Recap: Vikings beat Titans in preseason finale, 13-3

If you were looking to see something out of the first team offense or defense, tonight wasn’t your night. Mike Vrabel elected to sit all of his starters in tonight’s preseason finale against the Vikings, giving plenty of reps an opportunities for those on the bubble and below.

NOTE: The following observations were made against Vikings reserves. It was also raining for a good bit of the night.

Offense

• David Fluellen got the first series in the backfield, giving way to Dalyn Dawkins shortly after. Dawkins looked pretty good handling the ball, showing off some juice between the tackles. He had a shot to cap the drive with a touchdown reception, but dropped the wide open pass at the goal line. Dawkins got the bulk of the work tonight, rushing 17 times for 53 yards.
• Akrum Wadley was third in the running back rotation, earning just four carries.
• Cameron Batson ran a few nice routes and was Luke Falk’s favorite target tonight. The shifty receiver did what he could tonight in some poor conditions to make his case.
• Luke Falk took three of four shots down the field tonight with no success. Beyond those deep attempts, Falk kept it pretty conservative. He didn’t make any glaring errors tonight, but failed to ever get any sort of offense rolling against what was essentially a scout team defense. Falk finished the night 13-24 for just 114 yards.

Defense

• David King made a couple of plays in the first quarter, including a deflected pass at the line of scrimmage to end a drive. King also forced a fumble late, forcing a turnover.
• Julius Warmsley made a really nice play to stop a screen pass. The play looked like it was headed for a big gain, but Warmsley recognized and made a diving effort to stop it. The Titans got a stop on the following play for force a punt.
• Demontre Hurst made a couple of plays on the ball in the first half.
• Robert Spillane was active all night once again. His best play of the night was stuffing a quarterback sneak attempt from Kyle Sloter on a fourth down and one.

Special Teams

• The Titans got a hand on a punt in the second quarter. It was tight end Jerome Cunningham who came free up the middle on what appeared to be an all-out block attempt.

The Vikings won this game, pulling away late on a touchdown pass from Kyle Sloter. It was one of the lone offensive highlight from this one, which was predictably brutal to watch.

My number one takeaway from tonight? The preseason should not be four games. Thankfully, meaningful football is just a little over a week away. The Titans will open the regular season next Sunday in Miami and it cannot get here quick enough.