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Viking Justin Jefferson had the play of the day against the Forty Niners.

EAGLE MOUNTAIN  – The Minnesota Vikings have begun the 2024 regular season with a second straight victory, this one against the San Francisco Forty-Niners by a 23-17 final. 

This will take the Vikes to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2016. Next Sunday will bring a new challenge and a game at The Bank versus the Houston Texans. 

Speaking of which, I just finished watching them play the Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football, where they came away with a 19-13 win. Last season, my super Viking fan neighbor Daniel and I had a few conversations about the #1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Entry draft, Caleb Williams. 

We both believed that Williams may have been overrated by pro football scouts when he was playing for USC. On the other hand, I finally concluded that USC was too dependent on him to cure all of the Trojan’s woes, and that’s a lot to ask of any player at any level. There are only a few players who can do that for any team. 

Before the season started, he asked me who I thought would win the division. I told him I felt it would be the Bears. He thought the Detroit Lions would be in the driver’s seat for that honor. 

My train of thought on that was thinking the Bears wouldn’t be as dependent on Williams as much as some other clubs would be. The Bear’s defense, when they are fully on their game, is pretty formidable. 
They didn’t have that kind of game against the Texans this evening. 

I see that as a testament that the Texans are simply a better team than the Bears on both sides of the ball. As of right now, Williams has a lot of flaws in his game, even beyond the normal rookie mistakes. 
Even so, the Bears had a chance to steal this game right up until the game’s end. The Texans had the better of the scoresheet and were dominant in almost every stat. 

One item I picked up on was that the tilt featured 21 penalties, with many of them being on formation and motion calls. This might be the new norm until the players adapt to the new standards on these calls and learn how to avoid them. As I’ve stated in the past, I believe many fans are very tired of referee-dominated games, disrupting the opportunity for the game to develop a flow and rhythm.  

The most beautiful play of the day for the Vikes was a 97-yard pass reception and run for a touchdown by Justin Jefferson. He suffered an apparent quad injury on the play though, and his afternoon was over as a result. Word is that it’s much better than originally thought, but there is no announcement on his availability for the Houston game. Hopefully, he will be able to suit up and go at 100%. This is shaping up to be a game that will require all hands on deck. 

Evidently, the Purple is starting to open a few eyes around the league and with the national football media. This has served to bump them up slightly in rankings and the alleged “power rankings,” but it’s too early to give that much merit; they are mostly fan entertainment and will mean little until the end of the season. 

The only ranking that holds any water will be the one regarding who won the game in New Orleans on Feb. 9.  

The Minnesota Wild reported for their annual preseason physicals yesterday and will hit the frozen sheet for the first time today. 

This past weekend, the rookies and prospects traveled to St. Louis to participate in the fourth annual Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase. They played in games versus the STL Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks. I would have liked to attend and give the Wild prospects the eyeball test up close, but serious medical issues have limited my travel at this time. I am geared up to see a lot of hockey this season though, and I can’t wait! 

What will the opening night roster look like for the Wild?

This will be the last season of the most damaging part of the salary cap penalties, so it likely won’t look much different from last season’s club. 

GM Bill Guerin had limited funds to work with as far as pursuing free agents or making a huge trade deal. As a result, this team will look about the same outside of 2 or 3 new faces. 

Their overall performance will look similar followed by another season of not making the playoffs. The newcomers joining the team will not have enough impact to alter the fortunes of the Wild this year. 
My quick thumbnail view on the Wild is of a team lacking a true world-class level superstar defenseman, and to compound that they don’t have enough defensive depth. 

The bottom six of the forwards group will not bring enough offense to the team to make them much different from last year, and the goalie tandem of Gus and the Flower won’t be one of the better tandems in the league.

Marc Andre Fleury turns 40 right after American Thanksgiving and it’s clear he has lost some foot and reflex speed. It’s not something he can do much about, and it is what it is. 

He might address some of that with a different approach to his angles and crease positioning, but probably not enough to return his level of play to his younger years. 

Gump Worsley played until the age of 44, but it was a much different game in his day. They are two of my favorite tenders of all time. Gus “the Bus” didn’t arrive at camp last year in full condition or in a “ready to go” status in my opinion, and his start to the season didn’t help much. 

But his teammates in front of him share some of the burden of that. He did improve later in the season, but with the club basically chasing it all season long, he had little impact.  

The forward group will look about the same as last year with solid veterans like Kaprizov, Boldy and Eriksson Ek being the best of the forwards. It looks like 3rd-year player Marco Rossi will make the team again since any offseason trade efforts failed. 

I’m not certain GMBG ever had any real serious trade deals in play with him other than a bunch of league chatter. I’m tired of the constant rumors about this player being dealt and it’s either time to do just that or shut up about him once and for all. The kid worked his tail off in the summer before last season and it showed positively in his game.  

Here is what I see as the opening night roster for the Wild, and this probably could have been made up back in mid-July. 

Forwards: Kaprizov, Rossi, Boldy, Eriksson Ek, Zuccarello, Hartman, Trenin, Foligno, Khusnutdinov, Gaudreau, Ohgren and Johansson.

Defense: Spurgeon, Faber, Brodin, Middleton, Bogosian and Chisholm.

Goaltenders: Gustavsson and Fleury. No matter how Guerin tries to spin his dealings over the summer, this tired organization will be just about the same as last year, and that’s not Cup-worthy.

PEACE