While the Minnesota Vikings beat the Indianapolis Colts 16-10, the No. 1 talking point coming out of the game is focused on the offense. They continued to struggle in all phases, and it started from the first series.

On the first play, things looked good, as running back Aaron Jones gained seven yards on a rush. Then, they gained a total of one yard on the following three Jones’ rushes, leading to a turnover. Seven plays later, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor ran 38 yards for a touchdown.

Needless to say, it was far from an ideal scenario for the Vikings to deal with, but the situation may have opened up eyes in the building.

Kevin O’Connell might be a better play caller after Sunday

One thing that has frustrated Vikings fans over the last few years was the lack of commitment to the running game. One of the difficulties with the perceived “lack of commitment” to the run game. The Vikings didn’t have consistency there, but one of the main reasons was how head coach Kevin O’Connell calls plays.

Each play call has multiple plays attached to it, allowing the quarterback the ability to “can” it at the line of scrimmage. That’s why multiple drives had three passes before punting. On Sunday, it resulted in four consecutive runs which finished in a turnover.

It’s an interesting aspect of how O’Connell calls plays, and he addressed it after the game.

“I think the hardest thing is a lot of our plays are can system plays where it’s maybe run-pass, maybe it’s run-run, maybe it’s activating Kyler in some capacity. So the ultimate hard thing as the play caller is just we just got beat up front. Maybe we just didn’t get the push we were expecting,” said O’Connell.

“But it’s part of committing to [the run game]. I think a big part of it, though, is how are we putting the plays together; it might look like run, run, run, run to start the game, but we can’t put it so much in the defense’s hands on ultimately what play we end up running when we have two plays called, and that totally ends up being on me. And I thought it was a huge early momentum chance lost coming off of Jugs or Myles Price’s return, and not getting that new set of downs was very disappointing.”

We can look at a lot of things within this quote, but there is something that stands out: we can’t put it so much in the defense’s hands. With how inefficient the running game has been, opposing defenses could be trying to force the Vikings into doing just that. It may appear to be smart to run the football, but that isn’t working as well as they’d like it to.

This could be a major shift in how O’Connell calls plays, choosing to use a more attacking approach, especially with his elite set of weapons on the outside. The Vikings could use a little more aggressiveness in how they attack defenses, and this could be the ticket they need to get out of their funk.

Will it be everything they need? Not necessarily, but this is a good development with O’Connell. A 49-25 record will only take you so far, but being open to change with his process, as O’Connell mentioned, is a great start.