Football is back! Hall of Fame game kicks off 2015 NFL season

Minnesota Vikings tight end MyCole Pruitt got the NFL on the board for the 2015 season.

After a sluggish first quarter-and-a-half of the preseason-opening Hall of Fame game, the Vikings rookie fifth-round pick caught a 34-yard touchdown. He got behind a missed assignment in coverage by the Pittsburgh Steelers and caught a lob pass from Mike Kafka for the first touchdown of the NFL preseason. That was the first NFL touchdown since Julian Edelman’s 3-yard score late in the second quarter of Super Bowl XLIX.

Finally the long offseason is over. Football is back.

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Not that it was the most beautiful football exhibition on Sunday night. For a while in the first half there was a question if we’d see any points at all. Minnesota’s Blair Walsh missed a field goal early in the second quarter. Neither offense could sustain a drive. Finally Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham hit a 36-yard field goal with 8:23 left in the second quarter for the first points of the (unofficial) season. Pruitt scored shortly after that. The Steelers dropped a wide-open pass that would have been a touchdown on fourth and goal in the final minute of the half, and the score stayed 7-3 at halftime.

The Steelers played very few key players on offense, thought some defensive starters played a little bit. The Vikings did use most of their starters, including quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, for a series. Running back Adrian Peterson, as usual in the preseason, did not play.

The first series of the game by the Steelers saw a short completion, a stuffed run, a delay of game penalty, a receiver screen that didn’t pick up a first down and a punt. NFL Films won’t commission a special DVD on this game. But, again, it was football.

There were some nice plays. Vikings running back Jerick McKinnon had a nice move and ran over a defender to pick up a first down on a swing pass on Minnesota’s opening series. At the end of that series, Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons had a huge hit on third down and on the next play the Steelers made a fourth-down stop. For the backups on both teams who are trying to win a job, everything counts.

After six months between games, even sloppy football between second- and third-stringers was a nice sight.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab