10,000 Takes: November 13, 2026

Land of Lakes, this is 10,000 Takes, brought to you by Minnesota Score Radio, Wally and Eric back for yet another week. And we are ecstatic, you've tuned us in, and we are on location. How about that? Downtown Minneapolis, there it is, the house of noise behind us, which was a house of boos on Monday night. Yes, it was. Boy, the Buffalo Bills brought out the Boo Birds. The Minnesota Vikings offense was inept, ineffective. They couldn't run the ball, they couldn't throw the ball. The blocking was subpar up front. Not a great primetime performance on ABC's Monday Night Football. No, it was a disaster. The Viking defense was pretty good for most of the game. I think they got worn out by the late third, early fourth quarter, and the Viking offense was absolutely abysmal. It was a dumpster fire. They couldn't run the ball. They didn't throw the ball. They threw it backwards. They threw interceptions. I mean, it was just Carson Wentz did not look good at all, and the Viking offense in general hasn't looked good. Do you realize? This is the third game now this year that the Minnesota Vikings have not scored a touchdown. That's the most in the National Football League, yet they're 6-2. They are, and they have another monster game coming up in Green Bay on Sunday, a border battle, and the Packers are on a four-game winning streak. Jordan Love looks like he's playing at a Pro Bowl level right now, leads the NFL in passing yardage. The Vikings have to get this fixed quickly because after Green Bay, they go to Mexico City, Ole, and play San Francisco, which along with Buffalo, the only two 7-1 teams in the NFL, then they come back. To that place, the House of Noise, and host Atlanta, and teams have been able to run on Minnesota, and the Falcons have Bijan Robinson, who's an outstanding running back. So it's not time to push purple panic buttons, but if things don't change, things are going to go real south quickly. Yeah, well, you mentioned Green Bay, Eric, and I think that the equation here is that Green Bay is playing their best football of the year right now. Jordan Love has been lights out. We talked to Wayne Larravee, their play-by-play guy on the radio, a few weeks ago. on our radio show and he said that week 10 you could expect the Green Bay Packers to be at full strength and to start peaking. Well this is week nine that's close enough for me and I think the Packers have looked as good as they have all year the last few weeks and as I mentioned Jordan Love we don't know about Josh Jacobs he's been banged up missed portions of the start of the season of course but I think that the Green Bay Packers are going to be More than formidable for the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. And as you said, we'll see how the Vikings handle going to the not-so-frozen tundra in the middle of November in what could be a pivotal game to make them 3-1 in the division. That's going to be a big opportunity for the Vikings to jump right back in this race. Yeah, and you take a look at that NFC North. Top to bottom, full of North stars, if you will, in the National Football League. The collective record of all the teams in the North? 25-9. There's no easy out in the division. Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, even Minnesota, which right now is going through some turbulence. These are all very good football teams. So I think the one thing we're going to see is probably multiple teams coming out of the north into the postseason. That was season. And the unfortunate reality in today's NFL is you can be in a really bad division like the NFC South. Somebody who's like 8-9 might punch a playoff ticket. So the Vikings have to find a way to navigate through the North. Currently their divisional record, 2-1. If they can get it to 3-1 by winning at Green Bay Sunday, which is going to be a monumental challenge, they will have swept the Packers and they would own any tiebreaker. But we'll see what happens on the not-so-frozen tundra. Would you say that the Vikings are the weakest team in this division? I think they are. Well, clearly from a quarterback standpoint, they are. Or they've been anyway. Yes. And, you know, be careful what you wish for. Everybody got Carson Wentz. But overall. I think they're the weakest team in the division. Probably. Their defense, I would say, is the strongest, although the Packers' defense is pretty good. I think their special teams is elite with Miles Price and Will Reichard and some of those guys. But can you win being outstanding in two phases and being subpar in the other phase? Chris Collinsworth said last week on NBC Sunday Night Football, the Bucs-Bears game, two phases can carry a team if a third phase Isn't very good. Well, right now, that's what we've seen with the Vikings. But how much can you ask of this defense? The last two losses, what's happened? Jameer Gibbs and then James Cook, they've worn Minnesota out because they've been on the field too long. Time of possession, highly lopsided against Buffalo, and those backs were able to gash the Vikings late in the game. By the way, time of possession in that Buffalo game, 42-32. For the Buffalo Bills, 17 minutes and 28 seconds for the Vikings. I mean, the Vikings' defense on the field, way too long. And the Viking offense standing on the sidelines, way too long. And I want to say this about the Minnesota defense. When they saw Caleb Williams week two in the rain and the soggy conditions, Soldier Field, they made him look average. Now, granted, the weather was part of that. Jared Goff did not beat them in Detroit. It was more Jameer Gibbs and the other running back, Vaki. And Josh Allen, as good as he is, and he's a horse. He didn't tear them apart, though. No, they contained Josh Allen. And so this defense has done everything physically possible to keep the Vikings in the race. Except score touchdowns. They've got to find a way to win some football games. They have to find a way to beat Green Bay, or they will be in last place. Yeah. All right. We're going to talk some more football coming up next, and we've got plenty more to do after that. We'll talk some Wolves and Wild as well. Yeah, so, hey, great to be here. The streets of Minneapolis, as Bruce Springsteen once sang a few months ago. Well, that's where we are. We are 10,000 Takes Your Purple Ticket. Experience wild rivers. Experience wooded trails. Experience hometown flavor. Experience our charming downtown. Rest. Recharge. Reconnect. Experience River Falls, Wisconsin. 