A pause for Flip Saunders, but games go on

Two contrasting thoughts from a weekend in sports that took a decidedly somber turn on Sunday:

Exactly four months ago Sunday, on a night that felt like a very important piece in a rebuilding plan, Flip Saunders strode into the lower level of the 508 Bar and Restaurant, just a block from Target Center, to enthusiastically greet Tyus Jones — the former Apple Valley star and NCAA champion he had just traded up to draft.

Saunders looked healthy, full of vigor and his usual basketball enthusiasm when he leaned in with a serious smile and told Jones, in a flurry of colorful language, that he had better work hard this season because of how hard Saunders worked to acquire him.

It's shockingly sad to think about how much changed in the next four months, from the announcement in August that Saunders was undergoing treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma, to gradual trickles of information that his condition was worsening and ultimately to the news of his death Sunday.

Saunders was at the helm as head coach for the only good era of Timberwolves basketball, and he has given the franchise a chance to usher in the second good era with smart trading and drafting. That he won't be around to see it through is a particularly cruel sentiment in a situation full of them.

News of Saunders' death became official right in the middle of the Vikings' game, certainly influencing how many of us looked at the relative importance of things. It felt a little strange to be shouting at the TV over missed tackles or a great catch by Stefon Diggs with the passing of a local sports icon so fresh.

Still, there is this: life rarely pauses for any of us. We move on in spite of terrible news, lest we become frozen in time.

The games went on, and Sunday was the kind of effort Vikings fans have been waiting for out of second-year QB Teddy Bridgewater — and the kind of game for which Vikings coaches kept telling everyone to be patient.

The Vikings came into their 28-19 win at Detroit ranked last in the NFL in passing yards at 180 per game. Most of Bridgewater's individual numbers, not surprisingly, also lagged near the bottom. The notable exception was Total QBR; in that category, Bridgewater was 8th in the entire league heading into Sunday.

As such, Sunday's game was finally an opportunity to see what some of the advanced metrics (and Vikings coaches) were trying to tell us: Bridgewater has been fine this season — far from the dreaded "sophomore slump," with traditional stats that were more a function of game situations than poor play.

Still, it was nice for fans and coaches alike to see the kind of final line Bridgewater put up in the victory over the Lions: 25 of 35 for 316 yards, a pair of TDs and no interceptions.

It's not the thing most of us will remember about Sunday, but within its own context it was encouraging.