Week 1 Thoughts

Football is back!

The Minnesota Vikings visited the Tennessee Titans in the opener. The Vikings defense was the difference in the 25-16 win.

Shaun Hill started at quarterback for the Vikings. While it wasn't quite the surprise that head coach Mike Zimmer made it out to be a few days ago the starter wasn't 100% certain until yesterday morning. The quarterback situation in Minnesota became a cloudy one when Teddy Bridgewater was lost for the season to an ugly knee injury on August 30. Three days later the Vikings traded a first and a conditional fourth-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles for Sam Bradford. While Bradford is expected to be the eventual starter, perhaps as early as next week, the Titans game belonged to Hill. He played well in completing 18 of 33 passes for 236 yards. As important as the completions and the yards, he didn't make mistakes that cost his team. He had no turnovers and wasn't sacked.

One of the biggest problems that the Vikings had last season was their frequent inability to score touchdowns when they entered the red zone. They had too many short field goals. It was a problem yesterday. Kicker Blair Walsh was on the field way too often. For the day, he made four field goals and an extra point. That looks great until you consider the two field goals and the extra point that he missed. Missed extra points simply shouldn't happen. The Vikings made it to the Titans 11-yard line on their second possession. They had to settle for a 37-yard field goal attempt. Walsh missed it. He attempted a 56-yarder at the end of the first half. He missed that one as well. A 56-yard field goal is, at best, a longshot. Literally. The real problem here isn't the missed field goals. It's the missed touchdowns. The Vikings have to score touchdowns when they get inside the opponents 20-yard line. They move the ball down the field and then stall way too often. Walsh made a 33-yarder in the third quarter and a 30-yarder in the fourth quarter.  The Vikings were inside the Titans 15-yard line on three occasions and they only scored six points on two field goals. If it wasn't for the defense the Vikings probably lose this game.

The Minnesota Vikings defense. The Titans offense spent nearly all of the first half on the move. Quarterback Marcus Mariota and running backs DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry were difficult to contain. There's a lot of football talent in the Tennessee backfield. The one thing that the Vikings defense did right in the first half was contain Titans when they neared scoring territory. It felt like the Titans threatened to score on every one of their first half possessions. They only scored 10 points. That was all the points that the Titans scored until the final seconds. The Vikings defense was terrific in the second half. They turned a probable loss into a convincing win.

The Vikings started the second half in fine fashion when Cordarrelle Patterson returned the kickoff 61 yards to the Titans 34-yard line. Unfortunately, the Vikings offense could only move the ball two yards closer to the Titans goal line. That's not a very productive drive to follow a big play. Fortunately, Walsh made the 50-yard field goal. The Vikings were finally on the scoreboard. 10-3.

It was a disappointment to not take full advantage of Patterson's return but that return did seem to flip the momentum. Despite that 10-3 Titans lead it just felt like the Vikings were taking control. A Titans three-and-out was followed by an efficient Vikings drive that ended in another short field goal. 10-6. Then the Vikings defense really took matters into their own hands. Middle linebacker Eric Kendricks ended a nice Titans drive with an interception that he took 77 yards for the first Vikings touchdown. Walsh missed the extra point but the Vikings had a 12-10 lead. Patterson's return flipped the momentum but it was Kendricks' return that flipped the game in the Vikings favor.

The Vikings forced another three-and-out and the offense put together another efficient drive that ended with another Walsh field goal. 15-10 Vikings early in the fourth quarter.

Defensive end Danielle Hunter really put things in the Vikings favor when he scooped up a Mariota/Murray fumble and returned it 24 yards for another defensive score. Walsh made this extra point. 22-10 Vikings with about 11 minutes to play.

Vikings safety Andrew Sendejo collected another Titans fumble three plays into the Titans next possession. The defense was rolling. They Vikings had a late interception by Harrison Smith taken away by a knucklehead move by defensive end Everson Griffen. With the ball already heading to Smith, Griffen gave Mariota a shove. That allowed the Titans to retain possession and continue a drive that ended in a touchdown. A failed two-point conversion made the final score 25-16.

