Luckily, Sage Rosenfels was up to the task.

The Vikings’ #2 quarterback (at least until Brett Favre arrives) entered the game in the second series in place of starter Tarvaris Jackson, and after a shaky start, took control of the offense like a savvy veteran should.  Sage would spend the next almost three full quarters calmly picking apart the Rams‘ soft zone defense, mixing in a few big plays to guys like Garrett Mills and Marko Mitchell, and leading the Vikes to a convincing 28-7 victory.

Stat lines in the preseason mean squat of course, but still, 310 yards on 23/34 passing with 3 TDs and no picks is a nice night.  And Sage had to do it with an inexperienced offensive line making mistake after mistake in front of him.

Luckily for Sage, the Vikings have some pretty decent second- and third-line skill players – like tight end Garrett Mills, who caught 4 balls for 106 yards, including a 65-yarder for a touchdown.  And receiver Logan Payne who led the team with 7 catches, one for a score.  And Marko Mitchell who got behind the Rams’ defense to score on a 71-yard (somewhat underthrown) Rosenfels bomb.
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Tomlinson will reportedly be in Winter Park to meet with Brad Childress and the gang on Thursday.  Chilly said in an interview at University of Minnesota Pro Day that he has already spoken to LT, and made sure the future Hall-of-Famer understands that, if he does sign with the Vikings, he will be a back-up to Adrian Peterson.

The Vikes’ interest in Tomlinson has seemingly signaled that they are not interested in Brian Westbrook, a man with Chilly connections but a disconcerting history of concussions.

Tomlinson’s interest in the Vikings seems to signal a few things as well:  that Tomlinson has found the market for his services less-than-vigorous, that LT at least thinks he can live with being a #2 back and, most importantly, that LT knows or at least thinks That Guy will be back as quarterback.

Moving from the running back situation to the cornerback situation:  the Vikings have avoided losing yet another top back-up by signing nickel corner Benny Sapp to a two-year contract.  The two-year deal shows how desperate the Vikes were to keep Sapp, who became a key cog in the defense last year, especially after Antoine Winfield got hurt.  The Vikes will still probably look around for another low-price veteran corner to cover themselves in case Cedric Griffin has to miss some time.

And the last bit of news:  the Vikings have moved to fix their occasional special teams coverage issues by signing Rhys Lloyd as a kickoff specialist.  Lloyd’s job will be to boom kicks into the end zone and hopefully help us avert disasters like the second half of the Bears game where every time we seemed to be getting back into it, the kick coverage broke down, giving the Bears field position.  If Lloyd sticks, it will mean one less roster spot for useless guys like Erin Henderson.

Artis Hicks left over the weekend, signing with the Redskins, who will give him a shot to start.  This leaves the Vikings without their top back-up guard and tackle.

The prospective kick-off guy, Rhys Lloyd, a former Gopher, was scheduled to meet with the Vikings on Monday.  No report on how that went so far.  The Vikes are apparently hoping a kick-off guy could help their weak coverage by putting a few more in the endzone than Ryan Longwell is capable of doing at this point in his life.

Then there’s that old cornerback they may be after, Phillip Buchanon, former Lion, whose 2009 highlight was chasing and catching Adrian Peterson on what looked like a touchdown, and forcing Peterson to fumble.  The Vikes could lose Benny Sapp, which would leave them with old Antoine Winfield, injured Cedric Griffin and green Asher Allen as their top three cornerbacks.

Scary.

Other rumors:  Willie Parker?  That’s been shot down by Judd Zulgad.  Brian Westbrook keeps coming up, but who knows.  All I’m sure of is, if the Vikes don’t come out of this free agency period with replacements for Taylor and Hicks and another veteran corner, they will have to be considered a notch worse than they were last year.