Vikings at Raiders Wrap-Up: 2022 preseason game 1

The Vikings lose to the Raiders 20-26 in game one of the Vikings preseason. The score doesn’t matter much on these games, but you look for things going into the game, and you hope to see what you hoped to see. You can go to the game thread here, and here’s a link to the stat sheet, courtesy of CBS Sports.

Some things I was looking for was for Mond to look better and build his case for the QB2 position, for our backup tight ends to maybe step up and flash some talent, for our defense to look capable, and for our O-line to resemble an NFL O-line. I’d say that we saw most of that in the game.

Quarterback 2

I think Mond looked pretty good at times, and the offense “looked” better, and were much more in-sync when he was under center. At this point, you know what you have in Mannion, and it isn’t good enough. I think Mond made a strong case for the QB2 position, and keeping Mannion ahead of him on the depth chart would be a mistake, in my opinion. Mond finished going 9 of 14 for 119 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. Mannion finished going 8 of 12 for 79 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and 0 confidence that he should continue to occupy a roster spot. I think you give him the option to be released, or to stay on as the assistant QB coach. At this point, he may take it. Why not try? You want your QB3 to be some young pup who just needs to be trained. For this section, I give Mond a thumbs up.

Defense

An argument could be made that the defense looked less than capable at times, and that argument would be correct. Keeping in mind that most of the plays are fairly plain, this doesn’t mean a ton, but you hope for the defense to look better than they did yesterday, so that was an area where they underperformed. In then end, I give them a meh.

Tight Ends

Davidson made a big catch in the second half, there wasn’t a ton else that really stood out to me. Maybe once I get a chance to re-watch, I’ll see something I missed, but I don’t recall seeing anything from our tight ends, except for maybe a false start. I’ll give them a meh.

O-Line

You know, I saw some good stuff from our O-line. They did a fairly okay job of holding up against the “surprise” blitzes from the defense, but with Mannion back there, it’s hard to measure the D-line’s success. Against a heavy blitz, you hope the D-line can slow them long enough where the QB can still try to make a play. It seems they may have done that yesterday, if a QB other than Mannion is the QB. It’s hard to say. I will say that they looked more inspiring than they have in a few years, so I’ll give them a tentative thumbs up, with hopes they can continue to progress and as camp battles play out and starters are established.

Other Observations

• The Vikings have good depth at the RB and WR positions.
• I could see the team being interested in trade offers for Mattison, as he may be expendable.
• The rookies looked pretty good, and I think Asamoua and Mettellus stood out at times. Booth Jr. flashed talent, and also had a couple of rookie mistakes, which you expect, since Booth is a rookie.
• No reason for insane optimism or for doomsday predictions after game one, so I guess we can call that a net gain. It’s a young team that will get better as they get more reps.