SID's JOTTINGS

• Despite the Gophers football team's winning streak, it didn't come close to selling out Saturday's Penn State game with half of the student section pretty much empty and a lot of no-shows from fans who chose to watch the game on TV rather than in person. The announced crowd was 48,123 in the 50,805-seat stadium.

• Alfred Morris, who ran for 139 on 26 attempts for Washington against the Vikings on Thursday, was a sixth-round draft pick in 2012. That pick came from the Vikings in a trade that landed them quarterback Donovan McNabb. Morris leads the NFL in rushing with 825 yards this season, 39 yards ahead of the Vikings' Adrian Peterson, although the reigning NFL MVP has 10 touchdowns this season to Morris' five.

• Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said he couldn't believe it when he learned that defensive tackle Kevin Williams had two sacks for the first time since 2009 on Thursday. Williams' seven tackles were also his most since November 2011. He is a free agent after this year, but like Frazier said, Williams, in his 11th season with the Vikings, might have found the fountain of youth and could return.

• Christian Ponder has made it clear to his Vikings teammates that he will do everything possible to get his sore left shoulder healed so he can play quarterback at Seattle next week.

• The biggest surprise of the Vikings victory was the performance of John Carlson, who with 98 receiving yards nearly matched his entire total in 1½ seasons with the team. The tight end from Litchfield had only 61 yards this year going into Thursday, and he had 43 yards all of 2012.

• Kyle Shanahan, the son of Washington coach Mike Shanahan and the Redskins offensive coordinator, was born here in 1979 when his father was Gophers offensive coordinator for coach Joe Salem.