Vikings – Page 195 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Vikings Want Lions Sackless on Sunday

Posted on December 10, 2014December 10, 2014 by David Shama

Will Sunday’s game in Detroit be decided by the matchup between the Vikings’ rebuilt offensive line and the Lions’ formidable front four on defense?

That has to be at least a major storyline. The Lions dominated the Vikings’ offense in a 17-3 win in Minneapolis on October 12. The Vikings gave up a season high eight sacks in the game. Rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater threw three interceptions in his second career start and the Vikings were limited to 188 yards passing. Rookie running back Jerick McKinnon had a team best 40 yards and the Vikings totaled only 69 yards on the ground.

The Lions’ defense ranks second in the NFL giving up 295.7 yards per game. The rushing defense is No. l, yielding 62.8 yards per game.

When the two teams played in Minneapolis, the Vikings were without right guard Brandon Fusco—already out for the season because of a torn pectoral muscle. Since then the Vikings have also lost right tackle Phil Loadholt (another torn pectoral) and possibly left guard Charlie Johnson whose status for Sunday’s game is uncertain because of a sprained ankle. “It seems this year has been really unlucky for us,” Fusco told Sports Headliners. “We’ve had some key injuries.”

Mike Harris, who has replaced Loadholt, didn’t play against the Lions in October and watched from the sidelines. He realizes what he’s facing on Sunday, though. “I know it’s going to be a challenge for the offensive line,” he said. “They have a great front, a great defense, but I am up to the challenge.”

The Lions’ front four has much to do with Detroit having a 9-4 record and contending to win the NFC North. “They get off the ball fast,” Harris said. “They’re big and strong. This group that we have, we’re totally capable of getting the job done if we just use proper technique and match their intensity. That’s what it is going to come down to.”

The front four is led by defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley. “Suh and Fairley are no joke,” Fusco said. “They’re the best in the league and week in and week out they show that.”

Fusco admitted having a rebuilt line is challenging because players become accustomed to working with one another. They know each other’s tendencies, strengths and weaknesses—and learn how to play as a unit. “Communication is big. Playing with someone you’re used to, makes your job a lot easier,” Fusco said.

Fusco believes the Vikings’ offensive line can have success on Sunday. The linemen will study film and receive direction from offensive line coach Jeff Davidson. “Coach Davidson is a great coach,” Fusco said. “He’s gonna draw some good stuff up for us.”

Worth Noting

The Vikings are 69-35-2 all-time against the Lions—the most wins Minnesota has against another NFL team. Since 1996 there have been only two seasons the Lions won both regular season games against the Vikings. The Lions, long regarded as a dysfunctional franchise on and off the field, can sweep the season series from the Vikings on Sunday and no longer deserve to be labeled the “Motor City Kitties.”

The Vikings announced this morning they have signed tackle and Eden Prairie native Carter Bykowski to their practice squad. Linebacker Michael Mauti has been placed on the injured reserve list.

Blair Walsh, the Vikings field goal kicker, badly missed a late fourth quarter attempt that could have won the game against the Jets in regulation last Sunday inside cold and windy TCF Bank Stadium. He acknowledged that kicking outdoors this time of year can be “brutal” but wouldn’t offer the weather as an excuse. “You gotta perform outside,” he said.

Walsh, who lives in Boca Raton, Florida and attended the University of Georgia, expects 20 to 30 family members and friends at the Vikings game in Miami on December 21. His father has purchased tickets for the group. Walsh plans to have dinner with family and friends the night before the game.

Gophers teammate and point guard DeAndre Mathieu predicted center Mo Walker could be the Big Ten’s best low post scorer after Walker produced a career high 22 points in 23 minutes on Monday night when the Gophers defeated North Dakota 92-56. Walker, a senior, had 13 of Minnesota’s first 18 points less than six minutes into the game.

Mathieu wants the good-natured Walker to have an assertive approach on the court. “He’s getting a lot more mean,” Mathieu said. “When he gets his mean streak, then we’ll be a really, really good team.”

