Football is finally back in town … well, preseason football is back, with its usual assortment of splashy plays and mistakes/miscues/pratfalls. Last night’s game in Cincinnati wasn’t broadcast in my area, so I had to depend on Twitter updates and the game summary at Vikings.com to keep up with the action.
The first quarter didn’t follow the script from the inter-team practices earlier in the week (where the Vikings clearly dominated the scrimmages) as the Bengals kept the Vikings off the field except for a brief and inglorious three-and-out featuring the very worst characteristics of last year’s offensive line. Three snaps and three pressures on Teddy Bridgewater, including a sack by Geno Atkins, and the Vikings were done for the remainder of the first quarter. The Bengals took advantage of the Vikings defense, moving the ball with relative ease but not quite being able to turn that into points. No score at the end of the first quarter with a huge disproportion in yards and time of possession for Cincinnati.
Late in the first half, the Vikings finally got the ball back and Teddy Bridgewater and the first team offence did a much more creditable job of moving the ball and recorded the first points of the night on a 49-yard pass to Charles Johnson (but the Bengals had been pulling their starters by this point). Bridgewater ended the night completing 6 of 7 passes for 92 yards and the TD.
💣💣💣@teddyb_h2o ➡️ @MrInkredibleXII pic.twitter.com/xudokfBNQS
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) August 13, 2016
The Vikings extended their scoring after the Bengals tied it up with a 51-yard field goal from Blair Walsh and a rushing TD from C.J. Ham.
The kick that gave the #Vikings the lead right before the half. pic.twitter.com/7iPa8FMHdw
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) August 13, 2016
.@AugieFB's @cjham28 found the end zone from 10 yards out. pic.twitter.com/vmBti3HinG
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) August 13, 2016
Mike Nugent brought the score to 17-10 with a field goal for the home team, and some terrible tackling on a punt return allowed Alex Erickson to run 80 yards for the TD. The Bengals elected to try for two points to win (and avoid an overtime period on a hot, steamy preseason night), but the attempt failed to keep the score at 17-16.
Update: One nice thing from that otherwise forgettable first offensive series was Teddy Bridgewater keeping a play alive by stiff-arming Geno Atkins and completing the (short) pass:
My favorite play aside from the deep TD was Teddy stiff arming Geno Atkins https://t.co/5xVIpHsujX
— Tyler Carmer (@Carmered) August 13, 2016
