allianz Field on Saturday but a new record will be set November 16 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Ticket sales for the Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland game exceeded 39,000 earlier this month.

After not qualifying for the NCAA playoffs last winter and playing in front of many empty seats for home games in recent years, the U men’s hockey program is trying to reclaim the excellence of its storied past and regain the support of its once passionate fan base.

Minnesota men’s hockey, now in its 99th season, has won five national titles but none since 2003. Although the Gophers have won four of the six Big Ten hockey titles since the league began, conference coaches predicted in a preseason vote that Minnesota will have a fifth place finish behind Penn State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Ohio State in the seven-team league.

After Saturday night, and a two-game sweep of Niagara at home, the Gophers are 3-1 in nonconference games. Bob Motzko, in his second season, is labeled outstanding if not a great coach by observers who know college hockey. His roster includes sophomore forward Sammy Walker, last season’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year who scored the winning goal in overtime on Friday night against Niagara. First-year goalie Jared Moe is 2-0 this fall for Minnesota. The optimistic view is the Gophers have the coaching and talent to improve considerably over last season’s 18-16-4 record. The previous season the Gophers were 19-17-2.

Announced attendances for the first two home games of the season were 7,294 and 7,802 in Mariucci Arena at 3M, with a seating capacity of 10,000. The early season single game attendances should increase if the Gophers continue their successful start, but season tickets have declined from last year when the program also struggled at the box office, and so many empty seats were visible game after game.

According to figures provided by the U to Sports Headliners last week, the nonstudent season tickets total for this year is 4,610, compared to 5,060 for 2018-19. For this season 4,098 tickets, or almost 81 percent, are renewals. The student season ticket total is 1,387, versus 1,999 in 2018-2019.

For this season 1,520 mini-plan tickets have been sold, while the total last year was 1,669. Group tickets were 8,133 last season and now total 3,537.

Season tickets start at $500, the lowest price point for men’s hockey at the U since 1999-2000. The home schedule is attractive with all six Big Ten teams (Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin), along with nonconference games against North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State, Bemidji State, St. Cloud State and Niagara.

Calling it a “serious situation,” Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor deferred questions about the Chinese-NBA controversy to league commissioner Adam Silver when asked by Sports Headliners to comment. Taylor is on the NBA Board of Governors and familiar with the league’s lucrative dealings with the huge China market. He acknowledged meetings will be forthcoming to discuss recent American criticism about the authoritarian Chinese government.

A few years ago Taylor sold a minority stake in the Wolves to a Chinese businessman who he has since bought out. Taylor said “nothing bad happened” during the experience, but a situation arose where businessman Lizhang Jiang needed his money returned for non-basketball reasons. Taylor made Jiang the first Chinese minority owner of an NBA team and was comfortable in doing so because he already was doing business with the Chinese via his other companies.

“When we do business over there we have to be mindful how they do things,” Taylor said. “Even if we disagree, we have to be respectful to honor them if they consider it (something) a law… .It makes it difficult sometimes.”

Minnesota Twins ratings on Fox Sports North in primetime were up 65 percent this past season, the second largest increase in MLB after the San Diego Padres, according to a October 15 Forbes.com story.

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Don’t Expect Stefon Diggs Trade Now

Posted on October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 by David Shama

The NFL trade deadline is October 29 but there seems zero chance the Vikings will move Stefon Diggs between now and then. Diggs has been mentioned nationally in trade rumors as recently as yesterday when he had 167 receiving yards and three touchdown receptions in the Vikings’ 38-20 win over the Eagles.

Diggs created controversy by skipping practices and meetings earlier this month, and was reportedly fined more than $200,000. The fifth-year wide receiver wanted to be a bigger part of an offense that was struggling with its passing game. Maybe his disgruntlement prompted opening things up the last two Sundays, including yesterday when Diggs not only caught seven passes (he dropped two) but ran the ball twice for 18 yards.

Before Sunday’s win Billswire.usatoday.com posted a story saying Good Morning Football Weekend host Michael Robinson speculated a Diggs trade was the most likely involving an NFL star before the October 29 deadline. The 4-1 Bills are chasing the 6-0 Patriots in the AFC East Division.

“They need another number one receiver,” Robinson said. “Zay Jones (wide receiver traded to the Raiders) has just got out of there. So I’m telling you, go get Stefon Diggs. He could be the piece, the secret piece to beat the New England Patriots.”

