Vikings vs Browns

I couldn't get the game here either. Just came out of the hills with 4-wheeler, chainsaw, dogs...and trophy wife. Cut open some old riding trails before it had been logged a few years ago..kind of a mess, but now it's back in the saddle again! Trails are cleared. Highlights looked okay. Mullins is a bit slow on the draw...I think that led to at least two sacks that I saw and the safety. He's not a #1 QB. That's settled.

Watched highlights, so it seemed like a good day.

Preseason wins, while they don’t mean much to some, show how good your depth is. The Vikings seem to be better off as far as that is concerned.

Was glad to see the turnovers, and of course the Lewis Cine sighting.

Montana Tom, The safety was the new guy, Matt Corral, wasn’t it?

I saw the first half with Mullens. I don't see how the new kid can't beat him out in time.

Favorite player of game was Dallas Gant, all over the field. We do not have a lot of depth at LB and think he has a shot at making team. Also thought Taimani stood out. Would be surprised if McGlothern does not make the 53. Rouse and Jurgens seem like solid picks and will add some depth to the OL.

Thought Mullens looked pretty good for his first pre season action, had some good zip on the ball and moved around pretty well. Trishton Jackson showing some swagger and physicality. Seems like he and Nailor are in the top 5 with Powell. Gaskin looked solid, shifty and quick, think he sticks.

Cine seemed to play the entire game, would not be surprised if they were trying to showcase him for a trade. Not sure why our kicker was kicking every kickoff into the end zone, unless he was instructed to as it would seem like these games are an opportunity to work on this new ridiculous kickoff.

Good post JR. I thought Taimani was really good! Along with Cine, Rouse, Hall, Gant

This offense makes all pro's out of WR dirt - its reminiscent of the Rams in that regard. 
Wonder why?

Cine played the best game I have seen him play in the pro's. 
Has the light switch come on? Finally? MAYBE?????

Looks like they added some depth for both the DL and OL. There will be some rook lineman making the 53

Mullens is serviceable for a game or 2. He's reckless at times and you just have to accept that with him at this point.

Thank goodness they signed Gilmore.

Hall look much improved over a year ago.

New play-callers
As play-callers, O’Connell and defensive coordinator Brian Flores were among the “starters” to get the night off.
Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips called the offense, while defensive calls were shared by defensive backs coach Daronte Jones in the first half and inside linebackers coach Mike Siravo in the second half.

Phillips had a good start as the Vikings converted 6 of 10 first-half third downs while compiling 198 yards, including 84 rushing, on 40 plays.
“Wes had great flow, a clear plan,” O’Connell said. “The operation felt clean.”
Jones had a first half to be proud as the Vikings held the Browns to 122 yards and 0-for-4 on third down and posted the game’s first turnover – a Lewis Cine interception off a ball tipped by linebacker Dallas Gant with 20 seconds left in the half and the Browns driving.

A highlight for Jones was dialing up a nice inside-backer rush that resulted in Brian Asamoah II notching a 14-yard sack that nearly was a safety.
“Daronte and Siravo did a nice job feeding off each other,” O’Connell said.

The Vikings had two more takeaways – interceptions by Jacobi Francis and Dwight McGlothern – while allowing only three points with Siravo calling the defense in the second half.

Source: Startribune

Cine finished with a game-high 10 tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and the interception.

Mullens had one potential pick dropped in the red zone by diving cornerback Tony Brown II. But under heavy pressure throughout his first half of action, Mullens twice threw the ball in the dirt when 2023 Mullens might have let the ball fly up for grabs.

“If I protect the football, I’m a really good quarterback in this league,” he said. “So anytime you can have no turnovers, it’s big. We didn’t turn the ball over, and we won.”

Mullens’ numbers weren’t great. He completed 11 of 21 passes for 135 yards, one touchdown and an 88.4 passer rating.

Mullens, however, handled himself fairly well as the Vikings were converting six of 10 third downs to take a 13-7 halftime lead. He completed five of six third-down throws to five different receivers for five first downs. He also was sacked three times and didn’t fumble. His only third-down incompletion was initially ruled a fumble but was overturned on replay.

Coach Kevin O’Connell said he was happy with Mullens’ performance and praised the two dirted balls mentioned above. But he was quick to add that Mullens should have also thrown away the ball that was almost intercepted in the red zone.

Source: Startribune

A week after his 48-yard touchdown burst, Kene Nwangwu helped the Vikings run for 84 yards in the first half. He ran the ball seven times for 45 yards, a 6.4 average, including a 13-yarder in which he showed some power and balance, bouncing off two defenders. He has only 27 regular-season carries in his career so far.

Risner has been dinged for a whole long while this TC.

Ingram needs the reps according to KOC - which is why he played last night.

