Things started well enough with new weapons DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry accounting for 111 of Tennessee’s 194 yards in the first half – staking the Titans to the 10-point lead.
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Hill had the support of two defensive touchdowns and four field goals in guiding the Vikings to a 25-16 win Sunday, the first game for the Vikings since starter Teddy Bridgewater went down with an ACL tear and dislocated knee on a non-contact play in practice on August 30.
Eric Kendricks returned an interception 77 yards for a touchdown late in the third quarter and Danielle Hunter scored a 24-yard TD off a fumble return and the Minnesota Vikings beat the Tennessee Titans 25-16 in their season opener Sunday. Hill hasn’t started a game since 2014 and threw just seven times across three games last season, but Bradford was only acquired last week and is probably not yet ready to take the reins of an unfamiliar offense.
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 previous year – could obtain sufficient cover to do so. “I can’t wait to get with the coaches tomorrow”.
The Titans had a revamped roster from a new general manager for coach Mike Mularkey in his first game since having the interim tag removed in January.
“One of the things he said was he can’t wait to get back here and be around the guys, so I’m sure he’ll try to be around”, Zimmer said, “but the most important thing for him is to try to do the rehab”.
The 2016 Vikings season opener certainly had its ups and downs.
So the Minnesota defense took control. Peterson carried 19 times and couldn’t catch the two passes thrown at him.
“To be able to have success and win that game just kind of solidified for me that I can play at this level and have some success”, Mariota said.
You can argue whether or not Bradford was worth the compensation the Vikings gave up to acquire him, but we won’t do that here. But the offense failed to find the end zone despite Hill finishing with 236 passing yards.
Zimmer and the Vikings believe they can still achieve goals that were in place before Bridgewater went down.
Tennessee focused on stopping Peterson, who had 1,485 yards rushing last season, and the Titans did just that.
Walsh made four field goals but also missed two field-goal attempts and a point-after try.
Not starting Bradford after only eight days of practice with the Vikings made sense. Those were six points left on the field that were desperately needed in a game that we trailed 10-0.
“I thought Shaun did well”, Zimmer said.
Simply put, Walsh needs to be better or he may be out of a job soon.
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The Titans travel to Detroit next Sunday for a week 2 match-up with the Detroit Lions.
