Kevin O'Connell was fired up when talking about running back room that stepped up in a big way vs. Jaguars
One of the staples in Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell's offense has been the passing game. He loves to attack down the field with big-armed quarterbacks and pepper the ball in the middle of the field with dig and crossing routes. On Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, they needed the running game badly. Quarterback […]
One of the staples in Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell's offense has been the passing game. He loves to attack down the field with big-armed quarterbacks and pepper the ball in the middle of the field with dig and crossing routes.
On Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, they needed the running game badly. Quarterback Sam Darnold struggled on Sunday executing in key situations. The Vikings were 0-5 in the red zone with multiple turnovers. One of the biggest reasons the Vikings ended up getting the win due to their running game.
Minnesota Vikings running game propels the team to win
The running game was excellent on Sunday afternoon. On 43 carries, they ran for 169 yards, but it was the success they had in doing so that mattered the most. They had a 45% success rate overall, but their success on later downs (67% success rate, 0.60 EPA/rush) was the catalyst to their win.
Head coach Kevin O'Connell talked about the running backs during his Monday press conference.
"I thought across the board, with that amount of volume of carries for Aaron [Jones], Cam [Akers] finding some space in there on some runs and showing some really good vision for two weeks in a row now was really big for us. And then you felt Ty [Chandler] coming in, in the second half there and you felt some explosiveness getting downhill. That group as a whole was a real positive for us on a day where we needed to lean on the run game a little bit more than we have up to this point. I was really proud of the way it was a physical grind it out three, four, five yarder kind of day. We didn’t really have any of those big hits that maybe take that to a really, really significant day, but for the most part those guys all did a lot to find the spacing there, I thought we were physical upfront against some good edge rushers. They have [Arik] Armstead and some guys inside that can be hard to rush it against. Josh Oliver was phenomenal again and T.J. [Hockenson] showing up as well in both in the pass game and the run game. Those guys were really impactful."
The running game has been a struggle for the Vikings over the last few years, as O'Connell hasn't shown a heavy trust with his running backs. This season, his trust is growing tenfold.
With the added weapon of an improved running game, this offense, which is already one of the best in the NFL, the Vikings will be a force to be reckoned with.
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