3 things the Vikings need to improve heading into Week 13

Offensive Line Play

The Vikings offensive line had a very rough day against the Denver Broncos. They struggled to open holes in the running game and allowed Kirk Cousins to get sacked five times. Their upcoming schedule is chock full of tough defenses so they need to figure out the problem and get better quickly.

It wasn’t easy to point out just one culprit in the game against the Broncos. Riley Reiff had his hands full with Von Miller on the edge. Garrett Bradbury and Dakota Dozier couldn’t contain Shelby Harris who ended up having the game of his life with five tackles, three sacks, and two tackles for a loss. He’d be in the Hall of Fame if he played against the Vikings’ offensive line every single week. Pat Elflein was his usual horrible self and gave little resistance to the man who was lined up over him.

To be fair to the Vikings offensive line was much better in the second half. They still couldn’t open up much running room for Cook, but they did keep Kirk Cousins upright with a much higher frequency. Granted a lot of that had to do with Kevin Stefanski stopping the three-step drops and using Cousins out of the shotgun more and rolling him out to avoid the pressure.

The Vikings go up against some very tough defensive fronts in the next few weeks. They have to figure out how to get better play out of their offensive line when they go against a strong defense. Maybe it’s time to shuffle the lineup, particularly trying out someone different at left guard. It is also possible that they just need to mix up some blocking assignments, but something needs to change or this could be a fatal problem for the 2019 Minnesota Vikings and their championship dreams.