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I think we've seen the Moorhead Spuds, who were the number one team in the state, basically from the get-go. They beat up everybody. They beat up Eden Prairie. They beat up Minnetonka. They just took out everybody. But what happened in the second round of the playoffs against Prior Lake to easily the best team all year? You know what? I've been saying all year long that injuries are the one thing that's going to kill Moorhead, and that's what killed them. Their number one player, their best pound-for-pound player, that was a wide receiver, David Mack, was missing that game. There are other guys. It's, uh, um... Zach Walker, Tay Rich, both University of Minnesota commits, were nicked up in that game. And so they just, and their defense just couldn't hold down what Prior Lake was doing. And then on top of that, you got the first two interceptions that Jet Feeney has thrown all season long against Prior Lake. So he picked off twice in the second half. Suddenly, everything that had been going well for Moorhead just kind of went south on them, and they just couldn't find a way to get back to it. All right, let's shift to 5A quickly here. Who do you see as the favorites in 5A? I would have to give it to Monticello. Monticello's been good all season long. They've beaten Elk River twice. I think Monticello's the favorite. Although Cretin-Derham Hall has played well, and they're undefeated, so you can't discount them either. I think Cretin-Derham Hall could make a run, but I really think Monticello's the team I'm watching. A team I got to know last year on their way to a state title was Spring Lake Park. Very impressive group there. They're trying to repeat. Do you like their chances? This season, I like anybody's chances to repeat, but of course, they've lost four games, so that's class 4A, and class 4A is so deep. I think that's the deepest class in the entire state tournament. You've got Orono, you've got Wilmer, you've got Byron, Grand Rapids, and SMB, and just so many, Hill-Murray. It's a very, very deep class, so Spring Lake Park. They've got a chance. Obviously, anybody has a chance right now, but there's just such depth in Class 4A. All right, in 6A, when you look at the brackets now, in my mind, Champlin Park, and you guys had them ranked as number one, is the favorite to go all the way. What are your thoughts on 6A of who's remaining? I do like Champlin Park. I did those rankings in today's Star Tribune. So I believe in Champlin Park. They're number one. But Shakopee is coming around, and they're playing really well right now, and I wouldn't discount Shakopee either. And you know what? Forest Lake, even though they've lost their quarterback, Alex Sanchez and a couple of linemen, I think Forest Lake can surprise some people. And I'll put you on the spot, and I don't want to jinx my Champlin Park Rebels, Preston, and the gang. They've had a great season. I know Marcus Fitzgerald, his son, Jalen, is at Shakopee, Larry Fitzgerald Jr.'s nephew. We have a bet going if they meet in the semis right there at U.S. Bank Stadium, somebody gets dinner, match it up. Again, getting ahead of myself a bit, but Shakopee, Champlin Park. You know, I would... I'd say that's going to be a tight game. I think Shakopee has been getting better. They're quarterbacking Bo Schultz since he got benched earlier in the season. He's back playing again, and they're playing well. Well, it's So I would say, I would like to think, I'm going to pick a little bit of an upset, although it's not really an upset. I'm going to say Shakopee finally. I'm not going to, I'm sorry, I think that you're wincing a little bit, Eric, but I'd say Shakopee in a tight one. Maybe I'll get two dinners out of this. Unless Unless that Preston Nelson kid goes for a couple of long touchdown runs, which could very much happen. Yeah, easily. All right, tell me about the other classes, 4A all the way down to 9-man. Any teams stand out that look like they're going to run the table? Annandale in 4A. They just haven't lost since in two years. I think Annandale looks good. The thing about Annandale, you just don't know much about them. Their head coach, Matt Walter, is a nice guy, but he doesn't provide the stats. He doesn't provide information. You have to kind of guess what's going on with Annandale, but they've been playing well, so I like Annandale a lot. In Class 2A, Caledonia's been good, but there's other good teams. Caledonia's been good, and Redwood Valley's been good. Aiken's been good, but it could be anybody there. Class 1A, well, Minnyota. I mean, they're in, what, 56 in a row. I think they've won some, Minnyota. And then in nine-man, they call it nine-player now, is Hills-Beaver Creek. They're defending state champions. They haven't lost since 2004. So I think that's another team that's going to have a repeat state championship trip. Jim, the class of 2027, I've certainly seen a lot of excellent players all year watching Champlin Park and the opponents they've been playing. Do you like this class because I know a lot of these kids are going to go on to play college football. Yeah, I do. It's a big year for running backs. It's a big year for defense linemen. And it's a good year for quarterbacks. And two of them have gone down. And one of them for Chapel Hill Park, Miles Felton. You can't overlook Moorhead. They've lost, but they have just such a stacked class. And again, Eden Prairie, another one of them, the old Conrad kid, he was just a junior and a hockey player. But man, he was a great running back. I think I see a lot of great players in this class of 2027. That's it, brother. Well, Jim, appreciate it. We'll catch up with you probably on the radio next time around as we get closer to prep ball. That's not too far down the road, is it? I don't mind standing out here on a nice sunny day in November.