Morning Joes

Wake me up when the season starts. After two weeks of second and third-stringers, it is time to either get the starters in the game to knockoff the rust or go watch the Twins. The Vikings' offense was under whelming against the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium. After a week of hearing about fireworks and some great plays (and fiery words from one Kirk Cousins), we didn’t get to see the starters and the Vikings lost 17-7. Talk about a buzzkill. Nick Mullens joins the Vikings so we can skip talking about the regression from second-year quarterback Kellen Mond, who had some flashes but then threw two bad picks. Sean Mannion was more of the same, some moments bracketed by less than stellar play. (Although a nice throw up the seam to Zach Davidson, who dropped it on his way to a huge gain, could have changed our impression of Mannion.) And rookie corner back Andrew Booth, Jr., left the game limping badly on an injured ankle. The defense played well and several of them distinguished themselves: