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LESTER PARK – It only took Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell three seasons to get his first preseason game victory and only one more week to get the second. 

The Purple traveled to Cleveland earlier in the week to have some combined practices that were capped off by this afternoon’s preseason tilt. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect here. Both teams were going to sit out some of their most important players, so the game would feature a lot of depth players scrapping it out to try to enhance their chances of sticking on the main roster when it gets to cut-down day. (Tuesday, Aug. 27, 3 pm).

Vikes quarterback Sam Darnold and all-pro receiver JJ Jefferson were two of the players sitting out for the Vikes. Nick Mullens began the game as the signal caller and ended his day going 11 for 21, 135 yards, with one touchdown throw and no interceptions. 

On the touchdown play, he threw a nice ball to Trishton Jackson for a 6-yard score. They would add two field goals to go into the halftime break with a 13-7 lead. 

Jaren Hall would relieve Mullens for the second half. In the 3rd quarter, the Browns would drive to the Viking 11 before Tyler Huntley threw an INT to Viking defensive back Dwight McGlothern, and he ran it back 91 yards to the Vikes nine-yard line. The Purple would score on a Hall pass to Malik Knowles and extend the lead to 20-7. 

The Browns would get a field goal to get within ten points of the Vikes. The Vikings would drive down the field again and scored on a beauty play featuring a 71-yard touchdown pass to Jeshaun Jones from Hall for the score. The point after was good and the Vikes extended their lead to 27-10. The Vikes would give up a safety after sending in the newly acquired quarterback Matt Corral, who promptly bombed out, got “happy feet” and got tackled in the endzone to give the Browns a couple of cheap points before sending them packing. 

I don’t necessarily blame Corral for this. It was a poor decision to throw him into the tilt, considering he had only been with the team 24 hours or so, but he didn’t help himself either.  

For the negative news for the week, most fans know by now that promising quarterback of the future, rookie JJ McCarthy, was deemed out for the season when it was discovered that he had a torn meniscus and would require surgery to repair it. The recovery time can vary from player to player, but this is usually a season-ender for anyone who gets the surgery for it. The announcement came on Tuesday, and McCarthy had a successful surgery on Wednesday. 

In the meantime, Vikes GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah went shopping for another player to take his roster spot. With a few options available, he ended up signing Matt Corral. By all accounts, most analysts would call him a “project player” which makes me wonder why Kwesi signed him. Who knows, he might be gone by cutdown day, while the club searches for a better option on the waiver wire. This one was a head-scratcher though. 

Coming into this game I felt the Vikings might have a tough time with the Browns. They posted an 11-6 record last season before bowing out in the wildcard round to the Houston Texans 45-14. But consistency hasn’t been a hallmark of this club for quite some time. 

So far, the 2000s haven’t been very kind to the Browns. They made the playoffs in 2002 but promptly bowed out in the wildcard round. They would miss the playoffs for the next 17 seasons, before making a return in 2020. They won the wildcard game they were in but dropped out in the divisional playoffs. 

They would miss out on the next two seasons’ playoffs before getting in again and losing in the wildcard round. This is what led me to opine that maybe this club was on the uptick again. I guess we will have to wait and see what the regular season brings for them. 

As I was explaining how the game went to my 88-year-old mother Connie (a diehard Vikings fan since 1961) on the phone, she asked what I thought the result of the game meant. I said it means that our second stringers and backups are better than theirs are. 

Until we see the opening day roster it’s hard to gauge what the team has. Next Saturday the club will face the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly at high noon. Will some of the personnel that have been healthy scratches suit up or not? I’m not sure I would risk it. We shall see, Sept. 8, and the New York Giants are right around the corner! 

The Minnesota Twins appear to be pulling their game back together slowly but surely for the stretch drive that awaits them. 

After a 5-2 win at the Texas Rangers earlier today, the club has taken the first three tilts of a four-game series. They have posted a 7-3 record in their L10, and have worked their way up to being only 2.0 games behind the Cleveland Guardians for the division title. 

Can the Twins edge out the Guards for the division? On the one hand, when they got close before this season, inconsistency hit them and they dropped back. While I am optimistic they can, you never know in pro baseball. I hope they do, it could be worth some extra home games in the playoffs if they did.  

As far as the Twins getting into the postseason dance, I think that will happen. When studying the standings the other day I counted 18 teams who I believe are already out of the division title running, mostly because of being too many games behind their division leader to overcome that. 

Then considering the wildcard standings there are 9 teams after the 6 wildcard spots available. Of those 9 clubs, two are currently on the outside of a wildcard spot, Boston and the Mets, but they are still close enough to possibly get a spot. Both teams are going to have to kick it on the hind end though, because both are showing mediocre records in their L10. 

It is a bit premature to play one of those “if the playoffs began today” scenarios to see who might play whom in the opening round. If the Twins did win the division and finished as one of the division winners that finished one-two in that regard, they would get a first-round bye. That would be a worthwhile position to pursue. 

Who are the “power” teams at this moment in the league? 

On Monday MLB posted its latest power rank and the Twins sit at 8th right now. The Guards are in 6th position, but their season-high was the 3rd spot. 

In the past 25 games, the Guards have put up an “average” record of 13-12. They have a record of 5-5 in their L10 and are on a two-game losing streak. 

As of this evening, the Twin’s destiny is in their own hands. PEACE