The search for answers
The search for answers
The day after losing to Dallas, the Vikings had little in the way of resolutions
By Matthew Coller
Mike Zimmer was honest about what went wrong for the Minnesota Vikings against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. He started his Monday press conference by running down the laundry list.
He mentioned:
Scoring an opening touchdown and not producing one after that
Not sustaining drives
Not being good on third down
Being caught off guard by the Cowboys’ defensive scheme on third downs
Giving up a 73-yard touchdown
And that was just his opening remarks, which Zimmer wrapped up by saying, “So we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The opening question to the presser asked what needed to be done and included a suggestion of more aggressive play calling.
Zimmer defended the gameplan, saying that downfield passing was on the agenda but it didn’t come to fruition.
“You said ‘aggressive play-calling’? The first play of the game, we tried to take a shot,” Zimmer said. “We tried to hit a double move that we didn’t connect on. We had another, the one with pass interference to Jefferson, when he got hurt, was a deep over route. So it’s not like we don’t have those things that we’re planning on doing. It’s just something they’re not working.”
Later, after confirming that Danielle Hunter would be out for the season, reporters followed up, asking whether he still wanted the Vikings to be a run-first offense.
“I think we threw the ball nine straight times in the second half and went three-and-out three times, we have to be able to run the football,” Zimmer said. “We’ve got to get the ball to Dalvin, and we’ve got to try to get the ball to Jefferson and Thielen. When Jefferson got out, we’ve got to try to get the ball to Adam a little bit more. We’ve got to try to get the ball in the hands of our playmakers.”
Justin Jefferson walked out of the building on Sunday night barely having had reason to put his uniform on. He received four targets and made two receptions. Adam Thielen caught a touchdown on the opening drive and finished the game with just 78 yards. Meanwhile Dallas’s two top receivers went over 100 yards.
When Dalvin Cook talked with the TC media, he also diagnosed the team’s wrongdoings from the 20-16 loss that dropped them to 3-4 on the year.
Asked what was missing on the offensive side, he said: “A rhythm. We didn't ever find ourselves the whole game. I think the first drive we did a great job of setting the tone and coming out of the game, but that was it. We didn't find ourselves as an offense yesterday on no parts of the field, red zone, nothing. We couldn't get down there and score touchdowns to help our defense. They did a great job for us yesterday putting us in position sometimes when they turned the football over. We needed to capitalize on those mistakes by the Cowboys and we didn't do that.”
But when it come to the part about fixing the issues, there was much less to say.
“We've got to go back this week and reevaluate ourselves as a group and get better,” he said.
Asked whether play calling was at the center of their problems, Cook said: “I don’t get into the pointing the fingers at the play calling and all that. That’s not the type of person I am. That’s not what I get into. That’s up to the coaches to figure out what plays to call. It’s up to us to execute them, on what they call, so I can’t get into that one.”
Following Sunday night’s game the Vikings rank 18th in points per game, 18th in the percentage of drives in which they produce points, 19th in passing yards per attempt and 27th in Expected Points Added in the running game.
They have pushed a lot of different buttons already this year. Early in the season, they went with the quick game, deviating from the Gary Kubiak way of play-actions and deep shots. Late in the game against Carolina, the moving pockets returned with success. On Sunday night, offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak dialed up play-action on 36% of dropbacks but the Vikings gained just 6.4 yards per attempt on those throws.
The irony of the offense’s struggles in the loss was that they were successful throwing down the field when it actually happened. When throwing over 10 yards, Kirk Cousins averaged 14.3 yards per attempt. The problem is that he only threw the ball more than 10 yards on eight of his 35 passes.
It was another example in a file cabinet’s worth of games of the Vikings having no counterpunch to pressure. Pro Football Focus graded four of the Vikings’ five offensive linemen below 45 (out of 100) in pass blocking against the Cowboys. Naturally, Brian O’Neill was the exception.
Under pressure, Cousins went 7-for-15 for 21 yards.
Nobody expects the Vikings to tell the world about their gameplan against the Ravens or air dirty laundry the day after a loss but there’s normally something to point toward. Gotta run the ball better. Gotta hit on plays X, Y, Z. But there might not be any more answers or levers to pull that are different than the ones tried by the long list of offensive coordinators who have attempted to solve the Vikings Offense Rubik’s Cube.
They can only hope that another one of those hot stretches from Cousins is around the corner. They’ll need it against their next three opponents, who are quarterbacked by Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert and Aaron Rodgers.
“I’m disappointed, couldn’t hardly sleep last night,” Cook said. “We just have to put that behind us. New week, new challenge. The sun came up today so we have to go to work.”
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This team has a philosophy problem that can only be fixed with a new head coach