The Vikings offense didn’t have a great deal of success against the Seahawks defense in the first half of Sunday afternoon’s Wild Card game, but they did enough to go into the warm locker room with a 3-0 lead.
That lead is standing up thanks to a very strong job by their own defense. The Seahawks have picked up just 86 yards and wound up burning through all three of their timeouts shortly into the second quarter because of continued issues getting plays off. They had a delay of game penalty later in the quarter that cost them five yards on a drive into Minnesota territory.
Those lost five yards meant they were facing a fourth-and-13 from the 30-yard-line and coach Pete Carroll opted to pass on a field goal attempt. Russell Wilson threw short of the sticks to Fred Jackson, who was quickly wrapped up by Vikings defenders to end the drive. Wilson is 6-of-11 for 39 yards overall and the biggest offensive play of the day came when Xavier Rhodes was flagged for interfering with Tyler Lockett.
The choice to pass on the field goal likely came because of the cold weather, which may have contributed to a pair of low snaps by Clint Gresham on punts.
Jon Ryan’s attempt to run for a first down with the first of those turned into the only points of the game when the Vikings kicked a field goal after stopping the broken play. The Vikings played in conservatively on that drive offensively and haven’t gotten too fancy at any other points in the game. Adrian Peterson has 14 carries for 31 yards and Teddy Bridgewater is 9-of-13 for 68 yards as the Vikings kept the ball out of Wilson’s hands for nearly 18 minutes.
Turning that time into more points would help the Vikings after the break, although it hasn’t been a day when either side has shown much interest in taking big risks.