Sid Hartman: Defense is reason U opens as a winner

The real star of the Gophers football team's 23-20 victory at Syracuse on Saturday was the defense, which shut down the Orange offense after halftime.

The Gophers are going to need a lot of improvement from Saturday's performance if they are to post a winning record this season. But they did enough to win after Syracuse rallied from 14-3 down to take a 20-14 lead while the Gophers offense was having some problems.

The Orange had 204 yards of offense at halftime but only had 53 yards after that as the maroon and gold defense shut the door on the home team.

Syracuse didn't score again after completing an eight-play, 67-yard drive with a touchdown run with 1 minute, 39 seconds left before halftime.

Senior linebacker Nate Triplett made the biggest play of the game when he intercepted Greg Paulus' pass in the end zone on third down in overtime, keeping the Orange from scoring on its possession of overtime and giving the Gophers a chance to win. Then junior Eric Ellestad, kicking under pressure, came though with the winning 35-yard field goal, his third successful field goal in four attempts Saturday. Ellestad also kicked the tying field goal that sent the game into overtime.

The Gophers didn't help themselves with 10 penalties for 61 yards and a failure to convert on fourth-and-1 from the Syracuse 41-yard line in the second quarter.

After the game, coach Tim Brewster talked about the Gophers having to improve a lot. Rest assured, when the team looks at the film of this victory, the coaching staff will find a lot to criticize, with the positive sign being that the team won on the road despite all the mistakes it made.

The Gophers offensive line didn't live up to preseason expectations, with quarterback Adam Weber running for his life most of the day, and the result was that he completed only 19 of 42 passes for 248 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown to Troy Stoudermire. In the first half, the Gophers offense had four drives without a first down. However, the Gophers did wind up rushing for 112 yards on 32 carries, with Duane Bennett gaining 78 yards on 16 carries.

This was a good victory for the Gophers, winning on the road before more than 48,000 rabid fans, and in a hot dome that -- unlike the Gophers' previous home, the Metrodome -- is not air-conditioned.

But with two home games coming on, Air Force and California, to open TCF Bank Stadium, the Gophers must work on improving many parts of their game. Both Air Force and Cal are much better teams than Syracuse, a school that had won 10 games over the past four years.

Wilf high on Vikings Zygi Wilf, owner of the Vikings, is convinced this year's team is the best he has had since he bought the team four years ago.

Wilf said that it is a very important for the Vikings to have a very successful season, because a terrific record will help their chances on making progress on a new stadium, with the team's lease at the Metrodome ending at the end of the 2011 season.

Despite the fact that the Vikings were recently valued at 31st among the 32 NFL clubs, the Wilf family doesn't spare money to acquire players such as Jared Allen and Brett Favre and also to keep important players such as Antoine Winfield.

Wilf said he believes that his front office staff, along with coach Brad Childress, have done the best job in the NFL in picking the right draft choices and adding the players that eventually will make this a Super Bowl team.

Wilf is a big believer of Childress, and it wouldn't be a surprise if ownership decides to extend the coach's contract beyond the two years he has remaining.

The opening schedule appears to be favorable for the Vikings. Even though they open with two road games, they are at Cleveland and Detroit, teams that went a combined 4-28 last season. They then return home to face San Francisco and Green Bay.

Defensively, the Vikings might be the best team in the league, and with the addition of Favre and first-round draft choice Percy Harvin, this should be an outstanding season if they can stay healthy and not lose key people like they did on defense last year, when star linebacker E.J. Henderson was lost in the fourth game.

Twins President David St. Peter said he believes the new Twins and Gophers stadiums will help the Vikings get a new stadium.

"The fans are going to be so happy with the two new stadiums that they will want the Vikings to get a similar stadium," St. Peter said. "I'm convinced the effect of the new stadiums will be more important than some people think."

The Vikings don't have to worry about television blackouts for their first two home games against the 49ers and Packers. But after that there could be problems selling out games with Baltimore, Detroit, Seattle and Cincinnati. The Nov. 29 game against Chicago and the Jan. 3 season finale against the New York Giants are likely to sell out.

Bud Grant, who gave Marc Trestman his first job with the Vikings, had always believed that if the former St. Louis Park and Gophers quarterback got a chance to be a head coach, he would be very successful. Well, Trestman, an assistant coach with several NFL and college teams, has coached Montreal of the Canadian Football League to a 7-2 record this season after leading the Alouettes to the Grey Cup championship game last year, which they lost to Calgary.

Iowa is making a strong bid to recruit Eden Prairie football player Taylor Grant, brother of Gophers linebacker Ryan Grant. Taylor is playing three positions for his father Mike's team.