Sports

Souhan: Only one word properly describes Minnesota sports

Humiliating losses by the Vikings and Gophers, poor defensive performances from the Wolves and Wild, all while the Twins sit silent ... it’s been a rough week for fans in Minnesota.

By Jim Souhan

The Minnesota Star Tribune

October 27, 2025 at 7:00PM

Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz was hit while passing against the Chargers on Thursday night at Los Angeles. The Vikings lost 37-10. (Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Being a sports observer in Minnesota means being skilled at conjugating the verb “embarrass.”

If you scrolled through the Star Tribune website this past weekend, you found that word or a synonym in about half of the sports headlines.

Here are the top six embarrassments in Minnesota sports in the last week, ranked in reverse order of humiliation:

6. Minnesota Timberwolves

In their season-opening two-game road trip, the Wolves played almost no defense. That didn’t cost them at Portland but led to an ugly loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

This isn’t a crisis, more of a reminder that the talent level in the NBA is so high that you have to play defense to compete.

Wolves coach Chris Finch rightfully lambasted his team for the performance Friday night in Los Angeles, and the Wolves were better Sunday night against Indiana.

5. Gophers men’s hockey

The men’s team was shut out Friday night for the first time since 2023, and the first time at home since 2020, by Minnesota Duluth and then allowed UMD to complete the sweep Saturday at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

The Gophers are 2-5-1. This is a program with every advantage. It should not require rebuilding seasons and should not get shut out at home.

4. Minnesota Wild

The Wild won one game on a five-game road trip.

They returned home this past weekend to begin a six-game homestand, giving themselves a chance to at least pretend they’re contenders.

They lost 6-2 on Saturday night to a good Utah team.

Related Coverage

On Sunday night, they needed a dramatic comeback to force the woeful San Jose Sharks to overtime, then lost in overtime.

The Wild made two big moves this offseason, signing Kirill Kaprizov and Filip Gustavsson to contract extensions.

The problem: Those moves didn’t make the Wild better, just helped them maintain the status quo, which was not very good.

The easy move for the Wild will be firing coach John Hynes. What owner Craig Leipold should contemplate is whether President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin should have the right to fire another coach.

3. Minnesota Twins

Twins management responded to the team’s late-summer collapse in 2024 by firing hitting coach David Popkins.

Toronto hired Popkins.

Now the Blue Jays are trying to ride excellent hitting to a World Series championship and the Twins are hoping their new manager can help salvage the careers of a bunch of young hitters who could have used someone like … David Popkins.

Which team will Rocco Baldelli take to the World Series?

2. Gophers football

Losing at Iowa is hardly a disgrace. Losing 41-3 to a program that is happy to beat you 3-0 is a disgrace.

Which leads us to the biggest embarrassment of the Minnesota sports week.

The champion of this dubious exercise didn’t lose by as many points as did the Gophers football team, but the Gophers football team faces obvious limitations. The playing field, in college football, is tilted toward traditional programs and large universities.

The champions of this dubious exercise have no such excuse.

They are ...

1. Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings lost 37-10 to the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday, dropping to 3-4 this season.

They entered the season with championship aspirations. Now is the time to ask what this team is good at.

Running the ball? No. Passing? No. Blocking? No. Tackling? No. Coverage? No. Rushing the passer? No. Stopping the run? No. Special teams? Meh.

Coaching? No, not right now

The Vikings’ four losses are to:

The Atlanta Falcons, who on Sunday lost 34-10 to the woeful Miami Dolphins. That’s the same Dolphins team expected to fire its coach, tear down the roster and rebuild.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, who are a bad team with a terrible defense. The Vikings failed to pressure Aaron Rodgers, failed to stop a mediocre rushing attack and failed to cover the Steelers’ one outstanding skill-position player, D.K. Metcalf, as he ran across the middle of their defense, caught a pass without a defender in sight and ran for an 80-yard touchdown.
The Philadelphia Eagles. This was an understandable loss.
The Chargers, who had lost three of their previous four games and hadn’t scored 30 points this season until they got to face the Vikings’ strangely inept defense.

Embarrassing?

That’s a good word for it.