Minnesota
San Francisco 49ers 17, Minnesota Vikings 23: Grades
MINNEAPOLIS — The 49ers just lost 23-17 on the road to the Minnesota Vikings. Here are the 49ers’ grades for this embarrassment.
BROCK PURDY: B-MINUS
He got sacked six times and still posted a passer rating of 101.3, which is impressive. Plus he led the offense down the field twice in the fourth quarter. But he turned the ball over twice — one interception, one fumble that looked like an interception. Plus he nearly threw a pick on his final pass of the game. At times, he looked like a robot, mindlessly following Kyle Shanahan’s orders. Purdy used to be a playmaker who would confidently spin away from pressure and ad-lib. Today, he just went down. He still is a good quarterback, but not a great one, and paying him $60 million per season would be insane. He’s only dominant when he’s surrounded by six All Pros. Today, he had merely five All Pros to lean on.
RUNNING BACKS: A-MINUS
Jordan Mason rushed 20 times for 100 yards and 1 touchdown — he was the offensive MVP for the second game in a row. Unfortunately for the 49ers, none of their other running backs gained a yard on the ground. Mason is their only rushing threat. If he goes down, they’re in major trouble.
WIDE RECEIVERS: B-MINUS
Deebo Samuel had 8 catches for 110 yards — he was good. Brandon Aiyuk was invisible for most of the game. He finished with four catches for 43 yards and an illegal formation penalty. I guess $30 million per season doesn’t get you as much as it used to. His backup, Jauan Jennings, had 37 receiving yards.
TIGHT ENDS: A-MINUS
George Kittle had 7 catches for 76 yards and 1 touchdown despite briefly leaving the game with leg cramps. He has to be a future Hall of Famer. He’s as good at breaking tackles as any tight end I’ve seen other than Rob Gronkowski.
OFFENSIVE LINEMEN: C-MINUS
They performed well in the run game but they were putrid in pass protection as Purdy got sacked six times. And many of the sacks came off the left side where Trent Williams plays. He also had a penalty. It’s interesting how McCaffrey makes this group look better than it is.
DEFENSIVE LINEMEN: C-PLUS
Nick Bosa had two sacks, but collectively the 49ers gave up 146 yards on the ground. They couldn’t stop backup running back Ty Chandler, nor could they keep Sam Darnold in the pocket — he rushed 5 times for 32 yards.
LINEBACKERS: A
Fred Warner was the best player on the field. He intercepted Darnold and forced a fumble at the goal line to save a touchdown. He’s the only reason the 49ers didn’t get flat-out humiliated in this game. He’s a legitimate candidate to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award.
DEFENSIVE BACKS: F
They gave up a passer rating of 109.1 to Sam Freaking Darnold, which is unacceptable considering Justin Jefferson left the game early and Jordan Addison didn’t even play. Both George Odum and Isaac Yiadom were liabilities who should have been benched but weren’t because Kyle Shanahan doesn’t trust young players. More on him in a minute.
SPECIAL TEAMS: D-MINUS
They had a punt blocked and Jacob Cowing also muffed one but the 49ers recovered it. Special teams have been a problem since last season and the 49ers still haven’t fixed it.
COACHES: F
On defense, the 49ers gave up just 23 points, but also allowed the Vikings to convert 7 of 12 third downs. Through two games, the 49ers “elite” defense has given up a third-down conversion rate of 59. Last season under defensive coordinator , they gave up a third-down conversion percentage of 42.5, which was awful. Now, they’re even worse, which bodes poorly for rookie defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen. He needs to let Charvarius Ward follow the opposing team’s no. 1 wide receiver every week, because teams are mostly avoiding him this season. But Sorensen isn’t the reason the 49ers lost this game — Kyle Shanahan is. He got severely outcoached by Kevin O’Connell and Brian Flores. Shanahan clearly had the better players, and yet he showed very little creativity without McCaffrey on the field. His pass patterns were no good and his protection schemes got exposed. This is the second year in a row he has traveled to Minnesota and scored just 17 points, which means he learned nothing from last year. Shanahan is incapable of growth. He’s the biggest reason the 49ers ultimately won’t win the Super Bowl.
Minnesota
Vikings Have a Dubious Connection to the Dexter Lawrence Trade
Of the many terrible roster decisions Minnesota sports teams have made over the past 30 years, the worst of the bunch may have been trading Randy Moss to the Raiders for the No. 7 pick in the draft and linebacker Napoleon Harris.
Why are we bringing up a trade that happened 21 years ago? Because the New York Giants traded defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 pick in this week’s NFL Draft. It was the first time a non-quarterback has been traded for a top-10 pick since the infamous Moss trade in 2005.
Minnesota traded Moss for the Raiders’ first-round pick, Harris, and a seventh-round pick on March 2, 2005. The Vikings used the No. 7 pick on wide receiver Troy Williamson, who never panned out in the NFL. He had 24 catches for 372 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie, 37 receptions for 457 yards and zero touchdowns in 2006, and just 18 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown in 2007.
Williams led the league with 11 dropped passes in 2006. Minnesota traded him to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick after the 2007 season, where he played in 10 games over two seasons and totaled just eight catches for 64 yards. He was cut before the start of the 2010 season, and that was a wrap on the former South Carolina speedster’s NFL career.
Moss didn’t put up jaw-dropping numbers with the Raiders for two seasons, but he set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches in 2007 with the New England Patriots. He caught 47 touchdowns in 48 regular-season games with the Patriots from 2007 to 2009.
