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

Kirk Cousins Gets Run Help He Needs

Posted on September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 by David Shama

With a $84 million contract Kirk Cousins is among the best compensated players in the NFL, but his on field performance during eight seasons says he deserves a middle of the pack ranking among pro quarterbacks. The Vikings learned that last year when their pass-heavy offense was part of the story why the team came up with a disappointing 8-7-1 record and missed the playoffs after almost qualifying for the Super Bowl the season prior with Case Keenum as quarterback.

Cousins, in his first season with the Vikings last fall, struggled against teams with winning records as he had done with the Redskins. Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman vowed during the offseason to make the offense more balanced between the run and pass.

In the team’s first regular season game on Sunday, a 28-12 win over the Falcons, the plan was implemented more extremely than anyone anticipated. Cousins attempted a career low 10 passes and completed eight. “Never had a game like this,” Cousins said on KFAN Radio’s postgame show. “First time for me, but I would take every one like this. That’s just fine by me.”

The offensive line was impressive and running back Dalvin Cook was elusive, gaining 111 yards as part of the team rushing total of 172 (98 yards passing). “…Dalvin is special. When he gets the ball in his hands he can really go, and I think our offensive coaches did a great job scheming some of the runs they had today,” Zimmer said on the radio show.

Cousins even ran six times, including a quarterback sneak for a touchdown. The Vikings frequently used two and sometimes three tight ends as part of their commitment to the run and taking pressure off their quarterback who should be better in his second season in Minneapolis because he has more familiarity with his receivers.

It helps, too, having the opposing defense guessing how the Vikings will line up with their personnel and whether the pass or run is coming. “Once you have a running team, the (opposing) defensive line becomes less aggressive,” former Vikings defensive lineman Bob Lurtsema told Sports Headliners.

Cousins, who fumbled twice in the game to increase his total to 42 fumbles dating back to 2015, can’t carry a team but his skills and experience are solid enough to give the Vikings a passing game that complements the run. The Vikings won’t have the success against every opponent like they did with the Falcons, but expect them to stay committed to at least something like a 50-50 run-pass ratio.

Speaking of a quarterback who can carry a franchise, the Vikings are at Green Bay next Sunday. Aaron Rodgers is a Houdini who is particularly adept at performing late game magic. With the Packers 1-0 after a road win in Chicago, they play five of their next six games at home. The Vikings have three of their next five away from Minneapolis.

Minnesota Wild & More

The Wild opens training camp Friday, plays its first preseason game September 17, and the regular season opener is October 3. Team owner Craig Leipold is upbeat, despite his club missing the playoffs last spring for the first time in seven years. “I am more excited about this year coming up than I have been in a number of years,” he told Sports Headliners.

The roster won’t be dramatically different but Leipold expects the leadership from newly hired general manager Bill Guerin to be impactful. Guerin comes from a winning background as an NHL player and front office decision maker. Already Leipold sees how his players relate differently to Guerin than they did to former GM Paul Fenton. “These guys listen to Billy,” Leipold said.

Leipold, who has owned the franchise since 2008, made it clear during a telephone interview that the word rebuilding is not one he will use to label his team. “Do we think we need to get better? Yes. Are we going to chop the tree down and replant it? The answer is absolutely no.”

Providing Leipold with confidence about the roster’s personnel was the feedback he received this summer while interviewing general manager candidates. “We think we have really good pieces (on the roster), and particularly after going through the process that we just did and asking all of our candidates to grade our players. Yeah, you could say, well, they wanted to grade them high, but if we thought they missed the target, then that wasn’t going to help them. Virtually every candidate who came in said that, hey, we’re a playoff team.”

Leipold acknowledged the frustration of fans with last season’s team, and that the absence from the playoffs has an “affect” on season tickets for 2019-2020. That affect can also impact single game sales.

“We’re down a little bit (season tickets) from where we have historically been, but we’re still in a position that probably 20 or 25 other (NHL) teams would love to be in,” Leipold said. “….This year will be more of a challenge (for selling tickets). We hope to get off to a good start, and if we do we’re gonna be fine.”

