Minnesota Vikings: 5 Keys to beating Seahawks on Monday Night Football

4. Keep it running

The saying “pound beef” gets thrown around quite a bit in Minnesota’s locker room because running the ball is a way of life in Minnesota and it serves as their best chance of winning football games. Head coach Mike Zimmer has stated plenty of times his affinity for running the football versus passing and Monday’s game will be no different. But they can’t be predictable.

Minnesota is the league’s fourth-best rushing offense. Seattle knows heading into the game that they’ll have to stop Dalvin Cook, so it’s up to offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski to keep the Seahawks defense guessing.

My guess is that we’ll see a little more of downfield runner Alexander Mattison to chip away at Seattle’s stout rushing defense. What you also might see is some jet-sweeps with Stefon Diggs — anything the Vikings can do to tire out Seattle’s defense early on is going to pay dividends late in the game.

Something that absolutely under no circumstances can happen is Minnesota abandoning the run game. In the Week 4 loss to the Chicago Bears, Minnesota was only able to tally up 40 rushing yards before completely abandoning it. That’s not to say they need to force the run. What they need to do is find ways to open it up and allow for more play-action opportunities for Kirk Cousins.