I really should tuck this team lower than the Timberwolves. It isn't fair. But I've been a lifelong fan of the ViQueens, and I and every other Vikes fan can tell you that good fortune never, and I mean never, happens to this club. I watched it happen on a monitor and I couldn't believe it. For crissake, I have to go to sleep real soon and I still can't believe it. I believe I'm sleeping now, that this game-ending Touchdown to win a game (the first time that has happened in NFL postseason history) is a cruel dream I am going to wake from as soon as the alarm sounds.
But assuming this is reality, I feel as though I need to chronicle it. This will go down as One Of The Greatest Plays In Minnesota Vikings History, remembered fondly for all eternity regardless of what happens from here on out. And that fortune somehow did smile upon this team when it is usually met with frowns is something to not only commemorate, but cherish. So, OK, I'll give the Vikings the top spot this screening week.
Now, on to Philadelphia, where I know the Vikings will lose. Let's face harsh reality: This squad should have lost this game. The Defense was fantastic in the First Half, and the Offense played well enough to give them a 17-0 lead. But starting near the end of the Second Quarter, the offensive stagnation that has set in since December bog them down again. Meanwhile, New Orleans adjusted to the Defense, and once the Saints took the lead for the first time with three minutes left to go, I (and I know every other Vikes fan) was saying, "Heh, 'Bring It Home?' What fucking bullshit." I don't think the inability to move the ball is going away next week. Meanwhile, the Offensive Line was gassed at the end of the game. Worst of all, Andrew Sendejo and Shamar Stephen, two pieces of what once was an incredibly-healthy D, maybe not be available for the NFC Championship Game.
The Vikes were installed as 3 1/2-point favorites in Las Vegas. That's ridiculous considering what the Eagles were able to do in Saturday's victory over Atlanta and what Minnesota was not able to do yesterday (Sunday) evening. I thought they were going to lose to the Saints; might as well stick with what I feel and bet against them again Sunday.
#-1: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). Overshadowed in all the hoopla over the "Minneapolis Miracle" last (Sunday) night was that both the Timberwolves and the Wild were playing at home later in the evening. So of course fans of both teams who came early were able to watch the end of the game.
This is an edited version of the play at Target Center:
Damian Lillard, #Saints fan? This is quite a reaction to the Diggs walkoff. #Vikings pic.twitter.com/F322hFTe83— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) January 15, 2018
Have to echo Mr. DuBose: Not a fan of the Vikes, Lil? OK, the Timberwolves crushed your Portland Trail Blazers, 120-103, to finish a perfect screening week (4-0) and go undefeated in their five-game homestand. Jimmy Butler may have replaced Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins as the alpha dog on this club. But if that new pecking order means giving Cleveland and LeBron James their worst loss of the season and then crushing The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics, and then coming back to defeat New York, well, this team might be all the better for it.
The playoff drought has to end this season. I just has to. And they'll have weeks like this one this year, I just know it. The Woofie Dogs will be alpha dogs on a survey soon. This week they play every other day. The Wolves travel to Orlando and Houston, then host Toronto in a game where me and my alumni club are going to.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -5). Here's the scene at the X when Keenum-to-Diggs happened:
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 15, 2018
The Wild could've made it three-for-three in Twin Cities pro teams winning on the same evening in Minnesota, but alas, the Mild failed to hold up their end of the bargain with a come-from-ahead loss to sucky Vancouver, 3-2 in Overtime. This was the second time this week they lost at Xcel by a score of 3-2 to a Canadian team in OT; they lost to The Bastard Atlanta Flames by said score Tuesday. Despite a road win over Chicago the day after the Flames loss and a convincing 4-1 win over The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers before the Canucks loss, this 2-2 week puts them out of the playoff picture heading into their bye week, which is only a five-game break. They resume play Saturday at home versus an excellent Tampa Bay team.
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -6). And now we get to Dinkytown. In a weird reversal of fortune, after many years it's the professional teams that are buoying local sports while Golden Gophers athletics are bringing the survey down.
It's hard to pick the best of the teams this week, but I am going with the women's b-ball squad. They trounced Penn St. in State College, Wednesday, then were a Kenisha Bell toss off a Carlie Wagner steal from stealing a win at ranked Rutgers, but alas, it was too strong. That miss proved pivotal as the Scarlet Rutgers ripped the U. in OT to win, 80-70. Well, at least I see one bracketologist think they're at least on the outskirts of reaching the NCAA Tournament.
They are home this week for games vs. Wisconsin Thursday and Iowa Sunday.
#-4: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -2). Got the shit beat out of them at Ohio St. Friday by a score of 31-7. That would have been unheard-of in the J Robinson Era. Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon they eked out a 17-14 win over Illinois at Maturi -- also unheard-of. They host Michigan Sunday afternoon.
#-5: Gopher women's hockey (Re-Entry!). This team lost to Vermont Friday. At Ridder. To fucking Vermont. Doesn't matter that they rebounded with a 6-1 win Saturday; the fact that a ranked Goofers club dropped a home game versus an unranked Catamounts program shows how far in disarray this team -- and maybe this program -- is right now. We have to start to question whether this team will even make the NCAA Tournament this year. I'm serious!
A road twofer against Ohio St. this weekend wouldn't make me think twice. Now, I have to.
#-6: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -4). And these guys are even worse shape than their female analogues. They got swept at home by Michigan. Swept!!!! This team is now just bobbing above .500 overall (13-12-1) and are now a pathetic 4-9-1 in the Big Ten. Worst of all, they slipped from ninth to 15th in the PairWise with that humiliating pair of defeats at Mariucci. This team and this program are in serious freefall. And I'm not sure a special weekend series vs. Michigan St., where they play Thursday in East Lansing and Saturday night in Madison Square Garden as part of the B1G's "Super Saturday College Hoops & Hockey Doubleheader" in The World's Most Famous Areana will change the fact this these guys are now a bubble team, and it's popping very, very soon.
#-7: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -7). And yet at least none of these U. teams are the men's b-ball team. Man, what a nosedive; going from a chic darkhorse pick to reach the Final Four to, with the looming suspension and expulsion of Reggie Lynch to the injury to Amir Coffey, a team looking at a high seed for the NIT. That's what happens when you get blasted at Northwestern by 23 and then get emasculated at Williams by fifth-ranked Purdue by -- ugh -- 34.
Their busy screening week consists of three non-home games. They are at Penn St. tonight/Monday and at Maryland Thursday. They then play Ohio St. Saturday afternoon in New York City. I just realized that it is the University of Minnesota that will be the headlining school for the "BTN Super Saturday (at Madison Square Garden)" ... and it's possible both Golden Goofers teams could lose in putrid fashion for all of New York to see.
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