Highlighting the Minnesota Vikings' Biggest Issues After 12 Weeks

Only seven teams have eight wins or more 13 weeks into the 2015 NFL season, a group that includes the Minnesota Vikings. But it wouldn't be hard to argue that the Vikings have more issues right now than any of the other six teams at 8-4 or better.

Since starting 7-2, Minnesota has lost home games to the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks by a combined score of 68-20. The Vikings are now 1-3 against teams with at least seven wins this season, with their lone win coming against the Kansas City Chiefs. 

Some serious problems are holding the young but ascending Vikings back from making the difficult transition from good to great. 

In the following slides, we'll take an in-depth look at Minnesota's biggest issues after 12 games. 

Pass Protection

Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press

Any breakdown of Minnesota's most pressing issues has to start here. The root of all of Minnesota's problems on offense is the offensive line, where the Vikings have provided quarterback Teddy Bridgewater with arguably the worst pass protection of any team this season. 

According to Pro Football Focus, Bridgewater has been pressured on 47.4 percent of his dropbacks in 2015, the most in the NFL. He's been sacked 34 times, which ranks as the fourth most in the league, while his sack percentage of 8.9 also ranks fourth. 

The result of the unrelenting pressure and frequent hits has been the stunted progress of a young quarterback. 

Bridgewater is rightfully lauded as being cool, calm and collected, regardless of circumstance. But even his quarterbacking personality is being put to the test, as checkdowns are becoming a more comfortable option than getting walloped at the end of another dropback. 

The Seahawks could smell it on Sunday. 

"He was so scared," linebacker Bruce Irvin said, via Michael Silver of NFL.com. "Teddy's a really good quarterback, and he's going to do some big things in this league. But we had him (rattled)."

Given how this season has played out, who could blame him?

One-Dimensional on Offense

Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press

The Minnesota Vikings have won with a one-dimensional offense this season. Before Sunday, the Vikings were 6-0 when Teddy Bridgewater threw for fewer than 200 yards. 

The blueprint just hasn't worked against the NFL's better teams. And while good teams have found ways to take away Peterson, the Vikings have yet to develop their own counterpunch on offense. 

“We’ve put that on tape a couple times now that if you stop Adrian you’re going to have a good chance of stopping us offensively and that can’t be the case," tight end Kyle Rudolph said, via Eric Oslund of Viking Update. "We have to be able to be able to win games in different ways offensively.”

Over the five games in which Peterson has rushed for fewer than 98 yards, the Vikings have averaged just 11.8 points, with only one win. Three weeks ago, Green Bay held Peterson to just 45 yards, and Minnesota scored a single touchdown. On Sunday, Peterson rushed rushed for 18 yards, while the Vikings failed to advance past Seattle's 36-yard line. 

“So for us as an offense, we need to figure out a way to become multidimensional, so adjust throughout the course of a game," Rudolph said. "When things aren’t going well in the run game, we need to be able to make plays in the passing game."

The Vikings produced 118 passing yards—with one completion over 20 yards and a 4.2-yard average per attempt—against the Seahawks. Overall, Bridgewater has just eight touchdown passes this season. He's on pace for 11 touchdowns and under 3,200 passing yards. 

Minnesota can't expect to roll into the NFC playoffs and win with just Peterson. Not with Carolina, Arizona, Seattle and Green Bay in the top six. At some point, Bridgewater and his receivers have to make plays to balance the offense. 

No Vertical Passing Game

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Through 12 games, the Vikings rank as one of the least productive vertical passing offenses in the NFL. 

According to Pro Football Focus, Teddy Bridgewater has completed just 10 passes over 20 yards this season, which ranks 26th among qualified quarterbacks. His 38 attempts at deep passes have resulted in one touchdown, four interceptions and a passer rating of 29.8.

Only the Dallas Cowboys, who have shuffled through several quarterbacks this season, have fewer passing plays over 20 yards than Minnesota's 27. 

The lack of production is at least partly due to the protection issues. If you can't protect the quarterback, it's tough to drop back and throw the ball downfield. But Bridgewater hasn't been accurate pushing the ball vertically, and every week, it seems he's losing confidence in his offense's ability to get production from deep plays. 

The Vikings offense is one-dimensional and condensing. That's a hard combination of factors to overcome, especially without a special talent at quarterback.

Penalties

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The Vikings were on the wrong end of some obviously awful calls on Sunday, but the penalty issue is still one that Minnesota has to fix. 

Over the last three games, the Vikings have committed 26 penalties for 258 yards. Only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints have been called for more over the same span, while only the Cleveland Browns have totaled more penalty yardage. 

The result of all the yellow flags? Over the 1-2 stretch, the Vikings have given up 12 free first downs on defense and set up too many difficult downs on offense. 

Minnesota isn't playing well enough lately to overcome unforced errors. Penalties are a part of the game, but Mike Zimmer's club can't continue to be this sloppy to finish the season.