Is there hope for the Vikings? An analysis from 2 sports contributors

CATHY WURZER: It's Thursday, friends. That means we're going to dive into Minnesota sports with the NFL's-- excuse me-- yes, the NFL. I was going to say NHL. With the NFL's regular season winding down, is there any hope the Vikings make it to the playoffs? A new Minnesota pro sports team won its first game last night-- a lot to talk about.

Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson are here. Wally's the founder of Minnesota Score sports magazine and the co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. Eric is the other host of that show, and Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on the NFL. Hey, you guys, welcome.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Happy New Year, Cathy.

ERIC NELSON: Happy New Year, Cathy. Hey, there you go.

CATHY WURZER: And thank you. Happy New Year to you both. Well, Vikings, where do you even want to start with that? Boy, that was an embarrassing loss obviously to Green Bay on New Year's Eve. What's next, Wally?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, I don't know.

[FRUSTRATED LAUGHTER]

I mean, the last four or five weeks have been very difficult to watch if you're a Vikings fan, that's for sure. The inability to move the football last week with Jaren Hall at quarterback-- and then they bring in Nick Mullens. I call him Nick Mulligans because he keeps throwing interceptions and needs a mulligan.

And Nick Mullens is going to be your quarterback again on this Sunday against the Lions. But you mentioned, are there chances that they could make the playoffs? Yeah, very slim. Slim and none, and slim just walked out the door, as my dad used to tell me.

[CHUCKLING]

So they need a multitude of things to happen, not the least of which, of course, is they need to beat the Lions. So they could go-- if things break the right way, they could potentially make the playoffs if they beat the Lions, if Green Bay loses to Chicago, if either New Orleans or Tampa loses, and there's one more in there. There's a whole litany of things that need to happen.

But that having been said, I think realistically, it's probably better if the Vikings just lose. Get a better draft pick, easier schedule for next year. They could potentially get as high as the seventh draft pick if they lose and a number of teams that are currently below them win this Sunday. So yeah, they still have a chance. But I would say more realistically, they're probably already looking ahead to 2024 fall.

CATHY WURZER: Hmm. So Eric, do you think the Vikes should stick a fork in it and just move on?

[CHUCKLING]

ERIC NELSON: Well, I think if you're on the team-- I mean every time [AUDIO OUT] game you're putting something on tape, it's an audition. Kevin O'Connell to remain with the team or maybe go play for somebody else next year. But like Wally said, realistically, it would be a major miracle for this team to get into the postseason.

And you can spin it a lot of ways. But if they do lose and finish in last place and get that higher draft choice, presumably if they do the right thing in the draft, they get a better player-- somebody like Michael Penix back in Washington is going to be playing against Michigan on Monday night in a College Football Championship game-- might be a good fit. But there's a blizzard of questions swirling around the franchise.

Win or lose, they have to decide, are they going to bring Kirk Cousins back? He's played very well the last two years, but he's an aging quarterback coming off a major injury-- [AUDIO OUT] Achilles tendon. So you wonder about his bounce-back abilities.

And then you have Justin Jefferson. He wants to get paid. He wants to be given the keys to Fort Knox. Is it worth paying those guys that kind of money when the results aren't even close to a Super Bowl when they're playing?

I mean, let's get real here. This team has a shoddy offensive line that is not physical enough to really compete and go deep in the playoffs in the NFL. So I think they may be looking at a major teardown. Who knows? But again, a lot of questions swirling around the Minnesota Vikings win or lose, playoffs or no playoffs this season.

CATHY WURZER: Eric, you are breaking up a little bit. So I just want a real quick answer to my question about the Wild returning to action tonight against Tampa Bay. Just quickly, where are the Wild?

ERIC NELSON: [AUDIO OUT] Cathy, they were playing very well. They lost the other night to Calgary. [AUDIO OUT] couple to Winnipeg, all of these regulation [AUDIO OUT]

CATHY WURZER: Hmm. No, looks like we're not going to actually make it here with Eric's line. So Wally, I'm going to turn to you. Is that OK? And talk-- since I'm on hockey here briefly, let's talk about the PWHL Minnesota team. They don't even have a team nickname yet. But they looked pretty good last night.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: They did. And by the way, it's hard to talk to Eric when he's reporting from Mars. But yes--

[LAUGHTER]

That does happen occasionally. The phone service up there, I hear is not very good. So the PWHL is the Professional Women's Hockey League. It just started here after the first of the year. And Minnesota's team-- and that's what we'll call them right now, the Minnesota team in the PWHL-- they played their first game.