The Vikings inactive list had some surprises. Starting corner Xavier Rhodes missed most of the practices last week with a hamstring issue. He was reportedly inactive due to a knee issue that resulted from pregame stretching. That was a surprise. Trae Waynes started in his place. The second-year player did well. He made some plays, defended some passes, and kept everything in front of him. Waynes, Kendricks, and Hunter were the Vikings first, second, and third-round picks, respectively, in the 2015 NFL Draft. All three played big roles in yesterday's win.

Another inactive was receiver Jarius Wright. He's been a reliable contributor for nearly all of his four years with the Vikings. An injury forced him to miss a significant portion of training camp and it seems that missed time has put him on the wrong side of the weekly numbers game.

Most of Shaun Hill's passes went to receivers Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen and tight end Kyle Rudolph.

Diggs had 7 catches for 103 yards. He and Hill just missed on a touchdown connection in the first half.

Thielen had 4 catches for 54 yards. His catches were of the clutch variety when down and distance weren't in the Vikings favor. Thielen has been a special teams ace for the past couple of seasons but he's become much more than that lately. He's a major contributor on offense.

Rudolph had 4 catches for 64 yards. Most of those yards were of the of the big play variety.

The biggest issue for the Vikings offense was probably the tremendous job that the Titans defense did on running back Adrian Peterson. 19 carries for the itty bitty total of 31 yards. He had nowhere to run. Stopping Peterson was a clear priority as the Titans had at least eight in the box whenever he was in the backfield and with little regard to down and distance. Whoever starts at quarterback for the Vikings moving forward has to make defenses pay for this sort of strategy. Hill made some plays down the field but there were some misses as well. Some of that itty bitty rushing total is on Peterson. He was hesitant in hitting the line on several of his carries. Dancing and waiting for holes rather than attacking. This is the second consecutive year in which Peterson has started a little tentative. Maybe the Vikings should rethink the policy of not playing their all-everything back in the preseason.

As rough as the Vikings running game was the remade offensive line did a fine job of protecting the immobile Hill. He was never sacked and rarely touched. It was great to see. Bridgewater was running for his life far too often last year.

Patterson made a couple of nice plays on offense. He's been a void on offense for most of the last couple of seasons. It would be great to see him get more touches each game. He's such a dynamic football player with the ball in his hands.

The Titans will be a fun team to watch. Mariota, Murray, and Henry will give defenses headaches in the backfield. Delanie Walker is a terrific tight end. Rookie receiver Tajae Sharpe is a very promising player. 7 catches for 76 yards yesterday.

The Vikings are 1-0 and hosting the Green Bay Packers in spectacular, new US Bank Stadium next Sunday night. It's Packers Week! The coaches will be peppered all week as to whether Hill or Bradford is under center for the Vikings. That should be a gas.

Here are some thoughts on the other games on the first day of the 2016 NFL season. There were some thrillers.

The Kansas City Chiefs came back from a 21-3 halftime deficit to beat the San Diego Chargers in overtime. 33-27 Chiefs. As big as the loss of this game for the Chargers was the possible loss of receiver Keenan Allen for the season. Again. That's quite a blow for an excellent pass catcher and his team.

The Oakland Raiders and New Orleans Saints were all set to go into overtime as well. The Raiders had other plans. Quarterback Derek Carr capped a clutch Raiders drive with a touchdown pass to Seth Roberts to make the score 34-33 with 47 seconds play. Instead of tying the score with the extra point they went for two. Bold move? Or stupid? It proved to be bold when Carr hit Michael Crabtree for the two. and the lead. The Saints had a shot to win but kicker Wil Lutz's 61-yard attempt was just left of good. 35-34 Raiders.

Bad news for the Saints. Promising second-year corner Delvin Breaux broke his fibula. Defense is already a challenge for the Saints. This makes defending even more challenging.

The Jacsonville Jaguars threw a significant scare into the Green Bay Packers. It felt like the Jaguars ran about a dozen plays from the Packers side of the field in the last minute. They were trying to do something about their 27-23 deficit. The Jaguars ran out of downs and the Packers were able to run out the clock.

A curious thing about the Jaguars strategy on that final possession was the frequency with which emerging star receiver Allen Robinson was on the sideline.

