Minnesota Vikings at Carolina Panthers: Second Quarter Open Thread

After they won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, the Minnesota Vikings found themselves kicking off to the Carolina Panthers to start their Week 3 contest at Bank of America Stadium. The defending NFC Champions got a quick first down on a run by Cameron Artis-Payne, and then found themselves in Vikings territory on a big pass from Cam Newton to Ted Ginn for 31 yards to the Minnesota 33-yard line. The Vikings' defense locked it down after that, and forced the Panthers into a 4th-and-7 from the Minnesota 30. Ron Rivera's team called on Graham Gano for a 48-yard field goal attempt, and he put it through the uprights to give the home team an early 3-0 lead.

Cordarrelle Patterson didn't get much on the ensuing kickoff, as he could only get Gano's short kickoff out to the Minnesota 20-yard line to start the Vikings' first drive. They did pretty much nothing on their first drive, as they quickly went three-and-out and picked up just three yards. Jeff Locke came in to punt the ball away, and got off a fairly awful punt. Carolina started out in great field position at their own 42-yard line after a 35-yard punt.

The Panthers took one play to get into Minnesota territory, as Newton found Greg Olsen for an 18-yard gain to the Minnesota 39. It looked like the Vikings were going to force the Panthers into another field goal attempt, but Newton found Corey Brown for a huge gain to the Minnesota 9-yard line for a first-and-goal. Newton finished things himself from there, as he ran one in from four yards out on a touchdown to give the Panthers a 10-0 lead.

Thanks to the short field, the Vikings got the ball at the 25 following a touchback to start their second drive. They picked up a first down thanks to a couple of completions from Sam Bradford, one to Stefon Diggs for 8 and then to Kyle Rudolph for 4. However, the drive ended on the next third down when Bradford got crushed by Thomas Davis for a loss of 10 yards. Locke came in to punt again, and this time he got off a monstrous kick, launching it 62 yards and having it downed at the Carolina 7-yard line. A penalty put the Panthers back at around their 3 to start their third drive.

After a penalty, the Panthers were backed up even further, and then Danielle Hunter did something the Vikings haven't done since December of 2011. . .he scored a safety! Hunter got to Newton in the end zone and took him down, and cut the Carolina lead to 10-2.

Marcus Sherels returned the free kick to the Minnesota 27-yard line to start the Vikings' next drive. Jerick McKinnon got things started with a nice pair of runs, including a 14-yarder to move the Vikings to the 44-yard line. That's the longest run of the season for Minnesota so far. As we move on to the second quarter of play, the Vikings are looking at a 3rd-and-2 from the Carolina 48-yard line after a pass from Bradford to Cordarrelle Patterson.

After one quarter in Charlotte, the Vikings trail the Panthers by a score of 10-2. Can they convert this big third down and keep the drive moving?