Vikings Passing Game Needs To Improve

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If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. The NFL has been a passing league for several years and will remain that way for several more years. If your team is going to have success in this league, it has to move the ball through the air successfully.

At 2-2, the Vikings are well within the hunt of a playoff berth even with the egg they laid on opening Monday night against the 49ers. But the hunt will get pretty cold and wet if it can’t muster a much better passing attack the rest of the way.

Currently, the Vikes are last in total offense and last in total passing in the league. And in regards to its passing attack, or lack thereof, it’s not even close. Bridgewater and company have amassed 165.3 yards per game. The rushing attack is averaging 136 yards per game. These two stats should not be so even.

The Vikings drafted Teddy to be a franchise quarterback. Show me a franchise quarterback who is a game manager? Some may start with Russel Wilson – but even the Seahawks will rely on him to win games for them from an aggressive position.

Same has to be said for Teddy. We drafted him to be a difference maker. We had a game manager in Ponder in 2012 when Peterson went for over 2,000 yards and he put the team on his back into the first round of the playoffs. That won’t happen again – not this year, not next year. That year was an anomaly. Yes, it’s important to go with a hot hand if that hot hand is Adrian. However, the risk is to run to the well too many times.

To go from a non-playoff team to a playoff team, Teddy and his receivers need to start producing numbers. I said it here in a past post or two that the stats will bear this out – in terms of the type of success the Vikes will have as a result of its passing game.

They have 5 games in a row where they can win every one of them. Teddy and his receivers have some excellent matchups – including this weekend’s contest against Kansas City. Rest-assured, the play-calling will be heavy through the air. The Vikes’ coaching staff has to know that this 5-game stretch is basically a prelude (a pre-season if you will) for a better passing attack for the stretch run to the playoffs. They have to treat it that way. If not, they might go 3-2 or 2-3 and that won’t cut it.

The only scenario I see for a strong playoff push at the end of the season is to see them at 7-2 after this 5-game span. There is, for good reason, a lot of pressure here. We’ve seen Teddy live up to it in the past – in his first year – it’s imperative that he does the same in these next 5 games and beyond. If not, the Vikes will have another early off-season and one full of more roster tumult.