Ski-U-Mah: Gopher Hoops

Just in case you thought the Insight Bowl was the only game in town tomorrow, don't forget to track the 11-0 Gopher Men's Hoops team as they host Michigan State at the barn at 11am to kick off the Big 10 season.

I expect to see BG's dad screaming on t.v.

Optimism Wins

Thank you, Tom Coughlin. Thank you, Texans. I very much enjoyed watching that last drive Houston shoved down the Bears's throat.

Let the speculation about Philly begin. I must admit, I had never even thought of them as a potential first round opponent. Can we stop Westbrook? How's their run-D?

Regression to the mean?

Sitting at 9-6, do we finish 9-7 but pull the classic 'back into the playoffs' or do we finish 10-6 and continue to root for the "New Era Vikes"?

Friend of this blog (and incredibly angry Vikes fan Brett Shogren) has decided that this year he will remain positive. I use that as my barometer for where we are headed and call it at 10-6, the division title, and a memorable Vikings run in the playoffs.

1998 NFC Championship Game

...is on the NFL Network tonight. I thought I would mention it, just in case anyone wants to go through the agony again. Better yet, turn it off after the 3rd quarter ends and pretend we won.

The times they are a changin'

Looks like the housing market crash in Southern California has finally hit us in Minneapolis.

Vikes Win Open Thread

1. T-Jac with some seriously nice throws yesterday. I don't think Favre could have thrown it any harder than Tarvaris did on that TD to Rice.
2. AP is now in "You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him" territory. Could get over 1,800 yards on the ground for the season.
3. Jared Allen at 14.5 sacks.
4. Is Chilly starting to take the training wheels off the offense? I do think they should have taken a shot at the end zone up 21-0 with 2nd and 2 at about the Arizona 40 early in the second quarter (IIRC). But I can't complain.
5. Y'all certainly look correct on your predictions that the Cardinals would come out with a clinching hangover.
6. Berrian has started earning his $$ the second half, no? I'd like to see him in an offense (i) with a solid possession receiver or upgrade over Shiancoe, (ii) that likes to throw somewhere in between the 5-yard slant and the end zone bomb.

Yeah, Seriously. Punto?!?

2 years, 8+ million dollars on Little Nicky to be our starting SS. Let me just say that I hate this.

In other Twins news, the Winter Meeting rumors had us trying to be the third leg in a deal with SD and the Cubs to get Peavy to Chicago. I would have been in favor of giving up Kubel and some prospect arms, or maybe one of our back end starters and some prospects, to get DeRosa on a one-year rental and Kouzmanoff for 3B. Looks like it's all falling through, though. My guess is the Pads were looking for more than any of the third teams were willing to bear.

The Twins have been mentioned on various other relatively immaterial possibilities, too, including going after SS's from the Phillies and Pirates (that's apparently not happening - witness the title of this post).

I continue to believe we have the ability to get some impact guys loose from teams, if we just dangle Kubel or Cuddy out there packaged with someone like Perkins. But Delmon remains the central focus of all rumors regarding individual trade bait from the club. As noted last week, I think that's both not smart and not surprising.

In other non-surprises, the Yankees paid enough to bail out Circuit City to land Sabathia, so he'll be back to tormenting us in the A.L. They're apparently out looking at every other highpriced free agent on the market, too.

God, I hate being a Twins fan during the offseason. Although we did refrain from giving Casey Blake that dreaded third year and lost him to the Dodgers. I see that as probably a win of a loss. Still and all, we haven't done anything at this point to address our needs, and nothing looks imminent. I'll try to be patient.

Something I never thought I would say . . .

. . . I am watching a Timberwolves game right now. Let me correct that, it's on in the same room that I'm in but I'm occasionally looking over. .

This has to be the first game I've seen more than 35 seconds of since 2004.

I don't really care about the outcome, out of the Minny sports teams, I follow them less than the Wild (by a hair on Nordy's head) and more than Swarm (by a hair on Tami Krause's head.)

They're actually playing hard. It's almost NBA basketball. Lots of hustle, lots of energy for the new coach. Utah making a late 8-0 run to go up by 1 with 50 seconds left and the ball. Wolves battle back and Randy Foye hits 2 free throws with 7 seconds left to go up by 1 and in the process he may vindicate Kevn Love who missed 4 free throws with under 2 minutes left.

