After Sunday’s performance against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in the Windy City, Viking analysts were hard on both Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer during Monday morning’s radio “talk” programs.
I have heard the phrase ….. ‘Monday Morning Quarterbacks’ ….. which sure rang true this week, as the “experts” all put the blame on Cousins (the highly-overpaid quarterback) and Zimmer (the head coach).
While too often both the quarterback and the head coach get more credit than they deserve (if things go great), they also take most of “the heat” when things go bad — as they did for the Vikings in their 16-6 loss to the Bears.
It was another Minnesota embarrassment on a nationally-televised sporting event. The Vikings, who played so well in a pair of home-field victories (28-12 over Atlanta on September 8 and 34-14 over Oakland on September 22), were lackluster on offense until piecing together a 92-yard scoring drive midway through the fourth quarter.
The great Dalvin Cook after rushing for 111, 154 and 110 yards, respectively, in Minnesota’s first three games, was held to a mere 35 yards on the ground by the Bears’ defense, which made Cousins look bad nearly the entire game.
You certainly can’t blame Cook’s lack of yards on Cousins. You have give credit to Chicago’s defense. But, you can sure wonder why Cousins can’t handle the pressure of a quick pass rush. He seems to panic and frequently fumbles when hit. The Vikings paid an unbelievable high price — $84 million, guaranteed over three years — to get him and get rid of Case Keenum.
I expressed an opinion on this in my first Bleacher Views in August of last year. Thirteen months later, I am finding out that there a lot of people who agree with me. The list of anti-Cousins fans continues to grow as the multi-millionaire continues to flounder. It appears that maybe even the always-positive and hard-working Adam Thielen may be a bit disgruntled with Cousins and his lack of ability to consistently complete passes down field.
I think that’s enough about Cousins and the 2-2 Vikings. They play the Giants in New York this Sunday and could do better?
Thanks to three home runs Sunday by a trio of guys all with the last name beginning with C — Cron, Cave and Castro — the Twins topped the Yankees in the record home run chase, 307-306.
No team had ever hit 300 home runs in a major league season until this year. In early September, the Twins broke last year’s Yankee record of 267 and continued on — hitting 40 more. The Yankees quickly passed up their 2018 record and began chasing the Twins, finally passing them by hitting six home runs on Friday night. With a home run by Nelson Cruz (another player with his last name starting with C) on Saturday, along with the three homers on Sunday, the Twins regained the lead as the season ended.
Minnesota’s record of 101-61 is the second best in franchise history, only trailing the 1965 American League Champions mark of 102-60. The Twins won 98 games in 1970 and 97 in 1969, their third and fourth highest totals, while winning back-to-back Western Division titles. The 1991 World Series Champions were 95-67 during the regular season and the Twins were 94-68 in 2010, the last time they won the American League Central.
What about the magical year of 1987? The Twins were just 85-77 (.525) during the regular season, but won 4-out-of-5 against the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS and then won 4-of-7 versus the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. They finished up 93-81 (.534) for the entire year.
The best record as the Washington Senators? It was 99-53 (.651) during 1933 when the Senators won the American League and lost (in five games) to the New York Giants in the World Series. The 1924 World Series Champions were 92-62 (.597) before beating the Giants in seven games. The next year, the Senators were 96-55 (.636), but lost in the 1925 World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates, four games to three.
That’s a bit of history on the regular-season records of some of the very best years of the Senators and Twins. The franchise has three World Series titles — 1924, 1987 and 1991, and also played for “all the marbles” three other times — 1925, 1933 and 1965.
The last time the Twins have won a playoff series was in 2002 when they defeated Oakland (3-2) in the ALDS before losing to the Angels (4-1) in the ALCS. Minnesota was 94-67 that season.
Last week’s answers — Joe Kapp was the Vikings quarterback in the fall of 1969. Nick Saban coached at LSU before he coached at Alabama.
Let’s hope the Twins really play well and beat the Yankees in the upcoming ALDS, which begins in New York Friday evening!
