It was a modest but respectable Vikings debut for Kyler Murray.

Vikings Head Coach O'Connell on Tuesday named Murray the starting QB, and on Saturday Murray played the first series of Minnesota's first preseason game at the New York Giants. Murray was 2-of-3 passing for 10 yards against the Giants with a passer rating of 71.5.

The pair of completions went to rookie fullback Max Bredeson for a short gain and Jordan Addison, the latter of which converted a third-and-7. Addison secured the ball along the right sideline for 8 yards. John Harbaugh, in his first game as New York's head coach, challenged the call of a completion but was unsuccessful.

Murray took the majority of his snaps from under center and, in addition to his three passes, helped command the Vikings run game. He handed off three times apiece to running backs Aaron Jones, Sr., and Jordan Mason.

Jones traveled an impressive 18 yards on his first run of the preseason and totaled 27 yards on the series with Murray. Mason had a pair of 1-yard rushes and a nice gain on second-and-6 where he bounced away from the defender, found open space and collected 15 yards.

The Vikings faced third-and-4 at the Giants 17 and Murray targeted Jones, but the pass went slightly outside the RB's grasp. Minnesota settled for a 35-yard Will Reichard field goal to take an early 3-0 lead.

"I thought that first group ran it [well], and we had that third-down conversion to J.A., going down and making that nice play," O'Connell told Vikings Entertainment Network's Tatum Everett during a halftime interview. "Had a chance to convert on the third down and just time on task — Aaron Jones sitting down right on the chains on the check-down, Kyler might think he's breaking out, Aaron's sitting down. Little things that we're going to continue to work out as we go here.

"But I thought Kyler commanded the offense well; I would have loved to see that group get in the end zone," O'Connell added.

Murray played behind the Vikings starting five offensive line of LT Christian Darrisaw, LG Donovan Jackson, C Blake Brandel, RG Will Fries and RT Brian O'Neill.

When O'Connell swapped out Murray for J.J. McCarthy, he also changed out the entire OL for the following: LT Ryan Van Demark, LG Joe Huber, C Michael Jurgens, RG Walter Rouse and RG Caleb Tiernan.

McCarthy and Company played the remainder of the first half, during which he completed 4-of-7 passes for 34 yards with a 69.9 passer rating. The group struggled to find its rhythm because of offensive penalties and a Giants defense that left in many of its starters.

The second-team offense went three-and-out to start, with Johnny Hekker punting for Minnesota.

McCarthy's second series started stronger, as he connected with TE Ben Yurosek for 7 yards, then handed off to rookie RB Demond Claiborne on consecutive plays. With a new set of downs, McCarthy fired over the middle to Myles Price for a 17-yard gain; the Vikings were awarded an extra 5 when New York's Deonte Banks was penalized for defensive holding.

"Penalties have shot us in the foot," O'Connell said at the half. "As we were driving there, J.J. made a nice completion and then we start going backwards with penalties."

Back-to-back penalties on Tiernan set the Vikings behind the 8-ball with 10 minutes left in the first half. McCarthy got a short pass to Price but followed with two incompletions that led to another Hekker punt.

In his final drive of the game, McCarthy handed off to Zavier Scott for a 4-yard gain, completed to Tai Felton for 5 yards but then was pushed farther into his own territory after Minnesota committed a second illegal shift penalty. McCarthy evaded an initial sack attempt and sprinted toward green grass but was taken down for a 4-yard loss by Darius Alexander just inside the 2-minute warning.

After a Brett Thorson punt, the Giants managed to move down the field and kick a 46-yard field goal.

"Little miscues here and there, getting the handoff on a jet sweep, the timing on that, on J.J.'s first play — we've gotta clean up that stuff," O'Connell said. "That's what preseason's for, but we're trying to win a football game here today."

The Vikings entered halftime trailing 10-3.

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