Vikings offense again does little in 12-10 preseason loss to Colts

The Vikings departed U.S. Bank Stadium's playing field for the final time in the preseason on Saturday night, set to be away from their stadium for more than a month before a Week 3 regular-season home opener vs. the Seahawks.

At least until they face Seattle on Sept. 26, linebacker Troy Dye will have the distinction of being the only player in purple to visit the stadium's end zone in a game this year.

The Vikings failed to produce an offensive touchdown in eight quarters of preseason football at U.S. Bank Stadium, including a 12-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday that only could assuage concerns for the Vikings on one side of the ball.

The Vikings finished with only 227 yards of offense, holding the ball for only 22 minutes, 11 seconds and converting only two of their 15 third downs in a performance that was tepid enough to have both coach Mike Zimmer and quarterback Kirk Cousins conceding that starters might need to play in Friday's preseason finale at Kansas City.

"Offensively, we probably need to play, yeah," Zimmer said.

Cousins completed five of his seven passes for only 23 yards while the Vikings rested Dalvin Cook and Justin Jefferson. Adam Thielen left because of a thigh bruise after colliding with a defender on a third-down pass over the middle, throwing his helmet before entering the medical tent following the Vikings' first series of the game.

After four consecutive runs to start the Vikings' fourth series of the game, Cousins was sacked on first down from the Colts 32-yard line when first-round pick Kwity Paye beat Rashod Hill with a speed rush off the quarterback's blind side. A second-down throw to Ameer Abdullah lost 2 yards, and after Cousins recouped 9 yards with a third-and-20 scramble, Greg Joseph missed a field goal wide right from 51 yards out.

"Not enough consistency; I think we had two first downs, was it?" Zimmer said of the first-team offense. "They played a little over a quarter; we've got to make some more plays than what we did. It seemed like a lot of times, and maybe not just with the first team, we had some penalties or miscues that got us in bad situations, so we have to eliminate those."

The fact the Vikings nearly emerged as winners on this night was largely because of their defense, even as Zimmer still opted for caution with many of his starters.

He kept Danielle Hunter, Patrick Peterson and Harrison Smith out of the game, resting safety Xavier Woods because of "a little nick" and continuing to hold out linebacker Anthony Barr, whose health the coach admitted "is a concern." Eric Kendricks, Dalvin Tomlinson and Michael Pierce played the first two series before being lifted from the game.

Still, the Vikings defense came back from a 33-6 loss to the Broncos with a spirited performance, generating consistent pressure against Colts quarterbacks Sam Ehlinger and Jacob Eason.

Two plays after several Vikings defensive starters left the game, Stephen Weatherly pressured Ehlinger for the second time in the first quarter, and Armon Watts got a piece of Ehlinger's pass as he helped collapse the pocket. The throw went off the hands of intended receiver Pierre Campbell and was intercepted by Dye, who returned it 33 yards for a touchdown.

Cornerback Bashaud Breeland played for the first time in a Vikings uniform, breaking up an Ehlinger pass inside the Vikings 10 when he jarred the ball from Michael Pittman's grasp.

The play forced the Colts to kick their second field goal of the game, and the Vikings got a field goal before halftime when Jake Browning directed an eight-play drive, stepping up and away from pressure before hitting Chad Beebe for 32 yards on the run.

But Browning otherwise struggled for the second week in a row, completing only six of 15 passes for 82 yards while either trying to evade pressure or occasionally inviting it by holding the ball in the pocket. Kellen Mond came in to start the third quarter, recovering a botched exchange on his first snap; the Vikings punted on the first four drives of the second half before Mond connected with Myron Mitchell over the middle for a first down with just over five minutes left in the game.

Mond hit six of 12 passes for 61 yards, completing one of his final two throws after an Isaiah Kaufusi interception was ruled incomplete.

"I think it's really hard to evaluate young rookie quarterbacks, and I think you see, in all of these preseason games, some of these real high picks struggle with certain areas," Zimmer said. "He does some good things. I think he had a really good week of practice. He started out shaky [on Saturday] with the fumbled snap, but the only way to get him experience is to play him. But at some point, we've got to get ready to play a game, too."

There will be one more opportunity for the Vikings' young backups to play before the team decides if it needs a more established backup for Cousins. "We'll talk more about it this week," Zimmer said, "but with the monetary situation, we have to be careful about it, as well."

BOXSCORE: Indianapolis 12, Vikings 10

The Vikings have four preseason quarters left. They might need to use at least one of them to drain some of the tension from their offense.

"I would expect to play," Cousins said. "If we had had a tremendous night tonight, I would still have expected to play, or wanted to play — you know, crowd noise, being on the road. I would expect to play and try to get something going."