Minnesota Vikings at Denver Broncos preseason: Second half discussion

We’ve reached halftime at Initech Field at Mile High, and your Minnesota Vikings trail the Denver Broncos by a score of 17-10.

For your viewing and listening convenience, here’s the link to our live watch-along of tonight’s game. You can either listen here or on the Vikings Report with Drew and Ted YouTube page to allow you to comment and interact with the show.

The Vikings won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half, giving the Broncos the ball first. The Broncos fumbled the kickoff, forcing them to start at their own 3-yard line. Unfortunately, the Vikings’ defense didn’t put up a whole lot of resistance, as Brett Rypien led the Denver offense deep into Minnesota territory and eventually found themselves with a first-and-goal from the Minnesota 8-yard line. But then, the defense finally stood tall and got a stop, as a pass from Rypien was tipped and fell into the hands of Luiji Vilain for an interception to end the drive!

Sean Mannion got the start for the Vikings at quarterback and, to his credit, led a solid drive of his own to get the Vikings into Denver territory. However, the drive eventually stalled and Ryan Wright’s first punt as the team’s lone punter went out of bounds at the 9-yard line.

Denver then got themselves into position for a 50-yard field goal attempt from Brandon McManus, and he put it through the uprights to make it 3-0 with just under thirteen minutes remaining in the first half.

Minnesota took over again and pushed all the way down to the doorstep, finding themselves facing 4th-and-goal from the 1-yard line. The Vikings handed the ball to Bryant Koback, the night stalker, who got stood up at the goal line. Kevin O’Connell threw the red flag to challenge the call, and the officials saw the error of their ways and gave Koback the touchdown! Greg Joseph’s extra point was good, and the Vikings took a 7-3 lead.

The Broncos responded immediately, getting into the end zone on an 8-yard run by Montrell Washington on an end-around to make the score 10-7. After the teams exchanged punts, the Vikings got the ball back with under a minute to go and two timeouts. . .after which Sean Mannion got the ball knocked out of his hands by Baron Browning, who picked up the fumble and rumbled 17 yards into the end zone for a touchdown. The extra point from McManus made it 17-7. Mannion and company did clean things up on the final drive, getting Greg Joseph into position to attempt a 46-yard field goal. Joseph put the ball through the uprights, sending this game into the locker room with the Vikings trailing 17-10.

We’ve got one half of football remaining, and it appears that Kellen Mond will take the reigns at quarterback for the second half. Come on in and join us, won’t you?