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The Vikings played their most important preseason game of the year last night, beating the Houston Texans 17-10. Vikings fans got a much more in depth look at the team’s starters during the game, as most of them played for around 3 quarters. A notable missing name, though, was Bernard Berrian, who is obviously one of the bigger weapons that the team has. Let’s take a look at some of the important pieces of the game.
THE GOOD
There were a lot of things about the game I liked.
Brett Favre looked much more comfortable
Favre went 13 for 18 for 142 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions. He looked sharp setting up screen passes, and looked good checking down to Visanthe Shiancoe on third down. I think that’s something we’re going to see a lot this year… 3rd down conversions from Brett Favre to Shiancoe. A couple times Favre got flushed out of the pocket, but he used his legs well to buy himself time.
Punt coverage continues to look sharp
Last year the Vikings scared me every time they had to punt the ball. They gave up more special teams TDs than any team ever, and often even on plays that didn’t get returned for TDs turned out to be big plays. So far in the preseason the coverage is much tighter than it was last year, and that’s a very encouraging thing to see. Last night the Vikings punted six times and gave up four return yards.
Brad Childress got creative with play calling!
The team actually ran the wildcat twice. It didn’t do anything spectacular… once was a 5 yard hand off to Adrian Peterson, and the second time was a 2 yard run by Harvin that got called back because of an illegal block by Brett Favre, but I love the fact that they showed the formation. I LOVE it. The Vikings need other teams to know that they’re willing to think outside of the box a little bit. It will alter how teams prepare for the Vikings during the regular season.
Adrian Peterson showed that despite the media circus, it’s still his team
First play of the game…. hand off from Favre to Peterson… up the middle… SEVENTY FIVE YARD TOUCHDOWN RUN!!!
The best thing about that play was the fact that there were 7 defenders in the box. I know that Adrian didn’t face 8 or 9 guys on EVERY play, but it was many of them. Last year the Vikings ran more on first down than any other team in the league. Unfortunately, every other team in the league knew that stat, and they were prepared for it. The presence of Brett Favre and his ability to read defenses and check out of plays that won’t work will scare a lot of teams into playing a more traditional defense, and Adrian Peterson is going to reap the benefits.
Chester Taylor showed why he’s still the most beloved backup in the NFL
30 yards on 7 carries… 41 yards on 3 catches…. a TD catch. Chester Taylor is good enough to start on the majority of NFL teams. Vikings fans know it and appreciate having him on the team. I’m glad to see the team put him to good use.
How awesome would it be to have a formation that had Berrian, Harvin, Shiancoe, Peterson, Taylor, and Favre all on the field at the same time.
The Vikings need to work on that.
Percy Harvin is going to be a fun player to watch
He did make a few mistakes last night (we’ll get to that in a moment), but you can still tell he’s going to be a play maker. On one catch he was hit by two guys… the two guys go down, and he manages to stay on his feet and get a few more yards out of the play. His speed on kick returns is amazing, and as soon as he learns to get past the last defender, he’s going to score some touchdowns. Even on one of the plays that he should’ve caught the ball, he had his defender beat and was heading to the corner of the endzone.
The Vikings lined him up in a lot of ways last night. As soon as he gets a few regular season games under his belt, he’s going to explode.
The Bad
There were also quite a few things about the game that I didn’t like so much.
Pass Protection
For having so much talent on the offensive line, they haven’t protected the QBs for very long. Sage was pressured in week 1 against the Colts. In Week 2, Favre was hurried on all 4 of his pass attempts, and Jackson was consistently having to create plays with his legs. Last night Brett took a lot of hits and he had to leave the pocket several times. Vikings QBs were sacked 4 times last night. The Vikings need to tighten up their pass protection, and they need to do it quick. They’ll be playing teams like Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and the Giants this year, and if they don’t fix some things, Favre is going to be picking a lot of grass out of his helmet.
Harvin is still a rookie
Two “rookie mistakes” by Harvin were made tonight, and they are the kind of mistakes that he should probably clean up quick. The first one came on a 3rd down pass from Favre. Harvin caught the ball, but the route he ran was about a yard short of the first down. Percy needs to know where he is on the field and take the extra step or two to make sure he’s past the maker.
The second mistake came on a pass from Favre to the corner of the endzone. Percy had his man beat, and the pass was thrown perfectly. It was just out of the reach of the defender. Percy should have either jumped for it or laid out for it. Either way, he should’ve caught it, and it would’ve been a touchdown.
He’ll learn, though, and he’ll improve.
The starting defense needs to last a bit longer
For the second week in a row I felt like the first team defense started out hot, but then started giving up too many plays. Obviously they held on when it was important, because Houston only scored 10 points, but they have the ability and the talent to be dominant, and they need to make sure they keep their play at a high level.
To be fair to them, though, Houston did have the #3 team in the league last year in offensive yards per game.
The Ugly
There was one issue that was too terrible to be mentioned with “the bad”
TOO MANY PENALTIES
The Vikings had 13 penalties last night (compared to Houston’s five). They were penalized 85 yards, and it should’ve been a lot more. Ray Edwards and a 15 yard penalty that was offset by a hold, and there were several penalties when the Vikings were backed up to their own goal line when they really couldn’t go much farther.
That HAS to be fixed. The Vikings can not give away free yards to the other team.
Several of those penalties were false starts, and I’m hoping that’s just a case of the starting o-line getting a feel for Brett Favre’s snap count…. maybe Chilly can make them snap the ball 100 times today until they get it right.
Many Vikings fans are excited to see what Harvin can really do. Last week he caught a couple passes, but didn’t have a chance to get any YAC. He also showed his speed on a kickoff return… one that if he would’ve broken ONE tackle, he probably would have scored a TD. The big question is whether or not the Vikings will want to show off Harvin a bit tonight to show the league that they’re going to have to set up game plans to contain him, or are they going to keep Harvin’s talents a surprise, so that they can spring them on unsuspecting foes during the regular season. I’d definitely see the strategy behind keeping him a surprise, but I’ll admit that I’m getting a little anxious and excited to see what he can do.
