The Los Angeles Chargers defeated the Minnesota Vikings 37-10 on ‘Thursday Night Football.’
Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz was sacked five times and appeared emotional on the sideline.
The Vikings are now 2-3 in games started by Wentz, who is filling in for the injured J.J. McCarthy.

Tears filled Carson Wentz’s eyes as he leaned back on the Minnesota Vikings’ bench in the fourth quarter. His walk there was preceded by a helmet toss, which revealed a red forehead – a symbol of his night.

Before that, Wentz had been walloped on back-to-back incompletions that turned the ball over on downs. He laid on the SoFi Stadium ground for a few extra moments as he grabbed at his left hand.

“Yeah, I’m not proud of that,’ Wentz told reporters after the game. ‘I apologize to the equipment guys for that one but yeah, I was in a good amount of pain.”

By game’s end, with the Vikings losing 37-10 to the Los Angeles Chargers on ‘Thursday Night Football,’ Max Brosmer was in at quarterback. He had it easy compared to the other guy.

Wentz, Minnesota’s starter for the past five games, bore the brunt of a barrage from the Chargers defense, which sacked him five times in a rebound effort, albeit against a backup with Vikings Week 1 starter J.J. McCarthy still on the shelf with an ankle injury.

“Yeah, I’ve felt better,” Wentz said. “That was a tough one. Thursday nights are always tough but that was a little extra tough. I’ve felt better but we’re walking, and we’re alright.” 

It didn’t help much that the passer entered the Week 8 matchup dealing with an injury to his left (non-throwing) shoulder. Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell noted an overthrown incompletion to Jefferson that a healthy Wentz potentially makes and could have been an explosive play, he said.

Wentz had entered the game 7-0 as a starter on Thursdays. 

“Pain is pain. I felt like I could still help this team and find a way to go down and score and all that stuff. We knew that coming into the game that that was going to be part of it but again, that’s the tough part of Thursday night games. We just don’t quite get the chance to recover but that’s no excuse by any means. When I was playing out there, I felt fine.”

The physicality of the previous game, a 28-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, was a contributing factor, O’Connell said. Left tackle Christian Darrisaw was able to start, but he lasted two drives. Right tackle Brian O’Neil (knee) was not active. 

“It just felt like we weren’t good enough in any of our three phases tonight,” O’Connell said.

He added: “Injuries and any other excuse you can find them, we will not be doing that.” 

Star receiver Justin Jefferson managed seven catches (11 targets) for 74 yards, but the Los Angeles defense limited his explosive-play ability (his longest catch was 17 yards). The Vikings averaged 3.1 yards per carry on 11 rushing attempts, even in running back Aaron Jones’ return from injured reserve.

The commentary from the broadcast booth was harsh by the pampered standard of announcer analysis, as Prime Video analyst Kirk Herbstreit said, ‘when you’re the captain of the ship, you’re the quarterback, you gotta try to hold some of that emotion in. And I know he’s frustrated, and he’s hurt, but it’s Week (8). There’s a long way to go.’

Wentz finished 15 for 27 with 144 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception. The Vikings are now 2-3 with him as the starter in McCarthy’s stead; the 2024 10th overall pick was the team’s emergency (third-string) quarterback on Thursday.

TORONTO – Two years after he was never on a flight bound from Southern California to Toronto, Shohei Ohtani continues to impact North American aeronautics.

Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers arrived in Canada this week for Game 1 of the World Series, to be contested Oct. 24 as they aim to become the first club in a quarter-century to repeat as World Series champions.

And they did it in comfort, taking two airplanes, one for the roster and the other for staff, a set-up that began as Ohtani led the Dodgers into the 2024 World Series and continued into this past regular season, for big road trips or middling ones.

This is a big one: The Dodgers will take on the Toronto Blue Jays, a first when it comes to World Series matchups and an appropriate one given the manner in which the course of baseball history was massively impacted less than two years ago.

The endgame sounds simple enough: Ohtani chose the Dodgers over the Blue Jays, who along with the San Francisco Giants offered a similar 10-year, $700 million, heavily deferred package – Ohtani’s preference so his new club could have greater luxury-tax wriggle room.

