Exhibition game, take two.
Friday night, the Vikings are in Buffalo for their second tuneup ahead of the 2013 season. In the preseason lid-lifter last week, the starters saw limited playing time. That should change Friday, when most will play into the second quarter.
What’s at stake: Again, the final score doesn’t matter. But it would be nice to see the starters string together a few impressive series on offense. Does that mean we’ll see Adrian Peterson? Coach Leslie Frazier — as of Wednesday morning — still hadn’t decided. Here’s a link, via Vikings.com, of his end-of-camp address to the media.
The last time they met: It was a preseason game last year, with the Vikes winning, 36-14.
Player in the spotlight: On offense: Christian Ponder. The 2013 season seems to start and end with him, so he’s going to have to be sharp (for at least a quarter) to calm down those who think Matt Cassel should take over right now. On defense, all eyes are on Desmond Bishop. Frazier says the next few weeks would be critical for the ex-Packer linebacker to make the team. Sounds like a motivational speech to us.
But of course keep an eye on AP if he plays, just because that would be fun, and because he wants college kids to get money for the NCAA using their names, and because he’s an animal. Do yourself a favor and watch this whole thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEhV6dBi4q0
Best quote of the week, so far: “I don’t want to endorse the movie but it was a good movie. We enjoyed the movie, we enjoyed the movie. We all went to see ‘Red 2,’ it was a good movie and they enjoyed it. It held their attention which you’re always worried about when you do things off site so it was good.” — Head coach Leslie Frazier, explaining to the media what the team did on its night off after the Houston game.
What the other guys are saying: In Buffalo, the Bills want first-round draft choice E.J. Manuel to grab the starting job from veteran quarterback Kevin Kolb (who is starting Friday). Manuel, picked 16th overall in April’s NFL draft, was pretty impressive last week as the Bills topped Indianapolis, 44-20.
Also out of Buffalo, CJ Spiller and the Bills coaching staff are expecting a big year, an AP-type year.
The latest line, our prediction: Vegas has the Bills as 3 1/2-point favorites. We’ll go with the home team: Bills 30, Vikings 14.
