10,000 Takes: October 15, 2026

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, okay? The major football teams in Minnesota, that would be the Vikings and the Gophers, have the week off. Wait a minute. The Gophers are a major team? I thought St. John's is ranked in the top five in Division III. Okay, the Gophers are a Big Ten team. And, by the way, Minnesota State Mankato is also a top-five team in Division II. Yeah, the Mavericks usually have a good team year in, year out. They do. Well, okay, the Gophers are off, and they are busy trying to heal from getting absolutely pummeled by Purdue. But the Minnesota Vikings are off, and I say it comes at a good time. Yeah, they're 5-0, and they've got a lot of mojo going, but they have a lot of guys banged up. The left side of that O-line with Christian Darrisow, Donovan Jackson, T.J. Hawkinson went down against New Orleans, trying to get Jordan Mason back. You've got a lot of things that are going on injury-wise. Jordan Addison, he didn't play against the Saints. Now Justin Jefferson came back, and he was a shining star down there in NOLA where he grew up, and you knew he was wound up for that game. Do you think, speaking of NOLA and guys wound up for that game, do you think that we're going to see OBJ, Odell Beckham, you think, Junior? Are we going to see him at all, or do you think that he is going to be a practice squad guy just in case somebody gets hurt? I think at some point we do see him. Unfortunately, the reason will be because of just what you said, injuries. You know, what's Addison's status? Jay Jets look like he has recovered from the ankle. I think Juwan Jennings got a little playing time against New Orleans. But, yeah, and they also, you know, with OBJ, you want them to learn the new verbiage of the offense and all that. It's probably different in Minnesota than it is with the New York Giants. So I wouldn't be shocked if we see him, though. All right. We haven't talked about this yet. Your thoughts on the way Kyler Murray played. I mean, I don't think there's any question that he ramped it up from the week before, and he is making progress, basically. I guess that's the best way to put it. I thought that he played really well in that fourth quarter, particularly the last drive against Miami, and then played well just about the whole game. I don't think that there was really a downside to the way he played. And when he ran the football against the Saints, he ran out of bounds when he needed to and got down when he needed to. And I think that that's going to be key for him. Yeah, he's got the fleet feet. The key is running with, you know, the thought being, yes, we want him to run. The Vikings want to get him outside of the pocket on occasion, but run smart. Right. And go into that baseball slide, which he should know well. He was drafted by the Oakland A's in round one of the MLB draft many years ago, so sliding should come natural to Kyler. What I like, too, when he gets outside of the pocket, you get a little bit better vision on the throwing lanes, and if they're not there, tuck and go. He's not very tall, man. He needs that space. He does seem fearless in the pocket, and that ball he threw to Justin Jefferson was into a keyhole. I mean, it was back left pylon. There's triple coverage. Great catch by Justin. But the throw was equally as good by Kyler. I thought he had a very good game against New Orleans, and they would have put up 30-plus points if they didn't have those two critical fumbles. One was a scoop and score. The other one was deep in the red zone by Aaron Jones. So I think if you're a Viking fan, I don't know what you can complain about. Cut down on the fumbles would be my suggestion. Yeah, well, and you mentioned the touchdown, and that was a terrific catch. I thought that he made a nice back shoulder throw to Jefferson on the sideline as well. Those were the two key throws and catches and hookups with Justin Jefferson that I thought were just terrific. I mean, if those two can be on the same page like that, that's awfully difficult to defend. Yeah, no doubt. And let's not forget, this is a bargain for the Minnesota Vikings. They're paying about a million dollars. Arizona's picking up the rest of the tab. Like $31 million. Yeah, $30-plus million. it's it's a little too early to compare it to what Sam Darnold did two years ago but remember Darnold came here as a backup and got in because JJ McCarthy got injured in his rookie year i think he he only made 14 million that year and that was the Vikings paying him all that money but the point is you know Darnold had him at 13 and 3 well Kyler and the defense and the special teams right now at five and oh and i would think they'll be favored probably by eight to nine against Indianapolis a week from Sunday at the House of Noise you would think so you would think so and really the only thing left i think on Kevin O'Connell's resume that needs to happen um he's got to win a playoff game they haven't won none under KOC yet he's gotten there a couple times but they have not won a playoff game so that has to happen this year this bunch looks capable of that but again i warn you Viking fans it is early anything could happen the good news is you got a two-game lead in the division going into this weekend and you've got two wins over your two NFC North opponents that's the good news the bad news is there's still what 9 12 12 games to go it's a