Schmidt’s game grades: Minnesota Vikings at Bills – Preseason week 1

Vikings Defense Grade: B-

The Vikings defense played a decent game last night. The biggest take away from last nigh was the defense ability to get off the field on third down. They held the Bill’s to a 26% rate on third down. Plus the Vikings held the Bills on 4th down 3 times on 4 tries as the Bills were trying to score to tie the game.

Another positive coming from the Vikings defense was getting pressure on the quarterback and coming up with 3 sacks.  Everson Griffin, Tashown Bower and Jaleel Johnson were the guys who came up with the sacks.

On the other hand though the Vikings gave up a bit of yards and gashed up by the Bills’ running game. The Bills rushed for 127 yards and had decent runs that went 10 plus yards on the defense. The Vikings did hold their ground by only giving up 10 points in the game. Held the Bills to a field goal in the first half.

There were some missed opportunities for turnovers by the defense of unit. Rookie lineback Eric Wilson let a ball hit him between the 5 and 0 on his jersey and fell to the turf. Also, Wilson made a great defensive deflection play but if he would have let the ball go by teammate Antone Exum Jr. was in great position to pick off the pass after making a great read on the ball.