Although it’s very early in the season, we’ve approached a point where every game feels “must-win” for the Vikings after a less-than ideal 0-3 start. After garnering their first win last week against the Carolina Panthers the Vikings look to win two in a row and reverse their misfortune, in their path is the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs who have three in a row. The Chiefs offense and Patrick Mahomes have gotten off to a slower start than they would have hoped, but this is an offense led by Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Andy Reid, they could easily explode on offense at any time and against a questionable Minnesota secondary it could be this week 5. Even though the Vikings sit at 1-3, every loss has been down to the wire and with a few plays going their way, we could be looking at a 4-0 Minnesota Vikings team, so I expect the Vikings to play the Chiefs hard and at least compete. For my three takeaways I’m not gonna name the obvious like don’t turn the ball over, but that should be unquestioned for every game, especially with the early struggles with ball control.
#1: VIKINGS MUST CONTROL TIME OF POSSESSION
-Over the past two weeks we’ve seen a definite improvement in running the football with Alexander Mattison, and Cam Akers showed out in his limited carries against the Panthers last week. It’s pretty simple, to beat the Kansas City Chiefs you must keep the ball out of Patrick Mahomes’ hands. Whether it’s aggressively and efficiently running the football or the quick pass game, the Vikings must sustain long successful drives controlling the time of possession.
#2: MISTAKE FREE FOOTBALL
-I know I already mentioned turnovers, but this point is more about penalties in costly spots. The Vikings can not find themselves in constant 3rd and longs due to holding penalties and false starts against the Chiefs, for the Vikings to have any chance of winning the offense needs to play mistake-free football. The Vikings defense has been a well-coached and disciplined unit the season for the most part largely due to the coaching style of Brian Flores, but in a game with Mahomes and Kelce defensive penalties have to be avoided. The Vikings can not be in a situation where Kansas City are allowed to prolong drives on silly penalties that should have ended in punts, you must take advantage of any defensive stops.
#3: KEVIN O’CONNELL AND KIRK COUSINS MUST BE ON THE SAME PAGE
-At multiple points so far in this young season we’ve seen communication issues between KOC and Kirk, even possibly a game-costing miscommunication against the Chargers in Week 3, along with many noticeable miscues on offense. The Chiefs defense is far from the most-talented but they are coached exceptionally and play very hard and tough football and will be all over the Vikings offense is Kirk and KOC aren’t on the same page.
I would add things like Interior offensive line play but the chances of Ed Ingram and possibly Austin Schlottman containing Chris Jones are near zero. Overall heading into Week 5 the Vikings are in a must-win situation and if they; 1. Control the time of possession, 2. Play Mistake free football by avoiding penalties and turnovers, 3. Get Kirk and KOC on the same page, than the chances of winning against a great Kansas City Chiefs team increases significantly.
