Offense:
We got a good look at what the Vikings will look like on offense week 1 against the Chargers and I like what I seen. McNabb looked as sharp as the offense moved the ball down the field well and Adrian Peterson looked like, well, Adrian Peterson…The beast we all know he is. The Vikings had 4 drives of 50 yards or more and I like what I seen from Bill Musgrave as far as formations and plays. Musgrave used alot of different formations including a 3 TE bunch set on the first play of the game. Musgrave also showed throughout the night that he’s going to allow McNabb to take shots down field. When you have Adrian Peterson in the backfield it’s going to open up things down field and Musgrave seems like he will attack it when he can.
Percy Harvin looks like he will get a ton of targets and besides a wide open dropped pass on 3rd down, he played well. Michael Jenkins and Berrian look like some reliable targets and Emmanuel Arceneaux also had a nice 43 yard grab from Joe Webb down the sideline in the 2nd half.
One thing I know is the Vikings will need to find a way to get Joe Webb into the game during the regular season. He’s a nightmare for defensive cordinators, simple as that. He had a 10 yard TD run and also a 36 yard run finishing with 2 rushes for 46 yards and a TD. Christian Ponder didn’t get into the game until 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter and led the Vikings down to the 16 yard line before time ran out.
One player i’m wonder what the Vikings will do with is TE Allen Reisner. He catches pretty much anything that comes to him and with Shaincoe’s contract up this year I would like to see them hang onto him. Getting him on the practice squad will be tricky. Remember they tried to get Mickey Shuler on their practice squad last year and the Dolphins claimed him. TE is deep for the Vikings so I don’t know if they’ll have room for him but I’d like to see him stick on the team.
The Offensive line impressed me last night also. Musgrave drew up alot of plays helping them out with chip blocks and extra TE’s but overall they played well as a unit. Herrera made his debut after tearing his ACL last year and looked good.
Defense:
Vikings defense was pretty bland. Doesn’t look like Pagac will show his hand before week 1 at the Chargers.
Cowboys tested Cedric Griffin alot during his 27 snaps in the game. Griffin was thrown at 8 times and Romo completed 6 of those passes for 57 yards. It was Griffins first real test and I expect him to improve as time goes on. Chris Cook played decently in his nickel duties even though he was flagged for interferance early in the game. Winfield and Cook both were shaken up during the game and eventually pulled but both have said they will be fine.
Marcus Sherels is continuing his impressive training camp and preseason. He was the first person to get a crack at punt return duties last night and also had a tremendous pass break up on 3rd down early in the game. I think he has a very good chance at making the roster but at his size(5’10, 175lbs.) he’s ment for the slot which Winfield plays at in the Nickel packages.
Tom Pellisero of ESPN 1500 wrote an article about the Vikings cornerbacks yesterday and something I have to agree with is if Winfield, Griffin, or Cook go down to injury, the Vikings could be in trouble. Will be interesting to see what the Vikings do there. I like what I see from Cord Parks at times, he seems to be a really good tackler but are his coverage skills good enough to be an effective CB? Brandon Burton also another player thats had his ups and downs, and I think he has a chance to be good but he looks like a practice squad player right now.
Jamarcus Sanford looks like he has the upper hand in the safety position. While I don’t think either him or Johnson really impressed last night, I believe Sanford looked a little better than Johnson. This is one position that I don’t think will be decided on until after Thursdays game.
Vikings defensive line looked good. Brian Robison did some nice things in run support last night and Christian Ballard looks like he will take over Robison’s role from last year. He has impressed this pre-season and has 2 sacks in 3 games.
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