In week 1 the Vikings started off the 2016 season with a game in their new dome.The fans were excited and the hype seemed to spill over onto the team as well. They came out swinging and never looked back. They played a Texans, that was coming off a restructuring year.Instead of going with Ryan Mallet they started rookie QB Hunter Russel.Who the Vikings found out, has some legs.
The Vikings first drive ended in a pass where WR Charles Johnson turned around and stopped to make the catch, finding 4 defenders baring down on him quickly from all sides. However he makes a move, breaks a tackle ,and is off the a 78 yard score for a 7-0 lead. The Vikings defense did a good job at stopping the Texans at the 50 and forced a punt. It went back and fourth like this until the second quarter when the score was 3-7 .Then on a long drive Rookie Sensation HB Griffin ran the ball in from the 2 for a score to go up 3-14.
Then FS Harrison Smith does what he did well last season, read a play perfectly and got his 20th carreer int.The Vikings scored on the ensuing drive with a pass to WR Ace Hayes to go up 3-21. The defense holds up again, but this time the Vikings are pinned on their own 6 yard line.On a third down and 12, Teddy Bridgewater noticed a mismatch on the outside with CB Johnathan Joseph tring to press WR Mike Wallace, and burned him on a deep pass for a 94 yard touchdown pass to go up 3-28.
The Texans managed to get another FG in the third, but other than a nice read option run on a 3rd and 1 by the rookie qb, the Texans offense was shut down for the most part all game. The Vikings managed a FG of their own to go up 6-31 .On a play near the end of the game, the Rookie HB Griffin showed off some of his power and strength that drew the Vikings to pick him in round 1 of the draft, as he dragged Jadaveon Clowney who was hanging on his back for a good 5 yards and would not go down. The rookie had an ok outting for 105 yards but only averaged about 4 yards per carry. Teddy Bridgewater played his best game ever going 13/15 for 293 yards , 3 TDS and 0, yes 0 INTS.
After the game coach PDizel had this to say " I think the excitement of the new dome really had our team pumped up tonight. We played a solid game from start to finish, didnt turn the ball over, and made some good plays. We worked in the offseason on lessoning Teddy's turnovers, and part of that plan was to get a strong running game going as that is what we want to focus in on more.We think this is a possible gameplan that can help our offense get moving more than we did last year . We will see how it goes, but we have 5 very good Hbs we like each one of them and at different times they will find their ways onto the field.We like to play it out as each games goes along to see who is having the most success against that team. Our new offensive line looked decent but we have numerous rookies so that is a work in progress , I hope by the end of the season they will be coming around though.We still have alot of work to do.We can't enjoy this win too much as we have a very tough opponent next week in the Redskins and they have a great coach in Don Cheedle. We have alot of preperation to do for this week. Its one game at a time, and by the end of the season we will see where we stand, cant't be to excited by just 1 win ."