5 Adjustments Minnesota Vikings Must Make in Week 2 Matchup with Lions

The confidence-shaken Minnesota Vikings have some soul searching to do before hosting the division rival Detroit Lions on Sunday at TCF Bank Stadium. 

Week 1 didn't provide Minnesota a warm welcome to the 2015 season. 

"Poor performance, disappointing," head coach Mike Zimmer said Tuesday, hours after Minnesota lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the season opener. "We did not play good together as a team. We got a lot of soul searching to get done." 

Suddenly, Sunday's home opener against the Lions—a team that blew a 21-3 lead in San Diego and lost to the Chargers in Week 1—feels very important. 

Zimmer was feisty but far from panicked Tuesday.

"It was just a really, really uncharacteristic performance by our football team," Zimmer said. 

In the following slides, we'll highlight five adjustments the Vikings need to make before hosting the Lions in Week 2. 

Slow Down the Mind of Teddy Bridgewater

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This task is easier said than done. 

Typically a cool customer even in the face of pressure, Bridgewater was erratic at times Monday night—and his head coach had a good idea why. 

"He was just sped up," Zimmer said afterwards, per Ben Goessling of ESPN.com. "He just looked unsure. He looked, I think he was concerned about all the things that defensively they were doing. And so, it just did not look like him."

Per Goessling, Bridgewater held the ball for more than three seconds per dropback. This could be viewed as a positive, in terms of Bridgewater being able to buy time against pressure. Or it could be a sign of indecisiveness, a consequence of the mind working too fast once the ball is snapped. 

"This was the first time I've seen him like that, usually he has so much composure," Zimmer said Tuesday. "A couple of times, he didn't pull the trigger when he had the opportunity to." 

According to Pro Football Focus, Bridgewater completed 11 of 12 passes when the ball came out in 2.5 seconds or less. 

To their credit, the 49ers went after Bridgewater and the Vikings' patchwork offensive line, creating pressure with several different blitz looks. Minnesota's goal for Week 2 should be managing that early pressure and settling down Bridgewater. A mind worried about the blitz works too fast. The Vikings need to slow down his processing. 

Get Adrian Peterson Comfortable Again

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Peterson's return was anticlimatic, as the former NFL MVP rushed for just 31 yards on 10 attempts in his first game since September 2014. He had two highlight plays: a 17-yard catch and run in which he carried most of the 49ers defense to the first-down marker and a nine-yard scamper in which he spun away from a tackler to the outside. But his 2015 debut was still nothing short of a disappointment. 

Part of the reason was his usage. The Vikings gave him just four carries in the first half, and by the time the team committed to the run over the final 30 minutes, Minnesota was in catch-up mode. 

The bigger problem: Peterson didn't look at all comfortable operating in a new offense. 

"I felt a little hesitant a couple of times, (taking handoffs) out of the shotgun," Peterson said, via Mark Craig of the Star Tribune. 

The Vikings running back explained further. 

"It’s different because you’re not able to get that full speed, that full steam going," Peterson said while also admitting he's confident he can run in any formation or offense. 

The shotgun is a staple of the Norv Turner offense, but it might be beneficial for the Vikings to ease Peterson back in—especially after he didn't play a snap in the preseason. Part of that process could be lining him up deep in more two-player backfields, a set he's made a living off. The Vikings might also consider the pistol—a compromise between the shotgun look for the quarterback and a more traditional setup for the runner.

They should try anything to get Peterson comfortable and confident again. 

Back to the Drawing Board in Stopping the Run

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Mike Zimmer had no problem identifying why his defense allowed a league-high 230 rushing yards in Week 1. 

"On the perimeter, we got pushed around a little bit," Zimmer said. "On the inside, guys were...supposed to be on the outside shade of a guy, and they'd go underneath him, for no particular reason. When those kind of things happen, the integrity of your defense really gets removed."

Zimmer called the issues "fairly easy things." Thinking positively, "easy" can be translated here as something the coach views as readily fixable. The pessimist would say the Vikings are in big trouble if a defense ranked 25th against the run a year ago is still messing up the elementary parts of run defense. 

"We have to play good team defense," Zimmer said. "Guys got frustrated, started acting like individuals. Started pressing. We got tired. Then they get sloppy. Then they get poor tackling."

The Vikings probably need to wipe the slate clean and start over this week. The problems against the run Monday night were both inside and out, with Minnesota losing technique on the interior and getting outmuscled on the edges. That's a lot to adjust in just a few days. 

Luckily for the Vikings, Detroit is far from a power-run team. The Lions offense isn't designed to punch people in the mouth up front. This is a good week to start fixing the leaks. 

Less Chad Greenway

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According to Pro Football Focus, veteran linebacker Chad Greenway played 63 of the defense's 73 total snaps against the 49ers. That percentage probably needs to go way down for the Vikings to recover up front. 

Despite the 49ers rushing 39 times, Greenway managed just two combined tackles. PFF graded him out as the defense's third-worst player. 

It's easy to understand why. Greenway can no longer play in any kind of space, and there's no way Mike Zimmer can roll back the tape and defend many of the veteran's fits against the run. 

There's a certain comfort in a veteran player, especially one who has done it for as long as Greenway has. But No. 52 was a big-time liability for Minnesota in San Francisco. It's time for the Vikings to start phasing him out of the defense. Greenway's days as an every-down player might be done. 

Establish a Rhythm on Offense

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One could argue that most of Minnesota's problems Monday night were actually rooted in an offense that couldn't stay on the field or build any semblance of momentum. 

The issues started right off the bat, with Teddy Bridgewater throwing three straight incompletions after a blocked field goal set up the offense at the San Francisco 26-yard line. A series later, the Vikings lost nine yards over three plays and punted. 

In fact, six of Minnesota's eight drives lasted five plays or fewer. One other lasted six plays but traveled only 14 yards. 

The Vikings were dreadful on the money downs, finishing 1-of-9 on third down and 0-of-2 on fourth. Minnesota held the ball for less than 27 minutes. 

The result was a lot of standing on the sidelines for Bridgewater, Peterson and the offense, and a lot of snaps between the white lines for a Vikings defense getting hammered over and over by the 49ers running game. Minnesota ran just 54 plays, compared to 66 for San Francisco. It's very difficult for anything to materialize on offense given those numbers. 

Keep in mind, the score was just 10-0 49ers to start the fourth quarter. But when an offense can hardly even string a pair of first downs together, it's easy for a team's collective will to break down. If the Vikings want to beat the Lions—a playoff team a year ago—this week, the offense has to find a way to build some rhythm and hold onto the football.