Vikings linebacker Ben Leber said that, despite the team's 2-5 record, there is still great chemistry in the locker room.

"Certainly there's some times where you take the losses pretty hard, but I think man-for-man we're all sticking together and we all have each other's back and that feeling of mutual respect is still there," he said.

Did Leber have any explanation why the defense has no sacks in the past three games and has given up a lot of rushing yardage, such as in the final moments of the Patriots loss?

"It comes down to nothing but fundamentals and some technique stuff, which is disheartening, but at the same time it's good because they are correctable," he said. "We just, sometimes we don't make tackles in some situations and other times we don't stay in our gaps and not get too nosy, and you know that's right across the board. It's a whole team defense thing and believe me, we're upset about it and we're going to get it corrected.

"We feel like we're doing the same things that we did last year, preparing the same ways, getting good practices during the course of the week, and we're just coming up short during the games. The positive thing is that we're in every game. It's not like we're getting outmanned, [or] we're getting outcoached, [or] we're getting blown out of these games -- we're in them. We're right there. We just need to have a few of those plays go our way."

Leber added: "I think everybody on defense is reeling from it a little bit; that's very uncharacteristic of us. Our mentality in that situation, 99 times out of 100 we're kind of on top of that situation, so we're upset about it. Again, there's not much you can do about it today but just come back and refocus."

Looking back to the Patriots loss, Leber said: "I think they did some things right, and I think a lot of it was on us, a lot of it was things that we kind of did wrong and they certainly capitalized. On every play there's a guy out of a gap or out of alignment somewhere and a lot of those times you don't even know because somebody else is making a play or being disruptive. So in some of these situations, we're not making the plays and it's being out of gaps."

Leber said it's not easy to take the losses.

"Every Monday after a loss is always tough," he said. "I think everybody's head is down a little bit, but these last couple of weeks everybody comes back refreshed on Wednesday, excited for the next week and excited to get a win, and that's not going to change."

Well, this is a big game coming up with the Cardinals on Sunday. I believe this Vikings team can still win the division -- but not if they lose Sunday. It won't happen.

Wilf visit scheduled Vikings owner Zygi Wilf's visit to Winter Park last week had been scheduled a long time ago, before Randy Moss was a topic of discussion. The reason for the previous scheduling for the day after Tuesday's election was to discuss how the new makeup of the Legislature was going to affect a vote on a new stadium.

Sure, while he was here he discussed Moss' release, but his meetings with veteran players are something he has been doing from the day he bought the team.

Wilf is a real "jock" at heart and stays very close to what's going on with the coaches, the players and everything involved with the team.

He might have been upset when Moss was first released, but rest assured Moss' conduct after the Patriots game -- condemning the coaching of Brad Childress, his failure to play hard, the interview Moss conducted with himself after the game and his harsh criticism of the locker room food were good reasons for the release.

Nobody in the media had a better relationship with Moss than I did. I was his biggest booster. I, too, was upset when I first heard that waivers had been asked on him. My feeling was, fine the guy and if he gets out of line again, let him go.

But, as things turned out, how can anybody criticize Childress for his actions?

And then you have all teams before Tennessee pass on Moss, an indication what other clubs felt about him.

Childress is getting a lot of criticism he doesn't deserve these days.

Jottings • Nobody is a bigger booster of Percy Harvin than quarterback Brett Favre, who ranks the Vikings receiver with the best he has played with during his long career. "Percy is a heck of a football player. I think the sky is the limit for him," Favre said. "We have no idea how good he can be, but I assume it's going to be a lot better. As he continues to grow in this offense and how we use him: Do we use him in this? Do we use him in that? What type of personnel groups? Do we put him at running back? There's so many things you can do with him, and I think we're just kind of scraping the surface with that right now."

• If Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi wants a recommendation on Kevin Sumlin, the current University of Houston football coach, for the Gophers coaching job, he should talk to Vikings tackle Phil Loadholt, who played at Oklahoma when Sumlin was the offensive coordinator. "Sumlin was a great coach, and the offense averaged 50-some points a game when he was there," Loadholt said. "He went down to Houston, and they had a great offense down there, too. We had a very successful offense [at Oklahoma]. All the guys loved him. A lot of wide receivers [that he coached at Oklahoma] went on to the NFL. Oh yeah, he was definitely one of my favorite coaches, and I enjoyed playing for him."

• The Gophers' Blake Hoffarber is one of some 30 NCAA Division I basketball players who are candidates for the Lowe's Senior Class Award in men's basketball. To be eligible, a player must be an NCAA Division I senior who has made notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.

• Former Gophers forward Jordan Schroeder is in a scoring slump for Manitoba of the American Hockey League. He has one goal in 12 games this season and has only has only one assist in his past seven games after registering four assists in his first two games of the season. For Rockford of the AHL, former Gopher Jeff Taffe is the team's second-leading scorer with four goals and four assists in 10 games while Ryan Potulny is tied for third in scoring with two goals and four assists in nine games; former Gophers defenseman Nick Leddy has a goal and five assists in his first five games for the IceHogs.

• Former Gopher Mike Carman has a goal and three assists in 12 games for Lake Erie of the AHL, while teammate Ryan Stoa has a goal and two assists.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. • shartman@startribune.com