With a win maybe they take a step and enter the McHale-led "New Look Wolves" if they lose it's a heartbreaker and nothing really has changed. . .

. . . and Jefferson gives up the easy look for the loss.

See you in another 4 years, Timberwolves.

Vikes v. Kitties - Wowza.

Did someone say "New Era Vikes?" That was a close one. Watching that first half all that could go wrong did in what looked like the quintessential Vikings choker (remember week 2 and Vikes v. Colts? I know you do.)

Because I can, here are my quick takes -

• Anyone else say out loud "Well, that's it for Jared Allen's season" after that hit he took on the knee? I did. As MCA pointed out last week, he is worth every penny.
• TJac had himself a game. Pretty efficient at running the offense. Frerotte looked terrible. Not saying TJac is the answer. Which horse should we ride the rest of the way? I have no idea, gut says TJac.
• Diesel needs to hang on to that rock, four fumbles. Yikes.
• Shiancoe is quietly having himself a season after a brutal start.
• We got lucky with that call that the ball to Calvin Johnson was a dropped pass.
• Darren Sharper has lost a step.
• This team is now winning games, it might not be that pretty but they're winning and never giving up.
• You think Arizona is taking next Sunday off after clinching their first division title since 1970-whatever? I do.

Twins: Rumblings

To temporarily stop the Vikings obsessing, a couple pre-Winter meetings Twins notes:

1. Apparently, we're courting Casey Blake. I think he's a better player than Lamb, but haven't really looked over the stats. He has, however, been an everyday position player for a long time, which is certainly an advantage over Lamb. If we can avoid giving him a third year, I'm not terribly opposed to this one. He's past his prime at 35, but he's not a total washout already who we're just praying will find new youth after bathing in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. Rather, we're hoping he doesn't fall off the cliff in terms of production. I think he'd likely be better than a Buscher/Harris platoon - those guys just aren't everyday 3B's, and Blake fitting in could allow us to move Buscher and/or Harris in other trades.

All that said, my preference is (and always has been since Koskie left) that we go out and spend some significant money on a legit younger 3B with power. From what I've ready, however, the organization is now at the point where they feel they have a couple legitimate prospects who should be ready for the show in another couple years, so the situation is a little different than it has been in recent years.

2. There's talk of trading someone (don't know who, but uninformed speculation seems to be centered around guys like Slowey and Blackburn as centerpieces) to Milwaukee for J.J. Hardy. This is very intriguing, I must say. He was off a little this year from his breakthrough in '07, but that kid can play and would be a good fit on the Twins.

3. All the talk right now is that we've given up on Delmon and are looking to move him. This is infuriating for two reasons, both fairly obvious. One is that we just gave up Bartlett and f-ing Garza to get him one year ago. The other is that he's 23 stinking years old and hit .300 this season. Maybe he won't be a 35-homer guy like projected, but there's every indication that this kid will hit .320 with 40 doubles for at least a 5 year stretch at some point. He's got a cannon that's been wasted in left field, and now Gardy's out publicly talking this week about how he wants to start Span, Gomez and Cuddy in the outfield. Span's due to come down to earth, Gomez is clearly being held to a totally different standard than Young for no good reason, and Cuddyer's at the tail end of his effectiveness, and, frankly, overrated and by extension grossly overpaid. We need to be dangling Cuddyer out there, along with Kubel, not Young.

"My Bold Vikes Prediction" by Jan

Embiggened by MCA, I'd like to make this prediction - the Vikes will now go deep into the playoffs.

I base this on the following:

1. Before the Williams Wall was suspended, everything seemed too easy. Now we have a little controversy that will get the players to 'circle the wagons' and win 2 of the next 4. Once in the playoffs, we get the added bonus of the return of the WW and the fact that we have the best player in the NFL.

2. Three of the next four games are "Factoid Games" and for the "New Era Vikes" I like us in these "Factoid Games."

• First is the Lions game, we've all read about the 0-12 start and what happened in 2001.
• Next is the game against the Cards who knocked us out of the playoffs in 2003 (motherf'er!)
• Finally is the game against the Falcons and I don't got to tell you how that ended.

Payback is a dish best served cold and a side of kickass.

3. Why not?

Williams Wall: From MCA's mouth to God's ear

After reading MCA's comment in the previous "Jared Allen" post, I thought it was worthy of it's own section for it's insight, optimism, and general prose. Sports blogging at its best. MCA, you have talked me off one ledge onto a larger ledge with a handrail.

