Offensive Problems Stefanski Must Solve As OC In 2019

Vikings rushing TDs in 2018: 9.
Vikings rushing TDs through 6 weeks in 2019: 9.

In all but the first week of the season, the Vikings have led the NFC North in yards per play and average 6.3 on the season. Minnesota ranks third overall in the NFL in that category, right behind the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys, two teams it will face in consecutive weeks on the road to start November.

A major portion of that number derives from Minnesota’s explosive plays, from Dalvin Cook's home-run plays on the ground or receptions out of the backfield (his 8.2 yards per target is the most in the league, per NFL’s Next Gen Stats, with a minimum of 20 targets) to the deep balls Stefon Diggs hauled in for touchdowns on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.

How did the Vikings, who boast the seventh-ranked offense, get here with the doubt and uncertainty around this unit pushed to the back burner after two wins?

It wasn’t a lack of efficacy. It was a lack of execution.

"I stood here, I believe it was after the Bears game (in Week 4), and I felt there were a lot of questions about our lack of effectiveness, and I said, ‘Honestly, it boils down to we’ve missed a couple of shots in our play-action game,’" quarterback Kirk Cousins said. "If we had hit those, I think we’d be feeling a lot differently. I would attribute it to the play-action hits that we’ve had. Again, the explosive runs were there from the beginning, so, yeah, you could say explosive runs, but that’s been there.

"We’ve hit some screens, but I think we’ve also done that throughout. So it’s just been a couple plays here and there that are big, and they end up kind of playing statistics a certain direction."

Behind many of the explosive plays are two elite-level receivers hauling in critical gains. Diggs and Adam Thielen transform Minnesota’s offense from a very good one into a very dangerous one, and as the division race heats up and a slew of important road games lie on the horizon, these two will be the determining factor in allowing the Vikings to see just how far they can go.

Judging by the Vikings’ game plan, it’s evident that the coaching staff feels the same way.

After posting the highest rush percentage (58%) in the league through Week 3, Minnesota shifted the direction of its playcalling. The Vikings have thrown the ball nearly 10 more times per game the last three weeks compared to the first three weeks, calling for passes on 56 percent of plays from Week 4 on compared to 42 percent in Weeks 1-3.

A big part of their success comes through the play-action game. Against the Giants, Cousins’ average yards per attempt on play-action was 13.9, nearly double (6.8) what it was on such passes in the first four games. Thielen’s third-quarter touchdown came off play-action. Diggs, too, has seen his production spike when getting more involved in this area. According to ESPN Stats and Information, Diggs has turned seven targets into five catches for 99 yards and two TDs off play-action in Weeks 4-6. He had one catch for 31 yards in Weeks 1-3.

Cousins has also gotten his receivers involved earlier over the past two weeks. Thielen’s 121 yards in the first half against the Giants was the second-most receiving yards by a Vikings player in a half in 10 seasons. Diggs has gotten off to a faster start since the Chicago game, having been targeted on 28 percent of his routes in the first half (a 5% increase from Weeks 1-3), which has yielded eight catches for 176 yards and two touchdowns.