Midwest Sports

The Minnesota Vikings offensive looked terrible last night against the Buffalo Bills and that's putting it nicely. Carson Wentz looked worse than Kyler Murray for most of the game. Fans were booing the Vikings on Monday Night Football.  Minnesota went out and traded a third round pick to the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for the return of Kirk Cousins.  Cousins played six seasons for the Vikings from 2018 - 2023. His best a season was in 2022 where he played 17 games, threw for 29 touchdowns, and averaged 291 yards per game.  Justin Jefferson has great numbers when Cousins throws him the ball. Jefferson's career stats with Cousins throwing him the ball: 54 games, 364 catches, 5,338 yards, and 28 touchdowns.  Now Cousins is 38 years old this season, but he can't be any worse than what we saw the last couple games with Wentz and Murray.  Cousins has thrown 20 touchdowns this season which is good enough for second most only behind Joe Burrow (23). Can Kirk Cousins ...

Well the NFC North contined to win this weekend. The Lions beat up on the Dolphins, the Packers crushed the reigning AFC champs - the Patriots, and the Bears beat the Bucs on Sunday Night Football.  Detroit beat a Miami team that is going through a rebuild and may be in line for the first overall pick in next year's draft.  Green Bay annihilated New England and the score made it seem like it was closer than it was. Jordan Love is playing lile an MVP and the Packers defense made Drake Maye look like JJ McCarthy. Safeties Evan Williams and Xavier Mckinney might be the best Safety duo in the league. Chicago's offense played terrible with Caleb Williams throwing four interceptions. Luckily the Bears defense was all over Baker Mayfield. Bears win with no help from the offense. 

The NFC North has four good teams. Their combined record is 22-8. Their record outside their division is 17-3. They beat most teams outside their division. If the playoffs started this week, all four teams would be in the playoffs.  How good are they? Minnesota has arguably the best defense, but their offense can't score. Detroit is the opposite with an explosive offensive, but they have six defensive starters on the PUP list. Green Bay has the worst run offense and their offensive line is terrible. Jordan Love is leading the league in passing yards though. Chicago seems like the more complete team with Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson running that offense. They can run and pass plus they have a good defense. The Bears are playing complementary football right now. You saw it when the Bears went into Seattle and beat the defending champs last Monday night. 

Carson Wentz is starting for the Minnesota Vikings this Monday against the Buffalo Bills. There were times last season that Carson Wentz looked like the best quarterback on the Vikings roster, but the quarterback room last year wasn't very good.  Can Wentz get the Minnesota offense going? He has Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and TJ Hockenson to throw the ball to. The good news is he probably won't need to win the game with that stingy Minnesota defense, he just can't lose the game by committing turnovers.  In less than two games this season, Carson Wentz has 3 touchdown passes and zero interceptions. *Jefferson has been in the top 15 wide receivers for scoring in fantasy football once this year and Wentz was his quarterback. 

Gardner Minshew (QB AZ) Malik Willis (QB MIA) Mike Washington Jr (RB LV) Sione Vaki (RB DET) Kaelon Black (RB SF) Keenan Allen (WR IND) Adonai Mitchell (WR NYJ) Mike Gesicki (TE CIN) Brenton Strange (TE JAX)

The Milwaukee Bucks visit the Minnesota Timberwolves in a Border Battle game in Minneapolis.  The Bucks are 1-5. In their five losses the Bucks have given up at least 127 points. Rookies Brayden Burries and Nate Ament look like good picks and Ryan Rollins has started off hot. The Timberwolves are 4-3 trying to stay afloat while Anthony Edwards is out for two months due to an arthroscopic knee procedure. 

It's the Minnesota defense against the Detroit offense. The Vikings defense is allowing just over 12 points per game and the Lions offense is averaging over 30 points per game. Jared Goff has thrown 14 touchdowns and zero interceptions. He is in the early MVP conversations. While Kyler Murray has thrown for only 3 touchdowns, but he is not turning the ball over. Both teams are on the positive for turnover differential with Minnesota at +7 and Detroit at +3. Brian Flores has the Vikings blitzing 70% of the time. Goff has been good against the blitz this season, but in his two matchups with the Vikings last year he threw two interceptions.  Minnesota is on an 11 game winning streak dating back to last year and is the NFL's last unbeaten team. This matchup is important in a very competitive NFC North where all four teams have more wins than losses. Imagine if the Vikings, Lions, Bears, or Packers were in the NFC South or NFC East. The NFC North has a real shot at getting all four ...