The start to the 2021 NFL season has been one filled with many ups and downs for the Minnesota Vikings, from riding the thrill of a few solid victories while experiencing the heartbreak of losing games they arguably should have won.
Even with that rollercoaster of a season to this point, Minnesota enters its Week 7 bye with a record of 3-3 overall and tied with the Chicago Bears for second place in the NFC North behind only the Green Bay Packers in first place at 5-1.
The Vikings ride into the bye winners of two straight, most recently taking down the Carolina Panthers on the road in overtime in Week 6. In that win, we saw something from Minnesota that needs to occur more often in order to have success, that being the dominance from its talented offense.
Minnesota Vikings Offense of Week 6 Needs To Be Present More Often
Improved Play Calling
One of the areas of concern for the Minnesota Vikings to this point in the year hasn’t been the talented offense not stepping up or the group underperforming necessarily, but rather the play calling from the coaching staff that has almost held back or halted that unit which has been one of the more potent groups in the NFL.
On Sunday afternoon in Week 6 in Carolina, the play-calling improved at points in the game which allowed Minnesota to take shots down the field to put points up on the board early and often rather than settling for small-yardage plays that resulted in empty drives.
There were still some concerning drives by the offense due to the calls that were either made by the coaching staff going into the play or the audibles that might have been called at the line of scrimmage before the play began.
Notably late in the game in Week 6, the play-calling was much more open and free, allowing Minnesota to take shots down the field and have more than a few different opportunities to take the game over or put it away before ultimately doing so with a touchdown in overtime.
If the Vikings want to continue to have success this season, the play-calling needs to be much more consistent with what was on display in the Week 6 victory rather than what has occurred more often than not in the first five weeks.
Too Much Talent
One of the reasons why it’s so important for the Vikings to continue to take shots down the field and try and push the ball is mainly due to their talent spread across the depth chart on offense. There is just too much talent on that side of the ball not to utilize its maximum capacity.
When you have an offense that is filled with the likes of quarterback Kirk Cousins, wide receivers Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen and running back Dalvin Cook, the talent and firepower is there for Minnesota to give opposing defenses all it can handle throughout the course of the game.
In Week 6, the Vikings displayed their ability to both set the tone in the game on the ground and balance that out by airing out the ball through the air to set up scoring opportunities or even find the end zone. The biggest example was in the game-winning drive in overtime that sealed the win. That is a recipe for success that Minnesota needs to maintain and focus on moving forward if it wants to make a serious run at a spot in the postseason this year.
Coming out of the bye week, the Vikings enter a tough stretch of the schedule that will require them to put together some dominant performances on both sides of the ball to come out on top in those games. One way for them to do that is to have their offense that was on display in Week 6 appear more often.
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