Vikings drop to 0-2 in preseason after offense largely stalls vs. Titans

The Vikings played their second preseason game Saturday night with 33 players sitting out after two days of joint practices against the Titans on Wednesday and Thursday. The midweek work had been largely for the Vikings' starters; the game was largely for their young players.

Final scores are mostly immaterial in the preseason, and the Vikings treat the games most as a controlled environment to evaluate players. The defensive concepts they call might not be the best ones to stop a certain run, but to see how a player handles a given technique. They blitz rarely, and occasionally leave cornerbacks without much safety help, to determine how they handle basic man coverage duties.

"We're asking our guys to play differently than they do every single day," coach Kevin O'Connell said. "And I think that's OK, in the evaluation process, really, on offense and defense. We need to know what we have, so when we actually start game-planning for opponents, we can build the best plans for our players."

Still, O'Connell said, "I would still like to see our team able to come out in these preseason games and compete to get victories." The Vikings lost 24-16 to the Titans on Saturday night because of their own inefficiencies.

Minnesota converted just three of its 13 third-down attempts, was penalized six times, settled for field goals on two first-half red zone trips and struggled to run the ball for much of the night against a Titans defense that sat many of its starters. On defense, the Vikings gave up 281 rushing yards, as Tennessee averaged 7.4 yards on its first 38 carries of the game before a pair of kneel-downs at the end.

"It just didn't come together with, you know, too much of some sloppy things that totally were in our control in the first half," O'Connell said. "We had some opportunities to finish those drives with touchdowns, and just did not do it. And then when we weren't able to get drives going, most of the time, penalties struck again. I know a lot of these guys aren't getting a ton of reps that are playing in these football games, but still would like to believe that we can play clean football and just simply execute the play call without penalties or mental errors. And we've got to continue to work through that with the group that was out there tonight."

The Vikings will have two more days of joint practices this week against the Cardinals, before a preseason finale next Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium. O'Connell said the Vikings' starters will see even more work in the two practices with Arizona than they did against Tennessee last week, all but ensuring they won't play a game together until Sept. 10 against the Buccaneers.

The Vikings' backups, then, will get another chance to improve upon an effort that was sometimes flat on Saturday night.

Titans rookie Tyjae Spears scored on a 33-yard run in the first quarter; Tennessee set up two more scoring drives with a 55-yard run from Julius Chestnut and a 26-yard scramble from quarterback Malik Willis, who played the whole game with starter Ryan Tannehill sitting out and rookie Will Levis missing the game because of an injury.

In addition to the four penalties accepted against them in the first half, the Vikings had another four flags — including three against their offensive line — either declined or offset by a Titans penalty in the first half.

They also saw Nick Mullens sacked twice in the first half, and gain only 33 yards on 12 rushing attempts. The Vikings drove inside the Titans' 30 three times in the first half, but all three drives ended with Greg Joseph field goals.

The Vikings got the ball back before halftime when Troy Dye carried his man about 10 yards downfield before passing him off to Lewis Cine, and turning to pick off Willis' pass for Racey McMath in the middle of the field.

The drive nearly ended without points when Caleb Murphy and Rashad Weaver beat Oli Udoh for sacks on back-to-back plays to force a punt, but the Vikings got the ball back after the Titans' Tre Avery was hit by Ryan Wright's backspinning punt and Tay Gowan recovered the ball on the Vikings' 46. On third down from the Titans' 8, Mullens threw incomplete to Trishton Jackson on a play where Jalen Reagor was also flagged for an illegal formation for covering up tight end Nick Muse on the line of scrimmage. Joseph's field goal made it 9-7 at halftime.

After punting to open the third quarter, the Titans scored 17 points on their next three drives, while the Vikings went three-and-out on rookie Jaren Hall's first three series of the game. Hall directed a 12-play, 85-yard scoring drive, scrambling for a first down on third-and-5 from the Titans' 20. A Titans pass interference penalty put the ball at the Tennessee goal line, and rookie DeWayne McBride scored from a yard out to pull the Vikings within eight points.

But the Titans picked up a first down that forced the Vikings to burn two of their timeouts, and a 23-yard Willis scramble ended any chance for the Vikings to get the ball back and see whether Hall could lead a game-tying drive.

Mullens completed 13 of his 23 passes for 151 yards in the first half. Hall finished with 49 yards on 4-for-7 passing.

"[I was] definitely more comfortable," Hall said. "Cleaning up the pre-game routine, having experience from last week, understanding what I need to do better and how I can prepare better. I have a lot more time on my hands now than I did before, especially in college. It's just using your time wisely and finding what you need to work on to be more prepared. I thought I found a better routine."

O'Connell said Hall will likely get more time to play on Saturday against the Cardinals. The rookie, and the rest of the Vikings' reserves, will try to make a compelling case for a roster spot.

"The way we're coaching these [depth] guys up, my hope is they can play their best football next week and really put a stamp on what they've done to try to make our team," O'Connell said.