Written by Chris Schad
The Minnesota Vikings have found themselves in plenty of turmoil the past couple of weeks. After a sterling preseason and opening win against the St. Louis Rams, the child abuse case against Adrian Peterson and several injuries have thrown cold water on the expectations of the team.
While most of those negative thoughts were washed away by Teddy Bridgewater’s successful debut as a starter in a 41-28 victory over the Atlanta Falcons, the Vikings also returned to their roots and used their running game to overpower their counterparts.
Like the past two games without Peterson, the Vikings used Matt Asiata in the bellcow role. While not possessing the special talents of his predecessor, the understudy moved the chains in Leroy Hoard fashion (“If you want three yards, I’ll get you three. If you want five yards, I’ll get you three.”).
While he cashed in on the goal line for three touchdowns, it was a simple tweak that got the Vikings ground game going. That would be deciding to feed The McKinnon.
Jerick McKinnon has been viewed as a raw project player, but he possesses plenty of physical attributes that can make up for the loss of Peterson. On Sunday, the Vikings let the pass-protection woes he had been having fly out the window and simply gave him the ball 19 times (with a reception mixed in).
With the electric element returning to the Vikings backfield, McKinnon racked up 135 yards against the defenseless Falcons and took pressure off of the rookie quarterback. This allowed him to have time to throw and be decisive and accurate in the pocket. As a result, the offense only punted twice — a huge bonus considering Devin Hester’s success against the team.
As the season winds on, the Vikings need to establish a running game for the team to be successful. If Asiata and McKinnon can continue to play their roles of “Thunder and Lightning,” Minnesota will have a good chance of exploiting the league’s worst rush defense in Green Bay on Thursday night.
A “ground and pound” victory against the Packers would have the Vikings coming out of their five-game death march to begin the season at 3-2 and get people thinking about whether the team can overachieve without Peterson being the anchor of the offense.
As we’ve seen already, life without Adrian might not be so bad after all.
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Chris Schad contributes to 105 The Ticket and has had his work featured on the Bleacher Report and Yahoo Contributor Network. He serves as the Vikings Lead Writerfor Pro Football Spot. Find him on Twitter @crishad. |