During a less-than-stellar Saturday preseason loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday afternoon, a few members of the Minnesota Vikings played very well.
The Minnesota Vikings offense won’t be the subject matter of NFL talking heads this week, as the team’s starters didn’t accomplish much in their preseason match-up against a tough Jacksonville defense. However, there were a few things evident for that offense that bode well for the 2018 Viking season.
Offensive MVP vs. Jaguars
Running Backs Coach, Kennedy Polamalu
In two preseason games, Vikings’ running back Dalvin Cook has not taken a snap, but each of his colleagues are making a case with their preseason performances for being an NFL starter.
Number two man Latavius Murray may have followed his impressive week one debut against Denver with two fumbles on Saturday, but picking up the slack was Coach Polamalu’s full backfield roster of fullback C.J. Ham and tailbacks Mike Boone and Roc Thomas.
Both Boone and Thomas are not only showing they deserve to be on an NFL team, but are making game-breaking plays when given the chance.
NFL running back coaches don’t get a lot of praise, but Polamalu should be credited here. Roc Thomas has been deadly in the screen and short-passing game and Mike Boone has shown surprising elusivity in the open field while grounding out huge gains.
Murray, Ham, Boone, and Thomas have all shown power at the point of attack, something head coach Mike Zimmer likes to see very much.
Honorable mention
Mike Boone, Running Back
Boone touched the ball 13 times for 91 yards, a 7-yard average per carry. Boone has shown vision and toughness, sometimes bouncing his runs out to the defensive perimeter and other times finding a seam inside. Rarely did a single tackler bring him down against Jacksonville.
Just when it looked like Roc Thomas was pulling away in the campaign for running back number three on the Vikings, Boone made another big play on Saturday, making that decision harder.