Vikings/Colts: 10(ish) players who stood out
Vikings drop an ugly 12-10 game at US Bank Stadium but there was plenty notable performances
By Matthew Coller
Remember when we thought we were missing preseason football last year? Well, the highlights of Saturday night’s game between the Minnesota Vikings and Indianapolis Colts were the frisbee-catching dogs at halftime and the fans throwing their programs up in the air while doing the wave.
However, despite its general ugliness, the matchup did feature some performances that could have implications on roster decisions. Let’s have a look at who stood out…
QB, Kirk Cousins
On Saturday night, the Vikings’ first-team offense looked about the same way it has in many practices throughout training camp. Kirk Cousins went 5-for-7 with 33 yards and took two big hits, one on a sack by Kwity Paye and the other as he was running for the sideline when a play broke down. Cousins didn’t complete a single pass to a receiver and one of his only targets in the direction of a receiver was over the middle to Adam Thielen, who got dinged up on the play
The three first-team drives went punt, punt, missed field goal.
QB, Jake Browning
From the beginning of OTAs, Browning has been locked into the QB2 position. He made a strong case against that status on Saturday night.
On Browning’s first six dropbacks, he had five incompletions and took a sack. He threw pass on the run that flew well behind a wide open Ihmir Smith-Marsette and then missed Smith-Marsette on an out route to the sideline. One play later, Browning held onto the ball too long and flung it up in the air as he was getting taken down by a defender.
His third drive was a little more fruitful. Browning found Chad Beebe on 15-yard pass over the middle and then found Beebe again while rolling away from pressure. But he followed up those two completions by sailing the next two throws over the third-year receiver’s head. The Vikings failed on the drive when he tossed a checkdown to Ameer Abdullah too high as well. After three series, Browning was 4-for-12 with 55 yards.
Browning’s night ended with an attempted Hail Mary that didn’t reach the end zone and was intercepted.
It may be time for the Vikings to make some phone calls about a veteran backup.
QB, Kellen Mond
Mond took over in the third quarter and got off to an inauspicious start. He fumbled the first snap and then overthrew a wide open Whop Philyor for a three-and-out. The follow-up act was similar. On a bootleg play, Mond threw the ball away and then he scrambled for a short gain and the Vikings punted. Once again, he looked uncomfortable with where the football was supposed to go.
Klint Kubiak largely seemed content calling running backs after that, handing off to AJ Rose twice before Mond completed a 6-yard pass to Zach Davidson on third-and-15.
Mond delivered a good pass downfield to Ihmir Smith-Marsette to start his fourth drive but the play was called back by a holding. He completed another pass short of the sticks under pressure and the Vikings punted again.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Mond made his best throw of the night, hitting a 22-yard pass to Myron Mitchell over the middle of the field on a deep in pattern.
The Vikings again failed to score on offense as Mond overthrew AJ Rose on fourth down and then Mond threw a near-pick with just a few seconds left. He finished 5-for-12 with 61 yards.
Mond’s overall performance again displayed why the Vikings haven’t believed he’s ready to be the backup QB.
LBs Blake Lynch and Troy Dye
As the battle continues for backup linebacker spots, Lynch got the first snaps at LB3 with Anthony Barr out. He took advantage of the opportunity, making a key tackle on a third-and-short situation on the Colts’ second drive to force a field goal.
It was mostly a good night for the linebackers overall. Troy Dye caught a tipped pass and ran it back 32 yards for the Vikings’ first touchdown of the preseason. On the following drive he created a pressure on Colts QB Sam Ehlinger on a blitz. However, Dye did get taken out by a blocker on a successful screen pass. That was emblematic of some of his issues last year. To open the third quarter, Dye shot into the backfield and made another run stop.
LB, Chazz Surratt
The Vikings’ rookie linebacker got a lot of run. He tracked down running backs quickly on a handful of handoffs but his most impressive play came on special teams. He shot down the field on a Britton Colquitt punt and blasted Indy’s punt returner. Last year they were missing a player who could be a difference maker on the coverage units.
DEs Stephen Weatherly and DJ Wonnum
The Vikings’ two defensive ends needed a bounce-back performance after struggling against the Denver Broncos last week. Weatherly looked like the better of the two on Saturday night, creating a pressure on the first drive with a standup bull rush and then getting into the face of Sam Ehlinger when he threw the pick-six.
Both players stayed in the game with the second unit, which suggests the coaching staff wanted to get an extended look at them. Late in the second quarter, Weatherly broke into the backfield and caused a high throw and Wonnum forced Eason to escape from the pocket.
