Vikings spoil Kirk Cousins’ return to Minnesota, plus other state sports news
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell talks with Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins, left, after an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 8, in Minneapolis.
Abbie Parr | AP
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Vikings fans are happy after their team beat the Atlanta Falcons — and former quarterback Kirk Cousins — by 21 points. The team’s current quarterback, Sam Darnold, garnered praise after he threw five touchdowns to receivers Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson.
To talk about where the Vikings go from here — plus other sports news — sports guys, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined Minnesota Now.
Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. Nelson is the other host of 10,000 Takes and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS’ Eye on Football and Sirius XM.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: Vikings fans are happy today after the team beat the Atlanta Falcons and former quarterback Kirk Cousins by 21 points Sunday. There's been a lot of praise for the team's current quarterback, Sam Darnold, after he threw five touchdowns to receivers Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson. Here's Coach Kevin O'Connell talking about Darnold's game.
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I'm just proud of him. I mean, days like this are so many hours upon hours of hard work and successful practices, days, meetings, games on one another. And then when you have a result like this, everyone's going to talk about the result. And I hope they do. But for me, and Sam, and our team, there's not very many guys in that locker room that are surprised about the performance he had today.
NINA MOINI: Joining us now to talk about where the Vikings go from here, plus other sports news and there's a lot of it, are our sports guys, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Thanks for being here on a Tuesday, guys.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah.
ERIC NELSON: No problem. How are you today, Nina?
NINA MOINI: I'm doing great. I'm always excited when you guys catch me up on everything that happened over the weekend. Wally, I'm curious what stood out to you during that game Sunday?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, I think you already pointed it out. It's what they were able to do with Sam Darnold throwing five touchdown passes, 347 yards, no interceptions. Jordan Addison catching three touchdowns. Justin Jefferson catching the other two. So yeah, what they were able to do offensively.
And here's the thing. Yes, they won by 21 points, but it was a tie game going into the fourth quarter. Let's not forget that. They won 42-21, but it was 21-all. The Falcons had tied it up and had got a 2-point conversion to tie the football game going into the fourth quarter.
But the Vikings were able to respond. And they win the football game. Of course, next up for minnesota, they're home to the Bears on Monday Night Football next week. And that will be, as I said, at US Bank Stadium. They still stay one game behind Detroit, two games ahead of the Packers.
Now, back to Sam Darnold, your original point in reference here. The talk the last day or so now, and this is on a lot of national media scopes as well as locally. Are the Vikings going to be able to keep Sam Darnold long term?
NINA MOINI: Oh.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Probably not. He's on a one-year contract. And he's, right now, making $14 million, which is chump change in the NFL for a quarterback that is playing as well as he is. So he is going to go into the free agent market, most likely.
And the only way the Vikings could possibly retain him, I think, would be to get him on, possibly tag him as a franchise player. There is a rule where they're able to do that. But it seems unlikely that they're going to be able to keep Sam Darnold. That's probably the going thought right now as we go forward. So enjoy him while you can, I guess that's what I'm saying.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, sounds like kind of a bummer.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, it is.
NINA MOINI: Speaking of quarterbacks, former quarterback Kirk Cousins. We were talking last week about how you all thought his reception would be coming back to Minnesota. How was it?
ERIC NELSON: Well, Nina, frigid I think is the accurate adjective. There were two kinds of birds inside US Bank Stadium. I call it the House of Noise on Sunday.
There were Falcons from Atlanta. And there were bluebirds wearing purple. A crowd of 67,008 gave Kirk Cousins a chorus of loud boos when he trotted onto the field turf for the first time as a Falcon. And remember, he played six seasons for Minnesota.
And he was a lightning rod quarterback because of the multimillion dollar contract he received. And he got another lotterylike deal this past March with Atlanta-- four years, $180 million. So Kirk Cousins is cashing a lot of big checks. But he's not winning a lot of big games.
