The 2013 Minnesota Vikings: Preseason Wrap-Up and the Road Ahead
The Minnesota Vikings wrapped up their preseason this
weekend beating the Tennessee Titans 24-24 in the Metrodome Thursday
night. They finally eclipsed 300 yards
on offense with 342 against the Titans.
It’s worth mentioning that most of the guys who excelled on Thursday
weren’t on the active roster by Sunday as the last cuts to get to 53 were due
in Saturday night.
The preseason wasn’t exactly kind to the Norsemen (1-3) in
terms of wins and losses but the coaches feel that they got an extended look at
their depth and avoided major injury to key players- which is really the
point. Roster fluidity is the name of the
game before Week 1, as the Vikings recently signed J’Marcus Webb freshly cut
from the rival Chicago Bears. He will
add some needed depth behind Phil Loadholt at right tackle. Added to the Vikings practice squad are RB
Joe Banyard, G Travis Bond, DT Everett Dawkins, TE Chase Ford, OT Kevin Murphy,
WR Rodney Smith and WR Adam Thielen.
Banyard has shown flashes throughout the preseason and looks more than
capable of adding to the second best rushing attack in the league. He’ll be joined by Zach Fine, who as
predicted last article, made the team as the Viking fullback in the wake of the
Jerome Felton suspension.
While the team’s official depth chart has some younger
veterans starting over new additions (CB Josh Robinson over Xavier Rhodes, for
example) guys like Rhodes and Patterson figure heavily into the team’s plans
early on. It wouldn’t surprise me at all
to see Xavier Rhodes get a few snaps against Calvin Johnson on Sunday or see
Cordarrelle Patterson get some touches in a shootout with the Lions, if
explosive plays are needed. Linebacker
Marvin Mitchell is a starting weak side linebacker but a 100% healthy Desmond
Bishop figures to be starting when he has a full grasp of the playbook. The weak side backer and the nickel back are
pretty important on Minnesota when you play teams that feature three-receiver
sets as much as division foes Green Bay, Detroit and Chicago.
On offense, we’re looking for Jerome Simpson to be the guy
at the number two position for Minnesota.
He has pressure to outperform not only speedy WR Jarius Wright who is
more of a natural slot receiver anyway, but Cordarrelle Patterson who has great
yards-after-the-catch ability.
Quarterback Christian Ponder will probably throw more passes to tight
end Kyle Randolph if defenses try to take away the deeper threats. With Ponder throwing the rock he attempted
the second most play action passes (165) in the NFL. So in 2013, with him at the helm foes are sure
to be fed a heavy diet of play action to crossing receivers and tight ends,
which makes perfect sense with Adrian Peterson toting the heavy load. But they need guys to bail Ponder out which
was the beauty of a healthy Percy Harvin.
We believe with Simpson and Greg Jennings combined they will have the
great route running possession receiver (Jennings- who also excels against zone
defenses) and the deep threat who is simply more athletically gifted then most
human beings in Simpson.
Opening with two division rivals, the Vikings have a tough
row to hoe early on. Lions, Bears, Browns,
Steelers before the Week 5 will be great tests of offensive balance and our
defensive scheme since all these teams have elements of great defense and
besides the Lions, aren’t exactly unstoppable offensive juggernauts. Opening in
Detroit in Week 1 they face Calvin Johnson who has tortured the Vikings
secondary for years now, but the Vikings did sweep them last year. Look for our boys to take away new Lions
running back Reggie Bush and force the sometimes mechanically sloppy Matthew
Stafford into a shootout. Detroit will
air it out, no question and the Vikings are going to need the horses to match
as Detroit is going to come in mad about going 4-12 last year.
Will the new look Vikings offense be able to survive a
terrorizing Lions pass rush? Can the
defense force mistakes from Stafford? I think both of these are a “yes”. The Vikings will then have to go to Soldier
Field to do battle with the Bears in Week 2.
They then face Chicago, who they don’t match up extremely well
with. Let’s say they go 1-1 against two
road division—most Minnesota fans will take that. A mini-home stand with Cleveland and
Pittsburgh, both AFC teams seemingly headed in opposite directions, are both
winnable games.
Our boys, with some tough defense and opportunistic offense,
could easily find themselves 3-1 in the division before October rolls around. They could also find themselves 0-4 if the
offense can’t match and the defense takes longer to gel. Such is the NFL—but we’ll put it on the line
right now and say the Vikings we’ll need to go at least 2-2 to make the
playoffs this year.
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