Leipold didn’t say how many season tickets the club sold last year but was asked if the total this fall could be 12,000. “We will be well north of 12,000,” he said. “Oh, yeah. Way north of 12,000.”

The Front Office Sports newsletter of September 6 reported this: “More than 38 million Americans, or 15% of the U.S. population, are planning to bet on NFL games this season, according to the American Gaming Association.”

Glen Taylor, the 78-year-old billionaire whose companies include the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx, likes to garden at his Mankato home. “…It’s just different from my other job, so I just need some of that time,” he told Sports Headliners.

Taylor has flower and vegetable gardens, plus fruit trees on the grounds of his property. He and his wife Becky do late summer canning. “I love the food that comes out of a garden,” he said.

The Saturday announcement of Michael Pineda’s 60-day suspension for a violation of MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment program is among the most upsetting news the Twins could experience as they try to win the Central Division and qualify for the postseason. He was closing the season impressively, and his recent productivity has been more efficient than Jose Berrios, considered the staff ace earlier in the year.

Pineda pitched six innings, allowed just one run and stuck out a season high 10 batters in Friday night’s game against the Indians. He now has 13 quality starts, second best in his career to 19 in 2011, his rookie season. He made a recent argument out of whether he or Jake Odorizzi is the staff’s No. 1 starter.

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Craig Leipold’s House Dodges Dorian

Posted on September 5, 2019September 5, 2019 by David Shama

Enjoy a Thursday notes column with news about the Wild, Twins, Gophers and Vikings.

Dorian, the hurricane that has ravaged parts of the Caribbean this week including the Bahamas, didn’t damage Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas where Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold has a home. Abaco Island in the Bahamas, located about 200 miles from Leipold’s home, was devastated. Leipold was told there was a lot of rain in recent days on Great Exuma, but no property damage.

“We were lucky we dodged it,” Leipold told Sports Headliners yesterday. “The next one, who knows?”

Leipold is looking forward so much to the start of the Wild’s 2019-2020 season he has decided to postpone his fourth hip replacement until January. He was scheduled for September surgery on his right hip but with the doctor’s approval decided to wait until next year.

The Twins have a Cleveland stopper in right-hand starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi. He is 2-0 this season against the Indians who come to Minneapolis for a three-game series starting Friday. He has a 1:04 ERA in 17.1 innings pitched versus the Indians, who as of this morning are 5.5 games behind the Twins in the race to win the American League Central Division title. The Indians lead the season series so far 7-6.

In Odorizzi’s last Cleveland start he pitched 5.2 shutout inngs with six strikeouts. That August 10 win at Target Field was pivotal because it broke a first place tie with the Indians and provided Minnesota a one game lead in the division.

Odorizzi has a career high 14 wins (14-6 record) and will make a Saturday start in the upcoming series. In his last seven starts, he is 3-1 with a 3.00 ERA.

A spokesman in the Twins ticket office said yesterday only ballpark access tickets ($25) remain for Saturday night’s game, with greater inventory available for Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

The Twins will make an announcement Monday regarding playoff tickets for the general public. Details have already been provided to season ticket holders. The club is also renewing season tickets for 2020 and selling to new account holders.

The football Gophers are 1-6 in games on the West Coast (in California, Oregon, Washington) during the last 50 years. The only win came at Oregon State two years ago in coach P.J. Fleck’s first season. Saturday night Minnesota plays at Fresno State, with a 9:30 p.m. Minneapolis time kickoff and temps expected in the 80s.

Talking on his weekly KFAN Radio show Tuesday, Fleck said he will keep his players on Central Daylight time and not reset watches while in California. For preparation, the heat has been turned up in the Gophers’ practice facility.

Fresno State is one of the best teams in the Mountain West Conference, a league that experienced an impressive opening weekend several days ago. Fresno State lost but was competitive at USC (31-23), while rival power Boise State defeated Florida State from the ACC in Tallahassee. The Mountain West’s Hawaii, Nevada and Wyoming staged upset wins over three Power Five teams, Arizona, Purdue and Missouri respectively.

Minnesota has been one of the least penalized teams in the nation dating back to the 2017 season, Fleck’s first with the Gophers. In the past 26 games the Gophers have been penalized 93 times for 888 yards. In 2016 Minnesota was penalized 88 times for 743 yards in 13 games.

