The Minnesota Vikings visited Denver on Saturday evening for their first preseason game. If there was any buzz about a preseason match-up it was all about the quarterbacks: how would new Vikings QB Kirk Cousins and former QB Case Keenum match up against one another, oh, and two other Vikings QBs were with Denver at this point last year.
Cousins was only in for one series, throwing four passes for 42 yards capped off with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs, after which Siemian took over at quarterback. Keenum didn’t have as good a night, recording two three-and-out series and not converting a first down.
Unlike previous years, I was able to watch the game (on a slight delay, apparently) because I’m trying DAZN this year, who offer all NFL games in their programming (we’re close to cutting the cord with our cable provider, at least for TV). The feed was the Denver home market team, so lots of information about various Bronco players and coaches, but little about the Vikings except Trevor Siemian and Kyle Sloter. Next week, the Vikings are playing at home, so I expect to have the Vikings commentary include relatively little about any Jacksonville players, unless they have a Minnesota connection of some kind.
At the Daily Norseman, Ted Glover provides his usual post-game Stock Market Report, including the “Buy or Sell” section:
Buy or Sell
Buy: The offensive line on the first drive. Riley Reiff only played one series but looked the best of everyone. I think Danny Isidora was the best of the rest, and as far as run blocking goes, the front five, to include Yukon Cornelius Edison, opened some gigantic holes for Murray, and established a great pocket for Cousins to set up and throw.
Sell: All the questions about the offensive line have been answered. After the first drive, the line had some ups and downs. Tom Compton, Isidora, Cornelius, Aviante Collins…they all made some great blocks, and they all had some bad whiffs. And as the Vikings went farther down the roster, the performance was decidedly worse. I think it’s fair to say that the first drive was very encouraging, but there’s also a fair amount of work to be done. I will say that assuming Pat Elflein and Mike Remmers come back, and they should, I’m feeling a lot less anxiety about this line than I was a couple days ago, all things considered.
Buy: Trevor Siemian had a good stat line. If you didn’t watch the game and just looked at the stat line you’d think ‘wow, what a good game’. SIemian went 11-17 for 165 yards, two touchdowns, and a pick. And based on that statline you’d think Siemian as QB2 was a foregone conclusion.
Sell: Trevor Siemian had a good game. All that said, I don’t believe he had a very good game. He had one really nice back shoulder throw to Coley, but of his 165 yards 91 were screens or dump offs to Roc Thomas (which, to be fair, were on two throws that both turned into touchdowns). The rest of his downfield throws were not accurate, and kind of all over the place. For example, his interception was on a throw to TE Tyler Conklin that was high and a bit behind him, and yes, it should have been caught. But it went off Conklin’s hands, and it became an easy pick. Yet, a good throw that hits Conklin in stride there, and it’s a huge gain.
Buy: Kyle Sloter for QB2. Sloter, on the other hand, looked really good. He went 9/11 for 69 (nice) yards, and a pretty back corner end zone throw to Beebe for a TD. He also had a nice bootleg TD run that put the game in ice late in the fourth quarter.
Sell: Kyle Sloter for QB2. Still it’s way too early to say Sloter should supplant Siemian as the primary backup. The overall accuracy was better, but the level of competition he was going against compared to Siemian wasn’t as good. It was encouraging, for sure, but I still think that Siemian till has the backup job…for now.
I fully endorse Ted’s comments on the QB2/3 battle: having watched the game, I thought Sloter was definitely the better of the two players, but the statistics seem to show Siemian had a much better game than I saw (proving that stats are not the whole story). Sloter looked much more comfortable in the pocket, while Siemian seemed very tentative and his throws were not as accurate as needed. If the Vikings end up keeping all three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, I’d be okay with it (provided Siemian shows more consistency in the later games), but if the team only keeps two then I’d plump for Sloter to be the second stringer.
Sam Ekstrom at Zone Coverage had some observations on the game:
– Considering the lack of continuity of the first-team offensive line, the Vikings looked amazingly competent with their patchwork unit — really the only negative being a Cornelius Edison holding call. The group opened up 20 and 21-yard runs for Latavius Murray on consecutive snaps, Kirk Cousins went 5 for 5 through the air on his lone drive, and Stefon Diggs made three catches including a tight window grab along the sideline and a slant for the Vikings’ first touchdown. The chemistry between Cousins and Diggs isn’t all that shocking, but the offensive line’s work on that drive was.
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– The Vikings got a good look at their trio of candidates for the third running back spot. Mack Brown, Mike Boone and Roc Thomas all had fairly pedestrian rushing totals, but it was Thomas who popped in the passing game with two touchdown catches from Siemian, one on a wheel route to give the Vikings a 14-0 lead, the second on a well-blocked screen for 78 yards to push Minnesota’s lead to 24-7. The touchdowns by Thomas will make highlight reels, but ultimately the battle will come down to consistency in the run game and pass protection ability. Boone had some trouble with blitz pickup and, at no fault of his own, got blown up beyond the line of scrimmage several times. Brown didn’t splash and wound up leaving the game with an injury. Round 1 goes to Thomas.
– Kyle Sloter is Mr. Preseason, right? No shocker that he delivered once again in his grudge match against the team that let him go last year. Sloter went 9 for 11 for 69 yards, a go-ahead passing touchdown to Chad Beebe and a game-icing rushing touchdown on a bootleg. One of his incompletions was nearly intercepted, but Sloter’s performance was largely impressive. His training camp hasn’t been the best, but Sloter’s first game action in a Vikings uniform didn’t disappoint.
