5 biggest takeaways from the Vikings loss to the Ravens in Week 9

Play-calling needs to be adjusted

It’s okay to run the football. In fact, the Vikings invested a lot of money in their run game by giving a huge contract extension to Dalvin Cook and getting an offensive line that can help their star running back pick up yards.

The running plays they chose were baffling at times. Long-developing run plays in short-yardage situations were swallowed up and resulted in negative plays more often than they were successful and forced punts far too often.

On a day where Kirk Cousins wasn’t sacked, Minnesota continued to play carefully more often than not by dropping the ball on short passes rather than looking down the field. Calling more plays and protections to get some looks down the field should have been a priority.

The strategy coming into this game was not the most effective one, but it was made worse by the way Minnesota chose to execute this game plan. This is especially true in overtime when Minnesota opted to run the ball twice on their only possession that resulted in a three-and-out.