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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Jordy McElroy

Jaw-dropping defensive stat highlights key problem for Vikings

Pointing to Kirk Cousins’ fattening pockets and the fact that he’s not a top-10 quarterback in the NFL is the low-hanging fruit these days, while one of the worst defensive units in the league is rarely acknowledged.

Things are worse on the defensive side of the ball than many realize, and football analyst Warren Sharp has the stats to back it up.

When it comes to late-game moments, which many would refer to as clutch situations, the Vikings have given up touchdowns on an average of 32.4 percent of the time inside of the last four minutes in games last season.

That was the league-worst statistic with the league-average sitting at 12 percent. To make matters worse, the No. 31-ranked team in that shocking statistic allowed touchdowns on 20.6 percent of the time. So the Vikings are a full 12.6 percent worse than the second-worst team.

Yikes.

And that isn’t even the biggest gut punch when it comes to this statistic. Sharp went a step further and analyzed the data all the way back to 2000.

“They ranked #686 of 686 teams since at least 2000,” Sharp posted on social media.

Here’s to hoping Ed Donatell packs a mean lunch and dinner. The days are going to be long trying to right all of the wrongs with this Vikings defense.

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