Mathieu, also a senior, had a double-double with 15 points and 10 assists on Monday night. That was the first double-double in those categories by a Gopher since Damian Johnson accomplished it in 2010.

Gophers coach Richard Pitino mentioned Walker and Mathieu as two of his most improved players since the start of the season—and both were major contributors last season. He said Walker, who has had past weight issues, is in “great shape” and described Mathieu’s assist to turnovers total as “phenomenal.” Mathieu has 54 assists and just 14 turnovers in nine games.

Former Apple Valley High School all-state point guard Tyus Jones has played a major role for Duke during his first weeks as a freshman leading the team on the floor. The now second ranked Blue Devils are 8-0 and Jones has turned heads including with his team-high 22 points, six rebounds, four assists game last week against then No. 2 Wisconsin in Madison. “He controlled that game,” said Al Nuness.

Nuness, a former Gophers guard and assistant coach, is Jones’ cousin. The two have been close for years and Jones refers to Nuness as his uncle. “You just can’t teach what he’s doing—running the offense like an upperclassman,” Nuness said. “That’s hard to do.”

Nuness said Jones is learning on defense. “I think he needs to improve the most (with) on-ball defense. He’s gotta recognize when a player is a little quicker than he is, that he needs to be like a half step further from him. He’s getting a little too close and that’s why they’re able…to get around him.”

Fans here had hoped Jones would play for Minnesota but Nuness doesn’t believe the Gophers’ style of play is best for Jones because his minutes would likely be more limited. “They play guards by committee at the University of Minnesota,” Nuness said. “They press, press, (and then) you’re tired, and you come out.”

Two other high profile Minnesota natives, Reid Travis and Rashad Vaughn, are also starting and excelling as college freshmen starters. Travis is fifth in scoring and third in rebounding for Stanford. Vaughn averages a team best 16.2 points per game for UNLV.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Wild traded a prospect or two to improve the club’s goaltending. Neither Darcy Kuemper, Niklas Backstrom nor Josh Harding have consistently shown they can claim the position that will be vital to how far the Wild advance in the playoffs.

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U Needs Bowl Rally Starting January 1

Posted on December 8, 2014December 8, 2014 by David Shama

Talk about incentives.

The Golden Gophers can “exorcise a lot of demons” if they defeat Missouri in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl on January 1. Coach Jerry Kill’s team learned yesterday they have an invitation to that prestigious New Year’s Day bowl.

A source told Sports Headliners last week the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida was Minnesota’s preferred bowl destination. The Citrus is the highest ranking bowl game the Gophers could have been invited to and provides Minnesota with its first New Year’s Day matchup since 1962. The Citrus is the Big Ten’s second-oldest current bowl partner behind only the Rose Bowl. Big Ten teams have played in 24 Citrus Bowls, including each of the last 22 seasons.

The Gophers have lost six consecutive bowl games. All, of course, have been disappointing but some were particularly bitter defeats including last December’s loss in the Texas Bowl to a mediocre Syracuse team. To this day the Gophers will shake their collective heads over their effort and performance.

The Gophers don’t want to lug yet another bowl loss into their offseason workouts and spring practice. The program picked up momentum this season with a 5-3 Big Ten record, Minnesota’s best since 2003. Wins included trophy game triumphs over Michigan and Iowa. A season-ending loss to Wisconsin, along with a defeat in the bowl game, will take some shine off this year.

The flip side, though, is the Gophers cannot only put themselves in good spirits during the off-season but also put more juice into the fan base. More ticket sales and interest in the program are for sure if the Gophers defeat Missouri, a team that is among the best in the SEC—America’s top college football league.

The Tigers, 10-3, won the SEC’s East Division and are No. 16 nationally in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Gophers, 8-4, are ranked No. 25.