The run-up was unhinged: Media reports had Ohtani either agreeing to a contract with the Blue Jays or on a flight to Toronto, where pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, a Blue Jay lefty and Ohtani’s Japanese countryman, had supposedly made reservations for more than two dozen folks at a swanky sushi joint.

The aftermath suggests the hysteria surrounding Ohtani’s decision wasn’t enough: Ohtani delivered a 50-homer, 50-stolen base season and a World Series title a year ago, returned to pitching in 2025 and had, almost inarguably, the greatest performance in baseball history in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.

Yet for 24 crazy hours, baseball history appeared to take a different turn.

Max Muncy thought so. The Dodgers’ slugging infielder saw the erroneous report on Ohtani’s agreement with the Blue Jays, bemoaned his team’s fate and went about life in his Dallas home.

“Like everyone else,” he says, “I saw the Blue Jays thing. And so I was like, ‘OK. It’s done. That sucks, but it’s done.’”

A day later, he was trying to get his young children down for a nap when his wife interceded. She asked if he’d heard about his new teammate. He wracked his brain.

Ohtani was gone, so who?

“And she says, ‘Well, he’s worth $700 million.’ And I was like, ‘Who in the world could that be?’”

Muncy had to contain his excitement. His children were trying to get to sleep, and he waited until he was downstairs to express his glee.

Two years later, they are not just the Dodgers, but also Guggenheim Baseball, as the uniform patch says, a global powerhouse that’s made up Ohtani’s salary thanks to dozens of sponsorships in Japan and the whirring turnstiles that counted 4 million fans entering Dodger Stadium this year.

Now, they are aiming for back-to-back titles, arriving in style on what we’ll call the Ohtani Plane.

“The course of the Dodgers is changed forever,” says Muncy, 35 and now in his eighth postseason with the club. “You’re talking about your international brand. You put him – one of the greatest baseball players of all time – in one of the biggest markets in baseball and now that market has become global.

“Things change. We got new renovations to the stadium. The way we traveled changed. Everything changed from that moment.”

And not just in Los Angeles. Here by the shores of Lake Ontario, they haven’t forgotten, either.

Hat tricks

From Florida’s Gulf Coast to downtown Toronto, the Blue Jays’ concerted efforts to become a first-class organization are readily apparent.

Their $400 million renovation of Rogers Centre resulted in a gorgeous modernization of the old Skydome, with a swanky clubhouse and expansive medical, training and workout facilities. Heck, even the home bullpen has a mini-weight room and multiple elliptical machines.

And in Dunedin, Florida, their $100 million in updates to their player development center has resulted in a gorgeous, modernized campus. It was there that Ohtani did, in fact, visit – and the Blue Jays took no shorts.

From the de rigueur – an Ohtani locker with all his preferred fixings – to the extreme, the Blue Jays loved on Ohtani. They flew out his dog, Decoy, outfitting him in a Canadian dog jacket. They took Ohtani’s secrecy oath to an extreme, moving a winter meetings debriefing from general manager Ross Atkins to Zoom, placing him against a generic background to conceal his location, which they would not reveal.

Ohtani kept his Blue Jays swag. Toronto manager John Schneider has not forgotten.

“I hope he brought his hat,” Schneider said before the Blue Jays’ World Series workout. “And the jacket for Decoy, you know?

“It’s like, give us back our stuff already.”

Schneider’s tongue was definitely in cheek. And Ohtani – amid a crush of international press amid the bowels of Rogers Centre – responded in kind.

Yes, he still has the hat. It’s in his garage.

All kidding aside, though, the Ohtani saga might have stung much worse had the Blue Jays not reached the promised land.

His cheerful decline of their offer was just one of many silver medal podium finishes with nine-figure free agents: Juan Soto. Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto. And prized Dodgers rookie Rōki Sasaki. Forever bridesmaids in Queen City, it seemed.

“It was free agency. It was one of the best baseball players in our sport getting to choose. He chose L.A., and he had every right to choose that,” says Blue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt. “It wasn’t so much, ‘Man, we wanted him.’ It was more, he had the ability to choose.

“And he chose.”

