Which of the Vikings’ issues on offense are solvable?

[purplefaithful]

EAGAN, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings’ offense has been an enigma in 2018.
At times, it has appeared that they could go toe-to-toe with anyone in the NFL. Take for example the fourth quarter and overtime of their Week 2 matchup against the Green Bay Packers in which the Vikings produced 22 points. Quarterback Kirk Cousins went for 425 yards and four touchdowns against the Pack. Two weeks later against Los Angeles, he threw for 422 yards and three touchdowns.

Since the explosion against the Rams, the Vikings’ offense is 18th in yards per play and 26th in percentage of plays that have resulted in either a first down or touchdown. Those numbers have dropped from 9th and 10th, respectively (per Pro-Football Reference).
Cousins is 21st in yards per attempt since Week 5.
As the Vikings head into the deciding portion of their season in which they will face playoff contenders four of their final six games in the Packers, Patriots, Seahawks and Bears, they will need to be more effective on the offensive side if they want to reach the postseason.
In Sunday night’s 25-20 loss, the Vikings only managed six points through three quarters of the game and struggled mightily against an excellent Bears defense.
On Monday, head coach Mike Zimmer was asked for explanations for the team’s recent inability to put together four quarters of successful offensive play. He talked about players adapting to John DeFilippo’s offense.
“We do have a lot of guys going in different spots. It might be, what is the best way to say this, it might be a little volume, a little too much volume,” Zimmer said. “Too much. Let’s just play football. You run a really good out route, you run the out route. He runs a good curl, you run the curl. You know what I mean? So, maybe we just need to focus a little bit on not trying to trick the other team quite so much.”
The Vikings’ head coach continued…
“You want to add new plays every week and new plays and new plays and new plays. If you’re not executing, it might be the best play in the world. Vince Lombardi might have designed it but if you can’t execute it, then it doesn’t do you any good. Can’t protect for it or whatever it is.”
As the Vikings head into a huge swing game against the Green Bay Packers, it’s clear they will be searching for answers on offense.
With that said, that’s have a look at a few statistical areas where they have had issues and whether they can improve…
Turnovers: Key stat:  26th in giveawaysSecond down running game: Key stat: 31th in yards per carry on second down (3.3 YPC)Red zone: Key stat: 23rd in touchdown percentagePass protection: Key stat: Graded 31st in team pass blocking by PFFPlay-action: Key stat: Cousins 22nd in percentage of plays with play-action, 5th in play-action completion percentageDistribution to weapons : Key stat: Kyle Rudolph: Nine catches on 15 targets for 96 yards and four first downs over the past four weeksYards after catch: 3rd worst in YAC (shocking)TakeawaysThe Vikings aren’t going to suddenly become to New Orleans Saints offensive line. Cousins isn’t suddenly going to protect the football like Kurt Warner in his prime. There will have to be schematic shifts around these things to maximize some of the other playmakers on the team outside of Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs while getting players on the same page with their offensive coordinator and quarterback.
The good news for the Vikings’ offense is that they will have chances to bounce back. Chicago is the only current top 10 defense they face the rest of the way.
http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2018/1...-solvable/

[Guest]

Interior OL performance. Period. 

Cousins has no running game, particularly inside
Cousins can rare step UP in the pocket which keeps a majority of your field view open

if we had two guards that were NFL average, we would have a 15-16th ranked running game which would have helped us win versus Chicago and NO

[Guest]

@Skodin said:
Interior OL performance. Period. 

Cousins has no running game, particularly inside
Cousins can rare step UP in the pocket which keeps a majority of your field view open

if we had two guards that were NFL average, we would have a 15-16th ranked running game which would have helped us win versus Chicago and NO

When you say 15th - 16th ranked are you talking average per attempt, or yards per game?
MN averages 4.0 
Tennessee is 15th at a 3.9 yard average.
Mn averages 21 attempts per game Ten 29 attempts 
If Mn was not playing catch up most of the time I bet they would have more rushing attempts.