The Tigers are perceived as the team with the better personnel and figure to be a wagering favorite, at least by a touchdown. The Gophers, though, will embrace the underdog role they have played throughout the season. Last summer virtually no one predicted Minnesota would contend for the Big Ten’s West Division title but the Gophers went into the last game of the regular season with a chance to advance to the conference championship matchup with East Division champ Ohio State.

The Gophers cannot only help their own image by winning on New Year’s Day against an SEC team. They can help pump life into the Big Ten brand. Dating back to 2000, conference teams have only twice won more bowl games than they lost. The last four years the Big Ten record in postseason is 10 wins, 21 losses.

The national exposure on New Year’s Day can help Minnesota’s recruiting which is already on an upswing because of this season. The Gophers target recruiting high school players in the Southeastern part of the country, so playing in a major bowl game in Florida for the first time since 2000 is valuable.

Minnesota players who have been injured will have extra time to heal before the Citrus Bowl. An earlier bowl date meant, for example, that wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky would have less chance of recovering from his high ankle sprain. A starter in the Illinois game when he was injured, Wolitarsky would be a welcome returnee for quarterback Mitch Leidner who has played on a bad knee.

Like other bowl teams, the Gophers will receive 15 extra practices. That’s an incentive for a lot of players to improve and impress the coaches.

There’s that incentive word again.

Worth Noting

The Vikings have won consecutive cold weather games the last two Sundays at home. Yesterday the temperature was 32 with a wind chill of 21. A week ago Sunday the temp was 12 and the wind chill at minus seven. Vikings running back Ben Tate said players stiffen up in the cold. “You feel like you’re running in slow motion,” he told Sports Headliners.

The Vikings have one home game remaining, December 28 against the Bears, and then next year more outdoor football before moving into their new enclosed stadium in 2016. When it’s miserably cold at TCF Bank Stadium can a bad team that is losing to the Vikings by a big score give up? Tate thinks so. “In a climate like this, probably pack it in and just want to get the game over. I definitely think that’s an advantage for us playing in the cold weather.”

Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen is in his first season as a starter. The team’s other starting end, Brian Robison, believes Griffen has been playing at an All-Pro level. “I absolutely think so,” Robison told Sports Headliners last week. “The guy’s been playing out of his mind this year. To have 11 sacks (12 after yesterday) at this point in the season is huge. I think he’s done a lot more things than that (too)…so I think the guy is playing on a tremendous level right now.”

The Pro Bowl will be played January 25 in Glendale, Arizona and Griffen could be among the players selected. Pro Bowlers are determined by voting from fans, players and coaches. “I would think it would be a shame if he didn’t make the Pro Bowl for sure,” Robison said.

Former Gopher Simoni Lawrence, now a linebacker for Hamilton in the CFL, started all three playoff games for the Tiger-Cats including their Grey Cup loss to Calgary.

TwinsFest tickets—$20 for adults and $10 ages 14 and younger—go on sale to the general public on Thursday. Twins president Dave St. Peter said in the past all players on the 40-man roster have usually made appearances at TwinsFest, and for 2015 that means fans will likely be able to meet top prospects like Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano. The event, January 23-25, will be at Target Field for a second consecutive year and attendance could total a capacity maximum of 15,000, or about half the size for some TwinsFests at the Metrodome.

St. Peter said new manager Paul Molitor has “made contact” with players and will do more off-season communications at TwinsFest. Molitor’s contacts have been made with players here in town, not out of Minnesota.

Baseball’s winter meetings began yesterday in San Diego and are a catalyst to rumors about free agent signings. St. Peter said the Twins are shopping for pitching but wouldn’t predict how soon the club might have an announcement about acquisitions. “It could play out over 60 to 90 days,” he told Sports Headliners.

The North Dakota basketball team that plays the 6-2 Gophers tonight at Williams Arena has a 3-4 record including a 37 point loss to Utah and 12 point defeat against Northern Iowa. The North Dakota roster has six Minnesotans including sophomore guard Quinton Hooker, the 2013 Minnesota Mr. Basketball from Brooklyn Park, who is averaging 9.6 points—third best on the team—and leads in assists with 17.

