John DeFilippo wants more carries for Dalvin Cook, too

Posted by Charean Williams on December 7, 2018, 7:47 PM EST
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Vikings coach Mike Zimmer wants more carries for Dalvin Cook, and offensive coordinator John DeFilippo does, too.

The two are not at odds over that.

“Yes, we would like to see him carry the ball more,” DeFilippo said Friday, via Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press. “Absolutely.”

Zimmer expressed his frustration that the Vikings ran only 13 times despite gaining 95 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Patriots. It was the most rushing yards any team has had this season with 15 or fewer carries.

Cook had 84 yards on only nine carries.

DeFilippo said he and Zimmer are on the same page despite the head coach’s postgame comments.

“I went back and self-scouted myself,” DeFillippo said. “There were two or three instances where we threw the football. . . that we probably should have run the football. I made that aware to [Zimmer] and my thoughts on that.”

The Vikings have had fewer than 300 yards in three of their past four games. They have dropped to 16th in total offense.

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28 responses to “John DeFilippo wants more carries for Dalvin Cook, too”

  2. “Is it just me, or is the guy calling the plays complaining about the lack of running plays somewhat moronic?”

    I don’t see that he’s complaining. Just the opposite I see him admitting a mistake and acknowledging he needs to correct it

  3. All I can say is I hope DeFilippo has more time in MN and the offense as a whole can grow and get better next year instead of losing another offensive coach and starting from scratch yet again. The last thing I want is to lose a pass-happy guy to a team like the Packers.

  4. I agree with you, he’s not getting it at all. Zimmer has been saying balance and run the ball more since the season started.

  5. Zim needs to make sure the OC calls more run plays. The time for suggestion has passed…….

  6. You need to start aggressive with urgency play as if your behind by 13 points with 5 minutes to go even if you’re up by 20 and keep playing that way for 60 and guarantee the potential for this Team could be unstoppable. Turn it up a notch Zim. Please or it will be another lost chance SKOL

  7. Three or four times? Geez, how about 10 times? The running game was working and should have become the focus of the offense until the Pats stopped it. There is no way Cousins should have been forced to throw over 40 times in that game.

  11. I don’t even know how this gets to be a public issue.

    As the head coach you tell the OC to run more and he adjusts the first time you ask him to not after the second time you call him out in the media.

    This team is definitely improved over the last couple years but does Zimmer get another five to put it together?

  12. We have a lousy offensive line. It’s really that simple. Other teams know it and scheme against the pass because we are incapable of pounding the ball. We get some decent runs because teams expect the pass. As soon as we go run heavy, most teams are more than capable of adjusting and shutting down the ground game. And then everyone will complain that we’re not throwing enough to Diggs and Thielen. If you are looking for a scapegoat, blame the GM who didn’t address the offensive line needs. And I like Rick Spielman and we are a year removed from the NFC Championship game. I’m not calling for his head either. It’s just time for fans and perhaps even Zim to accept that a big offseason/draft mistake was made by not addressing this weakness. No one needs to be fired. We’re just are not a Super Bowl caliber team right now, and we need to address this glaring weakness during the offseason and then perhaps we can be.

  14. It isn’t about running more, or passing more, or “balance”. It’s about attacking the defense where they are weak. Against the Packers, the Vikings could have passed for 500 yards and 6 TD’s. Instead, they ran draw plays. Against the Pats, Thielen and Diggs were double teamed. Vikings called passing plays while averaging 9 yards a run.

    I’ve seen the Patriots rush 40 times in one game and then pass 50 times the next week. You design the game plan for your opponent. And forcing the pass or run isn’t how you win championships.

  15. Addressing the problems on the o line is not the same as solving them. Drafting a couple of guys….you might hit, you might miss. Not that often a top lineman hits the open market.
    Besides, it might be a coaching issue. Green Bay was fortunate to have Larry Beigtol, followed by James Campen. Great o line coaches are gold.
    Co-coaches? Perhaps the sum is less than it’s parts.

  16. They need to run the ball more… plain and simple. Also.. too much shotgun. Line up under center.

  17. If Stefanski was really head to head with flip for the OC hire I half expected flip to be fired this past Monday and Stefanski elevated to OC

  18. Wouldn’t have mattered the pats game plan was to let them run they were hell bent on stopping the wideouts and it worked like a charm!