There's only six teams in the league right now, and they hope to expand going forward. But they won 3-2 last night over Boston. The game was played in Lowell, Massachusetts. That's the home to UMass men's hockey team.

And they've got some production out of some former Gophers. Taylor Heise from Lake City, Grace Zumwinkle of Excelsior, and Sophia Kunin from Wayzata all scored goals. And then Nicole Hensley was really good in net. So they win it 3-2. Oh, by the way, they open up at home on Saturday afternoon at the Xcel Energy Center, and that supposedly is a very hot ticket right now. So it should be fun.

It looks like it's going to be a fun thing to watch and to keep an eye on. By the way, reports are that Minnesota has trademarked a name-- the Minnesota Superior. I don't know exactly what that means-- probably fly well in Duluth, but I'm not so sure about here in the Twin Cities. But anyway, so there you go.

CATHY WURZER: That might work, that might work. I know that of course Eric had the bad phone line and I guess he just dropped off. So what do you know about the Wild? Anything to add for Wild fans at all?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, they play tonight and they have been struggling. They've lost three in a row. And they've played well under John Hynes since he's come on board as the head coach, but the three-game losing streak, an indication of some other things that are going wrong.

They've had a number of injuries, and not the least of which is to Kirill Kaprizov. He is now on the injured list, which means he'll miss up to 10 days, possibly more depending on how this recovery goes for him. And he's not the only one. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson is also banged up. He didn't play the other night.

Jonas Brodin, Marcus Foligno-- I could go on and on. But there are a number of injuries that have slowed the team down-- and Mats Zuccarello as well with an upper body injury. All these guys have been banged up. But the big news, of course, is, Kaprizov is out at least 10 more days from now.

CATHY WURZER: Ah, wow. OK, Timberwolves were cooking and they still have the best record in the Western Conference. But they lost last night.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: They did, and that was the first time-- I was there last night. And of course-- I joke that I'm kind of like Charlie Brown and the Timberwolves are Lucy pulling the football away as I go up to kick it. I just started to buy in on the Timberwolves, and of course, they lose two in a row for the first time this year.

They lost last night to New Orleans. New Orleans looked really good. I mean, they looked like a team that's on a mission last night. And they won 117-106. They got 35, the Timberwolves did, from Anthony Edwards. But really, they struggled to defend against a very good New Orleans team.

And so they've lost two in a row. The bad news is that they go on a road trip now-- a four-game road trip where they're going to have to right the ship a little bit. We'll find out what they're made of. It's going to be a very difficult road trip.

They go to Houston, Dallas, Boston, and Orlando. Of course, Boston has the best record in the NBA and Dallas is very good as well. So we'll find out what they're made of, but I wouldn't push the panic button quite yet. They still, as you said, have the best record in the west and they've been playing very well this year.

CATHY WURZER: So speaking of playing very well, the Gopher women's basketball team. I don't know-- I've missed this. They're now 11 and 3 overall, pretty good.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, I mean, they're off to a good start-- 1 and 2 in the Big Ten. They did lose last night to Maryland by a score of 72-64. Mara Braun had 20 points and she's been fantastic. I mean, she really has been fun to watch as a Gopher here the last couple of seasons. But they're on a bit of a roll to start the season under new Coach Plitzuweit, and we'll see how far they go.

The men, on the other hand, they too will be playing Maryland. That is Sunday afternoon. But they play tonight, the men do-- the Gopher men's basketball team. They are in Ann Arbor against the Wolverines of Michigan.

Minnesota, 1 and 1 in the Big Ten so far. They lost to Ohio State and they beat Nebraska. And the men are 10 and 3 overall. Pretty soft schedule so far, though. They have played a lot of cupcakes and Ho-Hos so far--

[CHUCKLING]

--in their non-conference matchups. So we'll see how that goes. But you know what, Ben Johnson needs to keep this thing going because the heat is on. They finished in last place the last two years, the men have. And he needs some good things to happen. I know people are rooting for them, and hopefully this is the year that they're able to turn it around.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I appreciate you doing all of this work. Thank you. Our friend Eric is somewhere in the mountains of Arizona and we have not been able to make contact with him. So--

WALLY LANGFELLOW: It's not Mars then?

CATHY WURZER: Maybe next week.

[LAUGHTER]

WALLY LANGFELLOW: It's not Mars?

CATHY WURZER: No, it's not Mars.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, OK.

CATHY WURZER: Just the mountains of Arizona.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: OK, same thing.

CATHY WURZER: All right. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks, Wally.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: See you.

[LAUGHTER]

CATHY WURZER: Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson co-host 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Wally's the founder of Minnesota Score sports magazine.