Aug 24, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell speaks to the referee during the third quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Caean Couto-USA TODAY Sports.
Two defeats in five days, and suddenly, there is a feeling that the Minnesota Vikings’ season is coming off the rails. It’s a little early to be hitting the panic button — a 5-2 record is better than what was generally expected — but three major areas of concern for the Vikings need to be fixed.
The Vikings have started to show some very obvious weaknesses. Whether these problems can be solved will determine whether the Vikings remain strong playoff contenders or fall back into the pack. The team has an extended break until then to host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football next to figure things out. Let’s take a look at the three major areas of concern for the Vikings.
Brian Flores wreaked havoc over opposing defenses in the season’s early games, but the cracks started to appear in the second half at Green Bay and have been compounded over the last two games. Flores’ exotic blitzing scheme is necessary to cover up the weaknesses of the Vikings’ defense. The IDL gets no pressure, the DBs can’t cover well enough, and with Blake Cashman absent for the last two games, the defense in the middle of the field has been too soft.
That being said, it takes high-level play-calling and quarterbacking to read this Vikings defense, and not every team has that available. The Ben Johnson/Jared Goff and Sean McVay/Matthew Stafford combinations are about as good as it gets in that regard. The Vikings stayed in both games until the end, so it’s not a complete disaster, but until the team finds some answers or better players, this will remain a problem area.
The Vikings hope to have Cashman back next week, which will make a difference. The lack of Dallas Turner (just 3 snaps on Thursday) is eyebrow-raising. When the team needs to be able to create pressure on four-man fronts, perhaps your first-round pass-rusher should be getting on the field. Then there is the trade deadline. Will the Vikings make a move? Will it be a big splash? A trade for a long-term answer at either DL or CB would be nice, but are those opportunities out there?
The Minnesota offense comes out firing, looks great, and puts points on the board. Then, as the game progresses, it starts to struggle more and more. It’s becoming a weekly sight, and it points to the Vikings being good on the scripted plays at the start of the game but failing to adjust as they get into the game. The stats back that theory up.
So what’s the problem? Why does the Vikings offense fall off so badly after the first 15 plays? It could simply be a case of Sam Darnold struggling outside of the scripted plays and his limitations showing up. In this case, Kevin O’Connell needs to be able to keep his quarterback more comfortable for longer. It’s not been terrible all the time outside of the first 15 plays, and there have been mitigating circumstances at times. Like the Aaron Jones injury against the Jets and the Christian Darrisaw injury against the Rams.
Both injuries affected the Vikings badly; Darrisaw’s injury poses a massive problem. Injuries are a part of football that teams just have to deal with. Minnesota should welcome back TJ Hockenson in Week 9, which will be a timely boost to the offense. Another problem the offense is having is something that is plaguing the whole team, which brings us to our third and final concern.
Sloppy teams that shoot themselves in the foot with penalties don’t win games. The officials on Thursday night may not have covered themselves in glory, particularly with the missed facemask on Darnold that ended the game. However, they can’t be blamed for the continuous pre-snap penalties the Vikings conceded. Minnesota has conceded 28 penalties over the last three games, which is frankly ridiculous. The count for the season is at 54, with a cost of 390 yards.
The offense is the worst culprit with 31 penalties, putting themselves in a hole time and time again, particularly with the pre-snap penalties. The defense has generally been good this season, but the six penalties on Thursday were a season-high, taking the overall tally to 15. LA got numerous third-down conversions from penalty flags that were key to the game. Special teams aren’t immune either, notching up eight flags in seven games.
There will always be dubious calls that make a team feel hard done by, but this Vikings team has just been sloppy this season. It’s inexcusable and should be the easiest area to tidy up.