Sid Hartman: Sunday nights unkind to Vikings

It's apparent the Vikings can't put on their best performance on Sunday night games.

Two weeks ago, they put on their worst performance of the season in losing 37-13 to the Cardinals in Arizona.

Sunday night, the Vikings were worse. They were completely outplayed and lost 26-7 to a Carolina Panthers team that had a 5-8 record and had scored a total of 49 points in their past four games.

The one positive thing was with the Packers losing to the Steelers on the final play of the game, the Vikings (11-3) clinched their second consecutive division title.

However, their chances of home-field advantage through the NFC title game no doubt are gone, with the Saints having a two-game lead over the Vikings with two to play. Now the Vikings have to worry about the second NFC bye. The Eagles (10-4) are a game behind, but own the tiebreaker advantage over the Vikings. The Eagles finish at home against Denver and at Dallas. The Vikings go to the Bears next week and then finish at home against the Giants.

Matt Moore, a second team quarterback who didn't play in the first of Carolina's 11 games, was a big hero Sunday night. He had thrown only 173 passes and four touchdowns in his entire career coming in.

Against the Vikings he completed 21 of 33 for 299 yards and three touchdowns. On the other hand, future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre completed 17 of 27 for 224 yards for a season low 73.7 rating.

What really hurt is the fact that the Vikings were leading 7-6 going late in the third quarter when with the Panthers in a third-and-26 situation, Moore was able to connect with Steve Smith, who caught nine passes for 157 yards, for a touchdown.

Arizona was a Super Bowl team last year, so you could see reasons for losing on the road to the Cardinals. But coach Brad Childress will have to wonder what happened to his Vikings at Charlotte on Sunday night.

That was a bad loss.

Wild hot After a terrible start in which it lost its first eight road games, the Wild has won nine of 12 games, including four in overtime.

"The biggest thing now is the players are on the same page as the coaching staff," said General Manager Chuck Fletcher. "The coaches have worked really hard to implement a new system, and the players have worked hard to execute it, and we're seeing the results of that now."

"Every coach is going to be different but Todd believes in this system, as do I," said Fletcher. "I think the players have really bought in. It takes a lot of repetition and practice, it takes some games.

"We had a lot of quality practice time in November, and we were able to get some good work in. So we're seeing results. We still have a way to go, but things are picking up."

The Wild's momentum was stopped when it lost 4-1 in Ottawa on Saturday night, a day after most of their equipment was destroyed in a fire while in an equipment truck.

Mikko Koivu and Andrew Brunette lead the Wild with 10 goals each, and goalie Niklas Backstrom has been dependable, but Fletcher likes the team's balance, too.

"Our team is certainly led by Koivu and Backstrom in particular, but Brunette's been outstanding," Fletcher said. "[Defensemen] Greg Zanon, Marek Zidlicky, Kim Johnsson, we've had a lot of quality play from our veteran players. Antti Miettinen's been very good."

The Wild GM made some moves, such as bringing in Chuck Kobasew from Boston and Guillaume Latendresse from Montreal, that have provided a boost.

"The team was starting to turn, was starting to understand what Todd wanted from them and starting to execute better, and they were able to step in at the right time," said Fletcher. "But are all hard working, energetic players that play with grit and play hard and play the way we want to play, and they've certainly added to what we're trying to do."

Ties to Herman Gophers football coach Tim Brewster expects Iowa State's offense to be tough to stop when the teams play in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., on Dec. 31.

Brewster has a lot of respect for Tom Herman, the Iowa State offensive coordinator. Herman and Brewster were together on the Texas coaching staff.

"He was a young coach with us when we were at the University of Texas, and he's gone on and developed as a football coach and done a nice job," Brewster said. "He was at Rice University prior to going to Iowa State, and he did a nice job at Rice.

"Offensively we've just got to find our level of consistency, and that's the thing I'm most pleased about with our bowl practices is offensively we've been very consistent.

"We're going to have to be very disciplined defensively in the bowl game."

The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa State has suspended starting cornerback Kennard Banks for a violation of team rules, and he won't play in the Insight Bowl.

Jottings Cole Aldrich, the Bloomington big man who is starring for the Kansas basketball team, could be the first overall choice in the 2010 draft. Most experts think Aldrich and Kentucky freshman point guard John Wall are the top two NBA prospects.

Former Northfield athlete Zach Filzen is averaging 12.7 minutes and 5.6 points per game for Buffalo. A 6-3 sophomore guard, Filzen transferred to the Bulls after spending his 2006-07 freshman season at Northern Arizona.