The 🔑 Pre Pick Six

If you follow the Purple Bizon Twitter account, you've probably picked up on valid negativity related to the special team's operation. If you aren't, well you should be but to catch you up, it's a joke. I don't know how the Vikings could be going about it more in a more clownish fashion! And I get that they want to find answers that last more than 2 weeks of the season but it's so in their heads right now that I can't help but think that they're going to continue to tinker to the point of futility. Today's adventure in specialist usage was just the latest example. I'm not even mad at Vedvik for the two misses because by all accounts he hasn't been the primary kicker in practice and it's a clockwork operation. If you aren't synced up then it's not going to work. So they need to stop messing around and just lock in to what they want to happen, SO THAT IT CAN!!!

If there is anything else that deserves be in the top six, while generating ire during today's game, the first team offense may be the right answer. I'll get to Dalvin Cook in a minute cause he was definitely the exception to the ineffectiveness of the first team. The excuse-o-meter will undoubtedly get fired up about what was going on but even Zimmer took issue with it so I don't think I'm far off in saying it's a top six topic and also was not good enough today. It's still just a preseason game but if Cousins repeats last season then a big take that I have, which I have not yet made public, could very well be in play for this team.

Now that the negativity is out of the way, let's talk about the good!

In my opinion it's still anyone's guess who will get the nod at backup quarterback. Sometime's that is an indication that neither of the reserve's are a good option but the Vikings may have worked their way into two at least competent QB's. If they're leaning even slightly in the direction of Sloter or Mannion then I think they should make some calls about the other guy being traded. I know it's not possible to have too many possible players but with the low ceiling at is the 53, it's sort of the same thing as with the specialists - settle on one, maximize the value of the other and know that Browning has a good chance of joining the practice squad. It was a good day by both the passers so maybe they'll go with three quarterbacks but then another position will take the hit. It's crunch time of the roster jig-saw puzzle and today didn't really help put the pieces together. It's a good problem to have but it's a problem nonetheless.

The offensive line may have had more trouble today then they did over the first to games but I think they still did a good job over the span of the game. Would have liked to have seen Brian O'Neill playing but as long as he's ready for week 1 the reps going to some of the key reserves may end up paying dividends as the season wears on.

Through four and I have yet to mention the defense. That's about to change. Jayron Kearse had as good of a day as I can remember him having yet. If not for the next topic, he would be the best of the day. If I were to broaden out to the entire defense today, they were good but not great. I'm still not overly concerned about some of the questionable thing's that I saw today because of the equity that they have built up over the last few year's. So the choice goes to the guy who showed that in three safety looks or as a sub for one of the two primary guys, he can be a plus for the whole thing.

And then there is the running back that I mentioned earlier. Dalvin Cook's touchdown run showed what he can be and going into extension time, that's great news. But I'm also very enthusiastic about what Alexander Mattison and Mike Boone showed today. Especially Boone if I'm being honest! Hopefully we'll get 14+ games of fine dining from the Florida State guy but if he does miss time again, I think the team is in a better position to avoid drop off.

Thursday will provide a few more answers but today showed a lot, most of which was positive. But what did you guy's see today? Did anything else stand out as very positive or very negative?