The Minnesota Vikings hung 42 points on the Denver Broncos in their preseason-opening victory Saturday night.
Their first seven points, though, grabbed many of the headlines.
The Vikings first-team offense promptly engineered an eight-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown. Kirk Cousins was perfect, Stefon Diggs looked to be in midseason form and the team’s run-blocking opened up a pair of big holes for Latavius Murray.
Here’s what stood out to head coach Mike Zimmer after watching the film.
- Facing a 2nd-and-14 early in the drive, the Vikings ripped off 20 yards on a run by Murray. He followed it up with 21 yards on the very next play. The veteran only had seven runs longer than 20 yards last season — he had two in consecutive plays Saturday night. “He’s been running well all camp,” said Zimmer. “The thing I liked about it was the acceleration through the hole when he found it, and then he drops his pads when he gets contact, but he’s been doing that all camp really.”
- RT Rashod Hill made a key block of LB Zaire Anderson on Murray’s first run. Hill has been playing catch-up after missing several days early in camp with an illness, and the Vikings want to see him improve his stamina moving forward, but his early performance against Denver was encouraging. “He’s done a really nice job,” said Zimmer. “He’s moving well in the running game.”
- Murray’s second run — also to the right side — got the Vikings into Broncos territory. Hill and Danny Isidora held up in their blocks, and fullback C.J. Ham sprung Murray to the next level with a block of LB Brandon Marshall. “The thing I was probably most impressed with was the way that we came off the ball with our offensive line,” said Zimmer. “I thought we were physical up front. I thought we came off the ball well. I thought we did a nice job of getting to the second level with the linebackers.”
- Two plays later, Diggs made a stumbling 28-yard grab near the sideline on what many considered was Cousins’ best throw of the night. But it was Cousins’ 1-yard touchdown pass to Diggs on 3rd-and-goal that stood out most to Zimmer. Justin Simmons was rushing at Cousins on a safety blitz, forcing the quarterback to make a quick decision. “The 1-yard touchdown pass that Cousins threw was a heck of a throw,” Zimmer said. “He was getting pressured and got it out quick and stuck it in there. People probably don’t appreciate that kind of play as much as the one down the sideline, but that was a really good throw.” Diggs ended up with 35 yards receiving on the drive.
- The Vikings capped off the drive with Daniel Carlson’s extra point, the first of six made kicks on the night for the rookie. Kai Forbath has missed eight extra points in his year and a half with Minnesota, so Carlson’s 4-for-4 outing on point-afters may go a long ways toward locking up the job. “I thought it was pretty impressive that he went out there and didn’t have any hiccups,” said the coach. “The PATs, he drilled them right down the middle.”
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Sam Ekstrom
Sam Ekstrom is an executive producer and host at Locked On Sports Minnesota. He's previously covered the Vikings for 105 The Ticket, Zone Coverage, Purple Insider, and the Associated Press. He grew up in Vermillion, S.D. rooting for the USD Coyotes (not SDSU) and graduated from Dordt (not "dork") University in Sioux Center, Iowa.
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