Stupid penalties have to stop
There were a number of times on Sunday when good play by Minnesota was immediately eliminated by a dumb penalty. Luckily, the Vikings got the win this week. But if these mistakes happened against an actual contender, Minnesota likely wouldn’t have walked off the field on Sunday with a victory.
Three of the Broncos’ first downs this week were the result of a Vikings penalty. Two of these first downs kept scoring drives alive for Denver and they were able to put 10 points on the board thanks to these bonehead mistakes by Minnesota.
The Vikings’ opponents are actually averaging about three first downs from penalties so far in 2019. This is something that has to change if Minnesota is going to have a shot at beating some of the better teams in the NFC this year.
This season, the Vikings are being penalized for almost 20 more yards per week than they were in 2018. Penalties usually haven’t been a problem for Minnesota during Mike Zimmer’s tenure with the team, but they are this year and this needs to change before it’s too late.