Minnesota Vikings: Offense takes huge step back in Buffalo loss

The Minnesota Vikings looked completely inept on Sunday, as Kirk Cousins and the offense took a huge step back from last week’s performance.

If you’re a Minnesota Vikings fan, you’re probably feeling a wide-range of emotions at the moment. In the most surprising result on the young season, the Buffalo Bills defeated the heavily favored Vikings by a score of 27-6.

In fact, according to Bet DSI, the Bills pulled off the third-biggest upset in NFL history. They essentially covered a 37.5-point spread, as they entered the game as 16.5-point underdogs.

Needless to say, Minnesota mightily underperformed, as a perfect storm of factors fell in linefor Buffalo’s upset bid. The Bills defense finally played up to their potential, Minnesota’s offensive line was absolutely abysmal, Josh Allen looked like a Pro Bowl quarterback, the absence of Dalvin Cook was clear as day, and the Vikings defense looked shell shocked from the word ‘go’.

Perhaps the Vikings were looking ahead to Thursday’s night’s marquee matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. Or perhaps the Bills defense was just that good.

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For the majority of his drop backs, Kirk Cousins resorted to check downs to his running backs and short throws to Adam Thielen — who had 19 targets — to move the ball, mainly relying on yards after the catch for big plays. Cousins finished the game with just 5.4 yards per completion, and the offense didn’t score until the 2:59 mark in the fourth-quarter.

But the most staggering statistic on the day was that Minnesota only ran six running plays against 55 passing plays. Part of this can be attributed to game-script, in which the Vikings were forced to pass much more after getting down so early. That being said, the absence of Dalvin Cook (hamstring) and the running game was completely obvious to anyone watching.

Minnesota had 14 rushing yards on the day, and due to the offense’s incompetency, the Vikings’ defense was put in several situations to fail. With five total turnovers by Minnesota, the Bills offense was constantly given a shorter field to work with.

A strong showing by Buffalo had nearly everyone shocked to the core in the north, but it’s still far too early to panic just yet. After an impressive showing by Cousins and the offense last week against Green Bay, the Vikings may need to hit the reset button heading into Week 4.