3 things the Vikings need to improve heading into Week 10

Offensive Line

The Vikings’ offensive line had arguably their worst game of the season against the Chiefs in Week 9. Kirk Cousins was getting pressured often and what was worse, was that the usually poor run defense of Kansas City was stuffing Dalvin Cook all game long.

This was a unit that had really started to jell for Minnesota in recent weeks and to see this kind of performance was very disheartening.

Vikings left guard Pat Elflein continues to be a huge liability. He’s been awful lately and that continued in the game against the Chiefs. There were times in which he was pushed right back into Cousins and sacking him with his ineptness.

Elflein is usually solid in the running game, but he also had issues there in Week 9. Throughout the matchup in Kansas City, he was either getting thrown off his blocks by defenders or just pushed out of the way. His performance was a big reason why Cook only rushed for 71 yards against the Chiefs.

Elflein wasn’t the only poor-performing blocker in Week 9 though. Minnesota rookie center Garrett Bradbury also had a tough game.

Bradbury couldn’t handle Chris Jones or Derek Nnadi and like Elflein, he was getting tossed around like yesterday’s garbage. The Vikings’ rookie blocker had been getting better and better with each game, but in Week 9 he took a big step backward.

Minnesota’s offensive line needs to be better against the Cowboys on Sunday night. It is time the Vikings replace Elflein with Dakota Dozier, Dru Samia, or even my Grandma. Anyone would be better than the effort Elflein has been putting forth lately.

If Minnesota can get some better play at left guard, it should have a trickle-down effect and improve their line as a whole.