Sports: Vikings in Philadelphia, Lynx face recovery from rough playoff loss to Connecticut

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: Vikings fans pretty excited this evening in Philadelphia. The Vikes played their second game of the season. Now, they lost their first last weekend to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, so it's been kind of a short week for the Vikes. Here with all you need to know about Minnesota teams heading into the weekend.

Our residents sports experts Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the creator of Minnesota's Score Magazine and the co-host of the 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Eric is the other host of that show. He's the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on the NFL. How are you guys doing?

ERIC NELSON: Happy Thursday, Cathy.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Great. How are you?

CATHY WURZER: Thank you. Happy Thursday to you as well. Well, I don't plan on staying up and watching the game, but I'm hoping that it will be a good one, Minnesota and Philadelphia.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Wait a minute.

CATHY WURZER: What?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Wait a minute, staying up it's a 7:15 kickoff, what time do you go to bed?

CATHY WURZER: Pretty-- pretty early. I get up at 2:00 in the morning for goodness sakes, come on. Another night owl like you are. Go ahead.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: You pick your own poison there. So 7:15 kickoff tonight, the game is-- locally, it is on Fox 9. Otherwise, you'd have to have Prime Video to watch it. So if you're not in the Twin Cities and you're not in Philadelphia, you have to have Prime Video to watch the game tonight.

Eagles, by the way, are a 6-point favorite to beat the Vikings. Last year, these two teams played on a Monday night, another national game, and the Eagles dominated the Vikings 24-7. Of course, they eventually went on to win the NFC title before losing to Kansas City in the Super Bowl.

So the Vikings have their hands full, no question. As you mentioned already, Cathy, they lost to Tampa in their opener at US Bank Stadium. The Eagles, on the other hand, won their opener at New England by a Score of 25-20.

Philly is paced once again by quarterback Jalen Hurts. He does it all. He can run and throw, but we'll see how the Vikings handle him. Because last year, they basically sat back and-- what Eric and lovingly call the Tampa 8 In other words, they just let everything happen in front of them, and the Eagles are taking 10, 15 yards at a chunk. We'll see if Brian Flores' new defensive scheme changes things up against Jalen Hurts.

Injury reports for tonight, no Garrett Bradberry for Minnesota. His replacement at Center will be Austin Schlottmann. The Eagles are also minus a Bradberry. James Bradberry, a cornerback, he's out as a safety, Reed Blankenship and running back Kenneth Gainwell. Again, tonight 7:15 start on Fox 9.

CATHY WURZER: All, right. Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, Cathy. Well, one of the major sidebar stories this week in the NFL involves the playing surfaces around the National Football League. It's now a grass versus field turf war. This is all in the wake of the Aaron Rodgers injury on Monday night that happened on field turf at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Now, the NFL Players Association said yesterday, they want all NFL venues to have grass playing surfaces. And as the NFLPA believes grass is safer, most players say they would rather play on grass. There are 15 stadiums with fake grass, including US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. 17 of the NFL's 32 teams play on field turf because the LA Chargers and Rams share a stadium in Inglewood, and the New York Giants and Jets also share a stadium in New Jersey.

But this trend is going the wrong way, if you want to see more grass surfaces, Cathy. Nissan Stadium in Nashville actually switched from grass to field turf this season. And they did it in Carolina a couple of years ago.

Now, Field turf is a major upgrade from AstroTurf that was common back in the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s. That stuff was green concrete. And the worst AstroTurf fields ever were the Metrodome in Minneapolis and the old Vet in Philadelphia. But I lean with the players, Cathy. As Richie Allen, the old MLB Star with the White Sox and Phillies once said, "if a cow can eat it, I don't want to play on it."

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS]

That is a great quote, as a matter of fact. Let's talk about Prep or we're talking about the pros. Let's talk about Prep Prep football, high school football. What have you-- you have you gleaned, Wally, from watching some of the early games here?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, a lot of the same teams have risen to the top of the polls. The first AP polls came out this week. And oh, by the way, most teams in the metro area now play on fake grass. It's so different in high school, though, because there are so many more activities that go on on those fields. And the fields just get worn down to nothing if it's grass.

So with soccer, boys and girls, lacrosse, boys and girls, you know, and multiple levels, it's varsity, JV, so most high schools have gone to the field turf. And you can understand it at that level. And what Eric was pointing out, I agree with completely because the NFL has the money to take care of grass. It's ridiculous that they play on turf.

Now, as for the games coming up tonight and tomorrow, yes, there are games tonight. In Class Five A, fifth ranked Armstrong will host eighth ranked Cooper in a battle of the Robbinsdale district 281 teams. And then a big one tomorrow. It's the battle of Lakeville in Class Six A. Second ranked Lakeville South plays at third ranked Lakeville North. South has won the last four meetings between the two Lakeville teams.

Before that, Lakeville North had won 10 straight games. So big game, both teams unbeaten, both Lakeville South and Lakeville North 2 and 0. By the way, Cooper and Armstrong are both 2 and 0 as well. And oh, by the way, top ranked Eden Prairie-- I know you're shocked to hear that they're the number one team in the state Class Six A. They travel to Prior Lake on Friday night. They too are 2 and 0.

CATHY WURZER: OK, so what about Gopher football here, Eric. What's happening with the Gophers?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, I think the rubber meets the road this weekend for Minnesota. The Gophers are 2 and 0. They had a comeback win over Nebraska, and then they knocked off Eastern Michigan last week at Huntington Bank Stadium. But North Carolina is a ranked football team. In one poll, they're rated number 18 in the nation, 20th in another. The Tar Heels are 2 and 0, and these two schools will play in Chapel Hill on Saturday.

And believe it or not, it's the first time ever that the Gophers and Tar Heels have played a game in football. And like I said, North Carolina is ranked. And we always think of Carolina as a basketball school that turned out Michael Jordan and many other superstars, but they can play football there.

And the Tar Heels have a quarterback by the name of Drake Maye. He's a possible Heisman Trophy candidate. Meanwhile, on the Gophers side of things, running back Darius Taylor, a freshman from Detroit, ran for 193 yards and a TD in last week's win against Eastern Michigan. So I'm sure we're going to see more of Darius Taylor against Carolina.

Minnesota's defense, which is paced by safety Tyler Nubin, who will be in the NFL next season, the Gophers have given up just one touchdown this year. So they've looked good defensively so far. But their real test will come Saturday in Chapel Hill.

CATHY WURZER: OK. See, Wally, I have less than a minute left, give me your best on the Twins.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Twins are on the road. They start a four-game trip in Chicago tonight. They lost two out of 3 to Tampa, including a tenth inning loss. Yesterday, Griffin Jax giving up-- excuse me, ninth inning home run, not 10th inning, but a ninth inning home run to Randy Arozarena. So they lose to Tampa, but they are closing in on clinching the division. They should be able to do that within the next five or siz days at the most. They still have a 7 and 1/2 game lead over Cleveland.

CATHY WURZER: Well, yeah for us. OK, guys, have a great weekend.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Thanks, Cathy.

ERIC NELSON: Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you. Wally Langfellow, Eric Nelson, our sports guys. That's going to do it for us here on Minnesota Now this week. Our senior producer is Aleesa Kuznetsov. Our producers are Alanna Elder, Ellen Finn, Gretchen Brown. Our technical director today, thank you, Jess Berg, for sitting behind the big board.

Our theme music was composed by Minnesota-based musicians Abby Wolf and Joe Horton. And of course, thank you for listening to Minnesota Now this week, and check out our podcast. Have yourselves a good day.