The Vikings have won three in a row, but they still have significant room for growth.
The Vikings won again on Sunday, improving to 8-2 on the season with a road victory over the lowly Titans. The good news is that after finding ways to handle business in three straight games against inferior opponents, they’re one of just six teams in the NFL with at least eight wins. The thing that gives you some pause, at least when discussing their ceiling, is that they only outscored the lowly AFC South trio of the Titans, Jaguars, and Colts (combined record: 9-23) by a total of 23 points.
This weekend’s game in Tennessee was less stressful than turnover-filled one-score wins against Jacksonville and Indianapolis, but it was also far from a complete effort. If not for 13 Titans penalties, a few of which were controversial, this one might’ve ended up as a nail-biter as well. These last few weeks for Minnesota have been a far cry from what the juggernaut Lions did in dropping 52 points on both the Titans and Jaguars.
We know the Vikings are capable of playing with the Lions; their narrow missed opportunity in a 31-29 home loss a month ago is ample evidence of that. This Vikings team is pretty clearly better than the 2022 team that was also 8-2 at this juncture. But if they’re going to have any shot at surpassing Detroit in the NFC North or making a run in the playoffs in a couple months, they’ll have to play a lot better than they have lately.
“I know that it would probably be really fun for us to just steamroll the NFL every single week,” Kevin O’Connell said on Sunday. “It’s just not the way it’s gonna go, which also provides a lot of opportunity to grow and get better … and just constantly chase that progression, knowing that we’re a good football team. Through 10 games, we’ve won eight of ’em. We’ve got the right mindset. But I do believe, hopefully our best football is ahead of us.”
Let’s go over three areas where the Vikings need to prioritize continued improvement down the stretch of this season.
1. Running the football
The Vikings really struggled to run the ball effectively in O’Connell’s first two seasons as head coach. It was easy to point to Dalvin Cook in 2022 and Alexander Mattison in 2023 and say they needed better play at the running back position, which is why they were so excited about going out and getting Aaron Jones this offseason. But despite having some success earlier this year, that operation hasn’t been particularly smooth in recent weeks.
Jones and Cam Akers were held to 64 rushing yards on 25 carries on Sunday against the Titans (2.6 YPC), which meant Sam Darnold had to save the day for the offense with one of his best games of the year. Jones has been limited to 3.1 yards per carry or worse in three of the last four games, dropping his season average to a career-low 4.4. As a team, the Vikings have been below 4 YPC in three of their last four.
Explosive plays have been very hard to come by on the ground — the Vikings have three rushes of 20-plus yards all season, tied for third-fewest in the league. So too have rushing touchdowns, where the Vikings rank 30th with five this season (just two of which are from Jones).
This specific matchup against the Titans’ defensive front, led by Jeffery Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat, was a tough one for the Vikings’ running game. It’s also possible Jones was still a bit banged up from the ribs injury he suffered against the Jaguars. But the Vikings need to be a lot more efficient in that area moving forward, which may be tougher with Dalton Risner in for Ed Ingram at right guard and Josh Oliver dealing with an ankle injury.
“We had our work cut out for us going into that game,” O’Connell said on Monday. “There’s always some things you can do better from a technique, fundamentals, play-style standpoint and just the small little things that can turn a three, four, five-yard run into a 15, 20-yard run. And we were close on some of those, but I do think we’ve gotta continue — that’s one of the big areas, as we move towards the home stretch here of the season, is continuing to get that (right). When we’ve been at our best as an offense is when we’ve been able to establish the run and all of the things that come off of it.”
Nov 17, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Titans safety Amani Hooker (37) tackles Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones (33) during the first half at Nissan Stadium. / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images
2. Giving up chunks to opposing passing games
The Vikings’ defense has been absolutely incredible
this season. There’s really no other way to put it. They lead the league in defensive DVOA and opponent EPA per play, they’re fourth in scoring defense, they’re tied for the league lead in takeaways, and they’re tied for third in sacks. Brian Flores’ group had five more sacks and a game-sealing interception against the Titans, and Minnesota has given up just 26 total points on defense over the last three weeks.
But if there’s one concern that lingers on that side of the ball, it’s the tendency for the Vikings to allow chunk plays to opposing passing games when pressure doesn’t get home. Will Levis had several of those on Sunday, most notably a 98-yard touchdown to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine that briefly got Tennessee back into the game. He also threw a 51-yard touchdown to Calvin Ridley that was negated by an illegal formation penalty on his right tackle. On the very next play, Levis found a receiver for a 33-yard gain anyways.
The Vikings’ pass defense was a major issue in losses to the Lions and Rams, and the return of Blake Cashman hasn’t magically fixed things in that regard. This season, the Vikings have surrendered 66 pass completions of at least 15 yards in 10 games. Only the Ravens (87 in 11 games) have allowed more on a per-game basis. It’s something Flores and the Vikings’ secondary have to tighten up ahead of matchups against better offenses in the coming months.
“There’s a lot of areas, coming out of yesterday that I think we could play better in all three phases,” O’Connell said. “And that’s where, as we kinda reach the middle of November, pushing on into December, we’ve gotta try to find a way to play our best football of the season here down the stretch.”
3. Turnovers
The Vikings certainly took care of the football on Sunday much better than they did in the two previous games, but they still opened the afternoon with a fumble on a toss play on their first possession. That one, which falls on Jones to catch, allowed the Titans to take an early 3-0 lead. It was the 17th giveaway of the season for the Vikings, the fifth-most in the league. It’s also the second time that specific type of play has happened; Ty Chandler failed to corral a toss in the London game in Week 5.
“We’ve gotta execute tossing the football,” O’Connell said. “Whosever fault it was, whoever takes the
ultimate minus on the sheet, it’s catastrophic. We’ve had two of them early on in games and it can’t happen.”
The most encouraging stat from the win in Tennessee was Darnold putting up a 0 in the interception column for just the third time in ten games. The Vikings reaching the heights they want to reach this season might largely come down to their ability to take care of the football without sacrificing aggressiveness to do so.