Minnesota Vikings fall without Sam Bradford to Pittsburgh Steelers
The Minnesota Vikings stumbled in their second game without the talents of starting quarterback Sam Bradford.
There were tremors of doubt throughout the prior week about the status of Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback Sam Bradford’s knee. The worst fear of Vikings fans came to fruition on Sunday afternoon when it was announced that Bradford would be inactive against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The result went as expected without Bradford, a Vikings 26-9 loss.
Without Bradford, the Vikings only ended up converting two scoring plays compared to six times for the Steelers. Ben Rothlisberger hit Martavis Bryant for a 27 yard touchdown pass in the first quarter to make it 7-0. A couple minutes later in the early stages of the second quarter, Big Ben tossed another TD pass before the Vikings could even get on the board.
Minnesota would not be shutout in the first half. Kai Forbath hit a 42 yard field goal to make it 14-3. That would be the halftime score.
It became a game of field goals in the second half for Pittsburgh. They wouldn’t hit the end zone in the second half, but kicker Chris Boswell would convert on four field goals in the half. Boswell opened up the second half scoring with 46 yard field goal, before the Vikings would answer.
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Dalvin Cook just about broke a huge run for a touchdown to open up the second half for the Vikings, but was stopped at the one. C.J. Ham would punch it in on the goal line and the Vikings would then again see Forbath miss an extra point to give the team nine points. The remaining points in the game would be a trio of Steelers field goals.
The offensive line wasn’t nearly as solid as they were in the opening week game against the New Orleans Saints and the offense definitely not as explosive with Case Keenum at the helm and not Bradford. Bradford’s offense in the first game passed to open up the run game for Cook and that plan didn’t work with Keenum on Sunday.
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The Minnesota Vikings return home for their third game of the year. That will be a noon game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.