Vikings

We're Starting To See A Troubling Trend For the Vikings' Offense

Photo Credit: Peter van den Berg-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Vikings are 3-1. However, judging by the fan discourse, you’d think they were 1-3 and bound to miss the playoffs. It’s an interesting phenomenon. Still, there has to be a reason the Vikings are winning but don’t look good doing it, right?

It comes down to the sputtering offense, which is Kevin O’Connell’s area of expertise. They’re just not capitalizing on defensive and special teams turnovers. It’s uncanny how many opportunities they’ve wasted.

On the surface, the offense is the strength of the team. Justin Jefferson is a top-five receiver, Dalvin Cook is one of the best backs, the offensive line is finally competent, and Kirk Cousins is, well, Kirk Cousins. But they aren’t playing at peak performance, and it’s pretty apparent where they are falling short.

The Green Bay Packers game illustrated the strengths of the offense – for the most part. The defense was really the star, even though Cousins had a good game in Week 1.

The defense held Aaron Rodgers to just seven points and caused two turnovers — one interception and one fumble. They even got the ball back on a fourth-down stop late in the fourth quarter. The Vikings’ offense failed to score a touchdown on any of these. Furthermore, they only scored three points on drives following these three huge plays from the defense. That’s 0-2 for scoring off turnovers, or 0-3 if you include the fourth-down stop.

The first half of the game against the Philadelphia Eagles was a disaster, but there were many opportunities for a momentum shift when the Vikings received the second-half kickoff. The offense just royally squandered it.

The Eagles failed to score in the second half. The Vikings blocked a field goal attempt to take possession and got a late interception. Both of those turnovers turned into offensive drives that ended with a Cousins interception, squandering the defense’s and special teams’ efforts.

Following Week 2, the Vikings had created four turnovers and had not scored on one of them.

The Detroit Lions game was the first of the ugly wins for the Vikings. It was also a bit of an outlier in the sense there that Minnesota didn’t generate many turnovers. There was one interception at the end of the game, but it essentially sealed the victory without the Vikings needing to score.

Missed field goals and turnovers on downs have created some interesting situations for the Vikings. Still, they only converted two of these opportunities out of five into touchdowns.

Finally, we have the New Orleans Saints game in London. The Saints gave the Vikings’ offense two pivotal opportunities: a fumble recovery and one awesome fake punt. Both of these ended in field goals. That adds up to no touchdowns on six pivotal opportunities this season.

I’m not saying it’s the end of the world that this team is settling for field goals every once in a while. But the fact that they cannot capitalize on a turnover or fake punt with a touchdown is deeply uninspiring, especially considering that the offense was supposed to be the strength of this team.

It isn’t all bad, though.

The good news is the defense and special teams have been giving the offense these chances, and something’s gotta give. At some point, this team will have to have a convincing win once they reverse this, right? (…right?)

The defense is in the top half of the league (12) for points allowed while allowing a lot of passing and rushing yards. That’s the identity of Ed Donatell’s bend-but-don’t-break defense. And for once the special teams isn’t bad, specifically the kicking.

For the offense to take over games and seize advantage of the opportunities gifted to them, there are a few aspects of the game they need to clean up. First, it’s the third-down looks. They are 28th in the NFL for converting third downs. And, not to sound like a hater, but it’s because of Cousins.

Cousins has looked far too shaky in the pocket since the Eagles game. In Week 1 he was incredible, but he reverted to the former self that we’ve seen flashes of in Minnesota after he got rocked in Philly. If the offensive line can really step up like they’ve shown they can, they shouldn’t have to be world-beaters.

The red zone offense is their particular weakness. They’re 25th in the league. It’s concerning that Adam Thielen and Irv Smith Jr. just aren’t getting the targets they should in the red zone. O’Connell is getting more creative, though. I loved this play he drew up for Alexander Mattison:

This week’s game against the Chicago Bears should give them a chance to refine the operation. If the Vikings can’t convincingly beat the Bears in their current state, it might be the first true red flag of this season. Remember, they have a first-time head coach and general manager. This team still has room to grow.

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