Minnesota Vikings: 4 steps to beating Detroit Lions
By Luke Sims
September 14, 2015; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (28) runs with the football against San Francisco 49ers strong safety Antoine Bethea (41) during the second quarter at Levi
3) Convert third downs
One of the best indicators of success in the NFL is an offense’s ability to convert third downs.
Last week the Minnesota Vikings converted just 11% of their third downs. That’s an absolutely abysmal number. And, naturally, the Vikings lost the game. I’d like to see that number get nearer to 50% or above.
The Detroit Lions allowed 28 first downs last week and let the San Diego Chargers convert 54.5% of their third downs.
There’s a real opportunity here for the Vikings to succeed on third downs here. I don’t expect the Lions to just flip a coin and let them walk across the first down marker when it comes to third down, but the Lions had a real difficulty halting drives for the Chargers in Week 1.
Stalled drives are killer in the NFL and the Vikings experienced that first hand in Week 1. Converting third downs will be critical as they establish an offensive rhythm and seek to put up points. It’s almost inexcusable for a team to put up that poor of a showing. For comparison purposes, the Jacksonville Jaguars(!!!) managed to convert at least 25%.
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