Vikings Backups Demolished 33-6 by Broncos in Sloppy Preseason Opener
That was a mess.
Playing without any starters, the Vikings didn't do anything to assuage concerns about their depth in a blowout loss to the Broncos to open up the 2021 preseason. Denver's first-teamers dominated Minnesota's mistake-prone 2s and 3s, jumping out to a 26-6 halftime lead in a game that ended 33-6.
From a Vikings perspective, this looked a lot like the fourth preseason game often does — except it was worse than that.
Minnesota went three and out on its first two offensive possessions, the second ending in a safety when Dakota Dozier was flagged for holding in his own end zone. Things only got worse from there. The next play from scrimmage was an 80-yard touchdown pass from Drew Lock to K.J. Hamler in which Camryn Bynum bit on play-action and Cameron Dantzler was flat-out burned.
Early in the second quarter, already trailing 16-3, Jake Browning threw a ball late and behind Ihmir Smith Marsette, and Patrick Surtain II jumped it for an easy pick-six.
The execution was poor on all fronts. There were penalties, missed blocks, bad throws, missed tackles, and breakdowns in communication. In other words, it was a coach's nightmare.
"I told them it was a very poor performance," Mike Zimmer said at halftime. "We’re going to scrimmage next week with this same bunch because we didn’t tackle well. We made the wrong checks on defense with the safeties. We throw an interception for a touchdown, we went three-and-out on the first two series. Terrible punts. Other than that, it’s been great."
The second half began with a special teams breakdown on a 62-yard kickoff return by the Broncos. The bright spots were few and far between all afternoon long. Minnesota finished with 3.7 yards per play and eight penalties.
Does any of this mean anything? Yes and no.
Nobody was expecting the Vikings' backups to come out and play extremely well against a lot of the Broncos' starters. Very few, if any players who saw time in this game will be counted on for meaningful roles in Week 1 against the Bengals four weeks from now.
But at the same time, this type of disastrous performance is still concerning. The Vikings didn't really look ready to play, and their depth is a significant worry after a game like that.
There are still two preseason games left, so there's time for improvement. Some starters will likely see the field a bit next Saturday against the Colts, so we might get a more competitive game. But this was ugly, and I'd expect Zimmer to ratchet up the intensity at practice next week.
Let's run through some takeaways.
Kellen Mond outplays Jake Browning
The Vikings' backup quarterback job belongs to Browning, at least for now. He had a good training camp, particularly early on. Mond barely had a camp, missing ten days while on the COVID list.
But with that said, the rookie was clearly the better of the quarterbacks on Saturday afternoon. Browning failed to capitalize on his opportunity as the starter, going 5 for 10 for 31 yards with a pick-six.
Mond entered the game after that and got all the work for the rest of the day. Danny Etling didn't get any snaps. Mond's final numbers weren't pretty, but he played fairly well considering he just came off the COVID list earlier in the week and is still a raw developmental project.
The rookie out of Texas A&M used his legs to extend plays and make things happen. He side-stepped pressure for a dump-off on his first NFL completion, picked up several nice gains as a runner, and nearly threw a touchdown pass while rolling to his right in the third quarter, but it was ruled that Whop Philyor didn't complete the process of the catch.
Mond finished his day 6 for 16 for 53 yards with no picks or touchdowns. He ran five times for 25 yards. A few of his incompletions were throwaways, and he didn't get much help from his teammates. Mond led the Vikings into the red zone twice, but only got three points out of it. Some strange clock management on the drive before halftime didn't help, although it's unclear if that's on Mond, Zimmer, or Klint Kubiak.
Zimmer still wants to see Mond speed up his processing.
"He needs to speed up the tempo," Zimmer said. "He made some plays in there, made some good throws. He’s just got to be more reactive than he is right now."
At the very least, Mond wasn't as bad as Browning, who had four forgettable series. Mond certainly has a long ways to go, but he showed some flashes of potential to build on going forward and should get plenty of work in the next two games.
Dantzler and Dozier struggle
They were far from the only players who didn't look good in this one, but the struggles of Cameron Dantzler and Dakota Dozier are particularly notable because they spent training camp competing for starting spots. It was already clear that they were behind Bashaud Breeland and Oli Udoh, respectively, because those players got the day off on Saturday with the rest of the starters. Their performances against the Broncos only served to widen those gaps.
Dozier did a lot of things that will be familiar to those who watched him play in 2020. He gave up a couple pressures, got called for a hold in the end zone, and was flagged for a false start.
Meanwhile, Dantzler's shaky start to his second season continues. He gave up some big plays throughout camp and was cooked off the line by Hamler on the game's first touchdown, even if he maybe should've had safety help deep.
Udoh and Breeland should feel pretty safe with their starting jobs right now.
A.J. Rose among a few Vikings with good days
There weren't many positives for the Vikings in this one, but there were a few. Fifth-string running back A.J. Rose got a ton of work with Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison getting the day off and Kene Nwangwu leaving the game with a knee injury after the opening kickoff.
Rose, a UDFA from Kentucky, carried the ball 25 times for 100 yards and added an 18-yard catch. He showed some solid shiftiness and physicality.
Other players who stood out in a positive manner were Kris Boyd and Patrick Jones II. Boyd had a nice pass breakup on Jerry Jeudy in the end zone and also had solid coverage on a deep ball intended for Jeudy. Jones made maybe the play of the day with a tackle for loss in the red zone, recording three total tackles in the game.
Greg Joseph went two for two on field goal attempts, converting from 34 and 25 yards out. I suppose that could be considered a win.
The game's injury news for the Vikings was Nwangwu leaving with a knee injury and linebacker Cam Smith leaving with a concussion.
Minnesota hosts the Colts next Saturday at 7 p.m. central.
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