If MN ran 31 times a game like the Bears they would at 4.0 have 1,240 yards = 12th place yards per game

[Guest]

sorry i meant as in overall.  If the OL and running game could overall perform to league average instead of being at the bottom, this teamwould be substantially better.  I don’t think it will take much, just two good position upgrades PLUS the healthy return of Easton, the maturation of ONeill and a bounce back of Reiff and Elf.  Next year we could add a FA G and a high draft pick, plus Collins and be in a much better position on the OL

[Guest]

@Skodin said:
sorry i meant as in overall.  If the OL and running game could overall perform to league average instead of being at the bottom, this teamwould be substantially better.  I don’t think it will take much, just two good position upgrades PLUS the healthy return of Easton, the maturation of ONeill and a bounce back of Reiff and Elf.  Next year we could add a FA G and a high draft pick, plus Collins and be in a much better position on the OL

They are close to middle of the pack in yards per attempt, it's the attempts per game, that makes them look bad.
WK1 Won ran 32 times because they we never behind
WK2 tie ran 18 times because they scored only 7 points in the 1st 3 quarters and need 22 points to tie in the 4th
WK3 lost ran 6 times Because the lowly bills held them to 6 4th quarter garbage time points
WK4 lost ran 17 times because they were playing catch up the whole game
WK5 won ran 24 times never trailed in the game
WK6 won ran 32 times never trailed in the game
WK7 won ran 24 times never trailed in the game
WK8 lost ran 22 times trailed most of the game
WK9 Won ran 24 times never trailed
WK10 lost ran 14 times if not for 2 late garbage time TD MN scores 3 points in 3rd and 4th quarters

Only lost 1 game when ran more than 20 times
Won every game they ran more than 22 times.

[Guest]

Maybe if the Vikings had more than just one play, between the tackles, the running game would be more effective.  It's sad that as a fan of these team, one can tell when the Vikings are going to run ball. So can the other team's defense.

[Guest]

This year was a mess. Tony dying in camp. Losing Easton hurt. There has been problems consistently fielding a Oline for several years/decade. If we fixed that most all other problems would solve themselves.
Simple to me. Obviously not to Rick.  To be fair I think he was limited by so many draft needs recently. 

[Guest]

I know this wont be well received but I think
Rick was in a tough spot with the OL

He lost a solid smart versatile starter in Berger. He tried to replace him wjth a solid smart versatile starter in Compton. A
guy who played well both for a Super Bowl team and Chicago last year. Seemed like a solid replacement with Easton, Collins, Remmers, Isodora as our 4 G

then He lost both young guards (Easton and Collins).  He just is getting Elf now

He paid well for Reiff and got a great value last year, this year, injury bug has slowed him

He paid for Remmers, who provides versatility at RT. We saw some quality play in Hill. So Remmers and Hill make a solid Right side. 

Hill sucked but its ok, we drafted a 2nd round young stud who is raw. 

Let us be honest, they werent moving on from Reiff, Remmers, Elf, Hill, Easton, Collins, Isodora. They went and got a one for one (didnt work out) with a Berger/Compton swap. Added a 2nd round raw but potential stud. Not sure how much more he could have done. It just hasnt broke our way this year with play and injuries. 

The best 3 from last year have all regressed, we lost our 4th due to injury and the mid level solid starter pickup didnt work as well.  Collins got hurt, ONeill has surprised. 

I believe the loss of Sparano is having a bigger effect than expected and the OC is still
wet behind thr ears. 

A return of Easton, a 4 star FA G pick up and another high pick at T should round out a quality OL moving forward

[Guest]

The OL looks to be a complete mess, but it really can be solved in one off-season.  They need a starting RG and a backup RG.  Why? Because they really don't have a RG on the roster that can do the job.  Isadora is more of a LG to me and if we get Easton back (IF!), we would be OK there.  Hopefully, Reiff will be healthy and that would make the left-side at least, average, which is a huge improvement from what it is now.  I disagree with those that say Remmers has come a long ways this season at RG.  He is not a door mat at RG, but I think he is the weakest link by far on the OL.  I don't see how he fits on the team and I think somehow they have to move him.  They need to draft a new RG early and he has to be a starter right away.  Tough, but it can be done, a first or 2nd rounder.  Compton is actually OK as a backup but nothing more, he might be OK as the backup RG for a year, but the team really should look for someone better soon.

At T, they can do OK with a healthy Reiff and O'Neil seems to be a budding star.  The backup spot(s) are an issue though.  Hill did not take the step up like I thought he would and I wonder if his time has come to an end with the Vikings.  If Storm Norton can really play, he could be the back up T, but if he can't, that is the other OL draft choice they need to make. 

[Guest]

Some of this is scheme, particularly the run game, but our OL is very bad at run blocking