Vikings still lead NFC North, but Sunday could shake things up

CATHY WURZER: Such a busy week with the election and the results. You're probably sick of the politics by now. So let's talk sports. Our sports guys, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, are doing the honors again today. While he's the co-host of the 10,000 Takes sports show on radio and TV, he's also the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine. Eric Nelson is the co-host of 10,000 Takes and the Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Eye on the NFL. Boy, it's been a busy week, you guys. How are you?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: You got through it, did you?

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, yeah, barely.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah.

ERIC NELSON: Hey, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Hi, Eric.

ERIC NELSON: I vote for you, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, thanks, yeah.

ERIC NELSON: I colored in the oval by your name.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: I will abstain.

CATHY WURZER: Yes, you should. That'll be the day that I run for office. Anyway, let's talk about the Vikings. They are in first place. Holy moly!

WALLY LANGFELLOW: And not just in first place, but they're in first place by a wide margin-- 4 and 1/2 games over Chicago and Green Bay. And Detroit's not that far behind those two. They're 7-1. Obviously, coming off the win in Washington, they overcome a 10 point deficit to beat Washington. Up next, Buffalo-- Buffalo, certainly one of the favorites not just in the AFC, but maybe in the National Football League, to make a run this year.

However, Buffalo might be without their Pro Bowl quarterback, Josh Allen-- injured his elbow late in the game this past Sunday against the Jets. Now, if he can't play, here's the storyline for you. And you probably have been hearing it this week. Former Viking, Case Keenum, will start for the Bills. Case Keenum, of course, led the Vikings to the NFC Championship game a handful of years ago. That, of course, was the year that they lost to Philadelphia.

And then the Eagles came here and won the Super Bowl at US Bank Stadium. So it will be potentially the Minnesota Vikings against Case Keenum. And guess who his favorite wide receiver is on that team? Former Viking, Stefon Diggs. So it should be an interesting game on Sunday. If Case Keenum doesn't play and we see Josh Allen, it'll be fun to watch Josh Allen because he is very good.

CATHY WURZER: Eric, what do you think?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, Josh Allen, clearly one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, Cathy. And it's funny. He played at Wyoming. And when he was coming out of high school, he couldn't get a college to bite on him and give him a chance. He sent letters all over the nation. And the only school that said, yeah, come on over and visit us, is Wyoming. And then he goes to Wyoming, has a great career. And now he's in Buffalo.

The official status of Josh Allen right now is that he's day-to-day according to the head coach, Sean McDermott, which I'm not surprised by that. I think they're going to milk this and take it down to the-- right to the very end before they let the Vikings know who's going to play. But this will be a fun game. Some people think, if you want to project way down the road, it could be a Super Bowl preview. And if these teams--

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh boy.

ERIC NELSON: --meet in Glendale, Arizona in Super Bowl 57, guess what? The collective records of Minnesota and Buffalo in Super Bowl history, a combined 0-8. They're both 0-4. So somebody would finally win the Lombardi Trophy and take a confetti shower. So how about that?

CATHY WURZER: I mean, what could possibly go wrong between now and--

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Plenty.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, I know.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: How long have you lived in Minnesota?

CATHY WURZER: I know. I get nervous. I get sweaty-palmed about this. I just--

ERIC NELSON: The purple pain, Cathy. There's another chapter coming up.

CATHY WURZER: OK, all right. We're just going to leave it there and move on to Gopher football. They're coming home Saturday to play Northwestern, is that right?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Correct, so they'll play Northwestern Saturday afternoon. They've got a couple of wins in a row now, beating Nebraska this past Saturday. And they overcame a 10 point deficit. It's the first time in 32 games where they have trailed by 10 or more points, where they came back and won the football game. So they're on the right track. They are now Bowl eligible. They have six wins, 6-3 on the year.

The question this weekend, will six year senior quarterback Tanner Morgan start, or will they go to eighth in Caleb McManus, who did not start on Saturday, but who finished the game? Tanner Morgan left the game at half time with an injury. And AK, as Eric likes to call them, led the Gophers in the second half, and led them to a victory. And you know, he's a redshirt freshman. He's a guy that is probably going to be your starting quarterback next year, with Tanner Morgan graduating.

I believe that PJ Fleck may take a hard, long think on this and say, you know what? This is a guy that we're going to go with going forward-- probably get him as much experience as possible. The Gophers, looking now to get to a decent Bowl game because they're not going to go to the Rose Bowl. They're not going to win the Big Ten West. So with those two things off the table, I think that maybe you do look to the younger quarterback, and see what you got, and get him more experience.

CATHY WURZER: Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Well, one thing I know is Saturday, if you're going to the game at Huntington Bank Stadium in Dinkytown, bundle up. The high is going to be 30 degrees. So this will be a Big Ten football in the elements, the way it should be, in my opinion. And the opponent, the Northwestern Mildcats, they are 1-8, Cathy, and 1-5 in the Big Ten West. They have not won a game this year on US soil.

Their only victory was in Dublin, Ireland against Nebraska. So they are hungry to win in the United States of America. Will they do it on Saturday against the Gophers? I doubt it. But Northwestern played Ohio State tough last Saturday in Evanston, Illinois. And they had a mini monsoon going on there. They had all sorts of serious issues with the wind. But Northwestern really isn't that good.

And for the Gophers to get to a marquee Bowl game, they need to run the table and finish at 9-3. So they have Northwestern. And then it's going to be Iowa. And finally, they finish at Wisconsin. So Minnesota, it's been a pretty good year. But if they can win out, it would be a much better season, especially if they can get those trophies against the Hawkeyes and the Badgers.

CATHY WURZER: Say, speaking of trophies, high school football state tournament begins tonight.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: It does.

CATHY WURZER: Wow, this season has gone by fast.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, it just seems to fly by. Well, with the cold weather moving in, it's about that time.

CATHY WURZER: OK.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: So class 6A starts tonight.

CATHY WURZER: The big schools.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yes, that is the perennial power, Eden Prairie, playing tonight. They play Shakopee, should be a very good match-up. And then second ranked and unbeaten, Rosemont takes on 5th ranked Centennial. Mind you, one of Eden Prairie's two losses this year came to Rosemont. So should Eden Prairie and Rosemont win tonight, those two would have a rematch in the state semifinals next week at US Bank Stadium. Top ranked, an unbeaten Maple Grove, they play tomorrow night. So it really has come down to the best teams in high school football. And in class 6A, it all begins tonight.

CATHY WURZER: It's always fun to watch the kids play.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: No doubt.

CATHY WURZER: OK, before you guys go, I understand that the Twins released a bunch of players?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, they did, Cathy. Earlier this week, they decided not to bring back Miguel Sano, who had actually been with the organization for 14 years, starting back when he was 16 years old. But he has been hurt. He has been ineffective. So they decided not to pick up the option on his contract. They would have had to pay him $14 million this next season.

So instead, they're going to pay him $2.5 million to play for somebody else, apparently. That was his buyout. And a number of other players also released-- Michael Fulmer, who they picked up at the trade deadline this past summer, Gary Sanchez, who they got in the trade from the New York Yankees this summer. He was their number one catcher this summer. They decided not to bring him back either. So he's a free agent.

And of course, Carlos Correa made it official this past Monday, deciding that he will become a free agent. And that was kind of expected. He still had two more option years. But he opted out. That's not to say the Twins couldn't sign him. But he's going to cost a pretty penny if they want to bring him back. And it's going to be a long term deal. They're not going to get him on one of these one year deals like they did this year.

ERIC NELSON: Cathy, a week from Friday, so November 18, if you have no plans, show up to the Mall of America Rotunda in Bloomington. The Minnesota Twins are going to have a revealing of their new uniforms. Now, in soccer, this is called a kit reveal. In baseball, they just say, hey, we're going to show our fan base what we're going to be wearing here in the coming season. So they are going to tweak and change their threads, if you will, the Minnesota Twins.

And this will be a big event. The Twins are saying that Dave St. Peter, the President, Joe Pohlad, one of the owners, will show up. Luis Arráez, the American League's batting champion, Byron Buxton, José Miranda, Jorge Polanco, Joe Ryan, all supposed to be at the Mall of America. It'll start at 11:30 AM. Again, that's a week from Friday, as the Twins show off these uniforms that they hope will produce more success than the ones they wore last season, when they really bottomed out and cratered.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah, what's the point of new uniforms?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: I don't know.

ERIC NELSON: Well--

CATHY WURZER: Really, is that going to really help a team get to the World Series? I mean, for goodness sakes.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: No, it'll help sell more. It's all about merchandising. It has nothing to do with--

ERIC NELSON: Well, and I got to be honest, Cathy. I've always thought the Twins uniforms were in the bottom tier of Major League Baseball. The most recently crowned World Series champion, the Houston Astros, that happened just a few days ago, I think they have some of the sharpest uniforms in MLB, with that orange and dark blue color scheme. So the Twins need to step it up when it comes to looking good. They're not exactly GQ.

CATHY WURZER: You're right. You two are, though.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, boy.

CATHY WURZER: That was a compliment. There you go.

ERIC NELSON: We'll take it.

CATHY WURZER: All right, I'm going to go. Thank you, guys. I'll talk to you later.

ERIC NELSON: Thank you.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: See ya.

CATHY WURZER: Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score Magazine, and the co-host of 10,000 Takes sports talk show. Eric is the other host of 10,000 Takes. He's also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio's Eye on the NFL.