  19. Exactly jjp.

    Look at the Chicago game- I felt we ran too much and that played right into Chicago’s strength. We started tossing the ball later and moved the ball well. The solution to winning that game was NOT to run more- it was passing it earlier than we did. That could have possibly opened up the run game too.

    The bottom line is taking what a D gives you. With a stout O-Line- this team could be very good. It never seems to be a concern though. I don’t get it.

  20. No offense but if you are the OC, then “I want” becomes a little moot. Just make the call. That said you made a huge mistake in picking up Kirk Cousins. Not because Case Keenum was the answer, but you were 13-3. QB was not your problem. SKOL!

  22. Flip made exactly the same conclusion I did after his analysis. They really did not CHOOSE to NOT run in the last game because they wanted to. They passed because they HAD to.
    Just because Cook had a good ypc does NOT mean they were effective running the ball. They were STUFFED when they ran early and almost always had 2nd and 3rd and long.

    Then they were down by 14 points.

    So… Let’s stop being stupid about this.

  23. The offense is where they were last year (both points and yardage), but the defense has dropped from 1st overall (15.8pts/gm) to 14th (22.5pts/gm). Basically, they’re giving up a touchdown more this year. If I was Zim, that should be the bigger concern.

  24. It’s been a disappointing season all round, I’m not saying I thought the Vikings would be superbowl bound but I did think they’d be in contention which unless things change dramatically isn’t the case. Like jjpmn said the offensive line needs sorted, last year Keenum was incredible at evading trouble and although I think Cousins is better overall he needs the line to improve to really show it. Losing Tony Sparano is something that perhaps shouldn’t be overlooked with the OL’s woes also. Defillipo despite all the hype hasn’t really been much of an upgrade on Shurmur so far. Hopefully he stays, learns from this season, addresses the problems with the OL and we move forward next year. IF we do make the play-offs we possibly get past the wildcard round but I can’t see us advancing further.

  25. …and by the time they build a solid O-line, many of today’s “core players” will be aging vets, much less effective than today, while much more expensive. That’s just the way it works. It’s nearly impossible to build a winner quickly unless you have a franchise QB on a rookie deal and load up in FA… and even that’s only a short-term fix full of long-term misery.

    FA is pretty much out of the question for you guys. For all the squawking about Rodgers’ new deal, Cousins has the 3rd highest cap hit of all NFL QBs next year, behind only Bees and Stafford. Tom Brady is 5th, Aaron Rodgers is 8th. Between Cousins, the other guys the Vikings just paid, and the guys that are about to be paid (or at least want to be and/or deserve to be paid), your “magician” is all out of tricks. In fairness, Rodgers shoots up to #1 in 2020 with a $32.6M cap hit while Cousins is 4th at “only” $31M. I’ll be perfectly happy to pay an extra $1.6M for Rodgers over Cousins… as would anybody.

    I don’t think you can even hope for a killer draft or two to save your O-line situation. New Orleans pretty much filled their holes all at once but they needed a guy here and a guy there, in different position groups… and remarkably, they seem to have hit on ’em. You’re not hitting on a Center, 2 Guards and a Tackle, if not a pair of Tackles, all in one or two drafts. That’s just not anywhere near realistic.

    That’s not trolling, that’s just the facts. Feel free to correct me if I’ve missed on any of the facts.

  26. Local press have been on coach Flip for a couple of weeks now. With the guards and left tackle the Vikings have they can’t have a consistent running game. Cook and Murray are talented but they need some room to run.

  27. D Flip has the most unimaginative running strategy of any coach since Brad Childress. When he runs everyone on the planet knows he is running because a WR is lined up behind a tackle. We have never run a pass play from such a formation. He started his play calling with the Vikings as a risk taker – now he is simply boring and delusional. I say that as a Viking fan who lived through lots of bad OC play callers starting with Jerry Burns. So I hope he learns from what doesn’t work or he gets hired as a coach and we hire someone who does not think we have a dominant O line that can just blow the defense off the ball any time we have 4th and 1.

  28. Last year the Vikings had 527 pass plays and 501 run plays. They averaged less than 4 yds per rush attempt, yet they stayed with it. Why? They didn’t want Case throwing the ball 40x a game, they didn’t want the suspect O-line pass blocking 40x a game, they wanted to control the clock, limit the other teams possessions. The less time any D spends on the field the better their statistics are. That formula worked wonderfully last year and I believe it would work this year as well. Zimmer needs to stick to his style and not cave to the idea that you have to throw the ball because you’re paying the QB 84 million.

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