The Minnesota Vikings offense in years past has been one that was considered boring and archaic.
They ran the ball way too much and did so in spots that would have made more sense to throw the football. Think of all the times the play call was a run on second and 10 or longer. It was conservative, boring and poor use of the resources at their disposal.
Through three games, everything isn’t perfect on offense but they have been more aggressive and modern in how the offense is being called. That has been seen with how often the passing game has been used. The numbers bear out versus last year. For this exercise, we used PFF’s charting on what plays were called and not what the play ended up being. For example, if a passing play was called and Kirk Cousins ended up running when the play breaks down, it counts as a passing play call. The same goes with sacks
2021: 1,141 total plays, 695 passing plays (60.9%)
2022: 195 total plays, 133 passing plays (68.2%)
This is obviously a smaller sample size than an entire season and a strategy that can change for a myriad of reasons. However, the stats are encouraging in the beginning of the Kevin O’Connell era.
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