Vikes at Hawks preview: You’ll Get a Kick(er) Out of This
Joe Oberle
|
On Friday night, the Vikings play their second preseason of 2017, on the road in Seattle. The Seahawks are a good test for the team, despite the fact that it’s the second preseason game. Still, the focus is on the Vikings, yet head coach Mike Zimmer is not necessarily ready to give all his starters a big run during the game. And he won’t say yet what he is going to do, but we do know some of the factors that he is considering.
“Honestly, I am really weighing that a lot,” Zimmer said when asked if the starters will play into the third quarter of the third game which is on Sunday. “I had the game on in the background [Monday] and I saw two defensive starters go out for the season. And I saw one team had five guys get injured yesterday, and so it’s a really fine line and my concern is, how much do we weigh the guys that I really know? I’ve got a pretty good idea if they can play, getting them in and just playing to play, and the backfire to that is really, are they going to be in shape for September 11th? So that’s something I’m contemplating right now.”
If we should be looking for a win by the Vikings in the game which will take place at CenturyLink Field in front of the “12th man” fans of the Seahawks, it might happen. But it is not a priority, even for a coach who has won all but one of his 13 preseasons game as an NFL head coach. Zimmer is looking for something else from his players.
“It doesn’t. It really doesn’t,” Zimmer said when asked if winning preseason games means anything to him. “I do think it’s good to win. If we’re playing tiddlywinks I think it’s good to win. I think the competitive part to me is always good. At the end of the day does it matter? No. But I think the competitive nature of your team, and especially if you got a young team that’s getting used to winning, I think that’s good. I know what the record is, but we don’t really go out of our way to win. But I like to win, yeah.”
Zimmer does think that playing in Seattle provides a good test for his squad:
“Number one, I always like playing somewhere in the preseason and on that road that is going to be loud,” he said. “It’s more like a true in-season game atmosphere, so I think that will be good. Obviously, the Seahawks defense is very good. They got guys up front that can rush, they got corners that can play man to man, a safety in the middle of the field that can go and linebackers that can run. It will be good for us.”
There may be another reason Zimmer will be interested in facing the Hawks this year, and that will be the reunion of his team with former place kicker Blair Walsh. Walsh was let go by the Vikings after frustrating Zimmer in the first nine games of 2016. He now is with the Seahawks and recently was perfect in a preseason game against the San Diego Chargers, making two field goals and six extra points. Last season in Minnesota, Walsh had missed four of his 16 field goal attempts and four of 19 extra point tries. It was not a good situation for the Vikings or their kicker in 2016.
“It just wasn’t fun,” Walsh told the Associated Press. “It wasn’t fun trying to work through it and get better. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to finish out the year. I thought I would be able to correct it, and I didn’t get that chance. But it’s all right. I’m happy with the place I’m in, and I wouldn’t change anything.”
Well, he is right, last season wasn’t fun, but I am thinking he might have changed the missed field goal attempt at TCF Bank Stadium in a 2015 playoff game against the Seahawks. Had he kicked the football through the uprights from 27 yards out to defeat the Seattle and move his Vikings team onto the next round, he likely wouldn’t be kicking for the Seahawks and would still be with the Vikings this Friday night. But then perhaps that’s just me that believe so. That wide left kick occurred in 2015, so maybe Walsh is saying that he wouldn’t change anything that happened in 2016. Okay, I will give him that. But if he makes that kick against Seattle, he probably wouldn’t have had to change teams in 2016.
Regardless, the sight of Walsh in a Seahawks uniform is only slightly upsetting since the Vikings are still undecided on their own kicker for the 2017 season. Will it be Kai Forbath, who replaced Walsh last season, or will it be the challenger Marshall Koehn? The whole Walsh angle at least makes it worthwhile to pay attention to the kicking game on both sides of the field on Friday.
But the Vikings have other things to be concerned about in Seattle. Will quarterback Case Keenum have another decent game as the Purple signal caller or will he revert to his underwhelming performance of training camp? Will Taylor Heinicke play better than he did last week against Buffalo? Will the wide receiver battle between rookies Stacy Coley and Rodney Adams heat up again, and will Laquon Treadwell, who returned to practice this week, get on the field and try to reclaim his spot on the depth chart as the team’s third wideout? Will tackle Riley Reiff and running back Latavius Murray see their first game action as Vikings (the Magic 8 Ball says “Don’t count on it)? Will the defensive line wreak more havoc on the Seahawks offensive line? Will the Vikings offensive line that Zimmer says is “getting close, getting close” be able to hold off the Seahawks defense to give the Purple QBs time to throw? How much playing time does the exciting rookie running back Dalvin Cook get? And will he find some room to run this week?
Oh, and one final question: Will the Vikings win?
To reiterate what Zimmer said: “I like to win, yeah.”
Say no more.