Notebook: Zimmer on Evaluation of QBs After Bradford

Kyle Rudolph and the Vikings offense crisply executed on Minnesota’s opening possession at Seattle on Friday. The quarterback was 7-of-11 passing for 95 yards and a passer rating of 91.1. He played three series of Minnesota’s 20-13 loss at Seattle. He was replaced by Case Keenum for the final 1:57 of the first half. Keenum responded to the opportunity by leading the Vikings 41 yards on 10 plays in 1:48 to get a 51-yard field goal from Kai Forbath. Keenum played into the fourth quarter and finished 12-of-18 passing for 70 yards and a 73.8 rating. He was replaced by Anthony Harris, who completed six of nine passes for 84 yards, including a 33-yard pass to Eric Wilson that was followed with a 21-yard touchdown strike to the rookie tight end. Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer was asked about Keenum and said, “I think he’s played pretty good.” “We’ll have to continue to look,” Zimmer said. “I don’t think anything is decided yet. We’ve still got some more time to figure it out.”Penalties costly: Ironically, an ill-timed and prohibited step forward before a snap halted progress for the Vikings first-team offense in Seattle. Minnesota had moved the ball from its own 12-yard line to the Seattle 12 with a couple of crisp throws and a 39-yard pass to Stefon Diggs from Bradford, who even added a 4-yard scramble during the possession. Kyle Rudolph, however, was flagged for a false start, which was compounded by a run for no gain and a delay-of-game penalty that turned third-and-15 into third-and-20. A 10-yard gain on a pass to Dalvin Cook set up Marshall Koehn for a 29-yard field goal. “We had the two red zone penalties, which hurt us, but it was progress from last week to this week,” Zimmer said. “I thought we moved the ball well. We’ve still got to score points in the red zone. That was the bad part about it, but I felt good about the way we moved the football.” The Vikings defense also was penalized on its very first snap. All-told, Minnesota was penalized five times for a total of 48 yards. Seattle was flagged 10 times and assessed 65 yards. Many times, it’s not the yardage that hurts a team so much as the residual effect. The first possession was the only time the Vikings moved inside the Seahawks 20-yard line, and Minnesota was forced to settle for three points instead of seven.It’s a start: The Vikings opted to start rookie Ben Gedeon at weakside linebacker as they continue to evaluate who will fill the spot that was manned by Chad Greenway. It was the first start for the fourth-round pick, who has been competing with Anthony Harris (who started and played 33 snaps at Buffalo) and Emmanuel Lamur, who played 35 snaps at Buffalo. Gedeon played 32 defensive snaps against the Bills. The snaps played on Friday won’t be tallied until stats crews review the film, but the press box credited Gedeon with five tackles, Lamur with four and Robinson with three on defense and two on special teams.Near the sticks: The Vikings were twice stopped a yard shy of the sticks. The first time was near the end of the two-minute drill right before halftime. Facing a third-and-5 with 27 seconds remaining, Keenum completed a pass to Adam Thielen, who was marked down a yard shy of the line to gain. Zimmer was forced to use Minnesota’s final timeout to stop the clock with 14 seconds left because the Vikings did not have an extra down to spike the ball. Because the play was inside the final two minutes, Zimmer could not challenge the spotting of the football. After he took the timeout, however, the officials reviewed the play and upheld the mark. The second time occurred midway through the fourth quarter when Heinicke scrambled on a third-and-10 play. He sprinted, dived and tried to reach the ball across the line to gain, but officials marked him shy. Zimmer challenged, but officials upheld the ruling, and the Vikings brought in Taylor Symmank, who executed a 54-yard punt.Punter comp: Symmank punted three times for 127 yards, averaging and netting 42.3. He placed one inside the 20. Veteran Ryan Quigley punted three times for 122 yards, averaging and netting 40.7 yards and placing two inside the 20.

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