The third NFL preseason game is traditionally the last chance for teams’ starters to get together in a game environment and show that they’re ready for the regular season to begin. This certainly wasn’t true for Saturday’s match at US Bank Stadium between the Minnesota Vikings and the Arizona Cardinals. Neither team’s starters looked fully awake, never mind ready to play in games that matter. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins in particular looked to be struggling with accuracy issues, as he registered a lot of incomplete passes in his first-half appearances (3 of 13 for 35 yards and a 39.6 passer rating), while Arizona’s rookie quarterback Kyler Murray kept the Vikings’ starting defence on its heels with his unpredictable mobility (although they did manage to keep Arizona out of the end zone).

With the notable exception of Dalvin Cook’s 85-yard touchdown run, Cousins and the starting offence seemed to be going backwards nearly as often as they went forward. The second team, under Sean Mannion didn’t do much better, and it took the third team to inject some energy in the fading minutes of the second half with All-Preseason Quarterback Kyle Sloter working his traditional magic to put the game out of reach. Sloter ended up with a gaudy stats line against Arizona’s third team: 6 of 7 passing for 102 yards with a touchdown, yielding a 158.3 passer rating. All he does is win games…

An exterior view of US Bank Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings’ home field by “www78”
“Viking Stadium” by www78 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Christopher Gates sums up the action for Daily Norseman readers:

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a victory

On Saturday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings played host to the Arizona Cardinals in the third preseason game, which is generally viewed as a “dress rehearsal” for the regular season. The starters on both sides of the ball played most of the first half, and for the Vikings … at least on offense … it wasn’t good.

The final score showed that the Vikings defeated the Cardinals by a final score of 20-9, but the first team for the purple on both sides of the ball was less than impressive.

The offense for the Vikings in the first half provided just one highlight … but it was a really, really cool one. Dalvin Cook, seeing his first action of the preseason, saw just two carries. The first one went for three yards. The second one went for a lot more.

Running is inefficient pic.twitter.com/6jRgGbJNxD

— Arif Hasan (@ArifHasanNFL) August 24, 2019

Cook took a handoff from Kirk Cousins and blasted for an 85-yard touchdown, giving him the longest run from scrimmage in Vikings’ preseason history.

The passing offense was, to put it mildly, awful. Between inaccuracy from Cousins and a handful of drops, with Stefon Diggs and Chad Beebe being the primary culprits, Cousins completed just 3-of-13 passes in the first half for 35 yards. A good chunk of those yards … 29 of them, to be exact … came on one pass to Diggs in the two-minute drill at the end of the half. Adam Thielen did not play in this one for the Vikings, but the pass offense was still bowling shoe ugly for the entire first half of play.

At SKOR North, Judd Zulgad discussed Kirk Cousins’ performance after the post-game interviews:

Murray’s performance provided hope. Cousins’ performance? Even the veteran knew it wasn’t close to acceptable.

“I’ll just start by saying, it’s a disappointing performance,” Cousins said. “Put it on me, it wasn’t good enough. If we play that way during the season it’s going to be a very tough year so we have to be much better than we were today. I really should say, I have to be much better than I was today and it’s about as simple as that. … I’m going to have a lot to look back at and learn from and correct.”

Cousins wasn’t exaggerating. The highlights with him in the game were few.

After the Vikings went three-and-out on their opening drive, running back Dalvin Cook, seeing his first preseason action, took a handoff on the first play of the second drive and went 85 yards on first-and-20 for a touchdown. Late in the second quarter, Cousins completed a 29-yard pass to Stefon Diggs on second-and-10 from the Vikings’ 46.

Got all that?

Otherwise, Kubiak and offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski had to be disappointed and at least a little (to a lot) concerned. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was far more succinct in summing up his quarterback’s play. “I think he can play a lot better than that,” Zimmer said.

The Vikings’ opening drive ended with Cousins overthrowing Diggs on a deep pass over the middle. After Cook’s feel-good moment, Cousins’ poorly thrown screen pass for fullback C.J. Ham was nearly picked by Cardinals linebacker Terrell Suggs on the Vikings’ third drive. Cousins had been sacked for an 8-yard loss on the previous play to set up a third-and-13 from the Minnesota 37. Cousins’ struggles to throw screen passes remain a mystery but the problem is very real.

It didn’t get better in the second quarter. After an incompletion for Diggs and a 1-yard run by rookie Alexander Mattison, Cousins was sacked again for a 3-yard loss on third-and-9 from the Minnesota 26. That sack was on tight end Kyle Rudolph.

“I think at the end of the day, I can get rid of the football,” Cousins said, taking responsibility for being sacked. “You can always as a quarterback, throw out of bounds, find an eligible (receiver) to throw it over his head so it’s in the direction of him or even try to skate out and start a new play.”

The Vikings did get a first down on their next possession — it came on a 7-yard Cousins completion to Brandon Zylstra — but that drive opened with a poorly thrown pass to wide receiver Chad Beebe and ended with a third-down pass that Beebe dropped.

Cousins’ struggles partially masked the Vikings’ ongoing kicker issues: recently acquired punter/kicker Kaare Vedvik missed both of his field goal attempts (43 yards wide left and 54 yards wide right). That won’t endear him to his head coach: Mike Zimmer has been noted as not being fond of kickers at the best of times.