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Some things that surprised me (and other thoughts):

Gerald Hodges playing in the nickel. Did anyone see that coming?

Jabari Price was in for 28 defensive snaps when Rhodes went out. I haven't watched the replay yet but I barely noticed him. Glad he got some playing time and its probably a good thing not be noticed when you're a DB. Out depth at CB was a big concern of mine going into the season so if Robinson and Price can step up that will be huge.

Robert Blanton looked fine at SS and was the only player to play all 67 defensive snaps. Always wonder if a young guy who hasn't played much and never started in the NFL can answer the bell.

We ran a couple of screen plays that looked really well set-up. I've felt for some time now that the Vikings have not been very good in the screen game and perhaps with Norv as the OC we'll finally change that. Always thought we were wasting opportunities to get Adrian the ball is space by not using the screen play more effectively.

Was Adrian rusty? Maybe not getting a single down in preseason isn't the best route to take.

McKinnon was in for only three snaps. Not really a surprise but thought we might use him more.

And then there was this from Peter King:

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer praised offensive coordinator Norv Turner for his use of Cordarrelle Patterson as a receiver and on fly sweeps Sunday in St. Louis. “When I got here,” said Zimmer, “I heard Cordarrelle wasn’t the hardest worker. But he’s been great for us. When Norv met with him, he said, ‘We’re going to get you the ball in a lot of different ways.’ And that’s happening.”

First time I've heard of any reports about Patterson not be a hard worker (past tense). Of course Zimmer and Norv immediately recognized his talent and got him motivated, whereas Musgrave just couldn't figure out to him on the field last year.

That quote by Zimmer is pretty telling of our previous coaching staff tbh. Frazier and Co. would never say anything like this in the media, it's really refreshing Zimmer does

Pseudo Everything wrote:Was Adrian rusty? Maybe not getting a single down in preseason isn't the best route to take.

I think its been years since he's seen a preseason snap.

S197 wrote: I think its been years since he's seen a preseason snap.

I got the feeling the Rams defense spent all week practicing to stop him and this was the first time since 2009 that the rest of the offense has really been able to answer the call and step up when that happened.

Though considering we had more rushing yards than passing last game, I'm not sure the team did much to make teams stop focusing on the ground game. With teams now likely focusing more on Patterson I expect it to open Petterson up more in future games.

Cliff wrote: I got the feeling the Rams defense spent all week practicing to stop him and this was the first time since 2009 that the rest of the offense has really been able to answer the call and step up when that happened.

Though considering we had more rushing yards than passing last game, I'm not sure the team did much to make teams stop focusing on the ground game. With teams now likely focusing more on Patterson I expect it to open Petterson up more in future games.

I think what was most promising to me was the evolution of the offense as the game progressed. It certainly sputtered early and there were a lot of mental errors with the penalties but near halftime and into the second half you could see a lot of adjustments. Its been a while since we've seen progression after halftime, the trend has been regression so this was definitely a nice breath of fresh air.

Cliff wrote:With teams now likely focusing more on Patterson I expect it to open Petterson up more in future games.

Patterson will need to show he's a threat in the mid to deep parts of the field as well as sweeps, screens and runs, otherwise they may not have much incentive to back off the line.

Hey any chance we wear white jerseys at home if it's really hot out? Pretty much every outdoor team seems to do it.

808vikingsfan wrote:Lurked in a couple of packer forums. Maybe the national media didn't take notice of the Vikings win but some Packer fans did.

Nice post. Thanks for sharing those.

I agree with you. I'm not concerned about Peterson. The Rams Dbacks did a great job of anticipating his runs and keeping him from getting into his higher gears.

dead_poet wrote: Patterson will need to show he's a threat in the mid to deep parts of the field as well as sweeps, screens and runs, otherwise they may not have much incentive to back off the line.

I would argue that there's more to it than that. Running Adrian off the jet sweep fake can be very effective. If the defense is keying Flash and bites on the fake to him going East-West, while Adrian takes the ball going North, it could be beautiful. Patterson doesn't need to be drawing defenders out of the box to open things up for Adrian, IMO. Though, I agree, it would be nice to see Patterson progress as a pure receiver as well.

Superfreak84 wrote:Hey any chance we wear white jerseys at home if it's really hot out? Pretty much every outdoor team seems to do it.

Hot? It'll be in the 60s. Should be a gorgeous day for football.

808vikingsfan wrote:
I'm probably in the minority but I thought AD looked good. He made some great cuts. On a few runs, he was one defender away from breaking a big one. I just think the D was keying on him, especially the DBs. Give credit to the Rams D.

I thought he looked great. Explosive as ever. In fact, he was probably too antsy in the sense that I thought he was cutting way to much and trying to play the juke game. I think he left around 30 yards on the field by trying to hit that big run as opposed to pounding straight ahead like he can also do very well and pick up an extra 3-5 per carry. Some of the cuts were neccessary, most weren't.

Superfreak84 wrote:Hey any chance we wear white jerseys at home if it's really hot out? Pretty much every outdoor team seems to do it.

Holy cow, that is the reason why they do it? Weak.

Superfreak84 wrote:Hey any chance we wear white jerseys at home if it's really hot out? Pretty much every outdoor team seems to do it.

Er, the Packers and Bears don't.

PacificNorseWest wrote: I thought he looked great. Explosive as ever. In fact, he was probably too antsy in the sense that I thought he was cutting way to much and trying to play the juke game. I think he left around 30 yards on the field by trying to hit that big run as opposed to pounding straight ahead like he can also do very well and pick up an extra 3-5 per carry. Some of the cuts were neccessary, most weren't.

Seemed like he was just trying to hard to me. Hopefully he'll settle down.

He definitely looked better as a blocker and receiver. Made some blocks I don't think he would have made before.

Want to hear something really funny. If the season ended today, the Vikings would be the number one seed in the NFC. Too funny.