The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Vikings -Titans
Joe Oberle
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Vikings Territory Breakdown:
It was a spaghetti western for the Vikings in their preseason game against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday—the good, the bad and the ugly. The good was some of what we’ve come to expect this offseason: Ivan Pace with another good game, Lewis Cine with a flash defensive play, Najee Thompson killing it on special teams. We saw that in week one and saw it again against the Titans on Saturday night.
The bad and ugly are something else altogether. Right tackle Oli Udoh had a particularly bad night (ugly, really) with penalties on two consecutive plays and two sacks given up. As an important swing tackle on the offense, he needs to step it up this week to get right for the coming season opener in a few weeks.
The ugly moniker has to go the long touchdown run by a rookie running back, who leaped over a poor-tackling Cine, resulting in a whiff you could hear in the rafters. Cine has plenty of work to do before he will find himself with any meaningful reps this season—not a great thing to consider since he was Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah’s first-ever draft pick last season. Work to be done.
There were other good and bad moments in the game, and the fellas on the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast—Joe Oberle from Vikings Territory and purplePSTD and Mark Craig from the Star Tribune—are on hand to break it all down. Some things give them hope (such as rookie QB Jaren Hall making plays with his legs) and some give them concern (like penalties all over the field for the Purple). So tune in to check it out and get primed for another week of joint practices and another preseason game with the Arizona Cardinals.