Vikings Preseason Game 1a

NFL Football is back!

It's preseason football so the play on the field leaves something to be desired. It's still football and football is fun. It also means that real football is right around the corner. 

The Minnesota Vikings defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 14-3 in the 2015 edition of the Hall of Fame Game. 

A benefit or curse, depending on your perspective, to playing in the Hall of Fame Game is that each team gets five preseason games. So this is preseason game 1a for the Vikings and Steelers. It's something like a pre-preseason game. Coaches have a preseason schedule. The starters play a series, maybe two, in the first game. A little more in the second game. As much as the entire first half, and sometimes more, in the third game. This is the game that is considered the real tune-up for the regular season. The starters usually sit out the fourth. and final, preseason game. Having the Hall of Fame game, and five total games, on the preseason calendar throws that schedule off. 

The game was missing some of the biggest stars. Adrian Peterson didn't play for the Vikings. That was really no surprise as it's been years since Peterson last played in a preseason game. Ben Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell, and Antonio Brown didn't play at all for the Steelers.

Vikings starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater played the first series. He led the team to the Steelers 10-yard line. The Vikings decision to go for it on 4th-and-1 kept points off the board. The Steelers held. Bridgewater completed 5 of 6 attempts for 44 yards. The one miss was a terrible miss. He threw low and behind to receiver Mike Wallace in the red zone. That one miss likely kept the Vikings from a touchdown. It looked like Wallace had some room. It was still a nice, brief appearance. The first-string offense, minus Peterson, moved crisply down the field. They just didn't get any points.

The Vikings skipped Shaun Hill in the quarterback rotation. The coaches probably wanted to give the old man a break. Mike Kafka followed Bridgewater. His highlight was a 34-yard touchdown throw to wide open rookie tight end MyCole Pruitt. It gave the Vikings a 7-3 lead. Undrafted rookie Taylor Heinicke followed Kafka and played the second half. Kafka and Heinicke are battling for the third quarterback spot. If the Vikings keep three. There's the possibility that the team's third quarterback will actually find himself on the practice squad. The opinion here is that Heinicke looked a little more comfortable in preseason game 1a but there's still four more preseason games and a month full of practices. 

The Steelers played their quarterbacks a little differently. Roethisberger sat and Landry Jones played the entire game. QB/WR Tyler Murphy replaced Jones for a couple of gimmick plays. Rookie quarterback Tajh Boyd never played a snap. If Jones was a bit more accurate on a couple of throws, the Steelers probably win the game. They had a first-and-goal from the one late in the first half and couldn't move the ball that final yard. Good defense, a dropped pass, and a couple of rushed throws were the difference.

Some of the good for the Vikings:
-They won a game against another team. A good team even without some of their stars.

-The defense. I really like watching the Vikings defense under Mike Zimmer. The cover-2 so heavily supported by Brad Childress and Leslie Frazier had grown very stale. I like the scheming. the blitzing, the teamwork of Zimmer's defense. The variety of fronts and pre-snap movement gave Landry Jones some difficulties. Especially when the Vikings starting defense was on the field. The confusion resulted in a couple of delay of game penalties and forced a timeout.

-Rookie tight end MyCole Pruitt. I've heard a lot of praise for Pruitt throughout training camp. It was great to finally get to see him in action. He's a new weapon for Bridgewater.

-Rookie receiver Stefon Diggs. Pruitt has received a lot of praise. Diggs has received even more. It was great to see him in action as well. He had a couple of short catches but it was his 62-yard punt return to the one-yard line that really opened the eyes of those that haven't seen him. It really should have been a 63-yard punt return touchdown as it didn't look like he had stepped out of bounds to these wide-open eyes. He's another new weapon for Bridgewater.

Rookie linebacker Eric Kendricks. One of the pre-draft criticisms of Kendricks was his blitzing. He blitzed a few times last night and was effective doing so. I really want to see him take the middle linebacker spot. Some point to the weak-side as the position that best suits him. I just want to see him on the field. I think that he makes the Vikings defense better.

Some of the not so good for the Vikings:
Rookie cornerback Trae Waynes. Waynes had a rough NFL debut. He had three penalties called on him. Two pass interference. One holding. He also badly bit on an out-and-up move by Shakim Phillips. It wasn't pretty. A more accurate throw and Phillips has a touchdown. On the positive side, Waynes made a couple of nice plays in the run game. I'm not worried about any of this. It was his first NFL moment. John Elway tried to take the snap from a guard in his debut. Sure, I'd like to see Waynes shut down everyone opposite him but corner is such a tough position to play. He's on an island and the slightest mistake is magnified. A misstep and the opponents have a touchdown. A mistake at any other position is rarely as severe. Sometimes a corner needs a game like this to get where they need to be. I think that Waynes is such a corner.

-The run game. 89 yards in 29 attempts. 2.8 yards/attempt. Matt Asiata had a nice run. Joe Banyard had a nice run. DuJuan Harris had some nice runs when they were trying to close out the game. Other than that the runners rarely ventured far from the line of scrimmage. The running game is hardly a concern with Peterson on the team and backup Jerick McKinnon didn't play much. Still, it would have been nice to see a bit more from backs other than Peterson.

Then there was this.

There was an odd little sequence of two plays that took place at the end of the third quarter. Kafka trough a short pass to tight end Cole Ford in the flat. Ford bobbled the ball into the hands of Steelers corner Kevin Fogg for an interception. On the Steelers first play following the interception, Jones threw a short pass to tight end Jesse James. James bobbled the ball into the hands of Vikings linebacker Brian Peters. It was a little odd to see two somewhat fluky and nearly exact plays back-to-back like that. The Vikings ended up basically where they were about a minute earlier. The only thing to show for the exchange were interceptions in the stat sheet. Interceptions that weren't either quarterback's fault.

The Vikings are now 1-0 in the 2015 preseason. Thy host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next Saturday for Preseason Game 1b.


RIP Frank Gifford. The NFL lost one of their greats.