Tough game or trend? Vikings have things to figure out after tough loss to Rams

The Vikings' 30-20 loss to the Rams featured some issues that carried over from last Sunday

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By Matthew Coller

LOS ANGELES — Did the Detroit Lions lay out the blueprint for the Los Angeles Rams to use against the Minnesota Vikings?

That was the question coming out of the Vikings locker room after Thursday Night’s 30-20 Vikings loss to the Rams at SoFi Stadium.

“It’s a copycat league, if one team uses it and it works then I don’t see why another team wouldn’t do the same thing,” cornerback Shaq Griffin said. “A lot of the things we have seen the last two games, we’re probably going to see for the rest of the year until we stop it.

Griffin referred to throws into the middle of the field and quick snap counts that didn’t allow the Vikings to get into their cat-and-mouse game of checks at the line of scrimmage.

There was plenty more.

Last Sunday the Lions ran the football effectively against the Vikings and then used extra pass protectors to slow down the high rate of pressure caused by Brian Flores’s blitzes. Detroit also used screens to get playmakers the ball in spaces vacated by aggressive rushes. That’s exactly what the Rams did on Thursday night to negate the No. 1 ranked team in pressure percentage in the NFL entering this week.

“They found ways to put somebody else in a pick up pressures that we were sending but a lot of stuff could have been a lot cleaner and I think a lot of it is just getting back on the same page and playing the ball that we’re used to,” Griffin said.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford was not sacked a single time and was only pressured eight times (per PFF) en route to going 25-for-34 for 279 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. Receiver Puka Nacua posted 106 yards, while Cooper Kupp added 51 more and a TD. When throwing to the middle of the field, Stafford went 8-for-11 passing.

“I just think it comes down to can we get enough rush and coverage and working together to maybe not give a quarterback like that a couple extra clicks,” O’Connell said. “We have to tighten up and try to get off the field.”

The Rams’ short passes to the edge forced the Vikings to come up and make tackles. They missed six and gave up 126 yards after catch.

L.A. also ran efficiently with RB Kyren Williams, gaining 97 yards on 23 carries. Oh, and the Rams kept the Vikings’ defense on the field for long periods of time, racking up nearly 34 minutes in time of possession.

O’Connell added that key penalties that kept them on the field defensively. They were flagged five time on defense in total. The Vikings are now the fifth most flagged team in the NFL.

What can the defense do to clean up its suddenly messy performances?

Griffin said they need to identify fixes for the answers that have been discovered against them the last two weeks.

“Whatever the case may be, having different pre-snap checks or calls to put us in situations a lot faster so we’re all on the same page,” he said, “Once we fix that, then they won’t be able to do a lot of the things that they’re doing now.”

“We need to work,” O’Connell said. “We need to improve and we need to get back to doing some of the things that helped us get to this point of 5-2 before these last two games. We will do that.”

It can’t be ignored that the Vikings were without Blake Cashman again. Before getting injured, he ranked as a top 10 PFF linebacker and was the green-dot play caller on defense. Cashman was the one responsible for making changes at the line of scrimmage based on what he saw.

The offensive side for the Vikings was efficient for the second game in a row with QB Sam Darnold completing 72% of his throws at 9.6 yards per attempt with two touchdowns. But similar to the Lions’ attack, even when Darnold was consistently on point throwing the ball, he took key sacks, including one in the end zone to end the game (yes, there was a facemask) and another that gave the ball back to the Rams with just over four minutes remaining and the Vikings trailing by eight points.

“They were doing a lot of things coverage wise to try to keep a roof on the coverage and not let the big plays happen,” O’Connell said. “Sam was able to kind of check the ball down to some guys and put the ball in play. We got the screen game going a little bit in the second half. We just didn't sustain enough. We weren't on the field enough. 50 plays...again, when it's a game like this, their offense is making some plays, sustaining drives and kind of eating a lot of clock, it can feel like an awfully short game to you as an offense.”

Lacking sustained drives has become a trend. Among the 23 teams in the NFL that have played seven games, the Vikings are 22nd in total plays and 17th in first downs.

“I feel like these last two losses have been self-inflicted,” receiver Justin Jefferson said. “All of the penalties we’re having, the non-execution on certain plays that we need is something that hurts us in the long run… some of the stuff is things we can handle ourselves, that we need to fix.”

On the ground the Vikings struggled vs. the Rams. Aaron Jones only gained 3.1 yards per carry and played nearly every snap just four days after grinding out a tremendous performance against the Lions.

“I felt like they started to give some problems along the line of scrimmage as far as could we get a couple and maybe pop one or two longer ones,” O’Connell said. “That kind of resets the whole day.”

While the O-line did not receive good grades by PFF in terms of run blocking, it has also become a consistent issue that they do not have a change-of-pace back that can spell him. Out of 50 offensive snaps, Jones played 46 despite coming off a hamstring injury three weeks ago. Ty Chandler played just three snaps and Cam Akers did not play on offense. We may see that change with Akers getting a mini-bye to lock into the Vikings offense. They will also get TJ Hockenson back next week, which could help with drive consistency.

As the Vikings left L.A., the theme was that they have a lot of work to do in response to what has happened the last two weeks. They are still 5-2, tied for the second best record in the conference but they realize if they allow teams to repeat the same patters in the coming weeks, they won’t stay there.

“These last two games it feels like we hurt ourselves, so it’s back to the drawing board,” Jefferson said.

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