long season it's a marathon i think the the real goals you need to have clearly you want to be the top seed get the week off and have a home field as long as you're in the playoffs well that's everyone's goal but beyond that win the NFC North don't punch a wild card ticket because at least you get a home game you're guaranteed a home game if you have to play in that first week so with that two-game cushion that you mentioned they're in that position but they still have Detroit coming in a week from Sunday they got to go to Green Bay they will play Chicago again my My guess is Caleb Williams might play in that game. It'll be inside on the fast track of U.S. Bank Stadium. So the injuries, they just got to make sure they don't have more injuries. I thought the backup tight ends were outstanding, and Kyler used them well in New Orleans. But you want TJ. You've got to have TJ as you move forward. Yeah, no question. All right, we're going to move forward. When we come back, we will talk to Ryan Harris. We're going to talk some football and other stuff with the former Minnesota athlete. Yeah, we are 10K Takes. Your purple ticket. Experience wild rivers. Experience wooded trails. Experience hometown flavor. Experience our charming downtown. Rest. Recharge. Reconnect. Experience River Falls, Wisconsin. Get in the game at St. Croix Casinos in Turtle Lake, Danbury, and Hurdle, Wisconsin, your local destination for sports betting. Check out our sports book at St. Croix Casinos. From football and soccer to hockey and UFC, you can join the nonstop action. You'll find plenty of options to bet on with our cutting-edge play sports kiosks, whether placing live or prop wagers before tuning into the game. That's the book at Turtle Lake, the Red Zone at Danbury, and our sports betting kiosk at Hurdle. Find your fortune at St. Croix Casinos. seeing clearly matters being seen matters more nobody cares for eyes more than Pearl as we continue along here on Minnesota Scores 10,000 Takes we're going to continue to talk national football league and who better than a former Super Bowl champion Ryan Harris or Minnesota guy now living in Denver doing radio uh for the NFL with Westwood One um Ryan I want to get your impressions from afar what you've seen so far of the Minnesota Vikings what you like and what you think may need to be tweaked as they go forward well I like seeing the run game continue to develop I thought they committed to it in training camp um the first preseason game I saw they were just committed to running the ball I mean just even last week right you had Aaron Jones with 25 carries that's commitment like a pig at breakfast right so um it's a different team it's a different offense when you can do that and and i don't think that there's been a commitment to the run like this in Justin Jefferson and Addison's era so it opens up the passing lanes it forces players to play defense this is a physical uh physical Vikings team and then you got the defense which is playing outstanding when we last talked to you i i think the red flag for you about Kyler Murray and others we spoke to including guys like Warren Moon was we know the guy can play. Number one pick in the NFL and MLB, that's never happened before. But can he lead? Can he have that body language of a guy who can carry the huddle? Are you seeing that now as Kyler gets comfortable in a KOC offense? Well, I think he is comfortable. I also know from having it happen to myself, like sometimes as a professional athlete, when you get fired from the place that you were drafted to, you kind of reassess things. Unfortunately for me, I got to come back and win a Super Bowl, but it's like You, you, you're away from all the noise, right? Kyler Murray in Arizona probably had a very nice house, very big pool, hard to, you know, hard to kind of feel the pressure there. But all of a sudden when someone says, I don't want you on this team, that's the first time that's ever happened to him in his life. He is, looks like he has done the work. Now, at the same time, you still are seeing a little bit of the Kyler Murray. I love the Justin Jefferson touchdown and it was thrown into quad coverage, which tells me that Kyler Murray's still missing the open man and maybe it's because he can't see it or he's not anticipating it so i think there's still room for him to grow in the comfort in this KOC offense um but he's done a marvelous job so far and so did Carson Wentz to be honest i was a little surprised that they went with Kyler Murray but uh now you know you got two quarterbacks well and you mentioned that the throw to Justin Jefferson and he made a back shoulder throw to him a little bit earlier in the game that I thought was terrific as well helped keep a drive alive but to your point about him being able to see his receivers I still think part of it is because he's not as tall as most quarterbacks how much of that falls on KOC though to design things to get him out of the pocket not at all not at all because look you have to play the quarterback position from the pocket this isn't college this isn't high school right those guys Aiden Hutchinson and all those boys they're too fast they're too furious for you to start moving the pocket like that and then it becomes predictable right you don't want a right-handed quarterback running left often so that sprint right is pretty much going to be what you get um and i look at one of the things