The Eagles coming to Minnesota this weekend aren’t the ones you watched win last year’s Super Bowl.
That team was tough and physical, with a clear, smashmouth identity it imposed every week. An unstoppable rushing attack was the primary weapon Philadelphia wielded en route to a Super Bowl title.
It may be out of ammo.
That’s how it appears thus far this season, anyway. Through six weeks, Philadelphia’s front can’t produce a push and Saquon Barkley looks less than explosive. The Eagles are averaging a woeful 3.5 yards per carry, down from 4.9 a season ago, when they eclipsed 3,000 total rushing yards on the season.
This season, they’re on pace for 1,600.
Without that reliable source of ball movement, Philadelphia’s offense has fallen flat. Debate rages on in Pennsylvania as to whether the Eagles offense is too predictable, or simply ineffective after the Eagles lost their second straight game last week, an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Giants on Thursday Night Football.
If, 10 days later, the Eagles haven’t found any answers for their floundering rushing attack, it could be a meek title defense this season for the champs.
But, should Philadelphia’s ground game find its footing, it’s the Vikings who may be in store for a frustrating fall.
The Vikings’ run defense has been detrimental to an otherwise strong group on that side of the ball. Minnesota’s 19.4 points allowed per game are fifth fewest in the NFL. That’s in spite of surrendering 132 rushing yards per game on 4.5 yards per carry.
The only two rushing attacks the Vikings have “stopped” all season belonged to Cincinnati and Chicago. And, well, the Bengals entered their tilt Thursday in Pittsburgh averaging a league-low 56 rushing yards per game, 25 fewer than the next lowest tally.
But against Cleveland – who was without a viable quarterback option in London – Minnesota allowed Quinshon Judkins to run for 110 yards. Judkins’ success made the game manageable for Dillon Gabriel and allowed Cleveland to be in the bout to the end.
A week later, Cleveland scored just nine points and Gabriel struggled mightily in a game against Pittsburgh in which Judkins was held to three yards per carry.
Speaking of those Steelers, Kenneth Gainwell’s previous career high was 78 yards .. until he ripped off 99 against the Vikings in Dublin.
Essentially, if you merely aspire to run the ball, the Vikings can help you fulfill your fantasy.
Sunday’s matchup will feature a movable object clashing with a stoppable force. If Minnesota loses out in that duel, it’s in deep trouble.
Not only because that likely means the Vikings fall to Philadelphia, but also because it could signal there being no solution for this potentially fatal flaw.
Minnesota went into the bye week knowing how pressing this concern was. It’s been at the top of defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ to-do list for the past two weeks.
“That’s a spot where we certainly need some improvement, across the board,” Flores said this week.
Flores looked at what he and his staff can do to put players in better positions and shore up various areas of the field.
“We kind of put our heads together, brainstorm it, talk through the two or three things that are the most important and then deliver that message to the players,” he said. “That’s what we’ve done, especially after having an entire week to self scout all of it and say, ‘Hey, these are the two or three things we need to really get done.’”
If they can’t do them against a Philadelphia running game in this current state, there’s little to suggest Minnesota can contain the likes of Josh Jacobs, Jahmyr Gibbs and Derrick Henry, who represent half of Minnesota’s remaining opponents after this week.
The Vikings defense can’t have a major liability. It has to be the bedrock of the entire operation. The quarterback play simply isn’t good enough to out-score opponents, or even force them into pass-heavy play scripts. The Vikings are going to find themselves in a number of mid-to-low scoring games all season, the likes of which are often determined by ball control.
There’s no avoiding this problem for Minnesota’s defense. It has to be fixed – ideally, by Sunday.
“It’s fundamentals, it’s tackling, it’s getting off blocks, it’s setting edges, things right in that kind of realm,” Flores said. “It’s not the flashy stuff. There’s nothing flashy about it. It’s really the non-sexy things that we just need to do a better job of, be more consistent with. I think, if we do that, we’ll be in a better position.”
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