But Sam Bradford, acquired on September 3 from Philadelphia, will loom over Hill and the offense until Hill either produces enough to keep a job or coach Mike Zimmer has to pull the plug. But the fact there’s a conversation to be had this week is a credit to Hill, who was asked to fill in for Bridgewater and helped the Vikings sidestep the kind of Week 1 pothole they fell into past year.
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The likely answer is no, at least in terms of these gaudy stats: They forced three Tennessee Titans turnovers, two of them returned for touchdowns, and held the Marcus Mariota-led offense to 122 yards in the second half, majority coming in garbage time.
Zimmer said Monday that he had his reasons for not naming a starting quarterback.
Here are three things we learned from the Week 1 matchup.
“I was trying to kill it because I had to get it there”, Walsh said of the distance. The Titans had a 10-6 third-quarter lead and were looking to build on it.
“The turnovers were catastrophic, ” Titans coach Mike Mularkey said of his first game since the interim tag was removed in January. “This is a huge challenge, especially when you go over there and play (in a) new stadium, and I wouldn’t expect anything less”. Vikes star Adrian Peterson was limited to 31 rushing yards. But stopping the 2012 MVP was the biggest goal of the Tennessee defense, and the Titans swarmed him early and often.
“I don’t have too many expectations are far as numbers or anything like that”, he added. “We need to beat them a lot more often for it to be a rivalry”. Hill did nothing to invalidate Zimmer’s decision, completing 18 of 33 passes for 236 yards and most importantly no turnovers during Minnesota’s 25-16 victory.
After the Vikings took a 15-10 lead on a field goal, the defense struck for a second time as Mariota and Murray fumbled a handoff exchange that led to a Danielle Hunter 22 yard scoop and score to put the game away for Minnesota. Turnovers sank the ship after halftime, however, with Mariota throwing one interception on a telegraphed pass and contributing to a lost fumble on a sloppy read-option exchange with DeMarco Murray. Two drives later, the Vikings’ second-year defensive end was in the Titans’ backfield again, this time dragging Mariota down for the sack.
Blair Walsh had a solid game, making four field goals, and accounting for the Minnesota offensive scoring.
After missing 37 and 56-yard field goals in the first half, his first meaningful kicks since fanning a 27-yard try that would have won an NFC wild-card game against Seattle, Walsh converted 50, 34 and 30-yard attempts in addition to his 45-yarder. He also missed an extra point.
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“You’re going to have games like this that show your character, show your grit”, coach Andy Reid said. “He’s our kicker so there’s no question about that, but he needs to kick better”.