SI.com’s NFL power rankings of 32 teams posted on Tuesday offered this top 10: Patriots, Chiefs, Saints, Rams, Eagles, Cowboys, Packers, Falcons, Steelers and Chargers. The Vikings ranked No. 14, with the Bears at 11. NFC North rivals the Packers, Bears and Vikings made the top 15, with the division’s fourth team, the Lions, at No. 22.

The Vikings, 8-7-1 last season, start their regular season Sunday at home against a Falcons team that also disappointed in 2018 with their 7-9 record. The Falcons have perhaps the NFL’s best unit of wide receivers led by the great Julio Jones, but quarterback Matt Ryan, 34, doesn’t have a strong arm and that may cue the Vikings safeties to play nearer the line of scrimmage and more easily stop the run.

Not much is being said about it, but the Vikings seem likely to often use a two tight ends formation this season with Kyle Rudolph and Irv Smith Jr. Such a scheme changes the technique of defensive linemen and makes them wonder whether the offense will attack with a run or pass.

Vikings running back Dalvin Cook is counted on to have a breakout season after being held back by injuries in 2017 and 2018. Statistics support his reputation as a playmaker. He has a career rushing average of 4.7 yards, with nine runs of 20-plus yards or more. As a pass receiver he is averaging 7.7 yards, with six receptions of 20-plus yards.

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer after being asked what needs to happen for this season to be a success: “I would say the biggest thing is…if we go out and we play really smart football, (and) we don’t beat ourselves. We control the explosive plays in the game, on both sides of the ball. We have them and they (opponents) don’t. …I think if we are effective in the last 10 minutes of the fourth quarter in ball games, I think we’ll be good.”

New this year at U.S. Bank Stadium is having a young Vikings fan push the button that opens the massive doors and allows fresh air into the facility. The facility opened in 2016 and late last month was ranked No. 1 among NFL stadiums by Dan Graziano writing for SI.com.

Former Viking Adrian Peterson, now with the Redskins, is tied with Jim Brown for the fifth most rushing touchdowns in NFL history, 106 each. The all-time leader is Emmitt Smith with a 164.

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Vikings May Face Kickers’ Revenge

Posted on August 27, 2019August 27, 2019 by David Shama

In two of their first three regular season games the Minnesota Vikings could see two former field goal kickers and kickoff specialists who they gave up on, Blair Walsh now with the Atlanta Falcons and Daniel Carlson from the Oakland Raiders.

The Falcons, who play the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium in the season opener September 8, signed Walsh a few days ago because of preseason frustration with kicker Giorgio Tavecchio. Walsh, 29, hasn’t kicked in the NFL since the 2017 season with the Seahawks. He spent four-plus seasons with the Vikings before being cut in 2016.

Walsh, a Vikings sixth round draft pick in 2012, had a terrific rookie season. He converted 92.1 percent of his field goals, making 35 of 56 attempts. He was perfect on extra points, 36 of 36. He is infamous in Purple Nation, though, for his missed field goal in January of 2016 that cost the Vikings a playoff win against the Seahawks.

While there is no guarantee Walsh will win the Falcons’ kicking job and have the opportunity to take revenge on his old team, Carlson is all but a lock to be swinging his leg for the Raiders when they come to Minneapolis for the third game of the season September 22. Only an injury will prevent Carlson, who the Vikings waived after the second game of the season last year, from potentially making a winning kick at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Carlson, 25, was 1 of 4 on field goals for the Vikings who hastily gave up on their fifth round draft choice after the rookie had a bad day against the Green Bay Packers, missing three field goals. The Raiders gave him a second chance, and he produced making 16 of 17 field goals in 10 games last season. In preseason he is a perfect 4 of 4 on field goals, including the game winner against the Packers last week.

In a soap opera that could be referred to as how the “Kicking Tee Turns,” the 2019 Vikings will have their fourth new kicker to start a season in four years. After Walsh, for part of 2016, came Kai Forbath, who stayed on through 2017. Then Carlson started off 2018 only to be replaced by Dan Bailey. Bailey, 31, made a mediocre 75 percent of his field goals last season and is facing competition in training camp from rookie Kaare Vedvik who the Vikings acquired August 11 from the Baltimore Ravens by sending a 2020 fifth round pick to them.

