In the second half, it was an entirely different story as the Vikings scored twice on defense. Mularkey said DeMarco Murray held on a bit too long as Mariota faked a handoff, resulting in a fumble Danielle Hunter picked up and ran 24 yards for a TD. The Vikings won the NFC North title for the first time since 2009 last season, and their trade for Bradford clearly shows they have every intention of taking that crown again in 2016.
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The Vikings are a little shook after dealing with the most devastating preseason imaginable when their Pro Bowl quarterback Teddy Bridgewater went down with a brutal non-contact injury severe enough that he could have been much worse off if the medical staff had not acted quickly enough.
The 36-year-old completed 18 of 33 passes for 236 yards in Sunday’s win, playing turnover-free football and helping the Vikings rally from a 10-0 halftime deficit. Peterson gained just 31 yards on 19 carries and the team on the whole averaged just 2.3 Yards Per Carry.
Hill’s favorite target was Stefon Diggs, who caught seven passes for 103 yards.
Purple Update: Bridgewater has surgery scheduled. Still a better option than the Vikings had in place, the team forfeited their 2017 first-rounder and 2018 fourth-rounder in hopes the rest of the roster can play up to and beyond expectations to make a serious playoff push.
Chicago’s Jay Cutler threw for 216 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but was also sacked five times and hurried several others on a day when linebackers Whitney Mercilus and 2014 top overall pick Jadeveon Clowney led the pass rush.
The Titans controlled play for most of the opening 30 minutes, using a power running game with play-action and rollout throws on offense. The Vikings can ill afford to have a starting wide out disappear when teams are bottling up Peterson.
“It was a prime-time game – a Monday night game – and we came out slow”, cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said. Everson Griffen burst through a block to hurry mistake-prone second-year quarterback Marcus Mariota, who tried to slip the ball to Harry Douglas on the left side.
Mariota was credited with two of the turnovers and only a roughing the passer penalty negated a second interception.
And Hill played well enough Sunday that a coach interested in concealing his starting quarterback decision for another week – say, before a nationally-televised home opener against the team his club dethroned in the NFC North past year – could obtain sufficient cover to do so.
Defensive end Jared Odrick of the Jacksonville Jaguars has been cleared from the National Football League concussion protocol and is expected to play in Sunday’s season opener against the Green Bay Packers. Like and follow vikings32 on Facebook, and Twitter. “They said it’s a good fix; I don’t know exactly what he said”.
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Vikings CB Xavier Rhodes was scratched after aggravating an injury in warmups.
