Run the ball to keep the clock moving, or put the ball in the air to try and dagger the opponent? It's a question a NFL team or two faces in the final minutes of a game every Sunday of the season. It's a decision the Vikings faced this past Sunday in Jacksonville. Head coach Mike Zimmer opted for the aggressive approach, and he was rewarded with the result of a victory-clinching touchdown with 2:17 to play in the game.
After forcing their third total and second consecutive three-and-out of the Jaguars offense, the Vikings took possession on their own 46 following a Jacksonville punt with an 18-16 lead and 5:04 to play. Jacksonville had all three timeouts remaining. The conservative approach for the Vikings would've been to run the ball every down, forcing the Jaguars to use their timeouts to stop the clock to preserve time for an attempt at a game-winning drive. That is not the approach Zimmer and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur took.
A five-yard rush by Jerick McKinnon on 1st down set up a 2nd and 5 for the Vikings on the Jacksonville 49 with the clocking running. Shurmur called a pass play, with Bradford using a three-step drop and connecting with Charles Johnson for a six-yard gain to give the offense a fresh set of downs and put more pressure on the Jaguars defense to stop the Vikings and use timeouts while doing so. Four plays later following a Jaguars penalty, three McKinnon rushes for negative one yard and two Jaguars timeouts to preserve time, Shurmur again dialed up a pass. This time, Bradford found Cordarrelle Patterson for a completion short of the line to gain on 3rd and 10, but extraordinary effort by Patterson yielded an 11-yard gain and a fresh set of downs once again, with the clock at 3:21 and running.
Two plays later, after the Jaguars used their final timeout following a Matt Asiata rush for no gain, it was 2nd and 10 with 3:08 to play. The conservative call would've been another run, which would've killed another 44-48 seconds but likely would've put the Vikings in a 3rd and long.
But remember, on this drive conservative was out and aggressive was in.
Shurmur had Bradford drop back to throw again and, once again, Bradford connected, this time to Kyle Rudolph for another 11 yards and another 1st down. Two plays later, Bradford hit Rudolph once more, this time for a touchdown with 2:17 to play to give the Vikings a nine-point lead (after Kai Forbath's extra point kick).
Had any one of those three decisions to throw the ball rather than run it and guarantee either time ticking away or the use of a Jaguars timeout resulted in an incompletion, critics could've questioned the Vikings game and clock management. But Zimmer and his staff chose to trust the players and aggressively play to win rather than opt to hold serve and put the ball in the hands of the Jaguars offense. It's a choice that will pay dividends for them down the road and, perhaps, even immediately as the offense looks to help the team make one final run down the stretch of the regular season.
"I think the good sign to me was that, you go back and look at the first Detroit game, the offense went down the field and scored. We didn't win the game, but they went down [and scored] the go-ahead [touchdown]. The Dallas game, they went down at the end and tied the ball game at the end. We didn't win, and we didn't tie, and then against [the Jaguars], yesterday, we were able to have some success. They go down there again, score, put the game out of reach, really, at that point, and now, they're kind of seeing some of the benefits from that. So, I think that's good thing. I think, offensively yesterday, we played together as a unit." – Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer
