#0: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: 0). I had absolutely no doubt that the Minnesota volleyball program would take the top spot in this week's survey. But would it be a -1, a 0, or even a Positive Numbers?
I dismissed PN because last week the Lynx earned it. The team is nowhere near winning a title, which is two months away. I've given PN for lesser lights, but not much less, so I wanted to avoid just giving that up in back-to-back weeks. Then again, with Saturday's four-set home-and-home sweep of ranked Wisconsin, they have now won six in a row, moved into ninth in the AVCA Top 25 poll, and look like both a contender for the Big Ten and the NCAA Tournament -- where they belong. So even though they played just one game, I thought to give them a 0.
I am scared, however, of this weekend. They have what I consider a dangerous back-to-back road trip. They play at third-ranked Nebraska Friday, then travel to face Iowa in a potential trap game Saturday. After that, however, the club's schedule becomes extremely home-heavy; seven of their final ten games of the season are at the Sports Pavilion. And they will begin a four-game homestand Wednesday evening against Indiana.
#-1: Vikings (Re-Entry!). I was at the Vikes' 16-10 victory over The Bastard Dallas Texans Sunday, and I gotta tell ya, it was the most dispiriting win I've seen in a long time. It was weird in the sense that Kansas City, without their main man Jamaal Charles for the rest of the season because of a torn ACL, seemed for most of the game to not have a functioning offense, so even though the Vikings didn't have much going for them offensively either (I wish I could see more from Teddy Bridgewater at this point, but him stepping up but staying in the pocket to find my waiver pickup Stefon Diggs for 30 yards in the fourth quarter was a sure sign of maturity and poise), any points they accrued seemed more than enough to put K.C. away. But then they put together a Touchdrive, capped off by an well-timed screen pass in response to the ViQueens in an all-out blitz, and suddenly the game's in doubt. It was a Chiefs fumble -- where a Chiefs player inadvertently punched the ball out of his teammate's handle -- that salted the game away. Whatever, we'll take it, but I didn't see a Super Bowl-winning team out there.
One thing that seems disconcerting. Adrian Peterson remains the first option and the focal point of the offense. But Sunday we saw even more evidence that All Day is slow to hit the hole and has no acceleration if he clears it. His Yards Per Carry sucked, and it wasn't much better earlier in the year. I've thought for a while now that the NFL has become a passing league. That put Minnesota on the wrong side of modern times because they still relied on a back. Circumstances such as Peterson's continual diminishing returns would be an opening to start passing a lot more. However, Bridgewater is still learning, and the Wide Receiving corps remains a rotation of role players that are taking turns being Flavor Of The Week. The offense, unfortunately, remains quite stuck, with Plans A and B not looking that successful.
The upside to all of this is that many writers feel this is the soft part of the squad's schedule and they have the potential, particularly due to the defense, of making some hay. The next four games, starting this Sunday early afternoon at Detroit, are imminently winnable, and the Vikings could thus be 7-2 heading to Thanksgiving Week ... where they would begin an extremely daunting gauntlet of teams, beginning and ending with Green Bay. Time to bank those wins now, boys.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -2). Well, the Mild won't finish the season undefeated, so Mercury Morris, you can pop that champagne now. They beat Arizona 4-3 to start off the week, but lost in Southern California to both the Kings and the Ducks.
That's all I got.
Busy week: Tonight (Thursday night) they host the winless Columbus Blue Jackets, which yesterday (Wednesday) fired Head Coach (and former Wild HC) Todd Richards for John Tortorella. They then host Anaheim Saturday but then fly to Winnipeg and play The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers Sunday. Then they come back to Xcel Energy Center to face Edmonton.
#-3: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -1). Consider the roll slowed. They had a prime chance this last screening week to state their case as a dark horse candidate for the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately they got upset at home by lowly Michigan St. on a ninth-minute goal from Jamie Cheslik, then played Michigan to a scoreless draw. That probably puts the kibosh on any chance of hosting the first two rounds of the tourney, even though the side's RPI remains a robust 27th.
Believe it or not, this is the last week of the regular season. And the two matches they play will not be gimmes at all. Friday they face nationally-renowned Rutgers. And in Wednesday's finale, they host an Illinois team that, as of right now, holds the eighth and final spot in the B1G Tournament, which will begin November 1.
#-4: Gopher football (Last Week: -3). OK, that was just awful. Maybe Nebraska was reacting to their previous game, where they lost in the final seconds to Wisconsin in a game they should have salted away, and they were determined to do it this time at Das Bank. And they did so -- 48-25, ick. What is so strange is that the lopsided offensive output for this club diametrically reversed itself for Saturday's game. The strength of this squad, the running game, was totally snuffed out: 65 yards (Shannon Brooks had eight carries for only 25 yards). And although he probably got those numbers out of necessity, Mitch Leidner did go 26-of-40 for 301 yards and two TDs, which is pretty good, and very good for Mitch Leidner.
Seeing as how SI.com currently does not project the Goofs to play in a bowl game, Jerry Kill's reclamation project is in fact being torn down Brick By Brick. Well, at least they have two weeks to prepare for a Halloween Night clash (moved up from 8 to 6, probably because both teams are coming off losses) against Jim Harbaugh and Michigan.
#-5: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -4). OK, this has gotten real bad. They lost both ends of a home-and-home against Minnesota-Duluth. It seemed pretty thorough, the defeats -- 3-1 Friday at Mariucci, 3-0 Saturday at AMSOIL. And while the Bulldogs rose to fifth in the USCHO.com Top 20 (garnering one first-place vote in the process), the Golden Goofers, who have started the season 0-3, are barely hanging onto the bottom of the poll, their name the only reason they still are on the poll. When the only goal your team has scored so far in the season comes from a Freshman who's not even from Minnesota (Brent Gates, Jr., out of Grand Rapids, Mich.), the season could turn into a complete failure.
This weekend they host Northeastern. I am going to Friday's faceoff, partly because I want to see what the hell is wrong with this team, partly to see if they can win their first game of the year against a 1-2 club, but mostly because I've never seen Northeastern play in person and I want to because it's unusual to see non-conference squads play at Mariucci.
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