that Brock Purdy said recently in an interview that came out he said he throws the ball about 40 percent of the time not seeing where the receiver is but knowing where the receiver is going to be meaning he's throwing to a spot that's where Kyler Murray needs to get to he hasn't had to do it um but even Peyton Manning threw to the spot because you can't always see or somebody's flying in and just you you have to put it in the spot where the receiver is supposed to be and then it's their job to get there um the offensive line I think is doing very well um but you also you also would love to see more production from the pocket and it's it's funny I think watching Kyler Murray every pass looks so hard it could be a five yard out route it's like he's doing a cartwheel after he throws it he's throwing it so hard so uh he's got a lot of room to grow but He's 5-0, and not a lot of other quarterbacks can say that right now in the NFL. And I think it's safe to say the Minnesota Vikings and Will the Thrill Riker, they have the top kicker right now. He's a moneyball guy, 34 straight field goals. That's almost unheard of these days in the NFL. So they're very good on special teams. And then the defense, Minnesota mayhem, choreographed by Brian Flores. And what do you make of all this stuff with Flores and the stuff about the lawsuit that came out? this week it's explosive and let's face it if he if he wasn't suing the NFL I believe Brian Flores would be a head coach right now where do you land on all that well congratulations to Brian Flores first and foremost for having success on the field while all of this was going down i mean this is a tremendously stressful situation right you're you're in federal court which a lot of people never you never want to be in federal court right and you're constantly arguing somebody's paying the lawyers i don't know you guys know lawyers that work for free uh in cases like that so i just want to first credit Brian Flores for not being a distraction while he's helping a team not just this year but he's really made an impact on this Broncos defense i don't think you get Harrison Smith back without Brian Flores right just even that alone so um and it started with Mike Tomlin giving him a chance as an assistant in Pittsburgh when no one else would so i think that at the end of the day Brian Flores has maintained the same story um and and you know a lot of other people have to answer questions but somebody who does not about being a pro and about being an NFL coach is Brian Flores and that has been his point the whole time injury wise this is probably a good time for the Vikings to have a bye week with Donovan Jackson having been out Christian Darrisaw Jordan Mason Jordan Addison was out this past week and then T.J. Hawkinson gets hurt during the game as well. But other than the injuries, when you're 5-0, do you really want to have a week off? And clearly, Kyler Murray has been making strides from one week to the next. I contend that there might be something in them that says, you know what, I'd rather play this week. We're rolling right now. You sound like somebody who's never been hit on a football field. I was a punter. Leave me alone. Exactly, yeah. so you're come you're talking about coming off of six weeks of training camp which is brutal right i mean and all respect to service men and women that serve our country i think that's pretty much the only harder thing and then you go into uh you start with a division game physical you you have another uh division game and you're in you're traveling so a couple of things happen on the bye week one you get healthy and you remember like oh i'm a human being right i'm I'm not just this trained animal and mercenary. So you get to spend some time with family. You get to learn football without the pressure of a game. So it sounds like, hey, Eric, this week, man, we're really going to focus on you getting out of your break on the inside slant from the left because the coaches get extra time to study. You know, they can't stop drinking their Diet Coke, so they got to be in the building. And so you get to work on the little things that are going to help you in big ways. And then one of the things coaches also do in the bye is they work on situational football. and at five and oh the Vikings now are thinking about not just a playoff run but hosting playoff games and to do that you've really got to be dialed in on the situations you got to know what the play is going to be we saw against the Washington Commanders last week that a team is completely unprepared for an end of game situation and that's on everybody right that's on the coaches who didn't prepare them and the players for not getting on the coaches of being like hey man what's our plan in this situation so it's a great there's no bad time for a bye week guys i I mean, hey, you ever turn down a week of vacation? I didn't think so. You get to go back for some of the young players to their colleges. So it's a perfect time for a break. It allows them to refocus and allows them to get healthy. All right, Ryan, we will check in with you later on in the season. Thanks for your time. And I'll go work on getting hit by somebody. Come on out to Denver. I'll take care of you. Come on down. I'm sure you will. Get your blocking sled ready. Yeah, I always think they should make the media do that in training camp. They should make the media go through practice