September 16, 2025

NLA: Zim on "underwhelming" Jacks win, Yotes' season-saving (?) win, Wentz starting for Vikings, Canaries title chase, Sanford International

1 hour 13 minutes

So far in this young football season, the Jackrabbits, Coyotes, and Vikings offenses — to varying degrees — continue to struggle to explode for big plays and satisfying full-game performances.

At times, they implode. In the Yotes and Vikings cases, for full games.

Gee, if only there was a local team to watch right now, in-person!, that has provided fireworks all season long, including a so-far spectacular postseason. Oh, wait, there is, and you don't even have to drive one to four hours to see them.

The Sioux Falls Canaries — highest-scoring, most home run-hitting in their league by far — are three wins away from their first American Association championship in 17 years and only their second league title in the 33-year modern inception of the club.

So far, they've averaged 10 runs in their five playoff wins, including victories of 7-2 and 11-2 in their two series-clinching win-or-go-home games, propelled by the Birds' best-ever player and league's all-time career home run king Jabari Henry's five total dingers in those two deciding games (three blasts to eliminate league leader Sioux City in the first round on the road, then a pair of homers including a grand slam and 8 RBI in The Birdcage to knock out Fargo-Moorhead).

So, before Happy Hour host John Gaskins and Sioux Falls Live sports editor Matt Zimmer break down the bummer offenses — to varying degrees! — of this region's three most popular football teams, they celebrate the culmination of what has been a 15-year climb up a Mt. Everest of rocky obstacles for the Canaries — once the league's worst and near-lowest-budget squad — just to return to the league finals.

Then, it's pick-apart time for 3-0 SDSU, 1-2 USD, and the 1-1 Vikings, their offenses, and their quarterbacks Chase Mason, Aidan Bouman, and J.J. McCarthy. How much of the team's struggles have been the field generals' faults, and where do we see things headed?

Is it unfair for Jacks fans to be unsettled if not complaining about "only" 37 points and "only" a 16-point win over a non-scholarship team? Is it five-alarm fire time for USD after narrowly escaping Northern Colorado and an 0-3 start?

What do we make of both the seven quarters of bumbling of young J.J. McCarthy (save from the amazing fourth quarter in Chicago, which counts for a lot) and the ankle injury that has sidelined him against Cincinnati, which gives journeyman and NDSU legend Carson Wentz his latest and maybe last-ever shot to return to his once-Pro Bowl form?

John and Matt answer these questions, then toast the Sanford International and its latest winner Retief Goosen. Finally, rumination on why the once-massive Sunday crowds have fizzled a bit in the eight-year-old event that shares crown jewel status in Sioux Falls with the Summit League Tournament.

...more

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By John Gaskins