But six games into the season the Vikings seem too committed to their roster to shake things up by trading Diggs. With Super Bowl ambitions and coming off a failed season in 2018, they want to give quarterback Kirk Cousins the best and most familiar personnel possible to make the offense successful. Cousins was unfamiliar with Vikings receivers in his first season a year ago but now can take advantage of the knowledge he has about Diggs and others. That’s a comfort for the inconsistent Cousins.

Diggs is talented and experienced, and forms a big-play threat with Adam Thielen, the team’s other dangerous wide receiver. The Vikings, though, aren’t deep at WR and that’s another reason why a trade during the season makes no sense given Minnesota’s commitment to win now.

Worth Noting

Donald Trump made no mention of Minnesota sports teams or celebrities including Cousins (the two spoke a week ago Sunday) when in Minneapolis Thursday night for a campaign re-election rally, but when the President was in Lake Charles, Louisiana the next evening he was touting the undefeated LSU Tigers and quarterback Joe Burrow.

The unseasonably inclement weather for Saturday night’s Minnesota-Nebraska game might have prompted a few Golden Gophers football historians to recall the late October upset of 10th ranked USC at old Memorial Stadium in 1955. Played in an October 25 snowstorm, the Californians acted like they had never seen snow (and many had not) and couldn’t wait to fly home. A mediocre Gophers team that won just three games all season, took care of the chilly and wet Trojans.

Gophers senior linebacker Kamal Martin was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week today for his 15 tackles performance in Minnesota’s win over Nebraska. He had six solo tackles for the 6-0 Gophers who are now ranked No. 20 nationally in both the A.P. and Coaches polls.

Former Gophers basketball captain Paul Presthus, now retired from the financial industry, is a starter at Braemar Golf Course in Edina. He only played 27 holes this season because of a torn Achilles suffered last October. Presthus and wife Linda celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary September 20.

Lindy’s college basketball magazine lists the top 150 players in the nation with Duke’s Tre Jones, the former state Mr. Basketball from Apple Valley, at No. 4. Another Minnesotan, McKinley Wright from Champlin Park and now at Colorado, ranks No. 10.

The state’s 2019 Mr. Basketball, Matthew Hurt from Rochester John Marshall, is preparing for his freshman year at Duke and Lindy’s ranks him No. 59 on its 150 list. “More than capable of leading the Blue Devils in scoring this year,” Lindy’s says.

No Gophers made the list, although Minnesota natives and sophomores Daniel Oturu and Gabe Kalscheur could be deserving of such recognition by next March.

The state’s pipeline of current top prep players includes Minnehaha super talents Jalen Suggs (class of 2020) and Chet Holmgren (2021). Both had recent visits to Gonzaga, with speculation the Spokane, Washington school could be the college choice for Suggs.

Meanwhile the Star Tribune is reporting Minnesota coach Richard Pitino might receive a verbal commitment today from four-star Brewster Academy guard Jamal Mashburn Jr.

Lindy’s preseason top 25 of women’s teams includes Minnesota at No. 18. The Big Ten Conference schools ahead of the Gophers are No. 5 Maryland and No. 15 Michigan State.

Street & Smith’s college basketball magazine refers to Hopkins superstar Paige Bueckers as the “nation’s top-rated player” and has her headlining its first team of high school All-Americans.

Former Timberwolves player Mark Madsen is in his first season of coaching at Utah Valley.

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By Land or Air Cook in Vikings Plans

Posted on October 10, 2019October 11, 2019 by David Shama

A Thursday notes column with the focus on the Vikings and Golden Gophers football.

Dalvin Cook is second in NFL rushing yards with 574 yards. Twice he has totaled 21 carries in a game this season and two years ago he had 27 rushing attempts in the third game of his rookie year. Questioned yesterday if he could handle 30 carries as the team’s prominent runner and emerging main man on offense, Cook said he is ready to do “whatever the coaches” want.

Asked about 20-plus carries a game for Cook, head coach Mike Zimmer said Monday: “I want us to do whatever we have to do to win. I don’t really care how many carries he gets or how many times we throw the ball. It’s all about trying to do the best that we can do to win.

“When he has the ball in his hand, he’s very dangerous as you can see on that tape. There’s so many ‘wow’ plays when he has the ball in his hands that he can do so much damage. When we get the passing game going like we did yesterday (last Sunday) and him running, I think it’s a good mixture.”

Cook not only had 132 yards rushing on Sunday against the New York Giants but a career high 86 yards in pass receptions. He has rushed for over 100 yards in three of the team’s five games and was questioned about the possibility of going over the 100 mark in receptions for the first time as a pro. “It would be great,” Cook said.