with pads on. Then you'll understand. I'll take some BP. I'm good other than that. All right. See you guys. He's Ryan Harris with us here on 10,000 Takes. We'll be back with more after this timeout. Stay with us. This was a great idea. You were right. Yes, you heard correctly, Denise. The three most beautiful words in the English language. Print them out. Hang them on your fridge. Get one of those planes that spells out words in the sky. let everyone see you were right this is your moment savor every second stop by any one of Freddie's six Minnesota locations finding the ideal place to stay is important for business Travelers Lakeville Minnesota is conveniently located off I-35 just south of the Twin Cities with a variety of hotel choices Lakeville offers convenient amenities such as shopping walking trails golf and more our unique meeting spaces historic downtown live music and over 60 dining options are sure to impress book your next stay in Lakeville and experience convenience comfort and quality find your perfect hotel at visitlakeville.org i've been meaning to give you these for many years it's an earring why didn't you try these it isn't just about vision it's about care nobody cares for eyes more than Pearl welcome back well one week ago i know you were giddy about the Gopher football uh i'm guessing you're not so giddy anymore after they took a beating a plastering when they went down to West Lafayette and played the Purdue Boilermakers and the Boilermakers didn't even have Drew Breeze they had uh a guy that used to play for the Gophers who ran up, I don't know, what, over 190 yards? He was close to 200. And then three touchdowns, Oja Boy. How do you pronounce his first name? Femi Oja Boy. Okay, well, he was in a Gopher uniform for two seasons, was their second-leading rusher last year, but then decided, you know what, Darius Taylor's going to get most of the carries here, and maybe it was money-related as well, so I'm going to pack my bags and head to West Lafayette. And, boy, they just clobbered the Gophers. Yeah, and the crazy thing is, I believe Darius seven carries 15 yards in the loss at Purdue, and he's been banged up. So had Obajoy stuck around, he might be running back one right now. But look, that's water under the bridge. As you said, he probably got a payday from Purdue. Here's what's disturbing about that loss. First of all, the Gophers had built up so much goodwill, not just in the Twin Cities. I think nationally, P.J. Fleck and the crowd surfing on Fox and all of his, you know he's in high he's a hyperactive coach that's who he is that that is P.J. Fleck and I think a lot of people were saying hey this is kind of cool well then you go lose to Purdue after beating Washington on the road not just lose thump and and you had the Brown Jug and the Michigan win yeah they they just got crushed so now you got to pick up the pieces you got to buy to get ready for Iowa goodness that's going to be a huge challenge but air out of the balloon i mean this was a regression for the Minnesota Gophers and it just seemed like maybe they were going to be in the mix of contending in the Big 10 yep lucy pulled the ball away again just when you thought you were safe to start wondering if the Gophers can actually make a significant run and not some male bowl or some garbage bowl like that and Lucy's holding the ball there Charlie Brown goes flat on his back one more when I was at the Michigan game there were two representatives from the Citrus which is a New Year's Day game In Orlando they were just eyeballing the Gophers and the Wolverines a little too early to make a commitment but that just shows you now with the Hawkeyes coming in I'm sure they'll have bullseyes on them but you might also see like the Pinstripe Bull, the Motor City Bull, exactly so but the Gophers can flip the script again if you beat Iowa you You get another trophy, and you beat a ranked team. They haven't beaten a ranked team yet. Washington was unranked when they knocked them off, as was Michigan. They have to win this game, or where are they going to find other victories? You've got to go to Indiana, and then you've got to play UCLA in Minneapolis, and the Bruins are good. UCLA's now a football school. Not hoops. For now. For now. Okay. Don't want to get away from this segment. and quickly talk about Timberwolves. They start up next week. So they start on Wednesday, I want to say, in Miami. Are you hopeful that this will work this year with LaMelo and Ant? Are they deep enough to win enough basketball games this year? Well, it's going to have to work, right? I mean, this is a team that thinks they're in the mix for maybe going to the NBA Finals and finally winning a title. Well, then it better work. How long will it take for those two guys, Ant and LaMelo, and everybody else, Jonathan Kuminga, another newbie, how long until they click? Sounds like Ant and LaMelo have built up an off-the-court rapport. That's good. Which is good. I think they're going to bring a lot of excitement, a lot of oohs and aahs and wow factor to Target Center and then on the road. That's great, though. Can you win? Can you still play lights-out defense? They're going to miss Naz Reid. We know that. and can you somehow surpass San Antonio and Oklahoma City? Those are gold bar teams in the West, in my opinion. And how big a deal is it going to be when Rudy Gobert is not on the floor? What does your defense