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The Minnesota Vikings finished the 2013 pre-season with the same record as they completed the 2012 pre-season with, as they salvaged a 24-23 victory over the Tennessee Titans to finish with a 1-3 record in the games that don't count.
A couple of guys made some pretty solid impressions in the final pre-season game, and will leave the coaching staff with some difficult decisions as they trim the roster to 53 players by 5:00 PM Central time on Saturday.
A couple of the more notable performances came from cornerback Marcus Sherels, who had a 109-yard kickoff return that saw him go basically untouched, and added an interception in pass coverage as well. Running back Joe Banyard had 116 total yards (64 on the ground, 52 through the air) and an 11-yard touchdown reception from backup McLeod Bethel-Thompson. Desmond Bishop also looked very good at linebacker for most of the night, and may finally be all the way back from the injury that caused him to miss most of last season.
Offensive lineman Seth Olsen had to be immobilized and taken off the field on a stretcher following a helmet-to-helmet collision in the second quarter. Reports from after the game, however, said that he walked into the Vikings' locker room when the game was over. At the risk of downplaying what happened, it turns out that he only suffered a concussion. . .and I say "only" simply because it looked much, much worse.
We're going to go back and review the game a bit further, and we'll have our impressions of what the roster might look like at 5:00 PM Central time on Saturday.
Thanks to everyone that came and hung out in the Game Threads for this pre-season finale. . .hopefully it will be a good warm-up for everyone for September 8 against the Detroit Lions.