10(ish) players who stood out in the Vikings preseason loss to Denver
The Broncos dominated at US Bank Stadium
By Matthew Coller
If you spent months waiting for your first look at the 2021 Minnesota Vikings, well, you’ll have to wait a little longer to see what the actual team is going to look like. The Vikings chose to sit 31 players on Saturday, including most of the expected key contributors and even some players who we’ve considered as battling for position. The players who were on the field against the Broncos had a rough time in the 33-6 loss.
Let’s have a look at who stood out…
Jake Browning
Well, Jake Browning’s big chance as starting quarterback didn’t exactly go as planned. He lasted one drive into the second quarter before being yanked out of the game for Kellen Mond. Browning finished just 5-for-10 for 31 yards and a pick-six. To Browning’s credit, the Vikings’ offensive line didn’t give him much help and Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Zach Davidson failed to bring in passes that they got their hands on. It’s also possible Smith-Marsette missed something on the interception. Still the bottom line for Browning’s first appearance is that it wouldn’t be crazy for the Vikings to see if there’s a proven backup around.
Kellen Mond
After Browning got the hook, Mond made his first appearance as a Viking. He was largely on handoff duty but got an opportunity to lead an end-of-half drive. He completed a short pass to AJ Rose for 19 yards and hit Brandon Dillon over the middle for a first down. He scrambled for a first down inside the 10 and then overthrew Dillon to fail on third down.
Mond’s first throw of the second half went in the direction of two receivers, neither of which appeared to think it was coming their way. After several handoffs, he scrambled for a first down. Mond did make a good throw to the back of the end zone but Whop Philyor couldn’t bring it in. Through his first three drives, he was 2-for-10 passing.
On the following drive Mond scrambled for a short gain and then completed a fourth down pass short of the sticks. The offense finished with one first down in its final three drives. Mond finished 6-for-16 with 53 yards.
Last week Zimmer described Mond being in “slow motion.” That description appeared the be apt as he didn’t play comfortably and wasn’t sharp getting the ball out on time. He also didn’t have anyone step up around him.
Dakota Dozier
It was a surprise when the Vikings brought back Dakota Dozier, even at a very low price. It has been even more startling to see him competing with Oli Udoh at right guard rather than third-round pick Wyatt Davis. During the first two drives of the game, he displayed all of the things that frustrated Vikings fans last year. Dozier was beaten for a QB pressure on the first drive and then committed a holding penalty in the end zone on the second drive, resulting in a safety. Dozier jumped offside as a follow-up act on the third drive.
The fact that Udoh was not in action on Saturday may suggest that he’s locked down the starting position already. We’ll see if the Vikings continue to rotate practice reps going forward.
Cam Dantzler
The Vikings’ second-year corner has been behind veteran Bashaud Breeland since the moment Breeland was ready to practice following offseason shoulder surgery. Dantzler started the game at outside corner and had two miscues right away. He missed a tackle on a running play that turned a big gain down the sideline and then got torched for an 80-yard touchdown from Drew Lock to KJ Hamler. There may have been a coverage mistake by Cam Bynum on the play but Dantzler still failed to track his receiver.
Myles Dorn
It was a tough start for pretty much everyone on the Vikings’ defense but Dorn, a 2020 UDFA signing, had two of the most unfortunate moments of the game (of many). He got run over attempting to tackle running back Royce Freeman, resulting in an explosive 18-yard play that set up the Broncos at the goal line. Denver scored two plays later when Trinity Benson ran past Dorn for a wide open touchdown in the back of the end zone.
The linebackers
Since it’s preseason it’s safe to say the Denver Broncos weren’t running super complex play-action schemes, yet the Vikings’ linebacking group got beaten by them for several big plays. One in particular in the first quarter when Denver picked up 33 yards on a play where Troy Dye appeared to get lost in coverage and then whiffed on the tackle. In the second quarter, the Broncos broke off a 22-yard completion on a short pass with no linebacker in sight.
Rookie Chazz Surratt had back-to-back tackles late in the second quarter to help stifle a Broncos drive. He had a run stop for just a 1-yard gain and then exploded into Royce Freeman on a third-and-16 checkdown.
Cam Smith left the game with a concussion.
Last week Mike Zimmer made it clear that he was not happy with the progress of the backup linebackers and Saturday certainly did nothing to change that.
KJ Osborn
The Vikings’ camp standout was their best receiver on Saturday — though it was a low bar. He caught two short passes from Jake Browning, totaling 15 yards. That wasn’t the part that stuck out though. Osborn was the best kick returner among the three that got a chance (Kene Nwangwu/Smith-Marsette). The 2020 fifth-round pick from Miami averaged 25.5 yards per return on two tries. With an open competition for that spot, Osborn put himself ahead in the race.
AJ Rose Jr.
In a tail-whooping of this proportion, it’s hard to find outstanding performances but running back AJ Rose Jr. was consistently effective, catching an 18-yard pass and breaking off a 16-yard run. He fought for extra yards and pushed the pile forward consistently throughout the game. He ended the game with 100 yards on 25 runs.
Patrick Jones II
The Vikings elected to play some potential starters at defensive end with DJ Wonnum and Stephen Weatherly getting time early in the game. We saw Hercules Mata’afa before the rookies as well. When Patrick Jones II got into the game, he instantly flashed, getting one tackle for loss in which he shot into the backfield and then he created another TFL by beating his man. As the backup DEs jockey for position, Jones helped his case.
Janarius Robinson, the rookie from Florida State, had a batted pass and a TFL to bolster his case.
The specialists
It wasn’t a particularly exciting day for either kicker Greg Joseph or punter Britton Colquitt but only one of them got mentioned in a Zimmer TV rant at halftime. Zimmer mentioned that they didn’t punt well in the first half as Colquitt’s punts were both short, totaling only 78 yards (and one got a healthy bounce). His first punt of the second half went 48 yards but late in the fourth he only booted it an unimpressive 36 yards. Joseph made both of his field goals with the longest being just 34 yards.
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I had to chuckle at the NFL's new strategy of 3 preseason games but I wasn't expecting to see what was formerly game 4 of the preseason as game 1!! Some of the O-line play was so bad that I couldn't tell which fool was bowled over. I don't know why Zimmer is ticked. He sent scrubs on defense out against the Bronco's first team. The safety is on Zimmer. He stated all preseason that the O-line was just fine and the Offense placed 5th instead of stating 11th. If you're going to waltz DD out there at guard you could expect holding calls, being bowled over, AND at least one completely idiotic mistake. Everyone knows the guy isn't an NFL-caliber guard.
I will say, based on Darrisaw not being available and Wyatt Davis on 3rd team, though he is better than Dozier, we need to take some of the money and find a L-tackle Russel Okung is still out there. Its bad enough the Bears beat us to our would be QB, they also took one of the last LT s on the board!!
My final comment is that the O-line woes are on Zimmer as well. He has everything he wanted on Defense. He has persistently ignored the O-line. Look at the number of FAs signed for the Defense comparatively... we couldn't get at least one more decent O-lineman... average at least?
Maybe the title should rewritten to say "A bunch of players who sucked and one or two who were actually decent"
The bright side is the Dakota Dozier experiment might end sooner than later