#-1: Vikings (Last Week: -2). Not the most robust outing for the Vikes. But in a place where they have had a recent history of struggling regardless of the records of both teams, Minnesota went into Soldier Field, and for the second time in three Years, came out of Chicago with a victory, bruising, at-times stultifying 19-13 win over the Bears.
For the first time in three Games, Dalvin Cook was not the offensive engine; he gained just under 100 Yards, and he needed to carry it over 30 times in order to do so. No, this time the Game was won largely on ... the arm of Kirk Cousins, who did not have a stellar performance on the field, but with the Bears mostly keyed to stopping the run, he stepped up and ... well, more than managed the Game, but made the throws he needed to make. His two TD passes to Adam Thielen were the difference.
Now, sure, it helps that the Bears Offense was gob-smackingly inept all Game. They managed only two First Downs in the Second Half and had three consecutive Three-And-Outs in the Third Quarter. But the margin of victory was only six Points, and with a 104-Yard Kickoff Return in that Third by former Vikings Cordarrelle Patterson, Chicago took the lead. (Aside: Patterson now ties Leon Washington and Josh Cribbs for most KR TDs in NFL history. That is an accomplishment I did not foresee when Patterson was a Vike. I also did not foresee him being the focal point of the Bears Offense Monday night. He was never such an option when Minnesota drafted him in 2013. Some career!) That KR TD triggered Mike Zimmer into ripping one into Special Teams Coordinator Marwan Maalouf on the sideline. I don't think I've ever seen Zim get that angry at anyone during a Game. I really wonder if Maalouf is going to keep his job at the end of the season ... or even be let go in the middle of it.
So the Vikings have now won three in a row and now sit at 4-5. And now with talk that the NFL may expand the playoff field for 2020 to eight teams in each conference, Minnesota, who is on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, has a live shot of reaching the postseason despite starting the regular season 1-5. (This also highlights how painful those come-from-ahead losses to Tennessee and Seattle are becoming.) They can, and should, make some real hay now that they are at U. S. Bank Stadium for three straight contests against subpar squads, beginning with Dallas late Sunday afternoon. An upset defeat in any of the next three Weeks would be a killer, and a disappointment.
#-2: Gopher football (Last Week: -3). And speaking of disappointments ... yep, Floyd of Rosedale is staying with Iowa, after the Hawkeyes came into TCF Bank Stadium and took the Goofers' lunch money on Friday the 13th to the tune of a 35-7 rout. I didn't even begin to think these guys were going to make the College Football Playoff -- I think most sports fans, if they were honest with themselves, are going to write off a lot of 2020 sports-wise, especially if their teams weren't any good -- but I thought that at the very least, the Offense was going to be good, especially with Tanner Morgan still being there and Rashod Bateman changing his mind once the Big Ten changed its mind about playing in the fall. But the O isn't there, as clearly evidenced by the "7" in that score. And the "35" in that score shows how non-existent the Defense was, and has been in all three of the team's losses.
This is disappointing. The Gophers took advantage of a favorable schedule last year and at the least beat all the other dregs in the conference and got lucky with a traditional power that underachieves (Penn St.). Programs should build off of that, not be a one-off. (Meanwhile, it looks as though Indiana is the team that the Goofers were last year -- and in this cock-eyed season, it's the Hoosiers that have firmly planted themselves in the Top 10 rankings, a level Minnesota did not get to till later in the 2019 season.) So even though they're going to a bowl -- who isn't -- they are now set to play a Purdue club, at home again, on a Friday night again, where the Boilermakers are favored. It is possible that the U. doesn't win any more Games this abbreviated season.
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