3 Top Takeaways: Minnesota Vikings vs. New Orleans Saints – Week 8
By Adam Patrick
Two-minute offense needs major work
Despite the amount of weapons they have at their disposal, the Vikings’ offense has not performed well during two-minute situations this season.
On the 13 drives this year in which Minnesota has taken over possession with three minutes or less remaining in a half (not including drives to run out the clock), only four have ended with them scoring points and three have resulted in a turnover.
A success rate of around 30 percent on these specific drives is not what an offense like the Vikings’ should be experiencing. Minnesota didn’t back up the Brinks truck to Kirk Cousins’ house this year for him to come in and look lost on every two-minute drill.
Some of the failures in these situations can be attributed to play-calling, while a lack of urgency from Cousins and the rest of the offense has been a contributing factor as well. It’s something that has been going on with this offense for the entire season.
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Back in Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers, the Vikings’ offense got the ball with 2:18 remaining in the second quarter. Despite having all three of their timeouts left to use, Minnesota failed to come away with any points on the drive before the clock ran out.
A key play from that drive came after Dalvin Cook caught a pass on first down that resulted in a six-yard loss for Minnesota. Instead of clocking the football or using their final timeout with around 30 seconds left in the quarter, Cousins and the offense twiddled their thumbs and didn’t get another play off until the game clock hit the 12 second mark.
Minnesota exhibited a similar send of urgency on Sunday night against the Saints.
Trailing by 17 points, the Vikings got the ball with 9:35 left in the fourth quarter. Instead of trying to get a score as quick as possible, Minnesota’s offense ended up running 13 plays and taking more than five minutes off the clock before finally scoring a touchdown.
While they were able to cut the deficit to 10 points, that clock-eating drive was basically the dagger in the Vikings’ chances of making any sort of comeback.