Daily Norseman
The Minnesota Vikings held their second joint practice at TCO Performance Center with the New England Patriots ahead of their preseason matchup on Saturday at US Bank stadium. It was cloudy and a bit cooler- in the 70s- for today’s practice.
Here are my notes from today’s practice.
The Vikings’ defensive front continued to dominate the Patriots’ offensive line, adding at least a few more sacks against the Patriots’ first-team offense. Jonathan Greenard broke out his sack dance at one point during the first 11-on-11 drills, but his wasn’t the only one. The Vikings also got to Drake Maye a couple times in the two-minute drill later in practice- two of the first three snaps. It was really another pretty dominant performance from the Vikings’ first-team defensive front.
On the other side of the ball, the Vikings’ offensive line turned in a pretty solid performance as well. There are signs that the new unit is beginning to come together, particularly in pass protection, over these two joint practices. Even the second unit fared pretty well, giving Sam Howell and Brett Rypien, and Max Brosmer enough time to throw on most occasions- not many sacks allowed. I get the impression that the first-team offense is further along in pass protection than in run blocking as a unit, but there are signs of progress.
I really didn’t notice the Patriots having any success running the ball either.
The secondary didn’t have any major blown coverages like they did yesterday, which was an improvement, and there were a few plays when Drake Maye had to pull the ball down and run for short yardage given good coverage by the Vikings’ secondary. And in both sets of 11-on-11 drills, the Vikings didn’t give up a lot of big plays, but they did give up two key ones in the two-minute drill- one by the first team and one by the second team.
The Vikings first-team defense had shut the Patriots down in the two-minute drill, leading to fourth down and a hail mary attempt to get the winning touchdown. Kayshon Boutte was targeted by Maye in double coverage, with Josh Metellus and Isaiah Rodgers covering, but Boutte came down with the ball in the end zone to win the drill. Metellus had excellent position to break up the pass, but failed to do so. He injured his shoulder on the play.
Metellus was able to walk off under his own power and from Kevin O’Connell’s comments after practice, it doesn’t sound like a major injury. However, that and a couple other plays involving Metellus does bring into question his value as a free safety or really his ability to cover wide receivers effectively in man coverage down the field. His skillset is more of a strong safety able to cover tight ends or backs out of the backfield, but against more talented wide receivers he can be exposed at times. It’ll...
