Gotta love the holiday season. Means less college teams to keep track of for the survey.
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#-1: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -2). Finished their cupcake non-con schedule, one that sent this team out of Williams Arena for one tournament over Thanksgiving Weekend and did not feature even one single true road game, by rallying from a deficit to defeat North Dakota St. Thursday. Man, if they have to come back to beat a team like the Bison at home, what happens if they go on the road against an actual decent team?
At any rate, they are 12-1 overall, even though they are (rightly) unranked. We'll see immediately how good this team is; they begin conference play Tuesday at Illinois.
#-2: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -4). I said last week that this squad of Goofs was done till the 30th. I was wrong. In a testament to how lightly I regard this program nowadays, I overlooked that they had a game Friday in the Barn against the New Jersey Institute of Technology, or NJIT (I like to pronounce it "en-jit," like how Tom Sawyer calls Sam an "Injun"). They crushed them 71-47; Rachel Banham scored a career-high 20 points. But I still put them behind the men's b-ball team that squeaked by in its only game because this club is only 8-6. Moreover, even though Pam Borton has shown more balls than Tubby Smith by scheduling actual road games, they lost both of them.
Like the penis ballers, they begin B1G play next week on the road: At Purdue Friday.
#-3: Vikings (Last Week: -6). Say, why did the NFL schedule games on Christmas Eve? I thought that was the most sacred day in the sports calendar. There usually is nothing besides the fucking Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. I really thought they would hold to their traditional Sunday schedule and have everybody, or at least all but, like, one game, played Christmas Day. I know the NBA schedules games all day then -- it's extra special this year because it'll be the beginning of their delayed season -- but is the NFL really afraid to piss off or lose ratings to NBA games?
Anyway, playing Saturday meant I can include two games to evaluate the Vikes with this week. Good thing for them too: Their better-than-the-score-indicates win over Washington this afternoon balances out the loss last week at home to New Orleans that showed how wide the talent level is between this team and the elite. And to think that two years ago both teams played for a spot in the Super Bowl.
I will say this: Christian Ponder has regressed badly, so much so that I now have to question whether he is the man to lead the ViQueens into the future. His judgment and confidence has been so awful the last 3-4 weeks that the coaches only allow him to throw dumps, flats and screens. He had, like, 20 yards of passing before being taken out of the game (probably for the season, for the good of his young brain) because of a concussion he took. Those passing numbers are Donovan McNabb-like. When the QB is so afraid of throwing an interception he opts to run on almost half the snaps, he's not playing with confidence.
And today's game is reason enough to say this again: Joe Webb is at the very least a decent quarterback, and he should be given the chance to lead this team and prove that he is the quarterback of the future. I don't think he broke triple digits passing, but so what? He was accurate on some of his throws and he is a credible threat running the ball. The Washington defense had to honor the possibility that he'll tuck it and run, and that allowed Webb to throw to Kyle Rudolph and Percy Harvin on those touchdowns. Finally, it looked like Webb was able to play with some control, if not mastery, and that's something we haven't seen from Ponder in a month.
Unfortunately, the win today came at a high price: Adrian Peterson was carted off the field, and according to FOX's Jay Glazer, they think it's a torn ACL. You know, it really was a stupid decision to come back to play after his high ankle sprain. Now this shit happens, and there's a possibility that he'll miss games next year because of it. And for what, pursuing the franchise's all-time rushing record and placating your fantasy owners? (I think that's a dumb decision, and I have Peterson on one of my fantasy teams.)
That being said, Toby Gerhardt's performance in this game (over 100 yards) and while Peterson was out has saved his career. He now looks like a good that could, and should, spell A.P. as a backfield tandem.
Season's over on the 1st when they host Chicago. Even with Ponder and Peterson out and a shit secondary, this is an actually winnable game.
#-4: Twins (Last Week: -7). I really don't think the loss of Jason Kubel, a player I think was expendable (he went to Arizona), nor the signing of Jason Marquis was newsworthy enough to warrant a spot in the WMNSS. But then I thought there would be only three teams to rank this week. When I realized the U. women's team played a game this week, I had already formed thoughts about the Twinks.
And they are these: There were four big free agents -- Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, Joe Nathan and Matt Capps. Three of them are gone. The only one the team retained is the least-tenured of the four, the least valuable (in my opinion) and the most-reviled by fans.
Moreover, the signing of Marquis seems to be nothing more than the baseball equivalent of spackling over a mistake. New Old General Manager Terry Ryan shipped Kevin Slowey's surly ass out of town, and they needed to find somebody good enough to pitch in the big leagues. That's why Ryan signed Marquis: He needed a warm body. God, I hope he knows what he's doing. Maybe even he knows that the immediate future is already a lost cause, and he's just filling out the roster while really concentrating on repopulating the farm system with prospects that will bring about a new Renaissance for the Twinks.
#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -5). Wow. Two weeks ago I put the Mild in Positive Numbers for their winning streak. They went from there to -5 to -Infinity because they followed up winning seven in a row by losing six in a row, including going 0-4 this week. They needed to show grit; as exemplified in a 4-0 shutout at Vancouver and a 4-1 thumping at rapidly-improving ex-doormat Edmonton, it looks like they have none. Of course, injuries, especially losing captain Mikko Koivu, doesn't help. At least they had been so good that right now they're in second place in the Western Conference standings.
Will this team ever win again? Three games this week: home to Colorado, at Nashville, then home to Edmonton.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
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