Philadelphia scores three wins in three days against Minnesota sports teams

NINA MOINI: One Philadelphia sports team after another bested Minnesota teams this past weekend. The trend started Friday, with the Wolves final preseason game, which they lost to the 76ers. Then in hockey, the Flyers beat the Wild Saturday. And yesterday, the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles defeated the Vikings at home.

Joining me to recap these games and look ahead to what's next are sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Thanks for being here, guys.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Happy Monday. How are you?

NINA MOINI: Happy Monday as always. Well, that sounds rough. All these losses over the weekend. Wally, tell me about what happened at US Bank Stadium yesterday.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, boy. Yeah, well, the Vikings kicked five field goals. How's that for a plus? But that's actually a minus because that means you're not scoring touchdowns. They lost 28-22 to the defending Super Bowl champions. They fall to 3 and 3 on the season.

And they are now because both Chicago Green Bay won yesterday. Detroit plays tonight. They're in last place in the NFC North. Now, that might be a little bit over the top. But because they're only one game out behind Chicago.

But still, not where they want to be right now, 3 and 3. But there's still a lot of season to go. Still have 11 games to go. Really a rough start for former Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, who started for the Vikings again.

He threw a pair of interceptions in the first half. One of them went for a Philadelphia touchdown. Wentz end up having a decent day, though. He threw for 313 yards, had a couple of key quarterback scrambles, and he ran for 28 yards.

So it's hard to pin the blame on him because I think that the defense let them down a couple of times. They could not make key stops near the end of the game. And really, the Vikings, just on all cylinders, were not hitting. And as a result, they end up losing this football game to Jalen Hurts and the Eagles.

Hurts, the quarterback for the Eagles, was 19 of 23. So he only threw four incomplete passes. So that's really good. 326 yards. And he threw for three touchdowns.

And then a couple of Eagles wide receivers just ate the Vikings up. Davante Smith, 183 yards and a touchdown. And AJ Brown had 121 yards and 2 TDs.

So they'll have to regroup. And they're going to have to regroup fast because Thursday is when they next play. They got Thursday Night Football, and they travel to Los Angeles to play the Chargers, who are in a bit of a downspout right now themselves.

But the Vikings are going to have to retool quickly because they are in, I think, arguably the best division in football in the NFC North.

NINA MOINI: And, Eric, weren't they kind of choosing between two possible quarterbacks to start? What ended up happening there? And why do you think they made that call?

ERIC NELSON: Well, JJ McCarthy's been banged up. And Kevin O'Connell, the head coach, and the medical staff obviously came to the conclusion that he wasn't physically ready to play against the Philadelphia Eagles. So he was inactive yesterday. That's why they went with Carson Wentz.

Max Brosmer is what you would call QB2, the former Gopher quarterback. Now, is that going to change? Thursday, as Wally said, this is a quick week. Thursday Night Football is not popular with the players.

It's a very short gap between Sunday and Thursday. And when you travel, it's even worse. And the Vikings have to go out to SoCal. They'll play the LA Chargers at SoFi Stadium, their $5 billion playpen.

And the Chargers have some problems of their own. They lost yesterday to Indianapolis 38 to 24. The Colts have a running back named Jonathan Taylor.

He played at Wisconsin. He ran for 94 yards, 3 touchdowns yesterday. Also had 3 catches for 38 yards. They also have a quarterback named Daniel Jones, or Indiana Jones, as they call him in Indianapolis. He threw for 288 yards and 2 TDs.

And this is the same guy Minnesota signed last November but chose not to bring him back. So Indianapolis in the offseason inked Jones to a one year, $14 million deal in the offseason, which looks like the bargain of 2025 so far because he has played great. And the Colts are galloping through the NFL. They have a 6 in 1 record, best in the league.

Now, circling it back to the opponent, the Vikings will see Thursday the Chargers. They started 3 and 0, but they've lost three of their last four. And their head coach is Jim Harbaugh.