Gophers basketball and baseball public address announcer Dick Jonckowski is recovering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma; and his last chemotherapy session is tomorrow.

If the Gophers season is to be a success, junior college transfer Carlos Morris needs to be a leading contributor. Morris was important to Minnesota before the season began, but is even more vital now with fellow small forward Daquein McNeil off the team indefinitely after being arrested for an off-court incident. Morris’ athleticism has been impressive including on Friday night when the Gophers defeated West Carolina, but coach Richard Pitino expects a lot from the 6-5, 175-pound junior.

“You can’t play 32 minutes at the small forward spot and only get two rebounds (Friday),” Pitino said. “He did a lot of good things—16 points, four assists, three steals—but you gotta rebound the ball at that spot.”

Pitino doesn’t plan to be overly patient with Morris who is the team’s second leading scorer at 11.6 points per game. He wants consistent effort and versatile production from Morris. “A lot of times with jucos it takes them a year,” Pitino said. “We don’t have a year with him. Just like we didn’t have a year with DeAndre Mathieu (juco point guard transfer in 2013).

“He’s gotta figure it out right now because he’s our only true small forward in the program. He’s gotta figure out a lot of things quickly which is normally difficult, but he’s got the talent which is good.”

The Gophers will wear black uniforms for their January 6 Big Ten home opener against Ohio State. The “Barn Blackout” game will encourage fans to wear black clothing.

Former Gophers golfer and New York Times bestselling author Harvey Mackay will ring a bell for the Salvation Army from 2 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday at Byerly’s in St. Louis Park. This will be Mackay’s 12th consecutive year helping with the organization’s holiday fundraising effort. Mackay usually tells WCCO Radio listeners if they make a contribution to his kettle they will receive one of his books for free.

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Bridgewater Chasing Tarkenton Record

Posted on December 1, 2014December 1, 2014 by David Shama

In today’s column why Teddy Bridgewater, who broke one Viking rookie quarterback record yesterday, is on track to break another—and why a Gopher star with remaining eligibility could be gone before next spring.

Bridgewater broke Christian Ponder’s rookie season record of 158 pass completions in yesterday’s 31-18 win over the Panthers. Bridgewater has 173 completions this season, besting Ponder’s total in 2011.

Bridgewater passed for 138 yards against the Panthers. In nine games and eight starts he has 1,827 total passing yards. In franchise history, Frank Tarkenton, with 1,897 yards, holds the club record for passing yards by a rookie quarterback.

Bridgewater, needing only 71 more yards, seems certain to break Tarkenton’s total next Sunday when the Vikings play the Jets at TCF Bank Stadium. Seven times this year Bridgewater has exceeded 150 yards passing, with a season-best 317 against the Falcons.

Ponder is second to Tarkenton among Vikings rookie quarterbacks for most touchdown passes. Tarkenton threw for 18 scores in 1961, while Ponder had 13 his rookie year. Bridgewater has eight touchdown passes and with four games remaining seems unlikely to break Tarkenton’s record.

Known for his slow game starts, and sometimes criticized for inaccuracy, Bridgewater threw two first half touchdown passes yesterday and completed 15 of 21 passes during the game. It was his most accurate performance of the season and his 120.7 rating was the first time he bettered 100.

After the game Bridgewater credited better execution by himself and teammates for the impressive day against the Panthers. He was specific when answering a question about where the improvement has come since his first start back in September.

“I think I’m better at just making quicker decisions,” he said. “…If I’m able to make quicker decisions I’m able to get the ball out faster.”

Has Maxx Williams played his last Big Ten game for the Gophers?

The team’s big play tight end is eligible for the 2015 NFL Draft. Matt Miller, the draft writer for Bleacherreport.com, posted this on November 13:

“The senior tight end class isn’t great for 2015, which is why one area scout I spoke to believes redshirt sophomore Maxx Williams (Minnesota) may come out early. Williams, if he were to declare, would be my top-ranked tight end.”

