ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – The Vikings walked out of New Era Field as preseason winners, 17-10 over the Bills on Thursday night, despite some all-too-familiar performances from a sputtering offense.
In near-perfect conditions on a sunny evening in Buffalo, quarterback Sam Bradford was sacked twice on nine dropbacks. Rookie running back Dalvin Cook averaged 2.6 yards on five carries. Yet the Vikings won with touchdown drives from both backup quarterbacks, Case Keenum and Taylor Heinicke.
"We still got a lot of work to do. My expectations for this team are a lot higher than that," head coach Mike Zimmer said. "I didn't feel like we covered well enough defensively — especially early in the ballgame, we gave up too many easy catches. Offensively, two sacks were disappointing, but we had only three penalties on the night and they had 10."
Bradford and the starting offense took a seat after zero points in three series, picking up just 24 yards. Bradford completed five of seven passes for 35 yards.
Zimmer spent much of the offseason lamenting "negative plays" the Vikings created on offense, whether by penalty, sack or a failed run. The Vikings had one from each category against the Bills, stacking up five of those "negative plays" within the first 25 snaps on offense.
First came the third-down sack on Bradford. Right tackle Mike Remmers, one of two key free-agency signings for the offensive line, quickly surrendered the pressure to Bills defensive end Eddie Yarbrough to end the Vikings' first series. Then the Bills overloaded the left side, where tackle Rashod Hill started for injured Riley Reiff (back), and the young Cook appeared to miss a block, to sack Bradford on the following series.
Then Cook's biggest gain, a 9-yard catch and run, was called back when guard Alex Boone drew a flag for holding.
"The first two runs were good, and after that it kind of drifted down," Boone said. "As an O-line, we have to clean it up. We have to make it better. I think we rushed for only 90 yards today."