Neal: Sam Howell quiets alarms calling for new Vikings backup quarterback for now

On his first possession as a Viking, Sam Howell moved the offense into field-goal range.

On his second possession as a Viking, Howell started on his own 6. Then, 14 plays later, he crashed in from the 1 for a touchdown.

Those were his only possessions Saturday, but they were revealing. He was accurate. He was decisive. He reunited with college teammate Ty Chandler to help the offense hum.

Howell showed his command of the Vikings offense during Saturday’s 20-10 preseason victory over Houston. Right down to calling the right protections.

“Obviously, the quarterback can give a little bit better perspective for the whole defense than we do up front, if we’re sliding one way with the pass protection, and he can recognize that a pressure is coming off the back side,” said center Michael Jurgens, who played against Howell and North Carolina while at Wake Forest. “We’d rather have one of us big fat guys taking him rather than the running back. He does a great job of confidently telling us to get it going the other way and pick up the blitz.”

Howell was 11-of-13 for 105 yards during his first-half appearance. This was not the Howell who has been throwing picks and struggling with the rhythm and timing required by Kevin O’Connell’s offense during practices. This was not the Howell who had seen Brett Rypien get some snaps with the No. 2 offense lately.

Rypien, by the way, was the only quarterback not to splash on Saturday. J.J. McCarthy looked comfortable in his one series. Former Gophers QB Max Brosmer fired up the crowd while going 5-for-8. When he found undrafted free agent Myles Price in the back of the end zone for a fourth-quarter touchdown, I expected the Minnesota Rouser to be played over the U.S. Bank Stadium sound system.

“I’m getting better every day and getting more comfortable in the system every single day,” Howell said. “So it was good to get some live game action with him calling some plays.”

Perhaps Howell just needed to face something other than Brian Flores’ diabolical defense. Even O’Connell suggested that he had not seen that version of Howell until Saturday.

“I thought Sam’s one of those guys that, throughout the early stages of practice, you kept asking yourself, you know, I think we’re going to need to see him in game action, just to get a great feel for kind of what Sam can do,” O’Connell said. “And I thought, you know, there was great examples of that guy that has played, a guy that moved the team, and I was, I was happy with Sam.”

This is a reminder that training camp is a process that takes several weeks during the summer, and decisions shouldn’t be made solely based on interceptions thrown to teammates in practice. It’s all we had to go on until Saturday, and some of the alarms going off about Howell’s camp production as well as compiling lists of possible replacements were foolish.

During the 94-yard drive, Howell led the offense to seven first downs. He had the longest completion of the game when he connected with Jeshaun Jones for 20 yards. Howell didn’t throw a pick on Saturday and had a game he can grow from.

But assessing Howell shouldn’t flip to the other end of the spectrum. There are still two preseason games left. Opponents are playing vanilla defenses that aren’t close to the schemes employed during the regular season.

And joint practices with New England are scheduled for this week. Plenty of time for Howell to make his case to be trusted as the backup quarterback. Plenty of time for O’Connell and the Vikings coaches to gather enough tape and information to trust him.

Those alarms to search for another QB2 should be turned off. The coming weeks will determine if they should remain off.

Shelby Swanson of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.