The Minnesota Vikings have lost five of their last six games, thanks in large part to an offense that just doesn’t score all that often. Quarterback Sam Bradford has been tremendously efficient passing the ball but has been hamstrung by an offensive game plan that would make Andy Reid and Alex Smith proud.
Heading into Week 13, Bradford is on pace to set a new NFL completion percentage record, previously set by Drew Brees. Interestingly, Brees is actually ahead of Bradford this year, but both are completing more than 71 percent of their passes. The biggest difference is that Brees is averaging 7.87 yards per attempt, while Bradford has averaged just 6.94 yards per attempt.
This doesn’t sit well with Bradford, who seems desperate to create more deep opportunities for his offense.
“I think we’ve got to find a way to create more explosive plays, whether that’s mixing in more of our play-action game, which we’ve kind of gotten away from,” Bradford said, per Ben Goessling of ESPN.com. “We’re trying to create some of these plays with some deeper-route concepts. That’s one way, but however we do it, we’ve just got to figure out a way to make sure that it happens.”
Featuring the likes of Cordarrelle Patterson and Stefon Diggs, Minnesota has the players to take those deep shots. But it hasn’t happened much of late.
Since Pat Shurmur took over for Norv Turner, the offense has featured even more short passes than it did early in the year. In the past four games, Bradford has completed an outrageous 77.9 percent of his passes but has averaged just 6.7 yards per attempt. Not surprisingly, he managed just four touchdowns through the air in these games, and the Vikings lost three of four.
A quarterback with plenty of arm to make defenses pay deep, Bradford is being hamstrung by an offensive scheme that just doesn’t work that well consistently, especially when married with a running game that isn’t clicking.
It’s easy to understand why Shurmur is calling so many short, quick throws. After all, Minnesota’s offensive line resembles a MASH unit and has been brutalized at times this year. But by playing not to lose, the Vikings are losing.
As a side note here, perhaps what we’re seeing from Minnesota’s offense is exactly why Turner ditched his post. Zimmer is the man in charge, and Shurmur is likely doing exactly what he’s been told to do — something Turner couldn’t stomach (more on that here).
With an upcoming game against the NFC’s best, the Dallas Cowboys, Bradford and Co. need to figure out a way to make some big plays. If not, then the Vikings will almost certainly get run out of their own building when Dak Prescott, Ezekiell Elliott and Dez Bryant come to town.