"Alright, everybody calm down.

1. We're not losing to Detroit. Did you guys watch that game Thursday? They're much worse than they were in 2001. I know that's hard to believe, but the Lions just keep exceeding expectations of crapitude. Diesel and "Hi-Tops" (C. Taylor - get it?) go hog wild and Daunte throws a couple picks.

2. All they have to do is win one of the last three to get to 9-7. The Bears would then have to sweep to win.They can't tie us at 9-7, because we'll win any tiebreaker if they lose one of their remaining four. Please explain, MCA, you ask? My pleasure: assuming the Vikes beat Detroit and one more, should the Bears go 3-1, they're both at 9-7, even up head to head and 4-2 in the division. The third tie breaker is common opponents. We're at 4-3 against those opponents and the Bears 1-4, so we'd have to lose to Atlanta and the Bears would have to beat Jax, NO and Houston. Ahh, but if they do that and finish 9-7 that means they lost to the Pack and we don't even get to the third tiebreaker because Chicago would finish 3-3 against the division. So they have to win it outright by sweeping, and c'mon, the Bears are not capable of winning four games in a row, I don't care who they're against or where they take place.

3. The Pack can beat us if we go 2-2 and they sweep, however, as their sweep implies beating the Bears and Lions a second time and thus winning the vs. division tiebreaker at 5-1. But again, I don't see this as mattering because, despite the easy schedule they have the rest of the way, I just don't see them running the table with the way their defense is getting torched lately.

4. Think of the confidence boost the team would get from getting the Wall back for the playoffs.

5. Think of how little this or anything else would matter if we get Dallas in the first round of the playoffs."

Who's Disappointed in Jared Allen's Performance Now?

Wasn't there some hand-wringing over how Allen wasn't getting it done after his big purple payday? That guy was dominating last night. 11 sacks now. When's the last time we had someone with a dozen or more sacks, anyway? Randle?

Question of the day: can we beat any of the Falcons, Cardinals or Giants? Without the Williams Wall? I say we have a good chance against Arizona regardless, we can't handle Atlanta's running game without them but will clobber Ryan with them, and the Gints smoke us either way.

Vikes crush it. We're #1 (for now)

Let's relish the win over the Bears but realize what it was - a big win for a mediocre team that over the past 4 weeks has proven it can beat bad teams. Vikes now "control their own destiny" which is not necessarily a good thing (they controlled their own destiny last year too.)

I was in attendance for the game and wanted to share my thoughts:

1. Drunken fans? Check.

2. I did lose my cool BG-style in the first quarter. After the Bears took an early 7-0 lead a dude in an Urlacher jersey stood up and taunted everyone in our section (see picture at right even though you can't really make him out - couple rows down - the pic was taken after the game when he was jawing with some Vikings fans.) Anyway, as he was doing the 'how do you like me now' routine, I caught his eye and yelled "Sit down douchebag! It's the f'ing 1st quarter!" and I was quickly embarrassed that I did so.

3. Comment quickly on jerseys at the game - I love seeing all the names from Vikings past in purple. Best one last night was the Jake Reed jersey just because I hadn't seen one before. 98% of Bears fans wear "Urlacher" jerseys. It is lame but not as lame as the "Enis" jersey I saw.

4. The 10 year olds behind us were absolutely atrocious. After Gus got knocked down they were calling the ref a "fu%$ing fa**0t." Wow.

5. As for the game - that goal line stand was fun to watch but after Berrian's 99 yard tuddy I haven't jumped up and down like in a long time. The place was nuts.

6. Half time they retired Randle's number to the Vikings "Ring of Honor" - pretty cool. Unreal that this guy was not drafted and is tied for 5th in number of career sacks and his 137.5 career sacks is the most by a defensive tackle in NFL history. Remember this?

7. What can we say about AP? I think we should all agree to start to call him "Diesel" - it is what is tatooed on his arm and what his boys call him. Best jersey last night was a dude in his Sooners jersey but you really gotta be a Sooners fan and a Vikings fan to pull that one off.

Now on to the Lions. Here is your factoid of the day that should scare the poop out of you: "The Lions started 0-12 in 2001 and their 13th game was against Minnesota at home. They won, 27-24, and finished the season 2-14."