Yet look at them now: American League champions behind homegrown superstars Vladimir Guerrero and Bo Bichette, and bell cow free agent George Springer and a gaggle of veteran pitchers.

Who needs Shohei?

“We have a megastar in Vladdy,” says Bassitt. “The reality is, I think so many fans and so many media members will sit here and say, ‘Toronto’s always second place, Toronto’s always third place for these megastars.’

“They’re second place out of 30 and you’re punishing them for going after megastars and not getting them. I guarantee you there are 20 other organizations wishing they were going after megastars. Just because they’re not getting three, four, five guys, I think it’s ridiculous because you’ve got Kevin Gausman, you’ve got (Jose) Berrios, you’ve got Bo here, Vladdy here, George Springer here, Max Scherzer here.

“To sit here and be like, three-four guys didn’t come and you’re supposed to feel bad for that? It’s a big discredit to all the really good players they got to come here.”

‘Just little a kid out there’

And so it goes. Ohtani will bat leadoff coming off his three-homer performance in NLCS Game 4; he’s expected to start on the mound in World Series Game 4, too, at Dodger Stadium.

He’s hit 109 home runs in two years as a Dodger and will have a second NL MVP plaque delivered this offseason. He will probably go into the Hall of Fame with an interlocking LA on his cap, and the eternal regard of his teammates.

“The thing for me that’s been most important is just how special it’s been to be his teammate. He’s a truly wonderful human being,” says Muncy. “He’s a great teammate, a great ballplayer.

“He’s funny. He loves playing baseball. He’s just a little kid out there.”

A little kid who steered almost all the way into the intrigue around his pursuit. Toronto’s not mad about it. World Series trips have a way of soothing any hurt, even if the flight pattern doesn’t point in your direction.

“He’s a great player,” says Schneider. “But that aside, I think that we have a great team and just an unbelievable cast of characters and players.

“I think things worked out the way they’re meant to work out.”

It’s easy to be cynical in an era of scandal and fake news, but let’s not allow our faith in sports to be fractured just yet.
From Shohei Ohtani to Victor Wembanyama to Damar Hamlin, sport still delivers the authentically unexpected, which is something to celebrate.

“This game is rigged.”

“Can’t believe the script had that team winning.”

“Player X is freezing out Player Y because he’s facing him in fantasy this week.”

Most of us have expressed similar sentiments over the years about the sports we watch. In jest.

But Thursday’s shocking revelation that the FBI indicted more than 30 people allegedly linked to a gambling scandal tied to the NBA served to do exactly what pro sports leagues used to fear about any association with betting: rocking the public’s confidence in the integrity of the sports it consumes.

Should we be all that surprised? Really?

Warning alarms have blared since 2018, when the Supreme Court loosened regulations on sports wagering – opening the industry to states far afield from the formerly singular legal sports betting bastion that is Las Vegas. It wasn’t long after that when pro leagues like the NFL began doing what had previously been unthinkable (and taboo) − partnering with betting sites like FanDuel and DraftKings and even allowing sportsbooks to advertise in conjunction with their most premium content: games.

For years, we’ve been trying to parse authentic news from fake, while elected officials – and apparently even Justice Department lawyers at this point – wantonly lie. Many of us have become increasingly desensitized to it. Others actually embrace it.

How are we supposed to know if a pro player is shaving points? Or trafficking insider injury information? It’s not like players across the pro sports spectrum haven’t incurred suspensions in recent years for myriad violations, including betting on games involving their teams. It happens, the respective commissioner touts his league’s gambling guardrails, and everyone basically moves on.

Now the FBI, at a time when its own credibility is under fire, has stepped in to throw a fragmentary grenade into the NBA’s operation. Yet how much will fans care what Damon Jones or Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier or Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups purportedly did a week from now? Or even tomorrow? How long before Adam Silver, if he wanted, could hire Vince McMahon as a creative consultant, and no one would blink? And what does it all matter if there’s a metaverse where the New York Jets are the babyface dynasty while the Kansas City Chiefs are the weekly tomato cans?

