The Vikings haven’t won a road game in over a year, so last night’s matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs was a good test of the new coaching staff and how well they had prepared the team for the new season. Matt Cassel once again started for the Vikings at quarterback, and played all of the first half and most of the third quarter with the starters. It was a very hot night in Kansas City, so both teams had to watch their players carefully for heat-related issues. Adrian Peterson once again didn’t play (no reason to risk injury in meaningless games: we know he’s automatically on the 53-man roster).
Coming into the game, the starting offensive players are pretty much set (assuming that Matt Cassel has won the quarterback competition over rookie Teddy Bridgewater), but there were still battles going on for starting defensive roles at safety, corner, and middle linebacker. One player saw his chances of winning a starting position go way down was cornerback Josh Robinson, who was flagged for pass interference early in the game.
The Daily Norseman‘s Ted Glover takes us through the start of the game:
The Minnesota Vikings started strong, floundered for a little bit, and then ran away from the Kansas City Chiefs on a hot and humid night at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Vikings won the toss and deferred to the second half, and the Chiefs offense couldn’t get much going, other than a 16 yard pass to RB Knile Davis. A Dustin Colquitt punt pinned the Vikings back to their own three, where they took the ball on their first possession.
And all the Vikings did was march 97 yards on five plays. QB Matt Cassel hit RB Matt Asiata for 31 yards on a short swing pass, and after a couple of non-descript Asiata runs, Cassel uncorked the deep ball and hit Cordarrelle Patterson for 53 yards and a score, putting the Vikings up 7-0 less than three minutes into the game.
ESPN‘s Ben Goessling says that the defensive extreme makeover seems to be working for the Vikings so far:
The Minnesota Vikings got what was probably their final realistic look at their defensive overhaul on Saturday night at Arrowhead Stadium, and while the performance from their first team in 2 1/2 quarters wasn’t perfect, the Vikings did some things that have to make coach Mike Zimmer happy.
The pressure they put on Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith in a 30-12 victory was particularly impressive; the Vikings sacked Smith three times and had a couple more opportunities where he slipped out of a defender’s grasp just before a sack. Everson Griffen was again active, Brian Robison chimed in with some solid pressure and each had a half-sack. Defensive tackle Tom Johnson got after the quarterback in the Vikings’ nickel rush package, and Anthony Barr knocked down a pass when he and Captain Munnerlyn came through on a blitz. The Vikings also stiffened up in the red zone twice, with Munnerlyn and linebacker Chad Greenway making instinctive plays to pick off Smith.
There were still things to be concerned about — the Vikings’ linebackers struggled in pass coverage, and with no Jamaal Charles, the Chiefs didn’t exactly present a formidable test. But the Vikings’ third preseason game — ostensibly their most realistic test before the regular season — confirmed some signs of progress on defense.
