The Vikings should be more aggressive on fourth down
Mike Zimmer was asked about analytics at the NFL Combine. He said something that, while reasonable, might be a cause for concern.
“I have a hard time [with] someone telling me to go for it on fourth-and-5 when you’re up by two scores and they don’t know the team that they’re playing against. And if you do go for it and you don’t get it, they don’t get fired. I do. So that’s my take on it.”
SKOR North reported that Zimmer was referring to a game against the New York Jets in 2018. The Vikings were up by 10 and kicked a field goal from the 4-yard line, instead of going for it on fourth down, which isn’t exactly what Zimmer was saying at the combine, but was pretty close.
Personally, I didn’t think the offense was too bad at making the call of whether to go for it or not in fourth-down situations, but there were certain situations that garnered frustration.
The first one that comes to mind is when the Vikings, down 27-10, punted the ball back to the 49ers in the 2019-20 playoffs with a little under nine minutes to go.
I get that it was fourth-and-long, but the team was near midfield, and punting the ball away to an offense that was taking the Minnesota defense apart in the running game was just as risky as going for it, but without the possible reward of moving the sticks.
That said, the Vikings attempted to go for it on first down 15 times, converting eight, according to ESPN. That puts them at ninth for attempts. And the top five teams in attempts for 2019 — the Giants, Eagles, Panthers, Falcons and Bears — weren’t necessarily the most high-octane offenses in the NFL.
I still think that there are some situations where the Vikings could put their opponents in tighter spots by converting a fourth down. They shouldn’t be afraid to do so.