I sat down in front of the TV last night, expecting to watch the Vikings at the Cowboys, but after scrolling through the 500+ listings on Rogers, they were only showing one preseason game, and that was the Seattle versus San Diego contest. I ended up watching the NFL Network in order to catch the odd play and keep up with the scores. By the time I got to see any of the game I was interested in, Teddy Bridgewater and the first team offense had already handed over to the backups.
Unless he plays in the final preseason game, that gives Teddy a preseason stat line of 7-for-7 and 76 yards in this game and 29 of 35 for 295 yards and a TD with no interceptions over four games. That’s a completion rate of 82.8%, which would be very impressive if he carries that over into the regular season. He’d said earlier this week that his season goal is to complete 70% of his passes.
In the various final roster predictions that have been showing up in the fan pages lately, a popular “hot taek” has been that Cordarrelle Patterson was on the bubble and might not make the team. Then he does something like this and reminds everyone why teams didn’t want to kick to him if they could possibly avoid it. That’s a 107-yard kick return for a Vikings TD.
From the “my team gets no respect” folder:
with the exception of cordarrelle TD, NFL network all Dallas highlights….Romo TDs
— Vikings Football (@Kevin_VFB) August 30, 2015
At the Daily Norseman, Christopher Gates wraps up the bulk of the game I didn’t get to watch:
Neither team got very much going early on. The Cowboys got the ball first, and were forced to punt on their first two drives. The Vikings punted on their first drive as well, but the offense got going on the second drive. A defensive holding penalty on Brandon Carr allowed the Vikings to convert a third down, and we finally got a deep connection from Teddy Bridgewater to Mike Wallace, as they connected for a 39-yard pitch-and-catch to the Dallas 12-yard line. However, the drive stalled and the Vikings brought in Blair Walsh for a 28-yard field goal attempt. He knocked it through the uprights, and the Vikings found themselves with a 3-0 lead after one quarter of play.
It didn’t take the Cowboys long to get things going when they switched sides. Tony Romo found Terence Williams on the first play of the second quarter, and he did the rest for a 60-yard touchdown. A lot of players took a lot of bad angles on the play, and Williams had a relatively easy path to the end zone for the score. The point after was good, and Dallas took a 7-3 lead.
And the Cowboys had the lead for approximately 13 seconds, as Cordarrelle Patterson took the ensuing kickoff seven yards deep in the end zone and looked like the Cordarrelle Patterson of old, taking it all the way back to the end zone for a touchdown. Walsh knocked home the extra point, and the Vikings took the lead back at 10-7.
That ended Bridgewater’s night, as Shaun Hill took over on the Vikings’ first possession of the second quarter. He ended his night without any real blemishes, going 7-for-7 for 76 yards. He did take his first sack of the preseason on the drive that ended with Walsh’s field goal.
On the next punt, the Vikings suffered a setback, as punter Jeff Locke landed awkwardly on his second punt attempt of the night. He grabbed his non-kicking leg, and was replaced by Blair Walsh when the Vikings had to re-punt. Locke returned to the game in the second half, so the injury was not as serious as first feared.
