Through four games, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has thrown the football a league-high 189 times for 1,387 yards, putting him on pace to shatter Daunte Culpepper’s single-season team passing record.
The eye-popping numbers, though, have come at the expense of the Vikings running game, which is dead last in the NFL with 252 yards. Thanks to three straight games where the Vikings have faced early deficits, the run game has been virtually abandoned in favor of Cousins’ dropbacks — something the Vikings would like to see changed.
They face a formidable Philadelphia run defense that led the league last season when they won the Super Bowl and leads the league again heading into Week 5.
“We have to be patient with it, number one,” said head coach Mike Zimmer. “Honestly, a little bit has been dictated by some of the scores throughout the last couple ballgames. It’s important for us to have balance. It keeps defensive lines from pinning their ears back all the time. I think it helps the football team overall, so we just have to do a better job.”
The Vikings have also run the ball the fewest times in the league — just 73 attempts all season, including just six against the Buffalo Bills. But those 73 attempts have still been some of the most inefficient in the league at 3.5 yards per carry, the third-lowest in the NFL, causing running back Latavius Murray to call the running game “non-existent.”
“When we do get the touches, just be a little bit more efficient,” said Murray. “We’ve got to eliminate the negative runs, and that will give us more opportunities, and I think [offensive coordinator John DeFilippo] will call some more opportunities.’’
The Vikings have 13 carries of zero or negative yardage this season, six of them coming last Thursday against the Los Angeles Rams.
Minnesota’s running backs have only attempted 17 carries the last two weeks combined.
And in the last three weeks, the Vikings have faced double-digit deficits in the second half, forcing Cousins to go to the air. While the quarterback has put up impressive numbers and a pair of 400-plus-yard games, the Vikings don’t have a win in that stretch.
Starter Dalvin Cook has also been hampered by a bad hamstring the last two games.
“The running game, we’re not horrible, we’re not bad,” said Cook, who also added he is still not 100 percent. “We’ve just got to get in positions to where we can run the football and close out football games. Last week wasn’t that type of game, that we could close the football game out.”
The Eagles are allowing 63.8 yards per game on the ground amidst their 2-2 start. In 76 rushing attempts faced, Philadelphia has stopped 27 of them for no gain or a loss of yardage. Last season, they allowed 1,267 yards on the ground, the only total lower than the Vikings.
“They get a lot of negative runs, so that helps them get the offense off schedule, but it’s aggressive,” said Zimmer. “Sometimes they’ll be in a ‘9’ technique with their defensive end, sometimes they’ll move him down and jump inside, so they’re going to give you some different looks off of that.”
The “9” technique refers to a wider alignment for a team’s defensive ends, which the Eagles often employ. Anchored by Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Fletcher Cox and a strong rotation, the Eagles only allowed six teams to rush for 100 yards or more against them last season, and they’ve limited opponents to 74 yards or fewer on the ground in each game this season.
They have, however, allowed six carries of 10 yards or more, which head coach Doug Pederson wants to see cleaned up.
“They’re susceptible to certain plays and things like that that I’m sure [DeFilippo] is probably aware of, but at the same time they’re flying to the ball,” Pederson told Twin Cities reporters. “Conversely, because you do that, it can lead to big chunk plays on the back end, and that’s something we have to eliminate moving forward.”
Ultimately, the run game’s opportunity may not come until the defense fixes its early-season ailments. It has allowed 29, 27 and 38 points in the last three games, leading to pass-heavy playcalling.
The running backs can’t be blamed for not getting touches late in games with the Vikings scrambling to come back, but a stronger tone set by the running game out of the gate might help eliminate those early deficits.
Philadelphia, though, will make it hard to be multi-dimensional.
“I think in a lot of cases we’ve looked at our call sheet, and Coach Flip’s looked at it, and felt like our best chance to win this game right now is to drop back and throw it,” Cousins said. “You can’t be it all, so you do what you think is best.”
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