4 biggest improvements the Vikings must make following their bye

How to put teams away

The Vikings have had some narrow victories this season, but some of those are simply because they don’t know how to finish their opponent off when they have them on the ropes. The team gets ultra-conservative in its play-calling when they are up by two scores late in the game.

Instead of going for the kill shot, they are content in settling for a field goal. Their kicker often misses these attempts and teams are given a second chance when the crowds should be filing to the parking lot.

Minnesota also doesn’t take any chances late in games and they ditch throwing the ball deep even if it’s been there all game long. They instead opt for runs or short passes that don’t move the chains.

They got conservative against the Detroit Lions and Carolina Panthers and both of those games could have ended in defeat had Kirk Cousins not bailed out Klint Kubiak’s poor play-calling.

The Vikings need to shuck this trend in the second half of the season. They can’t be content leading by just two scores and have to get more aggressive and smell that blood in the water and continue to try and put points on the board.

They face a ton of good teams in the coming weeks, and if they are up late in the game by a score or two, and play not to lose instead of to win, those teams will come back and find ways to break the Vikings’ heart and walk away with the victory.