BEREA, Ohio — Just like that, two days of joint practices between the Vikings and the Browns are in the books.
Minnesota Head Coach Kevin O'Connell thanked the Browns organization and Cleveland Head Coach Kevin Stefanski for serving as hosts and providing two days of competitive work.
"Really good football players that know how to practice always go a long way in making these things go," O'Connell said of the joint practices.
O'Connell said linebacker Blake Cashman sustained a finger injury near the start of Wednesday's practice. He finished that session but walked off the field and into the Browns training room with medical personnel at the end of the day.
"He had a little procedure done," but will be "good to go."
O'Connell reiterated that receiver Jordan Addison, who suffered an ankle injury Wednesday, "avoided a major injury" and the team will look forward to getting him back as fast as possible.
Receiver Thayer Thomas suffered a concussion in Wednesday's practice. O'Connell noted he asked the Browns to pause the drill while the Vikings medical staff was going through its protocols for assessing the severity of the injury.
"Appreciate Coach [Jim] Schwartz for kind of working with me in that moment to, you know, you never want to be the coach that just moves the drill up 10 yards and keeps playing when one of your players could be severely injured, which, fortunately for us, was not the case."
Thomas is in concussion protocol and will not play Saturday.
Here are three observations presented by Minnesota Eye Consultants, the Proud LASIK Partner of the Minnesota Vikings:
1. Red zone results include a pair of picks for Vikings
Thursday's session was loaded with reps in the red zone.
Minnesota's defense faced Cleveland's offense on one field, and the Vikings offense battled the Browns defense on another.
I spent most of my time watching Minnesota's defense on Thursday after spending most of Wednesday's session with eyes on the Vikings offense.
The groups progressed through 1-on-1s, then 7-on-7 and finally got the whole gangs involved for team red zone periods.
Cleveland landed some early success in 1-on-1s, with Deshaun Watson throwing touchdowns to Amari Cooper against Byron Murphy, Jr., to Elijah Moore against Camryn Bynum and to David Njoku against Harrison Smith.
View photos of players during joint practice with the Cleveland Browns on Aug. 15 at the Browns training facility.
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Vikings cornerback Fabian Moreau was in coverage on two snaps and didn't allow a reception (Michael Woods II stepped out of bounds on one of the plays).
Jameis Winston also threw a touchdown to Moore while he was covered by Duke Shelley.
A.J. Green III, a former Brown, Lewis Cine and Akayleb Evans all recorded pass breakups, and Dwight McGlothern forced an incompletion of a pass to Woods that resulted in Browns players doing pushups.
Ohio native Ivan Pace, Jr., showed his instincts and responsiveness to pick-off Watson's first pass in 7-on-7.
Watson responded by connecting with Jerry Jeudy, but there were several plays where Minnesota's defense forced the QB to hold the football for extended time, likely enabling a coverage sack.
The second-team Vikings defense forced three incompletions by Winston before the QB found running back Pierre Strong, Jr., all alone because of a busted coverage.
The team period again featured solid coverage, allowing Minnesota's pass rushers to apply pressure for what looked like could have been sacks by Harrison Phillips and Dallas Turner.
Andre Carter II nearly picked off a short pass but was unable to complete the catch, and linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill smoked through the line of scrimmage for a tackle for loss on a run play. Grugier-Hill stepped in with Cashman out.
Two plays after Carter's near interception, McGlothern nabbed a pass thrown by Winston. Pace and McGlothern would have gone the distance for scores on their interceptions.
For the Vikings offense, Minnesota opened its 1-on-1 red zone drills with Sam Darnold hitting Justin Jefferson on a fade route against Martin Emerson, Jr.
Jefferson, who was taken to the ground but completed the catch, and Emerson had a good back-and-forth throughout the day, with Emerson recording an interception on a pass intended for Jefferson. But Jefferson added more touchdowns on the day, to go along with a scoring catch by Brandon Powell.
Vikings.com's Lindsey Young was tracking the Vikings offense when Josh Oliver made an incredible catch amidst double coverage for a 20-yard touchdown from Darnold.
Nick Mullens connected multiple times with Trent Sherfield, Sr., including dropping one right in the breadbasket against coverage by Justin Hardee, Sr.
2. Situational stops
Both teams converged on one field near the end of practice to go through an end-of-game situation that gave the first- and second-team offenses for both teams the ball at the defense's 45-yard line with 1:00 remaining.
The defensive sides were tasked with protecting a 28-20 lead, and they emerged successfully on all four scenarios.
Darnold began the sequence with a quick pass for 10 yards to Powell, but he was unsuccessful in hitting Jefferson along the sideline against coverage by Emerson on the next play.
Darnold tried to hit Jefferson deep on second-and-10 and then targeted him again on third and fourth downs. Kahlef Hailassie picked off the pass on fourth down.
Watson then had a turn with Cleveland's first-team offense. Jeudy was unable to toe-tap on a sideline pass on first down, and Pat Jones II was credited with a sack on second-down.
Watson converted third-and-13 with a pass to Cedric Tillman for a fresh set of downs at the Minnesota 34-yard line.
It appeared Andrew Van Ginkel recorded a sack on the next play, but it wasn't awarded by officials, and the play was incomplete. Jones and Van Ginkel caused pressure on the next play, too. An incompletion on third down was followed by a completion to Jeudy as time expired.
Mullens was able to help the Vikings second-team offense overcome a holding penalty assessed during a screen with a 16-yard pass to Trishton Jackson, followed by a completion to Sherfield and two in a row to Lucky Jackson.
On fourth-and-4, Mullens hit Trishton Jackson for a touchdown to make it 28-26, but the 2-point conversion pass to him was broken up by Faion Hicks.
The Vikings second-team defense jumped offsides to start their drill but rallied by forcing four incompletions on six attempts by Winston and not allowing Cleveland past the Minnesota 30-yard line.
3. Special teams' focus
Vikings rookie Will Reichard continued his impressive preseason, going 6-for-6 on kicks at the end of practice.
Reichard began with an extra point (33 yards) and followed with kicks from 43, 46, 51, 48 and 47.
All were no-doubters.
Both squads continued to use other valuable special teams practice time on returning and covering kickoffs with the new rules.