Titans-Vikings: Winners and Losers

We made it! Preseason is finally over and we can move on to talking about REAL football!

But first, here are some winners and losers from Vikings 13, Titans 3.

Winners

Dalyn Dawkins

Dawkins got the start over Akrum Wadley and got a lot of work during the game. He played pretty well despite not getting much help from the rag tag offensive line group playing in front of him.

Fluellen is the clear 3rd back behind Derrick Henry and Dion Lewis, but it remains to be seen what the team will do beyond that. They could choose to keep just three backs on the roster, they could go sign a player that gets cut somewhere else, or they could keep either Dawkins or Wadley. I’m not ruling anything out here.

Kenneth Durden

Durden just continues to make plays during preseason action. He started late — only signing with the team after the first preseason game in Green Bay — but he quickly earned a look from the coaching staff and has made the most of it. It’s possible that the Titans look for a 5th corner among the cuts from other teams, but I have to think they feel pretty good about what they’ve seen from Durden over the past three weeks.

Robert Spillane

Spillane is one of the feel-good stories that has emerged over the course of the offseason. He went from a tryout player to one of the biggest playmakers of the preseason for the Titans. I’d highly recommend checking out this piece on Spillane’s journey from The Athletic’s Travis Haney if you haven’t already.

Spillane may or may not make the 53-man roster but he’s certainly made an impression. He had another nice game against the Vikings and now has to wait and see if that was enough. It seems likely that he at least sticks around on the practice squad, but we will find out soon enough.

Losers

Fans

This game was a mess from the start as the Titans essentially sat nearly everyone on their two deep for the game. Not only were there virtually no recognizable names on the field for either team — besides maybe Trevor Siemian if you want to count the former Broncos starter — but the game was low scoring and generally dull.

The Titans mustered just 165 yards of total offense all game and penalties continued to be an issue as they got flagged 11 times for 93 yards on the night. The Vikings weren’t a ton better either. This was just a disaster to watch as a Titans fan, Vikings fan, or fan of football in general. The NFL has to do something about the preseason. Its absurd that they charged full price for tickets for that display. I salute any fan that stood or sat in the rain for that. The Titans should have given every single one of them a $100 gift card to the pro shop for suffering through that.

Laurence Gibson

Gibson got the start at left tackle and was promptly overwhelmed by Vikings defensive end Stephen Weatherly who got a sack and drew two holds on Gibson in the first quarter alone. He won’t make the roster, and this was a reminder why.

Luke Falk

Falk removed all doubt for me about whether or not he should make the 53-man roster. He’s just not worth it. No NFL team is swooping in to snatch him up after this preseason. If they want to keep him around on the practice squad just to have a 3rd arm for practices during the season, that’s fine, but in no way does he deserve to be on the 53-man roster. It will be interesting to see if the Titans snoop around some of the QB cuts over the next couple days. Josh Dobbs is rumored to be a likely cut candidate in Pittsburgh and he would be a much better option if Tennessee wanted a 3rd QB on the roster.