Tight end Kyle Rudolph said the Vikings have discovered a winning formula on offense, part of which is doing no harm to their stingy defense.
“We just try not to screw it up for those guys,” Rudolph said Wednesday. “They’re pretty good on that side of the ball.”
Try very good.
The Vikings rank among the top five teams in the NFL in key per-game defensive categories, including scoring (17.5 points), rushing (78.7 yards) and total yards (295.5).
And no team is more efficient getting off the field when it matters most, on third down. Opponents only have converted 25 percent (18 for 72) on third down entering Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens at U.S. Bank Stadium.
“We’re playing at a high level,” acknowledged defensive end Everson Griffen. “We’ve got to keep it up. We’ve got to keep stopping the run, contesting all throws, get off blocks and wrap up tackles. Don’t let anyone get extra yards after the hit.”
Minnesota is playing complimentary football right now, not terribly flashy on offense but exceedingly efficient.
Despite the quarterback shuffle between Sam Bradford and Case Keenum, plus the season-ending knee injury running back Dalvin Cook suffered in Week 4, the Vikings are protecting and moving the ball, which keeps the defense fresh enough to do its thing.
“Run the football, stay balanced,” said Rudolph. “If we don’t give them the ball and play a true team game, I like our chances.”
Keenum was thrust into an unexpected start Week 2 at Pittsburgh and the Vikings struggled to establish any offensive momentum in a predictable 26-9 loss. At home Week 4 against the Detroit Lions, they turned the ball over three times and lost by a touchdown despite yielding just 14 points.
“You take the Detroit game out where we just gave them the ball three times, Pittsburgh we got behind on the chains and the scoreboard,” Rudolph said. “That’s not the way we want to play football around here. We want to stay on track, that way all the pages are open for (offensive coordinator) Pat (Shurmur). He can call anything.”
Shurmur has been able to get creative with well-executed screen passes and stay bold in the run because Jerick McKinnon has stepped in for Cook and provided reassurance out of the backfield. The Vikings also have been running an up-tempo scheme that has been able to keep defenses off balance.
Not just no-huddle but getting to the line of scrimmage and snapping the ball quickly to prevent defenders from checking out of assignments and dialing up blitzes based on what they see in Minnesota’s formation.
“Tempo is stressed around here all the time,” Rudolph said. “It forces defenses to simplify things. They can’t be exotic and make all kinds of checks and calls if we’re going fast. We’ve found some success here lately going with tempo.”
The Vikings’ offense ranks second behind the L.A. Rams with 30 plays of 20-plus yards, including 23 passing. Already they have seven scoring drives of 80-plus yards — three more than the Vikings had all of last season.
Ball security figures to be pivotal against the Ravens, who have 14 turnovers this season, including nine interceptions. They are tied with Detroit for the second-most behind Jacksonville (16).
Minnesota has eight takeaways and is plus-3 in turnover ratio, another defensive advantage Rudolph attributes to offensive success.
“They’ve provided us some tremendous opportunities with turnovers and short fields that we can get points,” he said. “If you take away us giving the ball back it’s really hard for teams to go 75 to 80 yards and consistently maintain drives against our defense. As long as we maintain drives we usually like where things are at in the fourth quarter.”