The Vikings have been good on offense and improved on defense during the team’s three-game win streak.
Of course, that win streak was snapped last game against the Cowboys, mostly due to a poor defensive performance. But whether the Vikings are winning or losing as of late, one thing has been consistent: the special teams has been chaotic.
An aspect of that has to do with the punt returning. The Vikings got off to a bad start last game when K.J. Osborn muffed a punt after Minnesota stopped Dallas on its opening offensive drive.
The Vikings recovered, but it yet again revealed a problem: Minnesota has not cut it on special teams lately. Osborn has averaged 1.5 yards per punt return this season.
Vikings special teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf recently talked about the punt returning. He said that he can’t speak for Osborn, but he feels like the rookie is frustrated at the moment.
“I’m happy with K.J., I really am,” Maalouf said, via the Vikings Twitter account. “He wants to make a play. Sometimes, I think he forces it a little bit. I sound like a broken record probably, but the bottom line is: he hasn’t had a preseason, he hasn’t had a ton of reps, either. I can probably count on one hand how many true reps he’s had on punt return to actually advance a ball.”
The Vikings are not getting a lot of punt return yardage out of their special teams unit, but that’s not all on Osborn. It will be interesting to see if the Vikings end up making any changes in order to rectify their issues in that area. If not, I’m not so sure that the punt returning will improve for the team.