And if JJ McCarthy plays on Thursday, while Harbaugh knows him very well because he coached him at Michigan-- they won a national title together. And then one other tidbit. The Chargers have maybe the softest fan base in the NFL.

They are very low on the priority list for SoCal sports fans. So most games at SoFi become these coup d'etat, visiting fan bases. Take over the venue. And I promise you there will be plenty of purple in Inglewood, California Thursday night. And you'll probably hear Skol chants in the background.

I've been to a Viking-Charger games in LA before. It's embarrassing how few Charger fans show up.

NINA MOINI: OK, well, maybe that'll help out the Vikings. It sounds like they need--

ERIC NELSON: The need some rest.

NINA MOINI: OK, well, so we talked about the Minnesota Wild too. Wally, how is their season going a couple weeks in?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, kind of rocky, actually. They also are in last place, along with the Vikings in the NHL's Central Division. The Wild 2, 3, and 1. But they're very young.

They had five players who played Friday night against Washington, who weren't in the lineup at the beginning of last season. On Saturday, against Philadelphia, they had seven guys in the lineup that weren't in the lineup a year ago at the beginning of the season.

So a lot of new young faces. After winning two of their first three games, they've now dropped three in a row, including that overtime loss on Saturday in Philadelphia. This is part of a five-game road trip, including what they are now on a East Coast swing.

They'll play at Madison Square Garden tonight in New York against the New York Rangers. And they've had some goaltending issues. And again, I think it's a matter of getting to your new teammates. And there's a lot of that going on right now.

One other note, speaking of winter sports, because the Wild, as you mentioned, are underway, the Timberwolves open up this week. The regular season opens up Wednesday in Portland against the Trail Blazers. Their home opener is Sunday night at Target Center against the defending Eastern Conference champions, the Indiana Pacers.

So lots on the plate this week. Football, basketball, hockey, and so on.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, things are kicking off. How about Minnesota United? Their regular season is over. They're headed to the playoffs. What are you expecting to see there, Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, they finished up the regular season with a loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy, 2 to 1. What I do know is this-- the opener of their first round playoff series best of three. So the first team to win twice advances. That's a week from tonight in St. Paul at Allianz Field.

They'll take on the Seattle Sounders. Historically, the Sounders are a pedigree franchise in Major League Soccer. They've had a lot of success.

But this year, they finished fifth in the Western Conference with 55 points. They were three behind Minnesota United, who placed fourth. Now, there's a total of 18 teams in the MLS playoff field, 9 from the East and 9 from the West. So things will get ramped up for Minnesota United next Monday night.

Also, I do want to mention the Minnesota Gophers coming off a huge win over 25th ranked Nebraska Friday night.

NINA MOINI: A win?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Even a field rush. Yeah, I was there in Dinkytown. All the fans, they put it on the scoreboard, do not come onto the field after the game. And, of course, the students said, no, we're going to field rush. And they did.

And Darius Taylor was outstanding for Minnesota, 148 yards and a touchdown. The Gophers bagged up Cornhuskers quarterback Dylan Raiola all night. They had a school record nine sacks.

But next up is Iowa. It's on CBS, 2:30 PM on Saturday. Both teams 5 and 2 overall, 3 and 1 in the Big Ten. And the winner of this game quite possibly could crack the top 25. We'll see.

The Gophers lead the all time series against the Hawkeyes. 63 wins, 53 losses, 2 ties. But since 2012, Iowa is 11 and 2 against Minnesota. And of course, Nina, they play for your favorite trophy, Floyd of Rosedale, the pig.

And so the pigs are going to be in the National TV spotlight in Iowa City. And they've been playing these games since 1891.

NINA MOINI: Wow. Hey, it's a trophy. A trophy is a trophy. Thank you guys.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: This is a big one.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, it's a big one. Thank you both. Appreciate you. Have a good week. All right. Bye bye. Those are our sports contributors, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Our thanks to them. Our thanks to you, as always, for listening.