Vedvik, 25, missed two field goal attempts last Saturday in the Vikings’ preseason game against the Cardinals. Asked after the game about his level of concern regarding the misses, head coach Mike Zimmer offered a one word answer, “High.”

Two of the Vikings’ three NFC North Division rivals also have fans on edge about who will be kicking field goals and probably also handling kickoffs. The Packers aren’t signaling yet that veteran Mason Crosby who has been the guy since 2007 will return. The Chicago Bears may be settling on Eddy Pineiro after bringing in a puzzling nine candidates at one time for tryouts in the offseason, including former Golden Gophers kicker Emmit Carpenter.

Cody Parkey, the Bears regular kicker last year, was released in March after he had a Walsh-like miss in the playoffs. That 16-15 loss to the Eagles was one of three playoff games in 2019 decided by three points or fewer. Six of the 11 postseason games were decided by six points or fewer.

The coming and going of kickers offers drama, but that’s nothing like the difference they can make in helping to win championships.

Worth Noting

In its NFL Preview issue out last week, Sports Illustrated predicts the Vikings will win the NFC North with an 11-5 record, defeat the Packers in a Wild Card playoff game and then lose to the New Orleans Saints who will advance to the Super Bowl, losing 27-23 to the New England Patriots.

Among the NFL’s 32 teams, the magazine ranks the Vikings defensive backs fourth best. Receivers are No. 5; defensive line and linebackers No. 12; quarterback No. 16; offensive line No. 23; and running backs a surprisingly low No. 26 considering Dalvin Cook’s breakaway talent.

Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners the unexpected appearance of a squirrel at Target Field during two recent games could prompt some retail opportunities for the club, or worked into game presentations, but he doesn’t expect the critters to become a “dominant theme.”

The squirrel capers don’t have Target Field maintenance on high alert. “I don’t know how many home games we’ve played at Target Field but we’ve had two nights where we’ve had a squirrel. … I am not sure we’ll see a squirrel here in a long time,” St. Peter said.

The Twins are committed to hosting events other than baseball at Target Field including a hockey game, and St. Peter said his first preference is to work with the Minnesota Wild in staging the NHL Winter Classic at the downtown Minneapolis stadium.

After this Saturday’s North Dakota State-Butler football game at Target Field, head groundskeeper Larry DiVito has five full days to ready the grass field for the Twins’ big series with the Indians that begins September 6. St. Peter is confident the field will be fine when the Indians, who are trying to overtake the Twins for first place in the AL Central, come to town. “We wouldn’t be playing football if we weren’t supremely confident in our ability to do it,” he said.

Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday MLB staged Players’ Weekend where players chose nicknames to appear on the backs of jerseys. A weekend Wall Street Journal story said the newspaper analyzed 832 nicknames that the players chose, and the national publication wasn’t impressed: “The results were like the 2019 Detroit Tigers: completely forgettable.”

While bringing up classic names of the past like the Sultan of Swat, or Shoeless Joe Jackson, WSJ said nicknames from 2019 players like Smitty or Goldy mostly didn’t cut it. Willians Astudillo, the Twins roly-poly utility man, inexplicably used his last name on the jersey instead of his recognizable nickname, “La Tortuga,” the Journal reported.

The WSJ didn’t take on the subject of the weekend’s either all-black or all-white uniforms MLB teams wore.

Bill Robertson, the longtime Minnesota hockey executive, has known new Wild general manager Bill Guerin for years including dating back to Olympic hockey days in 2002. “His leadership, instant credibility as a former standout NHL All-Star performer, and use of modern technology, will be keys to his success,” said Robertson who is men’s commissioner for the Bloomington-based WCHA. “His relationship building abilities will also assist him with the front office staff and in the community. I wish him nothing but success.”

Thoroughbred trainer Francisco Bravo, the late Ralph Strangis, who served as Minnesota Racing Commission chairman, and thoroughbred owners and breeders Joni and Barry Butzow will be honored at Canterbury Park Saturday as the newest members of the racetrack’s Hall of Fame.

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