#-1: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -1). In compiling this WMNSS, it dawned on me that this was a really shitty Week for Twin Cities sports. There were only two teams that went undefeated. As such, I didn't feel like lifting any team above negative numbers. With that being said, it appears as though the Gopher volleyball squad has seemed to have righted itself. It helps that they've played their last four Games at home, but it is on a six-Game winning streak after outlasting Michigan in five Sets last Friday and sweeping Maryland Sunday.
Now, the losses to good teams to start the season is something they're going to have to overcome for the rest of the Year. Also, tonight/Friday night they visit Wisconsin, ranked fifth in the country (the U. has risen up to seventh in the AVCA), then need to play in Northwestern tomorrow/Saturday night. We might get more evidence that this edition of the program is a clear cut below.
#-2: Vikings (Last Week: -5). This is what the Vikes needed. And I didn't think they would get it. I really thought they would lay an egg in the first Game at home this season -- and the first in front of fans in over a Year -- and lose to the Seattle Seahawks. And it was touch-and-got there in the First Half. But at some point the offense turned it on, the defense rose up on Russell Wilson & Co. (I didn't know that Wilson had never lost), and Seattle, weirdly, just shut down. Minnesota won Sunday, 30-17, and a lot of the weight from the pressure of this season (though not all of the weight) seems off.
Now, is this a fluke, or the start of the "real" Vikings? Cleveland comes to town this Sunday, and they are no pushovers. Myles Garrett is a beast and seems particularly suited to press on the Offensive Line, which played well Sunday but still appears to be a weakness. Can they win and get to .500, and thus allow us to sigh in relief?
#-3: United FC (Last Week: -3). Yeah, these midweek road tilts are killing the Loons. I guess every XI has to go through them, but it's still disappointing to see Matches like Wednesday's thorough 3-1 defeat at D. C. United and recognize that 1) we don't have a lot of depth and 2) if they don't have Bebelo Reynoso, they're not much of a club.
At least they blanked Houston at Allianz Saturday, 2-0. Robin Lod put MNUFC ahead for good less than a Minute in. That was the Match to win, and so they're where they were last Week: Clinging to the last playoff spot in the West.
At FC Dallas Saturday. If they can get a road Win, that would help things a lot.
#-4: Twins (Last Week: -4). A 3-3 Week. I went to the last home Game of the season last/Thursday night, versus Detroit, courtesy of a friend who had a free ticket. It was a third-level, Home Plate seat, and it was interesting to see the infield shift from the left side to the right side and then sometimes in for throws home. It's not a bad seat, even though I still cannot judge if a long ball really is going out of the park or if it's just a routine fly.
I had high hopes to see a good contest because Joe Ryan, who played really well when I saw him against Cleveland a month ago, was on the mound. But I have never seen him get shelled so often. He gave up six Runs, including a pair of Home Runs by, of all people, Shortstop Niko Goodrum. The Twinks came back to take the lead, but then the motherfucking analytics fuckin' kicked in, they put in some guy named Ralph Garza, Jr., in the eighth Inning, and he allowed the three Batters he faced to reach before getting yanked. Of course all three came around to score, and that was the losing margin in a 10-7 loss.
I went to three Twinks Games this Year. That Nine lost all three Games. Thanks, Twinks.
At Kansas City to end the season this weekend.
#-5: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -2). Maybe the quite response to the U.'s undefeated start before league play was warranted. Stepping in competition, they have suffered a horrible screening Week, dropping a pair of 2-1 results (at Michigan Sunday, home to Rutgers Thursday). Weirdly, all three of their Losses have been by 2-1 scores.
The halfway point of Big Ten play comes this Sunday as they host Penn St. We'll see where they stand in the conference after that.
#-6: Gopher football (Last Week: 0). I didn't think this would happen. I kind of thought this program is now beyond these whiplash performances. But apparently not. One Week after traveling to Colorado and shutting out the BcS-level Buffaloes, they come home and get upset by, of all fucking clubs, Bowling Green Saturday, 14-10. And on Homecoming, too!!!
There are a few superlatives that tie into this upset. The Falcons were 31-Point underdogs. The last time a team given so many Points won was Morgan St. in 2018. The last time a top-flight team given so many Points won was Liberty in 2017. Bowling Green had lost the previous ten Game vs. top-flight teams. The Goofers had the longest streak of wins over non-conference opponents at 21. And it was the team's first loss to a non-BcS foe in over a decade.
This shitshow was largely willed into existence by the disturbingly appalling performance by seasoned Quarterback Tanner Morgan. There was a pronounced emphasis on running the ball on the Falcons (44 Rushes 182 Yards), but you need to throw the ball to win too, and Morgan was 5-of-13 for 59 Yards. He lost a Fumble, and he was sacked four times. Worst of all, Morgan had two possessions with about two Minutes left in the Game, and Morgan got picked off both times. Fucking inexplicable.
The bloom is off the rose now. They visit Purdue early Saturday afternoon. I had to move our alma mater game-watching event to a new place, and I was scared that it would be swarmed by Gopher fans. I don't think I have to worry about that anymore.
#-Infinity: Lynx (Last Week: Positive Numbers). And I don't think this has ever fucking happened to the Jynx: Needing to play the Second Round of Play-Ins, third-seeded Minnesota gets upset and eliminated at home, and handily (13 Points), by sixth-seeded Chicago late Sunday afternoon. There has been renewed talk to do away with Play-Ins -- the excitement of one-and-done seems to have ebbed, but there hasn't been any talk of the economic reasons behind slimming down the first two Rounds of the WNBA Playoffs to just one Game -- and now I agree. But the Sky beat the Jynx in the paint and off the glass. And the Guard play, which was enough to kick this club on a winning streak late in the season, reverted back to the mediocre results that had shown up from time to time.
But I want to say this: I have learned that whenever a home team holds a pre-Game ceremony honoring one of its players for winning a Year-end award, that team loses. Did the Lynx hold such a ceremony just before the Game? There was a press conference, but if a squad does something on the court, just before the Game starts, almost invariably that squad loses.
After the shocking defeat, most Lynx fans on Twitter gave them "we'll get 'em next year!" encouragement. A sign of true acceptance as a full-fledged, serious sport means (and I don't think this is ironic) being screamed out when you lose when you shouldn't. So: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, JYNX? I DON'T CARE IF IT'S A ONE-GAME SERIES! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FUCKING WIN THAT GAME! WHAT THE FUCK'S A MATTER WITH YOU?
So, next Year, what, better Guards?
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