Take from that what you will....

Wasn't able to watch, but I paid loose attention to the gamecast and then saw the highlights. My takeaways...

• LOVE this WR group. Strong at the top and strong at the bottom.
• Every time I see Nick Muse, he's making a great block. He's in a tough battle for the 53 with Harry and Tonyan, but I'm hoping he sticks. I think he has a future.
• Mullens' knowledge of the offense is invaluable. We're lucky to have him.
• Ingram is the only OL starter to play in this game and he didn't play particularly well. I heard Risner is hurt? I'm hearing some on Twitter say that Risner is on the bubble? Man, I don't know about that. If he is, it's more because of good play by Jurgens and not Ingram.
• Cine is a physically talented guy. Were the Vikings showcasing him for trade? Or did the light finally come on for him? Sure, it was against 2s and 3s, but none of his plays were because he beat an inferior athlete. It was because he was playing fast, and with purpose. Finally.
• McGlothern needs to hit the treadmill; WTF Matt Corral?

Reading that KOC had a # of QB's down for a try-out during the week in Cleveland. Corral was the one that stuck (for now).

Our man Jurgens had a couple bad pressures given up, but he was a beast again in the run game.

I am excited for our run game this year!

Cine is all about his head imo. If he is in the right place he is more talented athletically than Jackson and Ward. I hope he can get it mentally.

MaroonBells wrote:
Wasn't able to watch, but I paid loose attention to the gamecast and then saw the highlights. My takeaways...

• LOVE this WR group. Strong at the top and strong at the bottom.
• Every time I see Nick Muse, he's making a great block. He's in a tough battle for the 53 with Harry and Tonyan, but I'm hoping he sticks. I think he has a future.
• Mullens' knowledge of the offense is invaluable. We're lucky to have him.
• Ingram is the only OL starter to play in this game and he didn't play particularly well. I heard Risner is hurt? I'm hearing some on Twitter say that Risner is on the bubble? Man, I don't know about that. If he is, it's more because of good play by Jurgens and not Ingram.
• Cine is a physically talented guy. Were the Vikings showcasing him for trade? Or did the light finally come on for him? Sure, it was against 2s and 3s, but none of his plays were because he beat an inferior athlete. It was because he was playing fast, and with purpose. Finally.
• McGlothern needs to hit the treadmill; WTF Matt Corral?

Re: Muse. Agreed. Tongan might be fine if healthy but Harry hasn’t looked impressive at all.

Cine finished with 10 tackles, a sack, and an interception while play a majority of the snaps on defense.

If the past few weeks at TCO Performance Center are any indication, young safety Lewis Cine might not have a future with the Vikings. He currently finds himself buried on the depth chart behind fellow safeties Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, Josh Metellus and Theo Jackson, and more than likely faces an uphill climb to make the team.

Not ideal considering the Vikings selected him in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Though it might end up being too little, too late, Cine made a statement Saturday afternoon in Cleveland, playing a starring role as the Vikings earned a 27-12 preseason win over the Browns. He finished with 10 tackles, a sack and an interception while playing a majority of the snaps on defense.

“It feels good to be running around playing football,” Cine said. “It feels good to show my true potential.”

It started with Cine hauling in a tipped ball for an interception. It continued with Cine laying the boom in the open field. It finished with Cine blitzing off the edge and recording a sack. All of it impressed head coach Kevin O’Connell in the immediate aftermath.

“It was great to see him really look comfortable out there and make some plays on the football,” O’Connell said. “I felt his physicality, and I know the guys on the sideline were fired up to see Lew do his thing.”

Will it be enough for Cine to make the team? That remains to be seen.

The glass-half-full people will say the performance from Cine could be a launching pad as he tries to get his career back on track. The glass-half-empty people will say the fact Cine played so much in a preseason game isn’t a good sign about his standing.

The reality of the situation likely exists somewhere in the middle.

Source: Twin Cities Pioneer Press August 17, 2024 at 8:35 p.m.

LDR highlights...

#Vikings DT Levi Drake Rodriquez is going to be a STUD.

Blows up a double team, then knocks two players over, gets back up, and tries to tackle the player.

Extreme effort right there by @DrakeRodriguez5 🔥
pic.twitter.com/Jvv7X8iOd9

— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) August 18, 2024

MaroonBells wrote:
LDR highlights...

#Vikings DT Levi Drake Rodriquez is going to be a STUD.

Blows up a double team, then knocks two players over, gets back up, and tries to tackle the player.

Extreme effort right there by @DrakeRodriguez5 🔥
pic.twitter.com/Jvv7X8iOd9

— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) August 18, 2024

My own $$$ is he's on the final 53...

Its a hell of a story.

