Indianapolis Colts 12, Minnesota Vikings 10: Minnesota offense continues to struggle

In a game that may have set offensive football back a decade or two, the Minnesota Vikings and the Indianapolis Colts spent Saturday night locked in a struggle to figure out who wanted it less.

In the end, it was the Vikings.

In a game that featured no offensive touchdowns, the Vikings fell to the Colts in Week 2 of the preseason by a final score of 12-10.

The Colts dented the scoreboard first, courtesy of a 47-yard field goal by Rodrigo Blankenship to take a 3-0 lead with six minutes left in the first quarter.

After a three-and-out for the Vikings after the field goal, the purple finally got into the end zone, and it came courtesy of their defense. Troy Dye got his hands on a Sam Ehlinger pass that was tipped and got himself an interception that he returned for a 33-yard score. Greg Joseph connected on the extra point, and just like that the home team was ahead, 7-3.

The Colts then tacked on another field goal, this one from a different kicker as Eddy Piniero connected from 31 yards out to cut the Minnesota lead to 7-6 a couple of plays into the second quarter. The Vikings’ next drive resulted in a missed field goal by Greg Joseph on a 51-yard attempt, giving the Colts the ball with good field position.

Indianapolis made another push into Vikings’ territory, but the defense collected its second interception of Ehlinger, again coming on a tipped pass. This time, the recipient was undrafted free agent defensive tackle Jordan Scott, who got his mitts on the deflection to preserve the Vikings’ lead.

The Vikings got more points before the end of the half, with Joseph connecting on a 49-yard field goal attempt with less than a minute left in the half to send the Vikings to the locker room with a 10-6 lead.

Kellen Mond took over at quarterback for the Vikings to start the second half but struggled to get anything going. Meanwhile, the Colts got another field goal from Piniero, a 50-yarder to make it a one-point game again at 10-9 with about three and a half minutes left in the third quarter.

That’s what things looked like until just over six minutes remained in the game, as the Colts took the lead on Piniero’s third field goal of the night. He connected from 28 yards out to put the visiting team ahead by a score of 12-10.

The Vikings got a nice pass from Kellen Mond to Myron Mitchell to get themselves into Colts’ territory and found themselves facing a 4th-and-4 from the Indianapolis 45. After taking a timeout to talk it over, they could not convert as Mond’s pass to A.J. Rose fell incomplete. The Colts ran out the majority of the clock after that, bringing the second week of the preseason to a close.

Minnesota’s offense has not scored a touchdown in two preseason games. I’m not sure if I need to elaborate on that any further, but it’s probably time to start being concerned. The defense should be solid enough with all its parts, but the offense needs to click in order for it to matter.

Both of these teams will finish up their preseason this coming Friday. The Vikings will take to the road to battle the defending AFC Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, while the Colts will take to the road again to face another NFC North challenge, this one from the Detroit Lions.

For the first time as the Vikings’ coach, the purple have lost consecutive preseason games, as they fall to the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 12-10 in the second game of the 2021 preseason. Thank you to everyone that followed along with tonight’s action with us, and we’ll see you on Friday night for the preseason finale!