Vikings' Preseason Losing Streak Continues in 24-16 Loss to Titans

It's been nearly four full years since the Vikings won a preseason game. They defeated the Cardinals on August 24th, 2019, then lost their final exhibition contest that year. After the pandemic cancelled the 2020 preseason, the Vikings lost all three under Mike Zimmer in 2021 and all three under Kevin O'Connell in 2022.

Saturday night's 24-16 defeat against the Titans dropped the Vikings to 0-2 in this year's preseason and stretched their August losing streak to nine games. Call them the anti-Ravens. It's quite meaningless, of course. No teams play their starters much in the preseason, but the O'Connell-era Vikings do so even less than most. Still, it'll be interesting to see if the streak reaches double digits next Saturday against the Cardinals.

Tennessee's running game overwhelmed the Vikings' defense in this game. The Titans had 352 yards, of which 281 came on the ground. QB Malik Willis and RB Julius Chestnut each ran for more than 90 yards, and rookie RB Tyjae Spears hurdled Lewis Cine on an impressive 33-yard touchdown run to open the scoring. Chestnut scored a pair of touchdowns in the second half as the Titans pulled away.

Nick Mullens and the Vikings' offense settled for a trio of Greg Joseph field goals in the first half, taking a 9-7 lead into the break. Minnesota's backup offensive line didn't give Mullens much help; he took a beating while completing 13 of 23 passes for 151 yards with two sacks. Right tackle Oli Udoh had a particularly rough game. The former starting guard and current swing tackle allowed some pressure and committed two penalties in a row at one point.

The Titans used a 17-0 run in the second half to go up 24-9 as Jaren Hall and the Vikings' third-string offense started slowly. In the fourth quarter, Hall led a 12-play, 83-yard drive that ended in a one-yard DeWayne McBride rushing touchdown. Hall went 3 for 3 on that series and also scrambled a couple times. That score cut it to a one-score game, but the Vikings' defense couldn't get a stop and Willis kneeled out the game after the two-minute warning.

Hall finished 4 of 7 for 49 yards as a passer, adding two rushes for 14. Nick Muse, Ben Sims, Thayer Thomas, and Colin Thompson were the Vikings' leading receivers — everyone except Thomas on that list is a tight end. Vikings running backs only had 68 yards on 22 carries (3.1 YPC).

Defensively, 2022 first-round pick Lewis Cine played a ton and led the Vikings with seven tackles. He showed some encouraging flashes, but got burned going low on the Spears touchdown and clearly has plenty to work on. These are valuable reps for Cine, who was injured last season. Cine and Sheldon Day had sacks and Troy Dye snagged an interception against Willis, who played the entire game with Will Levis unavailable.

On special teams, Joseph made all three of his field goals to remain perfect in this preseason and NaJee Thompson made another sick play as a punt gunner.

The Vikings committed six penalties and were just 3 of 13 on third downs.

Next up this week: Two joint practices with the Arizona Cardinals and the final preseason game next Saturday at noon central time.

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