Monthly Archive for August, 2007

A quick look at the Vikings

Published
by
Jesse Menden
on August 31, 2007
in Enterprise Dispatch
. 1 Comment

There is that classic scene in the movie “Office Space” when Peter walks into a meeting with the Bobs. They make a comment to Peter about how he has been missing a lot of work lately, and then he says back “let’s just say, I haven’t been ‘missing’ it.”

That is going to be me this fall when it comes to the Vikings. With the impending blackout of several home games and struggles of the team, I imagine I will be missing several games, but I surely won’t be missing this team.

And I don’t think I am alone. I sat five rows up in the upper deck right on the 50-yard line Thursday night. When the Cowboys ran the punt 95-yards for a TD, the guy next to me got up in disgust and never came back. That wouldn’t be so bad if those seats weren’t worth $120, and it was less than five minutes into the game.

I have had the unfortunate luck of attending both preseason home games this year. But that is a rant for another day. I was hardly impressed by anything during those two games. Of course, preseason does not mean much in terms of regular season success, but it seems pretty clear to me that the Vikings will struggle.

In my opinion, the Vikings will win about 7 games, and here is why. The defense will be a little better than they were during the 6-10 season in 2006. Basically everybody is back (minus the coordinator Mike Tomlin) plus they have Chad Greenway and adding rookie cornerback Marcus McCauley to the mix can’t hurt either. The Vikings were the 8th-ranked defense in 2006, and that was without a pass rush. If they can get anything from those four up front, the defense could be scary good.

One thing that could raise that win total is if the defense forces a lot of turnovers. Some defenses have a knack for it, like the Vikings did just a few years ago. Good field position will help the offense by leaps and bounds. With Travaris Jackson leading the offense, the Vikings never put together any long drives the preaseason. I fear that may be the case starting Sept. 9. So anything the defense could do to help might make this team better.

And speaking of T-Jack, he look absolutely brutal Thursday night. He only completed 1 of 5 pass attempts and the defensive back almost picked off three of them. I don’t know how much to be concerned, but everybody in the whole stadium knew where he was throwing the ball. Good thing for the Vikings they have two very good running backs. I anticipate the offensive line will be much more solid than they were last year, and the Vikes will be riding them and the RBs for the entire season. I expect Adrian Peterson will have a great rookie year. But even if he and Chester Taylor lead the league in rushing, they will need something out of that passing game.

In the wide receiver position where the Vikings have a bunch of no-names, one has stood out to me. Rookie receiver Sidney Rice looked really good Thursday. He made a very difficult catch in the endzone and looks like he is fitting in well.

One final thing that impressed me was the return game of Aundrae Allison. It looks like the Vikings might have an above-average return man, something they have not had for a while.

In summary, the only way I invision this team being any good is if the defense causes a lot of turnovers and gives the offense the ball with good field position. I don’t believe there is enough playmakers of the offense to carry this team into the playoffs.

Fall Sports Preview

Published
by
Jesse Menden
on August 27, 2007
in Enterprise Dispatch
. 0 Comments

Well, the fall sports preview is out (thank goodness!). I thought it might a good idea to go into a little more detail on the teams here.

It’s Monday morning and two days after DC’s football scrimmage. I have to think coach Weinandt has mind made up on who will start at quarterback Friday against Foley. For that game, it is between Tyler Irvin and Jordan Flick. Irvin, who is just a freshman, really impressed me at the scrimmage. He threw several nice balls, including a deep pass to Mitch Jorgensen that he laid right in his hands. It will be interesting to see who starts Friday. For the second week of the season, Josh Aho will be in the mix at quarterback too, especially if Flick or Irvin don’t work out Friday night. Aho is an excellent athlete and would excel there, but I would be very reluctant to take him out of that wide receiver position, unless nobody can get him the ball.

I stopped by the volleyball team’s practice last week and they look like they should be a good squad this season. As I mentioned in the preview, many of them worked on their skills this summer, which should play off nicely. The thing about this team is that they are pretty deep, and aren’t weak at any position, especially with Margaret Neutzling back at libero. One interesting thing to watch this season will be Abby Thomson’s move to hitter. Coach Beth Remme said she has the potential to really good, so we’ll see how that goes. Even though the team dropped to Class AA, the postseason will still be difficult. They have several very good teams in their 16-team section.

It should be a fun year in the girls’ swimming and diving camp. They have a lot of young swimmers that are already really good. Head coach Erin Tormanen told me that they won’t be winning a lot of duals, but there will be a ton of great individual performances. They are hoping to get more individuals into the section meet this year which they will do, and maybe they can sneak a couple into state. I saw Lindsey Keskey diving last week and she was already looking very good. But as coach Tormanen told me, both her and Beth will have to be ready to go because they got the best diver in Class A in their section now. The section meet this season will be a fun one to watch.

The boys’ cross country team is another group that will be interesting to see. Coach Mike Lhotka told me last week that they have some younger runners on the team that could be on varsity by the end of the season. With a dominant runner in Karl Koivisto, and a solid group behind him, the team should place better this season. They will be working hard this season to peak towards the end of the season. They were better than how they finished in the conference and section meets in 2006. One runner who impressed me at the conference jamboree last week was Brett Danielson. He looks to be in good shape and improved over last year. Having said that, I can’t wait to see him on the ice this winter.

With the girls’ team, coach Lhotka has an opportunity to do what he is good at: teach. The team has six new girls, so coach Lhotka has had his work cut out for him so far this fall. There are four returning runners, however, and we’ll see how good they can be. They have their first meet Tuesday in Howard Lake, and since all of the girls are running the same distance at the same time, it will be easy to tell who the top runners are and who will fill out the team.

State tourney time

Published
by
Aaron Schultz
on August 17, 2007
in Herald Journal
. 0 Comments

It’s that time of year again, time for the state amateur baseball tournament. The first two local squads opened up Class B action Aug. 16 with Hutchinson falling to Mankato 5-4, and Dassel-Cokato beating Marshall 4-2. The other opening round games have Winsted playing East Grand Forks, Howard Lake taking on St. Stephen, and Plato battling the Moorhead Brewers. To me, there isn’t a better sporting event in Minnesota than the state baseball tournament. Sure, the high school football tournament in fun, as is state wrestling, or even the modified men’s softball tournament is a good time. But in comparison, all other state tournaments are not even close to as exciting.

It is time for Garza

Published
by
Aaron Schultz
on August 8, 2007
in Herald Journal
. 0 Comments

Well, here it goes. This is my first time blogging, and am not really sure the best way to go about it, but I’ll just kind of run with it and see how it goes.

I haven’t been able to catch many Twins’ games this spring (been busy with baseball myself), but the ones that I have seen haven’t been great.

While, no doubt, the line-up has been hurt with Joe Mauer out of it, I don’t see that as being their biggest problem.

The Twins’ biggest problem, in my mind, is their starting pitching, and it shouldn’t be.

The reason it shouldn’t be is that they have a young stud by the name of Matt Garz sitting in Triple A that needs to get brought up sooner rather than later.

Johan Santana is the best pitcher in baseball, and Boof Bonser is a solid number two. Throw in Carlos Silva at the back end of the rotation, and you’ve got an alright start to a decent rotation.

Now, with the addition of rookie Kevin Slowey, who has the look of a pretty good young arm, and you are almost there. The final piece needs to be Matt Garza.

If you add Garza to Santana, Bonser, Slowey, and Silva, you all of a sudden have a rotation that looks like it just might get you to the playoffs.