EAGAN, Minn. — Minnesota dearly missed its run game on Thursday Night Football in Los Angeles.
The Vikings were missing four of their top road graders in Week 8, losing them either during the contest at the Chargers (tight end Josh Oliver and left tackle Christian Darrisaw) or planning to hold the fort down with them inactive (fullback C.J. Ham and right tackle Brian O'Neill). It's no excuse, but Head Coach Kevin O'Connell recognized it played a role in the team's inability to effectively run the ball versus an L.A. defense that previously was susceptible to it.
O'Connell spoke Friday with Twin Cities reporters about trying to establish the run without those players.
Minnesota finished with 34 net rushing yards on 11 attempts (3.1 avg.) in its 37-10 loss that dropped the club below .500 for the first time this season. It's tandem of Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones, Sr., combined for 18 yards on nine carries while reserve Zavier Scott paced the offense with 16 on two attempts inside the 2-minute warning.
Overall, it was the Vikings fewest rush yards in a game since Week 16 of 2023 and one of 16 instances this century of the franchise gaining fewer than 35 yards on the ground in a game in the regular season. Furthermore, it was only the 17th occasion of a Vikings offense advancing the sticks via the run game three or fewer times – it did so once – and producing 35 or fewer rush yards in a game in team history.
"When you're in a game where you're down some linemen that make those known passing downs a little bit more difficult, the lack of ability to get some of those plays going [is problematic]," O'Connell offered. "We found ourselves behind the chains too many times in the game, and we were able to overcome, minimally, with some playmaking by either Justin [Jefferson] or some of our other skill players in the pass game. But it's just not the formula for success when you are trying to mitigate some other areas that are concerning based upon the matchups and some of the things you're trying to work through as a group."
It was a balancing act, too, O'Connell continued, knowing that involving players like Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson "can do wonders for your offensive rhythm" if they're rolling in the early going. "But we just were never really able to put it all together and consistently look like the offense we want to look like. And there's a lot of reasons for that, and we've identified some of those on the tape. But I do think the fundamentals and technique of guys in the run game, making sure we, both schematically have the best angles we can have, and the identity of plays matching with then the technique and fundamentals of being able to go cover guys up and get things started for our runners."