It's hard to knock the Minnesota Vikings following an NFC North winning 11-5 season, but if there's one area that is cause for a concern heading into the playoffs, it's their offense. Second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater hasn't quite broken out this year like many around the NFL expected of him. Though he's been solid, the real strengths of this Vikings team are on defense and at running back. It's pretty amazing that Adrian Peterson was able to lead the NFL in rushing despite Bridgewater's aversion to opening up the offense and throwing deep. But the Vikings may have to adjust their offensive approach if they want to beat the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs.
According to ESPN, Minnesota has attempted the second-lowest number of passes that travel 16 or more yards in the air (60). They rank 23rd in QBR (77.6) on such attempts. Though Seattle is especially effective at defending the deep ball, they are even better equipped to disrupt the short passing game that Bridgewater employs. The Seahawks defense forced a lowly 52.9 QBR on throws that traveled 0-7 yards. Minnesota's same old game plan just won't work this time around.
"The problem is that Minnesota simply doesn't throw the ball in that intermediate range," ESPN's Bill Barnwell wrote. "The Vikings attempted a league-low 454 passes this year, but they really steer clear of passes around the sticks. Just 74 of their passes traveled eight to 15 yards in the air. That's 16.3 percent of their passes, when the typical team threw 21.8 percent of its passes on intermediate routes. Given how physical Seattle can be when playing against teams who throw routes around the line of scrimmage - ask the 2014 Broncos about that - and how much Minnesota struggles throwing deep, the Vikings will simply have to work near the sticks to move the ball come Sunday."
It's not as if Minnesota doesn't have the pieces to stretch the vertical passing game. This is a Norv Turner offense that features Mike Wallace and Stefon Diggs, after all. Going deep may not be Bridgewater's forte, but he'll have to at least try in order to show Seattle some different looks. Otherwise, the six-seeded Seahawks could be moving on to the next round.