It was clearly a better showing for the DEs. Good enough to keep the team from signing Everson Griffen? We’ll see.
CBs Bashaud Breeland and Cam Dantzler
Patrick Peterson was not in action on Saturday night but Breeland put on a purple jersey for the first time and played well. He tipped the pass that ended up being intercepted by Troy Dye and broke up a pass in Michael Pittman’s direction on a third down in the red zone, forcing a field goal.
Dantzler had another rough go, giving up a 28-yard pass into his coverage. The 2020 third-rounder isn’t on the roster bubble but he hasn’t appeared to have taken a step forward this year.
K, Greg Joseph
The lone Vikings kicker on the roster got his first preseason shot at a long field goal on the team’s third drive and missed wide right. He responded by making a 49-yard kick. Considering Joseph’s strong overall camp, a plus-50 miss isn’t likely to strike fear into the Vikings’ brass but he’ll need a good showing against Kansas City in the preseason finale.
The offensive line
Two notable things came from the offensive line on Saturday. 1) Rashod Hill gave up a sack to rookie Kwity Paye that the Vikings have to be hoping isn’t a regular occurrence when he faces quick rushers in the regular season. 2) Dakota Dozier got the second-team reps again over Wyatt Davis. It’s hard to say whether Dozier will have a spot on the team with Oli Udoh winning the job but at least worth noting that he hasn’t fallen off the depth chart. Kyle Hinton got work with the second team with Dru Samia out with an injury.
WR, Ihmir Smith-Marsette
The coaching staff gave Smith-Marsette plenty of opportunities to show he can be their return ace and he responded with several explosive plays. He brought back a 41-yard kick return and 17-yard punt return, flashing some quickness from the return position that we haven’t seen since Cordarrelle Patterson and Marcus Sherels.
With KJ Osborn getting the start at WR2, it appears Smith-Marsette won’t be the first guy off the bench behind Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen but he’s done well to convince
P, Britton Colquitt
Colquitt certainly got a lot of work in on Saturday night. His performance was vastly better than it was versus Denver. He kicked eight times at 46.1 yards per punt and the Colts averaged just 4.3 yards per punt return.
Support the businesses that support Purple Insider by clicking below to check out Sotastick’s Minnesota sports inspired merchandise:
Well... that was anticlimactic. Cousins 5-7 for 23 or 33 yards, both were announced, was terrible. Udoh and O'Neill looked decent but the rest of the line looked less than average. Cousins looked like he was playing scared already. Brown and Mond, though I don't have high expectations, looked terrible. I will say that their supporting cast was equally terrible so it was difficult to lay fault on individuals. I think to achieve "sucked" was the highlight of the Offensive effort this evening. Dropped balls, wrong routes... I knew we were in trouble from the first plays of the game but I didn't expect to see Mond having to help Offensive players line up or get the play right. Considering Brown has had two years with the team makes his performance even less impressive. Looks to me like we have no choice but to enlist the help of a journeyman back up or simply admit we'll lose every game Cousins isn't playing. Watching Cousins caused me to readjust my initial prediction of 10/7 to 8/9. Lets hope Theilen is just "nicked" and that it is not a "tweak"!!
Defense looked decent. Wonnum looked okay. Dye played above average but was not mistake free. Surratt played better than I anticipated. I don't know what to say about Dantzler. He shows both extremes some really good plays some horrible plays. I expected some sacks. I thought Hand had a decent game.
Kick off was a little better with ISM. KJ Osborn missed a wide open lane in the return. I thought Colquitt punted pretty well.
There's so much more that could be stated but I'm exhausted after watching that lol.
Hah, man, it is so hard to know what to take from a game in which our top 3 offensive weapons combine for 3 snaps. Matthew points out well how poor the offense performed from top to bottom. It doesn't even matter that Oli Udoh and Ezra Cleveland played extremely well (at least according to The Athletic, personally I don't like to trust my own OL play analysis), Hill looking rough was enough to make the OL an issue/disaster on the day. It is easier to provide help to a tackle than to a guard (just sit a TE next to the OT), but that is still a very big issue. Happily I would rather Hill struggle than Udoh, as I have more trust in Darrisaw eventually being good than I do Davis (such that by the end of the season we are more likely to overcome Hill being bad than Udoh being bad), but frankly in either situation we could be in trouble.
My inclination is to say that it was more important for our defense to play well yesterday than our offense, because an offense with Kirk, JJ, Cook, Thielen, et al. will probably eventually find its footing... that said, it is much worse for our team for our offense to be bad, given how much offense rules the day, such that one van easily argue that it is more troubling for our offense to struggle. Quite a quandry....