When the 1st preseason game is the 4th preseason game

BRONCOS 33
VIKINGS 6

Nice try, Vikings, but I'm still happy to get back in the purple palace.

The Vikings opened their 3 game preseason today by playing their 4th preseason game. Even though that 4th preseason game, the one in which ALL starters sit and the only players to see action are bubble guys, no longer exists.

Denver played this game like you normally would, however, so most of the 1st half was their A squad against our C squad (with a few Bs sprinkled in). And that paced a 33-6 drubbing.

The late decision to sit over a third of the current roster meant Jake Browning started under center. He had been much hyped during camp, and as the lone vaxxed QB was also seen as a real leader. And he was awful today. He threw an ugly pick six. He missed throws. An ill-conceived scramble led to a holding call safety. But in his defense, when he was a camp star he wasn't playing 1s on 3s, with Blake Brandel and Zack Bailey as his tackles.

Surprisingly we ended up seeing a lot of Kellen Mond. There was some positivity there. Mond looked alright considering his limited practice time. There is clearly a lot of raw talent there. Mond had a couple good scrambles. He threw a TD pass that was dropped. He at least cracked open the door to still taking QB2.

The defense was pretty bad in that first half too, first against Drew Lock and then against Teddy Bridgewater. Denver moved the ball with ease. They hit an 80 yard touchdown bomb. We blew tackles, covered poorly, jumped offsides a couple times.

But hey, Greg Joseph made both his field goals!

It was a deeply dull game, and seemingly rather useless for the coaches. I question what they got out of this game, watching their 3rd stringers and bubble guys get drubbed by a team that was actually trying in a game they actually game planned for. 

Zimmer and Kubiak can say whatever they want, but they clearly did the bare minimum of game planning. It was VERY vanilla on offense. AJ Rose wound up running for 100 yards. Even with Mond in there and down big, there was no attempt to do anything really but run out the clock. Anyone hoping to see what new wrinkles Kubiak might have up his sleeve were left wanting.

It will be interesting to see how Zimmer and co. approach the other 2 preseason games. 

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