And the Falcons right now are getting little bang for their buck. He did throw for 344 yards in the loss to the Vikings. But he had no touchdown passes and he had two interceptions. And he now has the most interceptions in the NFL with 15 this season.
He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass in over a month. Atlanta has lost four straight. The Falcons are in freefall mode in the NFC South. They've dropped to second place.
And I think Kirk Cousins did a lot of good things in Minnesota. But he was brought here to win a Super Bowl and he only won one playoff game. So I think Minnesota fans are happy that he's now wintering in Georgia.
NINA MOINI: Probably not coming back too many times after this. In other football news, we do want to talk about the Gophers, who are, it looks like, going to the Mayo Bowl on January 3. What does this mean for them, Wally? Is that a desirable bowl? I'm not quite sure.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, boy. You had to frame it like that, didn't you?
NINA MOINI: It's like, Mayo. I don't know.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, it's the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Hey, it's mayonnaise. That's the sponsor of it. You hit the nail on the head there, Nina. Yeah, I mean, the fact that they're in a bowl game is good. That means that they won at least six games. And they ended up winning seven in the regular season.
Could they have had a better year? Could they have been in a bowl game that was on New Year's Day, or was in Arizona, or in Florida? Those would be more ideal. They also could have ended up losing another game and ended up in Detroit for their bowl game.
So I guess it's the lesser of the evils. But they're in a bowl game. They've got a five-game winning streak under PJ Fleck in bowl games. So ever since he has taken over, they have won all of their bowl games. They're 5 and 0.
And they'll be playing against Virginia Tech. That will be, as you said, at the Mayo Bowl, which is in Charlotte. And that'll be on January 3.
The thing about the bowls now is with this 12 team College Football Playoff, and this is the first ever this year, which was announced on Sunday, it takes a lot of thunder away from these secondary bowls. Now, it's still an opportunity for the Gophers to play another game and for their fans to possibly travel to Charlotte, if that's what you want to do on January 3.
But most of the attention, I'd say 90-plus percent of the attention now is going to be on this College Football Playoff, which, oh, by the way, there are four Big Ten teams in that-- Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana, and Oregon. So we shall see. They're playing a Virginia Tech team that's 6 and 6.
I'm not sure how much interest there will be. And I'm sure that the game will be on cable. I think it's an ESPN game. So I'm not sure I'll be watching or not.
NINA MOINI: All right, Mayo Bowl. All right. I guess there are other worse. It could have been like the Sauerkraut Bowl. So I think they're in OK shape.
We do want to touch on the Timberwolves, too. Loss to the Golden State Warriors Sunday night after leading most of the game. And, Eric, this ended a four-game winning streak for them.
ERIC NELSON: It did. Golden State won it 114 to 106 at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Steph Curry had 30 points and 8 assists to pace the Warriors. Anthony Edwards, we call him Ant, 27 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds to lead the T Wolves.
But Minnesota, with that loss, drops to 12 and 11 on the season. And right now, and it's very early, the Timberwolves would be the number 9 seed in the Western Conference of the NBA. So they would be in an NBA play-in game. But they're going to try to improve on that as we work our way through the season.
The Timberwolves are off until Friday. They get the Los Angeles Lakers at Target Center. It's an add-on game to the schedule because the T Wolves missed advancing to the NBA Cup knockout rounds.
So what it really means is, it's bonus LeBron. The NBA's all-time leading scorer, the King, LeBron James will come to the Twin Cities again. And if you haven't seen this guy play in person, here's a chance to do so.
The Lakers and T Wolves have split two games this season. And by the way, LeBron's son, Bronny, he scored a career high 16 points and had 4 rebounds for the South Bay Lakers Saturday in a 119 to 111 win over the San Diego Clippers in the NBA's G League. That's like minor league basketball.
Bronny was the 55th pick in the NBA Draft. And the Timberwolves have a G League team. They play in Des Moines. So if you're ever down in Iowa, you can go watch future Timberwolves play in Des Moines, Iowa.
