Getty Vikings offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak hinted at allowing Kirk Cousins to have more freedom in the offense.
Escaping Week 5 with a dire 19-17 victory over the Detriot Lions, the Minnesota Vikings coaching staff shifted their schedule to take a serious look in the mirror.
Self-scouting, typically a bye-week reflection under Mike Zimmer, was bumped up to this week after the Vikings let the winless Lions crawl back into the game. The offense struggled in the second half, while the Lions scored 11 points in two minutes late in the fourth quarter that put the season on life support.
Kirk Cousins led a season-saving drive, completing three passes for 46 yards to set up a walk-off 54-yard field goal by Greg Joseph.
Vikings offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak offered high praise to Cousins for his leadership through a turbulent start to the season and took ownership in the offense’s struggles.
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Kubiak: ‘He Can Probably Handle Even More’
In a Thursday, October 14 press conference, in his first year calling plays as the Vikings offensive coordinator, Kubiak revealed that he would like to relinquish more control of the offense to Cousins.
“I think we’ve evolved it a little bit just because he can handle so much,” Kubiak said. “He can handle a lot. He can probably handle even more than we’re giving him. He’s been so dialed in and can’t say enough about his leadership this year.”
Kubiak started the season as the highest-rated offensive play caller by Pro Football Focus through the first three weeks of the season. The Vikings averaged 30.3 points and 425 total yards of offense during that span.
Since then, the offense has struggled, scoring 26 combined points in their past two games, which exacerbated a glaring split in the offense that hasn’t scored a touchdown in the second half since Week 1. Kubiak’s play calling rating has dropped to 16th of 32 through five weeks.
“There’s plenty of things we studied to make ourselves less predictable than before. We have some ideas for this week,” Kubiak said. No. 1 thing is we have to go execute. We can’t hurt ourselves — penalties, sacks, poor play calls — we’re all in this thing together and I definitely gotta do my part to be better in the second half… It falls on me. I gotta do my part. Do a better job.”
It hasn’t been all bad for the Vikings offense. Justin Jefferson had 104 first-half yards alone against the Lions. However, he saw just two targets the rest of the game. The Vikings played conservative in the second half and managed three drives of 40 yards or longer. Their other drives went: Three plays for 2 yards, three plays for minus-4 yards, three plays for 6 yards, four plays for 3 yards and three plays for 2 yards.
The Vikings needed Cousins to air it out with 37 seconds left in regulation on the game’s final drive, and he delivered.
“It’s our players being dialed in early in the games and making the plays that are coming their way quarterback is doing a great job getting us into the right play,” Kubiak said. “Plenty of times where we have a couple plays called, and Kirk’s seen the defense and getting us in the right play. I put a lot on Kirk to get our guys executing.”
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Jefferson on Cousins: ‘Trust Your Receivers’
The Vikings (2-3) have a chance at entering the bye week at .500 with a win over the Carolina Panthers (3-2) in Week 6.
The offense faces a testy Panthers defense that posted the second-highest blitz rate (40.9%) in the NFL through the first five weeks. This season, the Panthers defense is third in total sacks with 16.0, behind only the Vikings with 17.0 and the Chicago Bears with 18.0 sacks.
Cousins and Jefferson have a chance to have a field day as Jefferson could see single, man-coverage often on Sunday. He leads the NFL with 18 catches against single coverage.
If they’re blitzing, that means somebody’s man-to-man. That rings a bell for us. That’s trigger happy for us. I’m very confident in my ability to get open in man coverage. I know we like those one-on-one matchups,” Jefferson said in his October 14 press conference.
Jefferson echoed Kubiak’s sentiment of allowing Cousins more freedom to throw to his receivers.
“All of us feel like we’re able to make a play on anybody. It gives Kirk the option to throw it up to us and make a play,” Jefferson said. “We want him to give us those opportunities, but we tell Kirk to play with confidence. Trust your receivers. We got you. You got us. Play as a team and communicate together.”