Stat reveals Vikings offensive line is making impressive progress

During their win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings offensive line took some major strides in their progression.

Against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins delivered an impressive performance that played a huge factor in his team leaving the field with their third win of the season.

Cousins finished the matchup against the Panthers with 373 passing yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. His 373 yards are the most the Minnesota quarterback has racked up this year and the most he’s thrown for since Week 17 of last season.

A big reason why Cousins was able to be so successful on Sunday in Carolina was due to the guys in front of him giving him plenty of time to look for open receivers.

Minnesota Vikings offensive line makes life easier for Kirk Cousins in Week 6

Against the Panthers this week, we saw the debut of Vikings rookie left tackle Christian Darrisaw in the team’s starting lineup. Whether it was Darrisaw’s addition to the starting lineup or something else, Minnesota’s offensive line arguably had their best game of the season on Sunday.

During the Vikings’ win this week, Cousins only faced pressure from the Carolina defense on four of his 49 dropbacks (eight percent) according to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. This includes the overtime period in which the Vikings veteran passer didn’t face any pressure from the Panthers during his six dropbacks according to Cronin.

Minnesota‘s offensive line didn’t just play this well against a bunch of scrubs though either. Heading into Sunday’s game, Carolina’s defense had generated the eighth-most pressures per dropback in the entire NFL.

Hopefully, this week’s performance from the offensive line wasn’t a fluke and this will just be the type of play the Vikings can finally begin to expect from this unit.