3 biggest disappointments from the Vikings loss to the Chargers in Week 3

Disappointment No. 3

Minnesota's game plan

The Vikings' game plan in this contest was confounding and very disappointing. Minnesota has arguably the best passing attack in the NFL, and they had the worst passing defense coming into their home building. Instead of exploiting a strength against a weakness, the Vikings did the opposite to start the game.

Minnesota head coach Kevin O'Connell went with a run-heavy approach. He continuously fed Alexander Mattison almost as if he had heard the complaints about not running the ball and was going to shut up the naysayers despite going against the worst pass defense in the league.

It was kind of working, but then when the Vikings did put the ball in the air, it was check-down city, as targets were going to Mattison, tight end Josh Oliver, and basically anyone who wasn't a wide receiver.

Minnesota didn't start putting points on the board until they started throwing to their wide receivers. To no one's surprise, the receivers were getting open against this porous secondary, and the chains began moving once this mismatch was exploited.

The Vikings should've come out firing in this game. Instead, it's almost like O'Connell overthought this and was trying to do something the Chargers weren't expecting.

Whether that was the case or not, this was the third straight game where the game plan, preparation, and execution have all been suspect, and that was disappointing to see.