Minnesota Vikings: 3 Biggest concerns from Week 1 loss to Green Bay

2. Slow start offensively

On one side of the field at US Bank Stadium, Green Bay was rolling offensively and drove down the field on multiple occasions both to begin the game and throughout its entirety.

On the other side, Minnesota was the exact opposite right out of the gate as the offense got off to a surprisingly slow start to the game and couldn’t make up for it in the second half while trying to put together a comeback.

The biggest reason the lack of urgency and the slow start offensively is a concern is the fact that the Vikings are returning a bulk of the offense this season, with the exception of wide receiver Stefon Diggs who is now with the Buffalo Bills.

Minnesota is still led by quarterback Kirk Cousins under center, has star running back Dalvin Cook coming out of the backfield and has the likes of Adam Thielen, Kyle Rudolph, Irv Smith Jr. and others in the receiving group.

But when that unit took the field together on Sunday in the season opener, they didn’t look that comfortable with each other and that resulted in a very slow start that Aaron Rodgers and the Packers took advantage of to grab a lead going into halftime while not letting up.

The Vikings did manage to get things back on track in the second half and in the fourth quarter, notably Cousins finding Thielen for a pair of touchdown passes while Cook getting into the endzone a few times, but it was too little too late.

In the first half, the offense couldn’t put consecutive drives together and couldn’t really sustain anything to begin the game. And that’s something that should cause some concern already in the new year.