Scrimmage one between the Vikings and Chiefs took place last night in Blakeslee Stadium on the campus of Minnesota State in Mankato. Chester Taylor and Adrian Peterson sat out as expected, Chester nursing a forearm bruise and AP a hip-pointer. Brad Childress has said that Peterson could participate in today’s second practice with the Chiefs in River Falls, Wisconsin (where our own Zach and Adam will be assuming they recover from the bar-hopping in time), but Chester is not expected to take the field. Meanwhile, Troy Williamson has come down with some kind of infection in his arm, which kept him out of practice yesterday, but probably won’t today. Other Vikings sitting out yesterday included the injured Aundrae Allison, Ronyell Whitaker, Wendell Mathis and Ben Leber, and the not-playing-because-they’re-veterans Pat Williams, Kevin Williams and Antoine Winfield.
There were three injuries during the scrimmage itself. The worst was to RG Dan Mozes who had to be driven off the field after hurting his knee. WR Chandler Williams also came off after suffering a concussion. DE Khreem Smith hurt his knee but was able to come back out.
The Offense: Reviews continue to be mixed on QBs Tarvaris Jackson and Brooks Bollinger. Both struggled some last night according to Judd Zulgad of the Star-Trib, but did at least avoid turning the ball over. LT Bryant McKinnie, who missed a little time at the start of camp with an injury, also had problems containing Chiefs DE Jared Allen, who would’ve had two sacks had contact with QBs been allowed.
The Defense: CB Marcus McCauley has been the star of camp so far, and he continued his fine showing last night, picking off Chiefs QB Damon Huard. Another stand-out was free-agent rookie LB John Kerr, who had a couple of big hits and picked off a pass. CB Charles Gordon also had two picks.
Special Teams: The battle between Chris Kluwe and Alex Reyes for the punter spot could be over already. Kluwe boomed all of his punts, averaging 58.8 yards. Reyes only got two chances to kick, both times coming up far short of Kluwe.