The Eagles, who the Vikings play Sunday in Minneapolis, are the NFL’s No. 1 ranked defense against the run, allowing just 63 yards per game. Philadelphia ranks No. 27 against the pass, giving up 271.2 yards. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and Cook figure to be main contributors to an offense that will balance the run and pass.

“For whatever reason he tends to make that first guy miss on the tackle,” Cousins said in evaluating Cook. “That’s the mark of a great running back. (I am) so encouraged to see the way he not only runs the ball, but you have to remember he catches the ball. It’s just as important that he’s effective there as well (pass receptions), and he has been. …He can still have the same effect after a catch as after a handoff.”

Cousins praised Cook as a player with stamina, someone who can handle a lot of carries and still perform. “He’s right back (running), again and again,” Cousins said.

Matt Birk told Sports Headliners his new Unity High School in Burnsville has 14 students enrolled and will grow in the years ahead. The former Viking center predicts his former team will defeat the Eagles by seven points Sunday.

Vikings defensive back Mike Hughes, who missed most of last season with a torn ACL, has played in the last three games. He told Sports Headliners he is playing without a brace in both games and practices.

Former Viking Andrew Sendejo is listed as a second team safety with the Eagles defense, while ex-Gopher Craig James is a third team cornerback.

Looks like the 5-0 Gophers will be playing in temperatures in the mid to upper 30’s Saturday night at TCF Bank Stadium against Big Ten West Division rival Nebraska, 4-2. The team has been practicing in cooler temps in its practice facility and using other ploys to prepare for the weather conditions, per head coach P.J. Fleck.

Gophers offensive left tackle Sam Schlueter, a redshirt junior from Victoria, Minnesota, has improved from being a marginal performer to outstanding. Fleck said Schlueter’s commitment and maturity in the process has been impressive.

“He’s been the (Gophers’) Offensive Line Player of the Week four straight weeks,” Fleck said. “This is a guy that needed some time off for a while a few years back, was going through some really tough times. It’s fun to watch guys like that go through that. That’s why you coach.”

Players on Fleck’s roster who aren’t seeing game action participate in Sunday scrimmages. Among those who are impressing the coach is 6-2, 310-pound freshman defensive lineman DeAngelo Carter from Leesburg, Georgia.

“If you look at the defensive line (among reserves), there’s a plethora of guys.” Fleck said. “DeAngelo, he is going to be a special football player. His motor never stops. His first step off the ball is scary quick and fast.”

Among the traditions of Gophers football are the Goal Line Club sponsored Friday lunch programs at Jax Café. This Friday the booster club has arranged for Minnesota defensive line coach Jim Panagos and former Gopher offensive lineman Tommy Olson to speak. More at Goallineclub.org.

Gophers basketball fans need encouragement this week after hearing redshirt junior Eric Curry has sustained another knee injury, casting doubt about his future availability with the program. But fans won’t find much to be happy about reading college basketball preview magazines.

Street & Smith’s publication forecasts a 10th place finish and of course that was written before news concerning Curry, a 6-9 experienced forward expected to be one of the team’s better players. Lindy’s college basketball issue projects an 11th place Gopher finish in the 14-team Big Ten.

Wisconsin, with Minnesota natives Brad Davison and Nate Reuvers among the team’s key players, will finish fifth in the Big Ten, per Street & Smith’s. Lindy’s projects the Badgers seventh, with both publications predicting Michigan State and Maryland will be No. 1 and 2 in the league.

Kylie Miller, the Gophers volleyball transfer from UCLA, hasn’t played in a match since September 27 because of “medical issues,” Hugh McCutheon told Sports Headliners this morning. The coach said “it’s day-to-day” on her return to game competition.

John Gilbert, the former Minneapolis hockey writer now living in Duluth and still following the Gophers, refers to Minnesota’s Bob Motzko as a “great coach.” He thinks Motzko’s second season Gopher team will be improved after not qualifying for the NCAA Tournament last winter.

Years ago the Gophers won with a roster of all-Minnesotans. Gilbert believes a return to that policy would elevate the program’s success. “Make it the beacon where all the (Minnesota) kids want to go,” he told Sports Headliners.

It was 63 years ago this week that New York Yankees pitcher Don Larsen threw the only no-hit perfect game in World Series history. On October 8, 1956 Larsen shut down the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-0, in a game that lasted 2:06.

While MLB playoff games elsewhere have struggled to draw capacity crowds, the Twins’ attendance of 41,121 Monday night was a sell-out and the 11th largest ever at Target Field.

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