The Vikings’ ’Soulful Strut’ and more sports news

CATHY WURZER: Well, I tell you what, you may recognize this song, if we can cue it up here. It's from an iconic moment in the 1998 movie Parent Trap.

[THE YOUNG-HOLT UNLIMITED, "SOULFUL STRUT"]

OK. It's early on in the film when British twin-- I'm so tired. When British twin Annie James is getting dropped off at summer camp, she bids farewell to her butler with an elaborate handshake routine. Now, two Vikings players celebrated an interception at their game in London yesterday by performing that very handshake. It's become a viral moment from the game against the New York Jets where, by the way, the Vikes also won 23-17. Joining us to talk about that game and other Minnesota sports news, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, our sports guys. Hey, guys. How are you?

ERIC NELSON: How's it going, Cathy?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Good, Cathy. How are you on this wonderful Monday?

CATHY WURZER: Oh, great. You can tell I'm doing great. [LAUGHS] Let us talk about this Vikings game, shall we? And Eric, London would not be the place, I would think, to see a Vikings game, but it appeared that the fans were really fired up.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah. And by the way, I like that bumper music, "Soulful Strut." Good job, Cathy. Well, this is all part of the NFL's effort to expand its global footprint. All 32 NFL franchises have now played in London at least once, and the Vikings are the first team to go 4 and 0 in regular season international games. All four of those wins have come in the UK.

It wasn't that long ago where NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, I'd like to put a team in London, maybe two. But that didn't go over too well. That's highly unlikely that it's ever going to happen. So what they do is they farm out some games to other countries. There will be three in the UK this season, one in Germany. There's already been one in Brazil. Green Bay and Philadelphia played in Sao Paulo. A total of 50 games have now been played beyond US borders, 36 of them in London. NFL's also played in Mexico, Cathy, but they won't do that this season because the venue in Mexico City is getting upgrades.

By the way, this was a home game for the Vikings. They had over 61,000 fans at Hotspur Stadium. Which means Minneapolis, which normally gets a lot of revenue from these home games-- we're talking about fans coming in, filling up hotels, bars, restaurants. This is a huge hit for the city of Minneapolis, to lose a home game to London. I don't like the idea. It's great that they can expose the sport, but let's cut to the chase. It's all about soccer and rugby in the UK. The NFL is a blip on the radar screen.

CATHY WURZER: OK, duly noted. Thank you. I wonder, Wally, when it came to the actual game I was a little bit worried, to be honest with you, that they were going to blow it. But they pulled it out, and now they're 5 and 0.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: They are 5 and 0. And you hear coaches at every level now talking about playing complimentary football. That means when your defense is playing well or your defense isn't playing well, your offense might have to pick them up or your special teams might have to pick up the ball. Well, this is a case where they didn't get a ton out of their offense, that's for sure.

This is not the Sam Darnold who was being touted as a league MVP through the first four weeks. He struggled. The Jets put good pressure on him. I thought that the Jets did a really good job for the most part on Justin Jefferson, shutting him down. Aaron Jones got hurt early in the game, the Vikings' key running back. So the offense kind of sputtered, but the defense was excellent. Three interceptions off of Aaron Rodgers, including the last one by Gilmore at the end of the game to seal the deal.

I thought defensively they played real well and the special teams was kind of hit-and-miss. The miss, you could say, was on that roughing-the-punter penalty that set up the Jets for a drive that ended in their first touchdown, because it was 17-0 and we get a roughing-the-punter penalty, 15 yards. Aaron Rodgers, who went hobbling off the field, sticks his helmet on his mug and goes running back out there and leads them down the field after the 15-yard yard penalty for a touchdown. So now it's 17-7. So that part was the miss. The hit was Will Reichard, the kicker out of Alabama. He is perfect this season. He was 3 for 3, including a couple of 50-plus yarders yesterday. So they got to be happy with that part.

CATHY WURZER: Right.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Obviously you never play a perfect game, but they played good enough defense to win that football game. And yes, they're 5 and 0.

CATHY WURZER: See, Eric, I got a little sweaty watching the Gophers. I mean, it was warm anyway, but the Gophers and, um--

ERIC NELSON: USC.

CATHY WURZER: Thanks, USC. I was going to say UCLA. USC. That was pretty amazing, to see that they pulled that thing off.

ERIC NELSON: It was, Cathy. I was at the venue with my son Ben, and as we watched the game unfold I'm like, hey, they may do this. Now, keep in mind, the Gophers and Trojans have only played a total of nine times. But the last time Minnesota beat USC, which is a pedigree program in college football, was 1955.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, right. Wow.

ERIC NELSON: So SC came in ranked 11th. And the Gophers had a good second half the week before against Michigan but lost, and we know about the controversial offsides call on the onside kick. But this thing was incredible. It's one of the greatest Gopher games I've seen with my own eyes. The quarterback, Max Brosmer, ran for three touchdowns, including the game-winning tush-push QB sneak that they had to review. It was initially said no touchdown. They reviewed it, and they said he got in.

The running back, Darius Taylor, had 200 yards from scrimmage, 145 of those rushing. Koi Perich, a true freshman from Esko, Minnesota, had an acrobatic interception to seal the deal in the final seconds. And then you had the field rush, and that was, let me tell you, having been there, pure, organic, spontaneous joy. And it was fun to see, and good for the Gophers. PJ Fleck after the game, he was bouncing off the walls in the interview session. He couldn't have been happier.

And now I think the question for the Gophers, Cathy, is, is this a building block? Is this a springboard or a trampoline to better things? Or is it a hiccup? Because they have a chance for the SoCal sweep now. They're going to go to Los Angeles and play UCLA at the Rose Bowl this week. Bruins are not a good team. There's going to be at least 10,000 Minnesota fans out there, if not more. So if they can get this win, then perhaps the Gophers have something going.

CATHY WURZER: Say, Wally, I'm curious about the Twins. I'm not surprised that they would move some coaches out. They got rid of, what, four assistant coaches and the general manager is out, too. I'm a little surprised that the manager's not out. Should I be? Rocco Baldelli.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Ooh. Yeah, that's a great question. Firing four assistant coaches, if you ask me, it's rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. That's basically what's going on here. Thad Levine, I think that Levine was leaving for greener pastures or something different regardless of what happened this year. I just think that his time had run out. I don't think he had as much say or was as involved as Derek Falvey has been, particularly over the last year or two. So I think that was kind of expected. But the assistant coaches, I don't know, man. If you're going to make a change, make a change. And that would have been, as you said, parting ways with Rocco.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: One other piece of news that came out from the Twins today, they are staying with their flagship WCCO Radio. They announced that today, on a multi-year contract. And they did say-- Dave Saint Peter did say that they are close to closing up, closing in on a TV deal. Keep your eyes open for that, because it's going to be interesting to see where they go because they've had so many problems with Bally's and the Diamond Sports Group who have declared bankruptcy, and they wanted all these teams, now they don't want all these teams. Interesting to see how this thing is going to flush out. But he said we'll know within the next couple of weeks.

CATHY WURZER: All right. I got to go. I got to raise some money. Wally and Eric, thank you.

ERIC NELSON: See you, Cathy.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Please do so.

CATHY WURZER: See you later. Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score sports magazine, co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. And Eric Nelson is the other host of said show and is the Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS's Eye on Football and SiriusXM.