Vikings blink, Gophers win big at Mayo Bowl and other Minnesota sports news

NINA MOINI: In the highly anticipated match-up between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions last night, the Vikings blinked. Minnesota lost 9 to 31 and now goes into the playoffs as the number five seed out of seven. Detroit got the number one spot.

Now, the Vikings are looking ahead to next week's game against the Los Angeles Rams, the only other team besides Detroit that has beat them this season. Alex Haig of Chanhassen says that's a tricky way to start the playoffs.

ALEX HAIG: I'm a little nervous. It's the one team I've been thinking about all season, not wanting to play in the playoffs because they've-- now that their receivers are back and healthy, they're looking tough.

NINA MOINI: We talked to sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson last week about the stakes of this game. They are back on the line with us. I'm afraid, guys, it's what we had all feared.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, that's for sure. And that's about the worst possible scenario there. The only thing that didn't happen-- and I guess we don't know this for sure yet-- is that there weren't any significant injuries to the Vikings. So they'll be healthy going into next week.

NINA MOINI: Yeah so they didn't get a single touchdown. Their 9 points came from field goals, Wally. What happened there, and where was Sam Darnold, their star?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, boy. Yeah, Sam had a forgettable night. And two, I thought that they had some offensive line struggled to keep the Lions out. The Lions blitzed constantly throughout the game. Darnold, according to one stat I read, overthrew his receivers 12 times. It was the most he had ever done in his career, just a bad night all around.

Now, I thought the defense played pretty well. It was a 17 to 9 game going into the fourth quarter. It was a 10 to 6 game at the half. So the defense did a pretty good job of keeping the highly potent Lions offense out of the end zone. But you can only keep them down for so long. Jared Goff had a really good night quarterback for the Lions as did Jahmyr Gibbs, obviously, scoring four touchdowns.

But as for the Vikings, Darnold 18 for 41 passing, 166 yards. They had opportunities to score touchdowns. They ended up kicking field goals. They were first and goal a couple of times, couldn't get in the end zone.

They forced two turnovers, but they couldn't capitalize with touchdowns. So yeah, it was a night of field goals, and that's all they could get. And they even missed one of those as well. So it was a forgettable night for the Vikings. They'll have to regroup and play next Monday night against, as you just heard, a team that they lost to earlier this year, the Rams, the only other team that's beaten them this year.

NINA MOINI: Wow, so Eric, what do you think it's going to take to beat the Rams?

ERIC NELSON: Well, it's certainly going to take a much better effort than the Vikings had last night. I mean, they went into that red zone seven times, and it was the dead zone. And the red zone is anything inside the opponent's 20 yard line. And not getting a touchdown when you go that deep into the opposition's territory, you're not going to win many games.

As Wally said, these teams met earlier back on October 24 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The Rams won it 30 to 20. Matthew Stafford threw four touchdown passes. And ironically, that Minnesota loss came just four days after the Vikings lost a home game to Detroit. So the Vikings have to hope they don't have another two game losing streak against the same two teams, or the season will be over abruptly.

Now, Los Angeles lost to Seattle yesterday 30 to 25, but that was a meaningless game for the Rams. They had already locked up the NFC West, so they rested most of their starters. Los Angeles is 10 and 7, and Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell was LA's offensive coordinator when the Rams won the Super Bowl in 2022. And then he took the Minnesota job just days after the Rams won that title against Cincinnati.

The purple are going to have to find a way to stop a Rams offense that is keyed by Stafford wide receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp, and they have a great running back, Kyren Williams. So he's their version of Jahmyr Gibbs in Detroit.

The Rams on defense, they're pretty solid. They have a rookie linebacker named Jared Verse and another young linebacker named Byron Young. So these guys are going to come out flying. My guess is the Rams are going to look at what Detroit did defensively, pressuring Darnold with a lot of blitzes in that game last night, and that will be the blueprint that Los Angeles will probably use.

By the way, Nina the Vikings and Rams have a rich playoff history. They have met seven times in the postseason. Minnesota has a 5 and 2 record in those games, but the last postseason meeting came way back in January of 2000 when the Rams played in Saint Louis. And the Rams won that game on their way to a Super Bowl title.

NINA MOINI: OK, so some history there in for Kevin O'Connell. It was a great weekend for Detroit, I guess. The Pistons beat the Timberwolves as well on Saturday. Wally, is there time for the Wolves to turn the season around?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, there's time, but certainly the clock is ticking. I don't think there's any question about that. The Wolves have now dropped to 17 wins and 17 losses on the season. So we're seven games away from the midpoint of the regular season.

So I think you can't say it's early anymore. I think you can start seeing patterns and issues. And right now, they are exactly what their record says they are. They're an average team, 17 wins, 17 losses. They lost 119 to 105 to a sub 500 Detroit Pistons team on Saturday despite 53 points from Anthony Edwards.

And I think the most concerning thing at this point, you're starting to hear from the players in their postgame comments of what the issues are with the club. And Anthony Edwards, I heard a quote from him the other day. He said, he's not having fun.

Well, that's not good because this is the most smiley, happy guy on the basketball court. And if he's not having fun, that's not good for the Minnesota Timberwolves. We also heard from Michael Conley, who is their veteran leader at point guard, and from Rudy Gobert the other night and talking about getting on the same page.

And I think that there are some issues brewing within. I hope that they don't pull the trigger and make another trade that upsets the apple cart because it's going to take what they have on the court to get this thing turned around. But it's going to take some more time because, obviously, they don't have it fixed right now.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, they sound like they need a retreat or something to ground themselves. So the Minnesota Gophers, though, had a better weekend. They won the Mayo Bowl. What happened in that game, Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah. Hey, Nina, please pass the mayo, would you?

NINA MOINI: Gross, right.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, it was a tasty outing in Charlotte on Friday night for the Gophers. They knocked off Virginia Tech 24 to 10 in the Dukes Mayo Bowl. Max Brosmer, the quarterback, threw for 211 yards and a touchdown. Darius Taylor ran for 113 yards and a TD. He also threw for a score.

So how about this? Minnesota's now won eight straight bowl games. PJ Fleck is a perfect 6 and 0 in Bowl games, and the Gophers finished the season with an 8 and 5 record. And if you win the Mayo Bowl, the coach of that winning team then gets doused with a big bucket of mayonnaise.

And PJ Fleck, boy, he played right into that. He's that kind of a coach. There's a lot of energy. That's a lot of mayonnaise on a hot dog, right.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, he took it well. Yeah, he took it like a champ.

ERIC NELSON: He certainly did. And that's a bowl game, even though it's not a major bowl game. But because they dump the mayo on the head coach, the winning coach, it goes viral. So PJ Fleck and the Gophers get some extra attention.

And I think the key is they finish 8 and 5. They have momentum going into next season, spring football, which is only a few months away. And can they capitalize on this? Can it be a springboard to maybe winning 9 or 10 games next season and really being in the mix with some of the better teams in college football?

NINA MOINI: Yeah, there was a lot going on with mayo at the Mayo Bowl. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But it was a good time, at least for the team. Thank you both so much for checking in with us.

BOTH: Thanks, Nina.

NINA MOINI: All right. That's Wally Langfellow, founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. And Eric Nelson is the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS's Eye on Football and Sirius XM. Our thanks to them and our thanks to you, as always, for listening.

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