look like? Because he's a multi-time defensive player of the year winner, and they are different when he's not on the floor. Certainly offensively, they can do things that they can't do when he's out there, but defensively, that could be a problem. And rebounding, too. This guy grabs a lot of boards. Jaden McDaniels will be a key, in my opinion. I think they're going to need two-way play from him. I get him confused with Jaden Daniels, Washington, and now there's a Jaden McDaniels, I believe, with Tampa Bay. But I'm talking about Jaden. Yeah, Jaden McDaniels. I'm talking about Jaden McDaniels from Minnesota, so I've already messed myself up. Yes, you have, twice, I might add. We won't mess up, but we will bring you takes of the day. That's coming up next. We are Minnesota Scores 10,000 takes. I got that right, didn't I? Yeah, very good. Clearly matters. Being seen matters more. Nobody cares for eyes more than Pearl. Life moves pretty fast, but not at Freddy's. When that first bite hits, you can't help but slow down. The secret to quality time is just quality and time. That's Freddy's. Mom, what's wrong with them? That's called quality time. Don't stare. Stop by any one of Freddy's six Minnesota locations. Get in the game at St. Croix Casinos in Turtle Lake, Danbury, and Hurdle, Wisconsin, your local destination for sports betting. Check out our sports book at St. Croix Casinos from football and soccer to hockey and UFC. You can join the nonstop action. You'll find plenty of options to bet on with our cutting-edge PlaySports kiosk, where they're placing live or prop wagers before tuning into the game. That's The Book at Turtle Lake, The Red Zone at Danbury, and our sports betting kiosk at Hurdle. Find your fortune at St. Croix Casinos. Finding the ideal place to stay is important for business travelers. Lakeville, Minnesota is conveniently located off I-35, just south of the Twin Cities with a variety of hotel choices. Lakeville offers convenient amenities such as shopping, walking trails golf and more our unique meeting spaces historic downtown live music and over 60 dining options are sure to impress book your next stay in lakeville and experience convenience comfort and quality find your perfect hotel at visit lakeville.org hey get your sports fix by tuning in to 10k takes we cover all the minnesota teams vikings twins wild gophers You name it, Fox 9 Plus and the Fox Local app. Vision, as we wrap up yet another episode, big shout-out to the viewers in the Twin Ports, the Twin Cities, Med City. They are eager. They are waiting to find out what your mood is. Angry, grumpy, cranky, giddy. Maybe you're a smiling emoji. Maybe it's something else. What is it? Well, probably cranky if I'm a diehard Minnesota Wild fan right now and I want to watch my squad. So there have been some TV antics that fans of the Minnesota Wild have not been able to figure out. So yes, the Minnesota Wild, you can watch them if you subscribe to their streaming app. The NHL has figured out a way to get you all the games you could possibly want to watch. I think 67 of them if you get the Wild Plus app. So you have to stream it. You can't just turn your TV on. It's not available on cable, particularly in the Twin Cities metro, unless you have Spectrum, which I think is outside of the metro area. So Comcast, it's a no-go. So what are they doing about it? Well, right now the conversation is going on, I think. Comcast wants one thing, the Wild want another. What you can do is watch games on over-the-air television. A total of 10 are going to be on either Channel 5, KSDP, or Channel 45. 45 it would be 5.2 over the air that's kstc one has already been played and there aren't going to be any more the rest of this month so i would say you better get the app or you better get tickets you can't go to a bar and watch them either that is a problem because the bars and the restaurants are barred so to speak from showing these games and using the app that's not good for businesses it's only good for the consumer what they're telling the consumer to do bring your laptop to the bar and watch the game that way that's gonna happen what a dumb thing get this thing figured out and go sell some advertising minnesota wild and the mood meter says he's a demanding diva yes throwing down the gauntlet i'm sorry the wild i had all right well hey major league baseball is down to the fab four that's right four teams left on the road to the world series one of them is your team the cleveland guardians another is my team the la dodgers the others would be milwaukee and Tampa Bay and a lot of people cry and scream and squawk about the uh payroll deficiencies in MLB that you have to write a check to win well i crunched some numbers yeah okay my dodgers they They do have a bloated payroll, almost $400 million. And at the time of this recording, they're not getting a lot of bang for their buck. But the other three, the Rays come in right around $90 million. The Guardians check in at $90 million plus. And Milwaukee, $154 million. That's a combined $336 million. So don't think this won't come up when the players and the owners butt heads in the offseason about salary cap. The players are going to say, it's already working now. The small market or mid-market teams can succeed. Your guardians are ruining it. I hope they ruin it forever then. All right, we've got to go. Thanks for tuning us in. We are 10K Takes Your Sports Ticket.