I got to see most of the game, and while I rarely invest much into "scrubs" games, it looked like the coaches were invested in this one, as opposed to throwing the kids in vanilla formations at each other for 4 quarters. Hall having good plays was great to see, Mullens was everything I expected (ambition with a side of foolish risks), but as noted above...our run game should be a whole step better this season.

Now that we just added a solid veteran CB, I'm feeling better about the season, and I was already actually more optimistic than most...!

purplefaithful wrote:

My own $$$ is he's on the final 53...

Its a hell of a story.

He's been our most disruptive interior lineman so far. If he doesn't start, he'll see a lot of snaps in rotation. Zero chance he doesn't make the team.

CLEVELAND – Vikings safety Lewis Cine was sitting at his locker looking a little sad, frankly, and nothing like you might expect a guy to look after a game-high 10 tackles, one sack, one tackle for loss and an interception.

So, you go up to him. You tell him his coach, Kevin O’Connell, singled him out first in his news conference after Saturday’s 27-12 preseason victory at Cleveland Browns Stadium. You tell him O’Connell said, “Great to see him really look comfortable out there and make some plays on the football. I felt his physicality. I know the guys on the sideline were fired up to see Lew do his thing.”

Head down, Cine says, “I think it was a good game.” You wait for him to elaborate. Nothing.

So, to break the awkward silence, you say, “How do you think camp is going?”

“If I’m being honest, I don’t think camp really went the way that I wanted it to go,” Cine said. “I wanted to come out and really like let it loose, but I had a little bit of a hamstring situation early on. It’s hard to show what you got when you keep getting a pulled this, a yanked that.

“I’m thankful to coach O’Connell for letting me work through it until when I kind of had to prove that I’m me. And we’ll go from there.”

Cine hasn’t said it, but you know he has to be wondering why he’s still a Minnesota Viking. The answer is simple: He was a first-round draft pick in 2022. Otherwise, he would have been long gone, free to sign with a team that might be a better fit than the round-hole-square-peg existence the former Georgia star has lived for the past two years.

The Vikings kept six safeties a year ago. If they keep six again this year, the math says Cine, McCain and Ward are battling for two spots. McCain has versatility, having also played cornerback in his 131-game NFL career, and arrived last month in large part because he played well under Flores in Miami years ago. Ward also has cornerback flexibility that Flores has been tinkering with all camp.

In other words, you start to see why Cine wasn’t celebrating Saturday after what was easily his best three hours as a pro. It is, after all, hard to get too excited about sacking a quarterback when you’re a 24-year-old former first-round pick and you’re still on the field to get that sack with four minutes left in a preseason game.

What happens to Cine when cutdown day arrives Aug. 27? Good question, assuming he makes it to cutdown day as a Viking. General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah showed a week ago he’s willing to pull the chain on the eyesore that was his initial draft. He shipped second-round bust Andrew Booth Jr., a cornerback, to Dallas at a point when the Vikings are starving for help at cornerback.

And Cine is an even bigger bane of Adofo-Mensah’s ′22 draft. It’s just less noticeable because Adofo-Mensah inherited from Rick Spielman what has become one of the league’s best safety trios in Smith, Bynum and Metellus.

You sense a touch of sadness when you look at Cine after Saturday’s game. You’re kind of happy the kid played well, even if everyone will call it meaningless.

“It was just football, in my eyes,” Cine said. “Just having fun. Not thinking too much. Running around, having my legs under me, working on everything that I had to work on just to show myself.”

source: Startribune

Riphawkins wrote:
Watched highlights, so it seemed like a good day.

Preseason wins, while they don’t mean much to some, show how good your depth is. The Vikings seem to be better off as far as that is concerned.

Was glad to see the turnovers, and of course the Lewis Cine sighting.

Montana Tom, The safety was the new guy, Matt Corral, wasn’t it?

Yes it was...from the Cleveland sports press:

Facing a 3rd-and-16 from their own 9-yard line, the Vikings attempted a play-action pass, but Williams was ready. As the offensive line slanted to the left, the Vikings quarterback Matt Corral rolled out of a fake handoff, only to find himself face-to-face with two Browns defenders in the end zone.  In a swift and decisive move, Williams dove for the tackle, bringing down the quarterback and securing a safety for Cleveland. The play added two points to the Browns' score, making it 27-12.

MaroonBells wrote:
LDR highlights...

#Vikings DT Levi Drake Rodriquez is going to be a STUD.

Blows up a double team, then knocks two players over, gets back up, and tries to tackle the player.

Extreme effort right there by @DrakeRodriguez5 🔥
pic.twitter.com/Jvv7X8iOd9

— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) August 18, 2024

I think LDR and McGlothern will be "surprise" guys that make the final 53.  Both have showed up in training camp and played well in these two preseason games.