Vikings-Cowboys Gameday Updates

8:57 PM - After an Audie Cole fumble recovery, the Vikings appear to have iced the game away thanks to a Joe Banyard touchdown run to go up 28-14 with under three minutes to go. Also, here's another look at Patterson's touchdown, with this one coming from field level.8:11 PM – And the 2nd half scoring has begun. Reserve QB Taylor Heinicke led the Vikings offense on a scoring drive and now the Vikings have the lead. The scoring drive was capped by a 4-yard TD scamper by Dominique Williams. Head coach Mike Zimmer elected to go for 2, and the conversion was good when Heinicke scrambled to buy time and lofted one up for Chase Ford, who came down with it. The Vikings now lead 21-14 with 8:58 to play in the 3rd quarter. Walsh’s second FG of the game was good from 45 yards. The Vikings will receive the opening kickoff of the 2nd half. 7:12 PM - Watch back Cordarrelle Patterson's kickoff return score via the video below:7:06 PM – The Cowboys are back ahead. Jeff Locke was injured on a punt, a penalty forced the Vikings to repunt with Blair Walsh, and the Cowboys returned said punt 53 yards to set up a Tony Romo-to-Lucky Whitehead TD toss. The PAT was good, and now Dallas leads 14-10 with 8:59 to play. No further word on Locke. 6:49 PM – Fireworks in Dallas, and after the dust settles the Vikings are back in front. Tony Romo hit WR Terrance Williams for a 60-yard TD, but on the ensuing kickoff it was Cordarrelle Patterson’s turn for a highlight. The third-year playmaker took the kickoff 7 yards deep in the end zone and proceeded to slice and dice his way through the Cowboys coverage unit before turning around the kicker and sprinting the rest of the way to the end zone. It was a 107-yard kickoff return TD for Patterson. Blair Walsh came on to nail the PAT, and the Vikings are back in the lead by a score of 10-7 with 13:30 to go in the 2nd quarter. 6:35 PM – The Vikings are on the board in Dallas. That’s the good news. The bad news is the offense couldn’t convert a red zone chance into a TD. Blair Walsh split the uprights on a 28-yard try to salvage the drive, though, and give the Vikings a 3-0 lead. After a holding penalty on Dallas CB Brandon Carr extended the drive, the Vikings offense got to work. Jarius Wright moved the chains with a 7-yard catch then sprung Mike Wallace for a 1st down with a key block on a WR screen. Moments later, Teddy Bridgewater changed the play at the line of scrimmage after identifying single coverage vs. Wallace, then hit the speedy WR for a 38-yard gain to get deep into Cowboys territory. That’s about as much damage as the offense would do. On 3rd down, Bridgewater took a sack after spotting no one open past the 1st down marker or in the end zone. The Vikings lead 3-0 with 1:12 to play in the opening quarter. 6:25 PM - Check out our pregame behind-the-scenes video and photo gallery:6:17 PM – The Vikings 1st team defense stayed hot in steamy Dallas. Tony Romo and Co. were forced to punt, and if not for a defensive penalty against the Vikings that punt would’ve come after a 3-and-out. As it was, the Vikings defense did force that punt after three plays and now the Vikings offense is on the field. A screen pass to McKinnon on 1st down looked good and netted 11 yards. 3:55 PM – The Vikings have arrived at Jerry World – aka AT&T Stadium. One of the League’s iconic stadiums will be host to tonight’s Vikings vs. Cowboys preseason tilt. It is the Vikings 4th preseason game and the Cowboys 3rd contest. A few things to watch for tonight… -- Pay attention to the second level of the Vikings defense, especially early in the game. Head Coach Mike Zimmer said earlier in the week the plan was to start Anthony Barr, Chad Greenway and Gerald Hodges at LB in the base defense, with Hodges as the Mike. Zimmer also said it would be Barr and rookie Eric Kendricks at LB in nickel. If all goes well, it wouldn’t be surprising to see that be the team’s lineup in Week 1 at San Francisco, which would be the answer to a burning question (who starts at LB?) we’ve been monitoring all offseason, training camp and the preseason. -- Vikings OTs – RT TJ Clemmings and LT Matt Kalil – will face an “edgy” test tonight with explosive pass rushers such as rookie Randy Gregory, veteran Greg Hardy and second-year DE Demarcus Lawrence coming at them every snap. Two of those players – Gregory and Hardy – are new players but are expected to give the pass rush a jolt. -- The kicking game will be worth watching tonight. P Jeff Locke is coming off consecutive solid outings and now has 9 punts downed inside the 20 after tallying three such punts last week against the Raiders. Blair Walsh, on the other hand, is coming off a game in which he missed an extra point as well as 3 FGs, and is now 2 of 6 for the preseason on FG tries. We already know he and Special Teams Coordinator Mike Priefer are adept at identifying flaws and fixing them because they did just that in taking Walsh from a dicey senior Season at Georgia to a Pro Bowl season as a rookie in 2012. The process of bouncing back from last Saturday’s performance began immediately, not tonight. Tonight we see the results of those efforts, and I expect those results to be positive. 3:43 PM - The vikings.com team has arrived at AT&T Stadium in advance of tonight's matchup against the Dallas Cowboys. With this of course being (essentially) the third preseason game, it's expected that most starters will play the majority of the first half, so it should prove to be a good test for the Vikings going against one of the preseason favorites in the NFC on the road. Kickoff is shortly after 6 PM CT, but in the meantime, watch segments from this week's "Vikings GamePlan" below.

News | Minnesota Vikings – vikings.com

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