Imperfect game for Vikings

By Brian Murphy
St. Paul Pioneer Press
MINNEAPOLIS - Tempered optimism prevailed Monday at Winter Park after the Vikings pored over evidence of their 34-6 season-opening victory over St. Louis and reached a unanimous verdict.
There was plenty to appreciate about a 28-point road win in which Minnesota dispatched an inferior opponent that could not get out of its own way.
Proof of poor execution and undisciplined football also was sufficient enough for the Vikings to acknowledge their mistakes and how fortunate they were to escape disaster. All of which made it easy for them to pivot to this week’s bigger challenge, playing host to the New England Patriots at TCF Bank Stadium.
“I’ve been around when we’ve had fast starts, and guys start thinking their poop don’t stink,” said defensive end Brian Robison. “We can’t be satisfied with where we’re at in Week 2, because we’ve got a pretty good offense coming in here next week.”
The Patriots (0-1) figure to be in a foul mood after blowing a pair of late leads at Miami in their 33-20 loss to the Dolphins, who gashed them for 191 rushing yards.
New England has not lost its first two games in a season since starting 0-4 in 2000, Bill Belichick’s first as head coach. That included a Week 3 loss to the Vikings, who have lost three straight to Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady - getting outscored 83-42.
“We have a lot to build on,” Robison said. “(But) we can’t afford to make the mistakes that we made this week.”
The Vikings committed seven penalties that cost them 70 yards.
Left tackle Matt Kalil was flagged for a pair of false starts that short-circuited first-half drives. Cornerback Captain Munnerlyn drew an unnecessary roughness foul for slamming wide receiver Chris Givens to the turf out of bounds.
A pair of botched shotgun snaps ended with quarterback Matt Cassel falling on the ball and getting piled on.
None of the gaffes proved fatal, and it helped Minnesota that the Rams were more self-destructive (13 penalties, 121 yards, two turnovers).
Collectively, however, it was a sobering reminder to the Vikings that they need to tighten up.
“We haven’t had a lot of penalties in practice,” noted coach Mike Zimmer. “It’s hard to put my finger on it from what happened yesterday, but we had way, way too many. We probably need to continue to do a better job coaching what (constitutes) the penalties.
“The communication problem really was truly just a miscommunication. We thought the ball was ready to snap. We were doing some things at the line of scrimmage, and the ball came back. So it was just an error.”
Unnerving, too, were the malfunctioning speakers in the helmets of quarterback Matt Cassel and linebacker Chad Greenway, which disrupted Minnesota’s play calling during its initial offensive and defensive series.
“Matt did a good job,” Zimmer said. “He knew the game plan, so he was able to make some of the calls, which he made on his own, and we were able to overcome some of it.”
Zimmer’s halftime admonition helped the Vikings settle down. So did Josh Robinson’s interception late in the second quarter, which set them up for a Cassel-to-Greg Jennings touchdown strike and a 13-0 lead.
“I think it was nerves just getting to us, the excitement of being out there,” said Kalil, who managed Pro Bowl defensive end Robert Quinn well. “Had to calm down in the second half, and then we did all right.”
Now comes the gauntlet.
After playing the Patriots, the Vikings have road trips to New Orleans and Green Bay bracketing a home game against Atlanta - four straight matchups against superior quarterbacks in Brady, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers.
“It’s tough for those guys to lose two games in a row,” Munnerlyn said of the Patriots. “They’ve got one of the greatest coaches to ever coach this game and one of the best quarterbacks that’s ever played.”
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