Frazier had feeling Vikings would win

Appearing on the NBC postgame show Tuesday night, former NFL coach Tony Dungy said when he visited with Leslie Frazier before the game, the Vikings coach said he had a good feeling his team was going to play its best game and upset the Eagles.

The Vikings did just that, beating Philadelphia 24-14. The Eagles were 14 1/2-point favorites.

"I just believed that the way that our guys had prepared, their approach to this game, was really going to give us a great chance to win. They really went out and performed well," Frazier said.

Frazier said Dungy, whom he worked for with the Colts before joining the Vikings after the 2006 season, offered some good pregame advice.

"[Dungy] just talked about the message that would probably be good for them as they were sitting around the hotel, just trying to keep them engaged in what we were trying to get done from a football standpoint," Frazier said.

Also on the telecast, Dungy gave the Wilf family, owners of the Vikings, some more good advice: hire Frazier as the next coach. And I agree. The Wilfs shouldn't wait, and I'm sure they will do that soon.

Having been an assistant coach under Andy Reid in Philadelphia from 1999 to 2002, Frazier said he knew before the game how difficult it would be to win there.

The Eagles lost for only the fourth time in their past 22 December games.

"For teams to come into Philadelphia and win in December was always tough to do," Frazier said. "I mean, [the Eagles have] one of the highest winning percentages of any team in the league when it comes to winning games in December. So for us to go in there and do what we did last night [was] just a tremendous feat by our players."

Line advantage One advantage the Vikings had on the Eagles is that their defensive line was much bigger than the Eagles offensive line.

"I don't think we've blitzed that much in any game this season," Frazier said. "We felt a lot of pressure because of the type of quarterback that Michael Vick is. It's hard to just sit back and let him throw the football because he'll just take off and run on you. We wanted to take away those running lanes, and the blitz helped us to be able to do that."

Asked if he was surprised by how well the defense played, Frazier said: "We've done it before. We have some of the same players we've had in the past where we've shut people down on defense and played well on offense. We haven't been able to consistently get it done this season, but we've done it before."

"I don't know if he surprised me, but he really opened my eyes," Frazier said. "To be able to play that well on the road against a real good football team as a rookie, that's hard to do and he did a great job."

And for a team that previously lost nine consecutive road games, the Vikings are now 2-0 on the road since Frazier took over for Brad Childress, and they could be 3-0 after they face the Lions in Detroit on Sunday.

Jottings The Eagles had scored 26 points or more in each of their seven games since their bye week, so it was a tribute to the Vikings defense to hold them to 14 Tuesday. And the Vikings did it against an offense that, going into Tuesday's game, was first in the NFL in total yards and second in scoring. ... It was 50 years ago Sunday that Norm Van Brocklin quarterbacked the Eagles over Vince Lombardi and the Packers in the 1960 NFL Championship Game. Shortly after that game, Van Brocklin was named coach of the Vikings. Van Brocklin's daughter, Karen, then 10 years old, is now 60 and attended the Vikings-Eagles game.

Gophers women and men athletes ended the fall 20th in the most recent Division I Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings. Other Big Ten schools in the top 20 were Ohio State (fourth), Penn State (fifth), Indiana (13th) and Michigan (15th).

Minnesota natives Jon Leuer, Jordan Taylor and Jared Berggren accounted for 46 of Wisconsin's points as the Badgers beat the No. 14 Gophers 68-60 on Tuesday. Taylor led Wisconsin with 22 points in 39 minutes. Leuer, who played 37 minutes, scored 16 points, and Berggren scored eight points in 21 minutes off the bench. Another Minnesota native, Mike Bruesewitz, started and played 16 minutes, recording two blocked shots but no points. Gophers coach Tubby Smith came in too late to recruit most of the four. The victory was the first by the Badgers against a ranked opponent this season.

Bill Lester, the executive director of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission (which runs the Metrodome), said there is no way the Metrodome could operate if the Vikings built an separate stadium. "We have about 300 event days a year, and without the Vikings -- we're fine financially without the Twins and without the Gophers -- but we don't cash flow without the Vikings," Lester said. "We'd have a shortfall of about $4-6 million a year. So there's no problem using it because of all of these high school and amateur events that use it, but ... you just can't replace $6.5 million a year you get from the Vikings."

Players with local ties named to the D3football.com All-America first team were Bethel running back Logan Flannery, St. Thomas center Josh Ostrue, St. John's defensive tackle Kyle Schroeder and former Gophers safety Dominic Jones of Otterbein. St. Thomas safety Brady Ervin made the third team.

Wild assistant equipment manager Rick Bronwell worked his 1000th NHL game when the Wild faced San Jose on Wednesday.