When asked a couple of times this fall about leaving school early, Williams wouldn’t address the subject other than to say his focus was on the next game. Now the only game remaining is a bowl assignment later this month or early January, with an announcement coming on December 7 or 8 as to where the Gophers are headed.

Williams is one of three finalists for the John Mackey Award, recognizing the nation’s best tight end. Matt Spaeth, a Minnesota native like Williams, won the award in 2006 and he raves about Williams. “He’s got all the tools and does all the right things,” said Spaeth who plays for the Steelers. “His playmaking ability sets him apart from other people. That’s something you either have or don’t have.”

This season Williams has made a couple of catches worthy of storage in the “vault” for best ever receptions by a Gophers tight end. He has shown glue-like hands, body control, speed, toughness, and consistency while establishing himself as the team’s best receiver statistically with 29 receptions for 471 yards and seven touchdowns. His athleticism has even allowed the coaches to use him as a wide receiver.

The word playmaker keeps coming back into the conversation about the 6-4, 250- pound Williams. “The NFL is comprised of playmakers and that’s what he is,” Spaeth said.

But tight ends must block—both on the college and pro levels. For the casual fan blocking is something that can be overlooked with Williams but it’s another of his many attributes. His ability and willingness to block is an important contributor to the Gophers running game, the primary component of the team’s offensive success.

Spaeth didn’t want to offer public advice on whether Williams should leave early for the NFL and the riches that could await. He said, though, another season of college football will “absolutely” help Williams. “The stronger he gets the better off he will be.”

The Mackey Award winner will be announced on December 10. If Williams wins the award, that will heighten his national profile and perhaps encourage him to leave the Gophers for the draft.

Worth Noting

A Gophers source said yesterday the most likely bowl destinations for Minnesota are the December 27 National University Holiday Bowl in San Diego, or two January 1 bowls, the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl in Orlando and the Outback Bowl in Tampa. He acknowledged because the Gophers aggressively recruit the Southeast, the two Florida bowls could be preferred destinations. Minnesota hasn’t played in a Florida bowl game since 2000.

Among the many admirers of Gophers football coach Jerry Kill are members of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association, the organization of high school coaches with a long list of activities promoting their sport. Ron Stolski, the MFCA executive director, praised Kill with these words in an e-mail:

“You demand only the BEST from yourself, your staff and the boys you love. Your example of resilience, spirit, toughness and resolve is infectious, and permeates all you do. You are too humble to ever acknowledge this truth, but I am not, and I sing your much deserved praises at every opportunity.”

The winner of the 2014 Mr. Football Award, sponsored by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association and the Vikings, is Hutchinson High School running back and free safety Robbie Grimsley. He averaged 10.7 yards rushing last season and caused 12 turnovers on defense. He totaled five touchdowns on interception, kickoff and punt returns, and rushing and receiving.

Grimsley, who was announced as the Mr. Football winner at a banquet yesterday at the DoubleTree hotel in St. Louis Park, told Sports Headliners he will accept a scholarship to North Dakota State where he expects to play safety for the Bison.

Grimsley was one of 10 finalists for the award and some of those players, including Prior Lake linebacker and running back Alex Hart, may interest the Gophers as walk-ons. Hart’s brother, redshirt freshman tight end Nick Hart, is on the Minnesota roster now as a walk-on.

Kez Flomo, the running back from Totino-Grace and another finalist, has no Division I offers but his coach, Jeff Ferguson, hopes FCS and Division II offers will be coming. Totino-Grace lost to Eden Prairie in the Class 6A state title game and should be better next season. The Eagles had 16 underclassmen starting, including eight sophomores.

Taste of the NFL Founder Wayne Kostroski, the Minneapolis restaurateur and 2010 James Beard Humanitarian of the Year, was recently presented with the Pedestal Award honoring philanthropy. Taste of the NFL, now entering its 24th year, has distributed more than $22 million through its programs and events to help feed 37 million Americans who have turned to local food banks for assistance.

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