Whether it was trading Moss to the Raiders, the Timberwolves sending Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics — or drafting Ricky Rubio AND Johnny Flynn over Steph Curry — or the Twins cutting David Ortiz and watching him become one of the greatest players in MLB history with the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota sports teams have a long history of making terrible decisions.
The Bengals, meanwhile, gave up the 10th overall pick for one of the best defensive tackles in the league. They’ll likely get great production from Lawrence, while the Giants are now under pressure to get the 10th pick right. New York also holds the No. 5 pick in Thursday’s first round of the draft.
By the way, the Vikings had two picks in the first round of the 2005 draft. After taking Williamson, they used the No. 18 pick on defensive end Erasmus James. He was just as much of a bust as Williams, playing in 23 games in three years with the Vikings. He had four sacks as a rookie, but injuries wiped out most of his 2006 and 2007 seasons before he was traded to Washington for a conditional seventh-round pick.
James was cut by Washington in December 2009, marking the end of his NFL career.
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Minnesota
Boldy, Eriksson Ek help Wild cruise past Stars in Game 1 of Western 1st Round | NHL.com
Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and two assists, and Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist for the Wild, who are the No. 3 seed in the Central Division. Wallstedt made 27 saves in his Stanley Cup Playoff debut, and Zuccarello had three assists.
“I was definitely nervous,” said Wallstedt, a rookie. “I think it shows that it means something to you. I like a little bit of nerves. I think it’s something good. There were definitely some nerves throughout the day and then a little bit extra rolling into the game. But after the national anthem was over and the first couple pucks started coming, you’re good.
“I wanted to play and I felt like I have been going good. I was a little surprised (to get the start). But I was very excited as soon as I got the news. I just wanted to make sure I was ready today.”
Jason Robertson scored, and Jake Oettinger made 23 saves for the Stars, who are the No. 2 seed in the Central.
“We didn’t deserve to win,” Dallas forward Mikko Rantanen said. “I think two power-play goals for them, two a little-bit bounces for them where we had guys in the right spot. Just even keel. Playoffs are like this. Sometimes you lose a game, you can feel like you’re done. But that’s the mentality you need to have, you’ve got to reset and learn from mistakes.
“First 30 minutes, we didn’t win enough battles. They were just that little bit stronger in the battles and that’s why they were able to make us defend more than we want to. Just got to be stronger.”
Game 2 is here on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; FDSNWI, FDSNNO, Victory+, ESPN, TVAS2, SN360).
“We prepped for a couple days coming into this one. Now, we will gather information from this game and continue to move forward,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “For me, it’s game to game and day to day. We want to continue to get better. We won and they [Dallas] lost. It’s not so much being satisfied where you’re at or that’s what it is. We need to continue to find ways to get better.”
Eriksson Ek gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 5:35 of the first period on the power play. He scored on a one-timer from the left hash marks to finish a tic-tac-toe passing play with Zuccarello and Boldy, who found an open Eriksson Ek with a pass from the goal line.
“I think every team in the playoffs talks about not getting too high or too low. Just enjoy every day and each game and then we will go from there,” Eriksson Ek said. “I think we played pretty good today. The next game is a new game, so we just have to do it over and over every game. We know they are probably not the happiest with that game, so I am sure it’s going to be hard next game.”
Minnesota
ICE agent assault charge marks a ‘milestone’ for Minnesota prosecutors
Minnesota prosecutors charged a federal immigration agent with assault accusing him of involvement in a February road-rage incident.
Trump administration ends Minnesota immigration operation
Border Czar Tom Homan announced the end of Minnesota’s immigration operation after fatal shootings heightened tension and community backlash.
Minnesota prosecutors charged a federal immigration agent with assault, saying the agent was involved in a February road-rage incident during the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., 35, faces two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, according to April 16 Hennepin County court records. He has a nationwide warrant for his arrest.
On Feb. 5, prosecutors said Morgan allegedly drove illegally on the shoulder of a congested Minnesota highway in an unmarked SUV and pointed his weapon at two people in another car.
Morgan is the first agent charged in Operation Metro Surge, the controversial Minneapolis-area federal immigration operation that resulted in two American citizens fatally shot by federal officials, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
The charges “reflect an important milestone in our efforts to seek accountability for the harms inflicted on our community during Operation Metro Surge,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in an April 16 video statement.
Second-degree assault with a gun has a presumptive sentence of 36 months in prison if convicted, she said.
“Mr. Morgan’s conduct was extremely dangerous,” she said, adding his actions could have led to “another disastrous incident” in the community.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to email requests for comment. A cell phone listed for Morgan, identified as a Maryland resident, didn’t immediately respond to a call or text message.
The incident came less than two weeks after two Customs and Border Protection officers shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37, during a protest in Minneapolis. Pretti would be the second American killed during Metro Surge after an ICE agent in early January fatally shot Renee Good, 37, while she drove her SUV in Minneapolis near an immigration operation.
Later in February, the Trump administration drew down Metro Surge, which officials called the largest immigration operation in modern American history.
Investigators said they interviewed Morgan, who identified himself as the driver. Morgan told investigators he and the other ICE employee were returning from a surveillance shift. Morgan said he feared for his life and others’ safety, so he pulled up alongside the vehicle and drew his Glock 19 firearm. He said he identified himself as police.
State investigators said neither Morgan nor the other ICE agent reported the incident to an ICE supervisor.
The April 16 warrant, signed by District Court Judge Paul Scoggin, said there was a “substantial likelihood” Morgan would fail to respond to a summons, and officials couldn’t locate him.
On April 18, Daniel Borgertpoepping, a spokesperson for the county attorney’s office, said there is no knowledge of Morgan being arrested yet.
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
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