Seattle Seahawks at Minnesota Vikings: Second Quarter Open Thread

To start their Week 13 match-up against the Seattle Seahawks, the Minnesota Vikings won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, giving the visitors the football first. The Vikings, who are generally pretty good on special teams, gave up a big return to Tyler Lockett to get things started, as Trae Waynes had to push the returner out of bounds near midfield at the Seattle 49-yard line. Seattle pushed into Minnesota territory after Russell Wilson found tight end Cooper Heflet for a 13-yard gain, but Minnesota soon got the first big play of the afternoon.

Thomas Rawls took a handoff and went around the left side, where he was stripped by Antone Exum, who also fell on the loose ball. Rawls was originally ruled down, but Mike Zimmer challenged the call, as he should have. The officials reversed the call, and Minnesota took over at their own 30-yard line.

Unfortunately, the Vikings couldn't do very much with it, as two runs by Adrian Peterson and a sack of Teddy Bridgewater by Frank Clark resulted in a three-and-out. Minnesota called on Jeff Locke to punt the ball away, and the ball was downed at the Seattle 19-yard line, where Seattle took over for their second possession.

The Vikings appeared to hold Seattle to a three-and-out on a sack by Brian Robison, but Terence Newman was called for holding to give the Seahawks a fresh set of downs. The Seahawks took advantage, with Wilson finding Luke Wilson twice in a row for 36 yards into Minnesota territory. The Vikings forced another third down, but Wilson found Lockett for a nine-yard gain to the Minnesota 19, putting the Seahawks in the red zone. A few plays later, Rawls found his way into the end zone for the first points of the afternoon on a 5-yard touchdown run. Steven Hauschka knocked home the extra point, and the Seahawks had the early 7-0 lead.

Cordarrelle Patterson took the ensuing kickoff out to the 21-yard line for the Vikings to start their next possession. An illegal contact penalty on the Seahawks gave the Vikings a third-down conversion, but another sack of Bridgewater by Clark helped the drive to stall out. Locke came on to punt again, and the ball was eventually spotted at the Seattle 25-yard line after a penalty.

As we move to the second quarter of play, the Seahawks are looking at 1st-and-10 from their own 39-yard line after another big gain from Rawls.

The Seattle Seahawks lead the Minnesota Vikings by a score of 7-0 after the first quarter at TCF Bank Stadium. Can the Vikings get things right again?