Minnesota Vikings: 5 biggest issues right now

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Jul 27, 2015; Mankato, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner talks with his players in drills at training camp at Minnesota State University. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

5. Red zone offense

There are few things in football more frustrating than when the offense goes down the field and then can’t punch the ball in the end zone.

As Leslie Frazier used to so eloquently say, you need sixes not threes.

The Vikings struggled to get sixes against Detroit and had to rely on Blair Walsh getting lots of threes.

Walsh seems to be on-the-money again after his bad patch so at least we can rely on him converting his field goal chances most of the time.

But the fact remains that…well, sixes are better than threes and the Vikings just aren’t getting enough sixes.

What exactly is going wrong when the Vikings get into the red zone?

People will have their pet explanations about these red zone struggles. Some will blame playcalling, some will blame quarterbacking, some will blame blocking.

I think that when you get down close and the field becomes compressed, it compounds certain issues you may have in certain areas of your team.

In the Vikings’ case, the lack of run blocking is the one thing that’s probably hurting them the most when they get close.

The Vikings can’t blow anyone off the ball right now with their offensive line and as a result they struggle to punch it in.

I like teams that can run the ball in the red zone and don’t have to rely solely on the quarterback to make it happen. The Vikings are not one of those teams right now.

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