The supposedly high-scoring offenses of the Packers and Jaguars combined for 12 second half points. Two field goals apiece.

The Cincinnati Bengals squeaked past the New York Jets on a 47-yard Mike Nugent field goal with just under a minute to play. 23-22 Bengals. This was a back-and-forth field goal affair with the Bengals scoring a single point more than the Jets.

The New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys tangled for an interesting game. The Giants won the game 20-19. This game was interesting in that it felt like the Cowboys were often on the verge of blowing it open but they never did. The Giants hung in and held on to win.

Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant had what he thought was a touchdown taken away from him. It looked like a catch viewed live. It was obvious on replay that he never controlled the ball before he rolled out of bounds. Bryant really has to start understanding that the ball isn't caught until it's controlled. His ball security is pathetic.

Based on his outstanding preseason play, some people wanted to start chiseling the Hall of Fame bust and fitting the gold jacket for Cowboys rookie quarterback Dak Prescott. They might want to wait a bit on that Canton induction. Prescott was great in the preseason. He was good in his regular season debut. He completed 24 of 43 passes for 213 yards. Most importantly to Cowboys fans, the fourth-round rookie thrower doesn't look intimidated by the NFL.

I found that Prescott's most impressive play was one that ended in an incomplete pass. Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul had Prescott in his sites. He smacked the quarterback's cocked throwing arm. Blows such as this usually result in a football rolling around on the ground. Instead it remained firmly in Prescott's hand and he extended the play. It was incomplete but it could have been much worse. Prescott is a strong man.

Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback Carson Wentz had a very nice debut. He wasn't supposed to be the starter but was named the starter when the Eagles traded Sam Bradford. Wentz completed 22 of 37 passes for 278 and couple of pretty touchdowns. The Eagles defeated the Cleveland Browns 29-10. Fittingly, the Browns were the team that publicly thought little of Wentz in the draft. I have no idea why a team would disclose such a thing. Even when asked.

The Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions were in a shootout. It was all Lions early as they scooted out to a 21-3 lead. Colts quarterback Andrew Luck brought his team back. The Colts took a 35-34 lead with 37 seconds remaining. That was too many seconds as Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford needed only about 30 to get his team in field goal position. Matt Prater hit the field for 37-35 win. A sad, desperate kick return by the Colts ended with an illegal forward pass in the end zone. The resulting safety made the official final score 39-35.

The Baltimore Ravens held off the Buffalo Bills 13-7. Free agent addition Mike Wallace caught the lone Ravens touchdown. An explosive 66-yarder. It's a real shame that Wallace couldn't come up with one, or more, of these big plays for the Vikings last year. Wallace and quarterback Joe Flacco should form a big play pair. That's why the mercurial receiver went to Baltimore.

A look at the top-10 receiving yardage producers in the early games shows the emergence of a new wave of pass-catchers.

1.   AJ Green 180 yards, TD (54 yards)
2.   Willie Snead 172 yards, TD (1)
3.   Brandin Cooks 143 yards, 2 TDs (15,98)
4.   Amari Cooper 137 yards
5.   Spencer Ware 129 yards
6.   Jordan Matthews 114 yards, TD (19)
7.   Will Fuller 107 yards
8.   Alshon Jeffery 105 yards
9.   Stefon Diggs 103 yards
10. Mike Evans 99 yards, TD (45)

Spencer Ware doesn't count in this study due to the fact that he plays running back. AJ Green at 28 years of age and Alshon Jeffery at 26 are the grey beards of the group. The remaining receivers are 24 and younger. The NFL becomes more a passing league with each season and there's a load of young, talented receivers making it happen.

The first Sunday of the 2016 NFL season was capped by a fun game. The New England Patriots held on to defeat the Arizona Cardinals 23-21/ The Patriots were without quarterback Tom Brady to a trumped-up suspension and tight end Rob Gronkowski to injury. It didn't matter, the Patriots just find a way to win big games such as these, It also helps when your opponent misses a 47-yard field goal at the end.

It was reported earlier in the day that this season will be the last of Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald's career. He's such a fun football player. One of the best ever pass catchers. If his last season is anything like his performance on the Cardinals final drive last night it could be one of his best. He willed his team down the field.

Football is back!