Easy as it is to be cynical, let’s not allow our faith in sports to be irreparably fractured just yet. There are too many talented athletes working too hard for championship glory – much less simply putting food on the table – and have too much integrity and honor to believe this is all a systemic ruse. (Not for nothing, there are also far too many incapable of keeping a secret this big for us to begin dismissing the veracity of what we see from the couch, press box, upper deck or sideline.)

And while LeBron James has somehow exceeded all the hype that’s been heaped on him for more than a quarter-century – even if Jones apparently profited from knowing how healthy he was – leagues that aren’t actually scripted had no room for would-be leading men like Tim Tebow, Johnny Manziel, Markelle Fultz or Darko Miličić, none lasting despite apparently emanating from central casting.

We should feel comforted that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was (is?) nearly incomparable as a professional wrestler but not good enough to play in the NFL − and apparently doesn’t have sufficient business acumen beyond making movies and tequila to make the UFL anything more than the fringe football league its forebears have always been.

Sports never have been, nor will be, a pure meritocracy – contracts, public relations, personalities and the like perpetually exert varying influences. Yet so much of the unparalleled excellence and unimaginable tragedy – not to mention the mundane Week 8 NFL game or Tuesday night NBA contest – are too compelling to be authored by some athletic puppet master. Or sullied by shysters. Not when you see what Shohei Ohtani and George Springer just managed in order to create their World Series matchup. Not when you see the New York Giants find a way to lose an 18-point lead in the final six minutes of a game. Not when you see a 7-foot-5, 245-pound player like Victor Wembanyama run the break … unless he decides to pull up and pop a three. Not when Damar Hamlin nearly dies on a football field before he and his career are revived.

Don’t tell me those moments were or could be orchestrated. Our sports aren’t the WWE writ large (not that wrestling’s ardent fans would care).

May they never be.

INGLEWOOD, CA — In prime time, and in front of a national audience, the Los Angeles Chargers got back in the winner’s column.

Justin Herbert and the Chargers routed the Minnesota Vikings 37-10 to improve to 5-3.

The Chargers took control of the game early. Herbert led the Chargers on three touchdown drives in the first half as team took a commanding 21-3 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Vikings couldn’t get anything going offensively in the second half and their defense provided little resistance as the Chargers were able to pad their lead.

Carson Wentz threw an interception with 12:02 remaining in the fourth quarter that prompted fans to head for the exits.

USA TODAY Sports was at SoFi Stadium for Thursday night’s Vikings vs. Chargers contest. Here are the winners and losers from the interconference matchup:

Winners

Record-setting Justin Herbert

Herbert completed 18-of-25 passes for 227 yards, to go with three touchdowns and one interception. The quarterback was in command and efficient for most of the contest.

Herbert has 2,146 career completions, the most completions ever by a player in his first six seasons.

Herbert entered Week 8 leading the league in passing yards (1,913) and ranked second in completions (183).

Chargers rushing offense

Th Chargers rushed for a season-high 207 yards.

Running back Kimani Vidal rushed 23 times for 117 yards and one touchdown.  

The Chargers’ season-high output on the ground came without first-round pick RB Omarion Hampton (ankle) who is on injured reserve.

Oronde Gadsden II shines

A week after producing 164 receiving yards, the fourth-most ever by a rookie tight end in a game in NFL history, Oronde Gadsden II tallied five catches for 77 yards and a touchdown.  

The Chargers found themselves a starting tight end for the present and future in Gadsden.

Slot receiver Ladd McConkey had a team-high six catches for 88 yards and a touchdown.  

Chargers D

The Chargers defense held Minnesota to four first downs, 93 yards and three points in the first half. Minnesota’s only touchdown drive came on a short field after a Justin Herbert interception.

The Vikings only gained 164 yards of total offense and went 3-for-11 on third downs.

The Chargers played most of the game without star safety Derwin James who suffered an ankle injury in the first half. No Derwin, no problem: rookie safety RJ Mickens had an interception in the fourth quarter that convinced fans to beat the traffic.

Control-Alt-deleted the Vikings

Chargers standout tackle Joe Alt returned to the lineup after injuring his ankle in Week 4. He had an instant impact as he help stabilize the Chargers O-line.

Thursday best

The Chargers wore their modern throwback all navy uniforms for Thursday’s primetime game. After their popular powder blue unis, it’s probably the second-most visually appealing set they have in the closet.

