Let's do this. 🏈 pic.twitter.com/LJnNlv6uT3
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) August 10, 2016
With temperatures sweltering and the humidity pushing 100 percent, the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals practiced together on the first day of their joint practices outside of Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.
The two days of practices will lead up to Friday night’s preseason opener between the two squads.
Here are a few glimpses of how things went on day one. As you might have expected, there were a few skirmishes during the first day.
Tensions boiled over briefly in Bengals-Vikings practice after helmet comes off. Adam Jones/Adam Thielen involved pic.twitter.com/D2sFZI5ovR
— Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) August 10, 2016
Teddy Bridgewater found Stefon Diggs open on a nice-looking deep ball.
Nice connection between Bridgewater and Diggs over Adam Jones. After Jones said "nice route" to Diggs. pic.twitter.com/N4fYXaEXeP
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) August 10, 2016
John Sullivan got to test that surgically-repaired back out a little on Wednesday as well, when he faced some big blitz pressure from Vontaze Burfict.
Probably biggest hit all day came from blitzing Vontaze Burfict putting Vikings center John Sullivan on his back. pic.twitter.com/ofOJsWeONs
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) August 10, 2016
While the offense looked pretty good at times, it was the Vikings defense that won the day though, according to The Star Tribune’s Matt Vensel.
“Right away, the Vikings defense had Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton on the run. On the first rep of inter-squad drills, Dalton was forced to pull down the ball and scramble. Two plays later, right defensive end Everson Griffen stunted inside to beat defensive tackles Linval Joseph and Shamar Stephen to the sack. Left end Brian Robison added a sack in that opening period, too.”
Those are good signs for fans of a team that has high hopes in 2016.