NINA MOINI: Sure, that's fascinating with the family connection there. Wally and Eric, I really appreciate your time. As always, I hope you have a great week.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: All right, thanks a lot, Nina.
NINA MOINI: Thank you. That's Wally Langfellow, founder of Minnesota Score sports magazine and cohost of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes, and Eric Nelson, the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS's Eye on Football and SiriusXM.
KEVIN O'CONNELL: I'm just proud of him. I mean, days like this are so many hours upon hours of hard work and successful practices, days, meetings, games on one another. And then when you have a result like this, everyone's going to talk about the result. And I hope they do. But for me, and Sam, and our team, there's not very many guys in that locker room that are surprised about the performance he had today.
NINA MOINI: Joining us now to talk about where the Vikings go from here, plus other sports news and there's a lot of it, are our sports guys, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Thanks for being here on a Tuesday, guys.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah.
ERIC NELSON: No problem. How are you today, Nina?
NINA MOINI: I'm doing great. I'm always excited when you guys catch me up on everything that happened over the weekend. Wally, I'm curious what stood out to you during that game Sunday?
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, I think you already pointed it out. It's what they were able to do with Sam Darnold throwing five touchdown passes, 347 yards, no interceptions. Jordan Addison catching three touchdowns. Justin Jefferson catching the other two. So yeah, what they were able to do offensively.
And here's the thing. Yes, they won by 21 points, but it was a tie game going into the fourth quarter. Let's not forget that. They won 42-21, but it was 21-all. The Falcons had tied it up and had got a 2-point conversion to tie the football game going into the fourth quarter.
But the Vikings were able to respond. And they win the football game. Of course, next up for minnesota, they're home to the Bears on Monday Night Football next week. And that will be, as I said, at US Bank Stadium. They still stay one game behind Detroit, two games ahead of the Packers.
Now, back to Sam Darnold, your original point in reference here. The talk the last day or so now, and this is on a lot of national media scopes as well as locally. Are the Vikings going to be able to keep Sam Darnold long term?
NINA MOINI: Oh.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Probably not. He's on a one-year contract. And he's, right now, making $14 million, which is chump change in the NFL for a quarterback that is playing as well as he is. So he is going to go into the free agent market, most likely.
And the only way the Vikings could possibly retain him, I think, would be to get him on, possibly tag him as a franchise player. There is a rule where they're able to do that. But it seems unlikely that they're going to be able to keep Sam Darnold. That's probably the going thought right now as we go forward. So enjoy him while you can, I guess that's what I'm saying.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, sounds like kind of a bummer.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, it is.
NINA MOINI: Speaking of quarterbacks, former quarterback Kirk Cousins. We were talking last week about how you all thought his reception would be coming back to Minnesota. How was it?
ERIC NELSON: Well, Nina, frigid I think is the accurate adjective. There were two kinds of birds inside US Bank Stadium. I call it the House of Noise on Sunday.
There were Falcons from Atlanta. And there were bluebirds wearing purple. A crowd of 67,008 gave Kirk Cousins a chorus of loud boos when he trotted onto the field turf for the first time as a Falcon. And remember, he played six seasons for Minnesota.
And he was a lightning rod quarterback because of the multimillion dollar contract he received. And he got another lotterylike deal this past March with Atlanta-- four years, $180 million. So Kirk Cousins is cashing a lot of big checks. But he's not winning a lot of big games.
And the Falcons right now are getting little bang for their buck. He did throw for 344 yards in the loss to the Vikings. But he had no touchdown passes and he had two interceptions. And he now has the most interceptions in the NFL with 15 this season.
He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass in over a month. Atlanta has lost four straight. The Falcons are in freefall mode in the NFC South. They've dropped to second place.
And I think Kirk Cousins did a lot of good things in Minnesota. But he was brought here to win a Super Bowl and he only won one playoff game. So I think Minnesota fans are happy that he's now wintering in Georgia.
