Vikings 17 Texans 10
HOUSTON — Brett Favre’s ribs appear to be just fine.
He took plenty of hits and even delivered one.
Adrian Peterson scored on the game’s first play, Favre played three quarters despite saying he might have an injured rib, and the Minnesota Vikings beat the Houston Texans 17-10 in a pre-season game Monday night.
In his second game since unretiring less than two weeks ago, Favre was 13 of 18 for 142 yards. He didn’t move the offence much following Peterson’s touchdown until a 28-yard catch and run by Chester Taylor just before halftime.
ESPN reported before the game that Favre said he thinks he has a cracked rib, but the 39-year-old didn’t look to be in pain while getting sacked twice and taking numerous hits.
After the game he backed off his comments.
“There is nothing you can do about it first of all, secondly, I don’t believe it is (cracked),” he said. “It doesn’t feel great but I think I will be fine. We have not done an X-ray yet. If it is cracked, there is nothing you can do about it.”
He drew a penalty for an illegal crackback block to the knee of Houston’s Eugene Wilson when he lined up wide in the wildcat formation in the third quarter. Wilson was injured on the play, but said he’ll be OK.
Favre said he wasn’t out to hurt anyone and was simply trying to protect rookie Percy Harvin, who took the snap.
“I will be 40 years old in October and (was) weed-eating 13 days ago,” Favre said. “I wasn’t thinking about throwing blocks.”
Wilson said he hadn’t spoken to Favre, but if he did he would ask him one thing.
“What was up with that?” Wilson said. “Seriously, what was up with that?”
Vikings coach Brad Childress said Favre was much better than in his debut, but there’s still work to do.
“He did some really good things as far as putting the ball where it needed to be,” Childress said. “He will be the first to tell you that he missed a few reads. He made a couple of nice plays with his feet and he had enough of the pocket presence to move around when he had to and still get the football where it needed to be.”
Houston’s Matt Schaub had a tough day. He was called for intentional grounding and threw an interception before spraining his ankle in the second quarter. He returned after the injury, but was limping and was replaced by Dan Orlovsky to start the third quarter.
He said he hurt his foot when it caught the rubber on the sideline as he ran out of bounds.
“I just felt a little something in my ankle and it kind of progressively got a little sore,” Schaub said. “I was able to stay in there and just came in at the half and figured it was best to just get some treatment on it and proceed that way.”
Schaub was 10 of 14 for 108 yards with one interception. He said he expects to play Friday.
Peterson scored on a 75-yard run when he sliced through Houston’s defence virtually untouched. He finished with 117 yards rushing, the second straight game the Texans have allowed a 100-yard rusher. Mike Bell had 10 carries for 100 yards in a loss to New Orleans.
“Well, you can’t set (the tone) much better than that when you can go yard on the first play,” Childress said. “That really punched a hole in things.”
DeMeco Ryans led Houston’s defence with 16 tackles and a sack, and was pleased that the defence bounced back after that run by Peterson.
Minnesota’s three drives after Peterson’s touchdown ended with punts, one of them coming when Favre was sacked by Mario Williams.
The Vikings got the ball at the Houston 24 early in the second quarter after Schaub’s interception, but had to settle for a field goal after Favre’s pass was deflected on second down and then fell incomplete on third down.
Favre led a Vikings drive that took seven minutes in the third quarter, but that too ended with a punt after an incomplete pass and a false start penalty.