It’s not at all surprising that virtually all of the starters for the Vikings watched from the sidelines in street clothes on Saturday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium.

After hosting the New England Patriots for a pair of joint practices this week, the Vikings trotted out mostly backups and reserves for the exhibition game.

That’s how much stock head coach Kevin O’Connell puts into joint practices and the evaluation he’s able to get done in them.

That doesn’t mean the exhibition game was insignificant.

Though the Vikings suffered a 20-12 loss to the Patriots, they answered a lot of questions about their roster in the process while also leaving themselves with some areas of concern moving forward.

Here are some takeaways from the exhibition game.

To say backup quarterback Sam Howell fai

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