Losers

The Vikings offense….

Wentz, who had a brace on his left arm, was under duress for much of the game. He was sacked five times and hit eight. He finished with just 144 yards, one touchdown and one interception.  

Wentz was on the injury report with a left shoulder injury leading up to the game. He didn’t look like he was 100%.

Justin Jefferson was a bright spot for the Vikings, as the wide receiver surpassed 8,000 career receiving yards in the matchup. He’s the fastest player to reach 8,000 receiving yards in the Super Bowl era.

…and the Vikings defense…

Vikings CB Isaiah Rodgers had an interception overturned when he didn’t maintain possession of the football on the Chargers first offensive series. It was a huge missed opportunity that would’ve given Minnesota some much-needed momentum.

The Vikings defense gave up 266 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. Minnesota trailed 21-3 at halftime.

The Chargers compiled 419 yards and a season-high 37 points on Minnesota’s defense.

…and the Vikings’ travel itinerary.

The Vikings had international games Week 4 in Ireland and Week 5 in London, followed by a cross country trip to Los Angeles in Week 8. The team played jetlagged on Thursday night.

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon on X @TheTylerDragon.

The NBA asked for this embarrassment.

It was only too happy to jump in bed with legalized gambling, thinking it could take the gaming industry’s money but inoculate itself from its seedy underbelly with a few terse warnings to its players and somber PSAs for fans.

It doesn’t work that way, though. There is always a price to pay for greed and associating with unsavory people, and the NBA’s bill just came due.

Rather than praise for Victor Wembanyama or debates about whether the New York Knicks are the real deal, the NBA woke up Thursday to find itself at the center of a massive betting scandal. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones all were arrested as part of a yearslong investigation into illegal gambling rings. With ties to the mafia, no less!

Billups was charged in connection with an illegal poker operation while Rozier was accused of manipulating his play during a game to benefit bettors. Jones was charged in both cases.

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness,” the NBA said in a statement, “and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

Too bad the NBA ceded their right to that high ground long ago.

NBA embraced legalized sports betting

It is true that the NBA does not have a direct role in this scandal. But the enthusiastic embrace of legalized gambling by the league, as well as the NFL, Major League Baseball and just about every other sports organization, has fostered an environment where there are no guardrails.

When the NBA’s own website has a Fantasy page listing “authorized gaming partners and operators,” why should Rozier think it’s a big deal to take a play or two off to help out some bettors? When the NBA allows DraftKings to offer a “promotion” that includes three free months of NBA League Pass, why should Billups question whether it’s a good idea to partake in a shady poker ring?

When the NBA has no problem with its teams having sports books at their arenas, how can it demand that players and coaches keep the gaming industry at arm’s length? When the NBA is sending such mixed messages — problems from gambling are bad! but profits from gambling are good! — why should anyone respect the league’s moral authority?

The league opened the door to this, all of it, and it cannot be surprised or indignant now that it’s gone sideways.

Dangers of sports betting came hand-in-hand with profits

There was a reason every sports entity in the United States resisted any association with legalized gambling for as long as they did. They knew the troubles it would bring because they saw it playing out in real-time overseas. Corrupt people trying to influence games. Gambling addictions. Players being threatened or harassed by bettors and, worse, organized crime.

Ultimately, though, the money was just too good to pass up. NBA commissioner Adam Silver even wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in 2014 encouraging widespread legalization of sports betting. For the good of humanity, of course. People were already gambling, Silver said, so why not bless it?

“I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated,” Silver wrote then.

What’s a little integrity when there are billions in potential profits to be had, right?

By giving their approval to legalized gambling, the NBA and other leagues might as well have handed an arsonist a match.

There is no daylight between gaming and its toxic byproducts, especially when smartphones make irresponsible gambling and abuse of players so easy. Warnings posted in small print, be they in locker rooms or online, are no match for human frailties, temptations and fears, and the NBA owns today’s shame as much as Billups, Rozier, Jones and everyone else who was arrested.

The NBA was well aware of the dangers that come with sports betting and it didn’t care because it wanted the gaming industry’s money more. There’s no more damning indictment than that.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.