AP

The Vikings’ first drive against the Raiders provided them with the kind of blueprint they’d like to follow all season long.

Cordarrelle Patterson, Greg Jennings and Kyle Rudolph all made catches as the team moved down the field before a short touchdown run by Matt Asiata. Swap Adrian Peterson in for Asiata and it’s a strong group of skill position players for the Vikings to use this season with Patterson, in particular, getting a lot of attention as a breakout candidate. With that variety of options, there are going to be people seeing the ball less often from week to week and Jennings says that the players must accept that happily for the team to thrive.

“If we can get better at that, being unselfish, and allowing other guys to make plays within the play we make, we can be a really good football team,” Jennings said, via the Pioneer Press.

Winning tends to make it much easier for people to buy in even if they aren’t seeing quite as much of the ball as they’d like. The Vikings will need players to be unselfish on offense to be a winner, but they’ll also need to get the kind of quarterback play that makes it possible for them to win. Matt Cassel provided it on that first drive and more of the same will be necessary for unselfishness elsewhere to matter.