I have not blogged about the Vikings previous two preseason games for two reasons:
1) With the starters only making cameo appearances, I didn't care.
2) I wasn't able to catch the replays on the NFL Network, so I had no visual evidence to make any observations on.
Tonight's preseason game against Dallas was a little bit different because the guys I'm interested in watching perform – like Donovan McNabb, Adrian Peterson and Cedric Griffin – actually played a bit.
Alas, I don't live in the Twin Cities area so I couldn't watch the game live. Instead, I settled for catching a few plays here and there as the NFL Network jumped around from one preseason game to another. Beggars can't be choosers, I guess
So my impressions below are based on brief glimpses of the Vikings in action Saturday night. Here are my thoughts.
* Keeping in mind Dallas didn't play its top two corners, I was encouraged by the Vikings offensive performance. Of the six drives involving the first-team offence, they really should have scored points on five of them. McNabb looked quite sharp. The offensive line looked decent, which is about as good as we can expect from them this year, I think. The fact wide receivers Bernard Berrian and Michael Jenkins actually made some plays was encouraging. It's imperative Berrian provide some semblance of a deep threat for this team.
* I've been hearing a lot about rookie tight end Kyle Rudolph, but I didn't see him do much in this game. I'm counting on him to be an additional receiving threat for McNabb in case Berrian and Jenkins are non-factors this year (which is highly probable). So his performance was a bit disappointing.
* Cedric Griffin looked like the liability he was in 2006-2007, rather than the solid corner he became in the second half of 2008 and all of 2009. If he can't regain his 2008-2009 form, the Vikings secondary is going to be in a lot of trouble.
* Rookie defensive lineman Christian Ballard now has two sacks in three preseason games. That's good for Ballard. But it's bad for the Vikings defence because I think those are the only two sacks they've managed to get in three games. Add a defensive line that can't pressure the quarterback with a weak secondary and you've got a unit that could give up a lot of points this season. And it's not like the Vikings offence is going to be some point-scoring machine. I'm starting to sweat.
So what did you think of this dress rehearsal to the Vikings 2011 season?
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2 comments:
I thought the vikes offense looked scary good. the line could use some work, but some guy named Berrian came to play tonite for the first time since johnson was slinging him balls. im from iowa and i love me some ballard but the dline and secondary need to step up. But over all i was mostly impressed with play calling.
Tyler:
Thanks for the input. What I've read about Ballard is he was a bit of a disappointment at Iowa last year. But I've also read he has a lot of talent and the defensive line could use it now that Ray Edwards is gone and the Pat Williams of 2005-2009 is also gone and no longer plays at that level even if he was around.
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