What we learned from the Vikings’ 27-12 preseason win over the Browns

CLEVELAND – Here’s what we learned — other than the NFL shouldn’t charge full price for preseason football — while the Vikings, playing only one starter (Ed Ingram), beat the Browns, playing no starters, 27-12 in front of more-empty-than-filled seats inside Cleveland Browns Stadium on Saturday.

We learned to be at least a little more comfortable with Nick “The Turnover Machine” Mullens as the guy who will once again reside one injury away from the starting quarterback position this season.

Mullens, who last year ruined 1,011 yards in three starts by throwing eight picks and losing all three, showed a couple of signs Saturday that he might just get that he needs to not throw the ball to the wrong team.

Yes, he had one potential pick dropped in the red zone by diving cornerback Tony Brown II. But under heavy pressure throughout his first half of action, Mullens twice threw the ball in the dirt when 2023 Mullens might have let the ball fly up for grabs.

“If I protect the football, I’m a really good quarterback in this league,” he said. “So anytime you can have no turnovers, it’s big. We didn’t turn the ball over, and we won.”

Mullens’ numbers weren’t great. He completed 11 of 21 passes for 135 yards, one touchdown and an 88.4 passer rating.

Mullens, however, handled himself fairly well as the Vikings were converting six of 10 third downs to take a 13-7 halftime lead. He completed five of six third-down throws to five different receivers for five first downs. He also was sacked three times and didn’t fumble. His only third-down incompletion was initially ruled a fumble but was overturned on replay.

Coach Kevin O’Connell said he was happy with Mullens’ performance and praised the two dirted balls mentioned above. But he was quick to add that Mullens should have also thrown away the ball that was almost intercepted in the red zone.

“Nick is a really important player to us, especially now, having lost J.J. [McCarthy],” O’Connell said. “Nick is here for a reason. … Coming off last year, [turnovers] was a big point for Nick. … For Nick, at this point in his career, [ball security] is what I’m looking for.”

With 10:20 left in the game, Jaren Hall did indeed reach a perfect passer rating of 158.3. Taking over to start the third quarter, he threw only five balls, but completed four for 87 yards and two touchdowns, including his last attempt — a 71-yard touchdown to Jeshaun Jones on a ball that was placed over the defense with perfect touch for a 27-10 lead.

“Perfection is something no one achieves,” Hall said. “The rating might say it, but I still have things to clean up.”

Touch on the deep ball wasn’t one of them, Jones said.

“My route wasn’t the best, but the ball made the play,” he said. “He had the touch to get it by the guy, and the rest was history.”

Akayleb Evans, the probable third cornerback once Shaq Griffin returns from his hamstring injury, was the closest thing to a frontline defender to play Saturday. He’s also the guy defensive coordinator Brian Flores benched twice last year but still seems to believe in.

The Vikings won the coin toss and chose to receive. They went up 7-0. The Browns got the ball and tied it 7-7 in no small part because Evans gave up completions of 17 yards and 15 yards to Jamari Thrash, the latter on fourth-and-2 from the Vikings’ 44-yard line.

Evans can do better. Needs to do better.

We got gameday proof that Bobby McCain, an unheralded 10-year journeyman, and Cine, the 2022 first-round pick and primary bane of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s first draft as Vikings general manager, are battling for a roster spot as the fifth and sixth safeties. They started while Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, Josh Metellus and Theo Jackson sat.

McCain had the biggest defensive gaff of the first half — a 28-yard pass interference penalty in the end zone on a ball he misplayed badly. With the ball placed at the 1, the Browns tied the score 7-7 on their first drive.

Cine, meanwhile, helped prevent a Browns score before halftime when he was in position to intercept a ball deflected by linebacker Dallas Gant with 20 seconds left and the Browns driving.

Cine finished with a game-high 10 tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and the interception.

Dwight McGlothern, the undrafted rookie cornerback from Arkansas, has been turning heads all camp. Saturday, he posted a spectacular 90-yard interception return — albeit one in which he was caught by the quarterback, Tyler Huntley — to set up a Vikings touchdown when it appeared the Browns were heading toward a go-ahead touchdown on their first drive of the second half.

“I knew after the joint practices that I was going to get a pick today,” McGlothern said. “I’m just trying to find a new version of myself. Make the team, help the team. I know as an undrafted rookie that I don’t have many opportunities. So I have to make the best of them.”

And getting caught by the QB?

“Yeah, I got caught by the quarterback,” he said. “So, yeah, that’s the big joke in [the locker room] right now.”

A week after his 48-yard touchdown burst, Kene Nwangwu helped the Vikings run for 84 yards in the first half. He ran the ball seven times for 45 yards, a 6.4 average, including a 13-yarder in which he showed some power and balance, bouncing off two defenders. He has only 27 regular-season carries in his career so far.