NINA MOINI: Probably not coming back too many times after this. In other football news, we do want to talk about the Gophers, who are, it looks like, going to the Mayo Bowl on January 3. What does this mean for them, Wally? Is that a desirable bowl? I'm not quite sure.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, boy. You had to frame it like that, didn't you?
NINA MOINI: It's like, Mayo. I don't know.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, it's the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Hey, it's mayonnaise. That's the sponsor of it. You hit the nail on the head there, Nina. Yeah, I mean, the fact that they're in a bowl game is good. That means that they won at least six games. And they ended up winning seven in the regular season.
Could they have had a better year? Could they have been in a bowl game that was on New Year's Day, or was in Arizona, or in Florida? Those would be more ideal. They also could have ended up losing another game and ended up in Detroit for their bowl game.
So I guess it's the lesser of the evils. But they're in a bowl game. They've got a five-game winning streak under PJ Fleck in bowl games. So ever since he has taken over, they have won all of their bowl games. They're 5 and 0.
And they'll be playing against Virginia Tech. That will be, as you said, at the Mayo Bowl, which is in Charlotte. And that'll be on January 3.
The thing about the bowls now is with this 12 team College Football Playoff, and this is the first ever this year, which was announced on Sunday, it takes a lot of thunder away from these secondary bowls. Now, it's still an opportunity for the Gophers to play another game and for their fans to possibly travel to Charlotte, if that's what you want to do on January 3.
But most of the attention, I'd say 90-plus percent of the attention now is going to be on this College Football Playoff, which, oh, by the way, there are four Big Ten teams in that-- Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana, and Oregon. So we shall see. They're playing a Virginia Tech team that's 6 and 6.
I'm not sure how much interest there will be. And I'm sure that the game will be on cable. I think it's an ESPN game. So I'm not sure I'll be watching or not.
NINA MOINI: All right, Mayo Bowl. All right. I guess there are other worse. It could have been like the Sauerkraut Bowl. So I think they're in OK shape.
We do want to touch on the Timberwolves, too. Loss to the Golden State Warriors Sunday night after leading most of the game. And, Eric, this ended a four-game winning streak for them.
ERIC NELSON: It did. Golden State won it 114 to 106 at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Steph Curry had 30 points and 8 assists to pace the Warriors. Anthony Edwards, we call him Ant, 27 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds to lead the T Wolves.
But Minnesota, with that loss, drops to 12 and 11 on the season. And right now, and it's very early, the Timberwolves would be the number 9 seed in the Western Conference of the NBA. So they would be in an NBA play-in game. But they're going to try to improve on that as we work our way through the season.
The Timberwolves are off until Friday. They get the Los Angeles Lakers at Target Center. It's an add-on game to the schedule because the T Wolves missed advancing to the NBA Cup knockout rounds.
So what it really means is, it's bonus LeBron. The NBA's all-time leading scorer, the King, LeBron James will come to the Twin Cities again. And if you haven't seen this guy play in person, here's a chance to do so.
The Lakers and T Wolves have split two games this season. And by the way, LeBron's son, Bronny, he scored a career high 16 points and had 4 rebounds for the South Bay Lakers Saturday in a 119 to 111 win over the San Diego Clippers in the NBA's G League. That's like minor league basketball.
Bronny was the 55th pick in the NBA Draft. And the Timberwolves have a G League team. They play in Des Moines. So if you're ever down in Iowa, you can go watch future Timberwolves play in Des Moines, Iowa.
NINA MOINI: Sure, that's fascinating with the family connection there. Wally and Eric, I really appreciate your time. As always, I hope you have a great week.
WALLY LANGFELLOW: All right, thanks a lot, Nina.
NINA MOINI: Thank you. That's Wally Langfellow, founder of Minnesota Score sports magazine and cohost of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes, and Eric Nelson, the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS's Eye on Football and SiriusXM.
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